Training camps: the why

Training camps are something that are popping up in the CrossFit community increasingly often, and particularly in preparation for competitions. At RedPill, we see training camps as a vital element for both coaches and athletes. But, why?

A key element to a camp is developing the relationship with your athletes. It’s important that the athletes and coaches get to know each other on a human level, and you get to share and develop a working relationship. It brings you onto the same page and solidifies the fact that you’re working to the same goal all the time - you’re all pushing to make sure everyone is at the top of their game. It can also be an opportunity for the athlete to learn more about their programming and have a better understanding of why the programme is written a certain way and the thinking behind it. If an athlete has more buy-in with their programming, they will likely push themselves further when training and have a more in-depth understanding of the end goal.

As coaches, a training camp offers a unique environment to gather data about an athlete. You get to see far more than you could ever glean from feedback or an individual session. You have the chance to observe them in a stressful environment and see how they react, as well as monitor the minutia of their day such as fatigue levels, mood swings, or how much food they’ve had. We also encourage all our athletes to have a journal and keep themselves on point with their feelings, daily achievements, and small goal settings. Camp is an opportunity to see how they’re getting on writing their reflections and how they’re speaking to or about themselves. You can also gather important data on their strengths and weaknesses, as well as assessing their biomechanics.  All in all, it’s a key time to delve into every aspect of them as an athlete that may be having an impact on their training and performance. 

In a camp setting with the athletes together, you can more easily replicate a competition setting. Some days are specified as competition and there will be competition WODs. We can test them working against other people in lanes and work with them during these high pressure situations — you can send them in with different strategies or approaches in different environments and test the outcomes. As a coach, you can support them through more difficult situations and plan things that are purposefully out of their comfort zones and analyse these scenarios. Every athlete will have fears and phobias, so putting them in these situations can help to develop strategies to manage them. The majority of sport is competing without fear, and working with athletes through their fears is absolutely vital. 

A camp is a chance to put an athlete through more volume than usual. In terms of a periodisation model, we always try to have our athletes do extra volume in a group setting. It provides a support network — or group therapy, if you like — through those big sessions, with the athletes lifting each other up and carrying each other through, rather than battling through it alone. 

As well as being able to encourage one another, athletes learn from each other too. They consciously and unconsciously pick up techniques, tricks, and mindset tactics from one another while they train together. Each athlete will bring their own experiences and approaches to the camp, and leaning from or sharing with their peers is an important element.

Over the course of our camps we see our athletes develop strong friendships with each other during camps, particularly when they’ve been to a few together. Our athletes become genuinely good friends during these experiences, and although this may seem like a fluffy point, the friendship and camaraderie while training together can make all the difference and be the factor that pushes and inspires them to go further than they might do training on their own. 

Training with their peers and friends encourages athletes to take the path of self discovery and use each other during their training together. We emphasise that our training camps aren’t for competing against each other, but the athletes should to use each other to motivate and inspire themselves to lift more, run faster, or do the thing that they’re ultimately striving to do. 

As ex-athletes, most of our best memories are from training camps, and when we meet up with old teammates and friends, we reminisce more about things that happened at training camps far more than races or matches won. We always hope that our athletes leave our training camps with similar memories that we have from our time as athletes, and that camps are as much of a highlight in their careers as they are for us.