3-day Kids Summer Triathlon Camp

Tuesday 28 July, Wednesday 29 July and Thursday 30 July

11:00-13:30 at Kemsing Primary School

£75 and includes an "I am a Triathlete" t-shirt and certificate

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Overview

The camp is being run by Claire Hitchings and Mark Horne (both British Triathlon Federation triathlon coaches). Areas covered will include: fundamentals of triathlon swimming, bike handling skills, basic running form, transition skills and pre-race preparation and an actual fun triathlon! 

Attendance criteria

Participants need to:

1. Be Year 2-7 and enjoy swimming, biking and running

2. Be able to swim a minimum of 15 metres front crawl unaided and without stopping

4. Be sufficiently swim-fit to participate in a 30-minute swim session focusing on front crawl

5. Be able to ride a bike without stabilisers and start and stop independently (with brakes, not feet!)

6. Have a bike helmet (that fits)

7. Have a road-worthy bike (with bar end plugs, working brakes, pumped up tyres and working chain and gears). Single-gear BMXs are not suitable. It is the participant's or parent's/guardian's responsibility to ensure that his/her child's bike is in a safe condition to ride

8. Be able to run ~500 m.

Provisional Camp Schedule (subject to change)

Day 1

Arrive by 10:45 at the latest, ready for introductions and briefing and most importantly to find out who your camp buddy* is going to be! *There will be a buddy system, where older children will be buddies for the younger children. The older buddies will help to look after their buddies throughout the camp, helping with friendships.

Day 2

Day 3

Get your finisher's prize and camp certificate!

What to bring

Wear trainers, shorts and t-shirt (if warm weather) and tracksuit and sweater/jacket (if not).

• Swim suit (or trisuit if they have one)
• T-shirt (that in a triathlon they would put on to bike in) or race belt if they have one (don't worry if you don't)
• Swim hat
• Goggles
• 2 towels (one to dry themselves with at the end and one small one for transitions)
• Additional small plastic bag (for the T1 practice - their hat, goggles and towel will go in this bag)
• Trainers
• Bottle of water
• Sunscreen
• Change of clothes (just in case)
• Healthy lunch
• Bike, helmet
• You may wish to bring a bike lock
• It is likely that trainers will get wet when we are practising transitioning from swim to run so it would be good to bring a spare pair of trainers/shoes/sandals

You will need to bring swim kit on either Day 1 (if in Gp 1) or Day 2 (if in Gp 2) and on Day 3.

Please make sure everything is labelled with your child's name.

Fun race distances

For the fun races we will not be timing or recording who wins. Children will be set off one at a time and other children encouraged to cheer! This experience is more about them putting everything they have learned into practice. We have kept the distances short. Mark and I will be 'assessing' the children throughout the camp and can easily modify (shorten) and personalise race distances if we think we need to. If you have any concerns about the distances then please speak to me (ideally at the end of a day). The races are intended to be a fun way of ending the camp and earning a finisher's prize!!!

Meet the Coaches

Claire Hitchings competes for Great Britain in their age group team and has won multiple World, European and National titles across triathlon and duathlon (both road and off-road). She is a British Triathlon Federation Level 2 Diploma triathlon coach. She is sports first aid trained, Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checked and insured through the British Triathlon Federation. She holds a sport science degree and a PhD in sport psychology. She has attended the sports coach UK Safeguarding and Protecting Children workshop as well as the NSPCC Designated Safeguarding Officer course.

Mark Horne works as full-time swim and triathlon coach; holding the ASA (Swim England) Level 2 coach and a British Triathlon Federation Level 3 triathlon coach qualifications. He is Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checked and insured through the British Triathlon Federation and Institute of Coaches. He started in triathlon in 1988 (way back) and has competed multiple times at the International Triathlon Union standard and long distance world championships. He's completed 5 Ironmans (yes, that's the crazy event where you have to run a 26.2 mile marathon at the end!) 

Parent feedback

• Thank you so much! X is still buzzing from today and so proud of herself. A great few days x
• Well done everyone 🎉 (especially in this heat!). X really enjoyed the 3 days. Many thanks x
• Thank you so much. The girls had a great time and X is insisting on wearing her t shirt today x

Children feedback

• It was really inspiring and I liked doing a triathlon race.
• I loved biking and made new friends.