In April and this past weekend the Rapids had a numer of swimmers chosen to participate in the Swim BC 12 & under regional camps.   The swimmers were chosen amongst other swimmers 12 years old and younger from all over the lower mainland based on their performances this season in the 200 FR and 200 IM.  In April, Max Schaffler, Kevin Ye, Tony Ma and Samantha Gosel were selected. This past weekend Austin Berry, Arvin Chua, Matthew Crawford, Ada Zhang, Melissa Quon, Selina Zhou, Steven Zhou, Ryan Murray, Kyle Chan,  and Jaylene Berry were selected for the camp.

The camp is coached by BC's provincial team coach Vince Mikuska and Swim BC's program Director Mike Flegal.  The camps also bring in special guest speakers and coaches.  The speakers/ special coaches at the camp in April were Olympic Breaststroker Scott Dickens and three time Olympian and holistic nutrionist Joanne Malar.  Last weekend's special guests were 3 time Olympian, former Rapid and world record holder,  Brian Johns and Olympic IM'er and Canadian record holder, Tanya Hunks.

Each camp is two days long and includes water and classroom sessions.  The water sessions focus on 4 big ideas: posture, anchor, recovery and fish kicking.  The classroom sessions include talks on mental skills and nutrition. The speakers also talk to the participants about their journey through the sport and their experiences. Brian and Tanya spoke about the importance of developing all four strokes and swimming distance freestyle.  They also spoke about committment to the sport and what that truly means. Their message was that when you make the decision at the beginning of the season to be committed to swimming then every decision after that has to reflect that decision.   Congratulations to the Rapids swimmers that were chosen to attend.