Fifth day of the Summer School 2010

This day was different than the others. The morning started a bit later and everybody enjoyed the extra half an hour. Nevertheless, with a sudden wake-up for all players it was time for ‘footwork’. The staff demanded a lot of the players in the next two and half hours and a lot of sweat was produced as the temperature was already above 30 degrees.

After the session, everybody got ready for the big excursion to Vienna. After the lunch all together left to visit the castle Schoenbrunn, Vienna city-centre and most important the fun-fare: the world famous ‘Prater’.

Returning to Pressbaum, all players were exhausted but for the coaches the work started again with the preparation of the sessions of the next day.

Some impressions of the different participants:

Today it was a really hard day. We had a very long physical session for two and a half hours. After that, we went to Vienna for sightseeing around in the town. We went to the fun-fair and we had a very pleasant experience. We arrived back to the camp at nine o clock and went to bed at eleven o clock as per usual!!

by Helene Sogaard (Norway), player



Today was a really good day got to sleep a little bit longer which everybody enjoyed. Then the children went to a physical training which they thought tough but also liked even though they were exhausted. Then we went to Vienna which everybody liked the trip a lot and enjoyed, specially the Tivoli despite of the problem from the coach (me) that he lost the bus, but is thankful and happy how helpful the people were to get me to the children.

Vignir Sigurdsson (Iceland), coach



Today was definitely a good day to be a coach at the camp, as the players faced a 2-hour session in the morning, which began with footwork but ended with Tomasz leading the players in perhaps the hardest physical training-session I have ever seen! For those players still standing afterwards, we had the afternoon off in Vienna, walking through the city in the heat. It ended in the evening with the group going to an amusement park, with the chance to go on rollercoaster. Unfortunately, I got rather wet as Rob managed to duck the water leaving me to take one for the team on the log flame, luckily the Vienna heat soon dried me off

Helen Ward (England), coach



The session this morning was by far the worst and the most tiring for the players, notably the physical training session led by the famous devil coach, Thomaz from Czech Republic. I have heard about his reputation but what I saw this morning was miles beyond what I had expected from him. It was energy sapping. These young and innocent players were punished hard by the 'nicest guy' among the staff. Their shirts were soaking wet, their breath were heavy, a few were on the floor, a few were shouting in agony, and a few needed medical assistance! A few 'naive' coaches joined the session and it did not take them long to find out that they are already over their peak.
It may sounds like as if we were conducting a torture camp but we were not. We did that for the good of these young players. They are the future of Europe! On the other hand, as I walked around the hall encouraging players during their training, I found out that they really pushed hard to their limit in the training, though they were very tired. They may be slower than the others, they may be physically weaker than their mates, they may be struggled a lot, but all of them finished the session in style. They were not only encouraging themselves but also their friends to keep going! That's the positive we could draw from the session. Furthermore, they seemed to really enjoy it very much! I enjoyed watching them crying in pain too!

The day continued with an excursion to the lovely city of Vienna in the afternoon. It was an extremely hot day. I felt like an ice-cream, melting. Schoenbrunn Palace is just too big. The main garden at the back of the palace is equivalent to the size of Leeds Braford Airport.
The 'path ways' are wide enough to land an Airbus 320. I am not boosting here and you have to be there to see how big it is! Next stop is the old city of Vienna, which does not look old for me. The buildings are so historical, artistic and beautifully crafted and I was wondering how it was built 150 years ago. It is outstanding and phenomenal! The style of the building somehow gives me the impression of clean and neat. We had a really nice ice coffee to cool us down, but the coffee also kept me awake up until 2 a.m. Last stop was the ‘Prater’, which is also Peter's favorite place. He just could not stop mentioning this place in our meeting. He was so excited as if he has got sweets from his parents. Unfortunately, we did not have much time in the ‘Prater’. Lina and I tried probably the worst ride in the park, 360 +360 (I do not know the name) without much time to think about it. It was scary at the beginning but everything was ok after all. Then, I did reversed bungee with a brave Welsh girl. There was a camera in front of us so our expression is 'being monitored' at all time, which I think was quite embarrassing. The reputation my 'coolness' and impression I built in the last few days broke into millions of pieces after the video has been played on the screen. In the end, I felt so sick after that

Two rides and had to rest my head on the window like a dog in a car just to get some fresh air.
The day ended with a dinner in Mr. Horst Kullnigg's house. The view from his balcony really caught my breath. We can see houses of different color scattered around the green and quiet town. I could sit there from the morning until nighttime just to enjoy the scenery. And his basement is like a small badminton museum, with a lot of badminton painting, poster, books, and magazine. I found out that we share a same interest, which is collecting postcards!

What a day! Looking forward to tomorrow!

by Lim Kenn (Malaysia), staff-coach