Nordic camp in Salo, Finland

8 coaches, one team manager and 31 U15 players from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Faroe Island, Iceland and Finland participated in the Nordic camp from 6-10 August 2014. This years’ host was Finland and the camp was held in Salo, which is 1,5 hour drive from the capital, Helsinki. In Salo all the facilities (hotel, restaurant, badminton hall, gym and the leisure things such as bowling, table tennis, billiard and a cafe) are gathered under the same roof. This was much appreciated amongst all the players and the coaches because no extra time was needed for the transportation. 

The first evening the organizers prepared a few fun games on the badminton courts, to allow the players and coaches to get to know each other. The following three days included a morning badminton session with three different themes, a physical training session and a match session in the evening. The players were divided into two groups for each day and the coaches planned the training sessions together in smaller groups. This way all the players got to experience something new in their training and the coaches had a chance to exchange their knowledge and ideas with each other. It was three days with good training and many matches combined with some hard physical exercises that the players hardly will forget. Luckily there was also time for a run to a sunny beach where players had the chance to swim in the sea. 

The leisure facilities, billiard and bowling were frequently played between the training sessions, Saturday evening a big bowling competition was organized. The last day of training was Sunday, it was all about having fun on court with different kind of team tournaments. 

All in all it was a great training camp, the young players had good team spirit and friendship amongst them. After Sundays’ badminton session, all the teams got to travel home. Players will continue to keep on practising and processing the things that were focused on during the 5 days in Salo. 

We would like to use the chance and thank all the participants for the great time and we are looking forward to the next Nordic camp!

Article and photo by Jonas Nielsen and Nina Weckstrom, Finland