Picture the scene: 13th December 2016. Single digit temperatures. A minibus slides into Iffley sports centre at 6am where everyone except Justin is ready and waiting. The journey is long but not arduous as there is always a party when OUTTC gets together. Arriving at the airport the final members of #SQUAD are collected and breeze through customs (unless you are Dom, Louise or Kritica who we all know are ‘suspicious’ characters!).
Making it onto the plane and despite the buzz of excitement some people fall asleep in the most flattering positions which is naturally taken advantage of by those around them! 2 hours later we touch down on Budapest soil and the ice cold air shakes everyone awake. Transport to the Eger-based apartments arrives and darkness falls.
We source out some local food for the first team meal just around the corner and naturally the locals don’t speak much English! Cue Nabil: translator, financial advisor and all round nice guy, who deserved the tip we delivered despite some questionable plates of food.
Day 1 dawns and training begins early. Many were woken by breakfast calling at 8:15am and so naturally we were fashionably late to meet and walk to the training hall. The warm up was rather a shock to everyone’s systems as it involved RUNNING?!?! Plot twist number 2: we were actually allowed on the tables after a casual (hahaha!) jog. Training was filled with 4 multiball tables and the other 8 allocated for drills. 3 hours of the above combinations left us tired and mentally struggling but brace yourselves for plot twist number 3!! FITNESS TRAINING! Participation in this unsurprisingly dwindled throughout the week…. Morning training completed we had a few hours before evening training in which most people slept and ate! And so the time arrived for evening training and we were all braced for another tough session. It started off with half an hour of serve practice and we were all unnerved by the low intensity start to the session. More drills, more multiball and the session was completed and yet more food sourced for hungry sportspeople before collapsing into bed!
Days 2 and 3 began in a similar vain to before though we were more prepared for the task that lay ahead of us. Everyone began working on their faults pointed out to us by the very proficient, patient and encouraging coaching staff though the highlight of the day for some was matches at the end of evening training. Some very impressive games were played against the coaches and sparring partners, notably Ambitious Abe taking on the Hungarian Junior Number 2 player. A tight game ensued though the results of which are vague and inconsistent and shall be glossed over on this occasion, though it’s fair to say that both players were valiant and competitive-the exact spirit required for: DUN DUN DUN…….VARSITY!
You may be thinking that OUTTC is boring and not at all fun but let me tell you, whilst we were in Eger we did do exciting and fun things! Like visiting a castle *faints with shock*. Truth be told, the castle gave beautiful sights of the city and presented some wonderful selfie attempts (naturally including selfie-queen Grace!) plus a magical golden sunset that threw the buildings into silhouettes. Speaking of magic, it was later revealed that 3 of our members are MAGICIANS! (See, fun and exciting!). Leon, Jeff and Nabeel challenged one of our coaches to a magic-off though disappointingly the challenge was not accepted. Instead we were diverted to games of bowling and pool! Naturally when you gather competitive people into a competitive game, the atmosphere intensifies and alliances were forged!
The final day of training arrived and we were rewarded for our hard work by a later start of 10am and slightly less sore muscles! With all the table tennis for the week completed the matter of a final team meal arose. Unfortunately we were unable to book into one of the best restaurants in Hungary for that night so instead we visited a quaint and pretty restaurant just opposite MacDonald’s (goes to show you just can’t escape commercialism!). After a lovely final meal we went straight to the Christmas market in the local square. Live music, Christmas lights and Chimney Cakes! More warming food kept us going through the sub-zero chill of the night time air and a handful of us went for a stroll towards an infamous pillar before returning to our apartments to pack or nap.
Transfers to the airport arrived at 2:30am so a sleepy gathering of students trudged over the icy cobbles to journey home.
Whether we return next year or not is still up for debate, but this certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations. There was no one who did not improve and no one whose spirits weren’t raised so overall training camp has been declared a complete success and we certainly left our mark on the people we met and got to know.
Hopefully the good feelings will carry over into the festive season and bring on 2017!
Report by: Louise Todd President 2016-17
