This year's Easter break presented local rowing clubs and schools with a great opportunity to practice on different waters, across the country and the continent. 

Hampton J15s, Molesey BC and Claire's Court all crossed the Channel into Belgium; to row at the closest international lake outside the UK, Hazelwinkel. Hampton rower, Freddie Rees, described his time as a 'tough, tiring, but fun experience', also rowing at Hazelwinkel were part of the Great British Rowing Squad and other international athletes.

The younger scullers from Hampton and LEH stayed in England to scull at Wimbleball Lake, Exmoor and Peterborough respectively. KGS Year 10s also remained in the country, as their training camp took them to Gloucester.

The KGS senior rowers headed to Southwest France to row on Soustons lake. Hampton seniors flew even further south to row along the Guadalquivir in Seville. Surbiton also flew out to Spain, heading to Ourense in Northwest Spain to row on the Minho river - which makes up part of the Spanish-Portuguese border as it nears the mouth. Lady Eleanor Holles flew out their year 10-13 rowers to Rome, yet due to incredible winds they weren't able to get as much time on the water as they would have wanted. St. Paul's school had their training camp in Portugal.

Training camps for local rowing schools and clubs seem to be a popular trend, yet how beneficial actually are these trips away from the Thames? The short answer is very. These camps, of varied length, all have many positives to take from them. 

Easter is a very important time in the rowing calendar. It marks a transition from Head racing (time trial event) to regattas (boats racing alongside other boats), also for most junior boats it signifies the finalisation of crews. If the crews haven't been finalised prior to the training camp, then seat racing is likely to take place to determine which individuals can collectively move a boat the fastest over a set period. Seat racing is a process where two boats race alongside each other, after the first race two people swap boats and race again. The winner will be the person that made their new boat go quicker than the previous run - if both boats go quicker the winner will be the person who made the largest gap. This process is repeated multiple times, until the coach/club know the quickest 4 or 8 rowers.

After the boats are finalised, the remainder of the camp is all about making the boat move as fast as possible over 2km. The solution for this is individual to every crew, yet there are some basic principles: finding the right rate of strokes per minute, applying as much power in the water (at the right times), developing a race strategy, bonding as a crew and rowing in sync.

For junior rowers, high rates are harder to reach without rushing on the recovery part of the stroke. This is because they don't yet have the power or boat speed to move their blade through the water quick enough. Training camps allow crews to practice working at unusually high rates, allowing them to settle on good rates at the same time as applying a sufficient amount of power.

Being isolated and away from home also allows crews to properly bond and unify on and off the water. This is especially critical in rowing; as it is arguably the ultimate team sport, as up to 8 people have to be doing the exact same thing consistently around 250 times at high intensity. The camps are also a good time to create and adapt race plans, if the boat has a coxswain it will be a list of instructions and calls for the coxswain to deliver to the rowers throughout the race.

Squads can also benefit from racing in a different environment, climate and even altitude - in Galtur, Austria there is a reservoir that is used by rowers for altitude training. Training in hot conditions is more draining, and rowing through Seville has an entirely different atmosphere compared to rowing down the quieter parts of the Thames.

Flying out to the hotter parts of Europe led some junior rowers into a false expectancy of what a training camp would be like. Yet on the camps the young rowers had to keep to a strict diet and sleep schedule, in order to be able to perform the following day.