A personal report by Hauke Narten (Germany) for the IRV Wheel Workshop Week during the CSIT World Sports Games in Tortosa (Spain)

Gym Wheel, Cyr Wheel, Beach, summer and great People all together in one place. Sounds awesome? All of this and even more – that was the IRV Wheel Workshop week in Tortosa 2019, and it was awesome. Indeed!

Many years have passed since the last International IRV training camp in Ede, Netherlands. I always hoped that the Idea of an open training camp could be revived. An entire week in which the wheel family comes together, trains together, laughs together and become friends. All this without the pressure of any competition – as is it always the case during the World Championships or the Team World Cup.

I admit that I was very disappointed when the Wheel Workshop Week in Riga was cancelled two years ago but nevertheless I was happy to hear that the IRV decided to give it another chance in 2019 and no doubt ever crossed my mind that I wanted to be a coach there. I’m glad that close to 50 daring wheelers took the step and signed up, not really knowing what to expect. I imagine that expectations varied a great deal for everyone but the way it turned out to be was just plain awesome:

  • 3 sessions of training every day
  • creative warm-ups and “all-you-can-Wheel” at 35 °C
  • Nice hotel right next to the beach
  • 3 fine spanish meals a day
  • Free training, music, dancing and a lot of serious Skill-Coaching

During the first 2 days teams were formed to compete in the very unofficial “Open Mixed Masters” team challenge. Teams with no limits regarding age, nationality or Wheel and Cyr were fighting in a friendly competition with a very easy scoring system in between and during breaks. 6 Routines of their choice with a maximum of 15 points each are added up to the final team score. It was a lot of fun to watch this easy going and very social prototype of a competition worked out so well.

I took home a lot of fond memories and new ideas and I’m grateful for all the people I have met during this week. I’m really looking forward for the next IRV Wheel Workshop Week and the Open mixed Masters.

Hope to meet you there – Hauke