Swiss Training Challenge
Pursue Running Self-Mastery in the Swiss Alps
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Admissions
Our challenge two week programs offer athletes a chance to improve their athletic self-awareness (rowing "IQ") so they may better pursue rowing performance. The Swiss Training Challenge provides Swiss coaching, small and large boat training, sport science education, and cross-training as catalysts for reflection and performance.
First: you should aspire to improve your relationship with athletic performance.
Second: you should possess the emotional maturity necessary to integrate with the group and your own relationship with performance.
Finally: you should possess the fitness to get the most out of the program.
Step 1: Initial Application
Submit your registration and pay the $895 deposit; we will accept the deposit to process your application and hold your place. If you are not offered a place, the full deposit is refundable.
Step 2: Written Application
This program informs athletes' approach to rowing performance by enabling the self awareness to guide independent development. Athletes should seek a deeper relationship with rowing performance, possess a drive to learn and improve, and an adventurous spirit.
The Swiss Training Challenge Written Application is comprised of these response prompts:
- What about this specific program appeals to you?
- Evaluate yourself as a rowing athlete - what are your strengths and weaknesses, and how will this program help you grow?
- Evaluate yourself as a teammate. Discuss the ways you are a supportive teammate and explain how you'd like to grow.
- Please provide a brief summary of your rowing experience including a recent 2,000m ergometer score. Alternatively if you don't feel your 2K is representative of you - while we'd still like to see it - you can also provide a 5K run time.
- Please upload a short (~1 minute) video of yourself on the ergometer or water.
(Please do not worry about editing or perfect quality - 10-20 strokes from the side will do.)
The prompts will be submitted on your Sparks user dashboard and are due within 14 days of initial application.
Step 3: Zoom Interview
You will schedule your interview from your Sparks user dashboard after you submit your written application. During the interview we will talk about the program, your written application, and how the opportunity aligns with your experience, values, and goals.
Step 4: Decision
Upon acceptance full payment is due by March 1. Full payment is due within 14 days for applications received after March 1.
Admissions occurs on a rolling basis. Timeline for decisions is within a week of the interview; if your timeline is shorter, we can work with you. Written applications must be submitted within 14 days of initial application, and interviews must be scheduled within 30 days of initial application.
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At A Glance
Excellent Staff at Low Ratios
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High Standards of Behavior
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The Reflective Cycle
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FAQ
Where are camp forms found?
Camp forms are issued at least six weeks prior to camp on our site via your dashboard.
I have questions before I apply. Is it possible to speak with someone?
Certainly - we completely understand your need to connect about this commitment!
We just ask you schedule a call with us (click here) given we're a very small office.
How do you handle travel to/from the camp?
Flights arrive and depart out of Zürich International. We seek to help families connect who would like their students to travel together. The journey itself is part of the experience and our international camps invite athletes to take a personal journey with sport at its center.
Our Program Director (already on the ground in Switzerland as students depart) tracks student travel into Zürich, where they are picked up from the airport. In the case you will arrive in Switzerland as a family and drop your camper off, we will meet at the train station.
You will fill out a travel form after registration that enables our staff to make sure your camper arrives and departs camp safely.
If you have questions, we're happy to answer them in the box in the lower right side, or you can schedule a call with us.
Tell me about safety at Sparks
We employ safety and risk management practices from the adventure education industry, where some risk is inherent but must be quantified insofar as educational value. These practices are initially employed in program design and we work hard to train operations staff to seek to maintain an awareness of specific risks at all times. No outdoors programming can guarantee safety, however professional management of risk is key to the art of providing consistently excellent experiential education programming.
What can you tell me about housing and supervision at camp?
Campers lodge in a backpackers immediately adjacent to the boatclub and take meals at the boatclub.
At Sparks camps, we have two staffs: a coaching staff and an operations staff. Our operations staff is responsible for the experiential education and pastoral care at camp. In Switzerland, we seek a 1:3 overall staff to student ratio.
The Program Director lives amongst the student athletes, and has oversight 24 hours a day. Unhealthy substances and/or behaviors are strictly prohibited.
How big is the program?
Sparks multi-week cohorts are typically between 12 and 16 athletes. Coaching and operations staff ratios are set at 1:6, making overall staff to student ratio 1:3 - however, sometimes it is even lower.
Of chief importance to us is the quality of our cohorts - which we believe is a product of admissions, staffing, and group size to facilitate activities (eg. sweep boat rowing v. singles) as well as friendships that last long after camp ends.
We seek the highest international-quality level in coaching staff and our senior operations staff is made up of former rowers turned educators with a number of years of prior experience in our camp system; many hold graduate degrees in education.
What can you tell me about college recruiting and this program?
Spending a day at the World Cup in the Mecca of rowing and learning to coach yourself by applying top standards of exercise physiology and performance can carry your rowing IQ a long way - and thus also carry you in the sport.
That said, how you apply your rowing IQ in your pursuit of the sport after camp ends is what will differientiate you in the recruiting process.
Training and racing overseas will speak to some recruiters more than others, but after academics and erg scores are sorted - recruiters care more about your personal engagement with the sport than the particulars of your summer program choice or race results. Given recruiting is a globally competitive "talent marketplace", getting some international perspective will help you - but in the end no one race or camp is going to provide the competitive rowing intellect necessary to succeed at the recruiting process. You are a composite of your experiences - so best to make them unique and highly educational.
What differentiates Sparks camps and this program specifically?
We are the only camp in rowing with a full-time staff that has academic and professional backgrounds in experiential education. We also have a summer operations staff (many are returners that teach during the school year) who buy into the idea of personal growth at camp not just for campers - but for themselves as well.
The result is a culture sincerely committed to the power of rowing as a personally transformative experience built on vulnerability, thoughtfulness, responsibility, and initiative. These qualities along with our values of growth, kaizen, and plus one stroke dictate the culture our camp community forms around. Our focus is on utilizing rowing to create the self-awareness necessary to master one's relationship with performance.
Lucerne could be called the Mecca of international rowing. The only required location for a World Cup regatta every year is in Lucerne at the Rotsee, given the course has been agreed upon as one of the fairest in the world. As a result, every national team athlete in the world has visited the city. Moreover, Switzerland is known for its approach to precision - Swiss coaches undergo some of the most rigorous education in the world to coach rowing. Finally, the environment is amazing - the lake and surrounding mountains are clean and beautiful: the perfect training camp venue.
Tell me more about admissions - how selective is it?
Our admissions process is the most thoughtful in the sport and we evaluate each athlete on a case by case basis.
While we look 2K and rowing experience, we are also very interested in your motivation and passion for rowing. At our camps, the drive to improve leads to increased maturity and thoughtfulness - which leads to performance.
We also consider your ability to live, train, and support others in a community committed to utilizing challenge for personal growth. Sparks camps are unlike traditional training camps in that progress in self-awareness per your relationship with performance is as important as acute technical progress. Ideal candidates will complete the program with gains in both self-awareness and corresponding ability to improve long after camp ends.
Switzerland is designed for athletes who seek to better define their relationship with performance. You do not have to be a high performer relative to others, but you should be interested in how you might define peak performance for yourself. To be clear: we are not a performance "boot camp" whereby students are pushed beyond themselves so much as an opportunity for students to unlock the mechanisms that contribute to performance within themselves in a community committed to doing the same in a thoughtful, intelligent manner.
We welcome your questions either via phone or in the chat box in the right hand corner.
What level of experience is necessary for this program?
No 2K score or specific level of coxing ability is required for this camp. We allow coxswains on this program, but they must be willing to partake in all physical activities - including rowing small boats.
Ability levels in the group will differ - but that is why we maintain a low staff to student ratio. What matters is not your ability relative to the others in the group, but rather your desire to accurately evaluate your performance and plan to improve.
As a result, while this camp requires a higher level of maturity and thoughtfulness with some athletic experience - specific rowing ability is less important.
Do you offer scholarships or discounts?
We offer discounted prices for "early bird" registrations prior to January 31.
Regarding Scholarships:
Please see this link to our NCAA Compliance webpage.
What is the cancellation/refund policy?
Camp purchases are fully refundable minus transaction fees until March 1 for summer camps.
We strongly recommend you purchase travel protection with cancel for any reason coverage.
- If you withdraw after the above dates, there are no refunds for any reason whatsoever (including, but not limited to: voluntary withdraw, illness or injury, summer school, security concerns or other reasons).
- If your camper leaves camp after it starts, there are no refunds for any reason whatsoever, including but not limited to: voluntary withdrawal, illness or injury, dismissal by Sparks (due to discipline, behavior, lack of fitness or motivation, etc.) security concerns, or any other reason. Any costs incurred by Sparks as a result of an early departure are the sole responsibility of the parents.
- In the unlikely case a camp does not proceed, we'll work to notify you by March 1. You'll be offered a different program or a refund. In some cases, we may extend the 'go, no-go' date. We recomend buying your flight after March 1 or later, if we advise.
- We offer these plans from Travel Insured International during the check-out process for our four and five day camps and during final balance payment for deposit-based multi-week camps.