Why is Team Razzo Unique & How Do We Operate

Welcome everybody to our first blog entry. Here we will keep you updated with our new projects as well as what we, as "Team Razzo", go through on a daily basis. We are kind of a unique team, with many different roles, so just to give you a short background here a short intro:

Together Luisa and I have been swimming competitively for half a century, so we have had our share of experiences within this beautiful sport that we love so much. We have both trained and competed for various teams in Germany ranging from smaller local ones to bigger international ones. There, we were able to collect a vast amount of knowledge which has shaped who we are today and how we operate as a team. At the moment, we compete for the ST Erzgebirge, this is Luisa's local hometown team and this is the club where she actually learned to swim. In a way, this is special not only because a circle has been closed, but also because strangely enough, the acronym for this team is STE, which is my name. Small world I know, but we do believe that this was simply meant to be.

The Multifaceted Relationship

For the past six years we have been training alone in Frankfurt am Main. We train in local pools, with other guests in the lanes, but it's ok by now we have found a system that works for us. I plan the training sessions and together we plan the season. To be honest, at first this switch was quite a challenge, simply due to the different roles that I attained. I am Luisa's coach, training partner and husband, so you can imagine how tricky it is to separate all these roles when we are in the pool. On top of this, we both work full time in a school which makes the life of a professional athlete even more complicated. Moreover, we're also considered within the swimming community as "old athletes'', which in a way is sad. Limiting oneself to a number is a shame but more and more swimmers are showing that with the right mindset, anything is possible. Oh wait still not finished, on top of this, both Luisa and I are sprinters purely focusing on 50m events, requiring a very specific type of training. So now you can understand why it is easy for us to answer the so often asked question: Why do you train alone and compete for this small German team? Because we are old enough to know what we need to do to be fast in the pool.

The Team Razzo System

If you have come to this website, it means you are just as passionate as we are about this beautiful sport and you are looking for alternative ways to improve in the pool. Over the years, we have developed and fine tuned a system that works, allowing full time students and people with full time jobs to have fun when swimming. This is what it's all about, it doesn't matter how old you are or if you have a full time job, we should all try to hold on to our love for the sport, the same way we did when we were kids and we were learning this vital skill.

So here in this blog section, we will not only keep you updated with our upcoming competitions and training camps, but we will also share our experiences as a married couple training alone with all the ups and downs. We will also use this opportunity to give you a heads up of the variety of services that we as a team provide, all with the intention to help you get better in the pool.

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Why Training Camps?

One of our strategies to improve and get better in the pool is to use the school holidays to go away for a training camp. There we are able to train professionally in an environment that is fully equipped with everything that we need to train well. For the past six years, Team Razzo has travelled to Turkey, Spain and Italy, but recently we have found our second home in Tenerife. We have come to appreciate the beauty of Tenerife Top Training (T3) and we have noticed that we are the most balanced on a mental, physical and spiritual level.

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We did our first training camp there during the winter holidays to kick start our long course season. This was a true success, for the first few competitions of 2023 were very positive showing that we are going in the right direction. We just came back from our second camp, a week in duration, where we tried to keep the momentum going. So we are working hard, trying to focus on fine tuning the details and perfectionating our techniques. This is also one of the reasons why we love T3 so much, because we can use the flume to dissect our technique during race pace with the help of Tomas, a great sports scientist! The camp was once again a success, however we did notice that a week is short to groove in the training rhythm. But we don't complain, training in the sun on the island is always a blessing and we are very grateful for this!

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What's Next?

The next few months we will be busy racing and competing so make sure to stay tuned to find out in our upcoming entries. Also, in case you missed it, make sure to check out our warm-up guide that you can buy for only 1 euro as a welcome offer. This is your chance to celebrate with us the launch of our new website and get warmed up and ready to embark on this new journey together as one team. We all have a connection with water and together we will rediscover our love for swimming!

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Much love to all of you and see you soon.

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