Welcome to Hell - Down and Out in Montpellier

A new generation of youngsters have experienced the terrors of Montpellier. Not everything was as before but the training was still a high quality experience.Adam Claffey, Conor Beades,and Luke OShea were the ones who made their first visit to the French club, whose Ladies team will play Champions League next season. Mark O'Flynn and Gavin Maguire made their third visit to the training camp presided over by the "King of Montpellier" Ghislain Rolandi.

In the quiet University quarter of Boutonnet, it does not seem possible that such hard effort and high intensity training happens inside this Table tennis hall. Ghislan is rightly proud of the high level of the players and the number of people who come to Montpellier for this very reason. But he is ruthless in his assessment of the players.
"The amateur players who come here cannot expect to play with the professional players.It is not good enough for them to practice with players like these" he tells all the gathered participants. Always the straight talking approach which leaves you in doubt where you stand.

For the young players there is the advantage of having Stephan LeBrun taking the training. Stephan was No.7 in France and is still No.59. He is coach to the pro A team in Istres but played for Montpellier in the European Cup winning team of 2002. He is clearly an excellent coach and he guides the young players expertly through their routine. 

Although the basic important things were the same there were some differences this year. No Paintball, but do you really want Ghislain chasing you through the forest with a souped-up pellet gun after doing three hours of training?? No Booster. But do you really want to be hurled around at a terrifying 90km strapped to the end of a large bar.

Tragically there was an accident in which two people were killed on a similar machine in Paris while we were in France and all of them were closed down. This took some of the ferocious anticipation out of the Friday night trip to Palavas. When we got to the seaside fun fair the giant Booster machine lay idle in a corner of the bustling fairground like an spurned lover.

It's a daunting experience for your first time.You come to training. All these brillient players are strolling into the hall. The bells are ringing from the local monastery like the chimes of Doom and Ghislain shakes your hand slowly and utters his usual greeting - Welcome to Hell!

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