But the Great Britain men's wheelchair basketball team underwent a different form of preparation for the forthcoming European Championships - dangling over a 120ft cliff.

The challenge formed part of a three-day boot camp run by British Military Fitness in the Brecon Beacons which was organised by team coach David Titmuss.

The camp also included abseiling, orienteering and crossing a river in cold and wet conditions - a far cry from a couple of days in sunny Spain.

Team member Andrew Blake admitted that it was a complete shock to the team when they discovered they would be spending three days training on the Beacons.

"The whole thing was sprung on us and we had no idea what to expect," said Blake.

Noone we come up against at the European Championships will have gone through the same preparations as us Andrew Blake

"All we were told was to report to the Brecon Beacons at 1030 and the British Military Fitness would put us through our paces.

"When we arrived it was quite bleak and we did some fitness stuff with medicine balls.

"We then loaded up onto a minibus and off we went to the cliff and then we were told us to go over the side," he said.

The thoughts of the cliff might be enough to terrify the able-bodied but some members of the squad had to overcome other demons before making the descent.

"We have players in the squad who have had accidents from falling off roofs which have and they were given the choice but we are close-knit and wanted to do it as a team," said Blake.

"We initially went down the cliff without the chairs but I wanted a photo of me in a wheelchair halfway up a cliff to hang on my hallway so we did it again."

Coach Titmuss was pleased with the whole experience which he said played a key role in the whole team-building process.