Frome Swimming Club - Excellence and Enjoyment

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24 Jul 2008 - Newsletter August 08

 

 

 

Swimming Report

 

Results

 

Club Championships

 

After a very successful first week of Club Champs another great evening of swimming came along.  Swimmers posted in total 227 personal best times over the course of the club champs. For those who don’t know the results have been posted on the website and notice board.  Trophies and medals will be presented at our annual presentation evening on the 10th October.  Details will follow.

 

 

Taunton Deane Open Meet

 

12th & 13th July

 

Taunton Deane hosted their first open meet at Hutton Moor, Weston-Super-Mare.  Swimmers were given the opportunity to enter a range of events.  100’s and 200’s were HDW for each age group and 50’s were run as heats and finals as 12/U and 13/O age groups.  Over the course of the weekend swimmers posted 83 PB’s bringing the monthly total to 367 (amazing!!).  We had 36 medal placing positions and 84 top 8 finishes.  Gold medals were awarded to Emily Dixon (4), Rachel Palarm (1), Gina McGuinness(1), Ryan Hann (1) and Dan Brown (1).  Silver to James Godwin (4), Dan Brown (3), Emily Dixon (2), Ryan Hann (2), Rachel Palarm (1) and Bronze to James Godwin (5), Dan Brown (2), Ryan Hann (2), Gina McGuinness (2), Emily Dixon (2), Keira-Leigh Underhill (2), Martha Harris (1), Rachel Palarm (1).  A fantastic weekend of competition.  Well done Swimmers.

 

 

I would also like to thank our team managers Claire Underhill and Carolyn Greene (Frome) and Carolyn Read (Wells and Shepton Mallet).

 

 

Frome Summer BBQ

 

Longleat, 18th July 2008

 

Last Friday, swimmers replaced land training with a social event.  Over 25 swimmers and parents headed to Longleat Park to enjoy the best of British patchy rain and good old fashioned rounders.  It was a super way to finish the summer season off, before embarking on the summer break.  Thank you to Susie and Nicky for making arrangements and Josie for her super poster.  We all hope to do this again sometime.

 

 

Swimmer of the Month

 

The swimmer of the month for July has worked very hard over the last few months and I have seen a high level of maturity developing in her approach to swimming.  At the Taunton Deane Open meet she swam well across every swim.  Her most noted performances were the 50m Bk and the 50m Fc finals, where grit, determination and focus lead her to convincing wins in the 12/U age group finals.  Swimming sub 30 for 50m Fc is a land mark in any females swimming career.

 

The swimmer of the month is

 

Emily Dixon

 

Well done!

 

 

Karen’s Top Tip – Fixing your stroke Wiggle

 

If you’re wiggling down the pool when you’re swimming freestyle or backstroke, not kicking enough is one of the possible causes.  A good kick will help keep the lower half of your body in a straight line with your upper body and prevent your legs from just dragging behind.  Something else that will help keep your body in good line is developing your core stability. Having a solid core is key to maintaining good body position in the water. Your core strength will improve with age and maturity to a degree, but you can also work your core in your dry-land program.  A final thing that you can focus on is making sure you’re reaching forward with your arm recovery and extension, rather than reaching across your body when your arm enters the water.

 

 

Changes in the new Academic Year

 

As part of our commitment to developing our club’s swimmer pathway a small change will take place to our Sunday night sessions from September.  Every Sunday swimming training will begin at and the session will continue for 60 mins.  This session will occur alongside a pool share with Waterpolo and a recreational swimming group for swimmers with non-competitive aspirations.  Waterpolo will have 2 lanes for fitness training.  Following the lane swimming session, waterpolo will continue in the pool until .  We believe that having weekly sessions will bring a number of huge benefits to our complete programme.  For further details please speak to your coach.  For information on the non-comp group please contact Karen or Susie.

 

 

In addition to this junior swimmers will now be invited to attend an early evening Tuesday session from September.  This session will initially be by invitation only.

 

 

National Swimming League

 

As you will know from information in previous newsletters we plan to swim Speedo League (now known as the NATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE) along with Wells and Shepton Mallet Swimming Club under the new name of EAST MENDIP SWIM TEAM.   To be able to do this we need to form a new team that requires a constitution and club rules and approval by the county and regional ASA.  Despite working very hard to get this information together it has not been possible to complete this project in time for this year. So WASM have offered, for this year only, for Frome to swim together under their name. Both committees have agreed to this arrangement.  In the competition we will compete in neutral coloured hats as part of our beginnings to form East Mendip swim team. 

 

 

To be able to do this, swimmers selected for the National League will be required to register with the ASA for WASM, purely for insurance and participation reasons.  This will not cost anything. This will also not change anything with regards to your Frome membership and/or affect any other of your individual competition opportunities elsewhere e.g. open meets and championship events.

 

 

Selected swimmers will need to complete your multi-club ASA registration form ASAP and return to Karen.  The swimmers who have been selected for participation in the National Swimming League including swimmers likely to participate in individual, team events and reserves are:

 

 

Girls

 

Boys

 

Emily Dixon

 

Ryan Hann

 

Gina McGuinness

 

Max Charlesworth

 

Abigail Hanney

 

Lawrence Sims

 

Rachel Palarm

 

Howie Phillips

 

Sophie Evans

 

Luke Hibberd

 

Bryany Cornish

 

Alex Perry

 

Keira-Leigh Underhill

 

Dan Brown

 

Martha Harris

 

Adam Smart

 

Alice Dixon

 

James Blanksby

 

Georgia Hibberd

 

Josh Jobbins

 

Antonia Waterfield

 

James Godwin

 

 

Matthew Hann

 

 

Mike Lockyer

 

 

 

 

You will be required to be available for all dates and team sheets for events will be posted closer to the competition dates.  Dates for competition (all Saturdays) are:11th October, 8th November, 13th December.

 

 

Waterpolo Report

 

Gareth Spicer

 

As some of you may have already seen in the local press, the Frome junior waterpolo section has been very busy this month.  Sunday training sessions have been well attended, especially the number of new players coming along and being introduced to the sport under the guidance of the experienced Jonathan Greenstreet.  Some of the players, who have been training more regularly and who are old enough, have played Bristol and West junior league games, along with other junior players from Bradford upon Avon. This month they won their first match against Bristol Central. 

 

Congratulations must also go to James Blanksby, James Godwin, Mike Lockyer and Dan Brown who have gone that step further and represented the senior team in a friendly win over Weston Super Mare and in the Bristol and West league and cup games against Bristol Harlequins. 

 

Anyone is welcome to give waterpolo ago. Our first session back will be Sunday 7th September from to . I would love to see some of you there.

 

Water Polo Swimmer of the Month

 

James Blanksby for his continuing hardwork in training and making his senior league debut against Bristol Harlequins.  Well done James!

 

 

Dates for your Diary

 

Summer Holiday Training

 

Normal training hours will end on the Wed 23rd July  2008.

 

Summer holiday sessions are available to swimmers in the academy, gold and complete swimmer athletes and squad swimmers.  Dates are as follows:

 

 

Sat 7.30-8.30am:      26th July, 2nd, 9th,16th, 23rd August

 

Tues 6.00-7.30pm:   29th July,5th,12th,19th August

 

Wed 7.00-8.00am:   30th July, 6th, 13th, 20th August

 

 

Monday 25th August 9–10am

 

Tues 26th Aug-Fri 29th Aug 7am–8am

 

 

Normal training hours will resume on the 2nd September.

 

 

Friendly Series Gala

 

Sat 13th September 2008

 

A gala aimed directly for swimmers aged 8-12 who do not regularly compete.  It is based on a format designed to develop competition skills in a fun environment. Races include relays, efficiency swims and fun events.  For more information please contact Helen Ward and watch for the team sheet. This gala is very soon after the holidays.

 

 

Avalon Autumn Open Meet (Level 2)

 

18th & 19th October

 

Entries are now in and the meet is almost full.  For more information on how parents can help our open meet run smoothly please contact Elaine Gilburt.

 

 

Tigersharks Level 3 Open Meet 23rd November

 

This will be the target meet for the autumn for all squad swimmers.  Entry forms will be available soon.

 

 

NEW FEATURE: The Bigger Picture

 

What’s going on in World swimming this week?????

 

 

ONLY 15 days to the 29th Olympics now.  All the teams have been picked and many swimmers are already in eastern based holding camps preparing for events.  The swimming and Water Polo programmes begins on the 9th-24th of August, based in the CUBE.  It will be an amazing time for all aquatic sports.  Watch out for Tom Daley, the 13yr old diver who is bound to make a splash.  It doesn’t matter where you are there won’t be a paper or TV clean from Olympic news.

 

For more info see:

 

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

 

 

Get with the Lingo – Get qualified

 

Although the fundamental skills of teaching and coaching swimmers are similar, the national governing body has now divided teaching and coaching strands in qualifications for swimming delivery.  This month I will make clear the pathway to becoming a teacher/coach in swimming.

 

 

Teaching – A swimming teacher is understood as a person who delivers the fundamental skills of aquatic sports to want-to-be-swimmers.

 

 

Coaching –Coaches deliver a programme of training to athletes with a view to competitive opportunities.

 

The education programme from the ASA now considers both teaching and coaching as viable options to gain qualifications.  In wanting to be a teacher or a coach one would first fill in a CRB disclosure form.  This is a police check form and anyone who works with children and vulnerable adults has to have one before beginning work on the pool deck.  From here you can do some shadowing or take an ASA Helpers course.  This course is designed to teach helpers how to assist coaches and teachers.  The next stage would be to take a level 1 course.  This course takes five days when sat intensive or over number of weeks when taken as an evening course and consists of a core unit and coaching or teaching specific bolt on.  I would always recommend taking the teaching route first, then add the coaching bolt on when appropriate.  This provides you with a number of key skills and a clear understanding of teaching the strokes.  This then helps you to understand mistakes, errors and how best to correct them.

 

 

Level 1 is then followed by L2-5 of which all are taken progressively.  However, only L2 is required to teach an independent group in a swim school without supervision.  Education is continued between courses by CPD (continued professional development) courses in between times.

 

 

A new addition to the ASA education system is the Teacher’s/Coach’s Licence.  Alongside a qualification, affiliation to the IOS (institute of swimming), a current CRB certificate and proof of attendance at a relevant child protection course begins the licensing process.

 

 

If you are interested in finding more about teaching/coaching swimming please talk to Karen or consult the asa’s website (www.britishswimming.org).

 

 

Workforce Development

 

Indians Require some Chiefs

 

We have a number of exciting positions within the club to help us develop our workforce of keen volunteers. Divided into small jobs we are looking for people to co-ordinate the development our time keepers, officials and coaches.  If you would like to help the club, but don’t want to get your feet wet, this could be an ideal job for you.  If you have any questions please let myself or Elaine help.

 

 

Coaches Development Seminars

 

Our next seminar will be on Saturday 4th October.  From somersaults to tumble turns.

 

 

Team Manager Training

 

15th September 2008

 

This course has been arranged to train poolside staff for team managing swimmers at competitions.  It costs nothing and is being held in Frome College.  We would love to have you there.  To book your place, please ask for a form from Debbie McGuinness.

 

 

Young Aquatic Organisers Course

 

13th September 2008

 

A course for 14-19 year olds which explores the insides of swimming clubs, how they run and how to organise events.  The course consists of theory for 3hrs, then assisting the planning and organising of the friendly series gala  following this.  A great opportunity to help youngsters learn the ropes. Again with no cost, it is a must.  Please contact Karen for an application form.

 

 

 

 

Teaching Courses:

 

I have included information of upcoming teaching courses.  Frome SC does have funding available to assist with your training as a coach in exchange for your volunteering so, please, if you are interested, contact me and we can move on from there.

 

 

ASA/UKCC TEACHER OF AQUATICS LEVEL 1

 

HMS Heron – Yeovilton

 

Friday 21st November 2008 – Log book session

 

28,29,30 November 2008

 

5,6,7,12,13 December 2008

 

Contact – Ali Parnell 01935 424922 / 455054

 

E Mail – ali_parnell@hotmail.com

 

 

ASA/UKCC TEACHER OF AQUATICS LEVEL 1

 

Taunton School

 

18th-22nd August

 

Email: Mark Rawle: Swim7@tiscali.co.uk

 

 

Swimming Coach

 

Karen Pinniger

Email: kpinniger@somerset.gov.uk      Mob: 07500028404

 

 

Water Polo Coach

 

Gareth Spicer

 

Email: gspic10@yahoo.co.uk 

 

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