Blog 1668: Diddy League B Team

In the last round of the Diddy League the B team travelled to Sutton in Ashfield and although we finished in 6th position there were a lot of positives to take from this gala. Once again the effort and enthusiasm could not be faulted and there was also a marked improvement in the relays, with most swimmers finishing the last five metres in the middle of the lane rather than moving to one side. Strong finishes were also evident in other individual races. However in the backstroke many swimmers eased off in the final five metres, looking behind them to see the wall. This clearly emphasises the fact that although we work on stroke counts regularly in training sessions, some swimmers forget to do this when racing in galas.
Once again Kaye and I would like to thank team managers and officials for all their hard work, and to thank all the swimmers who swam in the Diddy League galas this year; hopefully the competition experience you have gained will help in your swimming development.

Bob and Kaye.

Blog 1666: Junior Improvements

Another diddy league season over and having missed out on the final this year by 1 point the A team with many swimmers missing, put up a tremendous display of high quality skills in tonight's final round (alex and bob will send in full reports). Each year the team has got stronger and stronger and with swimmers coming through at a high standard from our learn to swim programme and development squad the future looks brighter than ever. I firmly believe that we have the most progressive and solid age group programme in the county now and with the expansions we are planning to make to our highly impressive Prestige pathway we as a club will only get stronger.

That being said it would have been a better performance with a full team. Being part of a swimming club has responsibilities on the swimmers and parents part. As a club we ask you to keep 9 dates a year free (6 for 13+ swimmers) for team competitions. These dates are emailed to you on the gala programme months in advance and are always on the blog. Failure to be available for these dates means you are letting the club and your team mates down and the only way we will push this club to be the number one choice in the county is to put out full teams and get the best results we can. We understand sometimes you cannot make it and those that let us know the reasons, we thank you. I do wonder sometimes why swimmers train to compete and yet don't.

Blog 1660: Long Eaton Carnival

We would like to thank all parents who donated to the cake/tombola stall on Saturday, we really appreciate your help and support. We had some fantastic cakes and cookies that sold really well and helped us raise £267.00. We would also like to thank  Alex, Grant and Debbie for helping to sell them on the stall all day.

All containers will be returned as soon as possible.

Thanks

Ang & Kim

Blog 1659: British Swimming follows Prestige example

Reading the Swimming Times I came across an article about the "Groundbreaking" development system launched by British Swimming to identify potential in swimmers and monitor their progress. Whilst I'm sure this system has been brought in entirely independently by British swimming is it always pleasing to see we as a club are ahead of the curve.

This system has many of the hall marks that our Prestige programme has (launched October last year). Swimmers will no longer be put forward just on times for the Podium Potential Programme but will have all aspects of their training monitored and assessed. The assessment areas will include Food Diaries, Attendance, Attitude to training, land training and social life, all of the areas which we monitor in the Prestige programme. The more swimmers we have on our Prestige programme that follow the guidelines given and improve these areas the stronger our club will be. Whilst this will eventually mean more work for myself and Alex, in terms of going through log books and food diaries, it is vital that swimmers understand the principles of good habits in and out of the pool thus giving them more of an opportunity to progress to the highest level.

If you wish to start the process and set up good habits prior to being put forward to Prestige please do not hesitate to contact me via email and I will explain all that is needed. Those that are already doing the Prestige requirements will find themselves advancing quicker as this type of monitoring really does help swimmers.

Blog 1658: Four new British Records

Helen Gorman, swimming in the Masters Nationals at Plymouth this weekend, set four new British Records, in the 50m, 100m and 200m Breastsroke and the 200m IM.

The 50m record had stood since 1997 (Maggie Kelly), the other three were already in her hands.

Blog 1652: Breaststroke

The importance of breaststroke swimming is massive, especially at a young age and in IM events. As we have identified this as a weak area for the club we have managed to get Andi Manley Derventio Excell's head coach and coach to Molly Renshaw one of the countries best breaststroke swimmers to come in and do a clinic on it for us. This clinic will be run during the sessions at Queens leisure center on 23rd June 2013. Swimmers who attend these sessions on a regular basis will be given priority to attend this clinic as we will not be allowed to have more than the permitted number of swimmers attending a regular session in the pool. If you do not attend these sessions normally but would like to go please let your coach know and they will let you know if there is space available. This event will include a talk on race psychology before each session.

Blog 1646: World TRi Championships

Congratulations to Greg Cherry for qualifying for the World Triathlon Championships in September