Tuesday 22 April 2014

Blog 1942:Glasgow British Championships 2014

Recently I attended the British Championships at Glasgow, partly in my role as DX assistant head coach and partly off my own back to learn. It was a really great experience and some of the swimming was fantastic. I got to work with international class swimmers and mix it up in the warm up/down pool with some of the countries top coaches.

In a way you learn more by doing this than any course or text book can tell you. I learnt a lot about how good our programme is and how good and knowledgeable our coaches actually are. A lot of our pre and post pool routines are far beyond what the swimmers were doing there along with our methods of training. Whilst this all looks good for us we are still along way off in other areas that need to be addressed and improved. Key to that is knowledge of the swimmers, this was phenomenal in terms of targets, pacing, race plans and how to execute them, most of our swimmers are yet to fill in a simple goal setting sheet let alone know the details of how exactly they are going to swim to hit their goals. Nutritionally whilst we put alot of focus on this the major teams had a nutritionist working with them checking hydration and energy levels and making sure swimmers were eating right and natural foods, in fact Team Scotland had a full array of support staff including S and C coaching, physiotherapists, psychologists and team managers to help record every detail of a swimmers day to day experience within a major meet.With 2 massage tables and testing stations and computer generated data back up it was whole new level of coaching.

It was pleasing to see Long Eaton based swimmers competing and competing well at this meet. Kevin Wallbank, Hannah Jones and Francesca Muir Harris. Kevin and Francesca both came through our learn to swim programme and went through the club all the way to DX, once again proving as a club we have the best pathway around.

Please follow our new twitter feed to keep upto date with all news regarding LESC. It is @LESCnews and if you press the star button when following you will get a text and an email when new tweets are made.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Blog 1934: British Championships 10th - 15th

The British Championships start in Glasgow on Thursday.
To follow the action click here
Long Eaton swimmers who train with Derventio will be in action.
Hannah Jones - 200m Butterfly
Francesca Muir-Harris  - 400m Freestyle
Kevin Wallbank - 100m Breaststroke, 200m Individual Medley, and both 100m & 200m Butterfly

Good Luck to you all!

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Blog 1933: Personalised Towels

The order for these has been placed and payment is now due.

Please post a cheque for £15 per towel payable to Long Eaton SC in the club post box in the corridor at West Park Leisure Centre, clearly marked on the reverse as "Towel Payment".

Blog 1932: Land Training Saturday 12th April

There will be NO land training this Saturday morning 12th April at West Park, the swim session will start at 7.30am till 9.00am.

All other swim sessions are on except Loughborough.

Thank you

Monday 7 April 2014

Blog 1931: Sheffield/Northampton

The Northampton meet is primarily for swimmers who are close to Regional Age Group times as a last chance to get them, other swimmers can enter for race practice only after speaking to your coach.

Sheffield no frills entries need to be in this week and as for those swimmers who are seeking a National time or who I have told to enter.

Saturday 5 April 2014

Blog 1930; Training

Remember No training this Sunday at Loughborough, When sessions are cancelled, you are not able to swim with any other squads.

Thank you

Thursday 3 April 2014

Blog 1929: DIDDY GALA


IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The first round of the Diddy's is at Bramcote leisure centre, this Saturday 5th April, Warm up 6.30pm.  

(Please note the warm up time is 6.30pm NOT 6.00 as previously stated)

Thank you

Blog 1928: Leicester League

A full report will follow once the offical results are in

Blog 1927: Northampton and Eckington

The closing dates for these gala's are the 10th April, please make sure you let me have your entries before  or on the closing date. Northampton and Sheffield no frills are only to be entered by swimmers who are close to achieving national times as a last chance to gain these.


Thank you

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Blog 1926: Nuneaton Open Meet

The previous weekend saw a team of Long Eaton Swimmers travel down to Nuneaton for a two day open Meet. Long Eaton started impressively with PBs being produced by all swimmers. Madi Walker added to her freestyle midland times with a 100 Backstroke regional time. Joe Parker, Sian James, Hannah Dowell all making individual freestyle finals. Some existing midland qualifiers lowered their previous standards which will project them up their local/regional rankings and stand them in good steads for the up and coming major competitions. Other swimmers competed exceptionally well in their first experience of a Level Two Open Meet against some tough competition. To progress yourselves you need to be constantly challenged, and entering open meets like Nuneaton against some good Warwickshire clubs will aid your development onto the next stage.

Several swimmers over the weekend are now within a second of a number or regional standards. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! There is still a month remaining and plenty of open meets where you have to find that extra 1% to get you that time. So think where you can achieve this? Starts, turns, Sleep, Nutrition.....

Your attitude to nutrition, skills and the way you conduct yourselves on poolside was far superior to other clubs. You always had your bottles on you, and its nice to turn up after a BIG carvery to see your 11 and unders already lined up to warm up without being told. Both myself and spen acknowledge that we do give you guys some absolute grief when it comes to this stuff, but its because we know how important it is to your development. Remember its about your LONG TERM DEVELOPMENT as an athlete that we are trying to mould and the importance of getting that message across early.

Blog 1925: Swadlincote Novice Gala

On Saturday 22nd March, Long Eaton sent off a team to attend Swadlincotes annual novice gala. There were great performances from the entire squad. For a number of swimmers this was their first gala and experience of competition. It was impressive to see the quality of swimmers at this gala, and is the result of many years of hard work and dedication throughout the club, from the swimmers, parents and coaching staff, that i can now say we have some great depth within this club. As a coach of much older swimmers at the club, i took a backseat during the gala and it excites me that one day i could potentially be working with swimmers of such ability.

On a night of many successes, its hard to pick stand out swims, but credit has to go to a few swimmers who recorded speeding tickets - Imogen Mellor, Samuel Hardy, James Patterson, Luke Witten, Emily Cragg.

Hopefully, now that you have this gala experience this will encourage your participation in other galas and open meets. Keep working hard and always look for ways to improve yourselves.

Final Scores - Swadlincote Black 158, Derby Phoenix 139, Burton 130, Long Eaton 127, Swadlincote Yellow 110,  Coalville 89