Badge Activities

Over 2009 badges have taken a back seat due to a reallocation of pool time so that members can get more frequent swims. However, we did achieve

• 19 Water Skills Badges

• 9 Challenges

• 5 Preliminary Competitive Start Awards

• 15 Competitive Start Awards.

We also held 2 diving courses and 34 of our members achieved our Club Diving Award, allowing them to dive from the side in galas and club events. We will be starting the first of this year’s Diving Courses later this month.

The club continues to operate a Sprint and Distance Speed Award scheme which allow the swimmers to monitor their own progress in each of the four strokes  and the Individual Medley. Personal record cards are provided and awards are available at Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. Times are recorded at galas, Open Meets, club championships and time trials throughout the year and slips are delivered in the event of a new award being completed. These times can be viewed on the club website on the swimtimes page. We have a large number of swimmers registered for this scheme. This year there is one new swimmer to achieve their Full House award – the highest speed award in all strokes and distances on the PB sheet on the website. Congratulations to Tamsyn Willis on her achievement. There are a number of swimmers tantalisingly close to achieving this award – watch this space. This award will be presented at the AGM and Awards evening, along with certificates to those swimmers who have completed a new level of speed award this year.

This year the teachers have decided to trial the idea of completing the Water Skills badges within the swimming sessions at Watford Leisure Centre and if your child swims at these sessions, you may be handed a slip stating that your child has passed the award. The badges will be taken over a period of weeks and will be awarded when the children have completed all 10 activities to the correct standard. If you have any questions about this, please seek me out and I will be happy to answer these for you. The Bronze, Silver, Gold and Honours Challenges will be trialled in the length sessions at Bushey Grove and again the children will be advised once the badges have been completed and you will be given the opportunity to purchase the badges for your children.

Please forward any comments/ideas/suggestions you have to me personally on poolside or contact me at badge_sec@busheyasc.org.

 

Janet Wood

Badge Secretary