Poolside Report

Firstly, I would like to express gratitude and thanks to our team of dedicated teachers and coaches. Their week in and week out dedication and effort ensures that Bushey ASC continues to be a strong and thriving club. 

Currently there are 16 of us involved in the teaching side. During the course of the year 2 of our team moved on from the club with their children. I think it is appropriate to acknowledge the contribution made by Sue Armitage and Adrian Edwards over years they were heavily involved with us. We do wish them both well and it is great to catch up with them poolside at galas.

I normally include a recruitment paragraph within this report and this year will carry on the tradition. It is essential to constantly recruit new teachers/coaches to refresh our ‘pool’ as colleagues naturally move on. Bushey is pleased to be able to offer development opportunities to teachers and coaches and will support volunteers through nationally recognised courses.  As we do not pay for any regular coaching or teaching time it is our policy to pay for these courses in return for a commitment to the club. If you are interested please speak with us to find out more.

We conduct our activity at 4 separate pools; Bushey Grove Leisure Centre, Habs’ Boys, Watford Central and more recently St Helens.  The migration of width sessions to Watford Central has proved to be a successful venture. The pool is much lighter than Bushey Grove and provides a great environment for developing the strokes and style of our less experienced members.

As a club we remain hungry for more pool time and are regularly approaching venues to increase our time or to consolidate what we already have. The Autumn term proved a challenging time for us as our main base at Bushey Grove was unavailable for several weeks due to refurbishment. We were able to provide alternative venues and slots for all our swimmers and I would like to thank those involved in securing these sites and also the vast majority of members who managed to stay with us despite the disruption to established patterns.

We are continuing with our commitment towards teaching for competition. For a small club Bushey has done very well. We continue to participate in several leagues, with 2 teams in the Hertfordshire Major Leagues. Club records, including some long established ones, continue to be regularly broken and we produce some very strong and competitive swimmers.

It is always a mixed feeling when some of our swimmers feel that they need to move to bigger clubs to develop further. This year we have bid farewell to several excellent swimmers who have really excelled at the club over several years. They really do need more time in the water as their strokes have been fully developed and they are competitive with the best in the bigger clubs where professional coaches and double or triple the swim time is available. For those swimmers it is a natural athletic progression. There are others however who leave before they have attained this stage and realised their potential within this club. Swimming I am afraid is not immune to pushy parents and keeping up with the neighbour syndromes! The coaches and teachers at this club have in my experience always provided unbiased and sensible advice and I am sure will continue to do so.

For the coming year we will be consolidating our training schedules very much around the Galas and competitive events. Each term we will be looking to hold a Time Trial, a distance event, a club championship and participate in a league as well as have a presence in other Open events. On top of that we will continue with badges, diving and personal survival awards. Phew!

Our evolutionary approach to the organisation of the club continues as does the success of our swimmers in the water both as individuals and as members of a team. 

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our swimmers.  The awards at the AGM reflect the efforts of the highest achievers but we as teachers and coaches take great pleasure in seeing each of you make those gradual and sometimes dramatic improvements as you achieve the next stage in your swimming progression.

Richard Henson

Poolside Manager