Poolside Report

Firstly, I would like to express gratitude and thanks to our team of dedicated teachers and coaches, they have done an excellent job with all groups this year with an increase in swimmers getting new club records, PB’s and speed awards and also getting to counties and regionals.  They are all volunteers and give up their time for the love of teaching/coaching and seeing the swimmers progress. So, thank you Neil, Karen, Sarah, Jenny, Taryn, Richard, Colin, Nick and Terry. 

We would like to welcome our newly qualified teachers Lydia, Ellie, Emily, Paul, Will and Marie.  Also well done to Taryn and Attracta who achieved their Level 1 coaching during the year.

We also saw the stepping down of some of our coaches in 2018 Jack, Lou and Rafal.  They were well liked by their swimmers and coaches and will be missed as they give so much of their time, we wish them all the best. 

We are at our lowest number of teacher/coaches for many years it is essential that we continue to recruit new teachers and coaches for us to continue with the weekly sessions.  As we do not pay any regular coaching or teaching time except for Terry it is our policy to pay for teaching and coaching courses in return for a commitment to the club.  If you are interested, please speak with us to find out more, it is well worth it and a qualification for life. 

2018 was the first year we introduced swimming training as normal through the holidays, unfortunately these sessions were not as well attended as we had hoped, they provide the opportunity for swimmers to maintain their fitness and be ready to do well in the competitions that take place a lot of the time just after half terms and summer. 

We are fortunate to be able to provide opportunities for swimmers to compete in internal completions.  As a club we do not charge entry to these unlike most other swim clubs, it is an opportunity for us to guide swimmers towards competitive swimming. We expect the children to become involved in all of the club activities including Club Champs, Time Trials and Galas when they are selected.  We continue to be involved in the Herts Major League, The National swimming league and the Peanuts League (swimmers 9-13).  We also compete in other invitation galas throughout the year.  Within these competitions we produce some very strong swims both as teams and individually.  Thank you to all of the children that have been involved in these teams throughout 2018. 

We also had several swimmers competing in and earning medals in Open Meets.  If you want to find out how your child can get involved in these contact our Open meets Co-ordinator Kevin.

As always, the team would like to congratulate all of the swimmers for their successes and achievements this year.  The number of awards been given tonight at the AGM is testament to their hard work and commitment to the club.  We wish them all the best for this year and hope they will all progress and achieve more in 2019.

On a final note, I would like to add that we do notice that the progression of the swimmers does depend on their regular attendance.  We would ask for your support in this and would remind you all that the children should be on time to their classes, ready for a poolside warm up 10 mins before lesson start with the correct kit for their group.  Regular attendance derives the greatest benefit