We were invited to join Mansfield Swim Club and ran a Butterfly and Breaststroke Master-Class. The event even made it into the local papers! (Mansfield & Ashfield Chad). Where we were praised for delivering an “inspirational visit” and helped “further their development”. Our masterclass was described as being “educational and motivating”. High praise indeed!
Many thanks to Mansfield for hosting the event, we look forward to working with you again in the future!
Our second Masterclass with Leicester sharks swimming club had the same focus as the previous masterclass, Starts, turns, & Freestyle, but was with a new group of swimmers this time. It was fantastic to see how enthusiastic every swimmer was, wanting to improve their skills and give the new drills a try. Again, some parents got involved to make sure that everyone was as quick off the block as possible! In the classroom, we allowed the swimmers to look at day to day nutritional choices interactively, and some of the answers were quite a shock to them! We loved working with everyone at the club again, thank you for inviting us back!
In April, Amy travelled to Yarborough Leisure centre in Lincoln to attend an event hosted by Active Nation. Active Nation is a charity that promotes physical activity & a healthy lifestyle to the nation. Amy was asked to speak to the children who attended this free event about not just her journey leading up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, but how she got into swimming, and everything she has gained from it. After chatting, we all headed over to the pool for an hour of starts & turns practice with some fun new drills for the swimmers to try, and even some t-shirt relays at the end! It wasn’t just the swimmers that Amy worked with that day, but the teachers too. Many of the teachers got in the water with Amy to try out some different drills that could be used with their swimmers, & went through technical points of each stroke. We looked at ways to use drills on land before transferring them into the water, and how we could use different pieces of equipment to aid the drills. It was great to see that the teachers were so enthusiastic & willing to try the drills out themselves.
Each year, Ellesmere Titans hold a free skills clinic to help give something back to younger swimmers, & give possible future Titans the opportunity to check out the facilities and all Ellesmere Titans has to offer them. Amy was asked to come along and run a 2 hour skills clinic for the attendee’s where we focused on here speciality, Freestyle, and Starts. With the fantastic help of some of the current Titans, the pool session was both successful & fun. Many of the parents arrived just in time to see just how fast their children were off the blocks!!
After Joe’s visit in 2015, Amy was asked to make a return visit as Swim Swift Elite to 2 different Primary schools up near York, working with Sporting Start who aim to ‘Empower Children through Sport’. The purpose of the trip was to encourage students to become involved with sport & physical activity in an attempt to enthuse, enliven, & empower children towards success, whatever that may look like for them. Not all students were necessarily ‘sporty’ by nature, but through Sporting Starts programme that had identified each student as possibly benefitting from being involved in sport in some way, many had found that playing an important role within a team & trying something new & energetic has given them the opportunity to shine & boosted their confidence. Amy gave an inspirational talk to students at each school & was part of an after-school group where a mixture of students from each school came together to talk about how the programme had helped them, what further activities they would like to be a part of, & voluntary services they could offer to sporting groups in the area, and their schools.
It was a fantastic evening with Leicester Sharks and it was an honour for Joe to be asked to present the trophies and give a speech at their awards evening! This was a celebration for everyone involved with the club, swimmers, parents, coaches, staff, old & new. As the special guest, Olympian Joe Roebuck gave an inspirational and rewarding speech, praising the efforts of the swimmers and the dedication of all who help run the club and make it such a successful place. Meeting the sponsors, Premier Logistics, and an impromptu Q&A with the audience, as well as many photos and autographs with the swimmers made it an extremely enjoyable evening!
January saw many of the countries competitive masters swimmers meet in Loughborough for a day of workshops for various land based yet swimming related topics, and a two and a half hour pool session. Swim Swift Elite were on poolside working alongside Great British Swimming Coach Glenn Smith, to deliver 3 different sessions. Breaststroke, Backstroke, and Starts & Turns. The group was split into 3 so that we could rotate, getting the most out of each smaller group of swimmers. We broke down each skill right back to basics, and then built it back up again, hopefully making the focus points clearer. Some swimmers tried skills for the first time, which was great to see. Enthusiasm is key to making better swimmers!
We hope that the drills were not only helpful in informative, but enjoyable too, we definitely had fun working with everyone, and felt privileged to be asked to be part of this development day.
This January, we paid our first visit to Southwold Swimming Club to work with a group of around 20 swimmers on their turns. It was very cold outside, but the water was warm, and allowed us to complete many different drills, breaking both tumble & touch turns down into bite size pieces.
Some drills were tougher than others, and they are great to keep practising with. Practice makes perfect! The swimmers also completed a land based session, getting ideas about the important area’s of the body we need to prepare before jumping in the water to prevent injury, but also some stretching to help with recovery afterwards. All designed to make a more efficient, stronger, and faster swimmer!
Thank you for inviting us to work with your club, we had a fantastic time, and thank you also to Westonbirt school for for being so facilitating whist we were there. What amazing facilities!
This was the second of our two days with Worcester County Talent squad!
We have been extremely happy to have been given the opportunity by Worcester ASA to host both of their Talent Camps this year! This second day was again held at the King’s School, in Worcester, and we would like to say thank you to them for letting us use their facilities. Clubs from the whole county were in attendance. The pool focus was Breaststroke and Front Crawl, and on land we ran Pilates, Stretching, Injury Prevention all related to swim performance. After lunch a fantastic and interactive Goal Setting Strategy session was completed by the swimmers, hopefully leaving them thinking more clearly about their training and targets they wish to accomplish!
Thank you to everyone involved with the organising and all the swimmers and coaches who attended for their efforts and making these two days highly enjoyable!
Another return visit to Rugby Swim Club!
It’s always nice to be asked to come back and work with a club again.
It lets us see the progression the swimmers are making both in terms of technique and attitudes. It also lets us know that the club has seen the value and benefit in our work and is excited to have us back for another session!
On this visit we were concentrating on Breaststroke and Freestyle, putting some technical stroke drills into good effect to improve the efficiency of our swimming. An hour’s session with the Junior squad on Freestyle was followed by a two hour session with the Senior and Masters squad on Breaststroke and Front Crawl.
The sessions were finished with autograph signing, photos and selfies!
Best of luck to all at Rugby, we look forward to seeing you again.
