Tuesday 31 July 2012

Blog 1314: National Round up


Just before the Olympics we had many of our DX swimmers at Age Group and Youth and Senior National Championships at Ponds forge. Here a brief run down of how the Long Eaton based swimmers did.
  
Ellé Pryce swam a 1.3 second personal best time of 1.10.74 in the 100m Backstroke to move up the rankings 12 places to finish in 13th place. This was Ellé’s first ever Nationals and in the 200m Backstroke She was just outside her personal best time but improved her ranking  from 29th to 24th!

Oliver Davidson competed in the Boys 4 x 100m Free relay team.

Mischa Menzies,  competing in his first ever nationals qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m and 200m Freestyle, and the final of the 400m finishing in 10th. Setting lifetime bests in all 3 races.

Kevin Wallbank had one of the busiest program of all the swimmers at nationals, he swam a personal best time in the 100m Fly of 58.00 in the semi final just missing out on a final place. Kevin came 6th in the 200m Fly final, qualifying in another personal best time of 2.05.80, taking another 3 seconds off his time, Kevin also swam in the 200m I.M semi-finals finishing just outside the final placings, and in the 200m Breaststroke final and finished in 7th. Even after all of this he still managed to come and compete at our club championships showing the younger swimmers what they could achieve through hard work.

Kevin and Mischa also swam in the 4 x 200m Free relay 

Breaststroker Danny Anderson did a personal best in the 100m Breaststroke of 1.06.20 and claimed another personal best in the 200m Breaststroke. 

Hannah Jones Competed in the 100m and 200m fly reaching the semi final in the 100 and finishing 10th in the final of the 200m.

Tyler-Anne Black competed in the 50m free and in the Girls 4 x 100m Free relay

Jess Cross competed in the 4 x 200m Free relay team.

Robert Abraham who trains with Bob in J2 competed in the multi Disability events under Nova Centurion for the 50m and 100m free.

Monday 23 July 2012

Blog 1306: Club Championships

Firstly I would like to say thank you to all that helped out to make this years Club Championships the success it was. The standard of swimming within the club has once again improved with many competition best times falling over the weekend. What was also pleasing was the number of younger swimmers gaining valuable race experience. I started to count the number of personal best times set over the weekend but lost count as it was that high, more proof that our systems are working. As we develop the club further and get a more professional approach from younger in the club this will only lead to long term success and create an environment where champions are not the exception but the norm. So keep working hard and listening to all your coaches and you will improve. As I said in my email a while ago it is not always the people who go away with the medals that win and the number of personal victories in terms of life time best times was amazing. Club Championships is about being part of the club, racing with your friends and team mates and coming together with all the other squads in the club including DX, at the end of the season to race fast one last time before a well earned and much needed rest. It also gives the younger swimmers the chance to watch some of the best swimmers in country like Kevin Wallbank who competed this year and did some amazing times. Next year Club Championships are once again set for the last weekend of July, which will be the last weekend of training for that season, so hopefully we can have everyone in the club entering and finish with a great end of season party to celebrate what I am sure will be another amazing season for Long Eaton Swimming Club.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Blog 1297: Northampton Open

This weekend saw a group of Long Eaton swimmers compete in the Northampton non National qualifiers summer festival. A last chance for swimmers to compete Long Course prior to the season starting with short course races in October. The swimmers were a credit to the club, much improved in terms of behavior and nutrition and warm up protocol. When these basic skills are done right this leads to fast swimming and this was proven by the amount of swims that were long course pb's, conversions in to short course pb's and swims that were faster than short course pb's for many of the swimmers. One of the proudest moments of the meet was when a judge turned round to me and said "I have to say your swimmers technique is outstanding, its great to see young swimmers swim and not just bash it out." I dont normally mention individuals and in this gala everyone that competed did a fantastic job and showed the rest of the swimmers and coaches there how important it is to have great underwater work even on the sprints with our swimmers often coming up ahead after starts or turns, but I do have to mention 2 400m races that have stuck out for me. Bethany Dennis who did every skill we have been working on in training Straight arming into turns 7.5m streamline underwater kick and no breathing straight arm finish which won her heat for her and Ryan Cendrowski's 400m free race, he had just done his first ever 200m fly and his race was a reminder of how exciting longer distance swimming can be, with Ryan gaining ground every turn then the swimmer next to him gaining during the swim until the last 50m where Ryan pulled away to win an excellent race by over 3 meters. Jacqui Marshall Northamptons direct of swimming and GB Coach was commentating and was always impressed by our swimmers skills especially the underwater phase, she kept mentioning about how important it is to practice all 4 strokes at an early age, as strength gains will change swimmers style in the water, something we as a club do work on. So we are doing things right and the more disciplined we arfe in the skills the faster we will improve. Keep up the hard work guys.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Blog 1292: Rob Carries the Torch






Congratulations to Long Eaton member, Rob Abrahams, who carried the Olympic Torch when it passed through Buxton.

Blog 1291: Diddy League Report

A big congratulations to both teams who competed in the diddy league a couple of weeks ago. Despite a weakened side, the A team still achieved fourth place in their gala, with 20 points separating the top 4 teams. There were nine winners on the night and a good number of PBs. The B team had improved success in their respective gala. There were three winners and achieved a good overall third place at the gala.  Across both teams there were only three DQ's which is a much better improvement on the previous round where there was 11. This shows improved confidence in your own ability and is a good indicator that your skill levels are improving. 

The details for round 3 of the diddy league are below, please try to leave this date free... both teams are at the same gala! Teams to follow shortly.

Sunday 16th Septmeber, Queens Street Derby, Warm up 1pm. 1.30pm Start.


Monday 9 July 2012

Blog 1288: Open Meet 27th Jan 2013 - Sponsorship Required

Hi all,
It may seem that next years Open Meet is a long way off, but we need to start sorting out sponsorship for the meet as soon as possible.
Each year the Open Meet costs us well over a thousand pounds in pool hire alone, then we have other costs such as trophies, advertising and admin costs.
We are looking to offset some of these costs by way of sponsorship, and are hoping that members will consider helping by either sponsoring one or more races or to assist in finding sponsors.
If you sponsor a race, this will cost £30 and you can choose which race you wish to sponsor and your name will be printed in the programme.
If you own or work at a company who may be interested in sponsoring us, please let us know the details and we will do the rest by contacting them with more information.
It is important that we get an idea of the amount of sponsorship we might receive so we can take this into account when we set our budget and club membership fees for the next financial year. So, if you would like to sponsor a race or know of someone who may be interested, please let me, Phil Sloan, have the details.
philip.sloan@microlise.com
07753 935648

Blog 1287: Warm Ups

I would like to remind all swimmers and parents, that swimmers who are competing in a gala must be at the pool on poolside ready to warm up 15 minutes prior to the start time of the first warm up, regardless of when the individual swimmer is due to warm up. With most galas only offering around 20 minutes to warm up, proper land-based blood flow is essential. We also need to make sure all the swimmers who are competing are present so that we can avoid paying fines. If a swimmer is late in future, I will assume that that swimmer is no longer competing and post the withdrawal forms. These have to be done prior to the first warm up starting.

Blog 1286: City of Derby B Grade


Well done to all the swimmers who swam at the City of Derby Open meet on Saturday. Both Kaye and myself were pleased with the performances, with a good number of  swimmers gaining  medals and some the distinction of being awarded a speeding ticket, for going “too fast”. What was particularly pleasing was the way that swimmers followed the race plan/strategy outlined by the coaches. It was also pleasing to see swimmers battling hard to win their respective heats and as a consequence a large number of you smashed your pb’s. Finally can we point out that in future when you swim at an Open meet you need to know the races you have entered in each session, before you get to the gala. We both were very concerned that some swimmers during the warm up did not know what starts to practice because they did not know what races they were doing!

Bob.