November 2008 Newsletter - 09-11-2008Welcome back after half-term. There has been a tremendous commitment from swimmers in entering the Championships and it is hoped that every swimmer now works hard in the run up to them, then enjoys the experience and gains at least a few PBs. We would like to see as many parents as possible at the Club’s AGM on Wednesday November 26th at 7pm at the Leisure Centre. It’s your club, so we welcome your feedback. Dunkirk Swimming CampThe club’s first overseas swimming camp took place over half-term, with 20 club members going, supervised by our coaches Jo and Julian. After an early 5.30am drop off on a frosty morning, and wearing their new swim camp hoodies, the swimmers travelled in cars and stayed at the Youth Hostel, a short walk from the 50m pool. Invaluable experience was had with two 2 hour pool training sessions, land training and a “fun” event daily. Even the knowledge of a 6am wake up call each day did not deter the keen teenagers! All are eager for more next year! Following on from its success the club would like to arrange a warm weather training camp for the October half-term next year, but needs someone to arrange it. If anyone is interested please contact someone on the committee for more information, via the new club website – (see below!), or speak to Jo.   
Speedo League – round 1Once again SSC entered 2 teams; the A team being in the “Premier” division and the B team in the 2nd division as they were new to the competition. The A team faced tough opposition in Canterbury, and finished in 4th place, with 1 team having withdrawn and 1 not attending. Terrible traffic meant that another team was late and missed the first ten events, so the atmosphere was a little quiet at the beginning, but not the end! First positions were extremely hard to come by, but were achieved by The boys 15/U medley and freestyle teams (James Manning, Jacob Stapleton, Max Wallis, and Xander Alari-Williams), and individually by Fred Biggs in the 50m freestyle and Xander in the 100m breaststroke. PBs were achieved by James Macauliffe, Zoe Harding (2), Fred Biggs (2), Cecilia Fenner, Alex Tucker, Patrick Maclachlan, Gregor Roberts, Gabby Norris, Alex Macaulay and Lauren Goodchild. The B team swam superbly and kept the spectators on the edge of their seats as the final positions were announced -they finished in 4th place out of eight teams, just half a point away from 3rd position! First positions were achieved by Hugo Caven (50m back), Daniel Moss (50m fly), Emily Lobley (50m Breast), Elliot Neale (100m free) and the girls 11/U medley realy team (Molly Merson, Emily Lobley, Ellen Benn and Nathalie Bailey). Pbs were gained by Chris Metcalf, Molly Merson, Hugo Caven, Jessica Farrow(2), Hamish Wyatt, Daniel Fox, Daniel Moss(2), Esther McGuiness, Alex Robbins, Angus Wyatt, Laura Phillips, Ben van Leeuwen and Elliott Neale. The next round is on November 8th, results in the next issue! A report from one or more of the swimmers giving their perspective would be great, or from a parent – please e-mail Beverley Choong via the new website.
Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmers compete at E.S.S.A. National Championships
Three Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmers were selected as part of the Division XI team that competed at the English Schools’ Swimming Association’s National Championships held in Enfield at the weekend. Gemma King, James Manning and Xander Alari-Williams all qualified to compete for the divisional team which is made up of swimmers from Kent, Surrey and South East London. Former SSC member Steffi King was also selected. The event was particularly remarkable for Alari-Williams who finished second in the Boys’ Intermediate breaststroke, earning Xander a silver medal, his first as a National competition, and culminating a remarkable season that has seen both Alari-Williams and James Manning competing in the A.S.A. National Youth Championships in the summer.
Masters swimming
At the recent ASA Masters National Short Course Championships held at Sheffield in October, Tony Meek won Gold in the 100 fly, Silver in the 50 fly, Bronze in the 100 freestyle and 50 backstroke, and a creditable 4th in the 50m freestyle. Fantastic result, well done Tony. Karen Green achieved 6th places in the 200 backstroke and 400 IM and 7th in the 50m backstroke. Well done and congratulations both! For more information on Masters swimming please see here
Water Polo
New members needed! SSC water polo has one of the most successful teams in the area, but is needing new blood. Fancy trying a new sport
Mini Polo is a sport for both girls and boys
Sevenoaks Swimming Club have the best Junior water polo coaching in Kent, In fact our coach is a member of British Water Polo’s International Team coaching staff. We have had 7 junior members go on to National water polo squads. This year Kent County are going to form under 14 and under 12 water polo teams.
Why not come and have a go, who knows where it might lead!! From 9am till 10am at Sevenoaks School Pool For more information contact Dave Clifford on 01732 700096
Or speak to Kit McDonald on pool side.
Or use Contacts page of the website Forthcoming ChampionshipsDetails for those who have not competed before.
These events are extremely busy and we have a large number of entries. To ensure the events run smoothly and as quickly as possible, swimmers need to sign in on time and listen to announcements, and to the instructions of the helpers poolside. They will be told when it is their turn to swim, and in which lane. If any swimmer has any doubts about anything, ask one of the helpers poolside who will help them find out the answer. The officials in white will be monitoring the races as they happen, so will not always be available to help or to listen to queries, so please try and ask a helper not in white. All swimmers – please be quiet for the start of the races so that the swimmers can hear the starting signal. And please do not move near the start as this can distract swimmers on the blocks. And please do not leave the poolside area without checking first with a helper. All parents – please help and volunteer at least once. Do not complain if an event runs slowly as it is usually because of a lack of officials or volunteers. Remember SSC needs YOU. For more about volunteering see here To go to Championships page of website please click here Disqualifications (DQ) The majority of swimmers will tell you that they have been disqualified at some point in their swimming career! It is generally nothing to be ashamed of. It could be a silly mistake or a technique that is not yet perfected. If you do get disqualified, learn from the experience - most swimmers only make the mistake once! Common DQs: • Moving at the start – swimmers must remain absolutely still on the block or in the water, until the starting signal has sounded. Freestyle
• Not touching the wall at the turn - you must touch the wall on every turn and at the finish. Backstroke
• Non continuous turning action - Gliding into a turn is not permitted - A continuous single or continuous simultaneous double arm pull may be used to initiate the turn.
• Swimmers must have returned to their backs upon leaving the wall.
• Swimmers must finish on their back – practise counting how many arm strokes you do from the flags, so you know where the end is! Breaststroke
• Incorrect start/Incorrect turn – After the start and after each turn, the swimmer may take one arm stroke completely back to their legs. Their head must break the surface of the water before their hands turn inwards at the widest part of their second stroke. A single downward dolphin kick is permitted followed by one breaststroke leg kick while totally underwater.
• All arm and leg movements must be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane.
• The hands shall not be brought back to the hips other than at the start and turns.
• 2 Handed touch - swimmers must touch the wall at the turn and the finish with both hands simultaneously.
• Feet not dorsiflexed – The feet must be turned outwards during the propulsive phase of the kick.
• Incorrect Kick - No alternating, scissor or butterfly kicking is permitted. Butterfly –
• Arms not clearing - There should be air between the arms and the water surface throughout the race.
• Arms must be brought forward together and brought back simultaneously.
• Alternating Legs - Legs must move together and remain in the same relative horizontal plane.
• Incorrect touch - Swimmers must touch the wall at the turn and the finish with both hands simultaneously.
Individual Medley -
• Order of swimming – Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle.
• Make sure you use the correct finish for each stroke ie, fly – 2 handed touch, backstroke – on the back, breaststroke – 2 handed touch. There are others, but these are the commonest. Details of any DQs will be shown on the notice board together with the race results. Please appreciate that Judges and Referees look at the swimmers strokes and not the individual swimmers!! Mandy Turner Front crawl: some technique points 1. Enter first!
2. Should achieve ‘pressure point’ early in every catch
3. Fingers should always point towards the bottom of the pool
4. High elbow position throughout the stroke
5. Fast acceleration at hand should enter at shoulder width and with an early catch – thumb and first finger the end of the stroke
6. Relaxed recovery phase – hand should recovery close to your body
7. Kick tempo should be related to the distance of the event. This will be higher in the shorter races and lower in the longer races. Normally aim for 6 leg kicks to every stroke cycle unless you are swimming 400m Adapted from Bill Sweetenham in Swimming Times (November 2007) Julian Metcalf
Forthcoming OpensDetails have been circulated for the Tom Handley Meet in Brighton on January 10th and 11th 2009. Please get your entries, with cheques, to Debbie or Terry Farrow by Thursday 27th November. If you don’t know which events to enter, ask your coach. Competing in these Opens is a good way of getting PBs, especially in an event in which you don’t usually swim for the club, and racing against swimmers from other clubs often pushes you to greater heights. A PB in one of these Opens could get you a place on the SSC team, especially where there is close competition between swimmers in an age group. If you don’t keep updating your times, the coaches have to go on the last available times, and you may miss out. So let’s try for a record entry at Brighton and lots of PBs! And look out for more Opens in the New Year.
And finally, the most exciting news…..what we’ve all been waiting for….
The New Sevenoaks Swimming Club Website!!!!!
Our new Club website has been launched - hopefully you are reading this newsletter on it! The homepage has the same address as the previous site: http://www.sevenoakssc.org/ If you haven’t already done so then please bookmark this page as we are aiming to use the site much more as a means of communication than we have in the past. All club members should have received login details by email. Why a new site? In an extensive study of other swimming club websites we found a clear division between clubs whose websites are clearly used as the main communications tool for its members – and those where it is more a place of “last resort”. We hope that our new site shifts us from the latter into the former category. If we succeed in making this shift it will improve the flow of information, raise camaraderie and team spirit amongst swimmers and reduce wastage. For this to happen it will require a fresh approach from all of us. Swimmers, parents and officials all share responsibility for giving the new site some momentum by using it to communicate – making a special effort in the early days when impetus is all-important. Please use the new site and help us to make this happen. So why is the new site better? We believe the new site offers many improvements – we have for example taken professional advice about usability and accessibility and incorporated intelligent navigation systems. The design is clean, crisp and uncluttered. It adopts the new club logo and has consistent page layouts that reinforce our branding. It is also a secure site and all members have been issued with a login (see above). We have also made a big effort to update all information so hopefully users will find content more relevant.
What new features does it have? • Noticeboard – highlights last minute announcements eg change of venue or cancellation of an event
• Club Forum – designed so members can “chat”. Users will need to register online before gaining access to the forum.
• Sections – there is a separate “mini homepage” for each of the 3 sections in the Club ie Swimming, Water Polo and Masters
• Within each of these sections there is a “Coach’s Page” where coaches can communicate with their swimmers.
• Our homepage now features a continuously updated Latest News and Upcoming Events function.
• The Club Newsletter – will be issued monthly and will be published via the website What next? • In the next phase of development we hope to introduce an online shop for club kit.
• We will also incorporate any useful suggestions generated by feedback from this launch. Lastly… …if you have suggestions for further improvements to our website then don’t be shy! Please send any such suggestions or other feedback our Chairman, Hamish Dickson at chair@sevenoakssc.org
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