Open Water Coaching Certificate

This certificate develops the specialist skills needed to work as an open water coach and effectively and independently plan, prepare, deliver, monitor and evaluate a series of open water training sessions. Blended learning is a more flexible approach where you complete the theory elements of the course online through eLearning and webinar sessions, this will also include the theoretical assessment. You will then attend the practical session at a lake.

8th and 29th August 6-9pm Zoom

7th and 8th September 9-5pm Stanborough Park, AL8 6DF

Book here

If you are a Swim England member, a discount maybe be available as a Member Offer – please contact your club.

Rollinson wins Gold at the European Aquatics Championships

Congratulations to Amy Rollinson  with her partner Desharne Bent-Ashmeil on winning gold in the Women’s 3m Synchro to land another diving title for Great Britain. Consistency was the key in the women’s 3m synchro event. Bent-Ashmeil and Rollinson not only put together a solid programme with three 3.0DD dives but they also performed them without bigger mistakes. Great Britain took the title with 269.10pts ahead of Sweden who earned 258.75.

Rollinson who started her diving career at Luton Diving Club explained the reason behind their success, saying: “We’ve kind of come together a couple of years ago and found out that our techniques matched well.

“Here there was the first time we had a proper practice together as we both were focusing on our individual events but we also found that if we do that we can do the synchro better.”

You can keep up to date with all the action here

 

Artistic Swimming Regional Games 2024

On 31st May 2024, Swim England East Region took its first ever Artistic Swimming Squad to the Artistic Swimming Regional Games (this was a first for the region too!). Seven of the eight Swim England regions were competing at Hengrove Leisure Centre, Hengrove Park, Bristol.

After holding three training sessions, a squad of 14 was selected to compete at the Games, formerly the Beacon Games. The event has three core components, that being Figures, a competitive relay and a land based video of four members. The event is held in Bristol which is the hub of Artistic Swimming in the UK. Team GB train here and the swimmers were able to see the GB squads, duets and soloists, and had a sneak peak of the routines heading to European Championships in Belgrade later this month.

The competition was extremely tough, which we expected, however everyone really enjoyed the experience, making new friends, and enjoying different styles of coaching. We had some very encouraging results, with one swimmer finishing in 3rd place for her age group. Swimmers came from Aqualina (Stevenage) Artistic Swimming Club, Chelmsford City Swimming Club, Norwich Synchronized Swimming Club and Potters Bar Artistic Swimming Club. Feedback from the squad and coaches, Kerri Clewlow, Jayne Jarvis and Emily Gower, is such that the region would hope that this becomes a regular feature on the Artistic Swimming calendar.

Swim England National Awards 2024

The Swim England National Awards will return to the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham on Saturday 30 November 2024. The awards will celebrate the incredible spirit of aquatics by showcasing individuals, groups and organisations for their passion, dedication and outstanding commitment over the past year.

In 2024 the awards will recognise the impact coaches have at both grassroots and at a performance level by introducing new Performance Pathway and Development Coach of the Year awards.The event will also include the Harold Fern and Alfred H Turner awards – recognising outstanding contribution to aquatics – and provide the opportunity to celebrate some of the nation’s top athletes in an Olympic year.

Nominations are open until Sunday 7 July and you can nominate someone today. The full criteria for each award can be viewed HERE.

Welcome to our new Regional Manager

The East Region would like to welcome James Salmon as our new Regional Manager.

James will be supporting the operation of the region by way of  leading and guiding the development and governance within the region and will be working closely with all aquatic disciplines and supporting our family of volunteers.

Having started his aquatics journey as a parent, James has recently qualified as a Referee and volunteers within his own club on a regular basis.

Paralympic Qualification Success

With 100 days to go until the Paralympic Games, ParalympicsGB has named a 26-strong para-swimming team that are heading to Paris this summer. 

The first sport to confirm names for Paris for ParalympicsGB features 15 Games debutants and 11 returning Paralympians – including two reigning champions in the pool from Tokyo 2020, Maisie Summers-Newton and Tully Kearney.

ParalympicsGB Chef de Mission Penny Briscoe added: “I’m delighted that today, with exactly 100 days to go to this summer’s Paralympic Games, we can celebrate the first athletes to join the ParalympicsGB team for Paris 2024 – our swimming squad.

“Our 26 swimmers represent an exciting mix of youth and experience, and there’s no doubt they all have fantastic potential to make Great Britain proud in Paris this summer. I’m really excited to see the ParalympicsGB team start to take shape and look forward to welcoming athletes from all corners of the UK, across 19 sports in total, in the coming weeks and months.”

Aquatics GB Associate Performance Director Tim Jones said: “I’m delighted that ParalympicsGB are now announcing these 26 swimmers to compete in the swimming events in Paris in 100 days’ time.

“Our athlete cohort has evolved significantly since the Tokyo Games, and with 15 first-time Paralympians on the team, we know we have great potential to be very successful in Paris.

The region is delighted that five athletes who either still swim in clubs in the East or started their swimming careers in the East have been selected:

Ellie Challis Clacton Swimming Club

Grace Harvey Hoddesdon Swimming Club

Olivia Newman-Baronius Maxwell Swimming Club

William Ellard Saint Felix School

Louise Fiddes Hatfield Swimming Club

Congratulations to everyone! and Good luck in Paris!

Visions and Values Roadshows in your area!

As one of our members, you are invited to attend one of our Values and Vision roadshows taking place across the country in May, June and July.

Meet our CEO Andy Salmon, members of the Swim England leadership team and join in with engaging activities.

Your attendance is really important as it will help shape the organisation’s future direction and culture and create a clear vision for aquatic sports.

Insight gathered from the roadshows will help refresh Swim England’s existing strategy, with learnings from the Heart of Aquatics Listening Report at its core.

Book your space here

Olympic qualification success

Aquatics GB have announced an exciting 33-strong team to represent Team GB in the summer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Following success at recent competitions including the Speedo Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at the London Aquatic Centre, Laura Stephens, who started her swimming career in the East Region, will be part of that team. Joining her in Paris is Angharad Evans who swam her age group years within the region too. Congratulations to both and we wish them all the luck in Paris!

Laura Stephens – World Champion!

Great Britain and the East Region has a new swimming hero ahead of this year’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Laura Stephens became the country’s first individual female gold medalist at the World Aquatic Championships since 2011 by claiming 200m butterfly glory in Doha. The 24-year old says she “can’t believe it” and has now set her sights on glory in France later this year.

Great Britain’s Laura Stephens admits she “cannot believe it” after winning her first world title. The 24-year-old clinched first place in the 200m butterfly at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha. It means she becomes her country’s first female individual world champion since Rebecca Adlington back in 2011.It adds to the silver medal she won in the same event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

And after getting that first taste of gold, Stephens is now setting her sights on further success at the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year.
Laura trained at Harwich, Dovercourt & Parkstone swimming club and Colchester Swimming Club.  Laura is only the 8th woman in GB swimming history to win a Gold medal at the world championships and the a 1st women in GB swimming history to win gold in the 200m butterfly.

Long Course Championships – food/drinks passes available now

We are pleased to confirm that all poolside passes for coaches, team managers and chaperones will remain free of charge for the 2024 championships.

In recent years, we have not offered food and tea/coffee refreshments to coaches and team personnel. This is largely because coaches have preferred to make their own arrangements. We have received a limited number of requests to offer refreshments to these colleagues. Unfortunately we cannot do this free of charge, as the cost is relatively high and the championships now run on a break-even basis. We will, however, offer it at cost price. Payment will be via invoice to the club.

A tea/coffee pass will cost £10 per person per weekend.

A food pass will cost £25 per person per weekend (and will include tea/coffee – there is no need to purchase both passes). Food will comprise sandwiches, cake, crisps – there is no hot option.

Passes are transferrable – i.e if two coaches do a day each, they can transfer their pass.

If your club would like to purchase one of these options, please complete the form by Wednesday 3rd April, indicating the names of the coaches and which weekend the order is for. We will collate the requests and then invoice the club on 4th April.

All poolside passes must still be obtained via the online system.

 

Water Polo Coaching Conference

This year’s Water Polo coaching conference promises to be a really beneficial day and ties in to the additional coach development that we’re currently working on. It will take place 9:00-17:00 on Saturday 25th May at the Sportpark, Loughborough University campus with speakers and outline of topics below.

As we are aware that most of our coaches are volunteers we are able to offer the conference for a reduced £20 per person and we would encourage clubs to cover the cost for coaches as part of their CPD training.

Clubs/ club coaches can sign up via the following link: https://forms.swimming.org/water-polo-conference/

Speakers
Richard Blackshaw & Anna Garside Richard as the new of Head of Performance and Anna as the new head of Performance Operations will open up the conference.
Piers Martin British Swimming Board Member Piers will discuss how to maximise coaching potential.
GBR Womens rep Great Britain Women’s player will discuss her journey in Water Polo that led her to the Word Championships in Doha
Paul Connolly Experienced coach Developer Paul will discuss “What is our Why?” the importance of our ‘why’ when coaching. What are we trying to achieve? And why is important not to lose sight of our end goals in everything that we do.
Drew Barrand Drew Barrand, the British Swimming CEO will share British Swimming’s organisational strategy and how Water Polo fits into that broader vision for aquatic sport.
Gergely Lukacs Our Key note speaker Gergely Lukacs will share his experience in coaching which he has gained over a number of years in Hungary following a successful playing career and has delivered water polo coaching clinics for World Aquatics.

 

Gergelys coaching highlights include winning 2x U21 National titles In Hungary with his club Pecs before spending over 5 years coaching the Pecs senior team. Gergely has also tasted international success during his 6 years working with the junior Hungarian national team, winning the U18 World Championships as the Hungarian team’s assistant coach in 2020.

 

Most recently Gergely was the assistant to Hungarian men’s coach Zsolt Varga at the European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Swim England East Region AGM 2024

The Swim England East Region AGM is taking place on Wednesday 24th April 2024.

There are a number of volunteer roles due to be appointed at the AGM this year – these are –

  • President Elect
  • Chairman
  • Finance Manager/Director
  • 3 x Regional Operations Committee members

A role description for each role is available on request for your reference.

If you are interested in applying for any of these roles, please complete this nomination form and email it to [email protected] – the closing date for nominations is Sunday 10th March 2024.