A note from our National Talent Officer, Mike Parker regarding the brilliant new resources that are now online and the plans for the coming weeks:
Hi Team
Please see the links to the introduction to the support package Swim England are planning on providing going forward and the 1st workshop.
All will be posted on social media, in Particular the Swim England You tube channel.
Please see the Swim England YouTube channel link and the link to the introduction by Grant and the 1st workshop.
Please can you share with your contacts and also on your regional social media.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbdK9FG_t6ENQRhds_NNtXQ/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXyujFicjnQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlvIApDXW6M
Regards
Mike
Swim England is seeking a Communications Lead to join the Diving Leadership Group on a voluntary basis. The Diving Leadership Group is responsible for Diving development and competition on behalf of the national governing body in England.
They are looking to appoint a Communication Lead on a voluntary basis to further develop and drive forward the sport of Diving. The role will focus on ensuring key messages about the sport and the activities of the Leadership Group are communicated effectively to the wider membership.
For further details, please visit Careers in Aquatics. Applications close 31st March 2020, 23.59.
Message from the National Talent Team:
Dear Coaches and Committee Members,
In light of the current situation that our country finds itself in, specifically with the recent closure of leisure facilities and club programmes, the Club Development team are working extremely hard to produce an FAQ document to support our clubs in this unprecedented and challenging time.
The Swim England Talent team have also started to look at how we can provide support and guidance around coaching athletes remotely for the foreseeable future. We want to ensure that every swimmer has the chance to continue to stay fit and healthy and we encourage you to use this time to perhaps address some of the areas of the Optimal Athlete Development framework that can be developed away from the water.
Our online support package will be rolled out daily from Monday 23rd March and we will be using all of our social media platforms, the Swim England website and don’t forget British Swimming already have a fantastic online learning platform, OfftheBlocks that everyone can sign up to by visiting www.offtheblocks.info.
It has been fantastic to see so many clubs and coaches already starting to look at ways to support their athletes and parents remotely and we would particularly like to thank those who have shared these resources for the rest of the swimming community to use!
However, in order for this support to continue we need to be doing everything we can to ensure that our coaches stay in their roles and are tasked to implement different support mechanisms.
UPDATED JULY 2020
Competitions and events are now cancelled through to 31st December 2020
In the light of Government guidance, and the latest statement from Swim England https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/coronavirus-statement/
Swim England East Region has cancelled all competitions and development events until 31st May 2020. We know that this decision will be a huge disappointment to our coaches, athletes and parents, but it is clear that to hold the planned events would be contrary to the guidance on gatherings, and could pose a risk to our members and their families. Where appropriate, we will look at what opportunities there are for holding the competitions later in the year and publish information in due course.
We will be processing refunds for entry fees as soon as possible, but please bear with us as we have entries from swimming, diving and artistic swimming competitions to deal with. Refunds will be made directly to the payee and, when we have completed the refunds for each event, we will post a statement on the website so that anyone who has not received a refund can contact us. As previously advised, the Region is unable to consider claims for in relation to cancellation of hotel bookings or other expenses.
The region has also been asked for information on open meets hosted by clubs and training sessions. The latest information from Swim England makes it clear that, although the decision ultimately rests with clubs, there would be serious concerns about these gatherings, and we therefore ask all clubs to put the public health considerations above the natural desire to facilitate the sport we all love.
More information on the impact on British Swimming events can be found at https://www.britishswimming.org/news/general-swimming-news/british-swimming-coronavirus-update/
At the end of April, we will review the situation for events planned for beyond May and make a further statement then. We are also looking at our plans for workshops in consultation with the IoS and UK Sport and will publish more information on these as soon as possible.
In the meantime we hope that all our members stay healthy and will be back in the pool as soon as possible.
JW/17/03/20
Congratulations to Dan Murphy (Cambridge Dive Team) and Julie Busano (Dacorum DC) who have passed their Judge Level 2 course! The course was part of the National Judge School which ran along the Team Z England Talent athlete camp in Leeds on 29th February and 1st March.
On 29th February 2020, the Region hosted it’s first open water coach development day in Hatfield. The event was also acting as a pilot to help shape future national open water coach development requirements and opportunities. For further details from day, please read the event report.
We are looking for someone to train as a Water Polo Tutor/ Assessor within the East Region and have funding available to pay for the training programme. In return we ask for commitment to deliver some courses for the Region. If you think you meet the person specification, and can commit to the programme dates, please get in touch for an application form. The deadline for applying for the funding is 25th March 2020.
On Wednesday 4th March, 95 coaches descended on the Fielder Centre in Hatfield for a day of learning, sharing and developing. With more than 75% of the regional championships qualifying clubs in attendance, it was a great showing and a wonderful opportunity for our coaches to develop. To see so many club coaches both full time and part time (paid and volunteer) coaches in attendance was testament to the engagement that exists in the region. The move to a weekday conference to ease crowding of weekends was very well recieved and even supported by schools who allowed their teaching staff who also coach to attend – so a huge thank you to everyone who came along!
The day opened with a short presentation from the regional talent officer on how working with athletes as people can open many doors in the future, both in their swimming careers and in wider life. He also spoke about how the combined knowledge of 95 coaches was over a 1000 years worth of invaluable resources and the various ways both during the conference and post-event, that would help share that knowledge.
The first guest speaker was Richard Cheetham MBE (Twitter @twowheelprof). UK Coaching in 2018 recognised Richard as their coach developer of the year and he certainly delivered a great experience for our coaches. Talking through the range of ways in which coaches and athletes learned, which involved some really engaging and interactive activities, with one of our coaches winning the coveted £1 prize for their observation skills.
Following Richard was Sport England’s Stuart Armstrong (@stu_arm). He gave a fascinating oversight into the changing way in which coaches are being supporting in this country and how the landscape of training and ongoing coach development is evolving too. For all coaches involved in the sport it is a very exciting time and great to see some long overdue professionalization coming to fruition.
Our final speaker before the lunchbreak really brought the effect of OADF and the principles behind it. Richard Allen, currently the head of football at Loughborough university who was also formerly the head of talent ID for the FA shared some of his experiences from a different perspective in football. Giving some great case studies, most notably Harry Kane, he brought to life the key attributes that enabled Harry’s success in his senior years that were evident early on in his sporting career.
During the lunchbreak the coaches networked, shared ideas and thoughts on the morning’s presentations and contributed to our ‘post-it challenge’, which pulled some key messages from our coaches to help shape future resources. Moving into the afternoon the focus was shifted solely to swimming with two speakers who gave frank and honest accounts of their experiences.
Kevin Brooks (@kevbrookscoach) the head coach at Wycombe District Swimming Club (@wycombe_swim), gave a really insightful account of his journey as a coach and the programme at Wycombe as it’s evolved over the last decade. Kevin demonstrated the various structures that have been put in place to enable the sustainable long term success the club enjoys, including implementation of club awards, the use of OADF across the club and his philosophies on supporting the entire club, not just the performance section.
Following that we had back to back talks from Loughborough National Centre (@NTCLoughborough) Coach Dave Hemmings (@DaveHemmingsGBR). Dave’s first talk was illuminating as to the challenges that working with senior athletes entails, and really brought home not just from an OADF perspective, but to all our age/youth coaches the importance of laying good foundations in the early years when working with a young athlete. His second talk shared lots of stories from ‘the arena’, specifically around managing as a coach and an athlete in pressured environments. Again this is something that coaches could really relate to, whatever level they are working at. We all have an ‘Olympics’ in our club seasons and it is vital for coaches to be mindful of both their own behaviours in pressured environments, but also to develop athletes to be more robust to environmental pressures – it was a very interesting insight.
Finally to round off the event, the regional talent officer hosted open floor questions to both Dave Hemmings and Kevin Brooks. 50 minutes later and the floor were still throwing ideas out there, which really showed how the day had brought out so many thoughts from the attending coaches. It was a brilliant day and a huge thank you is needed, both to the facility for hosting a great event and to the regional board for supporting this great development opportunity. We look ahead to our conference in 2021 – save the date for Wednesday 3rd March.
If you’re a coach and you’re not already signed up to our various coach communication platforms, our newsletter signup is on the top right of the regional home page and we are on both Twitter and Facebook – just search for “East Region Swimming Coaches Network”. Thank you finally to Blythe Neighbour, our University of Hertfordshire student, who took photographs across the day for us (Insta @bpn.photography)
Half term was a very busy week for our development team with three swimming camps all taking place in the same week! We had two camps on the Monday and Tuesday in Peterborough for a group of athletes who just missed qualifying for the summer national championships in the 18-19 season. The Performance Foundations Camps gave two great groups of athletes the chances to learn and develop both in the water and on land.
Some great nutrition workshops led by Swim England nutritionist, Jasmine Campbell helped the athletes focus in on their nutrition requirements across the national qualifying window this year. Strength and conditioning coaches from Performance Hertfordshire led the pre and post pool sessions, helping the athletes not just to complete exercises but understand the reasoning behind these and how they aid performance in training and on race day. Our pool sessions re-enforced world class basics and how executing the details well every single day is vital to be successful at the higher eschelons of the sport.
Later that week, a small group of our youth/senior athletes travelled to Loughborough for a three day Olympic Trials camp. This year’s British Championships (Olympic Trials) are taking place in London in April and with three finals in each event (junior, transition and open), the three day camp was intended to offer a focused group some support in a range of areas leading into the biggest domestic event every four years. To see what they got up to on this camp, check out the camp video on our Youtube channel.
Louise Mackie has responded to our pleas for a volunteer to take on the role of East Region Masters Manager. As many of you will know, our former Masters Manager Sharon Perry stood down at our ACM due to work pressures. We have been be advertising for a replacement since September, and Louise has thankfully come to our rescue.
Louise, who is a swimming referee and the Swimming Officials Secretary for Bedfordshire, has already started work, and with the help of our Regional Development Officer Amy Bryant, is planning the forthcoming Masters Development Day and the masters competitions for 2020.
Swim England East Region has reviewed its practices in the light of the current spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Members and spectators should note that, due to the known risk element of Coronavirus Swim England East Region cannot offer any refund or recompense to athletes, coaches, or spectators for any expenses incurred in relation to an event cancelled due to Coronavirus.
Although it is hoped that there will be no impact, Swim England East Region will continue to monitor its planned events in the light of the current health information, and will take appropriate action to advise relevant members if it becomes necessary to make changes to our published plans.
Swim England has published, and circulated, a Coronavirus (COVID-19) statement to clubs.
