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Captains' Corner - March Last weekend was a great opportunity for our swimmers to meet GB swimmers Ian Hulme and Joe Roebuck and get advice on drills and improving technique, as well as some individual suggestions on improvements to our stroke. The land training was a gruelling challenge and showed us how to improve our core strength (although definitely left many of us aching the next day!). The day also included an inspirational talk from both swimmers on how to set goals and targets and overcome challenges faced on the journey to swimming at the highest level as well as analysis of videos of some of the top swimmers in the world to understand how to make our strokes more effective and efficient. We'd like to thank both Ian and Joe for all their encouragement and everyone responsible for organising the camp for making it such an enjoyable day for all the swimmers involved. As agreed by the Committee, we have set up a Facebook group open to any members of Colchester Swimming Club aged 13 or over. We hope that this can be a method of informing members about any upcoming events and an opportunity for people to ask questions which may be of interest to others. If you would like to join this group, please email ladies.captain. Once again, if anyone has any concerns or would like to talk to us about suggestions for us to put forward at committee meetings, we'd be happy to talk to you at training or email us on ladies.captain or mens.captain. Jennifer Redmond and Alex Vipond AGM 2011 ASA mailing consent for adult members Competitions e-mail update service - keep up to date Fees Galas - help required Items for publication Nut Allergies Parents' responsibilities Personal Bests Policies and Codes of Conduct Qualifying times East Region qualifying times are gained at Essex Championships and Licensed Open Meets only. Represent your club at the Regional Championship held at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. East Region Youth & BAGCAT qualifying times 2011, East Region Youth & BAGCAT qualifying times 2012 National qualifying times are gained at Essex Championships, Regional Championships and Licensed Open Meets only. Represent your club at the National Championships held in Sheffield. National qualifying times 2011, National qualifying times 2012 These events are spread across the year, please pay attention to closing dates for events relevant to your swimmer/child. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Safeguarding
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Home galas - help required Many of you may not be aware of the total number of qualified personnel officially required for the correct running of a gala. These are as follows - As older swimmers leave, not all parents continue to help and we always need extra volunteers. Within the above list there should be something to suit everyone and needless to say training will be provided. We are extremely grateful to all our voluntary officials and the level of commitment is entirely up to you. Timekeeping & Judging Courses The Club can organize a short familiarisation course for timekeepers, run at our convenience in Colchester, and the county ASA will arrange for the supply of test papers (all multiple choice format) at the end of the course. These courses are usually run in the autumn. Once qualified the new Timekeepers can do as much or as little on the poolside as they wish. Some may only want to officiate at home for the Club or perhaps at the Club Championships for one or two sessions each year. Others will be keen to travel with the team to away fixtures while some will officiate at the County Championships. Electronics, Announcer or Recorder Training Anyone wishing to become involved with these jobs can make arrangements by speaking to anyone at the Club to arrange gaining the necessary experience at any time, by shadowing these jobs at home galas.
TREASURER'S REPORT The Club has had another very successful year financially, Membership income has steadily increased through the year and there has been no significant unplanned expenditure. I can report that there is a small operating surplus for the year and that there has been no reason to call upon the Club.s reserves. Fees were increased in May 2010 due to both the effects of inflation and to meet the costs of additional coaching and pool hire for many of our sessions but in my opinion they still represent extremely good value in relation to the quality of coaching on offer and the number of sessions to swimmers can attend. We have, as in previous years, been able to subsidise the costs of the team buses to many of the swimming events and absorb the costs the costs of swimmers attending National events, training, extra coaching and pool time. The levels of membership have increased during the year and providing these levels are maintained the Club will start the 2011-12 financial year in a strong position. I would also like to thank Alan H for giving up his valuable time to assist me as the Independent Accounts Examiner for these accounts. This will be my last year as Treasurer and with regard to the many other people in the Club who have willingly acted promptly to collect or pay monies into our accounts it is difficult to isolate individuals for particular thanks. I therefore thank them all, the Treasurer's job would be impossible without them. Andrew D
HON SECRETARY'S REPORT I would like to take this opportunity to thank all committee members and volunteers who give of their own time to ensure that we provide support to all our club members throughout the year including the Beginners & Improvers, Stroke Improvers, Junior, Intermediate, Senior, County, Masters, Water Polo (both junior and senior levels), and Life Saving. It has been my pleasure to work with them all. Some of the key items that have taken place over the past year include: We continue to work closely as a committee, recently restructured our coaching to further enhance our training and teaching programme. We welcome Denise, Donna, Steph and Julie and thank Suzy for her continued commitment. I have no doubt that the swimmers look forward to working hard with all of them and with our volunteer coaches over the coming year. Thanks to the subcommittee including Michelle Y, Ian J, Daryl N, Steve R, Norma C, Diana H and Andrew D for their hard work and commitment to implement the new coaching structure. No swimming club can ever have too many volunteers, and my thanks go to all those that have freely provided administrative, poolside and other assistance both on a regular basis and at the many competition meets over the year. You will see from the individual reports that follow, as a committee we continue to discuss and strive towards implementing new changes to progress both younger and older swimmers to provide opportunities that others have had before them, and I would especially like to thank the Chair, Tony B, and the club's President, Mike C, for their exceptional support and guidance over the year. Jayne M
WELFARE OFFICER'S REPORT The role of the Welfare Officer is to safeguard and protect children, provide advice and support for club members and families, to ensure that CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks are carried out according to ASA guidelines on all persons working with children an all sections of our club. This has been the bulk of our job this past year. We are lucky to have a large number of volunteer helpers within the club without whom we could not function, so we have an ongoing responsibility to ensure we keep the CRB file up to date. There are imminent changes ahead to the government's Vetting and Barring scheme but we are waiting for more information on this. We continue to follow the guidelines of the ASA Child Safeguarding Policy, named Wavepower, to assist us with any situations that may arise within the club. As a Welfare Officer one needs to listen, remain impartial, mediate, advise and guide when difficult situations occur. The ASA has excellent resources for us to call upon if needed. A number of our volunteers and coaches completed an ASA Safeguarding & Protecting children course earlier in the year. It was a very helpful, stimulating and thought provoking evening. This continues to demonstrate the club's commitment to keeping its members updated. It is always a pleasure to see our swimmers develop physically and emotionally within the safe environment of the club and this year everyone's hard work has enabled this to continue. Barbara has continued to work hard for Colchester swimming club and is a valued member of the committee, but has decided to stand down this year. Barbara S / Jackie S
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY'S REPORT Membership this year has been quite testing. There have been several issues including the raising of fees and new ASA forms. This has mostly all been taken care of by Bridget. Between Bridget and myself we have decided that Membership is really a 'two woman job'. There were a number of issues with non payers and late payers, this again has been sorted out by Bridget with a lot of phone calls between us. I would not have been able to undertake all the necessary work this year without the help of Bridget who has done a sterling job. I propose that she is put back on to committee and as stated Membership becomes a dual role. We bounce off each other and what one misses the other picks up. We have good communication between us and we feel this works extremely well and to the benefit of the club. There has been a lot of work but the squad records are entirely up to date with only £200 of fees outstanding to date and almost 100% of ASA numbers recorded. I have implemented a new procedure for new members and with the cooperation of Michelle there is a much smoother transition across with regard to ASA and fees. There has been the addition of the Junior Waterpolo team which is proving to be very popular with 2 of the members being selected to represent the Essex team. The squad sheet is looking very healthy at the moment currently sitting with the following:- We are to amalgamate the Friday Improver section into the squad sheet also. Bridget has organised this and again we are going to run this alongside Membership again as a dual role. We will both be attending the Garrison to collect fees and register swimmers. Thanks to Mike C for all his hard work making for a smooth transition. I think the Membership is currently running the most efficiently that it has for a long time and this is due mostly to the good working relationship Bridget and I have and our need for total order. Jackie M
JOINT CHIEF COACHES' REPORT It is difficult in the current climate of things not to become intoxicated by the proliferation of initiatives, grants, schemes, accreditation reviews and legislative issues through which a club needs to thread its way in order to survive and attempt to be reasonably successful. Frequently these issues may mask or distract us from what should be our main centre of focus – our swimmers' development and self esteem. Yet with a very supportive General Committee, for which we thank you all, we have seen in many respects a very successful and progressive year with both the implementation of a more professional and stable poolside structure, a programme of development from a sound technical base and a series of notable achievements. None of this would have been possible without the support and input of all those helpers, assistances, poolside supporters and parents who have given freely of their time but that input, however small, is pivotal to the daily ongoing operation of our Club and has been a vital contribution in achieving our string of successes throughout this past year. Most of us find that our time is at a premium these days so a big "Thank you" goes to you all who contribute to our Club's daily routine and progress. We operate in a very dynamic environment and our strengths and weaknesses need constant appraisal and evaluation. Our poolside activities are the stage show of the management, organisation and planning processes that support the coaching structure and for which we would like to thank the members of the general committee for their continued support of the coaches and poolside assistants in maintaining the stability, unity and progress within our Club. Our success this year would not have been possible without the continuity, commitment and shear hard work of our swimmers with whom it has been a pleasure to work. It can be a tough call for our swimmers to maintain the level of training necessary to achieve at the highest possible level especially with the rigour of educational demands. They must be commended for their time management and integration of their studies and swim training. We must not forget though the key role of those all important cheer leaders and support teams and a vital factor in the progress of our swimmers - the parents with their continued commitment to our programme of coaching and competition. Throughout the year Colchester swimming Club have been well represented in a wide variety of competitive events from local galas and leagues to open meets, from County and Regional events to National Championships. Our age group, youth and master swimmers have all shown the diversity of talent that exists within the Club. At the National Championships in Sheffield ten of our swimmers represented the Club with performances of note to gain an individual and relay team final placing. They included Ellie Tripp, Heather Rodwell, Laura Stephens, Jarrod Bradfield, Jim Vickers, Matthew Lemnell, and Matt Holland. Our girls Medley Relay team of Alice Insull, Laura Stephens, Chloe Rudkin and Martha Duley although proved late qualifiers had the opportunity to experience competition at this level. As a result of their individual performance at this event Laura Stephens and Jarrod Bradfield have been selected on to the Talent Development programme. The presence of Colchester was no less marked at the East Region Long Course Championships when the age group swimmers took seven medals to finish fifteenth on the medal table and the youth classification with five medals and eleventh on the table. In the County Relay Championships the Club took five gold, one silver and two bronze medals after bagging a total of sixty six medals in the individual events, thirteen of which were County titles pushing the Club to a fifth place ranking in Essex. Swimmers also rose to the occasion to successfully defend the Essex Mini League title while our Masters section scooped gold medals and final placings in events from 50m to 400m in the Essex Masters Championships to firmly place the Club on the map. On the education front an interactive poolside Master Class with commonwealth Games medallists Matt Clay and Grant Turner proved very successful in sharing skills and experiences with our younger swimmers and coaches. This together with a nutrition workshop and the use of land training sessions have given added value to our swimmers' scheduled training programme. Our numbers have grown progressively over the last twelve months to the point where we need to take stock of our situation in order to ensure that we maintain the quality of delivery of our coaching programme. The availability of resources is limited and while our growth is a positive factor it can hinder our progress and development. The additional lane in the early morning sessions has been a bonus and a much appreciated acquisition. Resulting from this we have seen a more healthy attendance pattern for these less desirable training times. Our thanks must go to our Competition Secretaries and Club Captains for the excellent job they have done in supporting the coaching programme. It is important that we all pull in same direction for the future benefits of our swimmers and club and we look forward to directing our efforts to improving still further the image and profile of Colchester Swimming Club. Michelle Y & Ian J
SUPPORTERS' SECTION SECRETARY'S REPORT Supporters' Section contributes to the positive achievements of the Club such as Club Championships and our highly successful Open Meet through helping to organise these events as well as ongoing commitments such as running the Swimshop and various social events. As always our organisational committee, judges and parents worked very hard to ensure the smooth running of our Club Championships in the Autumn. Our events were followed by our Presentation Evening attended by invited guests, our sponsors, Griffin Chapman, and the Mayor of Colchester, and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate the achievements of all our swimmers in a great Club atmosphere joined by parents. At the time of writing we have just embarked on this year.s events and need all volunteers possible please to help our organisers. The Club was delighted with the opportunity to be able to offer our senior swimmers a Swimming Masterclass in March led by Grant Turner and Matthew Clay. This event was made possible by the backing of our Sponsors, Griffin Chapman, and was an exceptional opportunity, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended, swimmers and coaches alike. Our Open Meet in May maintained its reputation of being an efficient, highly competitive event of great enjoyment to both swimmers and supporters. Again the extensive preparations before and on the day by Supporters. Section contributed to this success and we are always grateful for help from parents on these occasions. The aim of the Swimshop is to provide a service to our swimmers and make a small profit for the Club. It continues to thrive as can be seen from our accounts and ensures that our swimmers project a professional team image as well as providing a personal service for their day to day swimming needs. The enthusiasm and dedication of our swimmers is reflected in the support and encouragement they receive from parents and helpers. Thank you again to all who have helped throughout the year at galas and open meets and also on poolside helping with time trials and organising swimmers. Events such as these and Club Championships could not otherwise exist so please contact me, or any Committee member, if you feel you can help. Supporters' Section wishes continued success to all swimmers, members and parents. Pearl W
PUBLIC RELATIONS SECRETARY'S REPORT I am delighted that my first year in the Public Relations Officer role has seen the continued progress of Colchester SC and our swimmers, who have produced some fantastic swimming and both individual and team achievements in the pool. I would like to thank Barbara Sanderson for her guidance and support, as I followed in her footsteps and learned the art of writing reports for the newspapers, website and notice board, which she had mastered for the previous three years. I would also like to thank Pearl and Greg W for their sterling work in getting the reports on the Club's website, Steve A for his help with Mini League press reports, Jason C for his efforts reporting the success of our Masters swimmers and Michelle and Ian and the coaching team for their feedback after competitions to make sure we recognised as many great swims and PBs as we could. Swimming isn.t all about winning Gold medals and I have tried to give praise to as many swimmers as possible who have worked hard in training to improve their times and enjoy their swimming. Apologies to those who I missed out or whose names were misspelt over the year – it was not intentional! As the year progressed it became increasingly difficult to search the dictionary and thesaurus for new superlatives to describe the efforts of our swimmers at Club Championships, Open Meets, Mini League, Arena League, County, Regional and National Championships. I also had to learn the art of taking photos of excited young swimmers, who are not used to standing still and all facing the same way at the same time – with varying degrees of success! We enjoy a very good relationship with the Sports Editor of the Gazette and Essex County Standard and every swimming report submitted was edited and printed in both papers. The highlights of our press coverage were the reports on the record achievements in the pool at the Essex Age Group Championships and a fantastic 3 page (including the back page!) report on our Open Meet in May, with Simon Spurgeon working on a Sunday morning with Greg to get the results in time to meet the deadline for the Bank Holiday Gazette. We also built relationships with the general news team at Essex County Newspapers during the year, with Wendy Brading interviewing young Phoebe Coles about her remarkable achievement saving the life of a young Belgian boy on holiday in Turkey and publishing the interview and a photo of Phoebe with her certificate from the RLSS in the Standard. More recently, the Gazette published an article and photo of Stuart Bennett and Samantha Cantrell from our sponsors, Griffin Chapman, as they took part in the "Olympic Torch" relay with 12 of our swimmers in the pool to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society. I must also thank Griffin Chapman for the continued sponsorship and support, with some of their funds used to subsidise the GB Masterclass at Ipswich High School back in March. Here's to another great season of swimming. Steve R
LIFESAVING REPORT We meet each Tuesday during term time at Leisure World in the diving pit from 5-6.30. The first half of the time is spent on dry side activities, Life Support & water safety. The second half on rescue skills & stamina work. Over the past year there have been 9 members. This term hopefully 3 members will be taking the Bronze Medallion Award. We have also welcomed a German student on a year's exchange. Diana H
IMPROVERS REPORT I would like to thank all of the teachers & helpers for their work over the past year: Jo T on admin., Joy H who weekly gets very cold in the water helping the little ones, all the teachers David G (who will be leaving at the end of this term after many years), Daniel H, Catherine D, Sue W, Pip F (who is also leaving), Molly H, Evie C (who joins us this term), & a welcome return to Sarah B, who was a former girls club captain. It.s good to see the older club swimmers helping. The number of pupils has been rising over the past year & with the introduction of the pre-club lane, run very efficiently by Donna & Steph, this term has seen an even greater rise in our numbers. Thanks also to the lifeguards for their assistance in preparing the pool. Diana H
LADIES' CAPTAIN'S REPORT This last year has definitely been a time of great success for the club and for this, credit must be given to the enthusiasm of the swimmers, coaches and poolside helpers who put in so much time and effort into moving the club forward. As Ladies' Captain, I have also seen the dedication of the committee and all the work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the club, so I.d like to take the opportunity to thank them for all their hard work as well. I would also like to thank Dan for doing such a fantastic job as Men's Captain for the last two years – he will definitely be missed. Throughout last season there were fantastic results across the board, showing the depth of Colchester's team, beginning with an outstanding performance in the final round of Essex Mini League to retain Colchester's title as champions. At the Arena League we also proved our strength, coming 13th out of the 24 teams in the First Division of the London League, against some very tough opposition. Not only do these events show the ability of our swimmers, the atmosphere throughout the gala is a real credit to the club, with a lot of motivation, determination and support of team mates shown by all competitors. The Club Championships saw entrants from all squads, from those competing in their first gala to National Finalists and was a great opportunity to get qualifying times for events later in the season. Across all age groups there were outstanding swims, with 23 records broken and 26 swimmers of a range of ages showed excellent stamina in competing in the Beast Challenge (completing the 400m IM, 200m fly and 800/1500m free, which I can personally say is a gruelling set of races!). Christmas proved a busy time around the club, with fun events to finish the year such as the fun night for Junior and Intermediate Squads (a great time for the older members of the club to interact with the younger ones) and the club disco which was a good time to let our hair down and get together to have fun at the end of the year before a short break while the pool at Leisureworld was closed for repairs over Christmas. Unfortunately the Christmas gala had to be cancelled, due to the weather conditions, but hopefully it will be able to go on this year as usual. Secret Santa amongst Senior and County Squads was a success, with every single person handing in the presents on time! In the New Year, a group of Colchester swimmers travelled to the first ever "Zonal Meet" (competing against swimmers from three regions: West Midlands, East Midlands and East Region). Essex County Championships saw a fantastic result for Colchester really showing how far the club has progressed in recent years; Colchester was placed 5th in Essex and achieved a grand total of 66 medals from across the 3 weekends. The number of entrants from Colchester shows how strong the club is, as qualifying for events at this level is a real achievement. The two sets of Regional Championships saw yet more tense and exciting racing, as Colchester finished 11th in the Youth Championships and 15th in the BAGCAT Championships (against clubs from 6 different counties), with a total of 12 medals across the two events. An impressive number of our swimmers qualified for Nationals this year; across the BAGCAT and Youth Championships, Colchester had a total of 10 swimmers, including the girls relay team, who should definitely be commended for rushing to Sheffield to represent the club with less than 24 hours' notice. We have had some great training opportunities over the last 12 months, with an extra lane in morning training giving us more space to allow us to concentrate more on technique and get the most out of these sessions. The Masterclass with Commonwealth medallists Matt Clay and Grant Turner, supported by our Sponsor Griffin Chapman, left swimmers with inspirational advice on improving fitness, technique and psychological preparation for racing. Additional training in the 50m pools at Norwich and Basildon has helped prepare us for swimming at long course events and I'd like to thank the coaches and helpers for the extra effort in arranging these – they really are invaluable. To conclude an action-packed season, the Colours Gala was an enjoyable way to finish the season for both younger swimmers and the older helpers and there was definitely some friendly rivalry (Team India was definitely the best!) and lots of team spirit. The length of this report really shows how much our swimmers have achieved over the past year and I.d like to finish by saying well done to the swimmers for not only the outstanding results, but also their positive and supportive attitude both in training and at competitions and once again, thank you to everyone who makes the running of the club possible. Jenny R
MEN'S CAPTAIN'S REPORT Every year in my report I seem to make wild promises of keeping the word count down, but seeing as I only have to compete with last year's me and not Grammar students, I have a feeling you may be able to finish reading it this year! Its seems almost every year at Club Championships that the record tables appear to take a beating, and last years was no exception, seeing a further 23 records fall some of which have stood for almost 10 years. With another successful club champs under their belts it was time to get some tough winter training in, with the National Arena League looming. All swimmers performed extremely well with personal bests coming from all age groups, which meant we were able to secure our spot in top division for yet another year. After a tough few months of competition the Christmas disco came as a nice close to the year, enabling swimmers to talk and enjoy themselves without Michelle and Ian's oxygen dept inducing sets! As well as giving the parents a chance to lay out some serious shapes (Barbara S). As we made our way into the New Year the Essex County Championships was very much in the front of every swimmers minds. With previous record breaking results last year of 572 points and a 6th place finish, it came as a great surprise to see the club sitting one place higher with a total of 736.5 points. With the championships concluded it was safe to say it had been our most successful one in the club's history scoring almost 600 points more than 5 years ago. These brilliant results really are a credit to both the swimmers and coaches. hard work, and I hope the club continues to grow and build upon these previous successes in the very near future. After swimming with the club for around 12 years, it.s finally time for me to leave for University and I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the coaches, parents and anyone that has helped me out over my time here. I've really enjoyed my time as captain these past few years and the responsibility/power the title holds! I.m sure this isn't the last you.ll see of me, and I'll be sure to put some guest appearances in every now and again. I look forward to seeing you all in the future; thanks for all the memories I'll miss you all. Daniel F
WATER POLO REPORT 2011 has been a year of mixed fortunes once again for Colchester water polo team. The end of last year was a massive success. Not only did we have some very good league results, we won the Bishops Stortford tournament against some very strong opposition. Again we have struggled to hold on to players and with injuries and pressure of work taking it.s toll on some of our players we have come back to reality this year as we struggle to raise a side for some games. Fortunately we have worked well with our local sides, Matt Vinter of Ipswich has represented us in the Essex league and a couple of the Basildon players have made our numbers up in the Eastern league. Neither club enter a side into the respective leagues. Despite our low numbers we have still managed to complete our annual tour to Borculo to compete against some very strong Dutch and German teams. Once again we faired well winning all four games and as always were greeted very well by our hosts. As a result of this change we have had some mixed results, however we have made massive strides in our attempts to prolong the life of Colchester water polo team into the future. Simon Lecomber must take credit for all his hard work in finally gaining us a little extra pool space from 8-9 in the diving pit on Tuesday nights. We have seen this take off as a huge hit and already the diving pit is full to the brim every Tuesday night. Both children and parents seem equally enthusiastic which has been seen at games we have arranged for them at both Ipswich and Chelmsford. We are working with local swim schools who teach mini polo and are looking for somewhere for their older children to aim and local teams who are promoting water polo. In fact we are taking some of our juniors to a selection/ training session for the Essex team to compete in the Eastern counties tournament. All to take place in the fantastic new Basildon Sports Village. This will give our youngsters a better idea of how quickly they can become very good players. They will be up against those in GB training squads and who play national league polo. Along with this, we can start to blood them into our team and know that our future is in safe hands when many polo teams around us have folded in recent years. We currently lie second in the Eastern League table with 5 wins from 7 games and bottom in the Essex league table with just 2 wins in 8 games, we have 2 games left to try and salvage a mid table position, before we commence the winter league. All our fixtures and results can be viewed at Fixtureslive.com. Martin V
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