Lincolnshire County Coach Steering Group Report May 09

Noteable events since previous meeting

· The southern squad has had its last of the four week trial training sessions at RAF Cranwell. I invited all coaches from the southern clubs to attend, as of yet none have attended. As with the northern squad I expect one or two swimmers not to continue with the training squad once the four week trial period has finished.

· The northern squad continue to train on a Thursday at Yarborough pool. There has been a drop in numbers since the four week trial period has ended. This was expected and I have asked all three coaches from the north for names of other swimmers to add to the squad.

· Louth have come forward and donated their Tuesday evening session to the county training program. They are allowing us to use this pool time at no charge to the county program or to those swimmers who are not members of Louth Swimming Club. A letter has been set to the club thanking them for their immense generosity, and support to County Development program

· There has been an issue with one of the coaches that I have helping me on poolside and one of the coaches from the southern clubs. This has been discussed in the steering group meeting, and has been dealt with.

· Swimmers from the county squad competed at the Midland District Youth and Senior championships earlier this month. For some it was their first time competing at the district championships. This was apparent from their body language and approach to their racing they did not swim with any belief that they had the ability to compete with the other clubs. This did however, improve for their following events, which was good to see. Those swimmers who had been before put in some good performances, with Sam Wright , Tom Lane, and Ross West making finals, and Lauren Wray swam under her 800 free national time.

There were also some stark comparisons to be made between our county swimmers and swimmers from other clubs in the region. Our swimmers were lacking in basic skills at the turns, stream lining and under water kicking. There were also swimmers who lacked a level in technical proficiency at some strokes. This all may sound negative but I believe that these problems can be over come, and I have begun to address these issues with the north squad and improvements have already been made. I will also be addressing these issues with the South squad over the coming weeks.

· Once the southern squad have completed their four week trial period, it has been decided that we are to merge both squads on a Saturday morning. Firstly it is hoped that bringing the two squads together will help create the competitive atmosphere that is lacking at the moment. Secondly, I hope that with more clubs attending it will increase the number of coaches on poolside, and therefore increase the amount and level of feedback that is given to the swimmers.

· I have also looked into the possibility of acquiring pool time in the Grimsby area. Having Spoken to GSM they have informed me that they are looking to offload some time because they are unable to afford their current pool usage.

Looking to Forward

I am currently working on the Idea of holding training camps of some sort towards the back end of summer. I feel the 9/10 year old in the county need some kind of training so that I am more aware of their abilities and weaknesses. I also feel that if I can begin to identify problems in swimmers at an earlier age, I can begin to solve them sooner and therefore improve the level of swimmers that are entering the county squads.

I am also thinking of running a kind of pre season skills training camp for the swimmers who are part of the county squad. I hope by doing this I can get ahead of the game, in terms of, stroke improvement, and therefore be able to undertake a higher level of training later on in the season rather than having to continually go back and work on skills.

I also think that spending time in a long course pool will provide our swimmers with some valuable experience at key times throughout the season. I will talk to coaches to find the best times for long course training.

My Concern

My biggest concern to the program, is our lack of pool time, with out any assistance we will not be able to move this program forward beyond the Three years that funding is available. Through discussions in our steering group meetings, the idea of contacting Leisure Connections company directors to ask them for some level of sponsorship or assistance, in terms of supplying and subsidising pool time that we would require. I feel that it is a good idea, and may go some way to securing the future of the County Development Program, but securing this level of assistance may be lengthy process which is why it is now time for the County ASA to begin to think about how this my be done so that the County Development Squad and Coach can become self sustaining once the three years of funding is over.

I would like the County ASA to begin to think about, what is the best way of contacting these people? What arguments to we need to make in order to convince these directors that this is a great opportunity for them, what do we want out of this relationship? If one direction does not work, Is there another way of achieving our goals, plus any other ideas that can be put forward for discussion, so that we have as many avenues available to us if one road leads to a dead end.

It may seem a little early to be thinking about this but I strongly feel that ideas need to be discussed now, so that we have time to formulate a plan of action from our initial ideas if an opportunity arises that will help the development squad’s future, and ultimately help the future of the swimmers in the County.