Swim Programmes Freestyle Clinic - Coming To Us!!!

If you enjoyed the butterfly and breaststroke clinic then hang on to your hats. We have a freestyle clinic coming right up. It will be on the 30th of November in our pool and will be 2 whole hours of lovely freestyle learning. It will be for all levels. That means YOU.

Thomas can take 20 swimmers and it is first come, first served.

All details below but ask Giles if you have any questions.

October Race Results, Swimmer Of The Month, November Freestyle Clinic

It's all happening isn't it.

October races might have been a little while ago but the results were worth waiting for. A bunch of new records were posted and times were quick quick quick. 5 men's and 4 ladies records were broken. Check out the results on results pages and records on records pages. Where else would they be?

Swimmer of the Month was also worth waiting for. In fact we have been waiting 6 months for this one. Our very own magical Mike Harrison was selected earlier this year to compete for good old NZ at the WORLD triathlon champs. The long awaited event finally came around in August and a very excited Mike packed his bags and escaped the New Zealand winter for some Canadian sunshine. If you followed his blog you will know how well he did. Great job Mike, we are proud of you!

The wooden spoon has been on short hiatus but was given out this month to none other than.........me! For getting things back to front, or was that front to back. I'm still confused.

The excitement never ends - see below:

***NOVEMBER FREESTYLE CLINIC***

We are looking to run another swim clinic with the assistance of Thomas Ansorg. This will be a FREESTYLE clinic, aimed at technique and efficiency. The clinic is limited to 20 people (only Masters swimmers from South City) and the club will pay 50% of your tuition fee. We are waiting to confirm a few things but the likelihood is it will be a 2 hour clinic, with 30 minute debrief, and you will need to pay $30. This is really excellent value.

We need to get 20 swimmers, and lock in the date so we can get the pool time. The available dates are:

- Sunday 2nd Nov
- Sunday 9th Nov
- Sunday 30th Nov

Start time approx. 6.45am in the water at Lloyd Elsmore.

If you are interested, please talk to, or email Giles (gileswalker@rocketmail.com) with your date preference - if it makes it easier please list only the dates you can make, and then your preference. We will move with a majority vote. Remember first come first served.

(Just for those interested in knowing about date clashes, the Russell to Paihia State Ocewn Swim is Saturday 22nd hence the Sunday 23rd date is being excluded.)

Club Night and Postal Meet

The next club night is Wednesday 1st October. Club night is free so why not come along and give it a go.

There is also a postal meet coming up for 800m and 1500m which you can try your hand at. What is a postal meet? That's a good question, I'm so glad you asked. Sometimes a swimming club would like to hold a swim meet but for whatever reason they are unable - perhaps they don't have enough club members to help out or the cost of hiring the pool would be too great. So they conduct a postal meet. The swimmer gets to swim in their home pool and has a timekeeper time them (with the current event it is 800 and/or 1500 Free). The timekeeper must record splits so that the time can be verified. Then the timekeeper posts the entry in. The officiating club compiles all results and figures out who won each category and sends out results. Boom!!! Generally, there is around a one month period in which the swimmer gets to do the swim and so can work out with their timekeeper when is a good time to get together. At our club John Trubnick generally does all the timekeeping on one night (sometimes with a helper if there are lots of swimmers) and swimmers are allotted a time to go into the designated postal meet lane to do their 'race'.

The current postal meet will be timed on Monday 6th October between 7pm and 9pm. If you want to enter, please see Fiona. It is possible to do both the 800 and the 1500; they will run concurrently - in other words you will swim 1500m and a split will be taken at the 800m mark and then an entry put in for both events.

September Race Night Results Posted, New Swimmer Of The Month

It was the long-awaited 400's challenge at the most recent race night and some rip-roaring times were swum. Three swimmers even took on the decathlon of swimming - the 400 IM. 14 Swimmers took on swimming a 400 and everyone looked rather pleased with their times. A few even had enough energy to race over another 50m afterwards. Why? Because they can. However, a few exhausted swimmers were already heading for the showers leaving only 8 swimmers to tackle the relays.

Only 1 woman's record and 3 men's records were broken and no relay records were harmed in the making of this post. However, traditionally the number of records broken on 400's night has always been low given that there is only 1 event on the menu. A mention should be made of Rachel Richardson's rather spectacular swim in the 400 IM, going under 6 minutes. As a member of Manukau Masters Rachel is unable to break or hold any of our club records, however any woman of any age swimming under 6 minutes for this event deserves applause. Well done Rachel.

Then it was on to the Mellowpuffs (sometimes I stoop to eating a piece of fruit). Swimmer of the month was also announced. Unless you have been buried under a rock you would have heard that Dawn managed a hugely impressive 2nd woman overall placing at the Samoa Swim Series in spite of being very ill with swine flu. This is a really serious illness and racing 12km over 3 days in difficult weather conditions took enormous guts and determination. You will be pleased to learn that Dawn is slowly on the mend and getting back in the water again.

Trial Training Changes

We have the opportunity to use the pool for an extra hour after our normal time on Monday evenings. It seems too good an opportunity to ignore, so we have booked it for the months of September and October as a trial to see if we can make good use of it. Monday 1st September will be first extended session.

We're planning a format that we hope will satisfy a few requests we've had, which include longer training sessions, more coaching / stroke correction and time to practice other specific things like dives & turns. We'll start with the plan below and review it after a few weeks based on feedback we get, so please speak up if you have suggestions or observations we may not have accounted for.

For the first hour, the session will be as normal, so you don't need to change your Monday swimming habit if it doesn't suit you.

After the first hour:

·        Lanes 1, 2 & 3 will train for an additional 30 minutes, i.e. Deryn's programme will last 90 minutes. Swimmers from other lanes who want to train longer please let Deryn or Tony know so we can work out how to do it.

·        Lane 4 will be for anyone wanting to swim their own plan.

·        Tony will offer stroke correction in lanes 5 & 6. Each session will have a theme (announced beforehand), and the aim is to identify specific improvements desired and explain the drills for that.

·        Lane 7 will be available for dives, turns or other specific practice (because the starting block lines up with the lane).

This is just a trial so please let Deryn, Tony or any of the committee know your thoughts on how to do it better.

Club Night Results Are Up

It was a small but enthusiastic group that showed up to race on Wednesday. Even though numbers were down a bit that didn't stop the records from tumbling. There were 2 new ladies records, 6 for the men and 1 new relay record.

Interestingly, most of these records aren't events no swimmer has tackled yet, these are records broken, meaning we are getting faster.

Lane Etiquette - Keeping Us All Safe

Here's some suggestions on lane etiquette that will help to keep us all safe, skull-fracture free, and simply make swimming in a busy lane more enjoyable.

The lanes are getting busier and things would flow better if we agreed on some lane etiquette. A couple of things are generating a bit of discussion, so here’s a reminder for the old hands and guidance for others:

Turning:
Different swimmers approach the wall differently, which sometimes makes it tricky to avoid collisions, so…
Veer right as you approach the wall. Turn on the RHS of the lane and push off straight.
The out-going swimmer needs to know they can push off straight and hard without fear of collision, and it’s easier for the incoming swimmer to judge when to cross the lane.
This applies to all types of turn; flip turns, touch turns, stand-up-and-walk turns, etc.

Toe tapping:
Nobody minds an accidental touch on the feet from the swimmer behind, but continually being tapped on your feet is usually annoying, so…
Let’s agree that touching the next swimmer's toes generally means you are faster & should really go before them; kind of like saying “excuse me”.
If your toes are touched, stop in the LH corner at the end of the lane and let the following swimmer past. The person following can turn as above without interruption.
If someone stops to let you ahead, go ahead. If you didn’t mean it, swap back at the end of the swim.

Spacing:
To reduce unnecessary toe tapping, leave 3 – 5 seconds apart.
If you're faster but don't want to be in front, swim slower. Leaving a huge gap and swimming faster than everyone else makes it harder for the swimmers behind; perhaps go last.

Stopping:
If you stop at the end of the lane during a swim, keep to the left hand corner (as you approach the wall). Incoming swimmers will be veering right to make their turns.

And now, just for fun follow the link below: 

how swimmers react to getting to an easy main set 

Midwinter Dinner Doubles as Awards Night

Photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72194999@N03/

It was almost standing room only at the Thai Flame on Saturday night for the club's midwinter bash. The Thai Flame is a large venue but this annual event has become so popular that if you don't want to miss out next year you'd better be VERY quick getting your name down. There was a marvelous array of attire and it seemed that red bow ties were the order of the evening. However, whether a frock or a tie or a t-shirt was worn it didn't matter at all since at least no one was wearing togs.

A well kept secret was that this year's dinner was also an Awards Dinner. That was a bit of a surprise wasn't it? The club formally acknowledged a few teams that have broken NZ records over the last year and Avy Judelson, Giles Walker, Dawn Walker and Andrew Simpson had their NZ record for the 200+ Free set in May acknowledged and received their certificates. Andrew Simpson's individual record for the 50m Free, also set in May, has now been ratified.

Three trophies were also awarded to individual club members.

Club Member of the Year: Sally Walker
Sally totally epitomises the club spirit, giving freely of her time, she is always on hand to collect the money, timekeep, collect the money, work on the desk at meets, collect the money,  and do pretty much anything that needs doing, especially collecting money. Sally is the 'go to' person when you need something done.

Most Improved Swimmer of the Year: Denise Munday
Denise's improvement has been nothing short of astounding. She has paid attention to technique and turned up to training sessions and has been spotted doing sneaky extra sessions. The results are clear for all to see. Denise keeps moving up and up lanes with alarming regularity. We will run out of lanes for her to move into if she keeps this up.

Swimmer of the Year: Deryn McGregor
Deryn has been working extremely hard for about 3 years on her breaststroke technique and it all came to fruition over the last season with the snaffling up of all 6 NZ records in her age group for breaststroke. You might think she is going to retire quietly to her rocking chair now to crochet but NO! There will be new goals - just ask what they are.

As usual, the Thai Flame did a lovely job with the food and I don't think anyone left hungry though I have a sneaky suspicion that some people may have got two desserts (but I won't dob them in).

Dave Walker also did a wonderful job as photographer. It's fantastic having a club member who is happy to fulfill this role and provide us all with the means to so easily access such great photos, and we don't need to think about taking our own cameras, we just need to be ready to photo bomb. Thanks Dave, you do a grand job!

Pool Closure Dates

Sunday is the last of training at LEP before it closes for it's annual maintenance. The pool is only shut for a couple of weeks and then it's back to normal. John T has arranged some swimming at Papatoetoe pool (thanks John) and our friends at Manukau Masters have invited us to swim with them at Manurewa pool, Sykes Rd, Manurewa on Mondays (thanks Manukau Masters). So there is no need for you to miss your weekly fixes of swimming training. And it's FREE while we are away from home. What could be better than a free holiday?

Don't forget the mid-winter dinner at the Thai Flame on the 26th July. There has been some mention of 'frocks 'n' crocs' for the ladies and tuxes for the men. Just kidding...... but I think we are not supposed to wear our togs to this.

Race Night Results Are Up and Date Set for Next Race Night

Last night's races saw 17 swimmers brave the cold and show up for some really fantastic racing. For some reason numbers are down a little. I was busy visualising the bottom of the pool - you would think that after 40 years of swimming I had some idea what it looks like but you are WRONG, I am clueless! So that's my excuse, what's yours? If it's the cold, well the news is that last June was the warmest June on record. So come along, if for no other reason than the mellowpuff at the end of it.

These 17 swimmers produced 19 records between them. That's more than a record each, that's an amazing effort; 16 to the men, 2 to the men and 1 relay record. Check out the record pages, they are looking quite impressive.

Tanya (is that Queen Tanya) Sutton was crowned Swimmer of the Month. Tanya has shown a great deal of discipline and enthusiasm and is very eager to learn everything she can to improve her swimming. The pay off has been extraordinary - she has moved up 3 lanes and is delicately poised for another lane shift. Well done Tanya (or is that Tanz when you come from Oz?).

Finally, please note in your diaries that next race night will be on 13th August due to the annual pool closure and a few regular race night attendees being out of action while they attend the Samoa Swim Series (most notably the person who compiles all the results so I think we all agree a delay is in order - hear hear).