Club Night Results Out, Buddy System

Club Night

Firstly, apologies for the delay. I went away for the weekend and although Vodafone claims to have 97% of the country covered, I managed to find the 3% not. As usual there were more slick times swum on club night and another swag of records broken, 6 to the men and 3 to the women.

Swimmer of the month was hotly contested with 3 nominees. For various reasons this was VERY difficult to choose this month as all 3 nominees were very worthy. At the end of the day the vote went to GILES WALKER for his breaking of a very long-standing record in the 50m breaststroke for men 35-39 while at the North Island champs in Whakatane. To put this swim in perspective, the former record holder is currently ranked 2nd in the WORLD for the same event in the mens 50 to 54. This record was the culmination of a lot of analysis and focus. Great going Giles.

The wooden spoon was also given out for the month. This had to be one of the funniest wooden spoons so far. Dawn W was in the changing room and saw Tanya getting changed. She went up and starting 'pinging' her undergarment strap and saying 'I've got the same one' (don't we all do that - well, actually, no we don't Dawn!). Anyhoo.......Tanya turned around, ummm except Tanya wasn't Tanya. Nice one Dawn! Enjoy that wooden spoon.

Buddy System

The club is flourishing and numbers are increasing. This is a good thing. However, it can be a little daunting when you are the new club member and don't know anyone or how things work or even what is on offer besides training sessions.

So, committee have come up with a buddy system. We want new members to have designated 'go to' people so they feel at easy with their early days in the club. Of course as time goes on the members are likely to rely on their 'lane mates' for support etc. That would be you. So, although new members have a buddy, it is up to everyone to be supportive.

Here are the club members who will be buddies for new members:

Men <45
Giles Walker
Lapo Nustrini

Men 45+
Tony Shacklock
Dave Bradding

Women <45
Dawn Walker
Fiona Grigg

Women 45+
Avy Judelson
Deryn McGregor 
 


 

Race Night Schedule

Here it is......the schedule for the next few race night's, starting with tomorrow:

November race night
25 brst or free
50 free
100 back
100 IM or free

December race night
25 fly or free
50 brst or free
50 back
100 free

January race night
400 free
400 IM

If you feel like a mellowpuff (eating one that is, not being one) then come along, swim a few lengths then you have a good excuse to eat dessert before your veggies.

Ka-blam! Bazinga! Kapow!

Villainous national records were no match for our swimming superheroes at this weekend's North Island Champs.

Wonder Woman (Avy Judelson) orchestrated a stealth attack on the record for the women's 200 Free. She ensnared the record in her Lasso of Truth, found the record to be a lie, and set the record onto the path of honesty with a new time of 2.46

Giles (Captain America) Walker then noticed a dastardly record that had been lying underground for 13 years. Captain America laid his body on the line and dealt the supervillain a swift uppercut in just 32.03 seconds. KABOOM!

Congratulations to Avy and Giles, our 2 latest holders of individual records (to be ratified).

The whole team had a very successful weekend in Whakatane which for all intents and purposes seems to be a very quick pool.

Overall, there were 17 personal bests swum (6 of them by Tanya!) and Fiona and Giles won silver age group medals and Avy a gold age group medals. But, EVERYONE swum extraordinarily well and swum exceptional times. The hard work at training and on technical improvement has really paid off. No one left disappointed and a great time was had by all. Whakatane ran the meet like a well oiled machine and yes please if they want to put their hand up again.

A special mention also to Rachel who smashed out a 6.03 400m butterfly (holy cow!) and Richard who flew up and down the pool for 1500m in just 18m45 (more cows being holy!)

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