In-house Breaststroke Clinic Coming Up

Breaststroke Clinic
It's been a couple of years or more since we held this so we will be holding this 4 x 1 hour clinic again during Sunday sessions throughout May and June. It is a progressive clinic most suited to beginner and intermediate breaststroke swimmers with individual stroke correction in the last session.

Each session is progressive from basic to more advanced for the session topic. Every session has quite a few drills included so it would be fair to say they are jam-packed. Only a few minutes are spent on each drill. Swimmers are given the tools and a few minutes to 'have a go' and be corrected so they are doing them properly. However........then it is up to the swimmer to go away and practice them at other times.

Please let me know if you intend to come along. I am happy to run the clinic for as few as one swimmer but would like to know who will be attending.

Here are the dates and what you need to bring to each session:

1. Sunday 17th May - please bring fins and pull buoy if you have (you will get by without if you don't have them). This session we are covering body positioning and the arm stroke. There are a total of 8 drills this session.

2. Sunday 24th May - please bring a pull buoy and kickboard if you have (again, you will get by without if you don't have them). This session we are covering the breaststroke kick. This session has 6 drills.

No session on Queen's Birthday as swimmer's (most importantly, me) will be away.

3. Sunday 7th June - no pool toys required this week. This session we are covering breathing and timing. This session is more advanced than sessions 1 and 2 and pulls everything together in breaststroke. There are 6 drills in this session.

4. Sunday 14th June - no pool toys required. Swimmers are not required for the entire hour. Each swimmer will be viewed individually with a view to providing feedback for improvement and provision of key drills.

Breaking News!!!!!!!

FINA have just released their World Top 10 ranked swimmers in each age and event for 2014 and our very own Avy has made this list for the second year running.

Her spectacular time of 23.07 in the short course 1500m in last year's North Island's nabbed her 9th place in her age in this event.

Nice one Avy - you are LEGEND!

Auckland Short Course Champs

This meet is on the 9th May which is only a couple of weeks away and entries close on 2nd May which is even closer. This is a really great meet and is always fun. Be at Cameron Pool in Mt Roskill be 1.30 pm for warm up. It's usually all over by about 5 pm so it doesn't take up your whole day either.

You do need to get your entry in smartly though. By that I mean quickly - you do not need to wear a suit and tie when you submit your entry.

If you haven't picked up your entry form off the side of the pool yet you can download one from the NZ Masters web site or follow this link:
Auckland Champs Entry Form
This just takes you to the page where you can download and entry form. If you scroll down a bit you will see a little Adobe icon on the left menu. Click on that to get the form.

Swimmer of the Month, State Ocean Swim Series

Swimmer of the Month

Firstly, apologies that it has taken a while to announce this but I was having my ankle surgery the day of the last race night and it has taken me a while to catch up with who one this though it was a pretty good guess who was up for it.

Unless you had your head buried under a rock we hosted the Nationals at the end of March. Our very own Andy Simpson was in the finest of form and not only did he break the age group record for the men's 50 m Freestyle during the event but then he turned around not all that many minutes later and broke it all over again during the first leg of a relay.

So amazing work Andy, setting a new New Zealand record for the same event twice in one day! Not many people can boast that. Andy is our Swimmer of the Month.


State Ocean Swim Series Finished for the Season

Open water swimmers will be lamenting the end of what has been a terrific season with some of the warmest water we have had for years. Some of our swimmers were even tempted to try ditching their wetsuits for swimming in their togs. The warmer waters made for greater abundance of pesky jellyfish though.

There was a great turnout of club members for the series finale, King of the Bays, though the weather was not particularly inviting for spectators. All eyes were on the series points however. Avy and Deryn both picked up Series 2nd placings but the day belonged to Liz. Liz went in to the last race already with the series win safe and secure. She wasn't about to rest though and swam to show the rest of her age group who is boss.

Well done Liz on your Series win!

Thanks to photographer Dave for a couple of photographs. Unfortunately, Avy couldn't be there to pick up her medal but it has been collected on her behalf.

Liz collecting the coveted gold medal

Where is everyone?

Club Night Results Posted

Club night for April was deferred for a week but that didn't make it any less exciting. 10 Records were BUSTED, 3 by the boys and 6 by the girls and even a relay record was broken. The relay was the first relay record broken in 6 months - that alone is deserving of a mellowpuff!

Go check out the pages, there were some pretty phenomenal times swum.

Race Night Wednesday 8th April

You may have noticed we didn't have race night last Wednesday as per the usual schedule. If you are needing your fix of racing coz you just can't get enough then get yourself psyched up, or do whatever you do for race night, have a cup of tea and pat the dog on the way out the door if that helps and be at the pool at 7pm ready to go.

Panasonic Triathlon and 70.3

Half Ironman and People's Triathlon Last Weekend
While some swimmers were sunning themselves during the Sand to Surf swim at Mount Maunganui or swimming across from Rangitoto Island to St Heliers, there was a bunch of other stuff going on - the Auckland Half Ironman (aka 70.3) and the Panasonic People's Triathlon out at Maraetai.

Thanks Nicole Youman for sending in a report and photos's which, because I am sneaky I am just changing by about 5 words to make it like I wrote it myself - ssshhhh. Don't tell anyone.

Alex Viljoen and Nicole completed the Auckland Half Ironman - 2km swim, 90km bike and 21 km run. It is said to be one of the toughest courses you can do and started well with the worst swimming conditions in 12 years, but nothing Kohi swims had not prepared these two hardy souls for. If you have any qualms about being able to cope with the swim leg of a multisport, just get yourself to Kohi on Thursday evenings, it will prepare you for anything.

This was the first half ironman either of them had done and both finished well before the cut off time with smiles on their faces. They wish to thank their support crew who spent the whole day out on the course keeping them going.

Ally raised $1440.00 (wow!) for So They Can which is an organisation that she volunteers for once a week that works with communities in Africa to educate and empower so they can break the poverty cycle, realise their own potential and meet their own needs. 

There were a number of South City crew competing at the Maraetai Peoples Triathlon. Jeannie, Chrissie, Barend and Martin were definitely spotted but there would have been others also. Congratulations to Jeannie who placed in the top 3. Well done Jeannie. 

Full results for the Peoples Tri can be found on the web site (link below):

http://www.peoplestri.co.nz/results.html

Sand to Surf, National Long Course

Sand to Surf
Mt Maunganui turned on a gorgeous day for the State Sand to Surf, or was that State Sand to Calm Water because there wasn't really any surf to speak of. The lack of surf resulted in quick times with everyone doing well and it appeared that it was 'ladies day' for the club with all club podium finishes going to the women this time around. I'm sure the men will do something about that at King of the Bays in a month's time. Here are the results:
Dawn Walker: 1st in age in the 1000m
Liz Hayes: 2nd in age in the 2.6km
Avy Judelson: 2nd in age in the 2.6km
Deryn McGregor: 3rd in age in the 2.6km

Some age groups are already wrapped up for the season, including the women's 45-49 age group which has our very own Liz at the top! Woop!

Here's a few pics.

Nationals
These are only a few days away now so just a little reminder about spot prizes and any baking or food you can do to help out.

Race Night Results, Taper Sessions

Race Night and Swimmer of the Month
It was a bumper night on Wednesday with a high turnout of swimmers to race, presumably the imminent Nationals tempted more than the usual suspects to hone their race skills. Times were fast too - no less than 19 records fell. That's a record of records!

Swimmer of the Month went to Ivo Pabruwe for his wonderful medal winning performances in the recent Masters Games from which he arrived home with a veritable suitcase of medals. His resistance training from now on will simply involve carrying his medals around. Well done Ivo.

Taper Sessions
With the National Long Course Championships now less than 3 weeks away Monday's session will be focusing on speed. There will also be taper sessions on offer for the final week for those swimmers who have very specific goals for the meet and want to fine-tune their speed.

The tapering will be in lane 7 (which will not be available to other club members at the time) and will be on:
Sunday 22 March
Monday 23 March
Wednesday 25 March

Although tapering is open to anyone who wishes to take part it should be emphasized that tapering is for swimmers with specific goals and needs to be done on a solid foundation of endurance training as well as some speed work.

Your help needed!!!! AGM date set

Call to Action – National Long Course Championships

To all club members – a reminder regarding the National Long Course Championships.  As discussed over recent weeks, the success of the National Long Course Championships event relies heavily on volunteer support to help with preparations for the event before it takes place, and more importantly on the day itself.  By now you should all have been given a details sheet at training, detailing the types of help the event requires.  It also details spot prize information.

There is an expectation of all members that if you are not competing in the event, that you will be able to be a volunteer on the day.  With your help we will make the event a huge success.

If you haven’t yet committed yourselves, please endeavour to complete the form and give it to any of the SCM committee members as soon as possible (deadline Saturday 14^th March.)

AGM date and time announced

This annual (coz that's how often an AGM occurs) event will be at 6.30pm on Wednesday 18th March. This is prior to swimming and will be poolside or in the cafeteria. Swimming is FREE that night so you cannot be too skint to come along. Make sure you have your say. You can pick up nominations poolside or by asking Fiona (G that is, L might give you a confused look if you ask her for one). It's also OK to nominate verbally on the night, I know this to be true. So don't be shy, get involved so be there.

Race night

It's race night this coming Wednesday, whatever date that is, 4th March I think. If you want to be sure about the date, check your own calendar, I'm not your Mum OK. Anyhoo - here is the programme:

25 Br or Free
50 Free
100 Back
100 IM or Free
Relays