Squads

Why squads?
It is the Club policy once members progress to an acceptable skill level, to encourage all those who we think would benefit to take part in the training squads.

What are the benefits?
• Improved swimming skills – stroke quality is the bedrock of progress at every level of competence.
• Improved fitness – swimming promotes the highest cardio-vascular condition of all sports, this can benefit children for the rest of their lives.
• The chance to compete as individuals and as part of the team in a supportive environment.
• Friends – many stay friends for life, we even have children of former members competing, the record - for now, is three generations without a break.
• A social life for parents, both relating to other parents and hopefully helping with the Club operations at every level.

How are members promoted between squads?
The main criteria are the performances achieved at the CDC (Continuous Development Continuum) galas. All squad members should enter. If they don’t they may not progress as fast as they might. A main feature of these galas is that they include a 200m freestyle race. To the inexperienced, this may seem a long way, it is a significant distance, but children will come to no harm, they are doing it regularly in training, look at the distance they do in the warm up alone. If there were the slightest chance of harm, we wouldn’t ask them to compete. Members safety, especially that of children is paramount.

Why do we encourage competition?
In every walk of life, we have to compete, to succeed at exams, to win a job, in a competition, it is a life skill. Learning to do so amongst friends can make it far less daunting. Competition nerves can be hard, no two people need the same backup and support, only by doing can we learn how to bring out our best.
To that end we want members to compete. Every squad member should enter all the Club galas and aim to compete in outside competition as an individual.
Results from competition are the MAIN basis for people to be selected for the teams. The Club maintains a database of achievements. Make sure that Janet Welsh has a copy of the result sheet, or a web site address, for any galas, where there were few Club members competing. Because she often is there as an Official, she usually gets results for the popular events, like the Warwickshire Championships and some others, if in doubt check. If there are no records on which someone can be judged, they may be overlooked.

How often should people train?
It is important to attend as many sessions as possible. It may even be possible to share lifts with another parent from the same area.To improve people need regular and effective training. Just to stand still a minimum of two sessions of hard work are needed every week. To improve we need to do more, participating fully in every session. Each session will involve a mixture of technique, distance and sprint work. The balance changes depending on what competitions are due, but there will be a mixture of all in every session. The coaches work to an overall plan and have regular meetings to agree plans and strategy. Overall the sessions are designed to enhance the bodies abilities to provide an improvement in performance.
‘He/She raced hard last night and needs a rest.’ is a comment, which is often heard on a Sunday. Strangely, during a gala we swim very little, in distance terms, only a few hundred metres, including the warm-up. There is a lot of tension and a lot of waiting during a gala, interspersed with a minute or so of very hard work. Training the next day is vital.

How do I know what is going on?
There are notice boards at every pool.
These display:
• Notices of any changes to training times and venue.
• Team selection – for confirmation of availability, vital that you respond.
• Notices of competitions and which ones are supported, in other words, the ones where the Club will make sure there is a coach on the poolside to work with the swimmers.
• Notices of social events.
• Swimmer’s performances – the ranking lists. Read, take notes as you will, but don’t remove them please.
• Photographs from competitions – available at a nominal cost once taken down.