Information for Swimmers & Parents of Regional Age Group

Please check at least every other day for updates.

Kevin Schofield (Kevin.Schofield@leeds.gov.uk)

Oli Nevitt (Oliver.Nevitt@leeds.gov.uk)

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Attendance

Hello.
Part of my job is to review and monitor attendance of the swimmers in our squad.
It has become apparent to me that we have a few swimmers who are not meeting the minimum requirement of sessions for their age.
The minimum sessions are as follows:
  • 10 years & under = 5 Sessions
  • 11 years & over= 6 Sessions Minimum
Unless agreed otherwise by either me or Kevin, then this is the minimum you are expected to do in C Central.
Even though this does not apply to the majority of swimmers, you all need to be aware with our squad is that we are more than full, and when it comes to the moves at the end of the season, attendance plays a massive factor in which squad you/ your child will be in next season. Unless you are meeting the minimum number of sessions a week then your place in the squad is in jeopardy.
Also, if you know you are going to miss a session for any reason, then please tell us! Because then we can mark on the register the reason for the absence, this then makes an individuals attendance much more clear. Even if you are feeling ill, a text explaining this will help us to understand more.
You can do this by e-mail or text, both mine and Kevin’s details are at the top of this page.
Sorry for the harsh approach to this issue, but I’m sure you can understand the reasons.

 If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Yours,

 Ryan.

Wales Meeting!

Hello Everyone.

For all of those lucky enough to be spending your week in Wales in August with me this summer, we are holding a meeting for ALL swimmers, at 7.15 pm on Monday 19th July. This meeting is compulsory for all swimmers attending the meet, and nearer the time me and Kevin will make a decision about the clash with training.

Yours,

Ryan.

Thursday 24 June 2010

Updated!

Hello to all you keen followers out in the wilderness.
I'm sure you will be glad to see my second post of the day, the first at 4.30 this morning before training, now thats dedication!
A few updates for you, all the results from the recent galas are now in the relevant section on the right, along with the new qualifying times for the Yorkshires this year.
The PB sheet is still in progress I hear from the Kev, he has to convert nearly 190 times because of all the PB's we got over the weekend.

That is all!
See you tonight,

Ryan.

P.S, if anyone comes across any inspirational quotes along the way send me them in an email!

Dev Gala!

Swimmers who have just moved up into C Central and are competing on Saturday in the Development Gala please report to your old coaches at the meet, as they will be looking after you. Please be on poolside for 8.00am ready to be in the warm up for 8.15am. The gala will start at 9.00am and usually finishes around 12.30/1 ish. Best of luck to all who are competing!

Kevin

P.S, A big shout out to the regular viewers of the blog as requested, thanks for the views!

Ryan

Monday 21 June 2010

Harrogate Report by Kevin

A great two days at Harrogate team!!!!! 

YOU WERE ALL AWESOME! - We certainly kicked Ass!

I thoroughly enjoyed spending two long days watching you at the gala as there was some really fantastic swims achieving PB's by 30 seconds or more by some swimmers.  Me and  Ryan are very proud of you all, it shows all the hard work and practicing skills perfectly in training is paying off .  

I was pleased to see a lot more of the skills we are practicing in training transfered in to your races and this is having excellent results when swimming fast.  I would like to say I was very impressed with the way you all behaved over the weekend and how you worked as a team when organising yourselves into groups to take part in the poolside warm up.  The Leeds team spirit was great and it was really good to see you all shouting each other on and looking after one another when a swimmers race may not have gone to plan!

Swimmers all this good racing has created a lot of time converting and updating for me, I will try my best to get it done soon along side my job, so we can have all the C Central's improved times back on the blog.

C Central
118 PB's from 139 Swims
Mostly the swims which weren't pb's the swimmers were just outside by point zero of a second.
2 more Ner times

Saturday
20 Speeding Tickets
5 Golds
6 Silvers
8 Bronze

Sunday 
Not sure on these medals from Sunday as I only have a copy of the website results and this does not show speeding tickets.

We are nearly at the end of the season so keep up the hard work and effort for a few more weeks and then you can have a well deserved 2 week break.

Kevin

Thursday 17 June 2010

Harrogate!

Harrogate

I have checked the website and the warm up for the Harrogate meet is now at 9am and session will start at 10am - not as originally advertised. This means swimmers should be arriving on poolside just after 8.30am. I was told it is now City of Leeds Club Policy that all swimmers must arrive 30min prior to the pool warm up for dynamic poolside stretching and failing to do so will result in the team manager pulling swimmers out of their race for the full session. This happened to 2 swimmers at the NEC's last week.

Lets see the hard work in training pay off this weekend. Medals, PB's here we come!!!! C Central Kick some Ass!!

Any information you may need can be found on the following link:

http://www.swimharrogate.org/2010_graded_meet_(series).htm

Kevin

Tuesday 15 June 2010

White Rose!

A bit more info for you to digest here...
At the John Charles Centre, on the 11th September 2010, Leeds are taking part in a team event, and the following people will be taking part in it from our Squad....

A Team- 13.30 for a 14.00 Warm Up
Joseph
Euan
Toby
Jacob
John
Liam
Phebe
Chantel
Rachel P
Megan
Maisie
Abigail J
Ellie J
Rebecca F

B Team- 16.00 for a 16.30 Warm Up
William
Kit
Billy
Shaheen
Amelia
Hannah
Rebecca W
Aisling
Abigail B
Elle P
Layla B
 
 You MUST email david.gray@leeds.gov.uk(Alex, new Age Group Coach) to confirm your place, also if you are not able to attend.
When you do this, please Cc me into the email so I can keep a record!
One more thing, me and Kevin are really proud of the amount of swimmers selected, so well done!

Email either Me or Alex if you need anything.

 Yours,

Ryan.

Summer Break #2

The dates posted on the blog earlier are now wrong about when we go back to mornings next season. As far as we are now aware, our first morning session back will be Thursday 30th September! All other dates have not changed to our knowledge.
Sorry for the confusion.

Ryan.

Monday 14 June 2010

England!

Hello Everyone!

First of all, I hope you all like the England logo on the blog, even them amongst us that are not England supporters!

Here is the sweepstake list! Come see me tonight if you still don't have a team! We only have a few left and not enough to go round the whole squad so come see me ASAP if you still want to take part...





Country
Swimmer
Australia
Layla
Japan
Abigail P
Korea DPR
Toby
Korea Republic
Ellie J
Algeria

Cameroon
Jordan
Cote d'lvoire

Ghana

Nigeria
John
South Africa
Zoe
Honduras
William
Mexico
Rebecca F
United States
Jacob
Argentina
Ryan
Brazil
Emily B
Chile
Emily R
Paraguay
Elysia
Uraguay
Kit
New Zealand
Abigail J
Denmark
Beth
England
Shannon
France
Ellie J
Germany
Hanah
Greece
Joseph
Italy
Kevin
Netherlands

Portugal
Amber
Serbia
Rachel
Slovakia
Rebecca
Slovenia
Phebe
Spain

Switzerland
Liam

Remember, I have got a prize for the person with the winning team so it is worth entering... Good Luck!


Ryan.

Friday 11 June 2010

World Cup Hits C Central!

Hello!

As of tonight, I will be holding a free Sweep Stake for the world cup, Countries will get pulled out the hat tonight, but seen as though it starts tomorrow, all teams must go tonight!
 Plus we don't have enough to go round the whole squad, Sorry!
A Prize will be awarded for the person with the wining team.

Also, because the world cup fever has hit the rest of the country, why not take a look this weeks quote!

Yours,


Ryan.

Summer Break!

I now have the confirmed dates for C Central's Summer Break;

Our last session will be Sunday 1st August

Our first session back will be Monday 23rd August (Pm)

We will not be training August Bank Holiday(Sat 28th-Monday 30th), we will return to training as normal on Tuesday 31st August

Mornings will not start for our group until Thursday 30th September.


Kevin & Ryan

Monday 7 June 2010

Some Wise Words from Our Lead Coach....

Back to basics...
You may have all noticed last weeks training volume decreased and was a lot easier.  This was so you could spend a whole week reminding yourselves of the basic technique we need on all 4 strokes to be a better swimmers.  Some of you may ask why me and Ryan have done this? And how are you going to be faster swimmers if you don't swim fast all the time in training?

There is nothing wrong with us spending a whole week on short distances working on getting everything right with our strokes, as when we transfer our perfect technique's into our swimming it should prove to be very beneficial in the long term making you faster swimmers in the years to come.  This is the time to get stroke techniques right, when you are young.  Changing stroke techniques to be good after years of swimming bad technique can be almost impossible this is because you will have trained your body to perform bad movements over many years.

Me and Ryan are very impressed with the way last weeks training went as everyone looked technically good in the water and everyone improved on something.  Alex was impressed and commented on how he may need to borrow swimmers from our group to show his group how to swim.  As we start to increase the intensity and volume of training again it is important that all the little practices you did last week (most of you could list at least 10 points to think about on each stroke) get put into your full strokes when swimming faster.  e.g. caterpillar on fly, triangle on breaststroke ect........

Attendance
Well done to Abigail Jack who managed 100% attendance for May, this is an amazing achievement and shows great commitment. Well done Abigail. 

A few things......
People have told me great things about the swimming from our group at the Hull gala with some swimmers achieving PB's by over 15 seconds, this is ACE!!!!.  I am looking forward to watching you all at Harrogate in a few weeks.  I will be updating the times this week, but please be patient as I am at John Charles teaching for most of the week. 

One thing I have noticed is the distance you are all hitting before you come up off the wall out of the turns is increasing, this shows all the underwater work we have done is starting to pay off. 

I thought I would also pass the message on to you from Head Coach Dave Calleja.  He has said how impressed he is with the amount of swimmers that are turning up to morning training and the high level of team spirit in the group at the moment.  Keep it up guys!!

C Central target for this month:
TRANSFER SKILLS AND TECHNIQUE INTO LONGER DISTANCES AND MAINTAIN WHEN SWIMMING FASTER!

Something for you to think about. 
'As the years go by I train physically harder and I am always trying to go faster, further and higher. I train seven days a week and at the end of the day, I'm pretty tired but I never wish I was anyone else. If I miss a days training I feel guilty and know I should have done it. I'm conscientious and unless I have a very good reason to, I never miss a session. It seems unfair to train for years and miss days just for the hell of it, and if I ever started to skip days, I would realise my attitude was not right and it was time for me to finish. - Olympic Champion

Kevin.

P.S, can all the parents read the previous post about phone numbers and respond accordingly.

Friday 4 June 2010

Numbers...

Hello...

I would like you all to send me a text with your name and your childs name in a text message to my number please, this way I then have all your numbers, because then I have your number then if I need them. I also may send reminders out about training, and gala enteries etc!

Thanks,

Ryan.

This Weekend and other bits!

First things first...

Training is on as normal all weekend, except if you are swimming in a competition this weekend you  may be getting out earlier tonight to try help you get a decent nights sleep.

Kevin is going to be at the NEC's, and Lyn will be looking after you if you go to the York meet.

"I read back through the post and found these words of wisdom from Kevin.....
Think how many lengths you swim in training without having rest! A race is a tiny fraction of what we practice in training. Don't be scared of going out fast on your races at the weekend. Don't save yourself for the last part of the race as you may have more energy left than you think. You should feel like you have nothing left to give when you climb out of the pool after your swims. When you feel like you are tiering in your race, think about holding good technique, it is this good practice that will get you to the end.
Go out fast!
Hold the second 50m
Work the third 50m
Use what ever energy you have left on the last 50m (No breathing last 5m)
Don't slow down into the walls on turns and remember as soon as your feet leave, BANG BANG BANG with fly legs!!!!!"

Some words from my experience....Take this into consideration and remember that you MUST not get yourself worked up about a swim. Just because you don't PB doesn't mean you have swam bad. No swim is a bad swim. Every swim you can learn something from to help you develop as a swimmer. Relax, go out and ENJOY the swim. Do not get worked up about it, as it can have a negative effect.

Yours in Swimming,

Ryan

Thursday 3 June 2010

Training, Breakfast Club and Toby with his extremely Huge Lungs!

Message from Kevin....

Training
After finishing last week's training on a low, due to poor skills and starting the warm up 27 times I am pleased to say I think we are back on a high. The swimming and skills in last night and this mornings sessions was excellent and back how it should be, resulting in other coaches commenting on how good the technique of our squad looked. Lets keep it up!

Breakfast club
Thank you to all swimmers who came to breakfast after the session this morning. It turned out to be a great success and I think we should make it a regular club during school holidays as it is great for team building and getting to know everyone.

Big Achievement
The set this morning required swimmers to dive in and kick butterfly in the streamlined position (without fins) as far as they could under the water without breathing. Me and Ryan decided if anyone makes the full 50m the whole group could get out (not thinking that anyone would). However Toby managed to set a C Central record by achieving the full 50 metres, resulting in us finishing 10 minutes early and him getting a free breakfast. A fantastic achievement as some swimmers in the top group would struggle to do the full 50 metres. Well Done!!!

From Kevin

Wednesday 2 June 2010

C Central Team Breakfast (Thu 3rd June)

Message from Kevin.....

As discussed at previous morning training sessions we thought it would be nice, seen as it is school holidays, if after the session swimmers would like join and have a team breakfast in the John Charles cafe when we have finished the session.
Bring a couple of quid and See you there!

Kev & Ryan

Oh and here is a link for the programme for the NEC's for you all......

http://www.swimnortheast.org.uk/results/2010/asanerbagcat2010/webpages/2010bagcaentry.pdf