September 2015 Newsletter

News

Please note that the Autumn term starts on Tuesday 1st September. There is no swimming on Monday 31st August (bank holiday). Chipping Norton pool is still closed on the 1st of September, the Tuesday am session has been cancelled, but the Tuesday pm session will take place at Sibford 1930-2100.

Club Champs start on 3rd October - keep the date free (more info below) and watch out for further e-mails with details !

A word from our Chair… Kath

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a very relaxing summer and are looking forward to the new swim season with renewed energy. This term we have introduced 2 new sessions, both at the Fire Service College at Moreton in the March. The Thursday evening session has 21 swimmers signed up, but the Wednesday morning session has only 8 swimmers. I'm afraid to say if the Wednesday session doesn't reach sustainable attendance threshold this session will end at Christmas, so if anyone fancies adding either of these sessions please get in touch with Rachel. Conversely, several session now have a waiting list. As a result attendance at all sessions will be monitored, and non-attendees will have their session spaces reviewed by the committee.
Over the summer an enthusiastic team of runners completed the 5KM mud-run at Great Tew, to raise much needed funds and continue to subsidise the ongoing costs of sessions. There is a full report from Rosa Holland included in this newsletter, but I just wanted to express my thanks to all who participated, sponsored or support of noble team of runners. Thank you.

Updates from our Head Coach … Kim

Well the holidays are nearly over, here is a roundup of the 4SSC summer.

The Banbury team event went really well, we won by 36 points from all the other teams
Some great swims with 11 PBs from 48 swims. Swimmer of the Meet goes to Oscar Raisbeck with 4 wins. A big thanks once again to our TMs, officials and Coach John.

On Monday 20^th we ran our first Master Class for the top Squads, with Level 4 Swimming Coach Steve Thomas kindly taking a varied four hour session. It was well attended and I have passed on all the great feedback and thanks received to Steve. It was a delight to see the extraordinary level of concentration from our swimmers as they strived to perform before a high level coach. I trust the land training logbooks are being completed throughout the summer for me to look at in September? :)
On Tuesday 21^st we ran another Master Class for the Pre Competition and Academy squads. All attendees worked hard and I am sure we will see the results shortly!

Summer training ran smoothly and a number of swimmers in the top squads took advantage of pool space with about 8 doing the full 2 hour and 2.5 hour sessions! The distances swam have been very good, varying from 5,700 to 6,300m.
Nice one :)

The Senior Swimmer of the Month & Junior Swimmer of the Month will be confirmed shortly as soon as we get the Trophy’s back.

Final thought.
Just over 3 months of qualifying time left until the closing date for the County Championships. :)
You need to enter qualifying Meets to get these times!

Kim

20th July Master Class and Coach Steve Thomas

Galas Update

With the start of the new swimming season there will be lots of opportunities to participate in both internal and external competitions. Swimmers in the top squads aiming at the 2016 Counties have, as Kim has already said, just 3 months to get good qualifiing times, so participation in all eligible events should be a priority.

I'm pleased to say that all entries for the Gloucester L3 Sprints on September 20th and the Milton Keynes SC L3 Development Meet on September 19th & 20th have been accepted. I will confirm the warm-up times shortly.

The autumn Club Champs will be split into three separate sessions this year, with the main event being planned for October 3rd at Carterton Leisure Centre. This will be split by squad so that Academy & Pre-Comp. will be able to swim in 50m sprints. The other squads, Comp., County, Regional, Platinum & Masters will be able to particpate in 200m events.

There will be two futher sessions on consecutive Wednesdays at Kingham Hill School on the 7th & 14th of October. These will both run from 6pm to 8.30pm - both sessions will be open to the Comp., County, Regional, Platinum & Masters squads as follows:

7th Oct. 1500m & 800m Freestyle
14th Oct. 400 IM & 400m Freestyle

Please note that the normal training sessions at KHS will be cancelled for these two evenings and swimmers will be able to attend either the Wednesday 6.30-7.30am session at the Fire Service College or the Saturday 7-8.30am session at KHS instead.

Please make a note of the dates, I will be sending out entry forms in the next week or so.

Chris

New Members

We are delighted to welcome Mila Jabb to the Club
We hope you enjoy your swimming Mila and make lots of new friends!

Mud Run Report

I decided to organise something to raise money for the swimming club because I wanted to give something back, after being a member for 8 years I am leaving to go off to university this year so will no longer be part of the club.

I had heard about the Vision Wild Run from a few friends so I thought this would be a fun fundraiser. And so on the 18^th July a group of 14 club members, parents and friends all congregated at the start line of the mud run. Nerves were high!
We split into 3 separate groups; the experienced runners, the competitive runners (mainly consisting of swimmers) and the ‘let’s just get this over with’ runners.

The course was certainly muddier than I expected with lots of obstacles to climb up, swing over and crawl through. Nevertheless, I think I can say on behalf of everyone that took part and of those who came to watch it was great fun! Everyone finished in great style sliding down the final hurdle straight into a massive puddle full to the brim of muddy water!

I’d like to say a massive Thank you to everyone who sponsored us runners and thank you especially to those brave runners who joined me in the muddiest 5k I will probably ever do!
And a personal thank you from me to the swimming club for the past 8 years!

Rosa Holland

Social Events

We are planning to hold another social event to raise funds for the club before Christmas - watch out for details !

Follow us on Twitter

Follow @swim4shires to keep up to date with live action from the galas and more.

Join our Facebook group

We now have a closed Facebook Group (all requests to join are approved by our chair).

Please search for 4SSC on Facebook and request to join the group.