29 Aug Swim Coaching
Learning to swim is an important life skill and can lead to hours of the fun in, on or under the water. At Neil Bailey Swimming we offer progression from non-swimmer to strong swimmer, as outlined elsewhere, but competitive swimming is also a sport that thousands of people, young and old, take part in.
Club swimming is very popular in this area with several clubs available to join, ranging from ones that are more about fitness and some competition to ones that produce international swimmers. As swimming is an individual sport everyone has the chance to reach their own pinnacle ,but the one thing competitive swimmers all have in common is they have coaches not teachers.
Coaches work to get the best possible performance from their individual swimmers while working within a squad system. Squad members are of a similar ability and tend to be of a similar age, the bigger the club the more squads within it and the closer the ability range.
Coaches have an overall plan for each squad focusing on skills and technique for all four strokes although for more advanced swimmers they may concentrate on fewer strokes. As well as skills, swimmers stamina and fitness will be developed.
Squad sizes vary but can be quite large and once they have been told what is required, the swimmers are expected to start themselves off swimming behind each other at a set interval. Feedback can be to the whole group or individuals and as skills increase detail is added. In a skills set the squad might be concentrating on one aspect of a stroke, for example body position for almost all of a session. Consistency is the key, doing it once is not enough, it has to be correct every time, but most importantly you have to enjoy it.
Below is a list of the local Swim Clubs:
- Bourne End Junior Swim Club
- Wycombe District Swim Club
- Chalfont Otters Swim Club
- Amersham Swimming Club
- Chesham Swimming Club
- Maidenhead Marlins Swim Club