The London Swimming Annual Conference takes place on 13 September, at St Pauls School, Lonsdale Road, SW13. There will a number of workshops and masterclasses available on the day, so keep this date free!!! Details and booking will available on the London Swimming website shortly.

 

There are only a few weeks left for nominations for these awards closing date is 3 August. This is a way clubs can thank and recognise people who work tirelessly for the club.

There are a variety of categories whether you would like to nominate a club coach, official or swim teacher, get your nominations in soon. Full details are available here

 

Open Water/Triathlon Master Class – Brockwell Lido – Sunday 19^th July, 8^th & 9^th August, spaces are still available, so whether you are getting ready to race a season of Triathlons/Open Water or swimming in the Great London Swim, get some last minute advice from experienced coaches!  Each master class is 90 minutes. Click here for more details.

 

Want to be one step ahead of the rest? Jo Jackson, World Record Holder & Beijing Bronze Medallist is in London leading a 5 day master camp where she will share her experiences, top tips and advice to becoming a successful swimmer. The camp will be supported with experienced coaches and give you an insight to an elite swimmers training, you will cover stroke technique, drills and underwater camera work. Places are limited and there is a variety of sessions and start times.

Click here for more details. 

 

If you would like to book any master class with London swimming please see www.londonswimming.org.uk for further information.

 

The SER SC Masters will take place at the Spectrum Pool Guildford on 3rd October 2009. Entries are restricted to the first 300 so if you are wishing to enter please enter early. Entry forms can be downloaded here.

 

Are you interested in developing good practice for the benefit of and to meet the needs of athletes?

Are you interested in being involved in a National scheme and influencing decisions at a National level?

Are you interested in playing both a supportive and decision making role to aquatic clubs all over London?

If you have answered yes to the above three questions you now have the opportunity to apply to be on the London Swim21 Panel. 

Swim21 is the asa’s quality mark which can now be awarded to swimming, synchro, diving, waterpolo and masters clubs/sections at four levels except masters. The importance of swim21 is placed on good processes and procedures along with coach, volunteer and athlete long term development.

Closing date is 20^th July and full details available here  

   

Greenhouse Multisports Programme are seeking an experienced coach to lead the weekend swimming and aquatics activities for young people with learning difficulties, who attend local mainstream and special schools in West London. You will join existing staff and volunteers in delivering a well structured opportunity for our participants to develop their skills and confidence through swimming. The Hammersmith-based Club session runs from 1-4pm on Saturdays during term time.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 27 July 2009 at 5pm. Further details available here.

My work experience week by Olivia Lawrence

Last week we had Olivia Lawrence spend a week with London Swimming as part of her work experience. Here is an extract from her report. ‘The week started out meeting Colin at the offices in Lambeth, with an induction along with new member to the team Richard Bradford. We were taken step by step through the strategy for swimming in London boroughs. I never realised quite how much business went on behind the actual swimming (finance, planning, strategy etc)’. To read Olivia’s full report click here.

 

For more information on courses, dates and venues, to download booking forms, or details of funding opportunities please visit www.londonswimming.org

 

A number of courses are being organised by Pro-active London. Details of workshops that will be taking place across London in July can be found here  or contact Belinda Hogg on workshopbookings@lsbu.ac.uk or 020 7815 7844. 

 

Colin Brown (RD) This week has been dominated by ‘Make A Splash London’ mobile pools programme in securing the first venue (see Jo Melchior’s piece).

A real highlight of the week was speaking at the London Free Swimming Roadshow on Friday at the Oval. This pulled a lot of existing strands together and gave a great platform to launch Alex and Richard into working with local authorities and operators over the summer.

Next two weeks: Colin will be on annual leave returning the 3^rd August.

 

This week Jo Calvino (Aquatic Development Programme Co-ordinator) has been finalising details for the ACM workshops and hopes to have booking details up next week. Jo also met with Queen Mothers Sports Centre management to explore the idea of setting up a diving programme there. Midweek onwards Jo has had major technical difficulties with her laptop and phone, hence her inability to reply to emails and messages, she hopes to have these issues resolved by next week. Finally Jo has spent time with Jo Melchior reviewing the masterclass programme, and looking marketing opportunities and future events.

 

This week Jo Melchior (Project Manager) finally secured the venue for the first Mayoral Mobile Pool. This will be Greenwood School in Northolt, Ealing which will have one of the “Make a Splash” mobile pools September to December. Jo has also been finalising the flyers and website which will be the information and booking mechanisms for the project. Jo has also been assisting her colleague Jo Calvino in developing the Putney Learn to Dive programme, and looking at the possibility of introducing another such programme in Westminster. Finally Jo has received numerous applications for the Teaching and Administration posts for the Mobile Pool programme and will be hopefully interviewing the latter part of next week.

 

This week Jemma Konuralp (Swim21 Quality controller) has visited two more of Ealing SC's houses, Dolphins and Marlins and was impressed at how effectively and professionally they were both run. The rest of the week was taken up with preparing all of the documents necessary for the Regional Panel next week. Next week Jemma is visiting another two of Ealing's houses along with Killerwhales SC's teaching section which she is very much looking forward to as she was very impressed with their competitive section. The end of the week sees Jemma at the Regional Panel where a number of clubs are hoping to be both accredited and re-accredited.

If you want to be involved with swim21 in London please see the advert for two new Regional panel members here.

 

This week Bastien Wallace (Project Manager - Barking & Dagenham) has been preparing for the Barking & Dagenham Town Show – the biggest event in the borough’s calendar.  Bastien will be there with the apprentices, ready to spread the free swimming message.  We have also just confirmed the details of a free swimming bus that will be provided to help young people in an area of Barking & Dagenham not well served by public transport to get to Dagenham swimming pool. Bastien has also been making preparations for summer activities and courses - where the support of London Swimming Colleagues has been gratefully received to make sure that ‘the show goes on’.