SMSC Newsletter –

November 2017

Club News

Senior Coach Quarterly Report

July was largely taken up with three weeks of club

championships which after some teething problems

saw the new format running extremely well by the

end. From a swimming point of view generally it

went well with, I suspect, a lot of new club records

set. As always they are also an important part of the

learning process and a chance for some swimmers to

get their first taste of competition.

We had two external licenced galas in July the first of

which was at Medway Park and a very well run

Beachfield Open. In all we had a squad of 19

swimmers and we took home a total of 27 medals. I

think it is fair to say that it was far harder for the

girls with, in some events, double the number of

entries than the boys so the 11 medals won by the

girls was a fine achievement. Especially pleasing was

the team spirit and the fact that we were

competitive across all of the events. We had

swimmers in 16 of the 18 events and only missed

out on a medal in 1 of them.

Our winners were Drew Nolan (50m breaststroke) in

his first ever open, Max Beavington (50m

breaststroke and 50m butterfly) and Ethan Gear

(100m backstroke).

Runners up were Isla Healy (200m IM), Bethany

Fearn (also 200m IM), Thomas Berry (100m

breaststroke), Ethan Gear (50m backstroke) and

Hayden Gear (50m and 100m butterfly).

Bronze medals were taken home by Isla Healy (100m

breaststroke), Thomas Berry (50m breaststroke),

Aimee Thatcher (100m backstroke) and Leah Easom

(50m breaststroke).

September and October is always a busy time of year

with galas in all but one weekend in the last seven

weeks. With two teams in the Simon Watson gala

and the Beachfield Learn to Swim gala, many of our

swimmers have had their first experience of

representing the Club. Two Medway Championship

galas, Basildon Open and the Kent Development

Meet have also given the more experienced

swimmers plenty of opportunities.

In the two team galas in September we found

ourselves up against very strong teams – in the

Beachfield gala in particular two clubs came with

teams that were far stronger than the guidelines set

for the event. However, it was still a really good

experience for our swimmers and I must thank

Donna Hearn for getting things organised for me.

Our winners in the Simon Watson gala were Maciej

Szpunt (three times), Thomas Berry, Ethan Gear and

two very impressive swims from our younger

swimmers - Josh Little and Chloe Naylor. The

following week at Beachfield Esme West, Drew

Nolan and Harry Youens came out on top in their

races but everyone was a winner because all the

swimmers got a medal and enjoyed the night.

The focus at this time of year is very much about

trying to get qualification times for the 2018 Kent

Championships. Times can only be achieved in

licenced galas and we have already far exceeded last

year’s total with November still to go. Top of the list

is Max Beavington who achieved our first ever

automatic times in October for 50m and 100m

breaststroke and, just to showcase his all round

ability, he has consideration times in the three other

strokes. Jake Stephenson and Thomas Berry both

have consideration times in 50m and 100m

breaststroke, with Jake setting a time just 0.02 of a

second outside of the automatic time earlier this

year. Josh Baar, Ethan Gear and William Burnett all

have consideration times for 50m backstroke.

Finally, at the Kent Development Meet, Emelia

Russon became the first girl at the club to achieve a

consideration time in the 100m backstroke.

Other highlights have been the number of medals

that we have picked up along the way – once again

Max Beavington led the way with our first age group

winner in the Medway Championships for many

years, taking gold in the 50m breaststroke. In the

September gala we had our best team performance

with Mark Salter, Thomas Berry, William Burnett and

Max Beavington all getting on the podium, although

Mark left it to his dad to stand in the spotlight. Leah

Easom got amongst the medals in both of the last

two Medways to double our points tally in the girls

events in 2017. Another medal of note was Isabelle

Hockney, who has only just tuned nine, picking up a

bronze medal at Basildon in her first ever licenced

gala which is going to be the first of many to come.

Keith

Swimmer of the Month

June: Lowri Williams and Hayden Gear are both moving up through the lanes. Well done to both of you for having a positive attitude, rarely missing a session and working hard every session.

July: Isla Healy and Max Beavington for getting gold medals and producing excellent times in the two licenced galas (Beachfield and Romford Opens).

September: The girls’ award went to Leah Easom for yet another good month in training and a Medway final, which of course could well be the reward for the hard work in training. Harry Youens for his work in training which will see him move up lanes next week but he sealed the award with a storming performance in Beachfield gala.

October: Max Beavington becoming our first Medway age group winner for many years in the 50m breaststroke and, at the same time, getting our first ever automatic qualifying time for the Kent Championship. Max followed that up at Basildon with a second auto time in the 100m breaststroke. Including the Kent Development Meet he has collected 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals in October. At the Kent Development meet Emelia Russon became our first ever girl to achieve a Kent consideration time in the 100m backstroke breaking the club record on the way.

Swimming Trivia

The English are considered the first modern

society to develop swimming as a competitive

sport. By 1837 swimming competitions were

being held in London and organised by the

National Swimming Society.

Tuna swim at an average of 9 miles per hour

and don’t ever stop. So a 15 year old Tuna fish

could have swum 1,000,000 miles in it’s life.

Elephants use their trunks as snorkels and can

swim up to 20 miles a day.

Sharks can’t take in water through their gills by

themselves so when they stop swimming (such

as for sleeping) they struggle breathing.

Benjamin Franklin invented swimming fins.

In a lifetime a human produces on average

25,000 quarts of spit which is enough to fill up

2 swimming pools – eugh

Club pictures

After a fantastic show of brilliant sportsmanship and amazing effort from every child this year at our Club champs here are a few pictures to show what the Club Champs is all about. Well done to

all the coaches, volunteers and parents who made this event happen. All the children just

have to wait now for the presentation evening in December when they receive all their certificates

and medals for their superb efforts.

Our Presentation Evening is being held on Saturday 2nd December at Highsted Grammar School, Highsted Road, ME10 4PT from 7pm until 11pm. The cost per family (living under the same roof) will be £25 or £7.50 per single ticket, this includes a buffet and disco. Please bring your own drinks, cups and nibbles.

We will not be issuing tickets this year but will be asking for payments into the SMSC account - Sort code 60-19-25 account no: 28626540, Reference - PN (Presentation Night) + surname. We ask that you email Sittingbourne@swimclubmanager once payment has been made detailing your reference and how many within your party. It is important this is done so we can add you to the list at the door.

Also on the evening we will hold our annual AGM at the beginning of the night, this is an opportunity to meet the Committee and vote in new members. There will also be a raffle and a professional photographer will be present to take photos of your child with their medals. Photos will be available to buy on the night.

This is a fantastic evening to celebrate all the swimmers and coaches achievements throughout the year and for the swimmers to receive their certificates and medals for Club Champs.

End of Season Meet

This Gala was held at the London Aquatic

Centre (the Olympic Pool), which is quite

a nice pool in the sense that it isn’t hot

and muggy for swimmers and the pool is

a ‘fast’ pool. This venue has the latest in

technology providing swimmers and

spectators the ability to see the reaction

times off the blocks, the one length splits

and the final results. This provides

experience in a 50 metre pool and also

the fact that the time you get is the

actual time and not a converted time as

would be the case in a 25m pool and is

where the Kent Championships are held.

So for those children that qualify for the

Kent Championships it is therefore not all

new and strange to them. This is

important because a swimmer must be

relaxed in order to do well.

This particular gala started off a little late

because of late cancellations and errors

in the entries that should have been

raised before the gala. Our swimmers

were all on time enabling us to get in a

good warm-up. We did achieve very

satisfactory results that the swimmers

should be proud of, however many of our

swimmers compared these times to the

times they would get in a short course

pool (25m) with one or two getting quite

upset. I would like to encourage both

swimmers and coaches to refrain from

making this comparison simply because

the races have to be swum quite

differently.

Our swimmers achievements:

Isla Healy came away with a 1st and three

3rd places and two 5th places. A

remarkable achievement considering she

was a nervous wreck before her first

race. It was her first ever experience in a

long course pool. Max Beavington also

had a few great swims achieving a really

good time for his breaststroke and a solid

3rd place. Joshua Baar also swam well and

achieved a very commendable 2nd place

in his backstroke. These three swimmers

brought back most of the clubs bling.

Ethan Gear, Hayden Gear, Mark Salter,

Thomas Berry, Maciej Szpunt and Jessica

Berry all made it into the top 8 but fell

outside of the medals. A few of our

swimmers had several swims all in the

top 8 but fell outside of the medals. An

important achievement which Keith

picked up on which is as a result of these

recent swims, is that both Isla and Max

got themselves ranked top in Kent.

This event provided me with a unique

opportunity to bring our club together

with two other clubs namely Beachfield

and Tonbridge and was able to introduce

Caitlin Ebbage to our swimmers. Most of

you won’t recognize Caitlin, but she is a

12 year old swimmer who qualified for

nationals two years under age. The

nationals were recently swum where she

achieved a silver medal for 200m

backstroke. What I wanted to

demonstrate was her focus, pre race

warm up, the post race warm down and

mental resolve.

This is someone who is of a similar age

that our swimmers can relate to. There is

every chance that one or two of our

swimmers could take a leaf out of her

page and achieve something similar. It

was good to see the swimmers cheering

each other on even though they were

from different clubs, really great team

spirit that needs to be nurtured. I hope

that I can provide similar opportunities

like this in the future.

Jerome

Diary Dates

Saturday 4th November City Of Rochester Gala - 1 team

TBC Distance night

Saturday 11th November Emma Starling Gala

Saturday 2nd December Presentation Night

Tuesday 19th December Splash Night

Thursday 4th January 2018 Return to swimming

Extra Club Information

Absent: If your swimmer is ill, please send an email so they are marked as absent. There is a great demand for places, and we don't want to get the impression that your child is no longer intending to continue swim with the Club, when a simple email could prevent confusion. Also there's no need to update on Facebook if your swimmer cannot make the odd session through illness or having alternative arrangements. Sometimes these messages are not seen until after the training session. We do a register at the start of each session so we can find out who is attending then - this will save you all updating.

We do however need to know if your swimmer cannot make a gala or an event as soon as possible if that's ok - Facebook or direct contact with a coach would be perfect.

If however your swimmer has an injury or long term illness where they are going to miss quite a lot of swimming it would be great to hear from you then

Club Timetable Tuesday 7-8pm Early session

Tuesday 8-9.30pm Late session

Thursday 7-8pm Early session

Thursday 8-9.30pm Late session

Saturday 8-9am All swimmers

Sunday 6-8pm Invited competitors

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under group name : Sittingbourne and Milton

Swimming Club

Next issue - 1st March 2018

Any contributions or questions that anyone may

have please email with appropriate subject.

Sittingbourne@swimclubmanager.co.uk