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Derbyshire County Champs Report - Week 1

No report can justify how good this weekend has been, personal best times, club records, podium positions, regional times and joy! The younger swimmers all did great swims, the teenage girls had the classic highs and lows and the boys were consistent all week. There is one story that needs telling.

The roof went off when Tom Burch did the 100m fc – in the heats he gained a personal best time, he then had to do a swim off for the final as Tom and another lad had the same time so they had to swim against each other to make the final. Tom being Tom, strolled on the poolside very relaxed and a little annoyed he had to postpone his lunch break. While Tom was casually making his way up to the block, where the other Long Eaton swimmer was clearly preparing for the swim off. Tom shook his hand and snapped into race mode. Back to back the swimmers were on the block – Tom did his “classic Burch style start” stood tall on the block looked forward with confidence and the two swimmers battled against each other on all 4 lengths it was nail biting exciting and stunning to watch. They both hit the same time in the swim off – a point blank draw again in a time of 55.61. 100m Fc hurts, both boys clearly didn’t want to race again and, then do the final too. They settled for the game "rock / paper / scissors" for the place in the final. Tom managed to win this technical game, we always win the best things at Matlock. However Tom decided to give the final place to the Long Eaton swimmer, Tom said I have PB'd two times in one day, i'm happy you swim it. Torn weather we were a little annoyed he had given up his chance to swim or really proud of his sportsmanship we weren’t too sure at first. But as we thought about his gesture it was the nicest thing Tom could do. Tom had pushed himself to his limit and he was happy and he had nothing to prove to anyone, he had hit the target of 55 given to him by Gary at the beginning of the year, he had swam well, achieved what he wanted to do, two personal best times in less than 30mins and he was content with himself. He could see how much the other lad wanted to do it and he gave someone else the opportunity, he didn’t give it away, what he did was give someone else a chance making everyone happy, swimming isn’t about positions, what does it really matter 8th or 9th if he was lucky maybe he could have made it a 7th but the truth was the position was irrelevant, unimportant it simply was a number on a bit of paper. He had fun, pushed his limits, felt sick, couldn’t breathe and did Matlock more than proud. The audience stood and cheered with admiration, Matlock was getting recognised and Matlock made history today.  

The moral of this story is don’t feel pressured, just do your best, swim for yourself and swim for life. 

Congratulation to Toby Marshall, Brandon Hotham and Tom on regional qualification times.

Outstanding swimming from Max Marshall who was an absolute mini machine this weekend. 

In addition it was great to have Development 1,2,3 practicing their race skills in a specific session held at Bakewell, thank you all for coming.

Triathletes Ellen Patton, Lizzie Webster and Elspeth Grant flew out to Mallorca this weekend on a 7 day training camp for East Midlands Academy on a talent programme for GB triathlon ahead of the 2020 triathlon season. These girls are extremely talented on so many levels and it’s great to have them swimming at Matlock – this week they will be enjoying a 50m outdoor pool, smooth roads to cycle, epic hillys to climb and a lot of running in the sunshine – no doubt high of Lizzie’s agenda will also be topping up the tan. Well done girls and enjoy! Then back to proper swimming !!!

Upcoming Training Alterations

Due to the County Championships this weekend Sunday 16th Feb there will be no training across the club.

However Diane has secured a session at Bakewell Council Pool from 2pm to 3pm for Development 1 2 & 3. This session will be dedicated to enhancing skills and also emphasis on racing rules, protocols and procedures.

No kit to be brought on poolside costume hat and goggles' is sufficient.

The following Sunday 23rd again due to the County Championships training is cancelled

Ripley Rascals Open Meet Report

This weekend saw us kick off the first of 2020 targeted Open Meets. Some great swims and positive outcomes from the swimmers who attended.

Matlock swimmer of the meet Zak Hubbard.

I tell Zak to swim fast, he swims fast, I tell Zak to do a PB, he does a PB...

Matlock 2020 motto ...'Swim like Zak'

Well done to all those who attended. Let's build on an excellent start into the next meets. If you haven't entered then be quick.

Open Meet Reports - 7/8th December 2019

Bassetlaw Open meet 3 day level 3

Some excellent swimming across the board, bags of pb's and a good haul of medals we had 19 top 3 positions over the 3 days.

It was a targeted meet selected for its purpose and to progress the swimmers accordingly. It was the first time we had done Bassetlaw open and we will definitely be going back, as it offered a big range of races and had a brilliant relaxed environment, awesome spot prizes and skins events.

With only 12 swimmers, this is still too low, we encourage you all to race where possible this gala was suitable for dev 3 to club 3, guys you need to start venturing to galas other than at the Arc, it really does benefit your swimming and your race experience.

Well done to all involved.

Derbyshire Masters championships - Etwall

6 swims 6 Derbyshire titles , 5 from Lucie Wainwright and 1 from Diane Lee.

Older members, it is something you can do and could give you a different outlook and outcome goal to your training.

A lot of you race in other spheres but it's still worthwhile race stimuli that you will benefit from. Plus you may have some fun.

Club Records Return - a chance to go down in history

This year we are going to develop new Club Records. Club Records are a database of all the fastest ever times achieved from a Matlock swimmer within each age category and each event. All coaches have been pushing to get the Club records back up and running for a long time, we have attempted on several occasions but found it hard to ensure they are accurate. Therefore we are starting from scratch. No times will count as club records if they were achieved before the 15th November 2019. We feel this is the fairest way to restart the records accurately. Therefore at the club champs every event and in every age category has the potential to start the records rolling.

The aim of the records is to inspire swimmers, increase in house competition, help build swimmers drive to chase goals and to get their name in the history book so to speak. Between now and the 1st January 2020, we will keep the record up to date with out you prompting us a record has been broken. After this date if you think you have a record, you must hand in a record slip which will be downloadable off the website and fill in the details accurately within a 3 month period of you gaining the time for it to be valid. The times must be done at a gala with officials and proof of results will need to be shown, no training times can be counted.  The record claiming system is standard procedure, from national level to club level. It isn’t the clubs responsibility to check if you have achieved the record, we are just here to validate it for you. If you don’t tell us, your record will not stand.

Club records are a big job, but we are determined to get them back up and running but please be patient and please kindly let us know if we have made any mistakes, we will have a lot of results to go through following the club champs and Derbyshire sprint championships. Club records will go on the website shortly after the 3rd Club championships sessions.

Combined ages are 7-8 years and 16-20years. Swimmers over the age of 20 years will use National rankings and will not be included in the club records. We are aiming this at the children that compete regularly. There will be records for short course and long course events.

Gary

Get better results by improving your nutrition

With all the up and coming open Meets etc it may be worthy of note for swimmers (and parents) to read in preparation for training / competition and general good practice, performance can be and is directly proportionate to the way we fuel our bodies, together with correct hydration will all play a pivotal role in being able to perform at your best.

Download Nutrition Guidelines for Swimmers/Athletes

This information can also be found on this website here.

Subscriptions Increase

You may not have appreciated, but club subscriptions have not been increased since March 2017. Unfortunately, to make the club financially sustainable, that must change. Market forces, including a recent increase in the cost of pool hire have had a dramatic impact on the financial sustainability of your club.  Your club is community-based; your subscriptions (which go towards pool hire, lifeguards, coaching and teaching) make it work and without them it would not exist. There is no income from any other source. Every penny really does count. The club is committed to keeping the new pricing structure until January 2021. In addition, ASA membership will have to be paid in the New Year.

From 01 January 2020 monthly subscriptions are as follows:

Some current subscriptions are in arrears or being paid at the wrong rate. Can you therefore please ensure that your payments are up to date prior to 31/12/19. The Club does not want to be faced with the embarrassing position of turning swimmers away when subscriptions are in arrears.

You are reminded that the current subscriptions are as follows:

The Committee
1/10/19

Results: 7th MAD Level 3 Open Meet - 29th Sep 2019

Well done to all the Matlock swimmers at this year's MAD Open Meet.  Yet again lots of PBs, so well done everybody.

And many thanks to all the helpers and volunteers for helping the event to run so smoothly.

Here's a link to the results: 7th MAD Open Meet - 29th Sep 2019

Open Meet Report

Just a brief write up of yesterday’s achievements, firstly without the committee and the parents Matlock couldn’t run such a wonderful event so Thank you to all involved in the organising and running of the day. It was great to have more parents helping and great to see the Club captains taking very active roles on the day. Jobe looked great in his high viz.

From the coaching side of things, we had targeted and trained for the open meet, but the amount of seconds swimmers were knocking off their personal best times was even more than we expected so we are super happy. Its early season, and for Club 3 swimmers it was pretty much the first race of the season.

Swimmers swam really well all day and the atmosphere was great to be around. A special well done to Niamh L and Sam H who don’t often race, and both swam really well.

We did have several disqualifications, but we would like to point out this wasn’t just our club, we have spoken as coaches on how we are going to work and develop backstroke turns (as this is the major DQ area). We will implement this in training over the next few weeks. It is really important that when practicing race skills in training we do them at race speed.

Disqualifications will happen, DQ’s are a learning curve and it happens to everyone at some point, they're not something to look negatively at and we as coaches weren’t disappointed by the DQ's we had, we were very proud of some of the younger swimmers taking on more difficult events. They were brave enough to have ago at the distance events and more technical events.

44 Matlock swimmers were involved, which we still feel is a little low and is something we will continue to encourage we need higher participation rates at galas.

In the past it’s sometimes the boys we struggle to get racing but yesterday we had absolutely amazing swims by the boys, it’s safe to say they all were on fire, a special well done to Zac H, his progression over the last year has been incredible. Happy coaches and most importantly happy swimmers, well done all involved.

Gary McCaffery

Introducing the First Fundamental Games

We welcome all swimmers in Matlock swimming club who are under 7 years old and can’t take part in the club championships. The Fundamental Games are an opportunity to enjoy some small fun competitions. These will include small group games, relays and even a few party games.

The aim of this session is to provide an enjoyable competitive atmosphere for the very young end of the club. There are no entry forms, swimming will be organised into teams on the day, all events and games are optional so no one needs to feel any pressure.

All events will run in the small pool, parents can watch from the spectator’s gallery. Club training for the big pool will take place as normal but there will be no TP1 or TP2 lessons. TP3 and TP4 will run as normal if a possible 5min delayed start, for teacher cross over. It might be advisable to bring a towel on to poolside to prevent getting cold between activities. 

If you would like to attend, please add your name to the list on the notice board downstairs at the ARC.

Date – Friday 8th November 2019

Time – 6.00pm – 7.00pm

Small prizes will be awarded on the evening.

ALL 7 TO 8 YEAR OLDS ARE ENCOURAGED TO TAKE PART IN THE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Athlete / Swimmer Workshop

I will be holding a workshop on a Tuesday evenings from 6;30 to 7;30 in the community room at the Arc leisure centre.

The workshop will consist of various topics from strength and conditioning, mobility, stretching, muscle fascia release, mental race preparation, nutrition and sports specific exercises designed to help you function and perform as an athlete and /or swimmer.

Most of the activities will be body weight exercises but it maybe necessary for your comfort and ongoing practice that you purchase some small items that you can keep in your kit bag.

The workshop at the onset will be open to Club 2 and 3 swimmers and those Masters who are regularly competing and representing the club.

There will be a fee payable of £2.50.

I look forward to seeing as many there as can make it, and providing you with a plethora of new skills and knowledge acquisition.

Gary McCaffery
Sports Performance Coach

Can you help out at the MAD Open Meet

The Club is looking for parents to help out at the upcoming Open Meet on 29th September.  Please speak to Ian Bowler if you can offer your help.  Free entry to the meet and a free lunch on offer!

Raffle Prizes also Needed

The Club would also appreciate any donations of items which could be used as Raffle Prizes at the same meet.

Parents, Your Club Needs You!

Question: How do you make the hours spent at galas fly by?

Answer: Become a timekeeper.

Right now, we’re looking for volunteers to sign up for the next timekeeper course. 

On passing the course you will receive the qualification of J1.

Being a timekeeper means you get to be involved on poolside at galas and open meets (free lunch included at open meets) and those hours spent at galas will no longer be a drag.

We need at least six volunteers before we can organise the course date.

Please get in contact with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to let him know you’re interested.

Pool Party Success

The pool party was a great team event, fantastic to see so many parents and young ones getting involved, we raised £250 for the club, the cakes were very impressive, but alas we all now need to work harder to burn off the calories consumed, a big thanks to David Prior for giving us such a fun evening.

Become a spotter and help our swimmers be safe

How would you like to help out when your son/daughter is swimming? You might save a life. Your Life Guard only has 2 eyes and with your help you double his/her vision. How do you do it? Simply, become a Spotter. You will need to attend a short meeting for a briefing on what is expected and you may even get to wear a special T-shirt. If interested please contact Marie Davey via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.