Hi all
As we are now well under way with activity season one, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind swimmers and parents that certain squads within the swim team have a minimum training and competition expectation.
Of course there are times where students have trips / illness etc, and attendance may vary depending on other activities within certain seasons, however please remember that attendance requirements are reflective of the focus of the given squads.
Competitive squads are training to improve their swimming for many reasons, one of which is to improve their performance in competition. We have created a pathway which should allow the majority of motives to be catered for (from highly competitive, to completely non-competitive).
Our pathway also reflects the required increase in training for competitive swimmers, as the students improve their swimming, and mature physically. This increase is very gradual through Junior, Middle and High School, and should allow students to discover their competitive desires before committing to a high number of weekly training sessions.
The goal of the swim team is to ensure that the students enjoy swimming, gain water safety, and leave school both confident and competent in water-based activities, whilst allowing swimmers the opportunity to achieve any competitive goals they may have. By having swimmers within squads who share a common focus, we can tailor swim training more appropriately (creating an optimised balance of fun, stroke skills, fitness, and competition practice).
The UWC Phoenix Aquatics website gives some insight into the focus of each squad, as well as the training and competition requirements.
These standards have been set to ensure that swimmers who wish to be competitive have the opportunity to achieve their goals. As an example, at the top end of the team, Middle School NAG swimmers are expected to attend a minimum of 5 sessions per week (up to 8), with Senior School swimmers completing a minimum of 6 sessions per week (up to 9). This is the number of sessions required to be highly competitive in swimming, and is a normal regime across the world. In the last 2 weeks, only 30% of NAG swimmers achieved the MINIMUM session number.
As mentioned, not all swimmers have the desire to train this many times each week, and we pride ourselves on trying to cater to all motives. However, we also wish to avoid compromising the competitive standard of the squads with this training requirement.
We will be using attendance at training and competitions when allocating places during sign-up for activity season 2 and beyond.
Many thanks
Coach Kris
