Sprint Success

Maia Noonan entered and swam at the recent Coventry Sprint event Open Meet. With this event not being a Club Target Meet (due to the upcoming club champs) Maia was the only representative there which can be a little nervous. After a Summer of focusing purely on skills and techniques, plus the Olympic Workshop event that visited Orion, there was no pressure for Maia to perform strong times, however she came out with huge success across five swims, including a learning point for an unfortunate disqualification.

50m Back - Maia used most of the 15m underwater phase, which brought her out in 2nd- she then passed the leader in the final 15m which she was very proud of.

50m free -Last off the blocks, and last to breakout, but then overtook everyone by the 25m mark. Breathing a lot in the last 15m though she came home in 1st place.

50m fly- Led this race from the blocks, 10m underwater phase, nice breathing pattern (every 2) and had plenty of energy left at the end with another gold.

50m breast Spent a long time underwater;came up in last from the breakout, but then overtook everyone in her heat with a long, stretched stroke and won the heat. Bronze medal although she wasn't in the same heat as the other medalists.

200 IM-- With three golds and a bronze, Maia was disappointed with this race as she got disqualified for turning too far onto her front from the fly to backstroke turn, however her time (if it stood) would have took gold and placed her as number one 9 year old girl in the country for the event this year!

She will continue to be training with Junior Development, working on improving her technical skills in preparation for Boldmere Open Meet and Wyre Forrest Open meet.

Coach Darren

5th September Gala Results

Results from Nuneaton gala (note, relay splits are not available.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_iFC-mX-PqEZlFva3lZSzFlRkU/view?usp=sharing

Orion Kit

Information regarding Orion team Kit.

Available for swimmers from ALL squads, as well as parents if you want to show your support at competitions!

Please click here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_iFC-mX-PqEMGlpQlRRMWhfeXc/view?usp=sharing

1st Junior gala of the season.

Orion took a team of swimmers to N­uneaton for a Junior Gala, starting the ­2015/2016.

The gala was hosted by Nuneaton and Bedw­orth, who were using the gala as p­reparation for their Junior league final­ next weekend, (where they are cur­rently ranked 4th in the West Midland ­ league).
Daventry Dolphins and Kingsbury ­were the other two swimming clubs.
With such a large group of junior ­ swimmers at Orion, I decided to use th­is as an opportunity for race de­velopment for this new season, where all­ swimmers got an individual race­. The children were briefed that they we­re effectively swimming up an ag­e group, looking to build for the ­ 2016's Junior league team. With compet­ition being tough, the swimmer's­ focus to be on their own personal impro­vement rather than winning. As a­ coach, this gives me valuable feedback ­on what the squad and individual­s need to work on over the next few ­ cycles of training. We came fourth o­verall, albeit with a few disqua­lifications and shortages in older boys.­ Galas like these are great prac­tise before entering open meets with JD ­squad goals of meeting the stand­ard to swim at Warwickshire county ­ championships. (Unfortunately, times ­from gala's do not officially co­unty to support entrance to county champ­ionships, highlighting the need ­to enter club champs and open meets!)

After a couple weeks off for re­covery from the 2014/2015 season, ­ I was really impressed with the level ­of skills that has been embedded­ without training for this gala. Credit ­goes to 1st place winners; Karne­ll showing his form in 50m Breastroke, t­he girls 9yr's medley relay team­ (whom are all 8!) and Laila Joh­ngir for her 25m backstroke, where after­ a slip at the start, didn't det­er her from showing off her 10m underwat­er dolphin skill, catching up an­d winning the race! Well done to all ­ swimmers who raced and produced per­sonal bests for time, and person­al improvements on technique.
Congratulation to Freddie Allen, ­ Alexander Forty, William Viney, Poppy C­ouzens, Neave Rees, Laila Johngi­r, Azeeza Firdaus and Hannah Dunn for ea­rning their first Orion Team swi­ms, of what I'm sure will be the first o­f many gala selections.

A big thank you to all parents that ­ assisted on poolside team managing a­nd timekeeping, and non-racing O­rion members Imogen, Amrit and Pavan. Ha­ving a large team of friendly fa­ces really does help with the swimmers ­ nerves, especially for newer race­rs.
Thank you to all adults that ensured ­ their children could race, either t­hrough sharing lifts or supporti­ng the team.