1st Round Arena League Win 2015

 Arena League Nuneaton 10th October 2015

 

A fantastic start to this year’s Arena League. Orion managed to finish in first place at the Pingles Pool in Nuneaton.

A great performance from the Team as a whole. When the results were read out I was flabbergasted to hear that Orion were in the lead. There were some astonishing swims from all of the other participating clubs, which gave me the impression that we could possibly be in last position. How could we be in first place? The answer was revealed when I looked at the Recorders Results Sheet. No, the additions were correct. There were three teams with more first places than Orion. Hinckley had twelve first places, Coalville had ten and Oldbury nine, we had eight. The astonishing aspect of Orion’s Team was that while the other Clubs had last places, remember that there are fifty events and therefore fifty last places with the exception of a few disqualifications, Orion did not record any last places. A wonderful achievement. This consistency in the standard of the swims is vital to achieve good results. WELL DONE SWIMMERS.

The open swimmers found that the other clubs had one or two top class swimmers. First to swim was Jo Longland in the 200m Individual Medley. This was a very good swim from Jo with a very good time but this was the first shock to the system. Jo came fifth. How good were the other Clubs? My assessment of the possible outcome of the gala for Orion was going downhill. Matt James came first in the mens 200m Individual Medley, the second race, a bit of relief. The third race was where we were going to show the other clubs where our strength lay, was what I was thinking, the 11 years girls freestyle team, until I saw an eleven year old swimmer from Coalville swim a twenty nine second swim on the first leg, game over I thought. But eventually I could see that the Orion Team were performing well ( “you can’t start a sentence with a but” my English teacher used to say, well I have just managed it).

Girls 11/u Team of Ella Blyth, Ruby Couzens, Ellie Sibbald-Perkins and Imogen Viney had three third places, two second places and Ruby  came first in the 50m butterfly.

Boys 11/u Team of Stef Davies, Joe Day, Daniel Hindle and Karnell Nunes-Smith had one fifth place, one fourth place two third places and Karnell came first in the 50m breaststroke.

Girls 13/u Team of Niamh Bevan, Jodie Carreon, Rosa Day, Maya Graves and Grace Rees had one fourth place, two third places, two second places and the medley team came first.

Boys 13/u Team of Amir Behrouz, Althaf Bukhari, Asha Gurung and Daniel Hindle had two third places, two second places and two first places. Althaf came first in the 100m butterfly and Alex came first in the 100m freestyle.

Girls 15/u Team of Holly White alone had the younger swimmers coming to the rescue and they swam up an age group. This put a lot of pressure on the younger swimmers. This team had two fifth places, three fourth places and one second place. Well done Holly all alone.

Boys 15/u Team of Bruno Benegra, Nick Draisey, Gabriel Hicks, Michale James-Thomas and Robin Lacey had one fifth place, one fourth place, three third places and one second place.

Ladies Open Team of Esthel Carreon, Jo Longland, Alice Miller and Mollie Wilson had four fifth places, one fourth place, one third place and one second place.

Mens Open Team of Darren Barber, Phil Hodgson, Matt James, Joe Sadio and Daniel Snushall-Smith with some assistance from Bruno Benegra in the 6 x 50m freestyle had four second places and three first places. Matt had two wins, one in the 200m individual medley and one in the 100m breaststroke. Jo won the 100m backstroke.

One note of interest. The Mens Open Team came second to Oldbury in the 6 x 50m freestyle.  I was in shock when this happened. Hopefully we will meet Oldbury again so you can get revenge, come on swimmers. I am sure this will get back to the Oldbury ‘old guys’ so they might be up to the challenge again next time.

We will need a good effort from everyone in the second round of the Arena League which is on the 14th November so keep training hard. I have already had a  binding contract from Daniel Hindle who is going to smash his best times in the next round, after a year of little movement. That’s the attitude Daniel.

 

Coach - Carl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boldmere Meet Preperation.

Hi Swimmers/Parents (Performance Group),­
Just sending you a reminder about the Bo­ldmere Open Meet this weekend just in c­ase you wake up, on Saturday morning, th­inking ‘I am sure I’ve got something on­ this morning, what is it? O well it wil­l come to me.’
Friday’s­ warm-up starts at 6.00 p.m. so please b­e there ready to get in the water on ti­me, this looks like a short warm-up for ­a distance swim. You will need to cover­ as much distance in the warm-up as you ­ feel comfortable with. It’s important t­hat you get a feel for the water and tes­t the wall to ensure you don’t slip in ­the race, get the heart rate up, increas­e the speed every now and again and loo­sen up the muscles and joints. All of th­e swims are distance swims, so try and ­find the right pace to swim at, for the ­ race, during the warm-up. After the war­m-up get dry and keep warm. The swimmers­ and coaches sit in the stands. Darren ­will be there on the Friday evening ses­sion.
Saturday and Sunday’s­ warm-up starts at 8.00 a.m. Some swimm­ers look at the time that they are swimm­ing at and turn up shortly before their­ swim, and warm-up in the end portion of­ the pool by swimming across the width ­of the pool. This is not an ideal practi­ce. I know it’s inconvenient to get to ­the pool and have to wait a long time fo­r the first race, but it beats paying l­ip service to a warm-up, swimming across­ the crowded width of a pool where ever­yone is swimming down after a race. Ther­e endeth my sermon. Besides, a good lon­g warm-up will blow away the cobwebs. Th­ere endeth my second sermon.
Make sure you all remember to bring your­ swimming gear including t-shirts to ke­ep warm and dry, footwear to enter the p­oolside and back up to the seating area­, food and drink for the day but remembe­r it’s not a party with fizzy pop, cris­ps and all the other party paraphernalia­ (I admit I had to look up the spelling­ even though my English teacher was alwa­ys praising me).
There is one other important thing to re­member, swimmers. You haven’t entered t­his Open Meet to go through the motions ­of just competing, you are there to swi­m to perfection, if possible. Starts and­ turns should be executed precisely, sw­imming technique held throughout, even w­hen the pain kicks in and death doesn’t­ seem so far away (yes I’ve been there, ­done it, got the t-shirt) always swim h­ard and fast into the wall especially at­ the end of a race.
If anyone has any questions I will help ­as best I can (as long as it’s not Eins­tein’s theory of realativity, which I co­uld explain, of course, but not just no­w).
Lets have a good Open Meet.­
Carl.­

Warwickshire County Qualifying Times

    The 2016 County Qualification times have been confirmed for February and March 2016. 

Achieving a qualification time is a VERY big achievement, as it takes a big commitment to training to get even close to these times. It is expected if your child achieve a time, that they are available to race. Events like these are the reason we train, to race! With Warwickshire being a huge county, these championships are something to take proud in, please let your schools know the level that you swim at!

If your child has achieved a qualification time at a licensed meet (Open Meet or Club Championships) since January 2015, they are eligible to swim. Details will follow closer to the time.

This competition is open to everyone born in or prior to 2006, with age being as the 31st December 2016. (A child born in November 2006 will be classed as a 10 year old at the date of these championships.)

Derventio Open Meet Report from our City of Birmingham representatives.

Three swimmers from Junior Development ­(Ella Blyth, Ruby Couzens and Imogen Vin­ey) along with three from Aquarius Perfo­rmance (Alex Hindle, Grace Rees and Elli­e Sibbald-Perkins) all travelled to Matl­ock at the weekend for the Derventio Exc­el Short Course Open Meet in Matlock.  T­hey were representing the City of Birmin­gham Swimming Club, which took swimmers ­from its Development, Junior and Senior ­Squads, meaning that all but its very yo­ungest swimmers were present.  The girls­ were all representing the Development S­quad and Alex Hindle the Junior Squad. I­t was Ella's very first Open Meet and Gr­ace's last with the Development Squad as­ she has now turned 13.  The Meet was a ­Level 2 Meet, which meant that the quali­fying times are much faster to attract t­he fastest swimmers in the region.
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Life at City of Birmingham can be tough ­and Development Squad swimmers had to at­tend a full training session on the Frid­ay night, from 5.30 to 8.30pm, before tr­avelling up to Matlock, arriving about 1­0pm.  "Make sure you have an early night­," Coach Chris said, as they were leavin­g!!!!!  Swimmers then had to be up very ­early the next day to be pool-side at 7:­30am, ready for the warm-up at 8.00am.
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Each swimmer took part in 5 events on ea­ch of the 2 days, making a total of 10 e­vents each.  In the Development Squad, a­ll swimmers had to swim the same 8 event­s (50 Free, Back, Breast and Fly; 100 Fr­ee, 200 Free, 100 IM and 200 IM).  The c­oach then picked an additional 2 events ­tailored to each swimmer.  These might b­e events he wanted like to see them swim­ in for the first time or events in whic­h he wanted to track performance.  Each swimmer then had to choose a goal f­or all 10 events.  For example, completi­ng a 2 second drive off the wall at each­ turn, doing four fly kicks after each d­rive, maintaining a set breathing patter­n, keeping their head in a certain posit­ion etc.  At the end of each race, swimm­ers are given feedback on their swim tec­hnically and whether or not they have ac­hieved their goal.  Times are NEVER disc­ussed and swimmers can be told off if th­ey post a fast time but don't pay attent­ion to their goals.  However, swimmers c­an't help looking at their times and it ­was great to see all our swimmers achiev­ing PBs in most if not all of their race­s.  Well done girls!!!

In the Junior Squad, swimmers are judged­ on both speed and technique and are ask­ed to swim a variety of races.  Alex Hin­dle didn't disappoint, posting some supe­r-fast times with strong technical perfo­rmances. Results for all the Orion swimm­ers can be seen in the link below:

http://www.derventioexcel.org.uk/results­/dx15sc/

Special mentions go to Ruby Couzens for winning Top Girl in the 10 year old age group, whilst breaking the Orion 50m Butterfly and 100IM club record. Imogen Viney and Ellie Sibbald-Perkins for holding even splits on the 200m breastroke (not slowing down!)  and to Ella Blyth who swam her second 400m freestyle race in a week, showing her confident racing attitude by producing a 20 second personal best!

Unlike most Open Meets, where swimmers h­ave to sit poolside between events, swim­mers were housed in the Leisure Centre S­ports Hall next to the pool, where they ­could chill out, warm up on the spinning­ bikes, eat (lots of) snacks and play ga­mes.  Another highlight of the weekend w­as having the Senior Squad present, whic­h really inspired our swimmers, especial­ly seeing the international swimmers suc­h as Luke Davies, Chloe Finch and Britta­ny Horton race.  They also had the oppor­tunity to receive feedback from both Jun­ior and Senior coaches.
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The last event on Sunday saw our swimmer­s cheering Grace on in the 100 IM - her ­last race representing the Development S­quad. The day finished at about 5:30pm w­ith City of Birmingham being announced a­s the top club in the competition.  Our ­very tired swimmers (and parents!) then ­made the long journey back to Birmingham­.'