NATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE 2009- TWO OUT OF TWO WILL DO!

What a fantastic evening as we lead the National Swimmig League round 2 gala from start to finish! A huge thank you to the parents again who were undoubtedly gaining us extra points with their non stop support which was absolutely amazing in what can only be described as pool that should not be hosting National Swimming League Gala's. Ever heard the joke- how many swimmers and parent and officials could you fit in a phone box........

Nether the less appreciation and respect to the Officials team who ran a well organised and smooth gala with no room at the end or the sides of the pool and no pa system for announcing!

Down to our performances - first of all a BIG pat on the back to Lewis Hall who still competed under the stress of stomach cramps. This lead to the 11 and under boys gaining 35 out of 36 points. The next best age group was the 13 and under boys who gained 34 out of 36 points and then the 13 and under girls who gained 33 out of 36 points with some strong performances.
A big well done to Izzy, Ellie and Alice who all gained wins swimming up in the U15 age groups and well done to Andrew who gained double wins in his age group events and to Peter Griffiths who gained 2 club records and Sam Webber and Alice Talbot who gained a club record each. Other individual wins came to Leana Galton Emma Garland, Megan Chapman, Melissa Bennison, Ben Wickens and Chris Gannaway. Including relays we gained 20wins all together!

It is an absolute pleasure to be part of such a fast developing passionate team!

The pressure is certainly on going into the last round as we top the Division 2 table.
Can our swimmers and parents perform even better?
Will we be able to hold of all of the teams we have annoyed with our constant cheering and loudness who will be pulling swimmers in left right and centre to beat us and shusssh us?
Will the swimmers stay a strong team and will the parents carry on cheering when the gala isn't going our way, which it may not at stages in the final round?
Can we achieve a top 3 finish to gain promotion?

ONLY FULL COMMITMENT TO TRAINING AND PERFORMING WILL TELL!

NEXT ROUND: DEC 12th HUTTON MOOR 5pm!

WATCH THIS SPACE TO FIND OUT WHETHER THE SEAGULLS FALL OR SEAGULLS SOAR!

Now to swimmers development....

Always one to nit pick and push for more..................

One thing I feel we do need to improve on is our mental attitude when lining up for races, there were a lot of our swimmers worrying about the size, shape, what costumes other swimmers were wearing before we raced, all I would like to ask is WHY?

YOU only can control how YOU swim, YOU only can control your race plans, YOU only can control your dives, transitions, break outs, turns, takeovers, finishes, stroke rates, stroke counts. YOU only can control how YOU are going to swim. NO one in the club and team is expecting YOU to do any more than YOUR best! YOU do not need to worry about other teams and swimmers - what we do need to do is focus on achieveing personal bests for the younger swimmers, and "time of the season" bests for the older swimmers with an improvement in the particular area of the race you are trying to develop at the current time you are racing.

Novice League Success

I was very proud and pleased with our swimmers during the final round of the West Hampshire Novice League, there have certainly been huge improvements with our swimmers through out the year. We have now won our last 7 galas in this competition, including all 5 rounds of the 2009 campaign.

This is a great competition for swimmers to start to becomeused and geaining the bug for competiting.

I though the whoel gala went really smooth and we can luck forwards to great results next year where we wil hopefully continue our success.