Project sparks swimming boom in Thames Valley District - The future/learnings
The future/learnings
Now that participation is healthy, Christine is keen to follow on and measure the development of competitive swimmers.
“We have made brilliant progress,” she says. “At the moment the swimmers and parents are talking about ‘when we get to national level.’ This is now genuinely possible because the swimmers and coaches have progressed so much.”
Before the drive and outside of the Thames Club, there were no national swimmers in the region. However, this season Christine is hopeful some swimmers from the other clubs will also reach national level.
Christine has made plans to support swimmers once they reach national level. “We must continue to work on putting pathways in place for the swimmers from the cluster who have qualified at a national level through a partnership with the Thames club. They will need opportunities to train with other national level swimmers, in the best facilities. This will also continue to provide training opportunities for the coaches from the small clubs.”
Christine believes it is important to have competitive swimmers to act as role models for younger swimmers making the transition from LTS to competition.
She is also conscious of a need to keep encouraging parents to be involved and become SNZ qualified as she needs to continually think about succession planning.
“I can’t stress enough - the most important thing is to keep identifying the need,” she says.
Christine also believes flexibility is key. “When working with clubs you can’t have a fixed A –Z plan. You have to identify the need and take every opportunity that comes your way even if this means zig-zagging your way to your end result,” she says.
Updated | 10 Oct 2008.
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