Medal haul for Monnow Girls

Three Juniors from Monnow took part in an open development meet at International Sports Village in Newport.

Ella, Meg and Lucy put in great performances against swimmers from all over South East Wales, showing that their recent training sessions are beginning to pay off.

Ella (9) was racing over fifty metres for the first time, and showed great promise in her starting technique, leading the race over the first length.

10-year old Meg was delighted with her two PBs and was a top eight medallist in backstroke and fly.

Lucy, also 10, came away with her first gold medals at an open meet, winning the 50m butterfly and 100m IM taking eight seconds off her previous best time. She narrowly missed out on a hat-trick taking silver in the backstroke.

2012 / 13 has been a good year for Monnow swimming club.

The club has witnessed incredible growth in membership, due in no small part to the legacy of the Olympics.  Over the summer months, at a time when we would normally see a reduction in membership we welcomed many new swimmers, of all ages and abilities. It was particularly interesting to see older boys joining, and staying.

This growth has continued and this week we welcomed yet more members taking our current swimming membership to 87 compared with 62 this time last year.

Monnow invested heavily in the coaching staff in the past year.  We upgraded the L1 qualifications of Kate and Cheryl from coaching to teaching in the early part of the year, and then in February of this year they both successfully passed their L2 teaching qualifications, which increased our L2 coach head count to 5.  We sent 2 of our older swimmers, Eloise and Francis on a L1 teaching course and they now help out with training on several evening each week. All of this training would not have been possible without the support of the Community Chest board who gave the club £1500 last year toward this investment.  They were very impressed by the Monnow application and have since commented on how pleased they are with our growth and commitment to both the swimmers and the coaches.

Towards the end of the year we were delighted to appoint Jane Sambrook as our head coach. This is the first time in many years that Monnow has had a head coach who will provide an overall training plan to the coaches and ensuring that our swimmers are prepared for competition.

Throughout the past year Monnow have been working towards being awarded the Swim Wales Dragon Mark.  This is an acknowledgement that the club is run well and meets the standard expected by Swim Wales. It is an indication to swimmers and parents alike that Monnow is a proficient, safe club with excellent training facilities; it also means we get a £140 reduction in the club’s annual registration fee.  Throughout this task I was helped greatly by Sam and Fiona as we put together all the documentation and wrote the strategy.

We welcomed Alan Roberts back to Monnow this year to act as our club President. Alan was instrumental in  establishing Monnow and has since gone on to support Swim Wales and officiate at many competitions, along with Sheilah. We are grateful to both of them for their continued support of Monnow and the wealth of knowledge they bring back to Monnow.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the committee for their hard work this year. They are all volunteers and fit their Monnow tasks in around their busy schedules. I know that this year we are losing some of you, and I want to say thank you for your support over the past few years and I hope you and your children will continue to be part of Monnow for many years to come.

As Fiona has already told us, Monnow is now in an excellent financial position. She has worked incredibly hard this year, continuing the good work of Julie, to make sure everyone is contributing correctly to the club.  We are now in a position to be able to invest in new schemes, such as the Head Coach position, and to start creating our own library of training videos.  We started last weekend with a Butterfly masterclass from David Wren and over the coming months will run many more of these sessions, videoing David and the swimmers so they can learn from an experienced international swimmer and see their own progress.

Monnow swimmers have been seen at many events over the past year.  We had an excellent turn out for the Monmouthshire Gala, which was reinstated in October after a break of several years. Teams from Monnow, Chepstow, Caldicot and Abergavenny competed for the George Haines trophy and Monnow were victorious.  The club championships was well attended and several records were broken; at the Awards Evening a few weeks later we were able to celebrate the swimming achievements of the members, with awards for all swimmers who competed in the 2012 challenge, swimming 2012 km between them during the summer break.  Our performance at open competitions has also been recognized, with many comments feeding back to the coaches about Monnow swimmers at the sub regional and regional competitions. Some of our swimmers won medals, all saw improvements in their PBs and all of them did the club proud with their performance and attitude.

Our annual Christmas party was a huge success, and after a slight blip with the arrangements all swimmers had a great time on the inflatables at the Boys’ pool. We finished that evening off here at the Rugby club and it is here that we can now call home. Monmouth Rugby Club have very generously offered the use of their facilities, including a room upstairs to be the home of Monnow Swimming Club. I hope that in the coming years we can forge closer links between the 2 clubs and take advantage of the training facilities and staff that we share to offer all our members a greater breadth of coaching, nutrition and physio advice.

Finally thank you to you the parents who ferry your children around for training and competitions, enduring the sweltering heat of some of the venues and the comfort of their seating.  I hope we can continue to rely on your support as we start a new chapter in Monnow’s history, with a growing membership, a head coach and highly qualified coaching team and plans to extend our service to younger swimmers in the year to come.

Monnow swimmers had a treat on Sunday 28th April when David Wren, a former US national team swimmer came along to give them the benefit of his experience and run a masterclass on Butterfly.  After a warm up David took the stroke back to basics, starting with a simple dolphin movement, teaching the swimmers to lead their stroke from their chest rather than their head.  Gradually he build up the stroke, demonstrating at each stage and then assessing the swimmers and providing guidance and advice.

The Monnow coaches took advantage of the session, using the time to learn from David and to watch the swimmers.  New Head coach, Jane, was very impressed and has plans to film the sessions so Monnow can create a library of training video.

It was a great session and we hope to run more of these masterclass sessions over the coming weeks, starting on May 5th with a Backstroke session.

 

 

The 2012 Olympic legacy is being realised in Monmouthshire judging by the County Council’s recent recognition of Monnow Swimming Club

Through Sport Wales and the Monmouthshire Community Chest scheme, an award has been given to the club which trains five times a week at the Haberdashers’ Schools’ pools in Monmouth. The grant, worth a generous £1500, is made to clubs that help grass roots community sport across Wales.

The funding has been used to train coaches at the club in Aquatics Teaching skills. “The Level 2 course was very worthwhile and has improved our technical knowledge”, said Kate Jarvis and Cheryl Hockey, two of the coaches at Monnow, ” we can now better develop our swimmers’ stroke techniques for competitions.”

Monnow has a dedicated team of volunteer coaches, all qualified to Amateur Swimming Association standards. “The children really benefit from qualified coaching “, says Richard Sparkes, chairman of the swimming club. “This funding has been used to invest in training for former swimmers and existing coaches who have dedicated time and energy to the club over the past few years.”

The funding also supports the development of future coaches. Student lifeguards and club members Frances Hoult and Eloise Oubridge Brock both passed their Level 1 courses with flying colours.

Chair of the Monmouthshire Community Chest Panel, David Blair, said “The Community Chest Programme in Monmouthshire has supported numerous diverse activities over the years, seeking to make more people in the local area more active, more of the time. Grants have funded the costs associated with coaching and the purchase of a huge range of equipment. The Programme ultimately supports the vision and dedication of local groups and individuals.”

Monnow Swimming Club has grown to more than 80 members aged eight to eighteen and actively encourages youngsters to take part in swim meets in South Wales and the border counties.

 

A small band of swimmers from Monnow went to the International Pool in Cardiff at the end of March to compete in the annual Tiger Bay open meet.

Over the weekend there were many excellent swims and Personal Best times were set in almost every event.

In the 200m Individual Medley Lucy set new PBs for the 50m Butterfly as well as the 200 IM. Emily followed up with a 200m IM PB and shortly afterwards Huw recorded a personal best time for the 100m Backstroke in a very close race.

 

In the 400m Freestyle Meg stormed through to win Bronze and knocked a massive 2 minutes of her previous best time.

Alice had great swims in the 50m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke, with new personal bests in both events.

Rhys saw off the opposition in the 400m Freestyle with a bronze and a PB

In the fastest event of the weekend, the 50m Freestyle, Joe won a silver medal and a season’s best time.

It was an impressive weekend for the Monnow swimmers, showing the fruits of their hard training. Well done to all the swimmers and a huge thank you to the coaches who prepared them so well for this competition, concentrating on their starts and turns and ensuring they were all fit to compete.

On 4th January, Lucy and Holly attended a one day Swimming Camp for competitive swimmers aged 9-11 at Millfield School, Somerset. Run by Millfield’s Director of Swimming and a team of excellent coaches, including Olympian and Commonwealth medallist Euan Dale, the girls picked up some great tips on how to improve all four strokes, starts and turns. The course was great fun and has already proved beneficial as both girls smashed a personal best at the Wyvern League gala the next day. Lucy loved training in the Olympic sized swimming pool and being coached by an Olympian. Holly said “It was an amazing experience meeting an Olympian who has raced against Michael Phelps!”.

At the end of a successful year for Monnow in which we have seen the club grow significantly across all age groups and had many of our swimmers competing in open competitions and galas, the swimmers relaxed with a game of waterpolo.

The coaches looked on as the hats took on the no-hats in a closely fought battle. Who won was not entirely clear, but everyone had a good time and without realising it they all had to tread water for half an hour.

Next year starts with a bang as Monnow re-enter the Wyvern League, starting on January 5th in Ledbury.

To all the swimmers, lifeguards and coaches we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, see you in 2013.

The Monnow team was out in force at the annual Christmas Cracker event this year. For some of the swimmers it was their first time in a competition. The adrenaline was pumping from the start with PBs being smashed from the very first event. The Monnow swimmers won many of their heats and held their nerve, even when races had to be restarted.

At the end of the day, after hundreds of races Monnow swimmers were high on the rankings, Matt was 7th in his age group, Rhys was 8th in the 11 and under boys, Alice was 9th in 13 and under girls, and with only just turning 13 that sets her up for a great year ahead. Joe topped the day off with Silver in the Pentathlon, giving the Monnow team plenty to be proud of.

Well done team