Coaches Blog
Here you will find topical debate from various coaches, including guest coaches, regarding their opinions on current swimming topics.
Marc Soulsby
How Important is Planning?
Planning to some is not particularly important. But to produce a club from top to bottom with quality, it is the most important part of the clubs setup. Without planning the sessions have no direction or purpose and improvements will be more luck than judgement.
So, why bother to plan? There are many reasons why following a plan is the best way to see progress.
1. Provides structure and a routine
2. Boost confidence and reach your goals
3. Add variety to weekly sessions
4. See real, goal-oriented progress
5. Avoid overtraining, injury, and plateau
6. Accountability and motivation
Planning is time consuming, there are many elements to consider including energy systems to target, strokes, drills, starts, turns, competitions, all on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. There are deviations when necessary, there are tweaks to make and we should all be looking at ways to improve, develop and evolve.
There are those within sport who do not understand and under-estimate the importance of planning, either educate yourselves or leave it to those that 'do' understand, it is simply not a case of picking a plan from yesterday!
You have to be involved to evolve!
You have two choices to evolve or repeat! Always Evolve!
7th January 2024
The Strength Of A Club
How can we define the or ascertain the strength of a club?
In the past, we looked at the strength of a club by the swimmers it attracted. Once those swimmers had retired or moved on, what was left in place? Mainly the weaker club swimmer who all had forgotten, and retained through loyality to the club who had developed and brought them through the system, but has now come into prominence and to a certain degree has to be relied upon to fill gaps left by the better athletes.
So, is it better to look at a clubs strength from what it attracts or should we define a clubs strength from what it is able to produce?
From my own experience the strength of a club is through what it is able to produce. To rely on what it may attract is leathal for the following reasons:
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Clubs become blinkered and the lower levels within the club become less important, to a certain degree, apathy sets in and the clubs grassroot infra-structure becomes less important. This creates a false sense of security. The attitude of, 'we can rely on other clubs unwillfully feeding us.'
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In times of hardship (every club at some point goes through hardship), it's what you are producing at that moment in time is relevant and is what you have rely on.
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An inverted pyramid structure should be avoided, if the top collapses, the club will collapse as there will be no infr-structure under pinning the top.
So the strength of any club should be measured by its home-grown talent and all efforts should be made to maintain and look after its home-grown talent, because one day, sooner or later, it is this talent which will get you through the hard times. Every swimmer has a place and a purpose. Development of your grassroots is key to all success and this goes for all sport. No grassroots, no top end!
14th January 2024
Members Club - S.E. Rule 17
All unincorporated clubs are expected to adopt the constitution as set out by Swim England.
What is a 'members club'?
Members' clubs are organisations which provide social and other facilities to members who typically pay a membership fee for access and use. They are owned and controlled by their members.
Because an unincorporated club does not have a separate legal existence it cannot hold property in its own name; it must therefore appoint trustees to hold legal ownership of property on trust for the beneficial ownership of the members of the club as a whole.
How does Rule 17.2 & 17.3 affect a club? First of all we need to establish what Rule 17 is. Rule 17 is where a club, for whatever reason, has to be dissolved/folded/discontinued. It states:
17.2 The dissolution shall take effect from the date specified in the resolution and the members of the Committee shall be responsible for the winding-up of the assets and liabilities of the Club.
17.3 Any property remaining after the discharge of the debts and liabilities of the Club shall be given to a charity or charities (or other non-profit making organisation having objects similar to those of the Club for the furtherance of such objects) nominated by the last Committee.
If a club has debt upon dissolution, then each member are equally liable for the Clubs debt, as set out in 17.2. The issue comes with 17.3, if for example, a Club is dissolved for whatever reason and after Rule 17.2 has been carried out and the Club still has a financial balance in the black, then it is a Charity or Charities or another organisation having similar objects, who gain from the dissolution i.e. another like minded club.
In short, the club has debts, the members are expected to clear the debts equally, in the club has excess money, another club benefits.
So, the question is why? It is a Members Clubs run for the membership of the Club, the members own the Club, so any excess finance should be split equally between all the remaining members of the club, in the exact way the debt would be split equally among the members.
What is the purpose of this Rule 17.3? Why should another Club benefit from someone else's hard work?
More to the point, are the members of each club, including Committee members (who run the Club on behalf of the membership) aware of this rule and its implications in their Constitutions. Is the Rule able to be amended by the Club at an AGM, moreover, would Swim England allow that Rule to changed in the Clubs Constitution?
As it stands, a Club about to be dissolved with financial assets, i.e. has money, members count for nothing. So in affect do the members actually own the club and do any monies actually belong to the club?
Personally, Clubs should change Rule 17.3 to benefit the members, or they should incorporate Limited by Guarantee and write it into the Constitution.
CLUBS...CHECK YOUR CONSTITUTIONS!!!
26th June 2025
Is it time for a new squad?
The question is, is it time for a new squad? We have a Staffordshire based squad at RWS and a Warwickshire based squad at City Of Birmingham, so would a centralised Black Country Squad service the ever growing need for pool time and quality space?
Some of us old enough to remember will recall a local called Dudley Metro, a smallish squad coached by the likes of Mick Hepwood and for those that can remember, Eddie Gorton.
Obviously, a Dudley Squad would first and foremost service the Borough of Dudley, bringing together two very successful clubs Halesowen and Stourbridge. This would fall short of a totally unnecessary and, if we're honest, a totally unwanted merger. But, what it would provide is additional and pooled pool time for the up and coming talent from these clubs.
The difference here would be, it would be a collaboration between the clubs, for the clubs and not council centralised or run by a private entity, but would be run with a council partnership.
This would go a long way to keeping local talent centralised and would vastly reduce travel time and distances by parents, as well as providing quality time and coaching for the athletes!
It will also reduce:
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The need for athletes to move to other squads in other areas.
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Will allow swimmers to represent their home club at Regionals and Nationals.
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Will raise the profile of swimming in the Borough of Dudley.
Everyone's a winner! Let's bring back Dudley Metro!!
20th October 2024
Swim England Swim School?
Swim England Swim School offer two options:
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Standard £119/year
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Premium £389/year
The Premium fee offers a huge package, well worth the cost including:
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Level 1 free Teaching Course
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Level 2 free Teaching Course
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10% discount on Swim England Certificates etc...
The full benefits can be seen in the below link:
www.swimming.org/members/swim-school-membership/
So why establish a Swim School in the first place?
To save money! Swim England fees for each club member are:
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£10.35 SE membership
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£11.00 Regional membership
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£1.40 County membership
This is £22.75 going straight to Swim England. Why not save this money? There is very little benefit of Learn to Swim being part of SE, with the exception of insurance. There is no benefit being affiliated to a Region nor a County, at least not until of compeitive age and standard.
By transfering all Learn to Swim over to a Swim School, that money per year can be diverted towards staffing costs. With added bonus of free teaching courses, money can be used to pay staff, buy new equipment and more importantly, be used for pool hire, which will help to keep monthly fees to a minimum.
Insure4Sport: www.insure4sport.co.uk offer a comprehensive insurance at very low and competitive prices, this can all be covered by the redirection of saved money.
All clubs struggling for income would benefit from Swim School membership and I'd encourage all to take up their Premium package, especially if clubs wish to invest in their staff education.
24th December 2024