Oct09 Newsletter V2

Haddington & District ASC – October 2009 Newsletter Welcome Welcome to the first newsletter of the new committee. A successful Club AGM was held on Wednesday 23 September and elected the following volunteers: President Treasurer Secretary Coach Representative Competition Secretary Membership Secretary McDonald Gala Convener Medals Organiser Lifeguard Rota Member French Visit 2010

Sandra Banks Elaine Smith Sandra Couperwhite Vivian Hastie Senga Restorick Tracey Francis Ogilvy Heather Munro Stewart Imrie Yvonne Earl Rachel Cormack

The swimmers voted for Club Captains in the week prior to the AGM and Congratulations to Ali Mann and Esther Jellema, who were elected Boy Captain and Girl Captain respectively. It is fantastic to have so many of you who assist with the running of the Club. There are a number of people who help out without coming on the committee, some examples are Dan Barber, who looks after our website, Susan Taylor who helps on poolside, Audrey Till who has recently started looking after kit and doing some money collection, Eric Munro who is going to help Francis with Gala organisation, and many who do timekeeping at competitions. We could not run the Club without the input of all those who volunteer, so thank you and please keep it up. Anyone who would like to get more involved please speak to any of the committee. All those who volunteer with the swimming club should be registered with SASA so please contact Tracey if you have not yet been registered. Since the last newsletter we have had a very successful Haddington 100s swim meet at Prestonpans in September, particular thanks to Senga for her efforts in making it such a success. We have had the long distance races of the Club Championships – results are on the notice board. We are now looking forward to the Club Championships in November – see Vivian's Swimming Section for details. In this final paragraph of my first newsletter as President I want to say a big thank-you to Krish for the 4 years he did as Club President. That was quite a commitment and he leaves the Club in a good position. Thank you too to Susan Porteus who stood down from the committee this year. I look forward to the coming year and working with you all to continue the successful development of swimming at Haddington. Enjoy the newsletter. Sandra Banks- President

Swimming ..

Novice Squad Since the summer break we have held two trials. We have welcomed the following swimmers to the club: - Francis Millward, Ruby, Joe and Eve Smith, Finlay Hay, James Dickson, Heather Scott, Innes Ogilvie, Ellie May Mackenzie, Cera Gemmell, Jamie Nicholson, Katie May Spencer, Charlotte Livesey, Imogen Naylor, Anna Lissaman and Rachael Andrews. Novice Squad swimmers have competed at the Ian McFadyen Gala which is an open meet, the first round of the Coverdale Cup which is a team event and in a time trial held during training time. Most swimmers have improved enormously over the past few months. In fact in the Coverdale Cup because it is time-banded the swimmers swam so fast that they were outside the time-band and we didn’t get many points! Congratulations.

Dates for your Diary

Club Championships – see separate section Sat 14th November those on Sun 22nd November morning Fri 27th November Cup at as normal Fri 4th December

There WILL be training for not in the Championship finals this Saturday morning No training the Sunday after the ceilidh Second round of Coverdale Portobello – training on at Haddington Presidents Gala – no training the team will go on the board after the championships. Wed 9th December Next trial for potential members 6.30pm Wed 16th December Water Polo evening for all sessions start 6.30pm – Sunday 20th December will be the last session before Christmas. Wed 6th January First session back after Christmas

Attendance I have been looking at the monthly attendance records for all squads and I am disappointed that so many swimmers do not meet the target of 2

Haddington & District ASC – October 2009 Newsletter sessions a week for squad 1 and 3 sessions a week for squads 2 and 3. It is impossible to reach your potential as a swimmer without putting in the training. It is time in the pool that counts. Please could all swimmers look at their own attendance and try to come along to training regularly every week.

Criteria for invitation to Tuesday evening session with East Lothian Swim Team Prestonpans 8.00 – 9.30pm 1. Regular attendance at Haddington training sessions 2. Able to work hard in the sessions and complete the training sets 3. Regular attendance at competition 4. Ambitious to progress rapidly within the sport of Competitive Swimming 5. Coach assessment that swimmer has reached the standard to be able to swim the ELST Tuesday session Any swimmer who is interested in adding this session to their regular training and would like to know if they have reached the required standard should come and speak to me. Regular attendance is expected and the cost is at present £10 per month

Club Championships 2009 The club will soon be running the heats for the Club Championships. These are for every member of the club and are held on club training nights. Please try to come along to the heats even if they are on a night that you do not normally train. There will not be another opportunity to try to get into the finals. Please make a note of the dates below. Wed 4th November Heats Fri 6th November Wed 11th November Sat 14th November heats in group Sat 21st November

Backcrawl and Breaststroke Butterfly and Frontcrawl Heats Individual Medley Heats finals – fastest 4 from the each event and age

Warm up 7.30pm Wednesdays and Friday 100m all strokes plus 200m IM If you are not coming to one of the heat evenings please let me know so that we can adjust the heats in advance. After the heats, please check the board to find out if you are in the finals. If there are 4 or less swimmers in an age group there will be no heats or training on the heats evenings.

East District Age Group Championships Congratulations to all the swimmers who have achieved consideration times for this series of competitions.

Communication I will be on holiday after the Championship finals. Please contact Senga about the second round of the Coverdale Cup and the Presidents Gala (team lists will go up after the Championships).

Training Day Twenty five swimmers and four coaches attended the training day with Gary Vandermuellen at Prestonpans on Monday 19th October. At the morning pool session he worked on stroke efficiency in all strokes showing the swimmers that by using the forearm, as well as the hand, to work on the water, the number of strokes per length could be reduced. This was followed by a land training session working on core strength and flexibility. The afternoon pool session focussed on balance in the water both by rotation of the whole body and the correct head position in all strokes. Hopefully those who attended will not only continue to work on these points themselves but will pass on the information to other swimmers at training. Vivian Hastie – Head Coach

Ceilidh and presentations

You will swim in your age group for the heats – the age you will be by 31st December 2009. The age groups are 8 and under, 9, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15 and over.

Money Matters

8 and under, 9s and 10s Warm up 6.30pm Wednesdays and Friday 8 and under swim 25m butterfly and 50m of Backcrawl, Breaststroke, Frontcrawl There is no individual medley for this age group 9 and 10 year olds 50m all strokes plus 100m IM 11 years and over

Fundraising

Haddington & District ASC – October 2009 Newsletter The Haddington 100s Competition that we held on 20th September was a great success. We raised £1,965.19 which was fantastic. A huge thanks to all who helped out on the day and for the donation of raffle and tombola prizes.

6. Coordinator of officials: 1 7. Marshalls: 2-3 8. Runners: 2 9. Programme maker and sellers: 2 10. Refreshments: 1 - 2 11. Medals and Trophies: 2

Payment of Fees It is a requirement of the club that all pool fees are paid by monthly standing order (SO). There are still a number of members whose fees are not up to date and who are not paying by monthly SO. If you need any assistance in setting up a SO please get in touch.

Payment of Competition Fees Fees are now due for the first round of the East District Age Group Championships. You can either pay the fees to myself, Tracey MacDonald, Audrey Till or John Fairgreive in the café on a Wed or Fri evening or make a payment direct to the bank account.

Raffle Prize Donations If you would like to donate a raffle prize for the Club Championship Ceilidh at the Corn Exchange on 21st November please pass it to us by Friday 20th of November. If you require any further information you can email me at [email protected]

Please email me to volunteer help ([email protected]) or ring me on 01875 340 232 or catch me or my brother-in-arms, Eric Munro at the poolside. We shall seek to arrange a course for timekeepers as soon as possible. The first need will simply be for our own championships. If you want to simply try it out, please don't join the rest of the would-be volunteers who have started to dive into the changing cubicles as soon as they see me! Are there any who are good at attracting sponsorship for the club or who would themselves like to sponsor the club? There will be various ways to show recognition to companies or individuals who would prefer this, the easiest being with a notice in competition programmes. Many thanks Francis Ogilvy – Gala Convenor

French Exchange Visit – 2010

Elaine Smith - Treasurer

Competition Assistance Needed Please can you help at competitions? Surely some of you would enjoy to assist! It is more fun to be involved than just to cheer from the sidelines to swimmers who cannot hear anyway. We need parents and perhaps even club members to help spread the load away from the dedicated faithful, if only for one event a year. Each competition, including heats, needs at least 13 helpers; if we are at Prestonpans, the number goes up to around 30! Even if we go to another club's swimming meet, they will expect us to provide assistance; this is how the world of swimming competitions works - ie they do not run themselves! In the expectation that many of you could be as ignorant as I was, the roles are listed below 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Timekeepers; Judges: 4 Starter : 1 Referee: 1 Recorder: 2

between 8-18

After a very successful and enjoyable visit to SerresCastet by 30 lucky Club swimmers this summer. We will be welcoming the French swimmers to Haddington in July 2010 – provisional dates are for them to arrive on Sunday 18th July and stay with hosting families until Wednesday 28th July. Confirmation of dates and more news about the French Visit 2010 in the next newsletter. If you have not seen them already there are pictures of our visit on the club facebook page which can be found here. It is also another source of information in addition to the website.

Christmas Festivities For the younger swimmers a visit to the pantomime has been organised for Tuesday 22 December. A booking sheet is on our noticeboard at Aubigny.

Haddington & District ASC – October 2009 Newsletter For the older swimmers the Club Captains are on the case and are organising an evening out – contact Esther or Ali for details.