City of Aberdeen Swim Team

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1 City of Aberdeen Swim Team This summary document is designed to give you information about COAST and the objectives of competitive swimming in the Team. Jack Ness (GB Age Record Holder 50 Back) & Andrew McGovern (Scottish National Record Holder 50 Back)

2 Introduction The City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST) is the performance development platform for athletes in Aberdeen. We are a nationally recognised flagship organisation in Scotland created through public sector investment (Aberdeen City Council through Aberdeen Sports Village) / local communities (6 local development swimming clubs) and governing body support. The organisation operates via closely linked collaboration between the professional coaching staff and volunteer administrative and support staff to deliver a high quality environment that allows our athletes to express their creative talent physically through the pursuit of athletic excellence. At COAST, we place athletes in appropriate training groups for their age and skill level. We take pride in the fact that many of our swimmers move on to senior national and international success in the pool as well as achieving high levels of academic success out of the water. We value student athletes and aim to challenge them to excel in all areas of their lives. Being a COAST athlete is more than just swimming. COAST athletes are part of a long tradition of success and achievement. COAST athletes are part of a team that promotes confidence, supports success and celebrates excellence. COAST athletes know that, Together, Everyone Achieves More! Programme of Adventures At COAST we not only deliver day to day training activities aimed at developing and readying our athletes for their competitive experience. We deliver to a wide demographic within the city aiming to promote, support and encourage lifelong involvement and participation in sport as well as encouraging healthy lifestyle choices. COAST Development Camps - Our camps programme delivers technical expertise to local children within the cities development clubs. Our camps are run by our professional staff with cooperation from local volunteer coaches and teachers. The camps have been used to as part of the Aberdeen Sports Leadership Academy to deliver support and development for young teens interested in volunteering. The ASLA has been awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark as an innovative and exceptional project that was directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The camps are also a great way for aspiring youngsters to interact with our top athletes. As part of the camp experience our senior athletes volunteer their time to help guide, motivate and inspire the youngsters, many of whom are just starting out within the sport. The camps are run throughout the year (Oct, April, and July) and give the youngsters advice on many topics including practical nutrition, functional preparation for activity, injury prevention techniques and lifestyle management tips. COAST Development Meets - With over 200 athletes competing together over three meets throughout the season COAST s Development Meets give youngsters the opportunity to come together and race in a safe, friendly and fun environment. Many of our top athletes started out their COAST experience competing with their friends at our Development Meets. 2

3 COAST Technical Clinics - As part of our drive to raise the quality of technical provision and improve the experience of youngsters within the sport we are currently engaged in delivering specific technical clinics within the cities 6 development clubs. Our coaching staff will deliver tailored sessions with the assistance of our top athletes who demonstrate the technical competences as well as discussing their own experiences within the sport. We are currently looking at the expansion of this project to deliver centralised clinics with outside expertise (World level coaching/swimming personalities) in order to further bolster the impact and quality of the delivery/experience. Competition Support We are fully geared towards supporting our athletes as they compete both nationally and internationally. We aim to make participation at this level accessible and rewarding and so support the travel, accommodation and meet arrangements of athletes at this level. We are a results focused organisation that fosters a TEAM ethos whilst being relentlessly focused on delivering ideal conditions for individual excellence. This means that we aim to deliver our athletes to national race venues with the best chance of achieving. We look to take care of the organisational and logistical vagaries in order to allow the athletes time and space to put into play their own self management and preparatory skills in order to execute their race plans successfully. Training Camps - As part of our age group programme our younger athletes have the opportunity to take part in a warm weather overseas training. This gives them the chance to experience a more intensive and focused training load and environment than they would experience throughout the school terms. This also allows the athletes to develop key skill sets as part of their ongoing development experience aimed at readying them for participation in our senior training programme and the national squads programme. Our top athletes are expected to participate in our overseas training camps as part of their yearly preparation and performance development. These camps take our athletes away from the daily impositions and stresses impacting their workload, rest & recovery patterns. This part of our athletic training programme is a recognised essential for athletes partaking in the volume and intensity of work required for success over prolonged periods. 3

4 PERFORMANCE SQUAD The COAST PERFORMANCE SQUAD has been set up with the aspiration to deliver a world class training environment senior athletes in the city. At present this includes the delivery of specialised and specific training programmes. Ongoing ancillary support services delivered in conjunction with Robert Gordon s University, The University of Aberdeen, Scottish Institute of Sport Network and other local service providers. Our Strength & Conditioning programme has led to a huge leap forward in the athletic development of our senior athletes and this has been borne out in results. Our athletes qualified for the British Olympic trials, finaled at British open championships, medalled at Scottish open championships. This year our athletes have set senior national records (Scotland) and 1 National Age Records (GB). This year we have Andrew McGovern qualify to Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games. Over the last 4 years the COAST programme has qualified 7 athletes to the Sports Scotland, Scottish Institute of Sport Network. COAST Our aim is to provide the best environment through access to the best facilities, coaching and support expertise allowing our athletes to train and compete against the best in the region on a daily basis. We aim to place athletes on Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic teams by delivering the basics better and by striving to innovate from within. Our current athletes hold 110 district records; overall the programme holds 70% of all North District Records, 35 National Age Group records and 7 National Senior/Junior Records. Our programme has developed Olympians. Both David Carry (Commonwealth Gold Medallist, Olympic Finalist) and Robbie Renwick (Commonwealth Gold Medallist, Individual Olympic Finalist) are swimming at the highest level having developed their skills with COAST. Our aim now is to deliver a programme capable not only of developing the next aspiring Olympic athletes of the nation but to have a programme capable of supporting them to the very top. World class athletes living, training and inspiring in Aberdeen Our aim is to deliver a programme that caters for local athletes at an international level as well as attracting positive role models to the city by creating an environment that the nation s top athletes will want to be part of and that our city, region and country will be proud of. 4

5 FACILITIES The programme has just moved into the world class ASV Aquatics Centre. Which boasts amongst its amenities; 10x50x25m Olympic Pool 6x25x16.5 Diving Pool Full outdoor synthetic athletics track Indoor Sprint Track Olympic Lifting Area 5

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