ASA East Region Minutes of the Technical Swimming Committee 25 th September 2013 Regional Office Kentford

Transcription

1 ASA East Region Minutes of the Technical Swimming Committee 25 th September 2013 Regional Office Kentford Present: Joan Wheeler - (JW) Board Representative Dave Metcalf (DM) Officials Representative Mike Rayner (MR) Specialist Chris Felce (CF) Specialist Ian Knight (IK) Cambridgeshire Simon Gee (SG) Bedfordshire Elaine Bowen (EB) Norfolk Dave Robinson (DR) Suffolk Representative Bryan Thompson (BT) Swimming Manager Mike Parker (MP) England Talent Apologies: Roger Howkins (RH) Licensing Officer Sacha Djefri (SD) Coaches Representative Mark Horrod (MH) Hertfordshire Representative BT offered apologies to Essex as he forgot to invite them. Minutes of last meeting: The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true record of the meeting. Matters arising: MR pointed out the Mike Parker should have been invited to this meeting to discuss Talent Camps. BT apologised for the oversight. Talent Planning: Mike Parker was invited to update the committee on plans for Talent Camps in the coming months/year. MP outlined plans for a beacon programme to be run at Basildon by ASA Talent featuring regional sessions supported by clubs and National Standard swimmers. Initial selections have been done and sessions could start very soon. Coaching will initially be done by Mike then Steve Hull from Braintree. Travel may be an issue for swimmers/coaches but will be looked at. Coaches would be welcome to attend. Potential to add Athlete Support and more Strength & Conditioning work. England National Programme-Phase1 Performance and Profiling Development Day scheduled for 13/10. Lead Skills Coach identified (Ben Negus COPs) Six Programme Coaches identified as well as Team Manager. World Class Potential/Podium athletes are excluded from this camp. MP outlined the aims of the camp and the structure of it and shared details of the timetable and other information. BT to circulate documents from MP when he receives them.

2 MP also outlined upcoming Coach Development Days and Pathway Alignment. MP asked that the Region pick up swimmers who do not make Phase 2. If possible to mimic the Phase 2 programme. There is a list of swimmers who can be invited to increase numbers to make it more feasible. England Talent would share the timetable etc and would source Physio support if needed. We would need to pay for the Physio and book Pool/Hall and think about paying Coaches. MP said such a session does not have to be LC as it should be skills based including wet and dry work. MP suggested Culford & St Felix as suitable venues. Committee thanked Mike for attending and allowed him to leave. Division of Labour: BT restated DR s desire to relinquish the role of Trophy Officer. No one present offered to take on the role. BT to send the job specification to the Office for the website and to ask Debbie to circulate around our counties & clubs. BT asked for volunteers to rake on roles around the running of events suggestion was for different Promoters for different events, effectively to put the lead for the event geographically closer. The committee agreed that BT should remain as the promoter for all events but can nominate a deputy. This gives a single point of contact for any issues. BT to compile a list of staffing requirements with brief job descriptions to be sent to Norfolk ASA to source staff for Winter Championships (2013) and Bedfordshire for the Youths (2014) 2013 Lessons (to be) Learnt/Feedback The introduction of a feedback form gave everyone an opportunity to give feedback be it positive or negative. Feedback is documented in Appendix A. National TSC meeting update: BT thanked IK for attending in his absence. IK had circulated a report on the meeting attached. Winter Championships 2013: BT to request purchase of lap cards from Management Board. Need to make sure we get odd and even. BT to produce job specifications for non-technical roles. BT questioned the relevance of B finals. Committee suggested BT discuss with SD. DM suggested that CF s address should be removed from the conditions and replaced with a generic address. 4x50m Mixed Freestyle relay to be introduced with a maximum 2 teams per club. Youth Championships 2014: 2014 Youth Championships to be held at Luton (now confirmed). Bedfordshire ASA to be asked to source support staff.

3 BAGCATs Championships 2014: BAGCATS to be held at UEA SportsPark. BAGCAT points will only be given for heats NOT for finals. Mixed Relays will be introduced. Discussion took place regarding locations of events. BAGCATs to remain located at UEA, Youths will be based at Luton, and Winters will alternate between the two. BT to pursue bookings through to Regional Inter-Counties: It was noted that Cambridgeshire had hosted in 2011, which had been out of sequence. The following hosting order was agreed: 2014 Essex, 2015 Hertfordshire, 2016 Norfolk, 2017 Suffolk, 2018 Bedfordshire, 2019 Cambridgeshire thereafter reverting to alphabetical order. BT suggested giving winners medals all agreed. In future gold medals will be ordered to be presented to the members of the winning team. JW presented suggested amendments to the Inter-County conditions. Committee were happy with the suggested amendments and will recommend their adoption. Winter Championships 2014: The 2014 Championships will be held at Luton AOB: Discussion took place regarding Long Course/Short Course qualifying times given that we are now running LC competitions. CF stated that SportsSys will not accept SC times into a LC meet so we are therefore stuck with having to use SC qualifying times. BT had had a request to change the closing date for Winter Championships to allow a meet to be eligible. The original date had been moved forward by 5 days, request was to move it back from the original date by 3 days. All agreed to move the date to 20 th November. Meeting closed at 22:30

4 Appendix A Lessons Learnt: Do not publish session times other than the first sessions of the day until the Monday before the event and then ensure they are only published in one place. Do not publish accepted entry lists publish as entries received instead this gives us scope to reject entries if we are over-subscribed. Job descriptions required for non-tech roles as well as a list of what they are. Publish warm-up procedures either as part of the programme or as a separate sheet to be issued to coaches. Doors to room with food to be kept locked until we are ready. Spectator overcrowding notices required that seats are for paying spectators only NOT for swimmers. Need to control costs prices have not changed for several years. Feedback: Comment Need to be able to get into changing room / onto poolside 30 minutes before warm-up All heats should be spearheaded First warm up should be for the first event even if it s a Relay Why can t the pool be used for swim down between heats/finals? We want swimmers to get into good habits so why not use the expensive pool time we have paid for? Have a longer break between heats/finals to allow a swim down Alex (commentator) is brilliant Good organisation went very smoothly Short break between finals/800 on Saturday large breaks on Sunday you should even out the programme There should be concessions for children Mum had to pay 6 a day so I could support my sister second week she won t be bringing me due to the price At 6 per seat you should ensure everyone gets a seat Who sets the pricing is it the ASA or East Region? Swimmers diving and practicing relay takeovers in sprint lanes when told not to. Swimmers entering water unsafely during warm up when others were in the water Lack of warm up procedures Swimmers entering pool during breaks ignoring announcements and instructions Reschedule events to balance out sessions and balance male/female swims over the 2 weekends Well run and organised Response This was addressed and we will ensure access is sorted for future events This was addressed after the first session Agreed this will be the case for future events The Committee feel everyone Coaches/Officials/swimmers & Lifeguards need a break. We will monitor the situation. Agreed we will feed this back to him Thank you it s nice to hear when we get things right We are looking at timings and the schedule of events for coming years The price has not changed for several years and the TSC feel 3 per session is very reasonable Unfortunately we cannot guarantee seats for everyone. There are still selfish parents who reserve seats for their swimmers this makes the situation much worse. Swimmers should NOT be in the gallery if they have not paid for a seat ASA East Region TSC sets the prices for our events. The sessions will be looked at to see if/how we can rebalance the sessions Thank you

5 Sessions seemed to run later than previous years Do we need 15 minute breaks between heats/finals when session was less than 1 hour? Do we need heats & finals when there are less than 8 competitors? Would it be possible to put the programme on the website to be printed off? Are there any plans to hold Championships at different venues? Commentator was excellent Missed the music for the finalists Projection of finalists onto big screen was very good Can we introduce a roaming camera to film winners of each race? Lunch very good very good portion sizes Boiled sweets for officials on poolside very well received Consider putting presentations midway through session 8 and follow up with relays A little more rotation of officials would be nice. Partially down to numbers, partially down to miscommunication of warm up times in different documents both issues will be addressed 15 minute breaks gives everyone a comfort break and allows some recovery time for swimmers. This will be looked at by the TSC The programme is one of the Regions income streams it is unlikely that it will be put on line. The current plan is to hold BAGCATS at UEA Norwich, Youths at Luton and alternate Winter Championships between the two. Thank you we agree The music was removed due to the length of several of the sessions. We will constantly look at introducing more innovations We will constantly look at introducing more innovations Agreed the catering was very good Good We will review the programme We will feed this back to our Officials organiser Many thanks for the feedback. By letting us know what you think we can review the events and make them even better. ASA Technical Swimming Committee Sunday 8 th Loughborough East Region notes: 1) Volunteering: Neil Booth Survey, March volunteers registered of which 1697 licenced. Then in March registered at Judge Level 1 and above this is up 28% on Also 3103 registered which is up 80%. Officials and volunteers are experiencing better than ever rises year on year. Conclusion is recruitment is ok with a retention or lifespan of 4-6yrs swimming life. The vast majority drop out when siblings finish. The role of the swimming manager is to budget and co-ordinate. It costs 18 to be a registered official, questions were asked as to who pays. Main areas of concern were funding for officials with 23% of responses siting cost, other areas were, not enjoyable, intimidating, happy volunteering not interested in being an official, 23% nothing, 20% lack of info. Officials: 40% are parents, 11% expenses ease, 2% better parking, 2% detailed event info. 23% of volunteers and officials use website weekly 29% use it monthly. Motivations: back into sport, back into club. Change? Certificate for officiating at ER / County. Delivery of CPD s OK? Mentoring CPD? Referee Training? Buddying System once qualified? Build confidence of officials? Mentoring / resources tool on website soon?

6 Should there be rewards for Officials? How do we value Officials? Bring in a programme of incentives for the young? Complaints - Poor communication / Expenses consistent / Level 2 and above meets stating that you cannot claim if you are a parent of a participating child? Kit cost is expensive? An idea might be to give a personal thank you for officials? 2) Event Volunteer Program trained for management roles for running events. Now 20 candidates. Training days 4-5 per year. Apply: by an interview process. Might be useful to roll out regionally? 3) LTAD officer seeking to employ Oct-Nov2013 reporting to performance director. Competition review by British Swimming. No changes from 2010 until delivered. Only change 14 year old girls. 4) Training Plans Talent Directorate 9 stage pathway tiered funding (a) Profiling (b) Education Development (c) International exposure (d) Club visits, coach mentoring, athlete development plans 3 strands of coach development, will provide an information day / 3 education weekends / performance development program. Beacon programme performance element / coach appointments / selections / deliver education and support / measure and review / coach key contact. Clarify who is responsible to report? Who is in charge of resources? Pool time / coaches when identify swimmers having a pathway both regionally and nationally to allow swimmer to improve on an agreed programme. 5) TSC Zonal two year program, no plans or guarantees this will continue beyond this. Automatic qualification times are set nationally, the regions to set consideration times. No medals will be provided from the ASA. Each zone will need to fund find their own. May still be able to buy enough in one order nationally and then divide out. ASA used Midland Supply ltd 3.45 each. Relay events are age as at National event. Closing date 1 st July for entry. After the Open water regional event, then entry for swimmers to nationals via will be via a pro-forma event entry form. This must be completed to enter swimmers into the National event. There are plans to have another open water swimming event at British Swimming level. If Regions change the dates of their Championships then they must be moved forward not back especially in terms of Relays! Ian Knight Acting Swimming Manager 8 th September 2013