Congratulations
Adam Coote gained the silver medal in the Yorkshire Swimming Association Sprint championships in the 50m backstroke in a time of 34.55 secs. Well done, Adam.
Well done to the swimmers who attended the Harrogate AB Meet in April. Results can be found on the website. Also a photograph and report by Jackie Warner will be in the Courier this week
Important External Meet Changes
Unfortunately Jackie has just had notice that the programme for the Rotherham meet is full and no more entries can be accepted. Halifax will not now be represented at this meet. See Jackie for a full refund. The closing date for the City of Bradford and the Leeds Meets has now been brought forward. Make sure Jackie has your entries by 10th May.
Teacher changes
We say farewell and thank you to Jane Woodcock who has to leave us for personal reasons. We welcome Chloe Bottomley who helps Brenda and has just passed the level 2 qualification for teaching swimming. Chloe now takes the newly formed Group 1A at 8.00p.m. on Thursdays.
Disqualifications
There were lots of disqualifications in gala 2. Why does this happen?
We are a competitive swimming club, which is a member of The Amateur Swimming Association and as such have to abide by the rules of swimming. All the officials on poolside are there to ensure fair play throughout the competition. Learning the rules of swimming takes a long time, especially for breast stroke, and children who have only recently joined the club have not had many opportunities to do this. We look upon 25m races as novice events and as such are fairly lenient, only making a disqualification for very basic errors. Once the children are entering events of 50 m and above we have to uphold the rules of the competition. If the swimmers have not learned how to swim 2 lengths with correct strokes and turns, they are at a disadvantage and are more likely to make mistakes, which will be spotted and result in the referee deciding to make a disqualification.
If your child has a training session in groups 1, 1A and 2 please select entries wisely. If in doubt, talk to Brenda or Chloe. Children in groups above these ought to be able to cope effectively with the strokes and turns.
If your child is disqualified in a race please ask the referee for an explanation. Don’t worry. Children learn from their mistakes and if they can do that at club level they are much more likely to do things correctly when they enter outside galas. After all, our galas form part of their training.
