URGENT NOTICE TO FRIDAY TRIATHLON MEMBERS

Written by

11th August 2019

 

Dear Vikings Triathlon member

 

The Vikings Committee has undertaken a recent review of the squads and lane usage to ensure that the Club is covering the costs of lane hire and coaching.

 

The Friday Triathlon session is currently running a significant financial loss particularly over the Summer months. To allow the Friday Triathlon sessions to continue there needs to be enough Triathlon swimmers on subscription and it is no longer financially sustainable for swimmers to “pay as you swim”. There is an opportunity to swim on a Wednesday 7-8pm and Sunday 5-6pm if you are unable to swim on a Friday or the Friday Triathlon session is discontinued; this would be open to those on subscriptions.

 

The Committee have decided to add an adult lane on a Wednesday 7-8pm which will have a session written by a coach and supported by one. This lane will swim alongside masters and is not masters level. Although, if you are suitably able to join them you may.

 

The Committee therefore needs to be able to have in place by 31st August 2019 enough regular subscriptions from triathlon members to allow the Friday session to continue. If we do not have enough subscriptions by this date there will be no further Vikings Friday Triathlon session unless there is enough interest and subscriptions in the future to re-start.

 

Fees for a weekly swim is £15 per calendar month and twice weekly £28 per calendar month  and annual membership fee is currently £25 a year and needed for registration with the ASA and insurance purposes..

 

Those Triathlon members who are not currently on subscriptions and/or not paid the annual membership fee please arrange by contacting Jane Bussey ( finance@norfolkvikings.co.uk)  if you would like to continue being able to swim on a Friday Triathlon session. Please could you also indicate in the event the Friday session is discontinued whether you would swim another session or cancel your subscription. If a response is not received, it will be assumed that you no longer wish to swim with Vikings. For those who have not completed membership details and category 1 form this is also required if you wish to swim with Vikings. These documents are also attached.

 

If you have any questions about these changes please contact Vikings Chair Sarah Buchan or Committee Member Becky Horne. If there are questions about the subscription set up please contact Treasurer Jane Bussey.

 

An update will be communicated in the first week of September to confirm the sessions available to Triathlon members after this time.

 

Yours sincerely

 

North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Committee

LEAD COACH REQUIRED

Written by

North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Club, based in north Walsham, Norfolk, is seeking a Lead Coach to join their team. NNVSC is a competitive club affiliated to swim England. It competes in the Est Region and provides a learn to swim programme through to performance squads and masters. This is a relatively small club, nevertheless delivers good results at competitions and has a great ethos of working hard from the swimmers, coaches and committee.

The swimmer’s performance results are improving as are the numbers and there is the potential for a motivated Lead Coach to take the club to the next level. The club would like to continue to develop its offering to all swimmers and develop them technically from a young age, to propel them to a successful swimming career and a lifelong love of the sport.

The Lead Coach will work with a devoted, motivated and enthusiastic coaching team to develop the club further. The successful candidate will have excellent communication (written/ verbal) and management skills, the ability to positively inspire confidence and motivate the swimmers to be the best that they can be. Candidates will preferably be ASA coach qualified with a willingness to work towards their higher-level coaching qualifications or have already completed their higher-level coaching badge (formerly level 3). A mentor programme can be put into place for less experienced coaches.

The hours are to be agreed but will include evening training sessions, weekend training, attendance at weekend competitions and necessary administration. The skills and qualifications to deliver dry-land training would be advantageous. The Lead Coach has a key role at the Club in supporting the Club ethos to encourage children, and young people at all levels of ability and achievement to enjoy and benefit from swimming. The position will require working within the coaching setup, reporting to the Committee, providing leadership to swimmers, coaches, volunteers and parents to facilitate swimmers reaching their full potential.

Main responsibilities (not exhaustive):

  • To set direction and performance targets for all Performance Squads, specifically relating to the continuation of an effective squad structure in conjunction with the Coaching team that feeds in to the Performance Squads.
  • Provide a committed and professional approach towards coaching and supporting ALL swimmers to reach their full potential. Facilitate setting individual goals, outlining appropriate training and competition plans for those swimmers qualifying/aspiring to county, regional, and national competitions. Communication with parents / guardians to support the above.
  • Actively encourage members to take part in competitions and put effective processes in place to monitor and understand the reasons for changes in participation levels.
  • To continue the existing scientifically based annual training and competition programme based around the principles of long-term athlete development with ongoing refinement and improvement of the same. Prepare or oversee the preparation of training session plans for the performance squads and allocate water time to the squads accordingly.
  • Monitor swimmers’ progress and co-ordinate swimmer transition within the squad structure (in conjunction with the other squad coaches), and relay information to relevant committee members in a timely manner.
  • Working with the coaching team, oversee the selection of swimmers for Club competitions (including relay events at county/regional championships) and ensure distribution of team lists giving ample notification to members.

 

NNVSC Committee

WARWICK THOMPSON GALA REVIEW FEB 2019

Written by

Congratulations to out team of swimmers who competed at the weekend in Thetford at the Warwick Thompson gala. Six of our junior swimmers represented the club in the norfolk event against the other local county clubs and achieved 13 personal best (PB) times between them.

Florence street Swam a great first race for the club racing the 200m backstroke in 3:45.86, dropping her PB from 4:02 to take second place in her age group. Florence also secured PB times in the 50m breast, 50m backstroked swam another brilliant 20 second PB in the 200m breastroke! This placed her 5th in her age group.

Maddie Wicks placed 12th in the 50m freestyle, lowering her PB to 42.32 from 44.10. She also placed sixth in the 100m breast in the same session in another PB six seconds faster than her original best time.

Maisie Fagan competed in the 50m freestyle event where she swam the race in 45.12, a best time by 6 seconds – well done on a great performance!

Raphie Horne morris swam in multiple events over the course of the two days, starting with the 200 IM on Saturday morning, in a strong PB time of 3:26 from 3:31. Her highlight was a gold medal in the 50m backstroke event finishing in 42.43! Well done to her on this performance.

Sam Morton had some great results over the weekend, finishing second in his first event: the 50m backstroke. Sam completed the race in 48.06, which was a four second PB. In the 50m freestyle event he also finished 5th.

Congratulations also to Matilda Gibbons who secured 6th place in the 50m Fly.

Well done team on a great weekends racing! Now its the turn of the senior swimmers this weekend at the UEA Long course meet. Keep up the great work everyone!

2019 County Championships Review

Written by

13 swimmers represented the club at the annual Norfolk ASA County Championships held at the UEA sport spark over 3 weekends in January and February. The swimmers results included 31 top 8 positions and finals, as well as 10 medals including 3 bronze, 1 silver and 6 Gold’s.

The championships marked the first long course meet within the 2018/2019 racing season, as well as the first time racing in a 50m pool for some of our younger swimmers. The team pulled together well, with the older swimmers leading dry land warm ups before pool warm ups for races, and encouraging one another before and after races.

Joseph Hollick started the racing with the 200m freestyle event producing a strong swim in 3:11.18, converting to a PB from a long course swim. This placed him 13th in the 10/11 year age group. Five of the girls then raced the 100m backstroke. Abi Gotts secured 1:17.77 in her swim beating her short course PB, securing a position for the final and finishing 6th, along with Natalie Claxton who placed third in her age group, achieving third in the final also. India Weston also placed 4th in the open age group, securing 6th overall in the final.

In the afternoon session 6 swimmers raced the 200m Freestyle, where Emily Haslam achieved 1st place in the 15 year age group in a time of 2:16.80 to equal her short course PB. Abi Gotts placed 7th; India Weston 4th; Leah Harris 12th;Steph Claxton 12th and Alanya Shaw 18th. The girls were then faced with a tough challenge of the 200m individual medley shortly after the 200m freestyle, and we saw India Weston achieve the bronze medal in the open age group. Natalie Claxton had a great swim beating her short course PB and taking 5th place in 2:59.60, with Abi Gotts also placing 5th.

The next session included the 400m freestyle event, where Emily Haslam achieved second place just 0.1 seconds behind first, in 4:53.40. Later that session she went on to win the 100 freestyle in 1:01.87. Other finalists included Abi Gotts who came 4th. Congratulations also to Raphaelle Horne-Morris and Natalie Claxton who both equaled their short course PB’s in this event. In the afternoon the girls raced the 50m freestyle event, with Ella Haughan-Zelos achieving a PB in 36.70. Katy Colman also PB’d in a strong performance placing her 16th. In the afternoon the girls all swam well in the 50m fly, where we saw 7 swimmers achieve a PB, including Florence Street racing this event for the first time in the 50m pool. This was a great performance and a reflection of the work they have done on this stroke in recent months.

The final day of the meet occurred on Sunday 10th Febraury having been re-scheduled from the 27th of January after maintenance issues. It had been a long championships for the swimmers and the last day saw Natalie Claxton secure the gold medal in the 50m backstroke final in a strong swim, taking the race by half a body length. Isaac Buchan had a fantastic swim in the 100m freestyle, securing a 3 second PB in 1:31.55. Ruby Tracey swam the 200m breastroke, finishing 6th in the 14 year age group in 3:14.23. She swam the race very smartly and with a good stroke, showing improvement from recent months. In the afternoon Emily concluded the championships for the club taking the gold in the 100m fly in a PB of 1:10.85.

Congratulations to everyone who competed, everyone swam well and are looking promising for the season ahead. Well done to Emily Haslam and Leah Harris on achieving regional qualifying times, and thankyou to the team managers for their assistance during the competition.

”Bag”-tastic effort at Morrisons

Written by

Well done and thank you to all the swimmers and volunteers who gave up there time to pack shopping bags at Morrisons in Cromer today. A massive £340 was raised to bolster club funds.

Chairmans welcome Jan 2019

Written by

I’d like to say thanks to the Committee for electing me to the role of Chairman of North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Club.

I’m looking forward to helping to continue to support the great club we have developed for our swimmers. The committee meet every 4-6 weeks and ensure we have everything in place for a successful and safe club. If you ever have any questions or concerns please do speak with any of us or the helpdesk team.

For anyone who doesn’t know much about me… Myself and husband Spike help out coaching Development, Squad 4 and Squad 3. We also both swim and still compete in Masters for the club. Our two children Isaac and Noah swim in the club and have done since we moved to Norfolk. I retired from the Royal Navy in 2015 and have since been working in business consultancy and running my own Swim School. I have been a swimming teacher for nearly 30 years, a coach for 15 years and I tutor new teachers for the Swimming Teacher’s Association.

My focus is to continue the good work of the club, ensure our swimmers meet their aspirations and ensure we are in the best position to continue. For this I ask you all to support in any way you can. Be that paying subs and getting gala entries in on time, answering calls to help at galas, lane coach or officiate. We’re of course always looking for support however there are currently a number of important vacancies – if you’re not already regularly helping please do come and talk with me about where you could come help out even if that’s for just an hour a week.

See you at the pool soon, Sarah

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” Michael Phelps, most decorated Olympian of all time

Fixtures Diary Dates

Written by

To All Swimmers,

The start of the New year and we have a number of galas over the next few months which i wanted to update you all with.

Dates for your Diary

We have two team galas for our younger swimmers this year.

The first one is on Saturday 6th April at UEA in the afternoon and for ages 9 to 12  with age at date of gala. Our coach will be selecting our team over the next few weeks.

The 2nd one is on Saturday 15th June again for ages 9 to 12 years  with age at gala.

If you know you will be away for the April date as its the first saturday of the Easter holiday please can you let your squad rep know. This will help the coaching team when selecting swimmers.

Fixtures List

This will shortly be added to our website which is currently being updated, you will be able to see all other dates.

Entry Forms Now available for the following  3 galas.

Warwick Thompson Memorial Gala– level 3 25 m 23rd and 24th February at Thetford ,

Only swimmers with times slower than qualifying times are allowed to enter. Age at 31.12.19

£5 per event

Admin Fee £3 per day £5 per weekend.

Closing date for entries Wednesday 16th Jan. 

Suitable for squads: 2,3,4

Norwich Swan Open Meet  30th/31st March ages at 31.12.19 level 3 meet short course (25m)

See meet info for cut off times.

£4.50 per event.

Admin fee £3 per day £5 per weekend.

Spectator fees- £3 per session or £5 per day

Closing Date Wed 23rd Jan .

All squads

CoNSc Easter Meet – Level 1 long course (50m) 19th-21st April

Age as at 31.12.19

£7 per event

See info for qualifying times.

Spectators £8 per day £20 per weekend.

Closing Date Wed 23rd Jan.

Squads 1,2,3

All entry forms can be submitted to Club Desk at Victory or by email to fixtures@norfolkvikings.co.uk.

Please note different closing dates on the galas.

If you need any help regarding entries please ask at club desk or your squad rep.

Regards

Sandra Claxton

Fixtures Secretary

NNVSC 2018 update

Written by

 

With 2018 drawing to a close it’s a time of reflection for everyone on the year that’s past and the North Norfolk Viking’s Swimming Club is excited to announce this year has been it’s most successful ever recorded with a huge number of achievements from all of our swimmers. At the beginning of the year we sent a team of 23 swimmers to the Norfolk ASA County Championship and secured double the amount of medals from 2017, bringing back 45 in total. We also secured more regional qualifiers then ever before with six swimmers achieving times to compete in the ASA Eastern Region Championships, and to top it off the club made history with two swimmers competing at the open British championships in Edinburgh.

We are a competitive swimming club based in North Walsham and Aylsham, which caters for all ages and abilities from learn to swim up to national level and we are always on the look out for new swimmers in the area. We also cater for adults with a competitive masters section. If you’re interested in your child learning to swim in 2019 and also becoming a part of a friendly community and making friends for life then do not hesitate to contact me on adam.crafer@me.com, or contact us on this page. As a club our swimmers always come first and we focus on nurturing young individuals to become the best swimmers they can be, and teach them how to apply a positive mindset to their training, which hopefully they will carry with them into education and their future. Whether your child wants to simply learn to swim, swim for fitness or compete to the highest level they can we would love to have them on board with us in the new year!

Happy New Year to all of our swimmers, parents, coaching staff and committee members!

Adam
NNVSC Head Coach

Annual General Meeting

Written by

Our Annual general meeting is on Sunday 12th November 6.00pm at the Victory centre.

All are welcome, we would like to encourage all involved to take the opportunity to raise any concerns, also anyone wishing to volunteer or become a committee member would be very welcomed.

 

Coaches Report October 2017

Written by

The weekend of the 29th of September/1st October gave stage to both Cambridge & Dereham to host the start of the 2017/2018 competition season for the Vikings  swimmers, all stepping up to challenge after an anxious wait, all achieving some good solid results, as well as PB times and medals.

The Cambridge open was a level 2 meet attracting clubs from all over the uk. The competition was incredibly tough with times achieved over the weekend being of a very high standard. The morning session began with the 200 freestyle events for both the girls & the boys.

Dylan White finishing in a time of 2:44.93 achieving 9th in his age group, Abi Gotts finishing 12th & Immy Horne Morris 17th. There was a short break before the second session started. Both Dylan White & Illor Gjoka were swimming next in the 100 freestyle both achieving a personal best time. Bethany Toyne, up next in the 200 backstroke & swam a great race swimming consistently and showing a  massive improvement to her stroke & underwater work of each wall to finish in 10th place in her age group and beating a previous PB by 3 seconds, proving that all the hard work on her training in previous months does pay off.

Other sessions included the girls 100 fly, taking part was Mollie Smith & Alanya Shaw finishing 26th/35 & 37th/51 respectively. Abi Gotts also had a good race in the 50 Breastroke equalling her PB & finishing 32nd/78 swimmers in the 11-14 years of age category.

Moving into the afternoon session, seven of our girls began with the 50 freestyle event six  finishing close to their PBs, Bethany Toyne achieving a personal best by almost half a second. Later Ilor Gjoka swam a great 100 breastroke narrowly missing out on a medal in the 11 years of age group.

Towards the end of a long day it was the turn of the girls to compete in the 200 breastroke, up first was Abi Gotts, swam a great race to finish 2nd place in her heat with a PB of 3:09.34 placing her 7th in her age group, Mollie White followed finishing 9th in her age group.

Day two setting the scene for some great swims from the team, Dylan White winning a medal in the boys 100 backstroke. Abi gotts also secured a top six finish in the 100 breastroke. Mollie Smith faced a tough challenge in the 200 fly showing real determination. Emilly Haslam also swam a good race leading her heat &  equalling her PB from last season in the 100 freestyle.

Also on the same Sunday there were ten Vikings competing in the annual Iceni meet Hosted by Dereham Otters, due to the event being oversubscribed our swimmers were limited to the events they were able to take part in. however they were determined to make the most of the day, producing some great results as well as ten medals.

In the junior section of the club, Raphaelle Horne Morris achieved personal bests in all her events. Sophie Mckee also had a great day improving on her previous 100 freestyle PB by 12 seconds, Natalie Claxton also taking 8 seconds of her previous 100 freestyle. The PBs didn’t stop there, Billy Life achieving PBs in all of his events improving on his 200IM time by 8 seconds.

A special mention for Leah Harris, achieving her first regional ,time in the 200IM also producing PBs & medals in all of her remaining events.

I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate Tilly Meyrick & Emilly Haslam who represented Norfolk at the National Inter counties competition held at Ponds Forge Sheffield on Sunday 8th October, this is an annual competition represented by every county in the UK. Both girls raced well in their respective age groups, Tilly Meyrick competing in the 100 backstroke going out hard & splitting in 31.52 turning well Tilly really attacked the second 50 to touch in 1:04.61 finishing 16th/37 in the 14/15 years of age group taking over a second of her previous PB. Continuing with her form Tilly led the team out on the first leg of the Medley breaking the 31.00 seconds for the first time.

Emilly Haslam Anchored the girls in the 12/13Years of age group for the medley relay team & splitting in a 29.81with her team finishing 11th/17 overall

To Summarise, North Norfolk Viking’s should be really proud of their achievements at both events & look forward to continued improvement. Well done to all.

Anyone Interested in joining North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Club Please Contact Kirsty Smith at dksmithlm@me.com