TRAINING
We offer a structured & progressive training programme which is designed to deliver excellent performance outcomes for local swimmers in line with Swim England’s Long-Term Athlete Development strategy. Our programme regularly produces many of the top performers in Wiltshire, and also at Regional & National level. We provide a very clear pathway that literally does allow our members to proceed “from paddling pool to podium”, and all within the one Club.
Training is provided 48 weeks of the year, and swimmers are allocated to one of our 3 squads depending upon their current ability:
- Fundamental Training Skills squad
- Higher Training Skills squad
- Performance Training squad
Progression through the squad structure depends upon commitment & achievement.
Fundamental Training Skills squad
Here we aim to develop the aquatic literacy to perform all 4 competitive strokes competently over whole lengths. Half hour sessions are offered in the late afternoon on:
- Tuesday at The Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham
- Thursday at Springfield Leisure Centre in Corsham
Regular attendance at one – or preferably both – of these sessions is essential to succeed.
Higher Training Skills squad
The aim here is to extend the range of skills & aerobic fitness to enable effective swimming training in lanes. Clearly, this is a vital step for participation in the Performance programme to become feasible. Hour long sessions are offered in the early evening also on:
- Tuesday at The Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham
- Wednesday at St Marys, Calne for Honours Group
- Thursday at Springfield Leisure Centre in Corsham
Regular attendance at both sessions is essential at this level.
Performance Training squad
This sophisticated programme delivers the conditioning training & pace work that allows our swimmers to perform, and ultimately excel, at County level & above. Sessions of between 1 – 2 hours each are held on evenings throughout the week:
- Tuesday at The Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham
- Wednesday at St Mary’s Leisure Centre in Calne
- Thursday at Springfield Leisure Centre in Corsham
- Friday at St Mary's Leisure Centre in Calne
These sessions are all swum in 25m pools, but for those that we deem ready, we also run Long Course training in the 50m pool at Bath University on Monday nights.
Regular attendance at as many sessions as possible is clearly essential at this level. We require a minimum commitment to 3 sessions per week for participants to stand any realistic prospect of keeping up.
Our dedicated & experienced Coaching Team all hold appropriate current Swim England Coaching & Teaching qualifications. Each training group or lane has its own regular Teacher or Coach to ensure that our swimmers progress consistently week by week. We expect a reciprocal level of commitment, interest & motivation from our swimmers in return.
The Head Coach is very happy to expand on this summary, if Club members or their parents need more information.