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County Championships 2018 - Reports and Highlights

The last two weekends has been full of outstanding swims from the Matlock Swimmers. I could list the results but Mr Bowler will be very busy with his pink highlighter pen with all the personal best swims, all times and results will be on the notice board very soon. Both myself and Gary were very proud to see the clear improvements in technique and skills, we still have a lot to do but we are so much better than we were this time last year. The swimmer’s dedication this year, has clearly been demonstrated in their performance.  Isabelle Lester gained two Midland and District qualification times, the first official times Matlock have had in two years, a brilliant achievement and definitely down to her own personal dedication hard work and attitude. I think we all had our hearts in our mouth for Miles, impressive and brave and stunning 200m Fly we now have a Derbyshire Champion in the club. Ben and Freya had a brilliant 400m fc with super paced races, gaining themselves a sliver medal. Freya also secured a silver in 200IM. Toby arrived back off holiday late Saturday evening, to swim a text book perfect 200m br gaining a silver medal. Abbie won two bronzes medal. We got numerous 4,5,6 and finalist. Rory Burch was making finals in nearly all his events. I would mention all swimmers but I’m bound to miss someone out. Along with the smooth, came the rough but as normal Matlock do what we do best, we laughed smiled and turned every negative into a positive, when you’re on poolside for 12 hours a day we need a laugh, we now all know how to count to 16, tighten the trunks and stay still on the blocks. Mistakes happen to us however good we are. Being able to get out, smile laugh and still get personal best times is what really makes you all such incredible athletes. Learning is all part of winning. Losing is all part of winning. None can win all the time. 

The team work on poolside and general poolside love has been the best, we have completed a significant amount of physics GCSE homework, Tom kindly explained algebra to the other younger swimmers, we had plenty of maths working out split times. We had some good old fashioned traditional games going on, hangman, squares and some interesting portrait drawing of Freya. Also a team cross word and the ipad and ipod crew.  Alongside the educational activities Matlock proved to be equally as good at dancing as swimming, only thing missing was the two Matthews, Mat Borat twerking and Matthew Williams Choreographing, Eleanor and Lucas lead by example on the YMCA and cha cha slide. Erin excelled in her hairdressing skills, Elisa and Hannah took their first Derbyshire Championships in their strides. To celebrate the finishing of the Derbyshires we walked to McDonalds for a healthy well deserved celebration especially for Abbie and Hannah as this was pretty much a first time experience for them. Obviously we took careful care of the vegetarian requirements, Callum, Toby enjoyed their fish fillets. What did impress us was that there wasn’t a French fry left out of 16 swimmers Matlock swimmers can eat.  We want to thank the parents for their support both on and off poolside. The children have had an absolute ball and reached goals we could only wish for at the beginning of the swimming year. They have excelled. Well done all. On a final note, Gary all 22 swimmers agree with me the Harry Potter glasses are not cool.

Best Girls Performance Derbyshire Champs
Freya Leister – for gaining a personal best time in every event (except one but 50m fly doesn’t count ☺ )

Best Boy Performance Derbyshire Champs
Rory Burch – for transforming into a mini Micheal Phelps .

Well done all
Diane and Gary #proudcoaches

£157 raised for RideforCharlie

After a great evening with the Chimp 4 Charlie we hope you all enjoyed the experience, it was great to do something as a group and be actively involved. I apologise to any parent who would have liked to come, Tim only invited parents 10mins before the start and the space was limited. We had a full room and the children were really engaged. If you take nothing more from the presentation please remember to have fun and work not only hard on the physical aspect of sport but also build the ability to win well and lose well. Charlie Craig had no fear of failure and everything was fun. Be passionate, be focused and talk to your coaches if you need them. We have great kids and talent, however your goals are your own, make them happen. Get yourselves up for morning training, want to be there and SMILE. 

We raised £157.00 any other donations can be added here https://www.rideforcharlie.com/donate/

View photos here.
Photo Credit to Gary McCaffery

ASA fees for 2018 due

Please be advised that your ASA fees for 2018 are now due. These fees cover the ASA insurance that the club purchases on your behalf to provide insurance whilst swimming both during lessons and at galas.

The fees for 2018 are as follows:
- Teaching Pool (TP, TP1, TP2, TP3 and TP4) = £20.00 per swimmer
- Main Pool (Dev 1,2,3, Juniors, Club 1,2,3 and Masters) = £35.00 per swimmer

We kindly request that you arrange payment of the ASA fees to MAD  Swimming Club by Saturday 10th February 2018.
Payment should be made by bank transfer to Sort Code 60-01-33, Account No. 80698174 with the reference as follows:
‘[Swimmers initial and surname] ASA’
i.e. ‘A Smith ASA’.

For families with multiple swimmers, we would ask that you reference the surname and initials of all swimmers that the transaction covers.

Should you be unable to arrange payment by bank transfer, please bring cheque or cash to Rachel or Charlotte who will be in the Blueberry Café on Tuesday and Sunday evenings. Should we not be available and payment is by cheque, you can, should you wish, leave this in the MAD Swimming box at the Arc reception. We would ask that cash is not left in this box.

Please ensure that payment is made by 10th February 2018.

Should you have any queries regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact Charlotte Booker either by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 07824 507475 (evenings).

Many thanks

Charlotte

Club Championship Results 2018

Well done to everybody who took part in the Club Championships, it's always great to see you all competing in a friendly atmosphere.

Results are now available, check your times and see if you can beat them next time!

View Results

And don't forget the awards ceremony will be held at Rollerworld this year, so get your skates on if you want to go.  Limited numbers only.  Book your ticket here.

Target Open Meets

Below are a list of the Major Open Meets, we plan to attend. We stress these are club events that swimmers should be entering and competing in. We would like to see more swimmers racing at competitive level this year. If you struggle with entry time or filling out the form, please don’t hesitate to ask.

January 7th Ripley open meet Level3

January 20/21 Rotherham Metro Open Meet at Ponds Forge
February 17/18 Derbyshires

February 24/25 Derbyshires
May 6th Eckington open meet Level 3

June 9th Ripley open meet at Alfreton

June 24th Notts Northern open meet.

September 29 6th MAD open meet.

December 2nd Derbyshires at Ponds Forge.

This list has also been compiled on a new website page called Target Open Meets, which can be found in the Events section.
 
In addition to the above, other Open meets may occur, but are not necessarily club targeted events, therefore no dedicated coach will be attending.
League and Local galas will be on the notice board as normal, please tick or cross CLEARLY. Also if you cannot swim and have ticked your name, please contact someone, four swimmers ticked and failed to show up at the last gala, leaving relay teams and races unfilled and disappointed children as numbers were too short to make up relays. It also makes it hard for the volunteers that help out on poolside. Please just let someone know, so adaptations can be put into place.

5th MAD Open Meet Results

Thank you to everyone who came to the 5th MAD Open meet on 30th September 2017.  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who volunteered and gave up their day to make this such a huge success, without you all we couldn't have done it.

Well done to all the swimmers who took part, you we're all fabulous. 

A special well done to Tom Burch from Matlock Swimming Club and Chloe Quinn from Sutton Swimming Club who were awarded the Top Boy and Top Girl Trophy.

Full Results can be found HERE

The 2018 Meet is already booked so please save the date of 29th September. 

Keep an eye on the website for entry information, we hope to have this available in the spring of next year.

From all the MAD Team

Red faces - shorts - red nose day!

Club 2 and 3 raised £40 for Red Nose Day by swimming choosing to wear shorts for their training session on Red Nose Day.

Become a spotter and help our swimmers be safe

How would you like to help out when your son/daughter is swimming? You might save a life. Your Life Guard only has 2 eyes and with your help you double his/her vision. How do you do it? Simply, become a Spotter. You will need to attend a short meeting for a briefing on what is expected and you may even get to wear a special T-shirt. If interested please contact Marie Davey via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Gala Information - Derwent League Round 1

After the first round of the Derwert League we want to highlight a few points. The team spirit was great the atmosphere on poolside was a pleasure to be part of with all swimmers encouraging each other. With Lucas Bennett.s energy and dodgey pony tail bouncing around the whole teams mood was on a high.

The swimmers did brilliant with loads of personal best times and some stand out outstanding races. Top 3 swims go to Suzanna Fraiser, 100m fc 1.01 Jamie Everest 1.01 and Finn Everest 100m fc 1.07. We were really pleased with the younger end of the team too, even tho we weren’t winning everything we had a full team and the swimmers gave 100% so Well done everyone. Tom Burch, and Ellen Patton did a sterling job of team captains and kept the younger swimmers in check. The girls prep did involved a lot of hair plating, which I’m sure this made them more hydrodynamic. We came 4^th overall but 3^rd is definitely a goal we need to strive for. If we get 3^rd next time we promise a fun group relay session that you always ask for on a Friday evening.

Areas we can develop as a whole team are

-       Keep the basic rules in mind at ALL times

-       We were DQ for backstroke finishes too often

-       Come with race kit (not baggy training trunks) we don’t expect you to have the latest 300 pound suit, but some well fitted race trunks and costumes are essential. They will make you faster and you will feel faster.

-       Take some spare goggles

-       Wear your club kit

-       Warm up dry side before your race

-       Focus on your changeovers on the relays

-       Go into the race positive

-       Watch the older swimmers, watch other teams

-       Get feedback on your race off the coaches

-       Have a laugh but on the block get serious get focused and concentrate

-       Make sure your attendance at training is high

-       You cant except to perform if you don’t train properly and regularly

-       We all must work harder and be better at dives and turns!!!!

Lets not give away easy points!

Till next time – happy training

Di and Gary