Competitive Swimming Program
Bletchley and District Swim Club welcomes swimmers who would like to train and/or compete at swimming galas. We acknowledge that there are aspects of competitive swimming that might not appeal to all swimmers and we are quite happy for those swimmers to attend selected training sessions to continue improving their swimming ability and overall fitness.
The Coaches at Bletchley and District Swim Club provide a training programme that will encourage the swimmer to achieve their full potential, with emphasis on the refinement of technique in all four strokes, the development of competitive skills including starts and turns as well as the development of both basic aerobic swimming elements of endurance and speed swimming are integrated within the programme. Personal goals are used and encouraged and promote improvement of technique, fitness, endurance and times. Bletchley & District Swim Club also takes part in various open meets ranging from Novice through to County level swimming. All of our swimmers are encouraged to enter Open Meets under the guidance of our coaching staff to ensure they compete against swimmers of similar ability. All Competitive swimmers should keep their personal best times (PB's) up to date and this can be achieved through print outs from the club data base.
Our competitive squads are a natural progression on from the NATIONAL PLAN FOR TEACHING SWIMMING (NPTS) Level 7 – Pre-competition Development and focuses on the consolidation of effective stroke technique, racing skills and a suitable range of drills and practices.
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Competitive Squads Structure
Bronze Squad
The first step from Learn to Swim into the competitive arena within the Club. The bronze squad offers our younger swimmers the opportunity to develop the skills learnt on their strokes and move into swimming longer distances and to begin to compete. They will have the chance to learn correct start and turns for all strokes whilst developing the strokes to a more advanced level. Aim is to compete initially in Novice gala’s, level 3 open meets and where qualified to, compete in the County Championships in a stroke over a couple of distances.
Silver Squad
Seen as a natural progression from the Bronze squad, ability is judged against the competitive sprint awards, once achieved the standard required then an increase in the water time together with the opportunity to work to gain more advanced technique within the strokes and turns. Increasing the distance covered per week assists with the stamina and aerobic ability of the swimmers. Aim to compete more fully in open meets to Level 2, more gala’s and aim to qualify to compete in the County Championships in a variety of strokes and distances.
Gold Squad
The final move on the progressive ladder within the club. Greater water time meaning more distance but also further advancing the skills required to compete at a higher level involving aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Movement to this squad is on achieving the correct age and also judged against the Competitive sprint awards. The aim for this squad is to compete fully in the County Championships in a variety of strokes and distances, but with some element of specialisation within the older age range.
Platinum Squad
Swimmers from all squads are considered to become part of the Platinum squad, this will give all those selected an additional 2 hour training session on a Saturday morning, this is more intense and covers more skills and a greater distance, giving more impact on the swimmer. The morning swim is for those identified as showing the potential and also the ability to progress in the competitive swimming arena.
The process for progression between the squads is as follows:
The minimum requirement prior to anyone being invited to move up to the silver squad from Bronze squad is:
Reached the age of 9 years old
3 Bronze awards all in different strokes
2 County qualifying times
Exceptions can only be made at the discretion of the Head Coach.
The minimum requirement prior to anyone being invited to move up to the Gold Squad from Silver Squad is:
Reached the age of 13 years old
200 IM Gold sprint award
3 further gold awards in at least 2 strokes and varying distances, ideally one 50/100/200
3 County Qualifying times.
Exceptions can only be made at the discretion of the Head Coach.
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Squad Training
All our competitive squad training takes place at:
Leon School & Sports College
Fern Grove
Bletchley
MK2 3HQ
We provide the following squad session times:
Bronze Squad - chance to swim 2 sessions out of the 3
Monday - 19:00 - 20:00
Tuesday -19:00 - 20:00
Thursday - 18:30 - 19:30
Silver Squad - all nights available
Monday - 19:00 - 20:30
Tuesday -19:00 - 20:00
Thursday - 18:30 - 20:00
Gold Squad - all nights available
Monday - 20:00 - 21:30
Tuesday -20:00 - 21:00
Thursday - 19:30 - 21:30
Platinum – relevant squad session plus this one
Saturday - 08:00 - 09:30
Our competitive sessions run through out the year, except for the following times:
Public bank holidays
The Month of August
Two weeks at Christmas
Our sessions do not operate a on a term basis once you are a fully paid up member of the squad you are automatically entitled to continue to swim whilst you remain a fully paid up member.
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Training Fees
These are broken down into two parts a monthly fee and an Annual membership fee. The Annual membership fee covers registration to the Amateur Swimming Association for Insurance purposes.
The monthly fee for competitive squads are shown below:
Bronze - £13 per month
Silver - £15 per month
Gold - £15 per month
Platinum - £20 per month
The Annual Membership fee is due in January each year and cost £25 per Swimming member. We do have a family membership, details can be obtained from the membership secretary.
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Joining
If you require any additional information or wish to join please contact Chris our Membership Secretary who will only be too pleased to answer any questions or arrange a visit for you, so we can assess the swimmers ability if necessary, to ensure that we invited them to attend the correct session. Use the link below to contact the Membership Secretary:
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Club Records
The club runs an electronic data base which holds all the times achieved by our swimmers at competitions. This is used to record individual personal best times, monitoring improvements and recording club records.
Club records can be claimed by members in accordance with the following document:
Claiming Club Records Document
The links below show the club record holders for short or long course pools:
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