Counties - 94 Days!

Below you will find the events you can enter for the Counties;

Saturday 1st March, Session 1 (Morning)

*Female 4x50 Fc Relay (9/10)
*Male 4x50 Medley Relay (9/10)

Male 200 Bk
Female 50 Bk
Male 100 Brst
Female 200 Fc

Saturday 1st March, Session 2 (Afternoon)

Female 200 Brst
Male 50 Fc
Female 100 Fly
Male 100 Fly

Saturday 8th March, Session 3 (Morning)

Female 200 I.M
Male 50 Brst 
Female 100 Fc
Male 200 Fc

Saturday 8th March, Session 4 (Afternoon)

*Male 4x50 Fc Relay (9/10)
*Female 4x50 Medley Relay (9/10)

Male 100 Bk
Female 50 Brst
Female 200 Bk 


Saturday 15th March, Session 5, (Morning)

Male 100 Fc
Female 100 Bk
Male 200 I.M
Female 50 Fly 
Male 50 Bk

Saturday 15th March, Session 6, (Afternoon)

Female 50 Fc
Male 200 Brst
Female 100 Brst
Male 50 Fly
Female 200 Fly


*Subject to team selection. 

Please sit down with your little swimmers and take a look at the events. I will be creating a form for you (parents) to complete on the events you think your child/ren will be swimming, so we can start to think about the relay teams. 

Please remember we are expecting all Juniors to swim a minimum of 2 out of the 3 Saturdays!



Coach Rob

Team points after week 3!

Here are the current standings after week 3 (Revised)! 

Blue: 27
Red: 16
Green: 49
Yellow: 20

Green are stretching their lead into the far distance! The other teams need to start developing their comeback strategies!

There are 4 weeks left, so everyone must be pulling out all the stops for your team.

So far I have still only had 3 pieces of research on your team mascots - you can email them to me at guestrm@aston.ac.uk of bring them to me at any of my sessions to win some more points. 

Thank you Shyan for your piece on Rebecca Adlington, you won 5 points for the Red team!

Coach Rob

Counties - 98 Days!

As of tomorrow, there will be 98 days until the first day of the Counties competition!

Luckily for all you Orion swimmers, the Counties in the West Midlands takes place over three consecutive Saturdays in March - 1st, 8th and 15th. Back when I was a little boy, the Derbyshire Counties took 3 whole weekends, with each day not finishing until 9 or 10pm!

As this is another great opportunity for you all to get lots of race experience (not forgetting in a 50m pool!) myself and Ian have decided you are ALL required to swim in 2 out of the 3 Saturdays, in both sessions (so 4 sessions total). If you want to do all 3 days, even better!

There are usually 2 or 3 races you can enter per session, however I will be sending out a list of recommended swims for each session soon.

I will also be entering as many relay teams as possible! It would be great if we could get 2 teams for each relay race.

So, to try and get the ball rolling, I will have Loz email out a form which I'd hugely appreciate you filling in and returning to me at the first opportunity. This will help the Coaches put together who will be where and when (mainly for relay organisation).

Forgive our stern approach, however it is a plain and simple fact that we need all the Juniors to be getting involved in more races and competitions! Besides, having a large team at these events makes them so much more entertaining for everyone!

If your son/daughter is unable to swim at a minimum of 2 Saturdays, you will be required (as parent or guardian) to provide a suitable reason as to why not. Please be aware this may jeopardise your child's future in the Junior team/s.

Enjoy your weekend!

Coach Rob

Turns

Please take a look at a few videos below to see how you should be doing your turns!

The first video looks at the turns in a medley race i.e 100 IM / 200 IM. Please don't worry about the first back - brst turn where he uses a backwards roll! The breast stroke and butterfly turns are just the same as brst - fc. 

Next is a great example of a tumble turn, or as the Americans say - 'flip turn'. Notice what the swimmer does with her arms during the actual turn, and that she pushes off on her back, rotating as she does her fly kicks.  

Next is the backstroke turn. I found it difficult to find any good tutorial videos that worked in the blog, however it doesn't get much better than the 100m Olympic final in London. Watch right until the end for a slow motion replay. 

And finally, I thought I'd finish with some Michael Phelps highlights...

Remember, the devils in the detail! Look how close half those finishes were. He could have so easily come second many times. Only perfect practice makes perfect!

I hope you are all a little inspired!

Coach Rob

Team Mascot Research

So far I have had 2 great little articles from Daniel Hindle and Ellie Sibbald-Perkins, both from the Yellow team on the sprinter Cesar Ceilo, and how he inspires them as swimmers.  

I actually learnt from Ellie that he has in fact had operations on both of his knees, yet still fought to win the 50m Fly and 50m Freestyle in the 2013 FINA World Champs! 

They have earned 15 points together for the Green team for their effort, and being the first to respond to my request. Lets see some from the other teams please!

Coach Rob

Boldmere Open - Day 2

Day two of the open meet saw some more great swims. Almost all of the times over the weekend (irrelevant of a DQ or not) were PB's - 43 I Believe! This is great, however is not to come as a surprise - at this stage in a swimmer's career every swim they do should be a PB, other wise I'm doing something wrong!

Due to the number of disqualifications, the next few training sessions will be drilling in the basics even more to ensure all the Juniors can swim their races without making silly mistakes. This started tonight (Monday) and to be fair some good progress was made.

The Team Challenges/Relays will take place only when I am satisfied - no matter how long it takes!

Coach Rob

Boldmere Open - Day 1

Today saw 9 of our Junior swimmers competing in the competition. 2 of which, Niamh Bevan and Jodie Carreon, swam under City of Birmingham. 

The main emphasis of this meet for the Juniors was simply to gain experience in events most had never swam. It was good for all to set some benchmarks to see where they are at, and also to see first hand some high level swimming to motivate and inspire. 

We saw some great swims throughout the day, and even gaining few medals with great swims from Niamh, Jodie and Asha! 

Unfortunately the day also saw quite a few disqualifications due to a lack of basic skills in the pool. I cant stress how important what we work on in training is, especially the finer details! All the time and effort you invest in your swimming can be so easily thrown away when you ignore the foundations - correct turns, finishes etc.

Hopefully, in future open meets more swimmers will get involved in these sorts of competitions, adding valuable experience to their swimming and accelerating their progress. 

Tomorrow will see more swims from Niamh, Daniel Hindle, Maya Graves and Karnell Nune-Smith, hopefully with some more great swims!

Coach Rob

Team points after week 2!

So far, points have mainly been given out at the end of sessions to swimmers who Ian or myself have felt had gone above and beyond their normal standard of swimming, and impressed us! 

Blue: 19
Red: 14
Green: 32
Yellow: 18

Its tight for 2nd, but Green are slipping ahead into the distance! 

On Monday, lots of points will be going out will be awarded for the team games, so make sure you don't miss it! 

I would also like volunteers from each team to do some research on their Team mascot. If you can write a paragraph or two, describing what they have achieved, and more importantly, what inspires you about them, and then have a parent email it to me. You'll win even more points for your team for effort, content and appearance!   

Just a reminder:

Blue: Michael Phelps
Red: Rebecca Adlington 
Green: Cesar Cielo
Yellow: Rebecca Soni

Enjoy your weekend, and I'll see those racing at Boldmere tomorrow!

Coach Rob 

Boldmere Open Meet

Warm Up times are as follows (for both days):

Warm-up 08:00

Male: 08:00 - 08:20

Female: 08:20 - 08:50

Start 09:00

Warm-up 12:15

Female: 12:15 - 12:45

Male: 12:45 - 13:05

Start 13:15

 

All swimmers should be at the pool 15 minutes before the warm up session starts. Ensure you bring along plenty of warm kit to wear in between races, including shorts/trousers. If it is your first open meet, make sure you also have plenty of drinks and food for the day - however no sweets/fizzy drinks. Sandwiches, fruit and healthy snacks please. If you have any other questions don't be afraid to ask any of the coaches or older swimmers.

 

Junior Swimmers (and anyone else who wants one) will receive a Race Warm Up plan off me either at training or at the weekend.

 

Coach Rob

Starting next week...

As of Monday 18th November, we will be stretching for 15 minutes after all of my sessions. Ian may do the same, but this is tbc. I encourage as many of you to stay behind for this as it is hugely important in your progression as a swimmer.

However, this is not compulsory and if you need to get away for whatever reason then please don't worry.

We will also be doing a few team challenges on Monday to try and liven up the competition a little. Please do your best to attend, and if you have any team colours make sure you're wearing them! (This can include t-shirts etc to wear whilst stretching).

Coach Rob

 

Welcome to the Orion Junior's Blog!

Welcome!

I wanted to create somewhere that would give you, the swimmers, and just as importantly, the parents all the information you need on anything and everything going on at Orion.

Hopefully you will all find it very useful, and I welcome any feedback you have!