Kia ora to all of the Swim Rotorua Whanau
April has certainly been another busy month for us at all levels as we have had athletes competing in
and out of the pool.
Within this newsletter coaches will be providing you with all the necessary results however we must
acknowledge our team who went to NAGS in Wellington bringing home 4 national medals. It is tough
to qualify, tough to final and exceptional to medal. Special thanks to our team managers Pauline,
Marguerite and Jo whom took leave and juggled their own commitments in order to provide a well
nurtured team.
We must once again acknowledge Smart Environmental who continues to be great supporters of our
club. The sweatshirts look great and the athletes are enjoying wearing them.
The pool development is still at relatively early stages. Information to hand is concentrating on the
roof system being the initial area to be improved. It is understood to be in very poor condition and
leaks. We will continue to keep you informed as we get the relevant information – it has been
mentioned in the long term there may be some temporary closure of the outdoor pool.
In this newsletter we would like to thank the CLM staff who accommodate us in many different ways
and often go out of their way to make our time at the centre seamless.
We would like to thank you all for being part of the Swim Rotorua whanau and we are looking
forward to supporting your swimmer at all the different levels.
The Swim Rotorua Board take the welfare of athletes seriously and we are in an era of compliance
and increasing regulation. Your board over 2018/2019 has wanted transparency and clarity and as a
result we are currently reviewing a number of policies including our Child Protection Policy and our
Health and Safety Policy. If you have a particular skill or interest in these areas or wish to be part of
this project please contact us. Upon completion these will all be available in a folder in the clubhouse
for all to see.
Have a great Autumn, stay healthy and warm. If you have any issues at all please contact me or the
Board. It’s always great to get feedback
Ka kite anō au i a koutou
Monica Quirke,
Chair Swim Rotorua
Welcome to SQUAD NEWS — May 2019
SQUAD NEWS
Funding: Huge thanks to Lottery Bay of Plenty / Gisborne Community for supporting our Club with a grant. This
allows us to continue our community work, especially our work with schools and our high standards of
coaching, while keeping our fees reasonable so that Swim Rotorua is accessible to everyone. Please
remember we do have a scholarship fund if due to financial hardship your family needs support with coaching
fees.
Tuesday Morning – Turbo and Metro Coaching 7-8am Claire will be back this term in full swing for these sessions from April 30th. The coaching will complement
the afternoon Turbo programmes, with a focus on skills development – starts, turns and finishes as well as
technique improvement. Please come along with a goal for Term Two. Please arrive by 6:50am.
CBOP Interschool Swimming Sports
Over 330 students from 29 schools aged from Year 4 to 8 took part in the Central Bay of Plenty Interschool
Swimming Competition on April 11th at Rotorua Aquatic Centre. Swim Rotorua ran this event with Sport Bay
of Plenty. It was great to see some schools participating that have not entered teams before including
Glenholme who have recently benefitted from the Making the Difference- Kia Tū Whakarerekē - Water
Safety Programme. You can check out some photos and the results on Sport Bay of Plenty’s website. It was
fantastic to see so many Swim Rotorua swimmers participating, gaining best times and top 3 placings – well
done to you all! Now you have the bug – have a go at this term’s Splash Nights, Club Champs and Club level
competitions.
BOP Secondary School Swimming Sports
BOP Secondary School Swimming was held on Friday at Baywave
hosted by Bethlehem College for Sport BOP – thanks to David
and Pauline Spear who helped organise the event.
Podium finishes from Swim Rotorua: Juniors- Taonga Wharakura (RBHS) 1st 50 Back, 2nd 50 free, Stella
Weston (RLHS) 3rd 50 Breast;
Intermediate: Josh Balmer 1st 50 free (JPC- also 3 4th places),
Annelyse Cowie (WHHS) 3rd 50 Breast (6th Open 200 IM), Riley
Granger (WHHS) 3rd 50 Breast (6th Open 200IM), Aidan Ward
(JPC) 3rd 50 free;
Seniors – Rocco Marsh (RBHS) 2nd 50 breast, James Baldwin
(RBHS) 3rd 100 free, Skye Cox (RLHS) 2nd 100 free, 3rd 50 free
and 50 back.
Relays: Kasey Taikato was part of TRGG Junior girls relay 2nd in
both medley and freestyle relays; JPC Intermediate Girls –
Jasmine Hagan, Allie Clarke, Molly Sinclair and Alex Cameron 2nd
in Medley relay, 3rd in freestyle. RBHS – Senior relay – Taonga,
Rocco, James and Koan placed 1st in 200 Medley relay, 3rd in
senior 200 free relay.
Other top ten individual placings came from – Bethlehem - Emily
Spear, JPC – Alex, Nikita, Molly, Lina, Dion; RBHS – Sonny Marsh , RLHS – Samuel Trass, TRGG - Kasey.
Great to see some Metro competitors pulling off personal best times – JPC - Emma Balmer, Allie Clarke,
ACGT - Luke Crombie and Zoe Adams.
Thanks to officials from the Club: Ellen Sherwood, Helene and Darren Walsh, Wendy Hill and Grant
Wilkinson, Justine Sinclair and Sandy Davis. Team managers: Helen Baldwin, Jaquie Cowie, Tania Curtis and
Claire Baylis.
Making the Difference- Kia Tū Whakarerekē - Water Safety Programme
Nearly 1500 children from the wider Rotorua area have been taught water safety in the two
summer terms through The 2018/2019 summer has been the busiest since the programme was set up in
2015. The programme is run as a partnership between Swim Rotorua Swimming Club and CLM’s Rotorua
Aquatics (SwimMagic).
Funding for the programme has been provided by BayTrust and Water Safety NZ, who contribute to the
instruction and administration costs, and Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, who cover the transport costs,
while CLM’s Rotorua Aquatics discount pool entry. The programme uses Water Safety New Zealand’s
Water Skills for Life and works with schools to improve their pupils’ water safety and swimming skills,
particularly in low decile schools and those with school pools. In the summer terms - term 4 and 1 the
programme is run largely out in the community at local schools with pools. Over this summer thirteen
school pools were utilised, with Swim Rotorua and Swim Magic providing two teams of instructors. This
summer schools we have taught at include Whakarewarewa, Horohoro, St Marys, Ngakuru, Upper Atiamuri, Waikite, Reporoa College, Glenholme, Kaharoa and Rotokawa. While the Aquatic centre is busy over
summer, Rotorua Aquatics made room for the programme – with students from Sunset Primary School,
Rotoiti and Kaitao Intermediate School benefitting. Sunset Primary School’s involvement was a great example
of community partnerships. This decile 1 school is the pilot school for Rotorua Lakes Council’s Child Equity
Programme, so free bus transport and lessons were provided, but another barrier was identified – many
children did not have togs or goggles. CLM’s Rotorua Aquatics kindly sponsored goggles, while Swim
Rotorua members donated togs.
Making the Difference Water Safety Programme want
to say a HUGE thanks to Swim Rotorua for all the
donated swimming togs. Approximately 40 children
from Sunset Primary who wouldn't have been able to
participate in the programme could because of your
generosity. All donated items that were not used for
this school will be used in the future for the
programme.
Thank you all - making a difference for our community in lots
of ways.
Junior Academy Newsflash
Term 2, 2019
Contact details: Tara Watt Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0223326922
Hi to all Hope you have all managed to fit in a well deserved break over the holiday and are ready to get back into training.
Congratulations We have had quite a bit of movement within the Junior Academy last term. Congrats to: Daniel Brosnahan who has joined the Metro squad outside, Caleb Campbell, James McGregor, George Terry and Arwen Barker who have now been promoted to Turbo. Bella Howes, Mathieu Coulombe, Coco Stevens, Peachey Ututaonga, Luukas Weir and Eirwen Robinson have all moved up
to the Diamond level. Well done to all of you – keep up the great work!
Skills Clinic
Wow, what big numbers we had for these two sessions held before the CBOP Interschool event. The swimmers really enjoyed
the sessions. The feed back from parents and teachers was really appreciated and also amazing regarding the effort, the planning and time we had all put in to the organisation of these sessions. A big thanks to Milla, Lucia, David and James for
helping out, it wouldn’t have run so smoothly without your involvement.
From left to right - Kaitlin (St Marys)
Arwen, Tamzin, Kate, Coco (Lynmore)
CBOP Interschool This was one of the biggest turnouts to date having 388 swimmers registered. A huge thank you to everyone who helped out on the
day, and special thanks to David’s babysitting service!!!!, Lucia and Kate’s timekeeping ability, and everyone which made this event run
efficiently and on time. Thanks to you all. It was pleasing to see the Swim Rotorua swimmers enjoying
themselves, standing proud and racing hard.
Coming up May 19th Club Champs and AGM
This is a big event for all Swim Rotorua members. If you haven’t
been to this before then this is one not to miss. So mark your
calendars now! Information and entry forms will be handed out
closer to the time.
The Buzz from Bronwen...
TURBO SQUAD
And that is another month down as we edge closer to winter. Well done to all the Turbo athletes
that raced at the recent Swimming Bay of Plenty Rising Stars. There were some great swims and
personal bests achieved and huge improvements across all four strokes. (See Facebook for full details
on results). This showed the hard work swimmers had put in leading into this meet. I was so proud
to see you all showing great maturity in the self-marshalling. As a squad we have lots to do before
we think about racing again at the next Swim Meet so we need to absolutely “smash it” at training
over the next month. The attendance had been getting better prior to the school holidays so I trust
everyone enjoyed the school holidays catching up with friends and family, but we now need to get
back into training and build consistency. Please make sure you attend as many sessions as possible
to make sure you are well prepared for the busy months ahead of racing. Remember, athletes that
attend regularly are more likely to progress at a faster rate and the recommended number of sessions
for Turbo are a minimum of 3. There are a few swimmers snapping at athletes’ heels from the Junior
Academy looking for a spot in Turbo. It is wonderful to see so many of the Junior Academy athletes
progressing so well. Keep up the good work.
The Squad skill levels have been really encouraging. The poolside dryland element of skipping has
been helpful to the swimmers. Skipping builds strong ankles which means a stronger kick.
Skipping also requires a strong posture. I will be looking to introduce some more key elements to
the poolside dryland in the next coming months.
Just a reminder that athletes need to be wearing warmer clothes. I think it’s crazy when athletes
leave training with just a towel wrapped around them in the middle of winter – that’s how you get
sick. Let’s all take ownership here and start dressing appropriately for the winter. The last thing we
need is athletes getting sick and having time off.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Swim Rotorua Club Championships - 19th May (Rotorua - see flyer attached to this email)
All athletes from all squads
Swimming Bay of Plenty Relay Championships - 26th May (Rotorua – selected athletes)
If you are NOT available for selection, please advise your coach asap.
Taupo XLR8 – 8th-9th June (Taupo)
Competitive athletes only and limited to 350 athletes
Swimming Bay of Plenty Junior League – 1st Round – 30th June TBC
Club and Competitive athletes
Taranaki Championships – 19th-21st July (Taranaki – see details below)
Competitive athletes only (qualifying times)– Annual Team Trip
Swimming Bay of Plenty Winter Championships – 9th-11th August (Baywave)
Competitive athletes only (qualifying times)
Swimming Bay of Plenty Junior League – 1st Round – 30th June TBC
WELCOME TO Nina De Coster who has recently transferred from Hawera Taranaki.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Joe De Coster who recently transferred from Hawera Taranaki and has
now been promoted to the Performance Squad.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Caleb Campbell, George Terry and James McGregor who have been
promoted to Turbo Squad.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Ava Tremain, Maddie Keaney and
Tamzin Joy who recently represented Rotorua at the Under 12
Waterpolo tournament in Tauranga along with Performance
Squad member Kaia Joyce. Great 6th placing by these girls.
METRO SQUAD
It is great to see the athletes in this squad develop into competent and confident athletes and having a
belief in their abilities. As the temperature drops and the amount of sunlight each day dwindles
many athletes in this squad opt out of swimming in the cooler months believing it is a seasonal
activity. Before you make this decision, I would like you to consider the following: Swimming is an
all year-round activity and is great for physical health, mental health and the retention of already
learned skills. Swimming in different climates and environments helps our athletes become well
rounded, confident swimmers because they are taught to swim in warm, cool, cloudy, sunny, rainy
and windy weather. Our athletes become adaptable. Retention is higher when skills are practiced
more frequently. Consequently, when a break from lessons is taken, depending on how long the
break, it may take some time to get back on track from where you left off. Therefore, we strongly
recommend staying in year-round lessons to retain and build on life-saving swimming skills.
Swimming Improves Social Well Being
Swimming is very much a social sport.
Swimming teaches Goal Orientation
The skills swimmers learn in the pool are skills that can and will be used out of the pool as well.
Swimming makes you Smarter
Swimming improves memory function and thinking skills.
Swimming teaches team-building skills
Swimmers learn to work together.
Swimming burns more calories
Swimmers burn more calories than runners.
Swimming slows down aging
Swimming reduces blood pressure and increases cardiovascular health.
Swimming is good for asthma
Swimming is the best exercise for asthma patients.
Swimming is a confidence-building sport
Swimmers are more confident.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Ronin and Tarquin McKenzie who recently competed at the National
Division II Secondary Schools Waterpolo Championships for John Paul College and claimed
BRONZE.
CONGRATULATIONS TO Allie Clarke and Emma Balmer who recently competed at the National
Division II Secondary Schools Waterpolo Championships for John Paul College and came a fantastic
4th
WELCOME TO Liam who has recently joined us from South Africa and a huge welcome back to
Kapua Warbrick who returns to us this term after a break from swimming.
Mark Your Calendars
Swim Rotorua Club Championships - 19th May (Rotorua - see flyer attached to this email)
All athletes from all squads
Swimming Bay of Plenty Relay Championships - 26th May (Rotorua – selected athletes)
If you are NOT available for selection please advise your coach asap.
FUNFACTS * The average age group swimmer will swim 1 million strokes per season.
* Swimmers can flex their toes to the ground
* The oldest stroke is breaststroke
• Women weren’t allowed to compete in Olympics until 1912.
HOODIES
We are now about to start with outfitting the athletes with our awesome hoodies from Turbo,
Junior Academy and Metro that compete at Swim Meets. Could you please pop to the
Clubrooms Wednesdays and Fridays between 5.45pm and 6.30pm or Mondays from 4.30pm to
6pm for a fitting. The hoodies will be charged onto your account at a cost of $35.00. Once
we have sized everyone they will be available for collection within a few weeks.
THE
PERFORMANCE
POST Where Swimmers Excel
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to your latest Performance Squad News. Enjoy.
ALWAYS HAVE A GROWTH MINDSET
You will enjoy your swimming more and have more success IN and OUT of the pool.
SWIM MEETS COMING UP SOON
Club Champs 19 May Rotorua Everyone to race BOP Relays 26 May Rotorua Everyone to race
Opens 17-21 June Auckland Goal = 100 per cent PBTs
Taranaki SC Champs / Team Building 19-21 July Stratford Goal = everyone to attend and have fun Secondary Schools 12-15 Sept Hamilton Represent your school with pride
National Short Course 01-05 October Auckland Goal = 100 per cent PBTs
All other swim meet dates to be confirmed very soon.
Remember, if you have qualified for any National event, then I expect you to race.
We want our biggest and fastest team racing.
WELL DONE TO:
* NIKITA POLA, LINA STAHLHUT and DION WRIGHT – winning medals at NAGS
* ANNELYSE COWIE, DAVID BOLES and SKYE COX – setting new records at NAGS * JOE DE COSTER – moving up to the performance Squad
* JAMES BALDWIN, JOSH BALMER, PADDY BAYLIS, DAVID BOLES, ANNELYSE COWIE, SKYE COX, JASMINE HAGAN, ROCCO MARSH and EMILY SPEAR – all qualified for SNZ Opens
PARENTS Please print off this Newsletter and give to your Performance Squad athlete(s). It is really important that they read their newsletter and take the appropriate actions (there are many), so that they have the best chance of improving. Thank you for your support Alastair Johnson Head Coach
NAGS 2019 Overall, we placed 29th which was an improvement from 2018 where we placed 36th. We had some great performances, especially from the 13 and 14 year olds. However, there are some tough lessons to be learnt. I will cover this in more detail in a separate letter, but some of the main ones for me are:
You need to race faster in mid-season – too many of you were trying to make finals. Better to be faster in mid-season and then be chasing medals
Skills need to be a lot better – especially the speed in and out of the walls and breakout distance We all need to train more, train faster and be more mentally tougher
Pacing needs to be better – especially more speed on the second half
I will touch base with you all individually over the next 2 weeks and go through the main areas you need to improve on. Be ready for
that discussion.
NEW TIMETABLE
As from immediate effect, the new winter 2019 timetable will operate. The main changes are: 1. Earlier start on Tuesday mornings
2. Training indoors on Friday mornings
3. Doing the dryland before the pool workout on Monday and Thursday afternoons:
FLU JABS
I would like everyone to get their annual Flu jab done ASAP. Do not leave it late and then get sick. Take action! TIP FROM THE TOP
Improve your 4 A’s
Give 100 per cent in May and grow your COURAGE and ENCOURAGEMENT
Alastair Johnson
Head Coach
AM PM
Monday 5.45 – 8.00 3.45 – 4.15 Dryland 4.15 – 6.30 Pool (turning board)
Tuesday 6.15 – 8.00 (25m pool) 4.00 – 6.00
Wednesday 5.45 – 7.30 plus Team Breakfast -
Thursday - 3.45 – 4.15 Dryland 4.15 – 6.30 Pool
Friday 5.45 – 8.00 (25m pool) 4.00 – 6.00 (turning board)
Saturday 7.00 – 9.30 Pool 9.40 – 10.15 Dryland
-
Sunday - -
Attitude Being positive and energetic
Attendance Attending all (or more) my workouts every week
Application Giving 100 per cent at every workout
Ability Improving my skills with deliberate and focussed efforts
Our Fitness Studio
Fully air conditioned WI FI Wired for Sound Open from 6:00 am - 9:00 pm Monitored on a regular basis Clean and tidy Fully equipped for cardio, resistance and rehab
Personal Training Sessions with
Shar
$40 for intense 30 minute
workout.
$70.00 2 x 30 minute Ses-
sions
4-6 Week programmes are also
available to purchase too.
Special group classes available.
Gym membership Options
30 days $25.00 pw 6 month $22.50 pw 12 month $20.00 pw
Memberships include
Access to fitness spas, pools, and aqua belt
hireage
Initial assessment and 6
week remeasure
To sign up: www.clmnz.co.nz/rotorua-aquatic-centre (select Gym)
022 4086 979
Conditions Apply:
All memberships attract a $15.00 admin fee, 10 days notice to cancel down, mini-mum age 18 years
To All Our Club Parents: Rather than drop your swimmers off at the pool, why not start up or expand your
fitness regime by joining the gym or having a swim? Please contact Shar below if you
are keen to have some personal training help.