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Club Captains report 2011 Kia Ora, nga whănau. There were many changes this year due to a number of experienced coaches leaving Dunedin at the end of 2010. James family moved back to northland to live after 3 years with club, and whose expertise as a Physical Instructor and Social Worker will be missed. Alicia is now working in a hospital in Wellington completing her medical studies, but has fond memories of winning the Blues Award at Otago University for Swim coaching and playing a part in the development of an international swimmer. Mark and Simon have been so loyal over the years but now need to focus on their careers, and Di and Bevan who have other commitments do return when time permits. This is part of life, and with this we welcome the new coaches. James and Alice are having a great impact in the shallow end of main pool with the young ones coming up from the learner pool. Emma, Julie, Katrina, Kara, Mara, Fergus and Jule are our youngest coaches who have certainly stepped up the mark as both coaches and positive role models. Once they start university they may depart to focus on their academia but they will return in years to come, and when they do they will most likely take lead roles in the future of our club. I have seen some very good leadership skills coming from this group. Then we have the more mature coaches who mentoring our young coaches and supporting each other like one big whănau. All our coaches are vital members of this big team. Although our swimming numbers are down in the shallow end of the main pool, there is no shortage of swimmers coming up from the learner pool. In the main pool the numbers have been constant with a number of swimmers beginning to swim very long distances and becoming very confident in the water. It is good to see a slight increase in boys and large diversity in ethnicity. We continue to have challenging kids but this will never change over the years. I would like to encourage parents to ensure their child has goggles which enable them to focus better on their swimming. Most have proven to be able to swim the 200m challenge, although this is not time by us, at least we know they have the basic skills to survive. We hope to field a new under water hockey team this year (one game- and you learn on the day) so this is one goal for the kids to aim for, and have our own club champs which is fun. It would be nice if we knew if any child was not able to attend because this could help us plan the lane use and number of coaches we need on the night. We also host a HEHA project aimed at developing coaches from a specific background with the aim that they will take this skill back to their community where swimming lessons are lacking for various reasons. One reason why we may have more than 1 coach per lane is that one is the coach and the other is a mentor with the exception of James and Alice where we needed two coaches because of the kid’s age and needs. A while ago I gave two bags of equipment to club (fins and advanced kick boards). Some stuff came from the lost property but most were donated by my whănau. In general everything is going well. We have a great committee, passionate coaches and some promising coaches in development who are the future of the club after their University Schooling and big OE. Don’t they all look smart in their club tops!
Karini Wallace |