A Splashing Finale: SASA Ducks and Cannon Relays Close Out the CDP 2025/26 Season

Around this time last year, Somerset ASA made the innovative and (in hindsight!) brave decision to double the scope of the County Development Programme to include older swimmers and also pilot an accredited training programme for Somerset Young Volunteers.

Providing match funding, the county has pursued its vision of an inclusive and holistic programme of support, not just for our fastest swimmers, but also for our enthusiastic and dedicated young people using new ways of recruiting participants – where motivation, not speed, is the chief criteria for joining – and offering opportunities to develop skills to inspire the next generation of young athletes within the SE coaching pathway.

A series of ‘Added Value’ elements including talks from sports nutritionists and psychologists, an inspirational Olympian, a female athlete development specialist, along with strength and conditioning input, an opportunity to use an underwater training facility and a demonstration from a current British Champion provided chances for us to learn, seek inspiration and enjoy our, often demanding, sport.

Sunday was our 9th and final session of the 2025/26 season with each squad looking to reflect on progress made.

“Squad 1 wrapped up the season with a fantastic final session, revising backstroke technique and focusing on stroke efficiency to reinforce the skills developed throughout the year. Swimmers also enjoyed practising one of my favourite skills – the underwater movement – a straight line is a fast line! The session ended on a high with an exciting relay challenge, where everyone put into practice the relay takeover previously demonstrated by Filip. A huge thank you to all of our swimmers for their enthusiasm, commitment and hard work through the season. Thank you also to Izzy for organising and coordinating the programme – it is greatly appreciated” Coach Pat and the Squad 1 Team

“Sunday marked the final CDP session of the year for Squad 2, bringing another successful season of learning, development, and achievement to a close. The session began with the squad completing their final test set of the year. It was fantastic to see the progress the swimmers have made during their time in the programme, with clear improvements across the group reflecting the hard work and commitment they have shown throughout the year to improving their underwater phases. At the swimmers’ request, the session focused on backstroke-to-breaststroke crossover turns. After working through a series of drills and progressions, every swimmer was able to complete a legal crossover turn by the end of the session, a testament to their willingness to embrace new challenges. The hope is that swimmers will continue to practice this skill within their home programmes before confidently introducing it into a race environment. The final technical focus of the day was dive starts, with an emphasis on looking up when leaving the blocks to maximise distance during the flight phase. The swimmers worked hard to refine their starts and finish the session with another valuable racing skill in their toolkit. To round off the year, all CDP squads came together for a series of fun relays, creating a fantastic atmosphere and providing a fitting end to another successful season. The progress made by the swimmers who have committed to the programme week after week has been incredibly rewarding to see. Their enthusiasm, effort, and willingness to learn have made every session enjoyable, and all of the coaches are exceptionally proud of what they have achieved”. Coach Maria and the Squad 2 Team

“Squad 3 concluded their first season as part of the CDP by repeating the speed and kick test sets. Although individual progress is visible, attendance changes across the year prevent overarching statistical analysis. The competition for Somerset Ducks 🐥 was evident in the speedy relays – Thank you Coach Eva for organising this! To expand the CDP again was always optimistic. Our vision was to provide additional training opportunities to all who felt it would be of value (athletes in Squad 3 ranged in ability by 400 fina points). To have received such positive feedback, month on month, with all athletes appreciating the value that attending these sessions has brought, is the biggest success measure. It has been wonderful to watch the Sunday smiles alongside the racing progress, across all levels.  Our biggest joy is seeing those who have attended, enthusiastically applying to join us again next year.” Coach Rachel and the Squad 3 Team

The season ended with a chance for our swimmers to practice their relay takeovers whilst competing for our (much coveted) new SASA rubber ducks! Cannon relays are always a firm favourite as swimmers of all ages team up together and, as Coach Eva had spent time making sure the teams were evenly matched, some great racing took place – whilst our Team Managers and Coaches ensured all take-overs were legal 😉

At the close of the programme we sent out questionnaires to all swimmers and coaches for feedback so we can reflect and improve, the results of which will be published towards the end of the summer holidays. To learn more about our plans for 2026/27 please follow this link.

I would like to say a personal thank you to all the people who participated in this programme – over 100 swimmers (and their parents), 15 Coaches, 10 Assistant Coaches and 21 Team Managers along with 1 Administrator, 1 Treasurer and 2 Chairpeople all worked together to enable this programme to happen – thanks everyone and bring on 2026/27!

7th July 2026

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Power and Empowerment: Fine-Tuning Technique and Supporting Our Athletes

Our latest CDP session saw a return to the basics for our youngest squad. Pat and her team supported swimmers to revisit the fundamentals of breaststroke, drawing inspiration from Filip Nowacki’s demonstration last month, with an emphasis on the power of long, efficient strokes. Swimmers focused on maximising distance per stroke, maintaining strong body position, and generating propulsion through controlled, purposeful movements rather than increased stroke rate. The session also incorporated “Great Wall” work, reinforcing timing, streamline, and connection through the stroke cycle. Together, these elements encouraged swimmers to develop greater efficiency, rhythm, and power in their breaststroke technique.

Squad 2’s session plan was based around what the swimmers had previously said they wanted to focus on in their final few pathway sessions. We worked on aerobic details and spoke about the importance of consistently holding skills in training that you want to see on race day. Swimmers were challenged on the details they wanted to hold and coaches reminded them of this throughout the set. We then looked at turn speed with some fast mid pool turns followed by some backflips to encourage knee driven open turns. Swimmers then had the opportunity to play around with these against the wall with the importance of fast turns highlighted to them.

Squad 3 undertook their kick and aerobic test sets for a final time. The average scores progressed from 48 (Oct) through 55 (Dec) to 60 (June) 👏

Dive and Glides were ALL faster than in October, suggesting increased power production & efficiency and reduced drag.

After a busy session, female athletes were invited to a discussion hosted by Coach Pat and Millfield’s Athletic Development Lead, Alice Gouldby. Swimmers were given valuable information about the menstrual cycle, how it could affect competitive swimming and how best to manage and maximise training throughout the cycle. In addition Dan Alcock, Millfield’s Youth Nutritionist provided detailed and helpful information on how to fuel effectively at different stages of the cycle. The session finished with a question and answer session. Thank you Alice, Dan and Pat for this really valuable opportunity. Slides can be found here.

Recruitment is well underway for Coaches, trainee Assistant Coaches and Squads 2 and 3. To learn more and apply/express interest, please follow this link. Invitations to Squad 1 and the younger half of Squad 2 will be issued shortly.

Thanks go to our fabulous Team Managers: Audrey (Wells), Bryn (Backwell), David (Wells), Karen (Norton Radstock), Matt (Millfield), Natalie (Keynsham), Sean (Bridgwater) and Zoe H (Frome).

10th June 2026

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Coaching, Role-Modelling and Inspiring – a Masterclass in Excellence

On Sunday it was wonderful to see older swimmers giving back to their sport, sharing their experience and passion with our younger swimmers!

This week saw five graduates from our Assistant Coach Training Course, Ben, Caitlin, Caty, Daniel and Harvey joining our senior coaching team as contracted Skills Coaches with Squad 1.

“I’m so excited to see how proactive our young coaches are, giving feedback our swimmers can immediately put into action. The young coaches were great inspiration, communicators and role models” Head Coach Pat

Later in the session we were honoured to be joined by World Junior and Senior British Champion breaststroker, and Millfield student Filip Nowacki who exhibited a masterclass in relay take-overs and showed us exactly what world-class breaststroke looks like in the water – Thank you Filip for taking time out for us, especially during your A Levels!

It was fantastic to see new faces in Squad 2 – some new to CDP and others progressing from Squad 1. The results from our test set highlighted improvements across the board with swimmers showing great progress and commitment. This week we focussed on developing the fly kick, paying particular attention to the point of initiation within each cycle. We spent time swimming underwater, really emphasising kicking effectively in both directions, before working to transfer that same movement and rhythm to the surface. We finished the session with Filip demonstrating relay takeovers. Swimmers then had the opportunity to experiment with different relay techniques themselves. All athletes were filmed during this process with footage sent to them to review and analyse with their home coach.

With Squad 3, we re-recorded GoPro Underwater footage of dives. We pretended to be sharks so as to squeeze out every last ounce of speed and self reflected in order to find the optimum turnaround for aerobic work, which also allowed underwater discipline to be displayed.

Following the swim session, swimmers were treated to an inspirational discussion with our very own Coach Cam Kurle. Cam’s well-paced and informative talk, “Everyone’s Journey is Different” covered his journey from swimming as a 6 year old at Street, through to competing at the European, Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Cam emphasised the importance of enjoyment and resilience in anyone’s swim journey – especially through plateaus and frustrations – valuable lessons for life as well as in swimming. He ended the morning with a question and answer session and shared his medals with the swimmers – Thank you Cam!

A parent reflected on Coach Cam’s story with the question “what would you advise to someone for whom attending Millfield isn’t an option?” And that is exactly why the CDP exists: opening access to professional coaches for more athletes and facilitating conversations and support that could lead to better coaching across the county.

Next year’s CDP programme will be launched in the next few weeks with recruitment for Coaches, Assistant Coach Trainees and Swimmers, so watch out for news on our Facebook, Instagram, Website and direct marketing to Club Secretaries.

Thanks go to our lovely Team Managers: Bryn (Backwell), Chris (Keynsham), Helen (Bath Dolphins), Lucy (Backwell), Matthew (Millfield), Michael (Taunton), Shauna (Bridgwater) and Zoe (Burnham on Sea).

18th May 2026

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Swimming Smarter: The Power of an Efficient Turn

This Sunday was our final session of Term 2 and saw both squads looking at their turn skills as improving these can significantly lower overall times.

For Squad 1 swimmers the aim was to increase speed and efficiency during turns transitioning into lovely streamline positions remembering a straight line is a fast line.

Thank you to all Squad 1 swimmers who completed and shared their dive homework. The benefits of self review allows targeted improvements, helping achieve a faster and more controlled start in the water. It also increases self awareness of technique, which should lead to more consistent and effective performance during training and races.

Squad 2 and 3 worked together this week; we mixed the lanes to encourage new connections during a skilful warm up.

Speed work explored the efforts required to hit FES target times. We looked at the controllables (effort application) and learned about how these are affected by and reflect our physiology – how would Mo Farah v Usain Bolt approach a 400m race? Or Ben Proud v Dan Jervis tackle a 200m?

Then we chased a friend during pair sprints for pure speed development; divers were tasked with maintaining speed through their breakout to maximise their head start, whilst those in the water wearing fins tried to optimise their underwater work, to close the gap.

Swimmers spent 3 mins watching a crossover turn tutorial and were given free time to explore or peer teach. We reinforced / challenged this skill with a set of back ➡️ breast swims.

There was a noticeable number of “Thank you”s today, from athletes aware of the progress that they had achieved.

Our thanks go to our lovely Team Managers: Dave C (Wells), Laura L (Clevedon), Sean O (Bridgwater), Zoe P (Burnham-on-Sea), Claire S (Backwell), Steph W (Clevedon), Vic W (Bath Dolphins).

Information regarding next Term’s programme will be published on our outline page and sent direct to swimmers in the next week or two.

March 9th 2026

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The Underwater Edge: Using Video Analysis to Improve Technique

After realising that there was an opportunity to help the swimmers of Somerset to achieve additional RQTs, we quickly moved to facilitate a technical session at Taunton School using their Swimpro 2k Underwater Camera System.

The focus throughout was on TAKING THE BRAKES OFF. We mostly looked at streamline shapes and head positions in drag reduction, touching a little on high elbow propulsion freestyle swimming.

For coaches who haven’t worked with this technology before, it exposed new ways to present feedback to athletes, moving from TELLING the athletes what WE see, to SUPPORTING the swimmers with what THEY see, and helping THEM to find things to try.

It was a joy to see such speedy progress; with instant access to footage, athletes could refine their skills and consolidate their learning within minutes.

Awareness is step 1 in habit change and improvement

Thanks go to SASA for subsidising the session, Taunton Prep School for hosting us, Coaches Maria, Rachel, Caitlin and Caty for facilitating and Sean, Claire, Michael and Emma for Team Managing.

February 21st 2026

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Skills Consolidation, Building Progress

It was great to see so many swimmers at the session on Sunday, despite some fatigue from end-of-half-term-itis and the proximity of our County Championships! We were especially energised by our wonderful young Coaches whose enthusiasm and humour kept us all engaged!

In Squad 1, Sunday’s sessions highlighted progress from the start of the programme but also showed a clear need to keep practicing streamline skills. Staying tighter through push-offs and maintaining body alignment off the wall will help reduce drag and improve speed.

Remember: A Straight Line is Fast Line

Squad 1 also had the opportunity to practice dives, particularly focussing on the flight phase off the block – aiming for stronger extension, better body position in the air, and a cleaner entry into the water. Homework was set to reflect on dives and of course streamline skills!

Today’s session gave Squad 3’s coaching team the opportunity to discuss:

• methods of presenting new technical ideas to teenagers;
• examples of training sessions that are enjoyable and an exploration, rather than a tick list pf sets; and
• the ideal balance of a programme for Youth Development (test sets vs teaching skills).

Thanks to everyone who came along and created such a supportive and enjoyable atmosphere poolside and especially to our lovely Team Managers: David C (Wells SC), Michael F (Taunton Deane), Zoe H (Frome SC), Kathy M (Millfield), Sean O (Bridgwater), Lucy W (Backwell) and Vicky W (Bath Dolphins) who always lighten my load!

February 17th 2026

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County Championships – Let’s Go!

The inaugural session of the new year for our County Development Programme continued to focus on equipping our swimmers with the skills and mindset necessary to face the challenges of the upcoming County Championships.

The session was delivered in Long Course to enable our swimmers to orientate themselves to this format through looking at the differences in endurance, pacing, technique and strategy ensuring that each swimmer is well-prepared to do their best in the forthcoming competition.

The older squads explored the difference between maximum velocity and Front End Speed (FES). They experimented with what percentage effort might be best for them to start a 100m race, to enable the best possible overall result.

A block of aerobic swimming followed, which was prescribed to provide the opportunity to acclimatise to Long Course swimming.

For our younger swimmers, the long course session focussed primarily on efficiency and technical skill development, highlighted by a streamline test set to assess body position, push-off strength and underwater control. In addition the swimmers were given targeted breaststroke skill work emphasising timing, kick mechanics and effective glide to improve overall stroke efficiency.

Following the swim session, Dan Alcock, Millfield’s Youth Development Nutritionist, discussed food and drink options with the swimmers and parents in preparation for race day.

One of the highlights for us on this programme has been seeing the many people supporting our swimmers develop into a strong and collaborative team that puts the interests and enjoyment of the swimmer at the heart of everything they do, so thank you to all our Coaches and Assistant Coaches (Ben, Caitlin, Cam, Chris, Colin, Daniel, Ellen, Eva, Harvey, Lee, Maria, Pat, Paul, Rachel, Sam and Tui) and our Team Managers (Alan (Clevedon), Chris (Keynsham), Claire (Backwell), Helen (Bath Dolphins), Michael (Taunton Deane), Sean (Bridgwater), Shauna (Bridgwater), Vic (Bath Dolphins) and Zoe (Frome)) who supported our swimmers on Sunday.

January 12th 2026

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Assistant Coach Course Success!

The Somerset ASA CDP Team are delighted to announce that all 10 of our Young Volunteers have completed their assessments and are now Level 1 qualified coaches!

Following completion of a rigorous online course and 3 webinars, young people from 7 Somerset clubs joined the CDP poolside team to complete their practical assessments, tutored by our very own Ian Angell (YDSC Head Coach and IOS Tutor).

“The level of involvement from all the young coaches was excellent, they all engaged throughout the online sessions and managed to get across their own experiences of coaches and swimming. On poolside they all got involved with the swimmers and the rest of the coaching team, communicating really well and delivering all elements of the practical sessions.” Ian A IOS Tutor

Following the course the YVs completed a short feedback questionnaire highlighting areas of development that they will take forward into their coaching sessions and onward coaching careers.

December 19th 2025

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Reflection and Building Resilience

This was the last session of the term, providing the coaches and swimmers with an excellent opportunity to reflect on the progress made across the CDP programme so far and learn more about resilience from our guest speakers from The Thrive Academy.

“Squad 1 had a great session full of energy and focus… I was particularly pleased with the streamline test set which is already showing great improvement from Session 1. We had a fantastic opportunity to film our swimmers underwater enabling them to practice self reflection skills – ‘what will you focus on to improve’?” Coach Pat

Swimmers in squad 1 were given homework via short underwater video clips of their breaststroke dive starts along with access to coaching notes from Coach Eva and ‘Off The Blocks‘ resources to enable them to think about areas they could improve efficiency and add to their ‘confidence jar’!

“Your transition off the block sets the tone for the entire race, and it starts with one of the most important principles in swimming: streamline is a fast line. The cleaner and tighter your body position is, the more speed you carry from the dive into your underwater phase” Coach Eva

Across the Autumn term the swimmers in Squad 2 have been refining their technique across all strokes through application of high-end skills-building drills and practical exercises to bolster their performance and confidence. This continued on Sunday with a session focusing on Fly skills, proving that Fly is the most fun of all strokes…!

“We ‘kicked-off’ with a range of games and drills working on the dolphin kick, including a series of team races passing water-polo balls across team members whilst vertical dolphin kicking. As we rolled through other exercises to refine the catch and breathing in Fly it was great to see swimmers working hard to build on their already high standards whilst enjoying pool time with their CDP colleagues.” Coach Colin

This month in Squad 3 swimmers re-did their baseline tests. Athletes were asked to prioritise underwater discipline over repetition times. The squad explored what progress looks like and what further success criteria could be. The squad also looked at finessing basic skills including the dive and glide and finished with some medley skills and problem solving – many solutions, fulfilling the task, allowing individualisation.

Following the session parents and swimmers were invited to hear from Sports Psychologists Elliot and Pete from The Thrive Academy (see article below). The interactive taster sessions focussed on supporting swimmers with developing a positive mindset helping them to deal with inevitable set backs though building confidence, developing resilience and using positive language around these topics. 

Swimmers were given a number of exercises and pointers:

“It was great to see creativity and so much coach-athlete engagement as I looked across the pool. The feedback from athletes shows that they see this too and really appreciate it. Elliot was fantastic and it would be great to hear of athletes utilising his techniques over the next few weeks” – Head Coach Rachel

After a Christmas break we can’t wait to get into CDP Term 2 and the County Championships! To give our swimmers a boost to their county experience we will be running our January 11th session in Long Course Format to help swimmers orientate to the counties 50m pool, and will also be holding a nutrition workshop aimed at giving swimmers great preparation for Race Day – see news item below.

Highlights from Term 1:

“The Somerset CDP has been an absolute privilege to be a part of. As someone born in Somerset, it’s an honour to be on the programme and to share my experience both as an Olympian and a Coach. The value that the Somerset CDP offers is second to none. What I love most is seeing swimmers from different clubs come together, support one another, and work collectively to improve. I’m excited to see what the New Year brings” Coach Cam

Running a programme of this scale for the first time has been challenging, especially as it is managed by volunteers, so it is always wonderful and affirming to hear positive feedback. Thanks to our lovely TMs (David C (Wells), Michael F (Taunton Deane), Kathy M (Millfield), Sean O’B (Bridgwater), Lucy W (Backwell), Jo W (Bath Dolphins) and Vic W (Bath Dolphins)) and everyone for making this first term in our expanded format a success! 

December 10th 2025

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Nutrition for Race Day with Dan Alcock

After a successful introduction to CDP last year, we are delighted to announce the return of Dan Alcock, Millfield’s Youth Development Nutritionist, to the 2025/26 programme.

Dan will deliver a ‘Nutrition for Race Day’ practical presentation and food sampling workshop for our swimmers in preparation for the County Championships which start the following weekend.

Feedback from last year’s talk:

“The nutritional talk gave lots of useful information and the practical making of the smoothie was tasty!” “Lots of suggestions about what could be added to a lunch box to get through a meet day. Thoroughly enjoyed the practical side of making a smoothie!”

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The Thrive Academy at CDP

Session 3 of our CDP programme is on Sunday 7th December and we are delighted to announce that we will be joined by special guests!

We will be hearing from The Thrive Academy, who have worked with a lot of young athletes and their mental approach to sport. Together we will take a look at the mental side of swimming, exploring ways that we can manage our mindset to help us feel confident, motivated and resilient. 

Elliott is an experienced sport psychologist and has worked with a number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. He also has some experience in swimming, having helped British Swimming develop their Optimal Athlete Development Framework. Elliott now runs The Thrive Academy, which is a consultancy that provides psychology support to different sports. 

Pete Barry is a sport psychologist in training and has some great experience working with development athletes. Pete played rugby to a decent level and now gets to work with the sport he loves by helping Welsh Rugby support their players in the North.

The session will be delivered in two halves – from 10.30am tailored to our parents and from 11.15 direct to our swimmers – and will be focussed on delivering some practical tips to support our young people with mindset, confidence and managing expectations.

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Embedding Skills and New Challenges

Squad 1 of the SASA County Development Programme worked hard in their second session of the season. Pre-pool included the ‘under/over’ game but with the added twist of concentrating on the body position needed for tumble turns and backstroke starts – thus reinforcing the important message from our first session that effective pre-pool positively impacts swimming technique.

Before hitting the water Pat and her team talked to the squad about BLABT – a swimming instruction framework that breaks down strokes into five key components: Body position, Legs, Arms, Breathing, and Timing. BLABT is used to coach swimming by focusing on each element individually, building technique step-by-step to create a complete and efficient stroke. This session challenged the swimmers to check their backstroke Body position by balancing cups of water on their heads to keep a tight streamline and a still head position.

The session finished with swimmers practicing their backstroke starts using backstroke ledges and also their freestyle and backstroke tumbles – referring back to the pre-pool under/over game by finessing the back arch on the start and keeping a tight tuck in the tumble. Use this link to find film clip resources to further support turn development.

“Great energy and focus today. We thought about our body positions in the water making a straight line (which is a fast line!) and how our heads can make a tight tuck for speedy efficient turns!” Coach Pat

Squad 2 had an excellent session focussing on streamlining and maximising underwater phases. The test set was used to reinforce this recording backstroke underwaters to the 10m flag.

The squad then had the opportunity to use the underwater camera to help the swimmers to see their underwater and breakout phases for their number 1 stroke. These clips will be sent on to the swimmers in the next few days to share with the home coach with swimmers expected to identify something they’re proud of and something to work on to bring to the next session – a great opportunity to identify individualised development plans within a diverse training environment.

The squad were then challenged in a demanding breaststroke skills set and finished their session with dive start progressions.

Squad 3’s session focus was Speed Development, with a drop out kick set to follow. The improvement in underwater discipline from session 1 was evident during the warm up. This progress was recognised and praised.

The Speed Development work began using underwater constraints to help athletes to develop their awareness of their effort application.

The descending kick set was purposely crafted to create discomfort and the squad discussed the benefit of embracing challenges and taking on a set where there was no successful end point. At the end of the session, Squad 3 swimmers were asked to take ownership of their learning by identifying something they would practice regularly in training to establish good habits/muscle memory ready for better racing.

Special thanks go to our lovely Team Managers: Craig G (Wells), Shauna G (Bridgwater), Zoe H (Frome), Claire J (Backwell), Alan O (Clevedon), Zoe P (Burnham-on-Sea), Matthew W (Weston-Super-Mare), Lucy W (Backwell) and Victoria W (Bath Dolphins).

November 10th 2025

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A Flying Start for CDP 2025/26

After months of hard work behind the scenes, the Somerset County Development Programme team was delighted to welcome 120 participants to the first session of CDP 2025/26 including Swimmers, Coaches, Young Volunteer Assistant Coaches, Team Managers and Trainers!

Our coaching and assistant coaching team were joined by 5 guests from county clubs at the ‘Delivering Effective Pre-Pool‘ session hosted by specialist Strength and Conditioning coaches Luke Turley and Alice Gouldby (see below), who then went on to mentor the delivery of pre-pool to all our swimmers.

The swimming sessions then commenced and all ten of our Young Volunteer Assistant Coach trainees were fully integrated into the delivery teams receiving mentoring from CDP coaches along with Ian Angell the Institute of Swimming Trainer (and also Head Coach of YDSC).

Squad 1 swimmers came well prepared to share their Process Goals and then with the help of TMs, quickly found their lanes ready to swim. The session included a focus on streamlining: as one of our swimmers put it “a straight line is a fast line”! Swimmers completed a ‘test’ set looking at underwater work after each turn targeting ‘feet past the flags’. This test set will be repeated at the end of the term so swimmers can see progress made in this vital skill! At the end of the session, swimmers were asked to write one key ‘take away’ or process goal from the session and it was wonderful to read so many great reflections from our youngest swimmers.

“It was great to meet so many new friends and share our love of swimming, working on ways we can be the best we can be! Cameron and I were really impressed with our young coaches, their enthusiasm, demonstrations and communication with the swimmers was spot on!” Coach Pat

“Thanks to everyone involved in creating such a welcoming and productive environment!” – Coach Maria

Squad 3 saw Somerset CDP entering an exciting new phase in our evolution as this squad works with older swimmers who’ve nominated themselves via an Expression of Interest Form. This group completed two ‘test’ sets the first of which was identical to that completed by the National Youth Performance Squad (which Rachel also coaches) in order to inspire the swimmers with aspirational targets. The second ‘test’ was an aerobic challenge with swimmers holding 10m underwater whilst being videoed to support them with understanding more about effective body positions. Additionally swimmers will be sent footage of themselves doing a ‘dive and glide’ drill and have been given pointers as to how effective pre-pool improves flexibility which impacts streamlining and thus speed. Finally, swimmers were asked to complete ‘Post-It Pledges’ to enable them to understand that CDP is not a ‘quick fix’ – rather that it is the ‘take aways’ put into everyday training that make a difference.

Special thanks go to Ellen Maude (Wincanton) who stepped in to coach at short notice (replacing an injured team member), Mark Podbury (Burnham on Sea) for joining the fabulous parent TM team (Craig, David, Emma, Helen, Karen, Michael, Shauna, Victoria and Zoe) and Kelly Podbury for her support and boundless enthusiasm for all things swimming!

CDP 2025/26 is already shaping up to be a great opportunity for swimmers and coaches alike and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone again in November.

October 14th 2025

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Special Guests at the Somerset County Development Programme 2025/2026

To get our first session of CDP 2025/26 off to flying start, we are delighted to be hosting a Coach Continuing Professional Development session on ‘Delivering Effective Pre-Pool’.

This session is open to all our CDP coaches (including our trainee Assistant Coaches) and guest coaches from across our county clubs, and will be delivered by specialist Strength and Conditioning coaches, Luke Turley and Alice Gouldby!

After the coach training session, Alice and Luke will then mentor our coaches delivering an extended pre-pool session to all three of our new County Development Squads.

Alice Gouldby is the Lead Athletic Development Coach at Millfield School and has recently completed a Master’s Degree in Strength & Conditioning and Rehabilitation. Previously, Alice raced at a national level, including three British Championships, and trained with the Millfield School programme.

“Having been through that pathway myself, I understand the dedication, resilience, and attention to detail that high-level swimming demands. I’m now the Lead Athletic Development Coach for the swim team at Millfield, where I work daily on bridging the gap between strength & conditioning and the water. I’m passionate about bringing my knowledge and experience together to help coaches and swimmers get the most out of pre-pool training. My goal is to make this area accessible, evidence-based, and practical so you can take it straight back to your athletes. I can’t wait to meet you all!” Alice Gouldby

Alice is the Lead Athletic Development Coach at Millfield School and has recently completed a Master’s Degree in Strength & Conditioning and Rehabilitation. Previously, Alice raced at a national level, represent on three British Championships and trained with the Millfield School programme.

Luke Turley was a professional swimmer as part of the Aquatics GB Bath Performance Centre from 2018 to 2025, making the World Championships in 2023 and medaling at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Luke has been coaching swimming for the past 5 years at Bath University and Team Bath, whilst completing a BSc in sports science. He is currently studying for his MSc in physiotherapy. 

Date and Time: Sunday 12th October, 8.00 – 8.50am coach training and then 9.00 – 9.20am pre-pool.

Venue: Millfield Senior School Pool.

If you are a member of the coaching team at any of the Somerset swimming clubs and would like to join us for this free training, please complete this Expression of Interest.

Please note, completing this form does not guarantee a space on the training as we have a limited capacity and will allocate spaces based on covering the maximum number of clubs in Somerset.

September 29th 202