This Sunday was the first session of the 3rd and final CDP Block of 2024/25 and we were pleased to be joined by new swimmers, parents and 3 special guests poolside: Jo John, Swim England Coach Development Manager; Ian Angell, Head Coach Yeovil and District Swimming Club; and Dan Alcock, Millfield’s Youth Development Nutritionist.
It was great to have a member of Swim England with us on poolside. Jo observed our pilot programme in action, with the aim of understanding how our model supports swimmer and coach development, and was available to answer any questions we had about changes in SE coach development plans in 2026 and give advice about how we can develop our pilot to further support our coaching community.
“Having spoken to Izzy, Rachel and Pat about the County Development Programme that is being run in Somerset, I was keen to have a look myself. This is a great development opportunity for coaches and young volunteers. Rachel and Pat work with the coaches throughout the session providing feedback and support. The sessions made the athletes think about what they are doing and why. The pool session was followed with an interactive presentation around nutrition providing further education for the swimmers and coaches. The programme is very well thought out and provides added value for a variety of swimmers and coaches in Somerset. Well done to the team.” Jo John, Swim England
We love welcoming other coaches from around Somerset to our pool and Ian was quickly put to work supporting delivery with Rachel’s team!
Our older swimmers made good use of the underwater camera to film breakouts during 25m sprints. Each swimmer was sent their clip and asked to share this with their home coach and then bring comments to the next session about what they thought they had done well and what they had been working on in the intervening training.
These swimmers also worked on their Individual Medley and were asked the following question as they left the session:
“What tactics did you use during the IM set that allowed you to achieve the targets? Will this carry over into your race planning?”
Our younger swimmers started their session with a brief pre-pool exercise relevant to core stability and turn speed then worked on their breaststroke technique, completed the usual underwater test set and finished with a recap of backstroke ledge use.
“We had a great day reviewing breaststroke skills focussing on efficient turns and remembering our great underwater skills!” Head Coach Pat
After the swim session was completed, Dan Alcock talked to the swimmers about Nutrition for Race Day. The presentation was interactive with swimmers asked to think about how they can fuel themselves both in preparation for and during a busy race day – even when nerves interfere!
Hydration levels were discussed with the swimmers given an easy trick to test if they need to take on water, and tips on how to do this effectively throughout the day.
Ellis and Colby then stepped up to mix nutritious and delicious smoothies for everyone to taste and everyone was given ideas of what can be included in a race day packed lunch – ready for energy and also recovery. There was general delight amongst the swimmers that this also included some sweet treats!
Swimmers enjoyed the practical and straightforward advice given:
“The nutritional talk gave lots of useful information and the practical making of the smoothie was tasty!” Alex, Swimmer
“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!” Johnny-Cess, Swimmer
One of our favourite outcomes of the CDP programme is seeing inter club friendships develop and it is always lovely to hear back from the swimmers themselves – thank you Ivy!
“I learnt a new drill and am proud of my Somerset hat. The nutrition talk was interesting and I enjoyed meeting swimmers from around Somerset. Thank you Pat, Harvey and Somerset!” Ivy, Swimmer
7th April 2025
Challenges, Individualised Coaching and Young Volunteering
In our 6th CDP session of the 2024/25 season, Pat challenged our younger swimmers to double their underwater test set from 12 to 24 turns and was thrilled to see how well they responded! Scores improved from an average of 85% achieving underwater phases of 12 x 5m to a hugely impressive 94% achieving 24 x 5m – well done everyone!
After skills sets focussing on backstroke and breaststroke, this group’s session ended with the use of our new underwater camera looking at breaststroke turns, uploaded to an iPad.
“A brilliant opportunity to see our turns underwater with the camera. A great way to see what we should be proud of already as well as points to work on to be even better. Loved the consistent improvement with the wall work – well done Somerset swimmers!” Pat, Head Coach
‘Key takeaways’ from the swimmers showed great self evaluation with specific and measurable work ons.
This session gave our older swimmers an opportunity to be ‘speedy’ whilst being observed by Head Coach Rachel.
Using these observations, coaches gave swimmers specific training sets designed to target individual areas of improvement.
We welcomed Guest Coach Keiron Piper (Millfield School) to poolside who ably assisted Rachel, Maria and Ellen administering the speed set!
After successfully piloting a programme of opportunities for Young Volunteers at our County Championships, Somerset ASA are now looking to support YVs aged 16+ to achieve their Level 1 Assistant Coach qualifications through the CDP programme. As such we were delighted to include two Young Volunteers in our team – Harvey (Street and District) and Daniel (Millfield School) – experiencing taster sessions under Pat’s watchful eye!
“Today at CDP I learned how to give constructive feedback confidently to swimmers with the support of Pat and her coaching team. I also got to operate the Underwater Camera which was used to give swimmers footage to help them improve.” Daniel, Young Volunteer
Our next session is on 6th April and will be followed by our ‘Nutrition for Race Day’ workshop with Dan Alcock, Millfield’s Youth Development Nutritionist. To join the team as a Guest Coach or for a YV taster session for this or any other session, please contact Isabel Blight at isabelblight@btinternet.com.
9th March 2025
New tools, new drills.
After a hectic few weeks of racing it was great to be back in the relative calm of a CDP session. This weekend saw the use of two new tools for CDP – the backstroke ledges and the new, last minute addition of an underwater camera!
The coaching team working with our younger swimmers used a detailed RAG analysis of strokes and swimmers benefitted from individualised coaching tips.
The final drill of the morning for this group saw lots of laughter as Pat’s group learned how to get the most out of the Backstroke ledges. Swimmers attempted to kick a ball during their push off from the wall. This drill emphasises the importance of flicking your feet up and over the surface of the water to enable the whole body to enter the water in one clean movement, thus reducing drag. Kai was particularly successful at this, managing to kick his ball from lane 1 all the way over to lane 5! Indie’s arch over the water was very impressive!
After missing the test set last session (as we were in Long Course format), it was back on the programme this weekend for our older swimmers. Huge improvements were seen as athletes prioritised underwater phases over swim speed. Focussing on increased capacity now, gives scope to add intensity to elongated underwater phases in future years. Scores improved from an average of 59% achieving underwaters of 24x10m to 89% – a massive improvement in just 4 months – well done everyone!
To end the session, this group practiced drills targeted at increasing the rotation speed of open turns. Underwater footage was shot using our new GoPro camera which will be used as a discussion tool between swimmers and coaches highlighting potential differences between perception of body position and reality. We hope to get more out of this new tool later in the year as we all get some practice using it!
At the end of the morning it was gratifying to see insightful feedback from the swimmers as they left the session, and a Young Volunteer working brilliantly with our more experienced coaches.
18th February 2025
New Year, New Term, New Team!
This Sunday we were delighted to welcome 3 new Skills Coaches (Colin (Wincanton), Daisy (Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater) and Ellen (Wincanton)) and 5 new swimmers to our programme. We were also supported by 4 Team Managers (Jack, Irene, Liz and Paul) and by Kelly Podbury, the SASA Competitions Secretary, who stepped in to run the programme for the first time – thank you to one and all!
Swimmer Progression:
This session saw the groups receiving personal set prescription along with an opportunity to practice their dive skills within the Long Course format, ready for the County Championships.
“It was great to see so many swimmers making the right choices today to focus on how they can be their best version of themselves. The energy and commitment to skills made for an enjoyable session” Head Coach Pat
“Following the dive homework over Christmas, swimmers had many opportunities to improve and refine their dive starts and underwater phases. Embedded within this the swimmers were able to acclimatise to a long course pool with emphasis on swimming efficiently (ie low stroke counts, constraints on breathing patterns) ahead of [the Championships] next weekend” Assistant Coach Maria
At the beginning of the programme in September 2024, one of our swimmers set himself a Process Goal to improve his dive.
After Sunday’s session we were absolutely delighted to see this feedback:
Congratulations Wilfred!
At CDP, swimmers consistently practice their underwater phase as it is important to maximise the fastest part of each race. Each session the swimmers undertake a Test Set, completing a set number of lengths ‘marked’ on how many turns they can complete with the prescribed underwater distance achieved – a distance which gets more challenging for the older groups of swimmers.
Overall the percentage success rate for our youngest group has improved from just over 82% getting their feet past the flags underwater after each turn, to nearly 90% – an impressive achievement in its own right but even more so as this was achieved in the harder Long Course format!
“Swimmers had a fantastic opportunity to refine their skills in a long course pool…by taking on board valuable feedback and focussing on technique, they’ve made great strides and we’re excited to see all their hard work pay off at counties!” Assistant Coach Eva
Staff Progression:
At CDP we are keen to support the development of coaches throughout Somerset. Any coach or potential coach can come to CDP to observe or for a taster session and we have already welcomed 5 coach observers and 3 young volunteers poolside.
“I volunteered to be Team Manager at CDP this year with a keen eye on possibly picking up new knowledge and ideas from the coaches as I am a new Level 1 Coach.Somerset CDP have created a safe culture where I feel confident to be able to ask questions to coaches knowing that I would be supported in developing my knowledge. Maria explained to me how she adapted the drill being delivered on underwater phases to progressively coach it to slightly younger swimmers. Ellen talked me through which aspects she put emphasis on in her coaching of one drill linked to streamlining. I feel this supportive approach is so important in terms of developing the confidence and future motivation of new coaches and volunteers – thank you.” Paul Team Manager
Our next session is on the 16th February so just let us know if you’d like to come along.
14th January 2025
Coach Continuing Professional Development at the CDP
Today at Somerset’s County Development Programme, we were excited to welcome Ash Stoneman, Millfield’s Leading Swimming Athletic Development Coach, to deliver a CPD session for Coaches, with the aim of enabling them to deliver confident and effective Pre-Pool.
Ash demonstrated then enabled all participants to experience ideal movement patterns for swimmers and then supported them in the subsequent delivery of the CDP pre-pool session, thus reinforcing learning.
Following the session, Ash sent everyone actionable resources to enable all them to take their learning and integrate it into weekly training routines, including paper resources and video footage.
“I felt Ash delivered the course extremely well, he is obviously very knowledgeable, but managed to break each exercise down to make it really understandable and explained the purpose and benefits. All good stuff we can pass on to our swimmers! This will be massively beneficial to our club and will enable us to add something more structured into our training.” Chris, Guest Coach, Wells SC
I found it to be very beneficial, with excellent coaching and swim-specific insights for the exercises. I now have a solid foundation to build on and share with the swimmers at my club. Andrew, Guest Coach, Burnham-on-Sea SC
Thanks go to Ash, to all coaches who participated with enthusiasm and to Kelsey for the fantastic photos!
22nd December 2024
Nutrition Workshop for CDP Swimmers
In response to feedback received from our swimmers and parents on last year’s CDP we have an exciting addition to our CDP programme:
Nutrition for Race-Day
6th April 11.15am – 12.15pm
A practical presentation and food sampling workshop looking at preparations for race-day with Millfield’s Youth Development Nutritionist, Dan Alcock.
Daniel Alcock completed both BSc (Hons) and MSc qualifications in Sports Nutrition at Hartpury University and Ulster University respectively. He is now a member of the Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register. Having completed work experience placements at Bath Rugby, London Scottish Rugby, Youth Sports Nutrition and at various other nutrition consultancies and sports clubs, Daniel now works full time at Millfield School in Somerset. Within this role he supports nutrition provision at Millfield School (a leading independent school which has been named number one sports school in the country in ten out of the last eleven years) within the dining hall, boarding houses and when on sports trips. He also delivers 1:1 support to individual students with bespoke needs, runs nutrition workshops with sports and runs pop-ups in the dining hall, using infographics to support the evidence based nutritional messaging.
The training event will take place immediately after our April CDP session with all CDP swimmers and parents invited.
16th December 2024
New CPD Opportunity for All Somerset Coaches
Somerset ASA are delighted to announce an exciting new opportunity for Continuing Professional Development within our coaching community.
In response to feedback from our CDP Assistant and Skills Coaches following our latest session, we are hosting an additional coach training session open not just to our CDP team but to all coaches in Somerset:
“Supporting Somerset’s Swim Coaches”– A morning with Millfield Swimming’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Ash Stoneman to share pre-pool ideas for age group swimmers and experience the ideal movement patterns that our athletes are on the journey to master.Ash Stoneman has worked in both elite performance and some of the best development environments in the country and internationally. Currently the Lead Swimming Athletic Development Coach at Millfield School, he brings experience from 2 years of Strength and Conditioning from Division 1 Schools in the USA, a master’s degree in Sports Psychology, and experience at Bromley Tennis Academy and Millfield School after having graduated from the University of Bath in Sport Science.
Date: Sunday 22nd December
Time: 8.00am – 9.30am
Venue: Millfield Senior School Pool Shelf
Participants will benefit from a 75 minute training session with Ash and then, with Ash’s guidance and support, will deliver pre-pool to our swimmers arriving for their 3rd CDP session. Participants will then be invited to stay poolside to ‘guest’ coach the CDP should they wish.
In Somerset we see the County Development Programme not just as an opportunity for swimmers to develop but also as a vehicle for our coaches to thrive, raising standards across the county. As such, this training session will be free of charge for coaches at Somerset Clubs.
Places are limited so, to apply, please complete the invite response link below as soon as possible and before midnight on Sunday 14th December, as we will operate a first-come-first-served policy:
Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
27th November 2024
Supporting Somerset CDP
The second session of Somerset ASA’s extended CDP pilot was delivered on Sunday 10th November with over 60 swimmers, coaches and volunteers taking part.
After pre-pool and a short warm up, all swimmers repeated the underwater kick test sets and results were compared to last month’s scores. Repeating this drill helps focus swimmers to improve their speed, strength and technique in this vital phase of racing – swimmers are at their fastest underwater! – and every session will include this element.
Congratulations to Helena, Jagger, Elena, Maxwell, Erin, Rebecca, Grace, Johnny-Cess, James and Indy who managed to get their feet past the flags for all 12×50 sets and special mention to Charlie who was our most improved swimmer on this demanding set.
Our older swimmers were challenged to swim 10m underwater for their test sets. Congratulations to Oli H and Meghan who managed this on every set with Alex P and Izzy C showing fantastic improvements.
The coaches with the younger group conducted a detailed Freestyle stroke analysis using a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) Rating sheet. Coaches looked at each swimmer’s Body Position, Legs, Arms, Breathing and Timing (referred to as BLABT) breaking each part into 3 separate elements and offering individualised coaching tips to swimmers. Our older swimmers briefly looked at fly technique, then explored how their kick times changed as they tried to raise their effort under increased fatigue.
Our younger swimmers enjoyed a backstroke drill, balancing cups of water on their heads for 50 metres – a fun but effective way of learning about the importance of head position in streamlining. In feedback after the session one swimmer wrote “I learned to keep my head really still when I swim backstroke because when we did the cup drill it fell off so I’d like to practice that more!”
The session ended with the ever popular dive drills. Several of our younger swimmers discussed how they’d learned about the importance of head position in their plenary exercise.
Head Coach Rachel noted: “The athletes responded well to diving cues that were aimed at increasing their velocity during flight and on entry to the water. Videos of other athletes performing dive drills and playing games helped to direct their attention.”
In the Coach Plenary sessions held after the event the coaching teams discussed the differences in athletes behaviours ‘at home’ and on the CDP and explored the reasons why this might occur. Coach Andy identified with his swimmers the effect of “having a different [coach] voice”.
Coach Eva observed: “it is great to see swimmers enjoying their time at the CDP, where they’re honing their skills while having the chance to train alongside athletes from various clubs and learn from some of the best coaches!”
Coach Development and Special Guests
One of our Key Performance Indicators on CDP is to support Coach Development throughout Somerset. We are fortunate enough to have two parents (Kelly R of Street and Paul C from Frome) who not only support the programme as Team Managers but also use the opportunity to Guest Coach too.
TM and Guest Coach Paul C said: “I lead a team of volunteers at my local swimming club to deliver a weekly coaching session to over 40 children aged 8-12 years. The new knowledge and engaging drills that I have got from observing and at times supporting coaches on the Somerset CDP will be well received when I lead CPD sessions at my club – thank you.”
In addition, and in a new initiative for this session, we were also delighted to be joined on poolside by Young Volunteer Harvey who had a taster session, exploring whether he would like to take the first steps to becoming a swim coach.
Finally, Somerset ASA President Paul Chillingworth dropped in to meet swimmers, coaches and parents, observing our programme, guest coaching and answering questions:
It was a pleasure to be invited along to the County development pathway where I was able to watch the swimmers and coaches and talk to parents. The great thing about the session was that whilst the swimmers were really focused on their developing technique (their underwater phase and streamlining), they were also clearly having fun! It is an invaluable opportunity for them to train with swimmers that they often compete against at local meets and to learn together. I could see that they all get on really well and there was a lovely atmosphere.
Parents were all very enthusiastic and spoke of how motivated their swimmers were and how they were going back to their clubs and sharing the ideas that they had learnt with other swimmers. It was very pleasing to see coaches and team managers from across different clubs helping to deliver the programme and we are very grateful to them for giving up their time to run the pathway.
It was great to have Paul’s support as we deliver this unique pilot.
We look forward to delivering our final session of the winter term on the 22nd December. If any Somerset Coach wishes to join us as a Guest Coach please do not hesitate to get in touch.
We were delighted to welcome 56 swimmers, 9 Coaches and 5 Team Managers representing 18 clubs from across Somerset to Millfield Senior School on Sunday for the first session of the County Development Programme 2024/25.
Swimmers came prepared with one Process Goal which they shared on the white board before an invigorating Pre Pool!
“Some fantastic process goals focussed on the underwater phase – love it” Coach Pat
The session plan included test sets looking at underwater work and stroke counts and was a chance for everyone to settle into the new programme and get to know each other better.
Afterwards, swimmers were asked to reflect on one ‘take away’ – a new thing they’d learned to bring back to their home club environment – whilst the two coaching teams had their own plenary and mentoring sessions.
Coach Pat:
“We were so excited to meet our swimmers for 2024/2025 programme. The standard of skills is very high and I can’t wait to work with them to help them be the best they can.
Having reviewed the process goals and reflective learns it is clear this group are focussed on being the best they can be. It is a pleasure to be part of this programme.”
Coach Rachel:
“Great to meet this year’s cohort. It will be interesting to delve into all the different goals.
The new test set showed that there is progress to be made but the swimming during the set looked beautiful.
Reading the takeaways was so heartening – to see… * that messages were heard regarding the necessity for balanced breathing and consistent underwaters, * that new pre-pool ideas were discovered, * that race plans can be designed around physiology and we can stay in control by monitoring rates and counts …showed the value added to athletes due to their attendance.”
The next session is on Sunday 10th November. As always, any coaches across the Somerset Clubs are very welcome to join the coaching team as a guest. Please get in touch if this of interest.
We are excited to announce that this year we are expanding the CDP Pilot to include a group of swimmers aged 13/14 who are committed to their onward swimming journey but who are not picked up by either Regional Pathway. We will also be offering further opportunities for club coach development which we hope will support our wider Somerset swimming community – see below.
Dates:
Sunday 13th October
Sunday 10th November
Sunday 22nd December
Sunday 12th January
Sunday 16th February
Sunday 9th March
Sunday 6th April
Sunday 25th May
Sunday 22nd June
Venue: Millfield Senior School
Time: 9.00am registration – 11.15am pick up.
Staff Recruitment is underway – see below.
Swimmer Selection will take place shortly.
County Coach Development Programme – CDP Recruitment – August 2024
Somerset ASA is committed to supporting Coach Development across the county, and is pleased to announce the creation of eight new coaching roles within the County Development Programme (CDP), offering successful applicants the chance to improve skills, increase confidence, and take the next step up the coaching ladder.
Are you:
A coach/swim teacher looking to develop your skills and experience?
Passionate about offering opportunities to more athletes?
Enthusiastic, energetic and motivated?
A great communicator, with the ability to motivate others?
Excited about changing the future of swimming?
Then you may be interested in applying for a role on our pilot CDP!
We are offering:
Two new assistant coach contracts for all three terms of the CDP
Six new Skills Coach contracts – two for each term of the CDP.
Mentoring and support from experienced Head County Coaches at CDP.
The opportunity to receive outreach mentoring and support at your home club.
For more information about the programme, each role, the dates and details of remuneration, and to apply, contact Isabel Blight at isabelblight@btinternet.com
SASA Development Programme 2024/25 Announcement – July 2024
SASA CDP 2023/24 Completed! – June 2024
Final CDP Session 2023/24
On June 30th we delivered our final CDP session of 2023/24.
This season we have:
Delivered 10 sessions, including 1 LC County Champs preparation session with an informative Q&A;
Supported 50 swimmers from 15 county clubs;
Welcomed 15 guest coaches representing 9 clubs; and
Introduced the Somerset Coaches Network Whatsapp group.
Interim Evaluation results are extremely promising. A Final Evaluation of the programme will be completed and circulated to clubs and all participants by the end of this racing season.
In the meantime, we would like to say a HUGEthank you to everyone who has supported this pilot: the SASA committee (and especially Mike Riggall our treasurer!); our fabulous coaches, guest coaches, Team Managers and administrators; the parents and of course our wonderful swimmers – it’s been hard work but immensely rewarding!
Watch this space for news of our expanded 2024/25 pilot following soon…
