Zooming in on the artistic swimming stars of the future through popular webinars

Swim England’s artistic swimming talent team has created a popular way to identify potential stars of the future – and help them develop their skills and prepare them for national trials.

With pools across the country being forced to close for the second time this year, Zoom training sessions have been held by clubs up and down the country to help keep members fit and engaged.

The technology has also been used by the artistic swimming talent team to develop athletes at all levels and also to prepare youngsters for the GB trials at a time when they are unable to train to the full extent due to the coronavirus restrictions.

Sessions have been held for both senior, junior and youth swimmers, while coaches have also been able to pick up top tips at a series of webinars aimed at improving the technique of athletes.

Karen Thorpe, Swim England Artistic Swimming Manager, said that more sessions were being planned as the first had sold out so quickly.

“The sessions have shown athletes what we will be looking for when they come to trials,” said Karen. “And they have given us an opportunity to see what our young athletes can do.

“It’s helped them as they know what standards they have to reach and what they might need to work on ahead of the trials taking place.

“The webinars are helping to keep everyone going, especially at a time when pools are closed and there are no competitions.

“They’ve proved to be extremely popular and were filled to capacity very quickly so we’ll be looking at putting on further webinars before the trials hopefully take place in the new year.”

Amazing resources

Karen said that places were still available for coaches to book on club testing for trials or advanced sculling webinars – while there are also spaces on the beginner sculling technique for athletes starting out in the sport or that want to improve their sculling techniques.

“The webinars have given coaches the chance to upskill on different topics,” said Karen. “They’re helping the coaches introduce good techniques into their athletes during land training sessions before they get back into the pool.

“We have created a range of amazing resources as well so they receive three 45-minute workouts they can deliver at their club sessions if they sign up to the webinars.

“All the income we raise from the webinars is going straight back into the sport and helping to fund talent camps when we can hold them again.”

To find out more information on the artistic swimming webinars and book a place, visit the Swim England shop.