Behind the creation of Swim England’s Access Aquatics strategy video

Swim England recently launched a captivating short film to support the launch of its new 10-year strategy – and here are the details behind its creation.

The film represents the commitment that the national governing body is making with its vision for the future of aquatics.

The commitment is to promote the great aquatic sports and activities that can help the nation to be healthier and more successful, and to work with partners and stakeholders to open up access to aquatics for all.

Tasked with recording an emotive yet eloquent voiceover was journalist and swimming teacher, Minreet Kaur.

Minreet has supported Swim England across a number of projects, most recently the England Swims campaign, and has expressed her passion of wanting to be a role model to ‘help make change’ across aquatics.

A lot of her work has focused around teaching Asian women how to swim and be confident in and around water.

Her delivery of the voiceover helped to bring the film to life whilst aiming to provide a sense of togetherness and relatability with viewers as an already qualified swimming teacher.

In addition to the voiceover, Minreet and her mum, Pritpal Kaur, attended a filming session at Mytime Active’s The Spa at Beckenham and feature on numerous occasions during the film.

Another important partner collaboration on this project was with Afro Aquatics – a swim group based in Leicester who aim to empower Asian, African and Caribbean people to be healthy, happy and confident swimmers.

The CEO and lead teacher of Afro Aquatics, Katrice Rodrigues, also supported the England Swims campaign and is a qualified Swim England tutor.

Viewers may also notice that worked into the film were some cinematic underwater shots of Paralympian and world record holder James Hollis, and former Loughborough swimmer Anna Cheesborough.

The pair took part in a filming session at TankSpace in Nottingham with Ben and Jack Studio, who used specialist equipment capture the detailed and dramatic-looking clips to give an exciting edge to the launch film.

Rounding off the film was the inclusion of some pre-existing learn to swim and event footage taken at recent shoots, competitions or talent camps.

These helped to show each of the amazing aquatic disciplines within Swim England’s remit and represent the network of clubs and talent pathways which support people up and down the country to realise their full potential in the water.

Swim England would like to say a huge thank you to all of those involved with the production of the Access Aquatics strategy video.

If you would like to learn more about the new 10-year strategy, visit swimming.org/swimengland/swim-england-strategy.