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Club Awards 'keep the swimmers motivated' at Hornchurch Swimming Club

A growing swimming club has hailed the Swim England Club Awards for helping to keep its young swimmers motivated.

Coaches at Hornchurch Swimming Club decided to use the Club Awards as a recognition scheme for swimmers after seeing a growth in membership numbers during the past two years.

The Essex-based club, part of the Swim England London Region, said the scheme gives swimmers more confidence and knowledge of the key skills that are required when progressing into more advanced groups.

They also benefit coaches by providing a clear and consistent structure for club training sessions.

Rory, who was the first Hornchurch swimmer to achieve the Stage 1 Award, said: “I enjoyed learning other skills in the swimming lesson.

“It was fun rather than just swimming across the pool and I was really pleased and excited to be the first to achieve the Stage 1 Awards.

“I really like the pin badges.”

Learning new skills

Duncan MacLaurin, Hornchurch Swimming Club’s head coach, said: “These Awards give us an ‘off the shelf’ syllabus to ensure all our swimmers are working towards new skills relevant to their physical, technical and intellectual abilities.

“They also save senior coaches a lot of time as our junior coaches can use these Awards as a framework for creating their own sessions.

“We want our swimmers to be happy and enjoy the sport and the Club Awards keep the swimmers motivated whilst learning new skills.”

The Swim England Club Awards have six stages and help new starters transition from the familiar Learn to Swim Awards, support training sessions and generate extra income for clubs.

To support clubs to deliver the awards, Swim England has provided a webinar for coaches, an outcomes and coaching points document, registers, a progression sheet, a sample scheme of work and links to Off The Blocks resources.

Swim Mark-accredited clubs are entitled to a five per cent discount when purchasing the Club Awards. 

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