National Sports Centre to reopen

Monday, 16 March 2009

South London Press

YOUNG swimmers’ dreams of achieving Olympic success got a huge boost this week with news that a key sports centre is set to reopen.
They will be able to train again at the National Sports Centre (NSC) next month following a £14million refit.
The listed sports centre in Ledrington Road, Crystal Palace, has had its 50m pool and specialised diving pool overhauled.
Young Olympic diving hopefuls from South London have been forced to travel to Kent and South Yorkshire to practice since the pool closed in September 2007.
Crystal Palace diving club director and former diving world champion Chris Snode said the athletes were delighted with the news.
He said: “We’ve got a team of elite athletes here that have been hand-picked from schools and gymnastic classes across London.
“They are being trained by Cheng Yang and Xiang Yan Kong – two of the best diving coaches in the world.
“These kids are good enough to win bronze, silver and gold medals in the 2012 Olympics, but since the place shut we have limped along.”
On September 4 last year, asbestos was discovered at the centre and the whole place had to be evacuated.
Since then the gym and public swimming pool were moved, while the main sports centre was closed.
The diving club was forced to use a football hall for dry-land training between weekly trips to a pool in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and monthly trips to Sheffield.
Mr Snode said: “I have had a look at the diving pool and it’s really nice.
“It’s bright, clean and airy – a million times better. Yes we are very happy indeed.”

The official opening will take place on April 25.

A spokesman for the London Development Agency, the centre’s owners, said work had been carried out including asbestos removal.

To read the full article go to the South London Press website.

FINA adopts new rules for high-tech swimsuits

Mar 14, 2009

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Swimming's governing body adopted new rules for the high-tech suits that helped produce more than 100 world records since their introduction just over a year ago.
The guidelines announced Saturday "revise the requirements for swimsuit approval" and will be in place for the world championships in Rome from July 17. FINA stipulated that swimsuits should not cover the neck and will not extend past the shoulders and ankles.
The suits will be limited to a maximum thickness of 1mm (0.04 inch) and with a restricted buoyancy effect. The new regulations ban external aids for the swimmer, such as pain reduction or electro-stimulation.
The suits can not be customized for individual athletes, according to FINA's statement, released at the end of a three-day executive meeting in Dubai.
The debate about changing the rules governing swimwear resulted from the overwhelming effect that the introduction of high-tech suits such as Speedo's LZR Racer have had on the sport.
There have been 108 world records since the Speedo suit became available in February 2008. The suits were designed and tested with help from NASA, and other manufacturers followed with their own high-tech designs.
Some swimming federations and athletes from poorer nations have complained that the costly suits offer an unfair advantage.
"FINA reaffirms that it will continue monitoring the evolution of the sport equipment with the main objective of keeping the integrity of the sport," the FINA statement said. "FINA wishes to recall that the main and core principle is that swimming is a sport essentially based on the physical performance of the athlete."
FINA was criticized for allowing the suits to be used at last year's Beijing Olympics and failing to provide a clear distinction between an acceptable suit and one that enhances performance.
Opponents have said that the suits create changes in buoyancy levels and amount to "technological doping."
Starting in 2010, FINA also said it will limit the use of non-permeable materials in the suits and only recognize results as world records achieved in swimwear it has approved.
Nov. 1 is the submission deadline for approval applications for suits to be used from Jan. 1, 2010, the statement said.
Future submissions will need to be made 12 months in advance of a world championship or an Olympic Games, with the approved models to be available at least six months prior to the events.
FINA will publish a list of approved models and these will be used in competitions starting Jan. 1, 2010.

POOL CLOSED: IT'S TOO WET TO SWIM

By Martyn Brown

STAFF at an outdoor pool have told swimmers that they will have to leave the water if it rains too much – because it is too wet to swim. The nanny-state policy emerged last weekend during a brief burst of heavy rain at the London Fields Lido in east London.Those arriving were greeted by a senior member of staff who warned that the pool would be closed if the downpour intensified.

In fact, the rain eased and the pool, which is close to the London 2012 Olympic site, remained open. One bemused swimmer said: “It was difficult to believe that what I was hearing was serious.“The idea that it could be too wet to swim seems almost incredible, but that was actually what they were ­saying.”

Hackney council confirmed that swimmers at the lido, which has proved hugely popular since re-opening in 2006, had been warned about the possible closure during heavy rain, but claimed that this would only happen on rare occasions. Officials say the rain can make the water cloudy and prevent lifeguards seeing bathers in trouble at the ­bottom of the pool.

A council spokesman said: “Very occasionally extreme weather can impair visibility for our lifeguards. We make no apology for providing ­protection for swimmers from ­drowning.”The lido is not the only swimming pool to face contentious health and safety curbs in recent years. Many now insist that anyone taking more than two children under eight for a swim must be accompanied by at least one other adult.

This means that it is impossible for a mother or father with three children to take them swimming alone. Health and safety concerns also led to managers at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, in south ­London, permanently barring the public from four of the pool’s eight lanes because lifeguards might not be able to see properly from one side of the water to the other....

Click Here to read this article in full from the Daily Express

GLL Sport Foundation

GLL Sport Foundation Athlete support for 2009 is now open for applications.

The application period for 2009 awards opened on the 2nd February 2009. Information on how to apply, and an online application form is available on the GLL Sport Foundation website http://www.gllsportfoundation.org/

All GLL Centres should now have received posters and these should already be displayed. The deadline for applications is 23 March 2009.

The GLL Sport Foundation was set up to offer financial and training grants to help the next generation of sporting hopefuls. The Foundation operates across a range of Boroughs in London and the South of England; including over 60% of London's most economically deprived areas.

Despite being recognised as talented sports people, most young athletes have very limited access to funding opportunities and many are unable to meet the rising costs of competition and training as regional and national demands are placed upon them.

Evidence from the Country's top athletes will confirm that the rise from local talent to regional and national competition is characteristically one of the most difficult stages of an athlete's career. The Foundation has set key objectives to help reduce the financial burden facing many young people as they progress within their chosen sport. It benefits greatly from the knowledge, advice and commitment of it's Patron, Sally Gunnell OBE, "From my personal experience as a young athlete, I know how essential this kind of support can be to the realisation of sporting ambitions. I am delighted therefore to be the Patron of the GLL Sport Foundation which is set to help up to 800 young athletes each year".

The GLL Sport Foundation has received generous support from key partners and supporters. With their generosity it is set to develop further.

Peter Bundey, Chair GLL Sport Foundation is keen to expand the impact of the scheme:
"We are very pleased that it's first year of operation (2008) the Foundation helped hundreds of young athletes in over 40 different Olympic, Paralympic, Deaflympic and Special Olympic sports.

The inspiration these athletes bring to other young people and local communities is fantastic and we want to support and grow their positive influence.

In 2009 the GLL Sport Foundation will work in partnership with SportsAid to maximise the support that can be given to young sporting talent and to coordinate with national talent funding established by sport Governing Bodies".

The GLL Sport Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation.

BROMLEY: Crystal Palace Park strife could lead to legal action

Controversial approval of plans to build 180 flats in Crystal Palace Park have sparked community outrage - with one campaign group threatening legal action if the proposals go ahead.

The housing on the site of the Crystal Palace Caravan Club would help fund the £41m redevelopment of the historic park, approved by Bromley Council during a highly-charged meeting last month and since backed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

But the Crystal Palace Community Association (CPCA) say the flats will devastate a valued area of Grade II listed parkland and contravene Mr Johnson’s own London development plan which states parkland should not be built upon.

Yet Mr Johnson has stated the flats - which contain no affordable housing - are acceptable because of the project's "unique circumstances" and the substantial benefits of the overall makeover of the park.

The London Development Agency’s (LDA) masterplan for the park,includes a new regional sports centre, 50m swimming pool, and a museum.

Mr Johnson had the power to change the masterplan, but approved it. The Government’s office can still order the plans to be changed. If the plans that include the flats are rubber-stamped, the CPCA says it will demand a public enquiry or judicial review, claiming such large-scale development in the park breeched local and national planning guidelines.

CPCA chairman John Payne said: “This is a totally ill-concieved and ill-thought out plan that’s unsustainable. It will damage the environment irreparably. “Plans for 180 flats were at first presented as being a last resort, but now we’re being told that it’s vital to the whole Crystal Palace masterplan.”

Bromley Council said third parties do not have the right to appeal council planning decisions, but can approach the courts if they believe town planning policies and procedures have not been followed and the decision should be judicially reviewed.

More than 7,000 people signed an original petition objecting to proposals to build the flats, with more than 1,000 residents’ letters of objection logged during the planning application process.
A spokeswoman for the Caravan Club in Crystal Palace Parade said the decision to uproot them would be “detrimental” for the area.

The club attracts in excess of £750,000 of spending each year with local businesses, she said, and provided overnight accommodation for tourists and cash-strapped athletes visiting the sports facilities at Crystal Palace.

Speaking at last month’s planning meeting Mark Lloyd of the LDA said no plan to rescue the park could be without controversy ...

Click here to read the full article from the Newshopper .....

Tom Brake: It's time to put Britain back in the swim

MY earliest memories of swimming – spirited doggy paddle really – are ploughing up and down a freezing cold outdoor school pool in Melton Mowbray, learning to swim with my father when I was about five-years-old.

I acquired crawl and breast-stroke techniques later with school swimming lessons in France as an eight-year-old.
The public swimming pool complex we went to for swimming was outstanding; an Olympic-size pool, with three and five metre diving boards, a training pool for lessons and an outside paddling pool and extensive grounds perfect for picnicking during the long summer months.
That was 38 years ago. Today, I have yet to come across facilities of a similar quality locally. And that is part of our national problem.
When it comes to swimming facilities, it is said that Paris has more 50 metre pools than the whole of the UK. We continue, as a nation, to under-invest in our sports facilities.
This is a false economy when we are trying to tackle rising obesity in young people and boost participation in exercise for our growing population of senior citizens.
The relative paucity of facilities isn't necessarily a bar to achieving outstanding results at an international level if promising athletes are identified early and relocated close to the small number of first-rate sports centres. Rebecca Adlington, our fantastic swimmer and double-gold Olympic medallist, has demonstrated that a champion with grit and determination can still triumph.
However, it does work against mass participation in sport or exercise.
The Government's free swimming initiative will make little difference to the shortage of first-class Olympic-sized pools. It allocates £60m for capital projects, £30m for free swimming for over 60s and £50m for free swimming for under 16s.
In a recent survey about the free swimming initiative conducted by the Liberal Democrats, only two councils were planning on opening new pools, while in the last three years, four pools had either been closed or closure was being considered in other council areas.

Click here to read the full article

Funding crisis sees London 2012 Polo hopes washed away

For 19-year-old Sean King, it will mean the end of his Olympic dream. For team captain Craig Figes, aged 30, the end of his international career.

For performance director Nick Hume and head coach Jerome Read, it may mean looking for new jobs.

A decision by UK Sport's board not to allocate realistic funding to eight Olympic and four Paralympic sports has had an immediate and catastrophic effect on the lives of 32 young water polo players and their coaches.

Even before UKS meet again on January 29 to decide how much of a consolation pot of £12 million each will receive, British Swimming, water polo's governing body, have moved to cancel 90 per cent of its Olympic squad's competitive programme next year.

Britain's men have been pulled out of the World League, just when they had been invited to make their debut in a powerful grouping of Italy, Montenegro and Romania. Every other international match planned has been scrapped.

There are fears that the High Performance Centre at Manchester and the regional centres will be closed after March and Great Britain training sessions curtailed because pool hire will be too expensive under the minimal funding which is likely.

Young players who signed one-year contracts for student homes to next July when they moved to join the squad in Manchester now fear they will not be able to pay their rent if their £600-a-month grants are ended.

Click here to read the full article in the Daily Mail online paper.

Please sign the petition for Olympic Sports, namely Water Polo that have not received funding

The “Peter Pan Cup” Christmas Morning Handicap Swim

Whilst all across London, children are eagerly waiting to unwrap their presents, the members of the “Serpentine Swimming Club” who have met in London’s Hyde Park, winter and summer since 1864 are preparing, some decked out in Santa hats, to swim their traditional 100 yards annual Christmas day swim. The Serpentine Swimming Club is one of the oldest swimming clubs in the country, and the first race was won by H.Coulter. He streaked home to win a gold medal, which became customary to award to the winner. This changed in 1904 when Sir James Barrie, the novelist, immortalised the race by presenting the first “Peter Pan Cup”; like the boy that never grew up, the race has taken on a similarly legendary appeal.
The race is only open to members and is raced on a handicap system. For anyone foolish enough to plunge into the icy Serpentine waters, with its temperature usually below 40 oF (4 oC) degrees in the winter, without acclimatisation over several months, the shock could prove fatal! As one New Year’s reveller found to his cost.
To compete in the Peter Pan Christmas Day Race you must have competed in the entire Winter Series. YOU CANNOT JOIN THE SWIMMING CLUB ON THE DAY AND SWIM IN THE RACE
The race starts at 9am on the 25th December, on the south bank of the lake close to the Serpentine Café (the old pavilion). Spectators are most welcome, but are advised to wrap up warm.
Click here to read more

£304m package for 2012 rewards winners in Beijing

Michael Phillips
The Guardian, Thursday December 4 2008.
British sport was yesterday handed a £304m fighting fund for London's 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games in a package aimed at helping the teams surpass the record-breaking medal haul at Beijing in the summer.
Sports such as cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming that spearheaded Britain's greatest Olympics for a century were rewarded for their success with significant increases in their previous budgets.
But those sports in which Britain has little or no Olympic tradition, and consequently a lesser chance of making the podium in London - such as beach volleyball, handball and water polo - have missed out on individual funding.
It is the biggest financial windfall Britain's Olympic sports have ever had and is intended to encourage Team GB to at least match the haul of 47 medals which propelled it to fourth in the table at Beijing.
Despite the worldwide financial crisis, 19 Olympic sports will receive a total of £246m, 15 Paralympic sports will be given £45.6m, and there will be a £12m pool for outstanding individuals in nine Olympic and four Paralympic sports not awarded their own deal.
The biggest loser in the package, announced by UK Sport yesterday, was athletics, which failed to meet its target of five medals in Beijing. But officials were not complaining as more severe cuts had been feared than the reduction of £1.4m to £25.1m announced yesterday.
To read the full article

Adidas threatens to abandon swimming, have the swimming ‘blazers’ killed the goose

“ADIDAS may be about to follow Nike’s flight from professional swimming. The German company, which has poured tens of millions of dollars into the sport over the past 10 years, warned it could abandon competitive swimming and the race suit market if the sport does not introduce ‘fair and professional’ rules and approval processes.

A source close to the organisation that draws up guidelines for FINA, the international swimming federation, believes the sport’s financial future hangs in the balance at a time of economic crisis. The Sunday Times revealed last week (see below) that a call by USA Swimming to ban high-tech bodysuits from international competition coincides with the imminent arrival of the ‘doping suit’ - a skintight shoulder-to-ankle costume that will boost performance by interacting directly with a swimmer’s central nervous system and brain.”

To read full article go to Adidas threatens to abandon swimming - Times Online.

GB swimming employs Ian Thorpe's mentor

Doug Frost, the former coach to Ian Thorpe, is abandoning Australia to head one of Britain’s new Intensive Training Centres. The man who led Thorpe from a talented nine-year-old to a triple Olympic champion and seven-time world champion, will be based at Stirling in Scotland with immediate effect.
The centre is one of five that are being established in Britain this autumn in line with a blueprint laid down by Bill Sweetenham during his time as performance director in Britain, partly to prepare for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Ben Titley will run the centre at Loughborough, while coaches to Olympic medal winners in Beijing, Sean Kelly and Dave McNulty, will lead programmes at Stockport and Bath respectively. An announcement is pending on the Swansea centre.
Frost, 65 next month and a former senior swimming coach for the Australian Institute of Sport, said: “I’m looking forward to the challenge of setting up the new centre. After working at elite level in swimming for the past 18 years I believe I can help make Great Britain a dominant force in international swimming in 2012.”
Britain’s new head coach, Dennis Pursley, an American, said: “Doug is best known as being the coach that took Ian Thorpe to his greatest achievement and we know he will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience into the ITC network. He has an excellent track record of producing results.”

For Full article go to Times Online

Swimming with crocodiles

The latest wildlife thrillseeker plunge. Plus, more of the latest trends and quirks in the world of travel.

Swim with great whites off Cape Town? Yawn. Get up close with grizzlies in Canada? So last century. What today's adventurer needs is to climb in a cage in the middle of an aquarium full of saltwater crocodiles. Don't worry, adults are only 6m (20ft) long and weigh 1,000kg (2,200lb). Crocosaurus Cove (http://www.crocosauruscove.com/), near Darwin in Australia, has introduced the “cage of death” for those who want to get up close and personal. Just make sure you're wearing brown swimming trunks, cobber.

For Full article go to Times Online

Phelps is now the top Olympian of all time. Here's what it takes ...

The Guardian, Thursday August 14 2008.

US swimmer Michael Phelps made history yesterday when he scooped a record-breaking 11th Olympic gold medal. He has now topped the podium five times in Beijing. After his latest victory, he revealed the secret behind his six-days-a-week, five-hours-a-day training regime: an extraordinary 12,000-calorie daily diet, six times the intake of a normal adult male. This is a typical day:

Breakfast
Phelps kick starts his day and his metabolism with three fried-egg sandwiches, but with a few customised additions: cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and, of course, mayonnaise.
Amuse-bouche out of the way, he throws back two cups of coffee and sits down to an omelette - containing five eggs - and a bowl of grits, a porridge of coarsely ground corn. He's not finished yet. Bring on the three slices of French toast, with powdered sugar on top to make sure there's no skimping on the calories. And to finish: three chocolate chip pancakes.

Lunch
With breakfast wearing off and the hunger pangs biting, Phelps downs half a kilogram - ie a whole packet - of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches. On white bread with loads of mayo on top. To remove any chance that his body will run out of fuel, he washes this down with about 1,000 calories of energy drink.

Dinner
Time to load up on carbs for the next day's training. Another half kilo of enriched pasta goes down the hatch with a chaser of an entire pizza and another 1,000 calories of energy drinks. And so to bed. As Phelps told US television channel NBC yesterday: "Eat, sleep and swim, that's all I can do."

• Food blog: Join the debate on Michael Phelps' Olympic appetite

Ellen Gandy Olympic Debut

Hailing from Bromley, Ellen made her Olympic debut in the 200m butterfly in Beijing. Ellen came seventh in her heat for the 200m butterfly with a time of 2:08:98 which put her into the semifinal where she came eighth with a time of 2:10:60.

Ellen now lives and trains in Melbourne, but first competed for her native country in the summer of 2007. Her first major event was the European Championships in Eindhoven in 2008 where she was part of the 4x200m freestyle relay team, breaking the Commonwealth record.

Her aim is to get an Olympic gold, in London if not in Beijing and will "keep going until I get one".

Welcome to the new Beckenham Swimming Club website

Hello and I wish you a very warm welcome to our new look Beckenham Swimming Club website. I've been looking forward to the launch of our new website. Our website is a great opportunity to build on the reputation we have as a club and improve all of our communication across the club.

As a member of Beckenham as a swimmer, water polo player and a coach over the years, I am fanatically keen for everyone to know what the club provides for all, who we all are across the club and to celebrate the successes we have as individuals and collectively.

Thank you for visiting our website, I hope you enjoy it and find what you are looking for.

Richard Collins
Club President 2008/09

What is the purpose of the Beckenham Swimming Club Blog?

The Beckenham Swimming Club blog is intended to provide commentary and up to data news on the club and swimming events. The blog combines text, images, links to other blogs, web pages, emails and other media related to swimming and the club. The blog has the ability for club members and committee members to communicate in an interactive format - for example to notify members of last minute changes to events.

Improving your swimming technique

Learning how to swim properly will give your health a therapeutic boost

For a nation that is supposed to love it, we are appallingly bad at swimming. Statistics from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport suggest that 12 million Britons are habitual swimmers, with 22 per cent of adults and 50 per cent of children regularly taking a dip in their local pool - and more than 19,000 expected to take the plunge in next month's Swimathon (see panel, facing page). However, according to the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), another 12 million are unable to swim at all and many of those who learnt at school have techniques so poor that they are likely to cause muscle strains, neck and back pain.

Swimming is compulsory on the national curriculum at Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) and although schools have the option to introduce it, Ofsted has found that most lessons take place in Year 5, when children are 9 and 10. As a result, one child in five leaves primary school unable to swim the 25m specified by the Government as a target. Swimming is relegated to optional status at state secondary schools, so those who haven't managed to swim the length of a small pool by the time they are 11 are unlikely to catch up. “After primary school, many people feel embarrassed that they can't swim,” says David Sparkes, chief executive of the ASA. “And that puts a barrier in people's minds.”

Such a narrow window of opportunity for learning means that those who can swim may never master it well. Steven Shaw, a former competitive swimmer and teacher of the Alexander Technique, says that examples of appalling style can be spotted in pools around the country. He says that swimming badly will hinder your progress and enjoyment and can result in pain. Classic mistakes made by recreational swimmers include: holding the head too high in the front crawl, which strains the neck and back muscles; hunching the shoulders in breaststroke, which causes poor posture and shallow breathing; and a lack of rotation in the hips during backstroke decreases shoulder mobility and is a potential cause of neck and upper-back pain.

To read the full article go to Times Online