Club News
About our Swimming Club
By Webmaster
May 13, 2005, 12:02

Trip to Achill 2004

Armagh Swimming Club was originally formed in 1936 to cater for swimming, water polo, life saving and diving. Over the intervening years, three of these items fell by the wayside. Presently club membership stands at 110.

The Club has recently become the first sports club with the Armagh district to receive the Goldmark standard within the N. Ireland Sports Council Clubmark award system.
 
TEAMS
There are two main teams within the Club; competing in the Provincial Town’s League for swimmers born in 1995/6 to senior level and Teletots League for swimmers born 1997/8 to 1994. In addition, swimmers compete in various school and Swim Ulster/Swim Ireland Open Galas.

ACTIVITIES
The club has developed a healthy social programme with various activities for all age groups, including an annual weekend outing to an outdoor activity center. Every year, with help from the Armagh Sports Forum, the Club runs a course to train new coaches.

COACHING
Currently the coaching is shared between 14 qualified coaches ranging from Assistant Teacher, Teacher to Club Coach. In addition, there is an active 8-person committee who takes care of the administration side, plus help with time-keeping from another 6-8 parents during galas, a Swim Desk once per week, a Press Officer, Child Protection Officer, a Club Newsletter and a Club Co-ordinator.

FEES
A few years ago, the membership fees were collected on a daily basis (e.g. £1 per session). The Club now have a more streamlined system whereby the fees are either paid on a one-off basis or via a Bank standing order. This has allowed the Club to plan ahead, e.g. plan for training of new coaches or up-grading the qualifications of existing coaches, purchase equipment, as annual costs versus income are known to a high accuracy.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of the Club is to maintain it’s position as a competitive swimming club, meeting the individual needs of all its swimmers regardless of standard, of all coaches and of all other officials and volunteers, enabling all members to reach their full potential. Furthermore, the Club plays a leading role in the community in terms of sporting and social activity.

County Championships 2005

TRAINING
With regard to training, the most important component for the younger swimmers is technique not only for the four strokes but also dive starts, turns plus training the swimmers to compete in galas via the use of Time trails. For the older swimmer, who not only competes in league galas but also in various Opens such as the Armagh Championships or the Ulster Age Groups, the year is broken into three or four cycles where each cycle lasts 12-16 weeks. The objective here is to have the swimmer in peak condition for a particular planned swimming event. Each cycle is broken into the following components; technique in the early part following by a series of aerobic sets (that is long distance work). Then there are a series of anaerobic sets (basically where you don’t breath when swimming for short bursts) followed by sprint work. However, even during the aerobic we still do some sprint and technique, what really varies is the amount of such work during the different parts of the cycle.