Our Squad structure is as follows
Foundations
Swim England Athlete Development Pathway : FUNdamentals Stage (and the start of Learning to Train)
The Club journey starts with our Foundation sessions at Hucknall Leisure Centre.
To join this squad you need to be able to swim 25m of frontcrawl, 25m of backstroke and have an understanding of the movements associated with breaststroke. This does not have to be with perfect technique, as that is what we will work on in the sessions, but this is not a 'learn to swim' session.
The main aims of this squad are the development of skills and technique in a structured but fun way.
Diving, buoyancy, forward and backward rolls and streamlining are all introduced here in readiness for perfecting turns and starts in the next squad stage.
This squad follows the Swim England Club Awards progression path and work towards achieving certificates and badges for levels 1, 2 and 3. More details of the criteria can be found at the following link...
https://www.swimming.org/sport/coaching-the-swimming-club-awards/
Academy
Swim England Athlete Development Pathway : Learning to Train Stage
Once swimmers are confident swimming 50m frontcrawl and backstroke, 25m breaststroke and have an understanding of the butterfly stroke movements they are ready to move to one of our academy sessions.
We build on the techniques and skills introduced in the Foundations squad and start getting swimmers to think competitively by working on starts and turns technique and building race pace, whilst still having lots of fun.
From this squad onwards swimmers will be invited to complete their Competitive Start and Distance Awards at the appropriate times.
Swimmers will move through the Academy Squad, moving towards performance swimming, and start competing in galas and open meets.
Development
Swim England Development Pathway : Training to Train Stage
This focus of this squad changes to incorporate a wider range of training types in addition to the technique and skills based sessions. This will include aerobic fitness, stamina and speed training for example. We will also spend time refining and optimising starts and turns in readiness for taking part in galas and open meets.
We work closely with the Nova coaches to identify potential County Squad swimmers from this group of swimmers.
There is also the opportunity for selected swimmers from this squad and above to attend the monthly Harvey Hadden long course training sessions in the 50m pool.
Swimmers are working towards gaining a range of county times, and increasing their competitive swimming through open meets and galas.
Performance
Swim England Development Pathway : Training to Compete & Training to Win
This squad moves swimmers to increase training and endurance and achieving county and regional qualifying times. There is an expectation that swimmers represent the team in galas and competitions.
Masters
Several of our club coaches have been competitive club swimmers themselves in their younger years and wish to continue training for fitness and even competition in some cases. We work towards specific competition objectives and general all round fitness and endurance across the strokes with our Masters Swimmers.