LBASC Season Round 2020-21

the

BARRACUDA

Season Round Up 2020-21

www.lbasc.org.uk

Note from our Chair

CONTENTS

Note from our Chair - Page 1

SENW Recognition Awards - Page 2

Triathlon GB selections - Pages 3 & 4

VMeetSwim - Pages 5 & 6

Gt Ocean Road Challenge - Page 7

Smartphone Photography Comp - Page 8

Making a Difference Award - Page 9

Queen's Award nomination - Page 10

Young Aquatic Volunteers - Page 11-12

Festival of Swimming - Page 13

Looking Ahead - Page 14

Celebrating our Volunteers - Page 15

Fundraising - Page 16

Well here we are again at the

end of another season but a

season with virtually no

competition to speak of due to

the pandemic.

No trips to Germany for our

Masters and no opportunities for

our age group swimmers to

compete at regional and national

events. Nonetheless it hasn't

stopped us achieving as a Club

or as athletes. In November

2020 we were all set to run our

first virtual 'Beat the Clock' gala

only to be plunged into lockdown

number two.

The pandemic has presented

ongoing challenges and

frustrations for us all but, as a

club, we have been thankful to

be able to access sufficient pool

time (once Covid restrictions

permitted), to have a committed

and enthusiastic bank of

volunteers to support our Chief

Coach, and to have a keen and

healthy membership ready to

make the return.

In a bizarre way the challenges

have presented opportunity and

have reminded us all that we're

stronger and more capable than

we sometimes give ourselves

credit for. And, of course,

challenge does make those

achievements even sweeter.

I am always pleased and

impressed by the achievements

of our members and our

volunteers and this year is

absolutley no exception.

We've embraced lots of changes,

whether that be the way we book

our sessions or arrive at the pool, to

new developments like virtual swim

meets using VSwim.

Our coaches and committee have

had to work hard to ensure we have

had everything in place for a safe

return. At the same time they have

taken the opportunity to upskill or

seize new opportunities for the

Club. We have sought out external

funding opportunities and remained

active in a variety of ways, using

some of our activities as fundraising

opportunities

Hopefully you will enjoy reading just

what we have all been able to

achieve despite the pandemic.

Jon Ward, Club Chair

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volunteers. Whether it was virtual challenges, bingo, quiz

nights or online clinics and competitions - they have used

their imagination and provided a regular and varied range

of activities which has all helped us to maintain a vibrant

membership. We saw the introduction of new

technologies to help us put processes in place to keep us

safe with our return to pool health surveys and a 'report

it' track and trace system. We also had new volunteers

stepping up to the plate to take on new 'Meet and Greet'

roles to ensure our safe return to the pool. An amazing

team effort.

SwimEngland North West Recognition

Awards

Swim England launched their annual recognition awards

in June with some new categories. As a Club we have

made two nominations which will be decided at the

SENW Annual Council meeting on Saturday, 4

September. Regional winners will be put forward for the

Swim England National Awards which will be announced

in a virtual live ceremony on Saturday, 9 October. Our

nominations are:

Inspirational Volunteer Award [Adults] - Cliff Taylor:

At 71 years young Cliff has gone from swim grandparent

chauffeuring his grand-daughter to and from sessions to

senior volunteer looking after our pre-competition

swimmers. He volunteers 14 hours each week teaching

in our small pool and is now Level 2 qualified. He

thoroughly enjoys every session and the swimmers fondly

refer to him as "Coach Cliff". It is a delight to see how

much both he and the swimmers enjoy the sessions.

Engagement Innovation Award - our rapid

response team of volunteers: This group of

volunteers got together at the start of the pandemic

embracing new technologies to help deliver a range of

engagement activities to swimmers, parents and

Masters swimmer and coach,

Michael Stott, takes a dip in

Windermere

In a year when almost everything was

cancelled, one event that did manage to

run was the Windermere triathlon.

September 2020 saw Michael take part in

the 750m swim, 25k bike ride and 5k run.

A 7:00 a.m. start and a chilly water

temperature of 16 degrees meant the

wetsuit was a must. The hilly cycle route

through the South Lakes and a difficult

run course meant fast times weren't on

the cards but Michael finished in a very

creditable 1 hour 48 minutes, coming

38th overall and 3rd fastest in his age

group.

www.lbasc.org.uk Page 2

Gordon shines in and out of the pool

Gordon Ballantyne

Triathle star Gordon moved up an age group this year

into the Under 15s when he competed at the UK

National Triathle Championships at Lewiston School in

Devon in June.

This event is a pathway to modern pentathlon and

consists of continuous shoot, swim and run. Gordon had

a great swim and run performance but his shooting

deserves particular mention, only missing two shots out

of 20! Ordinarily the top five athletes at the event are

eligible for Team GB selection and whilst Gordon

secured his selection with a fourth place finish in his age

group unfortunately due to the pandemic Team GB

decided not to send a team to the European

Championships in Barcelona or the World

Championships in Weiden in Germany.

However, all has not been lost as Gordon has been

selected to represent England at the national finals of

the UK school games being held at Loughborough from

2nd-5th September. He will take part in laser running

which is the last event of modern pentathlon and

involves a 1600m run, stopping after each 400m to

shoot a target 5 times.

Gordon is also ranked number 2 in the UK for

Biathlon, which consists of 100m swim and a mile run.

and has secured selection for the UK talent pathway

programme which involves travelling to Bath once a

month where he trains with the Olympic coaches.

A fantastic season in difficult circumstances.

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British Champ back in action

Ethan Roberts

As COVID restrictions relaxed the 2019 British

Triathlon 11-12 Age Group Champion, Ethan

Roberts, was able to compete once again. Ethan took

part in the St Anne’s Triathlon alongside competitors

from around the

Swimming

country including

&

the

Beer?

North West

and North East regions – so a strong field. Ethan had

a fantastic race with a strong swim and bike allowing

him to come away with a comfortable win.

Ethan also signed up for other events including the

IRC selection event at Cholmondley Castle. After

winning this event Ethan achieved selection for the

North West Inter-Regional Triathlon Team. Whilst

racing in August at a pre-IRC event an in-race incident

resulted in him sustaining injury and severely

damaging his bike. He is now recovering in the hope

he will be fit and well for the IRC finals in September

which he won in 2019.

This year Ethan was successful in winning a place at

the North West Regional Triathlon Academy

based on his swim (good work Chief Coach, Gillian)

and run times. The academy works with Triathletes

from the North West Region and helps them to

progress along the British Triathlon Pathway. The

season is almost complete, and Ethan is working

hard preparing for the Academy selection process

in September; hopefully winning a place for next

season.


Embracing change

2021 saw the introduction of

VMeet Swim and we, along

with 43 other clubs, signed up

to use the free online resource

developed by Cockermouth

Swim Club as a virtual

competition platform.

Land Training

With our land programme restricted

VMeet provided us with the

opportunity to extend and develop

our land based programme so that it

was available to more swimmers.

We set activities relevant to our age

group pathways. Activities that were

designed to develop essential core

strength and flexibility. Swimmers

signed up and logged their

activities. They were able to keep

their own online record but also

compare their achievements to

athletes from other member clubs

across the UK and abroad. As you

can see we even had some making

challenge leadership boards.

Test Sets

With test sets being a key part of our

swim programme's monitoring and

evaluation process we were able to

use VMeetSwim to log swimmer's

GOLF scores. Or in VMeet parlance

a SWOLF score which is a great way

to measure a swimmer's personal

efficiency in the water. After

swimming one pool length you

count the number of strokes it took

and add that number to the time it

took in seconds. This is a great set

to measure and develop stroke

efficiency aligned to the

development of speed. For the first

time our swimmers were able to

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pitch themselves against athletes

from other clubs as well as their

training mates and once again we

had swimmers making leader

boards.

Virtual Events

Another first was using VMeetSwim

to host the Micro League. This is the

first taste of competition for our

younger swimmers. So without the

luxury of being able to travel to

competition venues and compete

together in the normal way, this was

a great opportunity for our

youngsters to gain a taste of

competition. VMeetSwim gave us

the opportunity to get swimmers

racing in the comfort and safety of

their own pool. The date was

agreed and the programme set.

Each club ran the programme in

their own pool, submitted their times

to VMeetSwim and the computer did

the rest! You can see from the

graphics on this page that we had

some swimmers and relay teams

making the fastest time boards

against some strong competition.

There are other events planned for

2022 so our athletes can look

forward to some great opportunities

to test themselves and achieve

success.


The Great Ocean Road Challenge

Our 2020-21 season saw us follow on from the

lockdown activities we had in place for most of last

season and we kicked off with a physical family

challenge, The Great Ocean Road. The 75 participants

had 4 weeks to cycle, walk or run the 664kms. All our

teams managed the distance with most teams

completing more than one circuit. Collectively they

achieved over 23,000 kms. We had a top Team

Award; distance recognition awards and even a Top

Dog Award for the family pet completing the most

distance.

Our winners were:

TOP TEAM AWARD - went to Team Pedley &

McKenna [Tracy, Mike, Eve & Enzo Pedley and Andrea

McKenna] who were simply flying with a total distance

of over 3000kms - the equivalent of a transatlantic

flight!

The best overall combined distances for Under 18's

went to Mia Ascroft and Ethan Roberts with the Over

18's going to Tracy Pedley and Paul Ascroft.

Best Individual discipline distances went to:

Under 18's

Female Runner - Rosie Linley [100 kms]

Male Runner - Ethan Roberts [54 kms]

Female Walker - Eve Pedley [299 kms]

Male Walker - Matthew Johnson [119 kms]

Female Cyclist - Mia Ascroft [503 kms]

Male Cyclist - Ethan Roberts [437 kms]

Over 18s

Female Runner - Helen Tindall [183 kms]

Male Runner - Dave Tindall [264 kms]

Female Walker - Rachel Blundell [386 kms]

Male Walker - Mike Pedley [369 kms]

Female Cyclist - Andrea McKenna [1154 kms]

Male Cyclist - Paul Ascroft [1080 kms]

TOP DOG AWARD - went to Bailey

Blundell with a staggering 449kms!

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Smartphone Photography Competition

Lockdown also inspired us to take on another first

for us as a Club by introducing our Smartphone

Photography Competition. Aimed specifically at

our swimmers aged under 20 with two photo

categories of wildlife and landscape. Entrants had

four months to take a selection of images and could

submit up to 12 images in each category.

Thanks to the following sponsors

We saw a good number of registrations across the

age range and were delighted with the standard of

images submitted. Our Fundraising Officer, Gayle

Adams, had secured sponsorship from local

businesses who each sponsored a month. Sponsors

were then invited to join The Mayor, Cllr Jane Bell,

on a Zoom call to decide which of the images would

make the final cut.

This was a difficult task for the panel but they finally

arrived at a chosen 12 and, so that all entrants had at

least one image appearing, we agreed to

incorporate some of the other shortlisted images on

the front cover.

Calendars will go on sale in October and we hope to

raise much needed funds for the Club in what may

become an annual activity for us.

Below is a small selection of images that made the

final calendar.

and Committee members Jon Ward & Lisa

Robinson.


Making a Difference Award

We are proud to be working with Leyland

Rotary who have generously donated funds

to support the training of one of our aspiring

volunteers.

2021 has seen the introduction of this partnership

which we hope will be able to continue in future

years so that together we can support the training of

volunteers who give up their personal time to

support the development of others.

Leyland Rotary have provided financial support to a

new aspiring volunteer to support their attainment

of SwimEngland Level 1 teaching status. Rotary

have been impressed by just what opportunities

competitive sport and volunteering have made

possible to our members. To this end, with their

financial support, we have established the 'Making a

Difference’ Award.

The award is on offer to those poolside volunteers

who are on the Club’s volunteering pathway and

who have ambitions to progress in aquatics.

Impressed by the longstanding role our Club has

had in our community providing competitive

swimming opportunities to generations of young

people for over 48 years, Rotary were particularly

impressed by the role that volunteers play in making

it all possible. So they are not just looking for any

volunteer, they are looking for that volunteer who

can demonstrate they understand the value of the

role they will be undertaking, the impact they will

have on the lives of our members and the benefits

they personally will gain from being supported.

- have been a club member for at least 1 year

- be signed up to the Club’s Volunteer Pathway and

have achieved at least ‘Step 4’ on the pathway [but

must not already be qualified]. Young Aquatic

Volunteer nominees should have completed the

SENW Young Aquatic Volunteer Programme

- be a regular participant in Club coaches meetings

(or equivalent if YAVs)

- have a track record of volunteering for additional

cover sessions

- be committed to continuing their volunteering

service to the club for a minimum period of two

years after qualification

Our Rotary Volunteer for 2021 is Ruth

Owen. Ruth is a former age group swimmer

herself so knows the benefits of participating

in competitive sport. She also fully

appreciates the role that volunteers play in

providing the opportunities for young

people and is delighted to be announced as

the very first 'Rotary Making a Difference

Volunteer'.

Volunteers have to meet the following criteria:

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The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service

Our partnership with Leyland Rotary also

resulted in one of their members privately

recommending us for the Queen's Award for

Voluntary Service. Awarded annually, it is the

highest award given to voluntary organisations

in the UK and is referred to as the MBE for

voluntary organisations. Once awarded it is

given for the life of the organisation.

They were impressed by the following:

- that we provide swimming opportunities across 4

different pools, offering 40 hours of swimming each

week for 48 weeks of the year and have been doing so

for 48 years;

- our clear swimming pathways providing

opportunities for swimmers from the age of 6-60+;

- the clear pathways for our volunteers on poolside -

whether that's teaching/coaching/officiating;

- that we support the training of all our volunteers

and have a programme specifiically aimed at our

young aquatic volunteers (aged 14-16);

- that we work in partnership with the local facility

providers to provide qualified lifeguards serving

community swimming;

- our support for local schools' swimming and one of

our neighbouring clubs by organising inter-school

galas, facilitating water time at one of our own pools

and offering opportunities for their volunteers;

- the numerous internal and external competition

opportunities provided for our athletes,

developing them as individuals and as part of

teams.

Our nomination had to be supported by two

letters of support which we are delighted to have

received from our Club's first President, Trevor

Hemmings, CVO and South Ribble's Deputy Leader,

Cllr Mick Titherington.

Whilst it doesn't attract any funding the kudos of

securing the nomination alone is positive and

should we be successful will be something we, and

our supporters, can take great pride in.

Our nomination has been acknowledged but entries

remain open until 15 September, so we now have to

wait and see what our fate will be. The next step

should we get through, will be for the Lord

Lieutenant's office to contact us to arrange a visit

and based on that recommendation we could

progress through to the final selection which will be

made in June 2022.

241 awards were made in 2021 including one to

Mid Lancs Colts Junior Football League in Chorley.

Can we join Mid-Lancs Colts

in 2022?


Young Aquatic Volunteers

This season presented a challenge for our

young aquatic volunteers who, as part of the

Swim England North West Aquatic Volunteer

Award, are required to demonstrate their skills

in identifying and organising an event.

Usually this will take the form of some kind of swimming

event but with Covid restrictions preventing this they

had to be more imaginative than ever and, thanks to

support from Carole Jepson, they didn't disappoint!

Mia Ascroft was the first off the mark as she organised a

virtual challenge for swimmers from Barracudas and Chorley

Marlins. The challenge involved swimmers taking on 'Around

the World in 80 days' where they had to run, cycle or walk

tracking their distance each week and recording on the club's

tracking tool. Mia took care of all the publicity and recruitment;

posted regular updates on progress and finsihed off with a

presentation evening on Zoom.

workshop for parents and swimmers under the age of

12. The girls produced all the publicity, registered all

the entrants and held an online workshop via Zoom so

that swimmers could create some edible treats. Just

take a look at some of the creations below! A

wonderful idea, excellently executed.

Our other young volunteer, Sophie Welsby, came up

with the idea of 'The Great Swimming Cake Off'.

Sophie once again came up with all the publicity and

recruited a good number of swimmers and parents who

all made swimming themed cakes. Sophie recruited a

small panel of judges who selected the winning

creations and winners received an Easter Egg to mark

their achievement. Here's a list of our winners -

Grace Adams and Rosie Linley organised 'Edible

Treats and Healthy Eating' which was an online

Fantastic

job!

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Our final young volunteer, Rebecca Ward,

decided on something that would help new

members and created "A Guide for Young

Swimmers" which covers Nutrition and

Hydration, Relaxation, Warm-up and Fitness, and

Positive Mindset. The guide is now on the Club's

website and has also been emailed out to all our

8-11 year old swimmers. Across are a couple of

extracts for you to see.

I think you will agree these are great examples of

our young athletes developing as volunteers and

giving something back to our swimming family.

Providing a supportive and inspiring environment - a place where

everyone matters

Swimming is a great sport for developing a fit and healthy lifestyle and enjoying opportunities to

travel and compete as individuals and as part of teams. But we also value the opportunity to be

able to support a wide range of athletes, giving them all the opportunity to reach their potential

and participate in events. The last 18 months has been strange and challenging for all our

athletes but particularly so for our para and transplant athletes who have had to isolate for longer

than most and have had to delay returning to training alongside their team mates. We have also

continued to support those athletes who have a higher dependency on their sport to provide

them with structure and a valuable physical outlet.

We were delighted therefore in June to be able to welcome back all our athletes and support

them with their transition back to fitness. Hopefully this next season will be less disruptive for

everyone.


Festival of Swimming

Competing in open events is challenging at the

best of times as you prepare yourself for the

venue and the competition. But imagine how it

must have been for our swimmers this year!

With over 20 north west clubs and squads taking part it

was back to mainstream competition for the first time

since early 2020. In the meantime our swimmers had

dealt with lockdowns, adjusted to self isolation and

seen an intermittent return to training but in much

changed conditions. But now it was time to get back on

those starting blocks!

The first hurdle was to see if they could reach the

qualifying times set for the event. So, after having had

very little training, the Club organised official time trials

and were delighted with the times that the swimmers

achieved. We had 18 athletes qualifying for the event.

Our swimmers then faced the challenge of suddenly

being back in a crowded competitive environment

confronted by swimmers they did't know or hadn't seen

for some time - so no landmarks in terms of who to

watch or pace yourself against. The poolside

procedures were different and unfamiliar and as for

getting back on the blocks that too was not as familiar

because diving had not been allowed during Covid.

So for all our athletes that qualified for the Festival of

Swimming at the Aquatic Centre in Manchester we

applaud you - you rose to the challenge and did

yourselves proud!

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Looking

Leading the way ...

Whilst none of us can predict with any certainty

what is around the corner we move forward into

the 2021-22 season with optimism.

Swim England have already announced the return

of some events and internally we are making

plans of our own. So hopefully we will return to

providing opportunities for our athletes to travel

and compete.

We are re-visitng our bid for regional funding to

support the purchase of new starting blocks and

are exploring the acquisition of new lane ropes.

Hoping to improve the competitive environment

for our members.

Our Masters are hopeful that they will be able to

take part in the Flensburg international event in

February 2022 and a revised event programme is

being developed for our age group swimmers.

But with pool closures and repairs to some key

facilities across the region it is likely that we may

have to look further afield for events.

And, as we approach our 50th year in 2024 we

are also thinking about how we can mark such a

fantastic achievement.

Congratulations to the following

swimmers who have been appointed to

leading roles in their schools:

Rebecca Ward - Sports Captain,

Balshaws High School

Grace Adams - Deputy Head Girl and

Sports Captain, Wellfield High School

Rosie LInley - Head Girl, St Mary's High

School

Olivia Miller - Deputy Head Girl, All

Hallows High School

Good Luck also to our swimmers who are

moving on to university ....

Lewis Winston - Lancaster University

Tom Roberts - Edge Hill University

Cerys Howells - Harper Adams

University, Shropshire

Kate Dutton - Leeds University


Celebrating our Volunteers

Tom

This season more than any other we have been

so grateful for the unstinting support of our

volunteers.

We like to celebrate their contributions whenever we

can. We provide financial support for essential

qualifications to our poolside volunteers and equip

them with a Club shirt so they look the part when

coaching. Our back office volunteers are less visible

but equally important. The Club simply could not

function if we didn't have volunteers taking care of

essential back office jobs like SwimEngland

registrations; membership applications; affiliations and

insurances; pool and travel bookings; internal event

management ; external event entries; fundraising and

more. They mayEthan

not get the t-shirt but they are equally

valuable to our success.

This last 18 months has presented new challenges that

none of our volunteers were expecting or had signed

up for. But, as the saying goes - "when the going gets

tough, the tough get going" - and that is exactly what

our volunteers did.

With an unprecedented situation on our hands we also

found ourselves needing additional volunteers to

control our safe return to the pool and we were thankful

to have a a good response from parents who stepped

up and took on essential 'Meet and Greet' roles. Their

support was key to our safe return.

It is also worth making particular mention of some long

serving adult volunteers. Some have seen their

children go through the age group programme but still

continue to give of their time to support us, and others

are former age group and Masters swimmers who

continue to give something back. With 200 years

volunteering between them they are -

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Fundraising 2020-21

Fundraising is never easy but it has been particularly challenging over this last season. We raise funds

internally from gala sponshorship, raffles, social events, club shop sales, and our 50:50 club and the funds

generated are used to provide event trophies for our swimmers and training for our volunteers. With events

cancelled and spectators not being allowed in venues, fundraising has taken a bit of a hit. Despite the

challenge we still managed a successful Christmas raffle, generated some funds from kit and merchandise

sales and have filled most of our 50:50 club slots which is a great effort.

Externally we seek out opportunities to bid for funding wherever we can and at the back end of last year we

placed a bid to Made by Sports for Clubs in Crisis funding but were unsuccessful. We continue to seek out,

and are interested in identifying community funding opportunities and have a number of bids in the pipeline for

which we await the outcome.

We have a promising opportunity with sales of our first Club calendar though and have done a great job in

getting sponsorship from local businesses, particularly at the current time. To enable us to promote the

calendar to people outside the Club we have set up a Club PayPal account. Hopefully you will be able to share

the link when the time comes and help us raise money from sales.

We also have a good number of teenage swimmers who recruit onto our Young Aquatic

Volunteer Programme, gaining aquatic qualifications and supporting work on the

poolside. From this cohort we have two members who deserve particular mention as

they have gone on to gain Level 2 teaching status and are now regular and reliable

members of the coaching team.

Sophie Martland: swimmer from age 6; volunteer at 14; now qualified to Level 2

Matilda Simpson: swimmer from age 6; volunteer from age 14; now qualified to

Level 2


Special thanks to the following organisations who have

supported us over this last season

Want to become a part of our swimming family?

Click here for more information or to sign up for a FREE SWIM TRIAL

LBASC Season Round 2020-21

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