On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we had 26 courageous swimmers participate in our Annual Camp ABB and I am beyond pleased to say it was a massive success. Continue reading “Camp ABBsolutely fABBulous!”
Camp ABBsolutely fABBulous!
Metro Report
Hi everybody,
A huge congratulations to everybody who competed at Metros this past weekend, we did not have a full team representation this time round although we still came a very pleasing 8th overall. Everyone can certainly take positives out of the weekend with many moments of “I’m so proud of myself” to coincide with moment of “that’s what I can work on for state”. Special mention to all those who raced on the Sunday afternoon/evening/night (yes it was a long carnival!), our athletes showed great fitness, maturity and composure to race and perform during the final session of the program. This was certainly a time when that tough mentality and great team culture shone through for Team ABB.
Now for the much anticipated swimmer of the squads……….it seems the boys have carried the flag this time round!
White Squad: Tane Bidois– for terrific results that have extended from a terrific training ethic and a great attitude behind the blocks. Tane has certainly put in the hard yards over the holiday period and he certainly reaped the rewards this past weekend.
Black Squad: Charles Marais– Very well executed races, resilience on race day, a positive attitude and many great achievements. Narrowly behind Charles; Emily Ong & Samantha Ramsden, most notably for adding to our great team vibe on deck. On a whole I was pleased with race plans from the Black squad. A few of our squads members certainly displayed terrific levels of resilience after disappointing races, composing themselves and getting themselves ready for their next race. Leading into State I would like to seegreater attention to race day management; activation, warm ups, cool down’s, re-warming up etc. During competition, when racing multiple events it is crucial to plan when you activate and re- warm up; if you are not sure please ask your coach.
Gold Squad: Kaea Bidois– For well thought out race plans based on his past experiences. Chipping away at pbs. Respectful attitude and great self-management. Close behind Kaea is Matt Lee & Emily booth for similar reasons but still need to execute better race plans. For the others in gold Leanne would like to see a huge improvement in attention to detail within race plans and self management. For some she would like to see a better attitude even when not feeling at best in energy or arousal of the meet. Racing should always be something to get excited about!
It was a long weekend for all parties. Parents thank you very much as always for your support.
Swimmers 7 weeks until State. Make every lap count!
Brandon
Winter 2014 School Holiday training schedule for Gold, Black and White squads
Hi everybody,
Here is the holiday training Schedule so you can begin to plan your holiday period. Please make sure you note the start date for week 1 of the holidays. Our swimming program runs by the Government school system, so this is a 9 week term for our swimming program.
Thanking you
Brandon Lawrence
Assistant Swimming Coach
Download here.
SMNE Winter Champs success
Hi Team ABB,
A huge congratulations to Team ABB who competed at the Swimming Metro North East Championships this weekend, you all represented our team so proudly! The point scores are out and we only narrowly came 4th to Knox Pymble and came 1st in division 2 by a huge margin! So a huge congratulations. The final point scores were:
1. Carlile 4199
2. Lane Cove 2719
3. Knox Pymble 2356
4. Abbotsleigh 2248
5. Willoughby 1045
6. Ravo 914
Full results here.
Here is a short wrap up from each of the coaches:
Leanne ‘I’m going on holidays for 2 weeks’ Speechley
Gold squad were epic with their self-sufficiency in warm ups, cool downs and ownership of hydration and food intake. The racing from Gold squad was sensational as all swimmers stuck to race plans, were brave in trying new race strategies and sensational in becoming very process driven. As always it’s not all perfect and in many cases lack of fitness and lack of skills in regards to turning and diving need attention. The highlights of the meet for me included having all 3 competitive coaches pool side, the cheering from young to old and old to young, the happiness for each other when someone swam well and the delightful smiles all round on return from the pool. There were many PB’s and this should give all swimmers confidence as starting a season in front of where they left off the last short course season is extremely comforting. I don’t often give swimmer of the meet as its usually too hard – however I can’t go past mentioning Shaun on his excellent race plan execution, Lachi on his gutsy program of 1000 races and Rani on her “happy place” and underwater demon style racing that paid off immensely.
Lastly and certainly not least – thank you to the parents that helped make the meet one of my favourite run meets, to the parents in the stands, to Chris for the coaching leading into the meet and to Raf and Brandon for being such legendary and fun coaches on the day.
Don Rafael
I am extremely happy with the way Abbotsleigh team swam over the weekend! I mention the overall results but more importantly the bonding team experience.
I am impressed the way swimmers are connected to each other. I saw Mat helping Shaun with his warm up. Bailey helping Cameron with her turns & finishes on her warm up. For me THIS is team work and I cannot describe how happy I am to be part of it.
The new White squad had a fair go in every event. Really well done to Adriana, Tane and Baily for getting some states qualifying times! Amin, Zac and Talia for showing off all their good skills! This places themselves and their coaches In a really happy place.
Now I know why everyone call Abbotsleigh swim club as a THE team.
You guys rock!!!
And my Terrific Self
Smiles, PB’s, Laughter, Pb’s, chuckles, Pb’s……… What fantastic meet!!!!!!!!!!!! As coaches we are all so, so, so, so proud of your efforts this weekend. Our black squad were terrific in their application of race plans, showing a lot of composure for some tough races. The relays are always a huge highlight for me, seeing all the junior teams cheering on for the seniors and vice versa. A huge thank you to those swimmers who made the extra efforts in coming out for the relays, especially Cammy ‘This is weird’ Graham for filling in for the boys 12 & under relay!!!!!
Parents, thank you very much for your support and I’m sure you all know this but we have the best kiddies here at Abbotsleigh Swim Club and you should be all so proud!
Keep up the great training boys and girls, Speedo Cup in 2 weeks and please make sure you are getting your entries in for the Ginninderra meet.
Thanking you!
Brandon
Photo courtesy of Nina Beilby (note she has a $5/download special til Friday).
Squad training schedule term 1 2014
Term 1 2014 squad timetable. Term 1 starts up on Tuesday the 28th of January 2014.
Summer Holiday Training
Open water success
On 14th December the NSW State age open water championship held at the Sydney international regatta centre. Abbotsleigh was represented by Courtney ‘Bickers’ Bicknell and Callum Trethowan. The conditions were favourable and the competition fierce. The results for the 5km events were:
Courtney- 1:16.58, a whole minute quicker than she went a month ago. Keep up the solid training and you will get that national qualifying time!
Callum- 1:05.23, a 3min 30second PB and placed 1st in the 13yrs age group. Callum is our first ever state champion open-water swimmer!!! What a fantastic achievement.
Congratulations to both of our swimmers.
Knox meet report
Energy, enthusiasm and excitement. The 3 Es that describe our swimmers yesterday, when they managed to finally get their hands on one of the delicious Knox Pymble cupcakes!!!!!
Yesterday was a fantastic day of racing where our team displayed an enormous amount of team spirit and unity. I quickly noted to more than a couple of people; including coaches, parents and athletes, how well our Abb swimmers were cooperating and socialising yesterday while still swimming very, very well. What a strong team we are building!!!
Some quick notes from yesterday:
· 66 personal best times swum
· Multiple SMNE, Metropolitan and State Qualifying times
· 1 very happy assistant coach
Congratulations on a fantastic meet and keep up the hard training and that strong team vibe for SMNE Area championships in 19 Days!
SMNE 13U Meet 12th October
Always a fast paced carnival where swimmers barely have enough time to race, see their coach, swim down and are back in the marshalling area on time. I must thank our swimmers on the professionalism throughout the meet; warming up as a team, strong racing and their consistent swim downs. Some simple statistics from the day are:
• 139 individual races that Abbotsleigh athletes competed in
• 2 relay teams
• 97 personal best times swum
• 34 medals
• 1 Happy assistant Coach
Special mentions to:
• Felicity smith: every time ‘flic’ dove into that water she came out with a PB. Her largest being a 19 second PB in her 100 freestyle.
• Claudia Fydler: Consistent effort in training shows off when it comes time to racing.
• Bailey Strachen, Claudia Freeman, Emma Fontanot, Eden Timms & Sierra Timms for competing in their first proper long course meet under the Abbotsleigh A.
• To all our 100m butterfly swimmers. Some very strong performances especially for Sam Druce; well-done mate first State Qualifying time and Jayath Gunawardena on his very first 100m butterfly race which he competed in without any fear.
A strong carnival by all our swimmers, one critique from a coaching perspective is as a team our turns, underwater work and breakouts were not to the standards we have been training at. Consistent application during training shows when racing!