Midsummer Madness 2021

Saturday 17 July 2021

Last weekend City of Norwich SC ran the first Level 3 LC Meet in the region, and it was a resounding success – with fantastic swims from an excited group of swimmers, and excellent work by the City of Norwich SC Competitions and Resources (C&R) team who ensured the meet ran smoothly and safely.

There were no medals awarded at the event, but our coaches had the following to say about their squads and the City of Norwich SC swimmers:

Alex Pinniger – Head Performance Coach: Midsummer Madness was our first competition home or away since February 2020. Prior to the competition I set Senior Performance swimmers (& everyone) the following challenge: Focus on your processes: checking and packing your racing kit, preparing your nutrition & hydration for the day, implement your new skills from training – technqiue, starts, turns and finishes, learn from any mistakes that you make. Most importantly have fun, enjoy the gala and be with your friends. On top of this swimmers needed to take on more responsibility and independence to this meet because I was unable to attend due to self-isolation. I have received reports that Senior Performance swimmers were absolutely outstanding coming together as a team, leading by example by focussing on their processes and implementing their new techniques. Upon speaking with the swimmers afterwards it’s clear how much every swimmer thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Watching the live stream I thought that every swimmer performed excellently in their races. We learnt how well we can actually swim when we focus on processes and have fun rather than focus solely on PB’s, winning and losing.  I am buzzing for the Regional Festivals! Well done everyone.

Karen Pinniger, Head Youth Coach: Firstly a huge thank you to Tracey Spinner and Chris Hisgrove who managed to get the livestream up and running so that we (and all the parents at home) could witness your fantastic swims.  Every single swimmer in National Youth swam remarkably and it would be remiss of me to single any one swim or swimmer out.  It was great to see swimmers working on processes like pacing, using underwater and maximising turns.  It was super to see coached points being applied across the board. Where mistakes were made swimmers learned quickly and applied skills to future events. Bearing in mind that we haven’t swum (let alone raced) long course since Jan 2020, our swimmers made it look like it was just last week that we swam in a 50m pool. This on top of coping with all of the new processes that they have had to adapt to.  Absolutely amazing job National Youth – you have done yourselves proud. 

Beth Coombs, National Age Coach: Firstly, I would like to say a huge well done to everyone, you all adapted to the new processes and challenges which you were faced.  Your patience and resilience over the weekend was amazing and you should all be very proud of yourselves.  The focus of Midsummer Madness was to enjoy being back racing and to think about the process goals you have been setting in training.  You were all focused on the process of developing your swimming and understanding what went well and what we need to be working on, which is a massive step in your development.  I was impressed to see you all having process goals in mind as well as achieving them in your swims, your overall positive attitude, skills and performances were as a result of focusing on the process and enjoying racing.  You have all done an incredible job despite everything that has been thrown your way.  Please remember that if things didn’t go to plan that everything is a process and that is why we train with process goals in mind.  We have a few weeks until we are racing again so make sure to reflect on your races from the weekend and develop on the skills which you identified as an area of improvement.  Incredible job from all and thank you to every one who made it happen.

Jane Blackwell – Head Junior Development Coach: What an amazing weekend for Junior Development swimmers most of who have never seen the pool in Long Course (50m) mode let alone swam in it!  The skills we have been working on since we have been back in the pool were put into action and I was really impressed with starts, turns, streamlines and underwater transitions.  We all know that getting everything perfect in swimming takes so much practice, but swimmers did us proud.  Things don’t always go to plan but that’s how we learn and get better the next time. A big shout out to 3 of our younger swimmers Jake Guy, Sid Jones and Sadie-Belle Barnwell.  Such a great experience for these swimmers who have had very little race practice before now and took it all in their stride.  It was lovely to see swimmers enjoying being together as a team, supporting each other and enjoying racing again.

The C&R Team: Special thanks to Chris Galer – our lead ref – for working with a relatively new team of officials and getting the best out of them. Thanks to Chris Maloney, who commentated clearly and calmly throughout the meet, and thanks to Chris Hisgrove for the fabulous live stream and tech desk work. Thanks to all our amazing marshals, Team Managers, and techies. Without you this meet would not have been the success it was.