National Junior Swimming League (m11)

Just a gentle reminder.  You have just a few days left to return to me any comment you wish to make about the proposed changes at National level and what we should do if these are forced upon us. I must respond before the end of July.  The gist of it is:

a) should we continue to have 9 year old events or change to 10-13 years
b) should we have 50m individual 9 year old events and do away with 25m
c) should the age-at date be changed
d) should the programme introduce IM

I’ve already had quite a varied response. Some clubs are happy to drop the 9 year events, some wish to keep them at 25m and some to go with 50m.  Its likely that our preference, if 9 year events are retained, will be to keep 25m at least for Div2.  Undoubtedly a lot of clubs struggle to get a 9 year old team out, although any club capable of winning Div1 will surely be able to do so.

Today I finally received the Chief Timekeeper Slips from the last two galas.  Unfortunately there has been some inputting errors. Most of these were minor but the Clement Hall results had a very significant typo, as well calculating for 8 clubs, not the 6 who competed.  This changed their result order significantly.

We are fortunate that the Clement Hall gala was the bottom of Div2.  So there is no change to the relegated and promoted clubs; and no change at the top with Camden remaining clear winners.

All amended results are now on the website.  And I have designed an improved recording spreadsheet which will allow inputters to see at a glance whether what they have done matches the finish order on the CTK slip.

But there is room for improvement, in terms of making sure we have a teamsheet from every club, collecting these in and sending them to me promptly with the CTK slips.  Clearly that is much more important for rounds 1 & 2 because it can affect subsequent draws if we get it wrong.

With thanks

The league has now finished for another year and I hope everybody enjoyed the competition, especially our new members.  Again a big thank you to the host clubs and to all our volunteers.

Although I still do not have all the Chief Timekeeper Slips in, looking at the spreadsheets I do not think any amendments will change the positions of the winners, promoted and relegated teams. So I have posted results here on the website.

Congratulations to Camden Swiss Cottage for winning the league. We wish them every success for the Southern Area Final and hopefully the national final later in the year.

The 3 teams promoted to division 1 are Hillingdon, Hackney Aquatic and Southend on Sea.  If any division 1 teams decide not to participate next year then more will be promoted.  The teams relegated are Epping Forest, Harlow and Luton.

As Luton and Bo of Southend withdrew from the competition, both teams will have to formally re-apply in writing before the date of the AGM. If they wish to rejoin the League this will be decided at the AGM.

It just remains for me to thank all our volunteers and hosts for running an efficient and fair competition, particularly Henry Watkinson and Matthew Hart who were a great support to me. I hope you have all enjoyed it.

Many thanks to all the clubs, swimmers, officials and volunteers who took part in the final round of the JSL this Sunday.  We are particularly greatful to Kay McGuire and Sandra Spooner, who stepped in at short notice to help referee for us, even though they are not usually part of our league, and to Rochford the use of Clement Hall pool.

I must ask you to be patient for the official results, probably until the end of this week. I’ve had 3 of the 4 results files in, but there are a number of gaps in each that have no explanation.  Mostly likely its a case of the teams not putting up a swimmer in those events, but until I receive the chief time keeper slips in the post, I cannot be certain. There also seem to be some DQs attributed to the wrong lanes, but again I need to check these on the written slips.  So while there is still some doubt about the spreadsheet data I hesitate to publish the results.

Thank you

Fixtures for Round 3 are now on our webpage.  Check where you will be swimming. Our hosts are:

RTW Monson
Braintree & Bocking
Enfield SS
Rochford

As always, please assist your hosts as early as possible, naming your officials. We need to check each meet can be referee’d by volunteers who feel confident to do so.

As I predicted, this year there is going to be an epic battle, both at the top to see who will represent us at the Area Final, and in Relegation and Promotion zones. Remember 3 teams will be promoted.

If you are asked to “swim it for your club!” remember every point counts, and in Round 3 they count double, so there is every chance a club that is one or two league points behind can leap-frog into one of those positions, or snatch victory.

Watch your take-overs and remember: do not enter the water when it’s not your leg of the relay! If a boy jumps in during a girls’ race… its the following boys’ relay that will be DQd.

My prediction for 2018 – some big guns promoted from Div2 will make it EVEN more competitive and we may have a chance of being represented in the National Final, which would be a real tribute to everyone’s hard work and give us a reputation as a competitive League.

Results from Round 2 have now been emailed out to everyone and are also on our Results page.

Once again many thanks to our hosts and officials, and for the patience of parents and staff – it was a bit of squeeze fitting two galas in back to back at Barnet; not what we would have hoped for, but we were very greatful Barnet were actually able to accommodate us.

I’m now in receipt of all the DQ and CTK slips from each race. But as far as I can see our hosts have done a great job of entering the DQ codes in the results spreadsheets so hopefully it will be clear to you.

Good luck in the final round – it’s gonna be close!

A big thank you to all our volunteers and hosts of round one!  The results page now shows the points table for 2017 and the 2017 results files can be downloaded for inspection.  The Fixtures page also now shows the draw and hosts for round two.

At this stage, I have not received all the paperwork, but as far as I can tell there are no errors or un-entered DQs due to over-aged swimmers. But bear with me asking about cause of DQs. I won’t know them until I have all the CTK slips returned.

Please note: we still cannot get into Braintree pool for round two.  Therefore we have booked two galas back to back in Barnet pool, so please look carefully at your start time which has changed from when it was first advertised. Both these galas are in Div2.

Definitely more comment and feedback to come on round 1, so watch the blog. But hopefully no changes, and nothing to change the draw.

Huge thanks to Henry for his immense effort this year actually getting us pools!

There are 4 places left on this course in Norwich

ASA Swimming Assistant (Coaching Swimming)

Book by 20 March.  Course 11am to 7pm on 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 April 2017.

The Junior Swimming League will fund grants for applicants from our member-clubs who are able to take up this course.

Reminder emails have gone out.  Competing clubs are required to submit their list of eligible swimmers by 31 March 2017.  This year, you are requested to use the attached Competing_swimmers.xls spreadsheet. This format enables me to to quickly order swimmers in the necessary columns to submit to the online ASA SportSys membersship checker.

All swimmers must have been submitted to the ASA as Category 2 swimmers by 31 March 2017.

Thank you

How does it work?

The first thing to make clear is that this is for “ASA certificate in coaching swimming.” Priority will be given to Level 1, but we will also consider Level 2 for anyone under the age of 25.  It’s difficult to find coaching courses, because its not easy to get paid work as a coach, so its often a voluntary vocation, supporting your club. Perhaps due to lack of demand the ASA do not put on many courses.

We are not currently accepting “ASA certificate in teaching swimming.” That course is a very popular way of earning money working for a leisure centre, and is widely available. If we get no takers for coaching courses, we may discuss supporting teaching at the next AGM.  But the aim is to support the coaches at our member clubs.

Assuming you can find a course, applying and getting the grant is easy:

email the secretary, with the name and ASA# of the person applying, and a link to the web page of the course that is available. Once I have checked that the course is the correct type, and the young person belongs to a club in the JSL, I will ask the Treasurer to send £100 to the club.  Payment will be made via the club.

It is envisaged that a young person cannot coach swimmers unless supported and given that opportunity by the club, so applicants will already be volunteering with a club and continue to do so after qualification.  Applications will also be accepted from young people being paid for their time by their club (should the club be fortunate enough to have the funds).