Club News
Pontypool Gala 28th June
Blaenavon Barracudas have always punched above their weight in competitions and galas, and once again on Saturday, the team made you proud to belong to the club. Although we finished 4th (sounds better than last!), there were many excellent performances, with special mention to Sarah, and Ffion who swam up an age or 2 on several occasions and acquitted themselves admirably.
Looking at the times, what was significant was the number of new Personal Bests (PBs) set. From 32 individual swims, 17 new PBs were recorded, which is evenmore remarkable considering we had time trials 4 weeks ago. Clearly, our swimmers stepped up to the plate and delivered when it counted. This is a good sign that our training programme is working, and that the swimmers are capable of competing at a higher level and should be encouraged to do so.
We should not be complacent, as we also had 6 disqualifications (DQs), some were obvious, others more mysterious, but that's swimming. Some parents on the balcony observed that our swimmers turns were inferior to some of the other clubs, so we will address this by continuing to work on the technical aspects of the strokes as well as their stamina, with a view to making them even better and faster swimmers.
Finally, we are in the process of preparing a membership pack for all our swimmers which will contain a code of conduct, useful information and their own personal records which will be updated each time they compete or record new times. If anyone has any content that they would like to see in this pack, then please e-mail me your suggestions and we will consider your request.
Hi All
You are all invited to an open meeting on July 10th at 6.30pm in Pontypool Active Learning Centre. The purpose of the meeting is to hear a short presentation from Gareth McNarry, Head Coach of Torfaen County Squad and Russell Sparkes, Regional Development Officer for Swim Wales, on a proposal for swimming development in the borough. No details have been provided, however from the information that has been presented to other clubs in Torfaen, the impact of the ideas, if fully implemented, will have an effect on your child's swimming, and the future of the club.
It is vital that members and parents of the club attend the meeting to hear the proposals, and also to voice their opinions. We would also like to be forearmed before the meeting and would be interesting to hear from anyone in the club, under the title of "What Blaenavon Barracudas mean to me". If you have a view on this, and would like to put something in writing, preferably e-mail, then please send them to me at this address.
Many thanks
Kevin Rogers