You should have all by now have received an e-mail from Carly regarding an extra monthly session we’ve been fortunate enough to get at the new Basildon 50m pool. We feel this is an excellent opportunity for swimmers to experience an Olympic sized pool - our closest 50m pools have previously either been at Norwich or Crystal Palace and so to have a pool half an hour away really is an opportunity not to be missed. The link and the address of the Basildon Sporting Village is below if you want to check out the new facilities and find the location...
Basildon Sporting Village Cranes Farm Road Basildon, Essex SS14 3GR
Carly will invite groups of swimmers along - we only have the 2 lanes, so we can’t invite everyone in one go. The plan is to try and get everyone at the club to sample what it’s like to swim in a bigger pool, so don’t worry, just look out for an e-mail in the coming months if you aren’t on the initial invite list. Now we've had a few months to see how things are, we've settled on having one regular group going every week, with another 2 groups appearing every other month on rotation. Carly has sent the swimmer groups out to everyone via e-mail.
Because of the size of the pool, an hours training is a lot tougher than in a 25m pool. Swimmers get used to seeing that wall after 25m for a mini-break, only for it not to be there anymore and another 25m is required before that little break of the turn! For that reason it may be tougher for some of the younger (and older!) swimmers, especially at the start. However, by swimming regularly in a 50m pool, swimmers should see their stamina improve – when they go back to a 25m pool, it should be a breeze for them!
Although we encourage everyone to come along, these extra sessions are, of course, voluntary so there’s no obligation to attend if it’s inconvenient or the pool seems a bit daunting. Please let us know if you want to be excluded from these sessions.
The sessions are all 4:30-5:30 with the next dates being....
January 7th (including starts & turns 3:00-4:00pm) February 11th (including starts & turns 3:00-4:00pm) March 24th April 21st May 19th June 23rd 7th July (6:30-7:30) [later because Japanese Olympic team have the pool most of July]
To cover the club costs, we will be charging £3 per session. We felt this was the fairest way to handle things as some swimmers may be going more regular than others. We realise Saturday afternoons are not ideal to everyone, if we could have got pool time at a more convenient slot we would have taken it, but realistically it was either this or nothing. The pool is open to the public up until 4’o’clock on a Saturday in ‘short course’ 25m mode. The reason we can't get into the pool until 4:30 is that the boom will have to be moved and 50m lane ropes installed to get the pool into ‘long course’ 50m mode. At least with this timing, people wanting to go out on a Saturday evening should still be able to.
We have first refusal for this slot unless the whole pool is being hired out for a gala. For all Gala's we should get notice at least 3 months in advance, so if we are going to lose a session, we’ll know in advance and hopefully get offered an alternative slot.
In summary this is a fantastic opportunity and we have been fortunate to get these sessions – there’s some clubs that will travel hundreds of miles to get access to a 50m pool. This is virtually on our doorstep and will benefit the swimmers greatly. We therefore hope swimmers will grab this opportunity with both hands and get along to a session in the near future.
Sixteen swimmers from the Club were fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the official opening of the new Basildon Sporting Village 50m pool on Saturday30th April. The swimmers were amongst the first to try out the new pool and enjoyed an afternoon rubbing shoulders with past British Olympians Duncan Goodhew and Mark Foster plus current athletes Jo Jackson and Chris Cook who were present in the pool as part of the opening. Amongst the disciplines that the swimmers got to try out were water polo, synchronised swimming, fast swimming, diving and life saving. See the pictures below of Emily, Amy, Alice, Gemma, Matt & Jeremy with Chris Cook.
