Winsford Swimming Club

To: Team Winsford, our Volunteers, Parents and Supporters.

We’ve enjoyed a lot of success this season and we’re looking to continue this trend, not just as officially the best team in the Winsford area, but one of the top teams in the North West with our swimmers representing at National events.

To enable the club and the individual swimmers to achieve their goals we need to provide our athletes with high quality training and (as has been observed by many) our Juggernaut squad is very large for a 6 lane 25m pool.  The sheer size of our Juggernauts squad creates challenges in the popular evening sessions with many athletes per lane, coupled with significant differences in ability and event focus.  As a result, practices can be adversely limited in structure and content, and the Coaches are not able to give as much individual attention as everyone would like. The recent introduction of Juggernaut C enabled Development swimmers to more successfully step up into Juggernaut training (often this was too big of an ask), yet progression after Juggernaut C is limited to just A and B despite the diversity of abilities and training needs.

With the fact that we are a competitive swim team foremost in our minds, and not losing the friendliness and inclusivity that make our team the happy orange army that it is, we are going to adjust the squad structure to solve the challenges identified above.  We believe moving to smaller squads will help increase the quality of both the practices and the coaching to enable swimmers to more easily achieve their goals. Each squad will have a lead mentor, someone the swimmers can communicate with about their programme and goals in 1:1 meetings throughout the season.

Much of the adjustment is shaped by the following:

• Aquatics GB/SE Long Term Athlete Development Plan (LTAD)

• Feedback from parents

• Feedback from our swimmers

• Researching how other top clubs both in the UK and overseas have structured their squads

• Internal reflection by the Coaches

The New Juggernaut Squads:

National Performance

Swimmers who have achieved British or English Nationals times and/or multiple North West Regionals Times and are working towards Nationals during the current season. Invitation will also be based on a demonstrated desire to succeed, ability to work hard, and responsive and positive mindsets. Age 14 and above.

Age Group Performance

Swimmers within a younger age bracket that have North West Regionals times and have ambitions of Nationals as a current or long term goal. This group is continuing to develop all strokes and multiple events. Age 15 and below.

Youth Development

Swimmers within the older age bracket that have one or more Cheshire County times and are working towards North West Regionals times with a more specific goal of strokes and events than swimmers in younger age brackets. Age 14 and above.

Junior Potential

This squad is for our youngest potential. This group is continuing to develop all strokes and multiple events. They will be working towards and have already attained Cheshire County or North West Regionals Times and have a long term goal of achieving Nationals. Age 11-13.

Additional Information

Ages. While the indicated ages are age as of the end of each year, we recognize that some athletes mature earlier or later than others of the same birth year.  Therefore, these ages exist as guidance as the intention is for the athlete to have the training that is appropriate for them in their stage of development.

Nationals can include Swim England Open Water Championships qualification.

Data used will be based on the current season and re-evaluated at the start of every new season. 

Movement between Squads will be at the discretion of the Coaches and will be based on times achieved, performance in training and other factors as appropriate.  Movement may not always be “up” as sometimes it may be more appropriate to swim in another Juggernaut squad for a period. Examples of this might be whilst recovering from an injury, GCSE/A-level workload, time commitment elsewhere, etc.

For swimmers who compete overseas, or in other regions or counties within the UK (as is often the case for our University Swimmers) we will use their in-season times achieved and compare them virtually with the relevant English Nationals/North West Regionals/Cheshire consideration times to determine appropriate practice squads.

Change is never easy, and achieving perfection for all people at all times is nigh on impossible, but some beneficial evolutionary change is required at this moment. We look forward to your support and constructive thoughts while we make the adjustments and beyond.

Further information will be coming out next week so please remain patient and you will hear from us very soon.

Thank you

The Coaching Team