Thursday 29 June, 2023, by Karen Dorey
KKSC NEWSLETTER JUNE 2023
Time for another update on what is happening in your swimming club, so read on!
Time Trial Thursday 6th July 6pm to 8pm
As my previous newsletter, there will be a time trails run next week on Thursday 6th July from 6pm to 8pm for all swimmers. The events will be 50m on all strokes. As usual, we really need help on the poolside, especially timekeepers. If you can help please let me know. I expect to see all swimmers at the time trails!
25th Anniversary Celebration Party
Kingsbridge Kingfishers will have been training and racing for 25 years this year. We are going to celebrate with a party (please see attached) ay Stokenham Tap-House on Saturday 9th September at 7pm. Add the date to your diary! If this is like the Annual Award Night it will be a great fun event for all the families. Ex KKSC swimmers and coaches are also being invited.
Fundraising Plea. A message from our Chairman – Adam Stewart.
‘One of the topics of discussion at our AGM in April was how we could look into raising funds for essential club equipment which is now well past its best and no longer useable. We have already secured £500 worth of funding from Kingsbridge Town Council towards much needed new Kick Boards and Pull Buoys which you should see being used over the next few weeks – many thanks to Julia Wingate one of our Masters Swimmers who sourced them for us! Our biggest issue now is the very poor state of the wave return lane ropes and their trolley which KKSC use – so poor in fact that we are now unable to use them so the water gets pretty choppy during KKSC sessions. They now require complete replacement – we are as a committee currently exploring the best options to replace these but already are aware that the costs are likely to be high. In view of this we hope that some KKSC parents might consider getting together to explore fundraising ideas to help raise these much needed funds. The committee, all of whom are volunteers, already contribute a good deal of their time to making sure the club runs as efficiently as possible but we now need more help please! Perhaps you may be able to suggest or approach local companies for sponsorship opportunities. Some fantastic ideas have been suggested by parents, both during and after the AGM but we need to start actioning them – and hope that you would be happy to help the club in this matter in the next few weeks. If you have any ideas or suggestions that we can work with, and are willing to help implement them with the help of others then we would love to hear from you.
Remember KKSC is your club and we all need to pull together to build on the improvement and success we are already beginning to reap from our swimmers in the pool – many hands make light work!!’
Summer Break
As last year we will be taking a few weeks’ break over the summer holidays. Our last session before the break will be on Friday 28th July and our first session back will be Monday 4th September.
A Few Moans
Sorry folks but there are a few moans I need to let you know about – from both coaches and swimmers.
Please get to the training sessions ON TIME – especially on Monday mornings. We aim to get the swimmers in the water as soon as the session starts (subject to lane ropes being in place) and its disruptive to swimmers already in the water to have other members turning up later than the start of the session.
Please can those swimmers with long hair wear swimming hats for training. Long hair gets in the ways of goggles, easily tangles and hair clogs up the pool filtration system. It is compulsory to wear swimming hats to training and racing. The Swim Club desk sells club hats including the new 25th Anniversary hat.
Please vacate the changing cubicles when you have changed – do NOT leave your clothes in a changing cubicle if you are not getting changed at the time – put them in one of the lockers. A number of our swimmers complain that they are unable to change before a session because the cubicles are full of other swimmers clothing.
Extra sessions
Its really great to see more of our swimmers training more often. The commitment to training is starting to show our amazing results at competitions. If you do want to improve your training and racing then extra sessions are important. Please contact me if you do want to train more often.
Upcoming Competitions
We are taking teams to the following competitions:
Exeter Sprint Meet on Sunday 24th September at Plymouth Life Centre. The events are 50m all strokes plus 100m individual medley. Closing date will be Friday 8th September. I will send out information about this gala in late August.
and
City of Plymouth Championships on Saturday 30th September, Sunday 1st October and Sunday 15th October at Plymouth Life Centre. I am waiting for more information from the event organisers but will send out information in late August/early September.
Both these two competitions are great for swimmers who are new to galas outside the club. See below for a quick report about the last one we were at!
Devon Developments and Sprint Galas June 2023
The Devon Development and Sprint Galas were held over two weekends at the beginning of this month at the Plymouth Life Centre. Thirteen of our swimmers raced, most setting personal best times and some winning plenty of medals! It was really good to see newcomers to outside competition Oslo Bastin, Fabiano Noto, Danny Clack and Faye Morris who all raced really well and most importantly loved it! The boys team came 3rd overall in the Devon Sprints behind the two big city teams of Exeter and Plymouth Leander – an amazing result. Many thanks to our Team Managers Genie Morris, Hanna Quiggin and Sarah Lansdale for keeping the team in order and to Conor Morgan who coached the second weekend. It really is heartening to once again see our swimmers racing well and having fun while doing it.
KKSC is fast improving - it’s good to see us in the medal tables once again!
SWIM HAPPY – SWIM FAST!
Karen Dorey
Head Coach
KKSC
