We’ve been joined this summer by Grace from Jesmond Park Academy. Grace, 15, started swimming with SwimNE when she was just 4-years-old. She worked her way through stages 1 to 10 before joining the competitive swimming team at Tynemouth Amateur Swimming Club (TASC). Earlier this summer, Grace joined us once more – this time on work experience.
In this blog, Grace shares with us her experiences of competitive swimming and how her time at SwimNE helped prepare her for this step.
Tell us about your time with SwimNE
I started with SwimNE when I was just 4-years-old. I’ve always loved swimming and it’s fair to say that it was always ‘my thing’ when I was growing up. I swam at Sport Central (Newcastle) and was able to work my way through the stages fairly quickly.
I reached the pre-competitive stages (stages 9 & 10) when I was around 8 years old and I was younger than a lot of the others in my group at the time. While some of the children I’d been learning with chose to move onto swim clubs after completing stage 8, I – and my parents – didn’t feel I was quite ready. So, I stayed with SwimNE and completed stages 9 and 10. I’m really glad I did! I feel doing this really helped to prepare me for competitive swimming and I don’t think I’d be where I am now with it had I joined earlier.
How did SwimNE’s pre-comp classes help you?
Moving from swimming with a swim school like SwimNE to club swimming is a big jump, especially if you’re joining after stage 7 or 8 classes which, when I was learning, were half hour classes.
The pre-comp classes were longer – 60 minutes – which gave me the opportunity to build up my stamina. The classes also allowed me to see what swimming with a club might be like – we worked on our dives, our turns and our competitive starts. We also did swimming drills and raced against each other (but all while being in a very fun and supportive environment still). I was also invited to take part in some Dolphin Galas with SwimNE, which was my first real taste of competitive swimming.
I honestly think that, had I moved before completing stages 9 and 10, I would have found it too overwhelming.
What’s it like being part of a competitive swimming team?
I absolutely love it!
These days, I’m at the pool five times a week, and each session can be up to two hours. It’s a lot… and many more hours than I was doing at SwimNE. I didn’t jump straight into 10 hours training a week, though – a bit like while I was at SwimNE, you work your way up through the squads and build up the time as you go.
I compete 1 or 2 times a month on average and have collected loads of medals on the way – some as an individual, others as a team. More importantly, though, I am improving my individual times for different strokes and distances.
What advice would you give to swimmers who are looking to move to a club environment?
Get as much experience with a swim school as you can before moving up – the extra time with them will really help you by building up your stamina and allowing you to perfect your technique.
When you do start thinking about moving to a competitive swim club, ask for recommendations – my SwimNE teacher and the coordinators gave my parents some suggestions, and I also spoke with friends from school and elsewhere.
You’ve got to commit if you want to swim competitively. They expect you to attend the sessions and you have to keep working on your times to stay in the squad. It mightn’t be for everybody, and I do have some friends who have instead moved to sports such as diving or rookie lifeguarding.
Last but not least… enjoy it! It’s great fun and I hope that you love it as much as I do!
Useful resourses
Interested in joining our pre-comp (stage 9 & 10) classes? You can find them all here.
Finished pre-comp and wondering what to do next? You’ll find a super-useful list of clubs (including competitive swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, triathlon and more) in our customer zone on our website.