The New Blackburn Centurions Swimming Club Layout

Introduction

Blackburn Centurions Swimming Club currently has around 150 members all at various levels of swimming.   The club has gained Swim 21 accreditation in teaching and skill development.  It has also developed into an established micro league and national league swimming club and is also one of the feeder clubs into Gallica Performance Squad.

The vision is to develop a program that will maximise a swimmer’s potential at every stage of swimming in conjunction with the ASA’s Long Term Athlete Development Model (LTAD).  The club should look to maintain its teaching and skill development status and look to produce the foundations of possible future Olympians.  This will start from when the swimmer first enters the pool at learn to swim level to if they reach the standard of a squad and we can no longer meet their demands.  If a swimmer does not reach the standard of a squad then it is essential that we develop a high standard structure at the top levels to retain the swimmers and develop them to reach their maximum potential. 

The vision of Blackburn Centurions is to become a highly competitive club within the North West and be able to feed the performance squad, Gallica.  It has been essential then that we have a structure that can accommodate these ambitions which is why in October 2009 the club began it’s re-launch under the guidance of Head Coach Rick Hall and Chairman Paul Fletcher.

The first change that went about was the movement from the old National Plan for Teaching Swimming (NPTS) to the newly updated NPTS.  Following this new squads were formed inline with LTAD, which allowed swimmers to progress forwards through the Blackburn Squads or into Gallica should they be good enough.  The following gives information of the structure and of the new squads.