Swim21 - The ASA Club Development Model Swim21 is the ASA's swimmer/club development programme for the 21st Century. Essentially it is a club development model, a planning tool enabling clubs to help swimmers, coaches, administrators and other various volunteers within the club environment to achieve their full potential. The programme, which focuses on swimmer development, teacher/coach education, club management and partnerships, is centred around the needs of the swimmers, striving to provide them with the best possible environment. Long Term Athlete Development underpins the whole programme, outlining clear structures and pathways for the swimmers. It is regarded as the backbone of the ASA's present and future development progamme, the more a club puts into the process the more they will get out of it, securing additional support and assistance if and when required. More and more forward looking swimming clubs in the country are now recognising the importance of working towards this accreditation and the long term benefits it will bring. Swim 21 A Long Road. As Swim 21 co-ordinator, I was asked to write some notes on the process and time scales involved, so follows some tongue in cheek notes on how it came about. We first heard of Swim 21 at a presentation of given at County Hall in Preston back in 1998/99. The Club registered with the scheme shortly afterwards. At this point we had few teachers, no coaches or anyone prepared to help out. Before Swim 21 we had already started work in this area with the help of an old pal at the Lancashire Adult Education Department. The club appointed four people to form a small sub committee. Each person was given one part of the Swim 21 audit pack to complete. Within a month the four sections were completed and were returned to the ASA North West regional office. After waiting over twelve months without hearing a word, we contacted Di Bishop at ASA HQ to ask her to get thing moving. During the time that we had been awaiting for the return of the Action Plan the audit pack had been completely revised so we had to complete the audit part again. We were pretty upset at the time but during the awaiting time we had continued to make significant progress towards Swim 21. Most of the notes in the Action plan when it finally arrived had already been addressed. As at Skill Development level you know what you have to do from the signing on document. One of the biggest jobs was to transfer nearly twelve months worth of accounts onto a computerised accounts package and compile full and detailed job descriptions, including Club policies. The ASA have made things much easier now as there are Child Protection, Equity policies etc available to down load from the web site instead of pinching bits of other peoples from all over the place. We were finally ready to submit Swim 21 in December 02 only to find that the Constitution that the Northern Counties had was not acceptable and would have to be completely rewritten. We were fortunate to have a solicitor on our management committee that was able to make short work of this job. After several frantic phone calls and several registered letters later to the Northern Counties we finally submitted Swim 21 in December 02 A note of caution here, there had been no prior mention of the Constitution until this point. At the meeting of the panel in January 2003 the Club was awarded Swim 21 Skill Development Status. The section on our volunteer work, was being held as a model of good practice. At this point the club was one of only fifteen clubs in the country to have been accredited. In the spring of 03 the club decided to continue moving ahead with our education programme. Our Head Coach had undertaken the ASA Coach certificate, three members with a Gym instructor’s qualification and two more members with ASA Club Coach Certificate. We re-submitted Swim 21 in December 03 to attain Competitive Level Status. As of March 2004 our submission has been referred until another list of recommendations have been met. Again notes of caution here, a lot of the recommendations made by the Northern Counties Swim21 committee are not listed in the Competitive Level Action plan as a requirement. We are however pressing ahead with these additions and hope to be able to re-submit in July 2004. On a personal note, I get the impression that the ASA do not want a none professional club to hold this level of Swim 21 and cannot believe that a small club is trying to attain this level and other obstacles are being place in the way. At a meeting of Northern Counties in December 03 Clubs holding Swim 21 in their region were to be awarded in princely sum of £100. To date we have not received the cheque. Perhaps the ASA should have a version of Swim 21 for the regional organisation so that they may become more efficient and user friendly. After these notes, I may not be asked again how it’s going!!! Or perhaps you would like me to keep you informed? Please note that these notes are a personal record and do not reflect the views of the club in anyway. Philip Corner Swim 21 Co-Ordinator