Member Submissions Archives - Swim BC

Head to Head Swim Clinic

Louise Reid — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:33:44 +0000

Our friends at Head to Head are hosting a Swim Clinic in Vancouver with Yuri Kisil! The clinic is being hosted on July 23rd & July 24th at St. George’s School. Head to Head promotes mental resiliency and physical wellness among young Canadians through Olympian led mentorship programs that teach healthy habits and inspire confidence. Yuri Kisil faced injury, illness, plateaus and many other challenges and learned a lot from his amazing swim career. He will share his extensive knowledge of the sport with the next generation of Canadian swimmers. Clinics include:

in water demonstrations by Olympians, a different skill focus in each session
a classroom session or poolside chat with an important life skill topic focus, tips, Q & A session, and a chance to check out international and Olympic medals!
Giveaways and time for photos, autographs and more

For more information and to sign up visit the Head to Head site: https://www.headtohead.ca/clinics

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Swim Together: A new model of co-participation for women and girls in sport

Louise Reid — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:16:37 +0000

Check out the following article from SIRC written by Katie Misener, Haley Baxter, Erin Schmidt, Sydney Dysart, Jenn Horndl, and Dawn Trussell. Full article can be read here. Parents and guardians are frequently left on the “sidelines” watching their children participate in sport. By prioritizing their child’s involvement, adults often don’t participate in sport and physical activity themselves, and their own well-being may suffer (Misener, 2020). In particular, mothers may view recreational sport for themselves as either a guilt-laden activity or a luxury due to both cost and time (Jones et al., 2010). Research suggests that while mothers recognize the benefits of physical activity, they often put the needs of their children, household or employer above their own needs (Hamilton & White, 2010). With adult obesity and daily working hours on the rise (Statistics Canada, 2016), coupled with greater social isolation and many pandemic challenges, this lack of participation in sport and recreation among parents may persist. That could have detrimental psychological and health consequences, particularly for women. When it comes to recreational sport, girls also face many barriers to participation, including the stigma associated with body image, negative peer influence, and lack of social support and positive role models (Canadian Women & Sport, 2020). Research also tells us that parental involvement plays a critical role in motivating children to remain active in sport. In particular, girls who were engaged in more sports and practised more often per week were those who had a mother practising organized physical activity regularly (Rodrigues et al., 2018). This blog shares early findings from a mother-daughter swim program. It also encourages sport leaders to think about sport programs differently and re-shape how to offer sport to female youth and their parents. A SIRC Researcher/Practitioner Match Grant and a Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) Gender Equity in Recreational Sport – Community Grant provided funding support for this research partnership and program.

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From Theory To Implementation: Swim BC’s Application Of Swimming Canada’s New Athlete Development Matrix

Louise Reid — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 23:47:47 +0000

Check out the following article from Sport for Life about Swim BC’s Application Of Swimming Canada’s New Athlete Development Matrix. (Source) In spring 2020, Swimming Canada unveiled their new Athlete Development Matrix (ADM) to the provincial/territorial sport organizations (PTSOs) nationwide. The matrix provides guiding principles for PTSOs to take back and tailor to their own program’s needs and goals. For Swim BC and their Technical Director Cory Beatt, the new ADM provided a framework for a cross-organization shift in athlete development which is currently being implemented. Swimming Canada’s ADM Pillars Swimming Canada’s ADM includes four pillars:

physical capacities;
technical, tactical or strategic competencies;
mental or psychological skills; and
life skills (cognitive, social and emotional learning skills).

Each pillar exemplifies the various competencies organizations should be encouraging athletes to demonstrate at each stage of development and works in tandem with the Long-Term Development framework, which Swimming Canada adapted to the Appropriate Athlete Development. As Swimming Canada’s Director of Operations & Sport Development Suzanne Paulins explained, each PTSO will have different priorities and capacities to implement the ADM. The principles ensure flexibility and applicability across various organizations and allow for alignment with each PTSO’s individual strategic goals. And, importantly, Swimming Canada remains an available asset to all PTSOs as they build out their strategies with this ADM in mind. For Swim BC, that partnership and access to Swimming Canada’s various discipline experts (e.g., the senior program, youth development, open water swimming, para, etc.) has been essential as a feedback loop in narrowing in on their new principles and initiatives. Swim BC’s Implementation Within Swim BC, Beatt recognized a need in 2021 to align their various partners (including CSI Pacific, Swimming Canada, and Swim BC’s general membership and performance development committee) towards a common goal. This included consultation at all levels of Swim BC, from club to high performance. Following an audit through the summer of 2021, Swim BC worked with Swimming Canada’s ADM and the feedback from those interviewed in the audit to build a revised provincial program with new programming opportunities and principles to move the organization forward: the True North Principles. The True North Principles Guided by Swimming Canada’s four pillars, the True North Principles encompass well-being, opportunity, process, effort and collaboration. The principles also consider their swimmers as athletes developing on the pathway and, importantly, as customers or clients. What does that mean? For Beatt, that considers the athletes and parents from their initial awareness of Swim BC, their consideration of Swim BC (e.g., how swimming will fit into their lifestyles), their trial of the sport, their engagement, their advocacy, and finally, their contributions to the sport. Swim BC can consider all of their athletes rather than solely the top performers in the Appropriate Athlete Development framework with this mindset. And, in combination with the four pillars of the ADM, they can build content around physical capacity, mental skills, technical skills and life skills with a strong, guiding vision. Practical Application of the Athlete Development Matrix Beatt, with feedback and support from Swimming Canada, has started building new programming opportunities for Swim BC’s membership (coaches and swimmers) that benefit all levels of the sport. Currently, Beatt is working on a Learning Hub, which provides extended learning opportunities to Swim BC members. Elements of the ADM have been considered throughout, with experts providing support in developing the learning modules. Once done, the Learning Hub will give Swim BC members opportunities to practice what they learn in various Swim BC workshops, among other presentations. The hope is that the program will support the ongoing development of skills, rather than just touching on topics. “Skills take time and effort to develop. We’re investigating ways to create content that would engage people for longer periods and that they have to put a little effort into,” Beatt explained. And, importantly, these programs are available to all Swim BC members, not just high-performance coaches and athletes. Going forward, Beatt is aware that this kind of project is evolutionary. He is looking to evaluate the implementation of the principles and the Learning Hub through:

registration at various ages and levels, retention;
conversions from level-to-level of the sport;
engagement from membership in initiatives like the Learning Hub; and
performance and race results in comparison with other provinces.

“What I like about Cory’s [work] is that he sees it as a living document and something that isn’t necessarily set in stone. It will continue to adapt and grow as we learn more information,” Paulins said. The Learning Module is just one example of the changes Beatt is implementing to reimagine Swim BC under the ADM. On a national scale, Beatt is also engaging counterparts at Swim Alberta in building healthy competition amongst all levels of the sport with the Golden Flipper Challenge. On an annual basis, race times from across all levels of swimming tally towards a provincial total for both BC and Alberta, focusing on a specific stroke; the winning province is the one with the overall best time. Several tiers have been developed to inspire and engage each organization’s entire membership, with micro-challenges set to meet the age and stage of development of all athletes and coaches. This year, that focus is the butterfly. From Swimming Canada’s perspective, Swim BC’s Learning Hub also aligns with the reenvisioning of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) content for swimming, which is currently in review. “All of these things dovetail together and work to support one another,” Paulins said. “It’s really about collaboration and alignment to the overall national perspective.” Takeaways When considering collaboration between NSOs and PTSOs, the following are several important takeaways from Swim BC and Swimming Canada’s experience:

Make collaboration frequent and purposeful: Engage the right people at the right time to understand the when, how and why of the implementation.
Collaborate with a growth mindset: Move things forward and challenge the status quo by looking at things differently, learning and growing together, rather than keeping implementations fixed once released.
Understand the common goal: Build relationships from a common goal to purposefully work toward achieving results.

Start at the beginning: The thought of developing proactive relationships, creating alignment, and building resources will feel daunting. Don’t let this stop you from starting. Take the first steps, make some mistakes, learn from the mistakes, and let the moment carry it forward.

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Bennett & Lawrence Are Recipients Of The Para Swimming CanAm Female Coach Development Scholarship

Louise Reid — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:30:38 +0000

Haley Bennett (Ravensong Aquatic Club) & Jy Lawrence (Pacific Sea Wolves) are among the recipients of the Para Swimming CanAm Female Coach Development Scholarship. They have been offered full scholarships to attend the 2021 CanAm International Swim Meet in Greensboro, North Carolina from December 14th to 21st. Swimming Canada introduced this program to increase awareness of and exposure to international Para-swimming for developing female coaches. Congrats to both Haley & Jy! You can read the full article here.

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Caitlin Meredith Inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame

Louise Reid — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 18:04:10 +0000

BC Swimmer, Caitlin Meredith, has been inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. Caitlin represented the UBC Thunderbird Varsity Team from 2002 until 2007, her full athletic eligibility. She is one of the winningest UBC Thunderbirds to ever come through the program, having won 26 medals at CIS Championships (10 Gold, 7 Silver, 9 Bronze), averaging more than 5 medals per championship. She was named a CIS All-Canadian for all 5 years of her varsity athletic career. She competed at 3 World Student Games and won a silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Caitlin was an extremely successful athlete on the varsity and international stage. Her collegiate and international successes were complemented but her academic successes in science and dentistry. You can view her induction on the UBC Sports Hall of Fame website here: https://gothunderbirds.ca/honors/ubc-sports-hall-of-fame/caitlin-meredith/184

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Leanne Sirup, Head Coach of the Duncan Stingrays, captures national Indigenous coaching award

Louise Reid — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:22:05 +0000

Full article from Windspeaker.com written by Sam Laskaris Leanne Sirup has coached her share of swimmers to medal-winning performances over the past couple of decades. She was shocked, however, to receive news that she had been recognized with a prestigious honour. Sirup has been selected as the 2021 female recipient for the National Indigenous Coaching Awards. “It’s not something I expected in my inbox,” Sirup said. This actually marks the second time she has received the national coaching award. She first won it in 2007. The national accolades are presented annually by the Aboriginal Sport Circle, the national governing body for Indigenous sports in Canada. Patrick Leask, a member of Sapotaweyak Cree Nation in Manitoba, was chosen as the male recipient. Sirup, a 46-year-old Inuk, has spent the past 16 years serving as the head coach of the Duncan Swim Club in her hometown of Duncan, B.C. Sirup has been the head coach of the Duncan Stingrays and currently oversees the programming for more than 100 athletes that are members of the club. This includes a dozen swimmers from Pacheedaht First Nation from Port Renfrew. These 12 athletes frequently make the 90-minute drive (each way) from Port Renfrew to Duncan to participate in the club’s training sessions. Sirup was no stranger to the Stingrays’ program before taking over the head coaching duties. She swam for the club for 13 years. Sirup also represented another club, Victoria-based Island Swimming during her own competitive days. And she competed for national youth squads, setting various provincial and national records in the pool. Before joining the Duncan Swim Club, Sirup had some other coaching gigs. For starters, she was the head coach of the Cowichan Stseelhtun Swim Club, starting in September 2002 until July 2006. She also spent eight years, from 2001 through 2009, as the head coach of Cowichan Aquannis Masters Swimming. Sirup has been heavily involved with the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG). She has served as the head coach of the B.C. swim squad at the last four Games. She guided the B.C. entry to a silver-medal team finish in her NAIG in Denver in 2006. Sirup also led the club to second-place team finishes at both the 2008 Games in Cowichan, B.C. and the 2014 NAIG in Regina. Then, at the last NAIG that were staged in 2017 in Toronto, Sirup coached Team B.C. to a gold-medal finish. The squad consisted of 24 swimmers. They collectively captured 24 gold medals and more than 70 medals in total. “Our swimmers are insane,” Sirup said. “They do a tremendous amount of winning.” Sirup also enjoyed her own share of success at NAIG. As an athlete, she returned home with eight medals from the 1997 Games, which were held in Victoria, B.C. For starters, she captured five gold medals in individual races. And she was also on three silver-medal winning relay squads. Sirup had been selected to serve as the B.C. swim coach for the 2020 NAIG. But those Games, which were to be held in Halifax, have been postponed a couple of times because of the ongoing pandemic and are now scheduled to take place in 2023. Though she has yet to receive official word, Sirup is hoping she can remain as the B.C. coach who will take part at the Halifax NAIG. Sirup said there is a significant difference between coaching and competing. “It’s a different level of joy,” she said. “It’s a different level of satisfaction. As an athlete, I was controlling me and my performances. Now, as a coach, I get to guide them on how to control their performances.” Sirup also credits three organizations that she believes have led to her coaching successes. They are Swim BC, the Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council (I-SPARC) and the Canadian Sport Institute. Sirup works for Swim BC, the governing body of swimming in the province, on a contract basis as a learning facilitator for its National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP). She also is the volunteer head swim coach for I-SPARC. Her duties include identifying and fostering athlete development for the province’s NAIG-bound swim competitors. Sirup continues to upgrade her own coaching credentials. She’s currently in the NCCP’s Advanced Coaching Diploma program, operating through the Canadian Sport Institute.

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MASTERS SWIMMING FINA TOP 10 FOR 2020

Louise Reid — Fri, 14 May 2021 17:33:42 +0000

FINA has released their rankings for the Top 10 Masters performances from 2020. More than 30 BC Masters Swimmers made the Top 10 Rankings for 2020. They will each receive a letter of congratulations from Swimming Canada and a crest from FINA. Big congratulations from Swim BC on this tremendous achievement and we can’t wait to see Masters back in the water soon. You can find the list of the athletes recognized below, and you can find the full FINA Top 10 rankings here (SCM | LCM).

Katie McEvoy (VICM)

Kelly Geisheimer (HYACK)

Alexandra Dimitrescu

Serena Brendaglia (HBSC)

Lauren Westmacott (VICM)

Cindy Mabee (VICM)

Sam Goski (VICM)

Sarah MacDonald (VICM)

Linda Wilson (WRW)

Pauline Lotbinière Joly (WIN)

Theo Manley (WRW)

Hella Versfeld (VERN)

Nancy Ryan (NEBB)

Yvonne Cattrall (VICM)

Anne Fabre (VICM)

Conny Stamhuis (OKAN)

Craig Brazier (HBSC)

Gabrio Mannucci (HBSC)

Vlad Shirokov (HBSC/DYNA)

Rob Charland (DOGW)

Scott Cosper (VICM)

Peter Van Dyke (HBSC)

Glenn Carlsen (PENT)

Rod Carmicheal (VICM)

Daniel Brimm (WIN)

Steve Rasmussen (WIN)

Alan Morris (NSM)

Arthur Ray (WRW)

Jack Kelso (DOGW)

Karl Donoghue (PENT)

Erika Korbely (HYDE)

Carl Waterer (LOCO)

Aldert Dykstra (HYDE)

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TUJA DREYER (KELOWNA) AWARDED A 2020 PREMIER’S AWARD FOR INDIGENOUS YOUTH EXCELLENCE IN SPORT

Louise Reid — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 20:29:50 +0000

The Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council (I·SPARC) announced the athletes who were named as the Interior regional recipients of the 2020 Premier’s Awards for Indigenous Youth Excellence in Sport. Tuja Dreyer (Kelowna) swims with the Nanaimo Riptides, was one of the recipients. Big congratulations from us at Swim BC. We are proud to have you as an outstanding representative of our sport.

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Jakob Brager (Nanaimo) Awarded a 2020 Premier’s Awards for Indigenous Youth Excellence in Sport

Louise Reid — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:57:49 +0000

The Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council (I·SPARC) announced the athletes who were named as the Vancouver Island regional recipients of the 2020 Premier’s Awards for Indigenous Youth Excellence in Sport. Jakob Brager swims with the Nanaimo Riptides, was one of the recipients. Big congratulations from us at Swim BC. We are proud to have you as an outstanding representative of our sport.

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Interview with Tina Hoeben: Virtual Team Meetings

Louise Reid — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 18:09:40 +0000

Swim BC Interviews is a series where we reach out to Swim BC members and the sporting community to provide a place to share their innovations and ideas with the swimming community. The first person we reached out to for this series was Tina Hoeben, the Head Coach of the KISU Swim Club, to share their experience with Virtual Team Meetings. Over the past year, Swim BC clubs have had to be innovative to keep their members connected. At the beginning of the pandemic, clubs obviously were not able to have their members come together to connect with one another. Even currently, most clubs have been training in small groups without any interaction between different training groups causing a disconnect and lack of team unity. During the pandemic, Tina adapted her already successful team meetings to a virtual platform. KISU, like most other swim clubs, were stuck at home trying to adapt to the pandemic. Trying to find a way to connect their club members, Tina turned to Zoom. KISU already had been having regular team meetings before the pandemic, when their pool time was drastically reduced due to a renovation in 2010-2011. Over the roughly 10 years that they had been doing team meetings, Tina learned how beneficial it was for her swimmers to learn outside of the pool. She said, “You don’t necessarily need water to learn everything about swimming”. Team meetings started as a great way to go over upcoming events, drills and stroke breakdowns, so that they didn’t waste any time they had in the water. In 2020, when they moved online, they got more creative with the format adding in more elements to engage their swimmers. The biggest addition to these meetings during the pandemic was inviting guest speakers, especially KISU alumni to help inspire the athletes. “I wanted them to be able to see what other members of KISU have accomplished, and that it could be possible for them too” said Tina. They also introduced House Teams along with the Virtual Meetings. The swimmers were split up into a designated house team with a house leader, who was usually an older swimmer on the team. They could earn points for their houses by participating in the virtual meeting activities and asking questions to the guest speakers. “They’re similar to Hogwarts houses” said Tina and the House Teams have really helped to engage the athletes with the content knowing that participation would help earn them points for their team. Now that they have transitioned back into the pool, the house teams have remained and are often used as a teaching tool during drill work. As already mentioned, they chose Zoom to host these meetings. It was chosen because it is a safe option for hosting meetings and has a good range of additional features. They use breakout rooms for House Teams and so that the members can socialize in smaller groups. They were also able to invite other clubs like Terrace Bluebacks, Swim Faster Club and Summerland Orcas to join and Zoom helped to facilitate that. Now that they are back in the pool, Tina is seeing real improvement from the athletes that engaged in the Virtual Meetings. The athletes who are keen and engaged were able to get a lot out of the Virtual Meetings and it shows in their performance. It also helped the athletes to develop goals to work towards once they were able to get back in the pool. Once the pandemic is over, Tina plans to resume in person team meetings but will keep some things she learned during the last year. Tina mentioned that during virtual meetings you can feel a disconnect between the presenter and audience and, as a team, they prefer in person meetings. They are be open to continuing virtual meetings if they want to have guest speaker that can’t make it in person. Guest speakers and having KISU alumni come talk to the team was one of the key elements that helped make their virtual team meeting successful and they’re something they want to keep in their meetings moving forward. Thanks so much to Tina for talking to us about their Virtual Team meetings. If you are interested in starting up your own Virtual Team Meetings or in person team meetings when able, Tina is open to helping out other clubs wanting to get started. Just reach out to Swim BC and we’ll put you in touch with her. If you have an innovative idea you would like to share with the swimming community, please reach out to Swim BC.

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