7.45 p.m., Monday 24th May 2010, heralded a first for Hazel Grove and Bramhall Amateur Swim Club (Saracens) as the doors opened at Stockport Grammar Swimming Pool and forty plucky over 19 year olds entered to participate in the bespoke ‘ActiveSwim’ programme. The programme is designed to encourage adults to increase their fitness by participation in a specially tailored swimming provision, which provides coaching and instruction through the whole spectrum of levels and abilities from  ‘learn to swim’ to returning elite swimmers from the past.

The ActiveSwim programme is the first of its kind in the country and is the brainchild of Kevin Nuttall, Head Coach of Saracen’s. Kevin took his idea to Louise Gardiner, the County Swimming   Coordinator for Swim NorthWest , who was so impressed with the idea she provided funding for an initial 12 month pilot with the intention of rolling it out across the country.
Saracen’s is a vibrant club with over 320 members aged from 5 to 18 years old. The Club works closely with Swim NorthWest and adheres to its guidelines for good practice.  The Club teaches according to the National Teaching Plan in the small pool. In the big pool and with the elite section of the Club the coaching follows the Long Term Athlete Development Plan and the structured philosophy of British Swimming. The ultimate aim of the ActiveSwim, is to establish a similarly vibrant Masters section. To this end, swimmers are being encouraged to add an extra section at a local pool using the Swim Fit cards available as part of the ongoing Swim NorthWest scheme.

The pilot is into its fourth week and the registered cohort has soared in numbers from forty to fifty regular swimmers across the two hourly sessions. Amongst our ‘elite’ clientele is ex-Olympian Diane Hennessey, who swam backstroke in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games for Great Britain; she is enjoying returning to swimming herself as well as adding a depth of priceless experience to the coaching side. The ‘youngest’ swimmer at present is a 19 year old footballer, who found out how much more aerobically demanding swimming is when he crawled out after his first session. One of the oldest swimmers, Jane Conway, was a non-swimmer before her first session and had an almost phobic fear of water; following expert and caring instruction from Liz Macdonald by the end of Jane’s first session she was swimming underwater for a short distance. Jane was a different person when the participants reconvened in the local watering hole after the first night of the programme and Kevin Nuttall was able to see immediately the profound impact his innovation was having from day one.

Hazel Grove and Bramhall ASC is looking to the future, with an already successful Junior and Senior section, who won the Inter-Town League, Celebration Gala Trophy and the Handicap Trophy at Grand Central Pool for the twelfth consecutive year running on Saturday 12th June 2010. The ActiveSwim section are quickly establishing themselves as a social unit and have intrepid plans to enter relay teams at Masters Gala’s in the hopefully not too distant future.

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Little did our swimmers know that they would be up against the Derbyshire County Champions, nor that the pool was 33 1/3m in length when they arrived at Matlock Swimming Club on Saturday 3 July!  A fiercely competitive gala with a gruelling schedule of 100m (for all 11s and over) individual and relay events looked like being one competition that might just escape us, especially as we were short of many of our regular team swimmers.  The other five teams looked incredibly strong, especially in the Open age group; there were definitely a few worried faces at the start!

Out of 49 events Team Saracens won 18 firsts and 14 seconds.  This gala was one of the most enjoyable galas for swimmers and supporters alike.  The atmosphere was electric and there were some incredibly explosive and closely fought races.  Not until the final scores were announced did we know the outcome, winning by just eight points and crowned champions of the Elaine Bowler Memorial Trophy Gala.
A huge thank you to team managers Mavis Wallis and Peter Sudlow, parent helpers and of course the swimmers for their dedication and team spirit for which they deserve our highest praise.

 
The programme was similar in content to the Crusader League which the club participated in from 1995-2004 (champions for last 4 of those).   After a break of six years Saracens has been invited to rejoin this league which consists of teams in and around the potteries area, with teams partaking from as far afield as Buxton in the east to Newport in the west.  The league consists of a series of four galas held in the first few months of each year.  We are looking for volunteers to help with this and so if you are interested please contact the Head Coach, Kevin Nuttall This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   as soon as possible.