The first of the North East Regional Para-swimming training sessions 2023-2024 took place on Sunday 8th October at Catterick Leisure Centre. 19 swimmers took part and for some this was the first time they had had the opportunity to take part in an event such as this.
The day started with a strength and conditioning session taken by Paralympian Lyndon Longhorne. This session incorporated high intensity circuit training, breath work technique and shoulder strength training. Lyndon taught the swimmers some shoulder exercises to incorporate in their training programme at home and they all went away with some homework in relation to shoulder strength training to bring back to the next session.
After the land session the guest speaker, Paralympian Grace Harvey gave a presentation to swimmers and parents about her swimming journey. She spoke about some of her challenges as a child learning to swim and then her journey onwards once she joined the para-talent programme at age 11. Grace broke her first British record at age 15 and has gone on to win silver medals at the Commonwealth and Paralympic games. She now trains at the National Performance Centre in Manchester in addition to studying at University. Her passion for swimming and determination shone through and the swimmers took so much away from her inspiring talk. Graces’ final message to the team was “don’t give up, you never know when you’re going to breakthrough, follow your dreams.”
Keith Hall (Regional para-swimming development lead coach) was supported Lyndon and Grace poolside and coaches from around the North East Region:
Zoe Cowan Richmond Dales ASC
Ben Gilchrist Richmond Dales ASC
Dan Firbank B-TASC
Kylah Cowan (swimmer) and Charlotte Hinde (swimmer) Richmond Dales ASC were also on hand to support the team. The 2 hour swimming session focused on underwater work, IM sprints, dive starts, backstroke starts, breaststroke and backstroke turns. The final part of the afternoon was a goal setting session ran by Grace. The swimmers worked together looking at their “swimming dream” and then process, performance and outcome goals.
Keith Hall said “The session went very well, the swimmers showed huge commitment and have hopefully learnt a lot from both Lyndon and Grace. Thank you to the coaches and swimmers for their support.”
The next training camp will be December 10th.
Report by
Kathryn Stephenson
Team Manager
