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STEP 1
Print out the Swimmer’s TOP TIMES – these obviously change after every gala and the most recent can be found in the latest can be found in the last gala entries communication (see home page for last gala).
This is a useful site to find Western Cape rankings, top times and qualifying goals. At times it can lag with updating info but is generally very useful
STEP 2
Print out QUALIFYING TIMES required for Swimmers Age here
AGE GROUP SHORT COURSE; AGE GROUP LONG COURSE
YOUTH & SNAT SHORT COURSE; YOUTH & SNAT LONG COURSE
Use this CONVERSION TOOL if you need to convert swimmers times from LC (100m pool) to SC (25m pool) or vice versa.
For your planning and goal setting, it is best to work with the age the swimmer will be for the relevant Levels Gala at the end of the season.
You will also need to watch out for which gala CTMA league your swimmer qualifies for (L1, L2, L3&UP) throughout the season, this my change as they birthday up.
Remember, swimmer’s age is taken from 1st day of relevant gala
STEP 3
Set REALISTIC GOALS for the Season
If unsure request a meeting with your coach
Be realistic with your goals, you can always revisit these as the season progresses
STEP 4
Print out Gala Schedules relevant to your current level (your latest top times can be found in the Announcement link on home page)
L1&2 GALA LIST SHOWING EVENTS
L3&UP GALA LIST SHOWING EVENTS
SUMMARY OF ALL GALAS WITH EVENTS
These are in excel to help you with step 5.
STEP 5:
Plan your Gala events. The schedules are in excel so you can save them and highlight the events you plan to swim in the year.
CONSIDER
- qualifying period for (eg. Summer Champs requires current season times – ie from the beginning of May of current year)
- criteria for main competitions (eg Nationals requires x2 IM’s and must swim regional Champs)
- Check swimmer qualifying status WP SC Winter League (previous 18 months)
SOME TIPS IN YOUR PLANNING
Swim as many galas as you can, this helps swimmers develop Gala Fitness
Swim as many events as you can especially early in the season so you don’t have to play catch-up later and attend a gala just for a missing time.
Swim as many events as you can in Winter SC Champs – this gives you a set of times for the year (just in case swimmer is sick or unable to make a later gala)
Try not to rely on qualifying galas for a time for main competitions, these galas are often not at optimal times in training to PB
Swim your IM’s as early in the season as possible (as well as your more technical races like 200 back) you don’t want to only have one chance to swim these critical events
Aim to use your qualifying galas to improve your main event times (for a better heat) rather than to get your first time of the season
STEP 6:
Maintain a RECORD of swimmers times so they can see improvements and how much time they still need to reach goals.
Swim dynamics does this for you but sometimes there is a delay in getting all the times up.(use “apply qualifying times” from Top Times window)
The new CTMA system requires frequent updating of top times so this info should be easily available, (excel doesn’t work with the structure of swim times {mm;ss;0000] so it is hard to do a variance analysis (calculate time off needed to achieve goals)
There are some apps that can record times accurately [Eg. swimpb for ios in app store]
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