What is Swim21 ?
Swim21 is the ASA’s swimmer and club development programme for the 21st century. It was launched in 1999, with an aim to provide appropriate opportunities for swimmers at each stage of their development, in order that they will achieve their full potential.
Five goals were identified:
- To provide a nationally recognised club development programme
- To establish a network for clubs
- To provide clear pathways for individuals through the club structure
- To guide clubs through the Action Planning process
- To incorporate a partnership approach to the delivery of swimming locally
The 2001 ASA annual report stated that 564 clubs had signed up to Swim21, (out of a total of around 1600 clubs), although this number was increasing all the time.
The Swim21 process consists of three stages:
- Club Audit
- Action Planning
- Club Accreditation
The Club Audit stage requires clubs to assess their current activities by completing a questionnaire that is divided into four parts:
Swimmer Development, Teacher/Coach Development, Club Management and Partnerships.
At the end of the audit, the club is placed into a development stage, in consultation with their Regional Development Officer. The categorisation depends on readiness factors such as number of pool hours, qualifications of teachers/coaches and competitive level of swimmers, to name just a few.
Teaching: Quality opportunities to develop basic swimming skills, which lay the foundation for future enjoyment.
Skill Development: Quality opportunities to develop technical skills in a training environment.
Competitive Development: A training programme which consistently produces athletes at District and National Age Group level
Performance: A training programme that consistently produces athletes at National level and above.
The second stage of Swim21 is Action Planning. It follows from the Audit stage, where clubs will have established where they are currently at and where they want to be, in terms of strengths, weaknesses and future goals. Clubs are faced with two broad choices when first developing their Action Plan. They can either seek to improve themselves at the level they currently operate or they can plan to meet the criteria to move to the next development level. The Action Plan requires clubs to determine what key areas need attention, how they can be achieved, who will assist in implementing each part of the plan and over what time scale this will be done.
The final part of the Swim21 process is the Club Accreditation stage, which was launched in 2001. Swimming clubs can achieve Swim21 Accreditation after successfully implementing a suitable Action Plan. The ASA Director of Development stated that “… an accredited club will be recognized publicly as a quality club – not just within the local community but also on a national basis”
Clubs can be awarded accreditation at whichever of the 4 levels they operate, meaning that it is not only the top-level performance clubs that can achieve this status.
By achieving Swim21 accreditation, Swindon Dolphin will be nationally recognised as a club that offers quality opportunities for its swimmers, teachers, coaches and all members. It will in effect be a ‘kite mark’ showing that we are a professionally run and managed club with strong links with many other organisations in the area and further a field. By gaining Swim21 accreditation, various opportunities will become accessible to the club such as the availability of lottery funding and other possible grant applications that would be impossible to get without Swim21.
Swindon Dolphin were awarded Accreditation at the Skill Development level in February 2005. We are now working towards gaining Accreditation at the Competitive Development level.
Swim 21 is clearly an important ongoing process that will help us in developing our swimmers to their full potential and also in developing Swindon Dolphin as a club in itself. It is a challenging yet rewarding process that requires a great deal of time to be invested into it but ultimately will lead to a better swimming club for us all.
