The sport I am researching is swimming. The national governing bodies are the Amateur Swimming Association and English Schools Swimming Association. ESSA are getting children as young as 7 to start swimming, they are doing this by providing lessons in school time, all the way up to the age of 11 years old. They have a programme called aqua skills which teach the children all the fundamentals of swimming and the basics they will need to know to progress when they are 11 into swimming squads.
Through the aqua skills programme the children gradually progress through each term from inter-schools competition to leagues. During the sessions they also involve relays and fun-based games to help the children enjoy themselves whilst learning. There are a few facilities and coaching available for swimming at grass roots level, the first facility is the phoenix swimming pool in Gorleston, where aqua skills sessions are held for children aged 7-11 during school time.
The second facility is Yarmouth high school swimming pool; this is used by both the students at the school and Great Yarmouth Swimming club. There is a third facility in the area called Marina Centre in Great Yarmouth but is only used for private swimming lessons paid for by parents of the children and does not provide sessions for schools or swimming clubs. There are currently 22 swimming clubs in Suffolk and 18 clubs in Norfolk. There is a national swimming league which all clubs from both Norfolk and Suffolk are entered into every year.
This will determine the current rank of the swimming club nationally. Norfolk and Suffolk county swimming teams also enter the national inter-county championships every year and this is against all counties from the UK. In these championships there are two divisions. This year Suffolk ASA came 8th in division 1 and Norfolk ASA came 10th in division 2. Lowestoft and Oulton Broad Swimming club don’t get any funding as such but receive money from fees paid by the swimmers and also fund raising events such as a 24 hour relay and also we run a club shop which also generates money.
My swimming coach’s job is partly funded by sport England because it would almost be impossible to keep him coaching at our club on self financing funding. Swimmers who have reached a certain level in their swimming career can apply for funding from the local council to help pay for fees and buy essential swimming equipment. The grant which Norfolk county council offers can be applied in three levels one for i?? 200, a second for i?? 500 and the third a maximum of i?? 1000.
I personally applied for a grant last year and received i?? 500, this is for athletes at national level, and the grant for i?? 1000 is generally for organisations rather than individuals. Name of Organisation Purpose Relation to swimming Active Norfolk To create opportunities for young people to get involved in sport and also to create mass participation in sport. They help swimming by providing a list of all the clubs in the area and providing contact information for clubs and coaches all over Norfolk.