What’s next after Leopold Swim School?
Follow Natasha’s journey from
Leopold Swim School to Geelong Swimming Club
Hi my name is Natasha,
I have been swimming at Leopold Swim School since I was 4 years old. The teachers there were great and my swimming was improving heaps. This year I decided that I wanted to take my swimming further, so Mum and I went into Leopold Swim School to see what they thought and if they had any recommendations. They recommended a few clubs and I decided to go try out at Geelong Swim Club and they were fantastic. I went for a trial and I got into state squad, all the people there were lovely and it was very welcoming.
WEEK 2
I was really excited to go to my first training session, but nervous at the same time. The coaches at Leopold Swim School and Geelong Swim Club explained to me before I went that I might struggle a little bit to keep up. I was told that maybe I wouldn’t be as fit as all of the other people there.
I was surprised how hard it was but the thing that made it a little bit easier was all the encouragement by the other people there and the coaches. I did start at the back of the line and I struggled a lot to keep up with everyone else but you could tell that my fitness was slowly building up.
I was really tired at the end of the first week and I found the training really hard but I was still stoked for the next week.
WEEK 3
I was doing really well and now it was my first technique session. First thing we had to do was butterfly kick with a snorkel. I was really worried at the start because I wasn’t very good at breathing through the mouth piece. At first I kept choking and swallowing heaps of water but by the time we had finished using the snorkel I had finally got the hang of it.
When we started doing fitness training again I was still not able to do it fully but I was getting there. When I was getting too tired I used my flippers which made it a lot easier but it was still really hard.
I got an email from the head coach this week saying how happy he was with my training and attitude.
WEEK 4
This week we worked a lot on breaststroke technique. First we worked on just the legs and getting our knees in the right spot, turning our feet and kicking hard back together. This is so
We can get a lot of power out of the kick. I was quite surprised because it didn’t take me that long to understand how to do it. I got it straight away. We still did fitness training, but we did work a lot on breaststroke.
WEEK 5 & 6
At the start of the week we had a State Group Meeting about the rules of the Squad.
Some of the rules are as follows;
- Swimmers have to turn up to training 5 or 6 times a week.
- If you are catching up to someone in the lane overtake them instead of touching their toes (sitting behind them).
- Also we all start in the first lane, but if we stop or have an injury we go to the second lane to complete the rest of the training.
These rules will be tested over the next two weeks.
WEEK 7 & 8
In the first week we did a week of recovery swimming, so our bodies could get over the competition that we just swam in. So we worked more on stroke technique. We were given an easier program with longer recovery periods in between each distance; our times did not have to be as fast.
In the second week it was an endurance week to increase our fitness. So we had to swim longer distances in quicker times. We also worked on sprinting and had to monitor our heart rate after our sprint to check if we were working hard enough.
WEEK 9 & 10
These two weeks were really basic because the first week was preparing for the competition on the weekend and the second week was recovery. We went to MSAC for the comp and the pool looked amazing, the diving boards were really good and in the pool you just felt like you were flying. I didn’t get a place in any of my events but I got 1 second off my PB for my breaststroke, but I added a second to my PB for backstroke. It was a really fun day and I am really excited about my next competition.
