Swimming guru hosts training
One of the country’s leading educators of swimming coaches was in Shetland last weekend to take a training weekend for swimmers and coaches.
Alan Lynn is a senior teaching fellow of sport coaching at the Department of Sport Studies at the University of Stirling.
Forty-two swimmers, aged from nine to 18 years, and 13 coaches from four Shetland clubs were involved in the intensive programme which took place at the Clickimin Centre. Over a day and a half they took part in three pool sessions, three land training sessions and three educational sessions all led by Alan.
New techniques, training drills and tough training sessions in the pool gave coaches new ideas as well as some fun learning activities for all the swimmers taking part. In the land sessions the importance of strength conditioning was covered along with a variety of warm up exercises. Educational sessions covered a variety of subjects including what it takes to be a champion, technique, keys to success, goal setting, time management for swimmers and a DVD of top class swimming. This was a fantastic opportunity not only for the swimmers but for coaches from all over Shetland. Everyone enjoyed the weekend and the swimmers were a credit to their clubs and Shetland.
Swimmers and coaches would like to express their thanks to Alan Lynn for coming up to Shetland, Clickimin staff for their assistance and Lesley Hutchison for organising this the first of three visits from Alan. These training weekends have been made possible by a lottery funded Awards For All Scotland grant. Shetland Swimming Association are very grateful for their support for this swimming development project, which will see swimming in Shetland go from strength to strength.
As well as being as being a highly regarded coach, Alan Lynn is the author of three of the most recent and current books on swimming – Crowood Sports Guides to Swimming, High Performance Swimming and Conditioning for Swimmers.
All three books are a must have for anyone embarking on a career in coaching and are essential reading for students of UKCC level 1, 2 and 3.
