News - Floaters Swimming Schools - Premier Swimming Tuition and Training in Sussex

Goggles Banned

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -1000

A school in Mold (North Wales) has banned goggles as being dangerous. Please follow the link below to read the full article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5445394/School-bans-dangerous-swimming-goggles.html

We at Floaters have regularly discouraged the use of goggles for the following reasons:

1) Children who come through our Adult and Child programme, do not wear them and have no need for them. It makes no sense for parents to buy them as soon as they go in on their own.

2) Parents tend to buy them because they think the "chlorine" will hurt their children's eyes. This perception is wrongly picked up by the children. Alternatively they are bought as a result of peer pressure.

3) The correct Goggles are rarely purchased and rarely fit properly. As a result, the pupils spend the majority of the lesson fiddling about trying to get the leaked water out and their ability to concentrate and learn is considerably diminished.

4) We have had pupils swimming on their backs, eyes out of the water, goggles on and eyes closed!!

5) We keep our pools at a low chemical level and Court Meadow is a "bromine" pool not a "chlorine" pool. The reality is that the pupils are just not used to the "feel" of water on their eyes. Its a little more noticeable than air. It does not "hurt" and when we do some practices without goggles, they have always come up with eyes intact!!

6) Chemicles are extremely unlikely to do any damage, unless there is some medical condition or over exposure. We do encourage our top end swimmers who are in the water for longer to wear them if they wish.

7) Children should be able to swim without goggles so that in the event that they find themselves in water unexpectedly, they can swim to safety.

We have had very competent swimmers (with goggles) panic when they are not being worn. This is dangerous.

WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE PROBABLY LOST THE BATTLE, BUT DO ENCOURAGE PUPILS NOT TO WEAR GOGGLES.

HOWEVER, IF THE ABOVE ARTICLE DOES ANYTHING, IT DOES SUPPORT OUR POSITION AND IN THE INTEREST OF THEIR CHILDREN'S WELLBEING, WE WOULD ASK THE CO-OPERATION OF PARENTS IN DESISTING, WHERE POSSIBLE FROM:

A) INTRODUCING THEM TO GOGGLES IN THE FIRST PLACE

AND

B) BRINGING THEM TO THE LESSONS.

THANK YOU

Free Swimming

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -1000

England's swimming pools could be free to use by the time of the London 2012 Olympics, the government has signalled. Over-60s are to be given free admission to public swimming pools in an £80m initiative, part of a bid to get more people involved in sport by 2012. Sports minister Andy Burnham indicated future funding would allow free entry to under-16s, then to everyone by 2012.

The Conservatives said the plans did not go far enough to meet a commitment to get more young people to do sport.

Local authorities in England are to get £80m next year to scrap over-60s' charges and a further £50m for the upkeep of pools. The move will be outlined by Gordon Brown as part of a bid to have two million more people taking part in some form of physical exercise by 2012.

"It will be so obviously right, in that it improves the health of the nation, that it improves people's health, happiness, well-being, general quality of life," said Mr Burnham. "If somebody is currently inactive, it's the most likely sport they're going to do. But unlike other sports, swimming has a barrier in its way and it's called an entry charge."

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: "There is something for everyone in our plans - every part of the country, every section of the population."

Shadow sports minister Hugh Robertson said: "If, as the government are saying, this is the Olympic legacy plan, today's announcement is about swimming for the over-60s - a great thing in itself - but that's hardly 'enabling young people through sport'."

Liberal Democrat culture, media and sport spokesman Don Foster said the government had "no chance" of getting two million more people involved in sport by 2012. "There are lots of organisations across the country working very hard to try and do this, but it all should have started a lot earlier," he said. "Ministers' fine words are all very well, but the figures for people dropping out of sport tell another story."

Olympic gold medallist Adrian Moorhouse welcomed the plans. He said: "I think it's a great thing. I think you've got to start somewhere and swimming is a good sport to start with. "You can't start with everybody straight away, but over-60s will really benefit."

Amateur Swimming Association chief executive David Sparkes said the money earmarked for the upkeep of pools would be a big boost. "£50m will be a tremendous fillip in terms of refurbishing some of the pools we have. This will be a stimulus to local authorities to do that work. "We also hope that some of this money will be used to build school pools to reverse the closures of these pools." He said the number of public pools had remained constant at about 1,400 over the past 20 years, with the closure of older pools being balanced by the opening of new ones. In addition, there is set to be an increase of Olympic-size 50m pools from 23 to 30 by 2012.

Floaters commented that swimming was already one of the cheapest participatory sports, all that is needed is a swimming costume and some water. Children go to their local pool to have fun and quite rightly. This initiative will not increase children's activity levels, nor will it generate future Olympians.

If the govenrment want to throw some money at swimming, then look towards doing something about the quality of swimming tuition available, find those who know what they are doing and support them directly (so the money does not dissapear down administrative tubes), either through finance, facilities or fiscal breaks.

Look outside the public sector to the pioneers in the considerable private sector.

Independent Safeguards Authority

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -1000

The government has at last recognised that the current CRB checking process if fallible and in many cases not worth the paper it is printed on. We at Floaters have known this for many years.

They are therefore proposing to introduce a supplementary checking process aimed directly at those who are working with children and vulnerable adults.

Details are not yet fully available, but in essence it means people being checked by "trained" specialist assessors on an individual basis.

Watch this space!!

Let Us Have Your News

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -1000

If you are a concerned teacher, tutor, coach, pool operator or swimming school and can't get your views heard, please let us have your news and we will post it here.

New Teaching Qualification Process

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -1000

UKCC (United Kingdom Coaching Certificate) is now the standard for all sports teaching qualifications. The ASA has managed to secure the license to deliver these new qualifications to the exclusion of all other "influential" organisation.

The New Level 1 qualification does not give the candidate the information to allow practice in the workplace to gain the experience to move onto a Level 2 qualification

The New Level 2 qualification only gives candidates the knowledge to teach pupils up to basic stages (ie. ability to swim about 100m)

There appears to be no course that we can determine that teachers swimming mechanics at a level that will allow teachers to improve technique of those who can already swim a bit.

Swimming Awards and Badges

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -1000

We have traditionally tested pupils for ASA awards (National Awards and Distance Awards) as part of our programme delivery.

When we polled our clients last year, the majority we unconcerned about achieving an award (particularly one that was of little relevance) and preferred to use the time effectively in having their pupils learn to swim.

Since the poll (September 2007) the ASA have changed the award process and we have as yet been unable to evaluate whether it is useful or not. We hope to be able to do this before the end of the Summer Term 2008.

We have evaluated alternatives and at present we have been unable to locate an award process which we feel is of benefit to our pupils.

Most clients made a preference to be tested using Floaters awards linked to the SwimCare programme rather than ASA (or other) awards. We are in the process of developing these awards and as soon as they are available, we will offer them to clients on a "on demand" basis as an alternative to the ASA awards.

These awards will test:

a) Distances on Multi-Stroke basis. ASA awards do not require any defined level of technical ability or variation of stroke in their distyance awards, so they tend to be a test of survival rather than actual ability to swim an distance.

b) Technical skill. This will be an award that tests competance against the SwimCare programme criteria.

So, in the interests of our pupils, for the moment we will not be offering award assessment.