National Squad Camp signals new beginnings

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are not long over but attention is already turning towards Tokyo in four years’ time for many swimmers around the country.

Fourteen members of Swimming New Zealand’s Tokyo 2020 Development Squad have recently completed one of the first camps as part of the High Performance pathway designed to help them reach their potential on the international stage.

The swimmers, along with several coaches and SNZ High Performance staff, spent three days at the Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre in Auckland training and learning about what it takes to be a high performance athlete.

There were a number of guest speakers from High Performance Sport New Zealand who shared their expertise on topics including sports psychology, nutrition, performance analysis and strength and conditioning.

New Zealand Olympic Committee’s Alex Spence also shared her knowledge and tips for social media.

The camp was a first chance for new National Head Coach, Jerry Olszewski, to work with swimmers outside of the SNZ High Performance Centre (HPC) and talk to them about his thoughts for the future.

One of the main themes of the camp was presenting the plan for the next four years in High Performance Swimming.

Jerry explains, “In my first six weeks here at HPC we have spent many hours putting together a quad plan and National Team criteria that is workable and lets all New Zealand athletes participate in their National Championships, Trials and National Team activities.

Here are the dates, standards and explanation. I have made this as easy as possible to understand as well as put us in standard and in touch with the global swimming community.”
 

1.     The 2017 – 2020 Calendar
2.     The National Squad Structure letter – this will affect the selection of the Squads for May 2017 onwards
3.     The National Squads qualifying standards

Athletes at the camp were: Andrew Trembath (Neptune), Bradlee Ashby (Fairfield), Bobbi Gichard (Howick Pakuragna), Jackson Dawson (Waterhole), Helena Gasson (North Shore), Hayley McIntosh (Northwave), Matt Scott (Enterprise), Julian Layton (Greendale), Wilrich Coetzee (North Shore), Corneille Coetzee (North Shore), Stefannie Gillespie (Zenith), Matt Hyde (Matamata), Chris Dawson (Enterprise) and Matthew Phillips (Wharenui).

Coaches & staff at the camp were: Amanda White (SNZ), Jerry Olszewski (SNZ), Mat Woofe (SNZ), Thomas Ansorg (North Shore), Gwen Ryan (Waterhole), Graeme Laing (Matamata) and Monica Cooper (Northwave).