Wareham & District Swimming Club
 

Squad: Wareham Water Rats

 Wareham, Dorset, England

Adult Sessions

We have an Adult Session for swimmers of all abilities on Wednesday from 8.30pm – 9.30pm. This includes two sections, the ones that like to take it easy, and a faster lanes for those feeling a little more energetic. The cost for these sessions is £3.50 payable on the night.

 Teaching Sessions

All our Teachers are Voluntary and Qualified and are very dedicated. A list is attached for your information.

The aim of the club is to "Teach and promote the art of swimming" in a happy and friendly environment, with achievement awards through the different stages.

Throughout the year, we teach the swimmers a variety of skills in the form of badges.  The badges we take in this swimming club are Swimming Teachers Association awards.  Parents and swimmers are informed of the badge being taken.     

We begin with the basic skills following on with Survival, Rescue & Water Safety, Diving, Water Polo and Synchro.

Competitive Swim Squad

After a probationary period, if a swimmer has potential, achieves the qualifying requirements and wishes to represent the Club in competitions, they will have the opportunity of being invited to join our Junior Training Squad.  The Squad team name is "WAREHAM WATER-RATS" .They will then swim on Mondays in pre-squad training and may be invited to Swanage Swimming pool 6.00pm – 7.00pm or 7.00pm - 8.00pm, and can continue to take any badges on Sunday 6.00pm – 6.55pm, then will progress to Mondays 7.00pm - 8.00pm.  They may also swim on Saturday mornings 7.30am - 8.50am, Sunday 7.15pm – 8.45pm and Wednesday 6.00pm - 7.00pm/8.00pm at Bovington    All on Invitation.  

We compete in Galas about once a month.  We have been invited by many Clubs to compete i.e. West Dorset (Dorchester), Poole, Ringwood, Bournemouth, Weymouth, Bristol, Bath and Yeovil which usually are very sociable events to all concerned (swimmers and family). We  have had swimmers in our team qualifying for the National, and have many qualifying for the South West Regional and County Championships.  We try to aim high, but as long as the enjoyment is still there!

In 1998 we joined  THE NATIONAL "SPEEDO" SWIMMING  LEAGUES, in which we did  very well in Division 4 of the Western League.  This enables a further opportunity to swim against swimmers of higher ability from all parts of this League which covers from South Wales to Cornwall.  This year we will be competing in Division 2.

In the years since 2002 we entered our Team in  “Southern Junior League” which is for our younger swimmers of 12 yrs and under. This is a very enjoyable and successful venture.Unfortunately this year due to lack of the correct age swimmers and support we have decided not to take part, but this will be reviewed at a later date for next year.

Activities

We have a Colour Gala twice a year, where swimmers are put into Colour Groups according to their swimming ability:  Blue - Purple - Orange - Red - Bronze - Silver - Gold - Platinum - Elite - Super Elite. In January we have a Splashnight which are competitions of 25 & 50 metres. On gaining your first times on the ladder you will receive a Log book to record these in and all other future times.

In Jan/Feb we have a 1hr Postal Swim, where all swimmers distances in their 1hr swim are sent to the British Long Distance Association. These are then put with other swimmers from all over the world such as U.S.A. Australia, Germany and Sweden, and in June a Booklet is published with the places they have achieved. Les Jessop still holds an Age Group Record and has so far won 3 Gold medals and 1 Silver. We have also had other Silver and Bronze medallists. Swimmers entered from Wareham range from the ages of 7 to 75.

At the end of the year we have our Club Championships where the swimmers swim 25m, 50m, 100m and 200m according to their age group, and receive medals for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd places and ribbons for 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place for the races they enter. We also have Club Championship long distance races of Freestyle 400m, 800m and 1500m races.

There are many trophies, plus Senior, Intermediate and Junior Age Group cups to be won which are all presented at our Annual Presentation Evening in January. All competitors receive an attendance certificate.

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