Coach Report: Development Meet

It has been a week since swimming clubs in Suffolk competed at the Development Meet in Ipswich. I still haven’t recovered from the incredible swimming from all of our swimmers who raced, and the buzz that followed by all of the members in the club. There have been so many lovely comments from parents, swimmers and club officers.

Neil Tolputt, our meet organiser said ‘ you were all amazing, great swims and supported each other across the whole weekend. You all did yourselves, your coaches and the club proud.’

A parent shared her thanks via email: ‘Given that parents, friends and families weren’t able to support. It was reported back that all of team Deben, lead by Matt, were there for each other. Fantastic team spirit!’

Another parent said ‘I wanted to say that having never been to a swimming gala before, we were so impressed with how it was organised, and how you and the team looked after the swimmers. We are so proud of our daughter as she is a young 10 year old who has never been part of any competitions like this.’

Across the weekend, our swimmers completed 104 swims and achieved 93% new personal best times.

Day one brought excitement seeing 29 swimmers racing predominantly 50m races (14 in session one and 15 in session two) achieving 63 PBs, 22 medals and some very proud coaches! The best part on Saturday was towards the end of session one, the older swimmers arrived on poolside and immediately provided incredible support and encouragement to our younger swimmers who were still racing, we also managed to get a whole team photo!

Day two saw lower numbers of swimmers in attendance (5 swimmers in the younger age group, and 8 swimmers in the older age group), however it still felt like we had the exact same level of support and encouragement. We achieved 27 new PBs, 17 medals and a photo from one of our coaches who was in the Welsh hills watching the live stream in his Deben T-shirt. 

I have completely run out of words to explain how happy and proud I am of all of the swimmers who competed. I want to pass on my thanks to everyone who supported the team on the live stream. Parents for their support in getting the swimmers to the pool on time, and your kind words over the weekend and after the event. I also want to thank the supporting coaches across the weekend; Karen, Harvey and Sophie for their hard work, guidance and encouragement to all of the swimmers.

Well done to all,

Next competition for the Development Pathway is Stowmarket on 18th December.

Matt Boreham

Head Coach Development Pathway