Swim England's Distance Initiative

Following on from yesterday's announcement of National Development Programme selections, we found it odd that Jenson Owen (Edl) hadn't been selected too. Now we understand why.

At British Nationals, Swim England invited a number of coaches to a briefing to detail a new project. The background being that as a nation, we are currently underperforming at 400m, 800m, and 1500m events and something needs to be done to change that. The Swim England Distance Initiative is the project put in place to deliver those changes.

The plan is to select a bunch of young athletes who show promise in that area and give them something like a distance focused version of the National Development Programme. It takes the form of two or three workshops and seminars over the year, plus a weekly catch up. They also get additional support in areas such as: strength and conditioning, psychology, physiotherapy, and nutrition.

Due to his performance in the 400m IM at the Swim England National Summer Meet, where he was the top 13 year old, Jenson has been invited to take part in this new programme.

In addition to that, the coaches with a track record of producing such athletes will be involved and given their own development and educational support along the same lines. That will involve practical training programme advice specific for distance swimmers, and sport science support along the same lines. The end result should be that those coaches produce better distance swimmers. Head Coach Dave has also been invited to take part in that.

Obviously having both a coach and athlete involved will give the club invaluable insight in to current best practice regarding distance training. That will then be shared with Coach Rob and the rest of the coaching team and used to better equip swimmers throughout Dartes squads.