Important Club Announcement
Dear Swimmers, Parents and Members We are writing to you with some important and exciting news about the future of Hackney Aquatics Club. We are pleased to announce the appointment of a new Senior Coaching Team as well as news about an exciting new partnership. We also want to share with you our current (preliminary) thoughts for getting back in the water. As ever, we welcome your thoughts, questions and feedback.
Senior Team Appointments We are delighted to let you know that we have appointed a fabulous Senior Coaching Team for the Club, starting from 1 September, or, if viable, before then. The key appointments are: David Broadbent - Head Coach David joins us from Sheffield City Swimming Club, where he is currently Assistant Head Coach. He holds a degree in Sports and Exercise Science from Sheffield Hallam University and is an experienced swimmer himself, most recently qualifying for British Championships. He impressed our recruitment panel with his engaging personality, vision for the Club and his technical and coaching experience, and we are excited to welcome him the Club. Edmund Ashton - Assistant Head Coach (Head of Development) Edmund joins us from Loughborough University, where he is completing a Sports Science degree and coaching alongside Adam Peaty on the Adam Peaty Race Clincis. Edmund has competed internationally as a breaststroker, and we are confident that he will bring technical expertise and passion to our age group squads. Tony Cronin - Assistant Head Coach (Youth & Masters) We are delighted to announce that Tony has been promoted to the Senior Coaching Team. He will continue to be our Masters Coach, a role which he has developed with much skill over the past year, and take on some wider club responsibilities allowing him to be employed by the club full-time. David, Edmund and Tony will be supported by our great team of Junior Coaches, Naomi will continue to run our Para Squad and Dhaval will continue to head up our Academy. Partnership with Chelsea & Westminster Swimming Club We are extremely pleased to announce that starting from the 2020/21 season we are forging a partnership with Chelsea & Westminster Swimming Club which will further elevate our performance by providing a coordinated pathway across London and bringing together East and West. Chelsea and Westminster Swimming Club and Hackney Aquatics Club are committed to high performance swimming with a focus on the development of swimmers to be competitive at a National level, leading on to the International stage. Both clubs serve communities with a very high degree of income inequality and are determined to improve access to, and progression in, swimming for everyone, no matter what their financial background. Together, we have created a model where each club retains its identity with a Head Coach and coaching team fully focused on the success of their home club. At the same time, we think that there are real opportunities for collaboration that drive our twin and complementary objectives of participation and performance. Lisa Bates who is currently Director of Swimming at C&W will take up a new role as Director of Swimming across both C&W and HAC, supporting David and his team here at HAC to develop the whole HAC club community and our coaching team. Lisa is a performance coach who has supported GB International Teams, including at the Rio Olympic Games 2016 and World University Games 2017, as well as being on the team for Tokyo 2020.
The overall vision of the partnership is to create a sustainable swimming legacy across London, drawing on the recent successes of both clubs. Our proposed partnership aims to deliver the following key objectives for both clubs and beyond:
Performance: To offer high level swimming for performance athletes, by creating a shared performance group who will train and compete together. Athletes are part of a clear development pathway.
Participation: To have strong and diverse home programmes at each club, offering high-quality coaching, a clear pathway and opportunities for competition to all swimmers. Enhanced delivery throughout London, especially at the development level.
Coaching: To create a seamless, quality assured and fully integrated pathway. This will attract new coaches and upskill a coaching team that would be able to coach across both clubs. Coaches are offered security and insight into a bigger picture
Collaboration: To maximise athlete, workforce and volunteer opportunities. Both clubs will work together to share volunteers and resources, and thus demonstrate the development of talent and increase it.
We are currently in advanced conversations with the International Swimming League's home team 'London Roar’ who are keen to support this new partnership, e.g. by allowing swimmers selected for the pathway to compete under the London Roar brand. We will give you an update on this as soon as we are able. Return to swimming At this point, there has been no definitive guidance about when and how we might return to swimming.
We want to reassure you that we are in close contact with SwimEngland, the London Region, Middlesex and the Council / GLL, and that we are working on possible scenarios to get swimmers back in the water. This will likely include limitations on how many people can train at the same time, so we are trying to establish e.g. exclusive access to the Leisure Centre in the mornings, which would help manage the use of changing rooms and minimise traffic in the building overall. We may also look at splitting squad sessions, or encouraging swimmers to sign up to popular sessions in advance. We will be as transparent as possible as information becomes available and we encourage all of our members to share their thoughts or experiences of best practice as we navigate these unchartered waters.
Thanks
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Chris Ogden
Chair
Hackney Aquatics Club
