Different Strokes Swimming Newsletter January 25th

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! Although I guess one could say, “What a start to the year!” It feels a little bleak at times with COVID circulating so widely in our community, doesn’t it? However, I always try to keep my outlook positive and I know we will get through this troubling time. Onward and upwards for the rest of 2022! Thank goodness for swimming and chlorinated water. 

I want to thank you all for being so supportive in recent weeks when the team at Different Strokes Swimming was negatively impacted by COVID. Your patience and kindness has meant the world to me and your instructors. 

A final point on COVID; you will have seen we have cancelled our classes at Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre for the time being. This is because it is a busy indoor facility. We’re keen to keep classes outdoors as much as possible. We will, however, continue to run classes at Fitness First Rockdale’s 25m indoor pool, because of the very low number of swimmers.  

We were thrilled to see so many of you attend the Masterclass Series we ran over the holiday period. The feedback has been great and I have seen a massive improvement in the technique of attendees. Well done on carving out the time to focus on your swimming. It will pay off! 

As a follow on to the Masterclasses, your instructors and I are currently revising our programs for 2022 with a view to increasing the time given to teaching form strokes. Once you reach Stroke Foundations you will be introduced to backstroke for a portion of each class. In Stroke Development, you will learn the foundations of butterfly and breaststroke, as well as diving. Form strokes go a long way to improving your freestyle and ensure you are using different muscle groups, which will benefit your body. And it’s just plain fun to learn a new swimming skill! 

We are also keen to bring deep water familiarisation in earlier to the Beginner and Beginner 1 classes. This will assist entry level swimmers become water safe sooner. You will see some changes to your class formats as soon as next week. Exciting times! 

Finally, we are getting really busy! Please remember to book in your classes well in advance once you know your schedule! I don’t want you any of you to miss out. 

I look forward to seeing each of you on pool deck very soon. 

As always, yours in swimming, 

Kari Baynes
Director 

Photos: . PC: Kari Baynes – We teach in all weathers. Diana and Jelena taking their classes. 

We kick-started the year with a week of back-to-back masterclasses held by the incredible Rachelle Ting and Fiona Yau at Rockdale, and want to say a huge congratulations to all of the swimmers who took part! What a great start to a new year of swimming. 

One of our swimmers Gary McGregor attended the Butterfly and Breaststroke sessions, and here are a few of his thoughts on the classes. We want to thank Gary for taking the time to share his thoughts with us, and hopefully you’ll find them helpful in your decision making when the next set of masterclasses rolls around. 

What pushed you to join these sessions? 
I was fortunate to learn to swim as a child and had enough competence for water safety which is what is most important. However, as I got older and more injured I took more interest in swimming and realised there is so much I didn’t learn (including anything other than survival freestyle and treading water). I am interesting in learning more about swimming technique that I never really focused on as a kid and it was a great opportunity to explore form strokes.

What’s one thing that you learned/improved/focused on during these sessions?
In breaststroke I learnt that the arm movements are really more about body position and lift for breathing with most forward propulsion from the leg movement. I also received pool deck phone video recordings of my stroke and it is really great for feedback to not only be told what I need to do but to see it for myself.

Would you do another masterclass in the future? 
Absolutely, there is so much to learn about moving in the water.   

Who would you recommend these sessions to? (Beginners, avid swimmers, people training for an event…?)
I would say for someone who is past beginner but who is just starting to explore all that swimming has to offer.  An hour may be hard for a beginner but with just a little fitness, it is a great opportunity to focus on a technical area for an hour.

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Thanks again Gary, and thanks to Rachelle, Fiona, and all the wonderful swimmers who made it to these sessions!
 

As most of you already know, there is a public holiday approaching on Wednesday, January 26th. We will not be holding any group classes or private lessons on this day, and the office will be closed. If you have an existing or recurring booking for the 26th, please get in touch with us before then so that we can help you reschedule for another class next week. 

Classes will resume as usual from Thursday, January 27th. If you have any questions or concerns, you can get in touch with us by emailing here. 

Is treading water something that you just feel like you’ll never get the hang of? You’re not alone! Treading water is a crucial skill to have when spending time in and around the water, and is an important part of learning to swim. If you feel like you need some concentrated time spent on learning and practicing your treading water skills, you’re in luck! 

We run weekly treading water “masterclass” style sessions, each Saturday from 12:00pm at Prince Alfred Park Pool. They are 45 minute sessions focused on going right back to the fundamentals of treading water, starting with the kick and working up to arms, and tying it all together with the timing. You’ll also learn some survival backstroke and other basic water safety skills. 

Our treading water classes are held in the deep end, as well as the middle part of the pool, to help you get comfortable with the deeper water. 

With the warm weather not going anywhere for a while, making sure that your water safety skills are up to scratch has never been more important! Grab your spot in these classes now.

Vaccination Policy & COVID Safety

As per our updated COVID-19 Safety Plan (which can be found on our website here), you are required to send your current vaccination certificate for us to verify before your first class.  You may do so by forwarding it to us, or sending us a screenshot via SMS. Your certificate will not be stored by us once it has been verified. We have a fully vaccinated team and do require you to be fully vaccinated before joining any of our classes, for the health and safety of our staff and other swimmers.