To have reached this squad you will have attained Yorkshire County Times, be over 9 years of age and selected by the coaches of the club to train in this group after a coaches forum.

In the pool training will focus on building up a level of general endurance and stamina and improving technique on all four competitive strokes, starts, turns and finishes. All swimmers will be aiming to perform a technically correct and well paced 200 Individual Medley. Distances covered in any one session will be around 3,000 to 4,500 metres. Training will be based around a series of competitions selected by the coach in order for swimmers to be able to perform well in the Yorkshire Championships and achieve the qualifying times for the North Eastern Counties Championships.

The purpose of Junior Development Squad is to develop an all round ability and to prepare for top level competition. The most important competitions being the North Eastern Counties and Yorkshire Championships. From time to time I will advise you of forthcoming competitions and events. I strongly believe that the only way to succeed in competitive swimming is to attend regularly and to work hard during training. Developing the correct stroke techniques are of vital importance for swimmers of this age. During your time in the squad you will learn a varied range of skills to hopefully ‘iron out' any problems but please be patient, as with any new thing it takes time to adjust. After all. competitive swimming training is about learning sets of patterned movements in the correct way. using the fewest possible strokes, in the fastest possible time.

All the work we do will contain all the relevant requirements for forthcoming competitions. In general most of the work will be swum on multi-stroke. It is vital that swimmers of this age have as varied a programme as possible to learn all 4 strokes correctly. This also helps to prevent muscle fatigue and reduces the risk of injury. I will from time to time be checking the swimmers pulse rates to make sure they are working at the correct heart rate. For the first 2 - 3 weeks the training (including land work) will be quite stress free. Again, it will contain many stroke drills, kicking, easy / hard swims and aerobic based work to increase fitness levels. I cannot stress enough the importance of swimming 'tidily' and controlled rather than sloppy. So be aware if sets are not completed to a satisfactory standard they will be repeated until they are. We have a total of 5 sessions per week. It would be great for maximum effectiveness of the training if everybody could do all 5 sessions, but at absolute minimum I will have to insist on 4 sessions per week.

For water based sessions you will need the following equipment:

• 2 x goggles (1 as spare)
• hand + finger paddles
• pull buoy
• Kick board
• Short Fins (“Zoomer” type)
• drinks bottle (minimum of 2 litres)
• training hat (optional)
• drag pants (optional)

Junior Development Squad swimmers also have a land based training sessions available to them which they are strongly advised to use as they will help to improve core stability, suppleness and whole body strength. This in turn will help to improve performance in the swimming pool.

Equipment required for land training sessions are trainers, loose comfortable clothing, juice or a sports drink and a skipping rope.

Over the past year, Junior Development Squad swimmers have continued to perform strongly with many personal best times being achieved and some swimmers being promoted to the National Potential group.