It’s that time of year again – to renew your membership with us for the 2024 season. It’s been great having you as part of East Anglian Swallowtails over the past year and it would be great if you could continue with us into the new year.

The cost of renewing your annual membership for 2024 is stated below. This covers Club, County, Regional and National fees. Your payment includes Swim England membership, which provides you with insurance cover for your swimming, participation in events (for Club Compete Members) and a range of exclusive member-only benefits.

Club Train (non-competitive) – £60.50

Club Compete (competitive) – £84.00

Club Membership only (dual member) – £45.00

As advised earlier this month, the club is increasing monthly training fees from January 2024 to £35 (up to two sessions per week) and £45 (unlimited sessions per week). 

We do still have the option of ‘swim credits’ costing £7.50 per swim. Credits can be purchased using the Swymmr website via a secure card payment system. The credit system is only available to EAST members who do not have a monthly subscription; they cannot be used to ‘top-up’ a subscription for additional sessions. Please speak to the membership secretary if you wish to use Swim Credits, so that your online account can be set up correctly. Swim credits are limited to 12 sessions a year. If you wish to swim more than this, you are encouraged to take out a standing order.

Next Steps to renew your 2024 membership

1. Check your details are up-to-date on the Swim England Online Membership System (OMS) – https://www.swimmingmembers.org/

2. Tell us about any changes to your medical history or changes to your emergency contact details

3. Pay your annual membership fees as outlined above to the club bank account:

Lloyds Bank, Sort Code: 30-99-50, Account No: 40892560, Account Name: East Anglian Swallowtails Masters Swimming Club.

4. Ensure that your standing order to cover monthly training fees from January 2024 is correct to reflect the slight increase in fees (£35 or £45 per month)

If you don’t want to renew your annual membership for 2024 or if you have any questions, please do get in touch with me (Louise Morca – membership@swallowtails.co.uk) before the 15^th January 2024.

Thank you again for all your support and we look forward to another great year. Happy New Year from all on the committee. 

Kind regards,

Louise Morca

EAST swimmer, Ross Lenton will be offering Strength & Conditioning sessions specifically for EAST members at his Dynamic Fitness gym from Mon 6th March.

You can find further information, including how to sign up, in the following link: Strength and Conditioning sessions at Dynamic Fitness

Note: There is on street parking outside the gym, but the meters are coin only (£1.30)

Tina is restarting her technique focused sessions in the second hour of our Sunday evening sessions at the Hewett pool. Tina will run a coached session 5pm to 6pm and swimmers can continue with a normal session 6pm to 7pm whilst Tina will run a technique session 6pm to 7pm (timetable below).  The sessions will go back to the basics and will consist of 25m and 50m practices (with the exception of the last pacing session). 

Swimmers can:

• Choose which of the technique sessions they want to join, no commitments
• Arrive at 5pm to attend the coached first hour and move to the technique session in the second hour
• Arrive to join the technique session at 6pm
• Arrive at 5pm to attend the coached first hour and continue with a standard session set by Tina in the second hour
• Arrive at 6pm to join the second hour of the standard session

EAST Technique sessions 

Sunday 6.00pm – 7.00pm at the Hewett

To be run alongside the normal training session

Date	Session
18th Sept	Skills – Push and glide all strokes, streamline position, swim speeds, FC touch turns
25th Sept	FC – Body positions, kick, breathing, timing
2nd Oct	FC – Arms, drills, body rotation
9th Oct	FC – Tumble turns and finishes
16th Oct	BC – Body position, rotation, timing, kick set,
23rd Oct	BC – Arms, drills, finishes
30th Oct	BC – Tumble turns and starts
6th Nov	Dive session
13th Nov	BRST – Kick, timing, breathing
20th Nov	BRST – Arms, drills, finishes
27th Nov	BRST – Starts and turns including underwater sequence
4th Dec	FLY – Body position, undulation, timing
11th Dec	FLY – Arms, drills, timing
18th Dec	FLY – Starts, turns and finishes

The Sportspark pool is due to reopen and our first session back has been confirmed as Monday 21^st June, followed by Saturday 26^th June and thereafter on its usual schedule. These sessions are now available to book on the Swymmr system. The current version of the Training schedule can be seen at Training. All sessions will need booking on the Swymmr booking website.

The ‘New Normal’

It should come as no surprise that returning to training is going to be a new experience for all of us. While some of the procedures may sound onerous, our hope is that in reality they will be fairly straightforward to follow and if we all do our bit, swimming should still be the same sport we all know and enjoy. To highlight a few of the new rules that will be in place at all venues:

• Swimmers will need to arrive with their swimwear on, “beach style”, and leave the same way (or remove swimwear on poolside under clothing).
• Members should shower at home before and after sessions.
• Where permitted by the venue, members must bring and use their own accessories (kick boards, pull buoys etc.). Equipment may not be shared with other swimmers.
• No changing lanes once in the pool.
• Maintain distance from other swimmers while on poolside and within the pool when not actively swimming.

In following these guidelines, please be mindful that some members are more vulnerable than others and therefore even if you have a fairly relaxed attitude towards catching Covid-19, we need all members to adhere to the rules so that everyone feels comfortable attending our sessions. At all sessions, the coaches will be aware of the guidelines and will be enforcing them to keep everyone safe.

Online Booking

Part of the ‘new normal’ is the requirement for all members to sign up for sessions in advance using our new online booking facility. Due to limitations on lane capacity, it is not practical to allow swimmers to just turn up to sessions as we would have to turn away anyone who we could not accommodate. You can register and access the booking system here: Swymmr.com

A few members have trialled it already and reported that it is fairly straightforward to use, but here are some basic instructions you can follow:

1. Visit Swymmr.com and click the Register link at the top of the screen.
2. Enter your email address, full name and a password into the boxes, and check the box to indicate you have read and understood all the information in the attached documents.
3. You should receive a confirmation email within a few minutes, click the link in the email to activate your account.
4. After activating your account, click the ‘Login’ link and enter your email address and password.

To make a booking:

1. From the home screen, click the large blue “View / Book Sessions” button.
2. A list of upcoming sessions for the next fortnight will be shown, along with how many spaces are still available. To book a session, click the green “View/Book” button.
3. You will be presented with a list of lane options. Choose the most appropriate lane for your ability level and click the green “Book Now” button.
4. After checking the information is correct, click “Confirm Booking” to make the reservation.
5. You should receive an email confirmation of the booking.

To view/cancel existing bookings:

1. From any screen, click the “Your Bookings” link at the top of the page.
2. A list of your upcoming bookings will be shown (if any).
3. To cancel a booking, click the red “Cancel Booking” button
4. You will see a confirmation page. If you still want to cancel, click the red “Confirm Cancellation” button.
5. You should receive an email confirmation of the cancellation.

Kind regards,

Will Appleby

EAST Membership Secretary