SMART TRACK STEPS UP WITH SCREENING DAY
A group of 44 young athletes will attend a Talent Identification
screening session this weekend as part of British Swimming's
Smart Track programme aimed at unearthing future champions.
Launched almost a year ago, one of Smart Track's key aims
has been to diversify swimming's recruitment methods in Britain
and a priority has been to sign up talent spotters across
the country who can increase the chances of discovering gifted
athletes.
In 2004 more that 150 officials and referees attended Smart
Track training sessions, run by British Swimming's Talent
Identification Manager Chelsea Warr, which qualified them
to recommend young swimmers to the programme.
"These spotters often see talented swimmers at unlicensed
meets and school swimming carnivals," explained Warr.
"It is these swimmers that may have the potential to
slip through the net."
Smart Track has also followed up recommendations from home
swimming coaches and parents who believes their young athlete
has the potential to excel in his or her sport.
In less than four months, more than 100 young swimmers nationwide
have been recommended and, following a secondary filter process,
the top 44 and their parents and home coaches have been invited
to Sunday's screening day in Nuneaton.
Five of the swimmers are 'wild card' athletes who have been
selected by British Swimming coaching coordinators Mick Hepwood
and Fred Kirby and have been tipped for selection to next
year's world class squads.
The screening day will be headed up by Warr and Britain's
National Age and Youth Coach Tim Jones, and will involve two
training sessions for the swimmers. The morning session will
focus on testing energy systems, recovery ability and resilience
factors, while the afternoon will be skills focussed to look
at the swimmers' techniques and their ability to learn new
skills quickly.
This session is not a quick route through the British Swimming
world class programmes, but is a chance to meet with swimmers
and their coaches to give advice as to how to move forward
with their potential.
"Sometimes swimmers just need recognition, and that
in itself can inspire them and their home coach to further
pursue their talent," said Warr. "Each individual
swimmer develops at a unique rate, so regular screening days
such as this give a greater number of swimmers the opportunity
to be recognised, especially those who are later developers.
"It also allows a more accurate assessment to track
future hopefuls, beyond the traditional black and white paper
rankings or competition results which may only tell you a
quarter of the story.
"Any good talent identification system lays down additional
methods to recruit new talent. It won't guarantee success,
but simply increases your probability of delivering at world
level in the future. To have more quality swimmers entering
the high performance pathways is the first important step.
"We envisage seeing a wide variety of swimmers with
a range of backgrounds and talent levels, but it's all about
enhancing your chances. It's a lot like fishing - the further
you cast your net, the more likely you are to catching something."
A group of swimmers who are already benefiting from Britain's
Smart Track programme is a 13-strong squad of girls aged 12-15
years. Selected following a series of tests at last year's
British Age and Youth Championships, the elite team has already
attended a month-long altitude camp and recorded impressive
results at the US Open including a quintet of medals.
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