Chapeltown &
District Amateur Swimming Club
Affiliated
to ASA, NECSSA, YSA, S&D ASA, RLSS
Reply to: Mr Kevin Canetti
(Publicity Officer),
PRESS
RELEASE
Local swimming club follow Sports Minister’s lead
and reward kids’ fitness
Chapeltown Amateur Swimming Club is
introducing the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) Swim Fitness Scheme to reward
its swimmers with certificates and badges as they accumulate miles through
their regular swim training sessions. The announcements follows Sports Minister
Richard Caborn’s visit to Crystal Palace National Sports Centre earlier in
November to support the national launch of the ASA’s programme to encourage
young children and families to get more involved in swimming.
Chapeltown’s Coach Robert Grayson was
excited by the introduction of the new scheme, “this is going to be a great
boost for our swimmers of all ages, but I can see it being especially
attractive to the younger ones who always respond well to awards. As Swim Fit
is an ongoing awards scheme, swimmers can still be receiving badges,
certificates, and lapel pins up to 5000 miles!”
Under the Swim Fit Scheme each swim who
wants to take part will be issued with a special ASA Record Card where they
record the miles swam under each session. One of Chapeltown’s coaching team
will sign each swimmer’s card after the session and once a milestone is reached
they will receive a Badge and Certificate. Milestones are available at 1, 5,
10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 and so on up to 5000 miles. At a number of key
milestones such as 10 miles, Lapel Pins are also available and once a swimmer
accumulates 100 miles a special commemorative paperweight containing a
specially struck ASA gold medal is available.
Local MP Angela Smith was delighted to see
the club’s initiative, “there’s been a lot said recently about the problem of
child fitness and swimming is one of the best forms of exercise, Chapeltown ASC
already do a lot of fantastic work to encourage young swimmers and provide the
opportunity for them to compete, their introduction of the Swim Fit Scheme will
be a further step toward keeping kids swimming on a regular basis and that can
only be a good thing, not just for now but also in the future as they’re more
likely to keep swimming as adults and encourage their children to swim.”
Chapeltown ASC have seen membership grow
by more than a third in 2006, for further details on joining the club visit www.chapeltownasc.org, call in at
Chapeltown Baths on a Thursday evening between 7.30pm and 9.30pm and ask for
Tom Barlow or Robert Grayson, call Robert Grayson on 0114 2885181.
Picture: Catlin Dickinson
(left), Robert Grayson (Chapeltown Coach), and Bobby Hulbert (right) Chapeltown
ASC with one of the Swim Fit Certificate and badge.
Story by Kevin Canetti.