Head Coach Report for 2014 to 2015 Season
What a season! Deben came 4th in the Suffolk Counties and 3rd in the relays, 10th in the under 14’s
Regionals, we returned to the Summer League and took part in the first Felixstowe Novice Gala, we
introduced iPads and Walkie Talkies poolside, we had expert coaching from Nick Gillingham and a
trip to the Olympic pool has been arranged!
This gives some idea of how successful the last year has been and am really pleased to report that
Deben continues to be very popular with swimmers waiting to join! As ever this season has seen
very busy again - a brief summary below follows our progress through the season;
August - October - Training resumed after a well-deserved summer break with our first meet of the
season being the Sudbury Open on Sept 27/28th. This meet saw 28 Deben swimmers attend where
they achieved over 70 County/Regional times which was great so early in the season.
Long Course training started on the 5th Oct with the first of four sessions booked through the season.
November – 69 of our swimmers were in action in 460 individual entries during the hugely
successful Deben Open Meet on 28/29/30th where there was over 170 County times achieved.
Winter league returned with immaculate timing (!) on the Saturday during Deben Open with Deben
taking Round 1 in 2nd place even though all had been racing hard on Friday/Saturday.
Sean Burgess was also selected to represent Suffolk in the Masters Inter County Champs held at
Newmarket on 16th November.
December - Time trials at Deben and Woolverstone pools allowed many of our swimmers to update
their times and gain early 2014 county times. However, the way in which this was done will be
reviewed next year to avoid long term disruption and time trials continuing until the last minute.
Bringing technology to poolside is a great way for the coaches to show swimmers how they swim
and how they could improve very quickly and effectively. The first of two such introductions poolside
was for walkie talkie devices where the swimmer wore a receiver under their swim hat and the
coach talked through a transmitter. These devices use ‘bone conduction’ as the transmit medium so
no earphones are required. Coaches now have the ability to specifically target swimmers for stroke
correction/pacing etc as they swim, where they can even hear the coach under water – there no is
escape! The initial trials went well and two full sets were purchased in February.
January – Deben attended the Ipswich open where 50 swimmers in 249 individual events were again
warmly welcomed and achieved 130PBs of which 62 were either new or improved County Times and
14 were either new or improved 2015 Regional times!
Winter league Round 2 on the 24th saw another set of great results achieved by the Deben team
coming 1st on the night at Leiston pool.
Lewis Moore and Alexa Eliff were invited to a weekend away on 3rd/4th at an ASA sponsored Talent
Camp, held at Culford. This covered everything from nutrition to skill acquisition. Relevant
information from this event has been passed on and learning from this event has been incorporated
into squad training.
February - Deben were in action again with 18 swimmers at the Norwich UEA Groundhog Long
Course meet on the 7th/8th.
Ella Houston and Connor Houston were invited to represent Suffolk in the inter-county competition.
Again, immaculate timing meant this event coincided with the Norwich Groundhog meet and whilst
others were invited commitment was made to the Groundhog meet so invitations were turned
down.
Long Course counties took place with Minnie Wayman, Abbie Webb, Hannah Taplin, Fran Souter and
Meg Claydon competing in the 800FC and Lewis Moore and Kieran Whight competing in the 1500FC.
The winter league final on the 28th saw more exciting swims and great team spirit where Deben
remained in a solid 2nd place overall again this year.
This month also saw the introduction of two waterproof iPads. Coaches now have the additional
capability of videoing a swimmer both above and below water and are able to immediately play back
the recording to the swimmer on a good size screen to point out stroke corrections. This has proven
to be very effective.
March
47 swimmers took part in 302 individual events during this year’s 2014 Suffolk Counties. Overall, the
Deben team came a solid 4th place again this year behind Ipswich, West Suffolk and St Felix. The
relay team excelled themselves again with 3rd overall placing behind Ipswich and West Suffolk. This
event saw the introduction of the READER Commercial sponsored Deben T-shirts which Deben have
been very fortunate to secure sponsorship from for the next two years.
Our own Vice Chairman, Sarah Elmer was again the promoter of the Counties event and as usual did
a fantastic job.
April
Deben swimmers were in action again at the UEA Easter meet with just 7 swimmers attending this
not very popular long course meet. Great long course racing experience.
A very hot and crowed Newmarket meet resulted in disappointing overall results for Deben’s 21
swimmers due to the poor conditions provided poolside and in the holding area. However, Minnie
Wayman still managed to achieve two more Regional times!
This year saw the return of Deben to the Summer League, having had a gap year. Unfortunately it
also coincided with the Saturday eve of the Newmarket meet but even so, with many swimmers
going from one meet to the next, Deben achieved 1st place in 30 out of 43 swims and claimed 2nd
place on the night! Great result and well done to Matt Boreham who organised the teams and lead
this event.
Sunday 26th saw Nick Gillingham, an Olympic and world record holder, coach at Woolverstone pool
for a ‘starts and turns’ session for 2hrs, followed by a shortened version of Nicks ‘Art of Breast
stroke’ session for 1hr. Twenty nine swimmers attended this extended coaching session and
feedback was very positive from swimmers and parents alike.
May
May 3rd/4th saw 7 out of a total of 9 over 15 age group Deben swimmers compete at the Luton Youth
Regional’s. Deben swimmers were seen in four finals coming 6th in three finals and 8th in one final.
Swimmers who attended were: Sean Burgess, Harry Longbottom, Hannah Moore, Caitlin Russell,
Abbie Webb, Kieran Whight and Issy Wickens.
The West Suffolk meet saw another 21 swimmers enter this competition with 90 individual events
and achieved a really impressive 78% PBs!
The first Novice meet was held at Felixstowe pool on the 16th. This meet was mainly aimed at those
swimmers who had not experienced competitions before. Feedback was really positive from all and
Deben came 2nd on the night to Ipswich but winning in this case was not the objective – it was
actually taking part being the main aim in a locally supported event and gaining race experience.
May 23rd to 25th saw four of our under 14 age group swimmers attended the Norwich UEA Regional
championships. Deben achieved 4 Gold medals, 2 Silver Medals and 1 Bronze Medal and came 10th
out of 28 swim clubs. Swimmers attending this event are Lily Bemmer in her first regional meet,
Alexa Eliff, Lewis Moore and Minnie Wayman. Lewis Moore won 2nd place in his age group.
June to August
Before the end of the season, the following events are due to take place at the time of writing;

Stratford Olympic pool trip on June 6th

Deben club champs on 19th-22nd June

Development championships on 27th/28th June.

Teaching section mini champs 1st July

Summer League Final 4th July

Deben Skins night Fri 10th July (100IM to be used as the qualifying event from club champs)

Presentation eve Sat 18th July

British Summer National Championships 28th to 2nd August

Home Nation Summer National Championships 4th to 9th August
Summary
I am really pleased with the way the club continues to operate and the way the swimmers are
enjoying the club and their swimming. We are in a fortunate position of being financially secure and
have expanded the number of swimmers within the club during the last season with further
expansion planned.
However, success brings its own challenges and the coaching team is stretched to cope with the
current coaching schedule as well as the extra meets we have attended. In the next year this is one
of my areas of concern and we need to urgently secure more help poolside to avoid coaches having
4 lanes and 2 squads to coach regularly, to prevent cancellation of sessions occasionally and to
prevent the reduction of meets we can realistically support.
This year poolside technology has undoubtedly brought great benefit to coaches and swimmer alike
and this has been made possible due to Deben’s improved financial position as well as funding from
the Woodbridge Lions Club. The iPads and walkie-talkies have allowed the coaches to show or tell
the swimmer where they need to improve their strokes and in the case of the iPads what they look
like as they swim. In some cases these devices have instantly improved swimmers stroke where the
previous months or longer coaching have failed and the benefits have therefore been huge. The last
of three iPads will be utilised in the teaching section.
We have also been able to offer subsided events and benefits to our swimmers including no monthly
fee rise again! Land training continues and remains well supported thanks to the continued expert
guidance of Kate Wickens and Fraser Last and am convinced the swimmers do benefit from this
training as well as enjoying the training.
Deben great results are not achieved due to one or two people and I extend my thanks to our great
coaching team which includes; Assistant Head Coach Matt Boreham, Dawn Foskett, Karen Davies,
Richard Snelham, Ali Howard, Nigel Abbott and Jon Harris. It is this team that makes our coaching so
successful.
As we now come towards the end of the 2015/2015 season we can reflect on a very busy year with
considerable effort made behind the scenes from those who run the Deben club and who actually
enable the club to operate. Our swimmers continue to excel agree with feedback I have received
that the Deben swimmers are a credit to the club – fantastic!
In conclusion, it has been an incredibly busy season again, with fantastic swim results within what is
and continues to be a really great and friendly club. We took record numbers of swimmers to the
Counties this year and Deben finished 10th in the 14 and under age group Regionals! At the time of
writing we do not know if anyone will go to the Nationals this year until the qualification period has
passed and the swimmers ranking finalised but I keep my fingers crossed!
A big thank you to all for your support this year and I very much look forward to working with all of
you in the next season.
Stephen Moore
Deben Head coach
2nd June 2015