SAMS NEWSLETTER

SPRING / SUMMER 2019 EDITION

CONTACT

Secretary Carina Hambloch carina.hambloch@harcourtssa.co.za Editor Owen Van Renen ovrenen@gmail.com

Tel: 082 443 3390

ovrenen@gmail.com

Official Newsletter of South African Masters Swimming

http://www.samastersswimming.com

http:// www.facebook.com/pages/South-African-Masters-Swimming/153679144696876

IN THIS ISSUE

President’s Report - World Masters - Open Water - Olivier Leroy - Regional News

Editor’s Note

Hello everyone. So much has happened, so lots to read. Do enjoy.

Well the big Brrrrr went quickly. Yes, winter seems to have waved goodbye, for another year.

This means there are only six more months to Nationals 2020 at the Delville Pool, Germiston. I

happen to have first-hand knowledge that the Local Organising Committee are hard at it,

in order to make their Nationals certainly one to remember.

All the World Swimming Championships have now been concluded with South Africans doing

exceptionally well in all disciplines. From the various championships, Seniors, Masters, Junior, Open Water and the World

Deaf Championships, Para Swimming Allianz Championships, SA swimmers certainly left their mark. There is a special in this

newsletter covering ‘The Fina World Masters Swimming Championships’, held in Gwangju. Well done to one and all for just

being there and participating.

The SAMS Winter Challenge for Charity was held throughout South Africa in the month of August and there are some results in

the newsletter. This event is always for a good cause and no doubt your contributions will make the lives of many individuals,

and even animals, more comforting. We at SAMS are very proud of all your efforts in “Swimming for Others”.

The new season has started in earnest and registrations have begun flowing in. If you were registered last season you must

please re-register before the end of October with the club of your choice. If you are changing clubs, please ask you current

club for the correct procedures.

Included in this issue are two interesting articles. One for Open Water swimmers and one for everyone on how to stay focused

in training.

Enjoy the season and we will pick up in the new year. Happy training, successful racing and stay healthy and happy.

Cheers

Owen Van Renen

President’s Message

I hope you all are ready for another season of swimming. The new season kicked off for some fortunate members with participation Worlds in South Korea and for the rest of us with the winter challenge galas where we raise support for the less fortunate. The SAMS Presidents meeting was held on 1 June 2019 in Durban. The meeting covered feedback from all regions, the Port Elizabeth Nationals and on planning for the next Nationals at Germiston in 2020. The new members of SAMS committee had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with their new role. The Germiston Nationals Organising Committee for 2020 Nationals is hard at work. The programme has been finalised implementing a few new ideas and will be issued soon. With those thoughts in mind I wish all of you the very best for a successful season ahead. May you achieve your goals, have some fun and set a good example for many along the way. Here’s looking forward to meeting each and every one of you, Wolfgang Fechter President of South African Masters Swimming

OUR SUPERSTARS FROM WORLD MASTERS 2019

3 gold 6 gold 2 gold 3 gold 1 silver 2 silver 3 bronze 1 silver Calvin Maughan Sanderina Kruger Gary Albertyn Marc Allan

The above medal count included some relays as well. Where Cape Town ruled! We are very proud of everyone who competed. Many of our swimmers were in the top 6 which were all podium finishes. We also had many swimmers in the top 10 and the list continued into the top 20. Our Masters Swimmers really left their mark at Worlds. All the above broke SA Records in many of the events that they swam. Just fantastic!

THE TOP 3 SA PODIUM FINISHERS

GOLD Open Water 3k Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn 800 Free Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn 100 Free Men 55-59 Calvin Maughan 100 Free Men 40-44 Marc Allan 100 Free Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger 200 Free Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger 50 Fly Men 40-44 Marc Allan 50 Free Men 55-59 Calvin Maughan 50 Free Men 40-44 Marc Allan 50 Free Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger 100 Back Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger 50 Back Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger

SILVER Open Water 3k Women 40-44 Kathryn Nurse 200 Back Women 75-79 Geraldine Janssens 50 Free Women 40-44 Perry Cadiz 100 Fly Men 40- 44 Marc Allan 100 Fly Women 40-44 Kathryn Nurse 200 Fly Women 40-44 Kathryn Nurse 50 Back Women 40-44 Perry Cadiz 50 Back Women 70-74 Sanderina Kruger

BRONZE Open Water 3 k Women Samantha Kruger 200 Free Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn 200 IM Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn 400 Free Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn Please find all the detailed results at http://wmc2019.microplustiming.com/swimming/index_web.php

Synergy at Worlds

OPEN WATER

Ann Gray

S A MASTER SWIMMERS at FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 3km OPEN WATER SWIM The3km Open Water swim championships took place between the 9 th and 11 th August before the Pool Events. The swim was a 2 lap course and took place in the harbour at Yeosu and conditions were ideal. On the day the men swam the water temperature was 26C and the air temperature was 38C. According to Samantha Kruger at the time of her swim, the water temperature was 29C and the outside temperature was well over 40C. Eight S A Masters swimmers took part in the event. Selwyn Sundelowitz (9 th ) – 55.37 (Coelacanths), Russell Upneck (7th) – 49.08.04 (Synergy) and Tocher Mitchell (6 th ) – 58.43.3 (Wahoo) were all placed in the Top 10 in their respective age groups. Melanie van Wyk 58.59.6 (Cape Town) and Roy Lotkin – 53.38 (Waterborn) although did not achieve a top 10 place, swam well. In the Women’s 40 – 44, South African Masters swimmers did extremely well. Kathryn Nurse (Cape Town) won a silver medal for her time of 44.41.3. Samantha Kruger (Synergy) won a bronze medal in a time of 45.56.5. The Men’s 50 – 54 category Gary Albertyn (Coelacanths) won a GOLD in an outstanding time of 36.48.1. CALENDAR of OPEN WATER SWIMMING EVENTS which will include Dam, Marina/Lagoon and Surf Swims will be sent out separately later. Keep your eyes on South African Masters Swimming, Facebook page.

If you have any exciting news from your regions, please forward

to anngray@telkomsa.net

Avoid the 'one-speed' trap

By Fiona Ford • Expert contributor (training) • 5th April 2016 @fionaLford

When we swim outside it’s very tempting to fall into a comfortable leisurely pace – something akin to a stroll in the countryside type of effort level – and to do all our swimming at this one pace. This is absolutely fine, of course, if your main objective is to enjoy the delights of being outside and swimming in open water.

However, a problem arises if you expect or hope that swims like this will help you become a faster swimmer. While there is a place on a training programme for relaxed recovery swims, if speed is what you are after then you need to train specifically for this.

If you do all your swimming at one pace you will find it hard to pick up speed in a race.

If speed is what you are after then you need to train specifically for this.

Understanding your gears and relative speeds as an endurance swimmer is therefore an important element for success and adds variety and interest to training sessions. Here are a couple of training session suggestions designed to help you avoid the “one-speed wonder” trap.

The first session is designed to help you work through changes of pace and develop versatility. The second session is a race simulation, which will provide exposure and conditioning to the demands of racing and changes of pace required. Both sets are written for the pool but could be adapted to open water using marker buoys or a GPS watch.

Pace versatility

Warm up: 400m FS bilateral breathing

Build set: 4 to 8 x 50m FS incorporating sighting every 6 or 9 strokes for first 25m into FS + 15

sec rest.

Main set:

• 8 x 100m at easy, aerobic pace (70% of maximum effort) working on consistent exhalation and breathing every 3 or 5 strokes +15 sec rest

• 8 x 25m building effort from 70-90% of top end speed +10 sec rest • 6 x 100m at steady pace (80% of max effort) maintaining bilateral breathing and focusing

on head position when breathing in (one goggle in the water, one goggle out) +15 sec rest • 6 x 25m building effort from 80-95% of top end speed +10 sec rest • 4 x 100m at CSS pace or threshold (85-90% of max effort) working on head position and

breathing into bow wave +15 sec rest • 4 x 25m sprint efforts 90-100% from deep water starts +10 sec rest

Cool down: 200m easy

Race simulation

Warm up: 200m to 400m FS, 200m to 400m pull

Build set: 4 to 8 x 50m as deep water starts into 10 fast strokes followed by steady FS to

complete 50m +10 sec rest.

Main set:

• 8 x 50m build from 70% effort (aerobic) into sprint (95-100%) +10 sec rest • 8 to 10 x 100m at CSS pace +20 sec rest • 4 to 8 x 50m reduce from sprint (95-100%) into aerobic pace (70% effort) +10 sec rest

Cool down: 200m FS 200m choice

Guidance notes

CSS - Critical Swim Speed. Effectively training at your threshold pace provides you with significant speed efficiency gains

Pacing - using the pool clock, your own stopwatch or a timing device such as a Finis Tempo Trainer or Wetronome BB = Bilateral Breathing UB = Unilateral Breathing BS = Backstroke FS = Freestyle or front crawl BRS = Breaststroke FLY = Butterfly PULL = Swimming with a pullbuoy or float between your legs. No kicking.

Tip to get you started !

BY OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY

May 22nd, 2019

WHAT SWIMMERS CAN DO TO BE MORE FOCUSED AT PRACTICE

The challenges presented to the enterprising swimmer with golden goals on their mind are very real.

The hurdles come in hot and chlorinated:

• The daily sharpening of the technical elements of your swimming. • Battling the self-doubt and uncertainty when pushing yourself.

• Keeping your self-talk from going full-blown Negative Nelly when a practice is struggley.

The process of sculpting a champion performance can feel never-ending.

Just a long, bottomless to do list.

Improve my dolphin kick. Eat better. Drink more water. Improve shoulder stability. Show up to more practices. Do more core work. Wash my towels. Give up less often on the main set. Do more threshold sets. Pull on the lane rope less.

Which brings me to the point:

HOW FOCUSED ARE YOU IN PRACTICE?

Do you walk out on the pool deck laser-focused on what it is you need to do, how you are going to do it, and how badly you are going to crush it?

Or, if you are like the rest of us mortals, is it a bit of a struggle to stay focused?

Does your mind wander away from the helpful thoughts you want to be thinking, instead preferring to dwell on how other swimmers are performing, daydreaming, or engaging in unhelpful self-talk?

Being a more focused swimmer won’t automagically make you an Olympian overnight, but it will help you with an equipment bin full of things:

• You will be more present and engaged when swimming (which is far more rewarding and enjoyable)… • You will be able to guide your attention and concentration back to the things that matter to your swimming…

• And you will be more likely to do that “swim faster” thing we all know and love.

HOW TO THROW DOWN AT PRACTICE WITH MORE FOCUS

Here are some of my favourite thingeroos to do to help swimmers sharpen their focus and concentration at the pool:

YOU DON’T LOSE FOCUS. IT JUST WANDERS.

Our focus can feel like a hyperactive 3-year old who has discovered Red Bull at times. No matter how much we try to settle our focus, it wants to explore, think about other stuff, and generally not hang out with us and our goals.

This is normal, so don’t karate kick yourself mentally when your focus wavers or bolts from the room. Take note that it happened without too much judgement and nudge your focus back to the present.

HOW YOU FOCUS VARIES BY SITUATION.

You have different types of focusing that are best used in specific situations. In practice, we tend to focus on technique. We are looking to become a more efficient swimmer by over-learning our technique over the course of tons of reps. An analytical kind of concentration is useful here.

But when it comes to competition, you want to shift from a skill-based focus to a performance-based focus that is more about clearing your mind. (More on this in an upcoming blog post.)

The kind of focus you use changes according to the situation.

IF YOU ARE THINKING PAST OR PRESENT, YOUR FOCUS

HAS BOUNCED.

Swimmers frequently confuse between focus and over-thinking. Obsessing over how the competition did last month, your focus on what you need to do today is diminished. If you are telling yourself that you aren’t going to swim well next week because of a bad practice today, your focus on being a better swimmer today is diminished.

If you are time traveling with your focus, it means you aren’t giving the present the full attention and concentration it deserves.

VISUALIZE THE WAY YOU WANT TO PERFORM IN

PRACTICE.

Swimmers put a lot of yards and meters into the water at practice. Thousands and thousands of them. Just so that they can go to a swim meet and do a fraction of those meters at an increased speed.

Why wait until your meet to get the feeling of swimming a PB-devastating time?

Natalie Coughlin, 12-time Olympic medalist, cranked up her focus skills her freshman year at Cal, launching her into a wildly successful international career. Her secret? Visualizing the way she wanted to swim on race day when she went to the pool for practice.

“In training, I always brought my attention back to how I wanted to feel in my races. If I need to

work on my body position at the end of my races, then I would push myself in practice to the

point of exhaustion then work on my body position when exhausted.”

STRESS MAKES IT HARDER TO FOCUS.

We only have so much focus to go around at any given time. Stress, whether physical or mental, takes up a lot of the CPU power of our brain, reducing our ability to focus.

It’s one of the reasons we are more prone to “screw it, I’m giving up” moments when stressed out. Just another reason to be proactive about managing the daily stresses in life and in the pool.

When you start worrying about how other swimmers are performing, what you are parents might think, or the doubt and uncertainty pulsing under that suffocating tech suit, it’s focus that is being stolen from the things that actually help your performance.

This sounds simple when viewed from the safe, dry confines of the couch, but keeping our focus on a leash and pointed at the things we want gets harder when we are under the stress of a hard set or under the bright lights of competition.

Focus, for how powerful it can be, is a limited resource.

JOURNAL YOUR MOMENTS OF EPIC FOCUS.

There are more reasons to journal your swimming than there are blades on a lane rope (I know, I know—some of you will try to convince me that it’s called a lane line).

The self-awareness that comes with writing out a few sentences about what you were focused on during moments of most excellent swimming at practice will give you a library of focus points you can use to improve your focusing skills.

THOUGHT STOPPING.

What do you do when unhelpful thoughts are infecting your focus, and by extension, your swimming? You slap it in the face with a kick-board, that’s what. Swim practices give us a mountain of opportunities to unfairly worry, stress, and assess what we are doing.

• On the way to practice you are feeling sore and tired: “I am not going to be able to have a good practice tonight because of how not awesome I am feeling.”

• As the practice goes up on the board, you sink mentally: “How am I supposed to hit my race pace targets on that interval?”

• Between reps during the main set it feels like the full weight of still has to be completed stands squarely on your shoulders: “Oof! We still have how many more reps to go?”

In these moments when you struggle to stay positive and focused, one thing you can do to pump the brake is to use thought stopping. There’s no hidden meaning of what this little tactic is—it’s literally stopping that unhelpful thought with the help of a physical cue.

Something as simple as clenching and unclenching your fingers. Wiping the inside of your favourite pair of swim goggles. Using a pre-determined mantra (“You got this”).

The physical cue kick-starts a mental refresh designed to throw a crossing guard with a massive stop sign in front of those unhelpful thoughts. Pick something easy and simple to use when you find your focus turning negative.

GET FOCUSED AND RIDE THE ESCALATOR UP TO THE

NEXT LEVEL IN YOUR SWIMMING

SA REGIONAL NEWS

GMS

Phoenix update – August 2019

Phoenix swimmers enjoyed a successful winter season in

the Frostbite winter series. Some of the highlights include:

Sue Leuner – Ladies 80-84 age group, broke 4 SAMS records

– in the 800m Free (SAMS colours), 100m Backstroke

(Gauteng colours),50m Backstroke (SAMS colours) and 50m

Free (Gauteng colours). As well as SAMS colours for 100m

Free.

Quirin Kohler – Men’s 60-64 age group, broke 4 GMS

records – in the 50m Free (Gauteng colours), 50m Fly

(Gauteng colours), 100m IM and 1500m Free (Gauteng

colours).

Maureen Mons – Ladies 65-70 age group, achieved

Gauteng colours in 800m Free.

Anne Jones – Ladies 70-74 age group, achieved SAMS

colours in 1500m Free and Gauteng colours in 800m Free.

Congratulations team!

In between galas Phoenix members have been soaking up the sunshine at Sunday club swims at Ellis Park pool which

has been immaculately maintained throughout most of the winter. We really feel so lucky to enjoy such an oasis in

the middle of such a busy city.

Best Place for a meeting.

Wahoo Winter Report September 2019

Wahoo hosted the three Frostbite winter fun galas on 18 May, 8 June and 13 July with some great attendance figures

– 56, 73, 87 entries respectively! The final gala’s entrant number is an all-time record for us!

We introduced the Frostbite 1500 on 21st July due to interest from the masters who prefer distance. We had 12

entries this year but hope to increase the numbers next year by holding the event on a Saturday – like all the other

Frostbite events.

We started the series to try and introduce a fun way for existing swimmers and potential new swimmers to have

fun!

What happened over time, was that the focus drifted away from the shorter events and the entry numbers

decreased. That certainly changed this year!

We did have the serious swimmers though and had 10 GMS and 19 SAMS SC records broken through the series!

Quirin Kohler smiling after breaking a record. Guy Harker always in control.

Wahoo at Worlds 2019

Patrick Galvin swimming for his Australian club. Tocher Mitchell with a fantastic 6th place in the 3k

Came home with 8 GOLD MEDALS. Just brilliant

TSHWANE MASTERS

DATES TO DIARISE FOR TSHWANE EVENTS 2019-2020

GAUTENG/TSHWANE MASTERS SWIMMING 2019/2020

GALA DATES

DATE OF

GALA

5 OCTOBER 2019 19 OCT

2019

16 NOV 2019 Date to be

confirmed

26 JAN

2020

FEB

13 and 15FEB

2020

22 FEB 2020

7 MAR

2020

11 TO 15

MARCH

2020

OPEN WATER

16 MAR

COELACANTHS

1500 - FREESTYLE

SAMS

SHORT

COURSE

CHAMPS

INTER-

REGIONAL

6 HOUR

ENDURANCE

PHOENIX

LONG

COURSE

GALA

TSHWANE

CHAMPS

PHOENIX

LONG

COURSE

GALA

INTER-

REGIONA

L

SAMS SA

CHAMPS

HOSTS COELACANTHS GMS

TSHWANE MEGA PHOENIX COELACANTHS PHOENIX GMS

MEGA

VENUE HILLCREST WAHOO HILLCREST DELVILLE ELLIS PARK HILLCREST ELLIS PARK SAINTS Delville

Germiston

POOL

SIZE

50 M 25 M 50 M 50 M 50 M 50 M 50 M 50 M 50 M

REG TIME

7.30am

12HOO TO

12H45

12H00 TO

12H45

07H00 12HOO

12H45

REGISTRATION

1 HOUR BEFORE

12HOO

12H45

12H00 to

12H45

START

TIME

08H00 to

12H00

13hOO 13h00 8HOO TO 14h00 13HOO THURS 15

18h00

SATURDAY 17 13h00

13HOO 13H00 VARIOUS

Greetings to all our fellow masters swimmers. We are proud to kick off this new season with the unveiling of our new club logo. Thank you to the logo-choosing committee for a super choice. Winter time is not rest time for swimmers and the three winter Frostbite Galas, held at Wahoo Masters Swimming club short course pool provided opportunities for race practice, fun and fellowship. All three galas were well supported despite the chill outside and Frostbite three saw a record turn-out of masters swimmers, all vying for the coveted Frostbite Shield, awarded to the club with the most points over all three galas. This year Coelacanths were thrilled to come out

on top of the points table.

FROSTBITE SERIES Frostbite 1 saw Terry Downes swimming an SAQT and SA record for 400 free and CGQTs for 50 free and 50 backstroke. Harald Ruck achieved a CGQT for 50 free, while Kim Foster made CGQTs for 50 and 100 fly.

Frostbite 2 Terry Downes swam an SAQT and SA record for the 100 free, Geraldine Janssen posted an SAQT and SA record for 100 backstroke and a CGQT for the 50 backstroke. Kim Foster did a CGQT for 50 fly, Annemarie Dressler swam CGQTs for 50 and 100 backstroke and Harald Ruck swam a CGQT for 50 backstroke, while Yvette Victor vd Berg achieved CGQTs for 50 free, 50 breast and 100 IM.

Frostbite 3 saw Terry Downes again getting an SAQT and a SA record this time for 800 free and 200 free. Geraldine Janssen swam SAQT and SA record times for 50 backstroke and Yvette Victor vd Berg made CGQTs for 50 free and 100 IM. Ann Hanson set a SA record for the 100 free in her age group. Well done to these high achievers and to all the other swimmers, each of whom contributed to the club win.

Coelacanths swimmers were to be found everywhere! Yvette Victor vd Berg was spotted at the NTS Senior Short Course championships at Curro Pool in Hazeldean.

She took on the 17 and over girls at the age of 39 and came away with a bronze medal for 50 free, and silver for 100 breaststroke. Way to go Yvette! Sun and fun for everyone was the order of the day at the annual club braai held at Rietvlei. A good crowd of members supported this wonderful day out, fun and laughter around the braai fires. Great to catch up with all the news and we were blessed with a sunny day. Hillcrest swimming pool, for many Pretoria residents an icon, has recently had an upgrade to its facilities. Acid swept, tiles repaired and replaced, and new pool covers installed. It is looking stunning, sparkling and ready for the new swimming season. The annual, nation-wide, S.A. Masters Swimmers Winter Challenge took place during the month of August, as is customary. The charity to which Coelacanths donated this year was the Irene Homes. Swimmers either completed this how far can you swim in one hour challenge in groups or alone in their individual training pools. The various gatherings of participating swimmers and lap counters made each occasion an enjoyable social event. Thanks must go to Royal Fins pool for donating the pool time to the club for the challenge to be swum. This year we raised R11,415.00 and 73 swimmers participated. This money was presented to Irene Homes by a delegation from the club. Thank you to everyone for your support.

Eight Coelacanths masters swimmers went off to compete in the World Masters Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, earlier this month. They were Selwyn Sundelowitz, Peter Swanepoel, JP Van Niekerk, Marieke Bouwer, Shaun Bouwer, Gary Albertyn, Gary Durrant and Geraldine Janssen. They were sent off in grand style by Annemarie and the club committee with carry bags containing club t shirts, swim caps with names (plus one to swap) and SA stickers. They returned covered in glory bringing medals, great swims, good times and priceless memories with them. Here are all the results for our own Coelacanths. 800 freestyle Men 70-74 Pieter Swanepoel 15th 65-69 Selwyn Sundelowitz 20th 50-54 Gary Albertyn. 4th 200 backstroke. Men 65-69 Selwyn Sundelowitz 11th 50-54 Gary Albertyn 1st Women 75-79 Geraldine Janssen 2nd 100 freestyle Men Men 70-74 Peter Swanepoel 14th 65-69 JP van Niekerk 13th 50-54 Gary Durrant 22nd 400 IM Women 55-59 Marieke Bouwer 6th 200 freestyle Men 70-74 Peter Swanepoel 13th 65-69 J P van Niekerk 19th 50-54 Gary Albertyn 3rd 50 freestyle Men 70-74 Pieter Swanepoel 16th 65-69 J P van Niekerk 19th 50-54 Gary Durrant 15th 30-34 Shaun Bouwer 50th 200IM Men 50-54 Gary Albertyn. 3rd Women 55-59 Marieke Bouwer 7th 100 backstroke Men 65-69 J P van Niekerk 9th 30-34 Shaun Bouwer 13th 200 fly Women 55-59 Marieke Bouwer 7th 50 backstroke Men 65-69 JP van Niekerk 12th 400 freestyle Men 70-74 Pieter Swanepoel 9th 65-69 Selwyn Sundelowitz 15th 50-54 Gary Albertyn. 3rd

Gary Albertyn also won the 3km Open Water swim plus all his swims were SA records. Congratulations to all eight swimmers, you did the club, yourselves and South Africa proud. We salute you.

Just a reminder to all club members, family, friends and everyone, that the Coelacanths 1500 swim takes place on October 5th at Hillcrest Pool. Anyone can participate, non-members, friends and family as well as club members. It's a great warm up event for Sun City! When 89 year old Ted Beukes came into town, recently, from the wild places, he was presented with the Coelacanths Victor Ludorum cup which he now, shares this year with Terry Downes and Gary Albertyn.

Well done Ted.

That's all for this time, keep on swimming and remember, the water doesn't care how old you are!

On Sunday

18th August

our Winter

Challenge was held at Glenwood Prep School

pool. Two one-hour sessions with 13 relay teams

and 1 session with 4 individuals swimming the one

hour challenge saw a total of 64,825 kilometres

being swum! Congratulations to all who

participated and THANK YOU for making the

morning such a great success! The greatest

distance of 5850kms in the allocated hour was

swum by the GTN team. Well done Julian Taylor

and your team!

Our chosen main Charity was Malvern Children’s

Home and the total amount of money raised for

them was R5200. This will be used for one of the

items on their Wish List. This home has 120

children and has been in dire financial straits with

the threat of being closed down. Our other Charity

on the day was CROW –Centre for Rehabilitation

of Wildlife-is dedicated to the protection and

rehabilitation of all indigenous wildlife. Every year,

over 3000 injured, orphaned and displaced

animals receive life-saving care and treatment at

CROW before they are returned to their rightful

place in the wild. Swimmers were asked to bring

items from their Wish List- the containers were

really overflowing by the end of the morning.

Thank you all for your generosity –these items

have gone to a very worthwhile cause and they were very grateful.

So a very BIG thank you goes to all of those who swam, as well as those who supplied ‘Wish List items. Thank

you to all the families who supported swimmers and did the lap counting, as well as the KZN Masters Committee

who assisted with many different tasks during the morning. A big thank you also to Ann Gray, who obtained

the basket of edible goodies and Canopy Tour tickets as raffle prizes. Merle Angelos won the basket and Stefan

van der Westhuizen and Angelika Sandri won the Canopy Tour Tickets.

What a wonderful morning in true Masters swimming tradition KZN Masters swimmers and their friends had...

with plenty of FUN, FITNESS AND FELLOWSHIP prevailing.

Our next gala takes place on the 14th September and we are hoping to see many Masters swimmers as well as

many new swimmers.

KZN MASTER SWIMMERS AT FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN KOREA

Seven swimmers from KZN attended the FINA World swimming championships in South Korea. They were Marc Allen, Juan Boulle, Wendy Cook, Carina Hambloch, Sam Kruger and Russell Upneck (all from Synergy Masters Swimming Club) and Graham Du Toit from Cape Town Masters Swimming Club. All did extremely well with Juan Boulle, a former rugby player, doing personal bests in his 50m and 100m Freestyle evets. All others managed a “top 6 position” with medals and “Diplomas” in some of their events. Places 4, 5, and 6 received copper medals. Places 1, 2, and 3 received the traditional gold, silver and bronze medals. Star swimmer was Marc Allen who won 3 gold medals and a silver medal. His gold medals were for the50m and 100m freestyle and 50m Butterfly in the 40 – 44 category. Marc broke the record in the 50m butterfly. Sam Kruger came third in the 3km Open Water swim event in the 40- 44 category.

We are immensely proud of the performances and the size of the team that went to Worlds.

Here is to the next one in 2021

News from NMBA masters

Fund raising and charity events

Our winter charity event was a 12 hour Swimathon, we had over 60 swimmers, two teams from PE Masters, a team from coastal rescue and some training group swimmers making up the other teams. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all, it was wonderful to see some of the younger kids joining in on the swims. And admittedly a new adventure for many of us – swimming those distances in a 25 meter pool is a challenge. We manged to raise R 5000.00 for our chosen charity, Yokhuselo Haven – it is a haven for abused women and children, an incredible organisation, with a sadly growing demand for the services they provide. The funds will come in very handy, and we are possibly looking at other areas where we can assist them.

Our additional Charity Drive

In August PE Masters, through one of our board members, got involved in the 67 minutes for Nelson Mandela campaign which again was well supported. We had a lot of fun packing hundreds of meals, as always we had the noisiest group, but also the most competitive so there was lots of cheering and shouts of encouragement to pack the most meals in the 67 mins – think we did win !

Swimming News We are in the process of entering our first gala of the season at the moment and hope to build on the numbers before our Short course event in October, our aim is to make it the biggest we have had as yet and are going to go all out to encourage a huge number of swimmers to part take. However, judging by the swimmers training at the moment and the enthusiasm, together with a very mild winter – we have many swimmers ready to get going. It shouldn’t be a problem to entice them into racing. Kenneth Pattinson

CAPE TOWN AT WORLD MASTERS- A REFLECTION BY NICK ORTON.

Cape Town Masters dispatched 16 enthusiastic athletes to the FINA Masters World Champs held in Gwangju, South

Korea, during August. Our team arrived in the illustrious industrial city of Gwangju in dribs and drabs, some completely

exhausted from prior shopping antics in the megacity of Seoul, others shattered by the 90% humidity, and the

remainder reaching for the Imodium after two days of ingesting street-food unmentionables, but all enthusiastic about

the week ahead and looking forward to testing themselves against some of the world’s finest mature swimmers.

Most of us were checked into the mysteriously named Hotel B, an odd combination of excellent rooms (complete with

in-room high-end automated full-body massage chairs which was a huge value-add for swimmers) and bad breakfasts,

a few km from the Pool complex at Nambu University.

After pain-free registration late Sunday at the accreditation centre, our swimmers ventured into the world-class

competition pool for a tune-up, and afterwards, over a dose of South Korean squid with tuna chunks wrapped in

seaweed, unanimously declared the facilities to be seaworthy. Our team was now getting used to the South Korean

cryptic menus, multiple rules and regulations, inscrutable politeness, and coming to grips with the fact that everything

works, on time and as advertised, in what looked like an amazing economy.

Pool events kicked into life on Tuesday 13th, and our team made a concerted effort to diversify from the local cuisine

and hunt down swimmer’s staples, i.e. bananas and red bull.

The event administration was top-end, with no shortage of Korean FINA judges wandering around in pink blazers

looking to incarcerate unsuspecting rule-breakers. On the whole our team, after a sluggish start, ended up well-placed,

with Sanderina Kruger claiming 5 individual gold medals and winning all her events by several body lengths, and with

Calvin Maughan winning both the 50 free (CR) and 100 free with an injured shoulder. Almost everyone else achieving

at least an individual medal, a relay medal, a top-10 finish, or a PB. What follows is a brief summary of effort expended,

by stroke:

Backstroke. Our backstroke swimmers took an early beating in the 200m (a combination of nerves and the unsightly

dragging of hips) with the exception of Mike Winfield who produced a creditable 4th. Spirits were revived with some

Korean wine which helped the 100m go a lot better, with Sanderina Kruger winning a gold, Perry Cadiz a silver, and

Norelle Engela, Greg Mcleroth and Nick Orton placing in the top 10 in their respective age groups. The 50m was held

on the last day, with Sanderina winning her age-group again, Perry producing a second in a tightly contested W40-44,

and Norelle steaming in with a 5th in the W45-49, beating her own WP backstroke record. In the men Mike Winfield

generated another creditable 4th (M60-64) with an excellent start, and Greg and Nick both 8th in their respective

groups, and both a bit grumpy about their times for various technical reasons. The backstroke wedges were used

throughout, something we need to get right for SA Masters if our backstrokers are to remain credibly benchmarked

against world times.

Freestyle. We had strong representation in many events, but none so much as the Men’s 50-54 100m and 50m

freestyle, where 3 of our top swimmers Harald Kruger, Greg Mcleroth, and Robbie Taylor battled it out in the same

top heats. In the 100free it was Harald Robbie and Greg in 5th 6th and 10th respectively, and in the 50m the order was

Greg 4th, Harald 6th and Robbie 8th. Commendable times from all.

Our secret agent, Calvin Maughan, emerged from his special training camp and won golds in both the 50m free and

100m free in fine style in the Men’s 55-59 group. Nick and Mike produced some semi-decent times, and young Philip

Winfield (son of Mike) pushed out a fast 26.30 in the M25-29 group at his first Masters world event. In the 400m free

the newly reconstituted Graham du Toit, did a full day’s work to finish in a solid 12th, below his expectations but above

his grumpiness threshold.

In the women’s 50m freestyle Sanderina blistered into another first by a wide margin (CR) (W70-74) after a bundle of

nerves helpfully settled by Kathryn Nurse’s prerace counselling services. Perry a strong 3rd (W40-44) off an excellent

start. Norelle a worthy 4th, and Georgie Taylor an excellent 10th given how little time she has spent in the sport so far.

The 100m free again saw Sanderina sailing into first (W70-74) and Perry delivering a self-described leisurely 1:03 (W40-

44) 7th place.

In the 200m free Kathryn Nurse started showing her fine form with a hard-working 6th (2:18) W40-44, and Sanderina

again dominated her group with a first-place finish.

Mandi Fuchs was our sole representative in the 800m free and posted a highly commendable 9th in her group (W55-

59) a full day’s work. In the 400m Mandi pushed out a decent 5th (W55-59) and Kathryn a solid 7th (W40-44)

Breaststroke. A number of our more industrious members applied themselves to events in this enigmatic stroke. In

the 200m we had Melanie van Wyk delivering a highly commendable 8th (W40-44) in a strong field. Graham du Toit

putting in new batteries and showing his form (4th place M55-59), and Oliver Gilbert who delivered a highly decent

2:55 which would have earned him an 8th (M45-49) but who was unluckily DQ’d by those with the pink blazers for a

minor underwater starting infraction. In the 100m breast we had Graham (M55-59), Oliver (M50-54), and Melanie

(W40-44) all in steamingly solid 7th places. However, Oliver was once again hounded by the pink police and DQ’d for a

different underwater technicality which was unfortunate. In the 50m breaststroke Harald Kruger emerged from his

slumber and delivered a staunch 34.06, (8th M50-54), below his personal expectations, with Oliver, Philip and Melanie

delivering 14th, 38th, and 11th respectively in their age-groups.

Butterfly. In the 50 fly there were some decent performances from our women and men, with Robbie Taylor being

our only swimmer to crack a top-10 (8th with 28.55 (M50-54)) in a very strong field. In the 100 fly we had Robbie in a

highly competitive M50-54 delivering a 5th, with the first five swimmers finishing within 1.3 seconds of each other. In

the women’s Kathryn Nurse exerted herself properly and delivered a well-earned silver (W40-44), a performance she

repeated in the 200m with another staunch silver. Mandi hung on in the W55-59 group and generated a creditable

8th.

IM. Mandi was the sole member of our team to brave the 400 IM, enduring this battle of horrors to come in 7th (W55-

59), and in the 200IM Graham and Oliver produced energetic top-10 finishes (9th and 10th in their age groups).

Relays. Here as a club we produced some excellent results, not only a result of fast swimming but also of strategic

selection, with credit going to Perry and Mike for their intuitive and algorithmic approaches. In the freestyle our M200-

239 team won gold (Calvin Harald Greg Robbie) as did our W200-239 (Sanderina Kathryn Norelle Perry). Our club also

took a gold in the Mixed Free 240-279 (Sanderina Norelle Mike and Graham), and we also achieved several other great

top-10 placings including three Second places, a 4th and a 6th. Some of our swimmers had to perform some heavy lifting

by swimming 4 relays over the course of the relay day, retiring thankfully to their hotel massage chairs and a well-

earned beverage of their choice.

Open Water. In the OW we had Kathryn and Melanie in W40-44, an event held separately and prior to the pool events.

These swimmers are a special breed, known for their financial smarts in driving down their cost-per-swimming-meter

for the trip, and also known for their pack-mule mindset swimming 3km in one sitting. Nevertheless, a commendable

performance from both, with Kathryn in 2nd and Melanie 13th, apparently both rewarded themselves with another

South Korean alarming delicacy namely the rear-end of an octopus. No wonder their subsequent pool events were a

bit sluggish to begin with.

All in all, our team had a tremendous time, thankful for the opportunity to travel, to hang out with like-minded

swimming aberrations, to be of relatively sound body, and to wear some cool kit from the house of TYR (kindly

provided by Harald Kruger).

Nick Orton

WINTER FITNESS CHALLENGE 2019

Our chosen charity for this year’s WFC is Head Start Swim School

https://www.headstartswim.co.za/. Every R300 donated sponsors a child’s

swimming lessons for a term.

At Constantia Virgin Active swimmers participated in the Relay challenge with

teams of 4 swimming laps of 25m. A few squad times were dedicated to the

challenge and the top distance swum was 6 325m.

A few Tygerberg swimmers participated in the Individual and Relay swims

with the total amount being raised around R4 000 for Head Start. We would

have hoped to raise more for such a worthy and deserving cause. Let’s hope

that next year’s challenge exceeds that.

Winning Team 6 325m

The Ladies Almost team

Some serious sprinters

WELL DONE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED

Fisheagles Virgin Active Heatherpark and Virgin actives Force for good have been really good to us again allowing us to use their pool, one of only two heated pools in George. So we are really grateful. They allowed us to invite non Virgin Active members, and we extended our swim to potential new master swimmers and local athletes. FEMS members turned out in full force, chair Judy, vice Cheryl, Eugene (hopefully more often after this), Mike, Jill, Lanie, Deon, Tanya, with Moneque and Jenny sending in their results from the Cape. We were joined by Terry (of synergy who is visiting), Neil of (PE master who has a home in Sedgefield), the Sedgefield Tennis club and a few triathletes and locals of the George area. Our oldest being Judy at 77, and youngest Gertjie at 4! A great turn out increasing our numbers from 8 last year to 21 this year. Hopefully next year we can find a bigger venue!

Members of Fish Eagles Masters all came to the party donating lucky dips, which the grand prize sponsored by Deon, was a weekend for two at the Wilderness Hotel. We also raised way more than double last year, settling at R10 040 for our local SPCA (handover of the cheque on Tuesday). Serious stuff.... taking over the Virgin Active pool!

Left: Eugene (FEMS), Nancy (newest member), Tracey (social member),

Neil (the enemy!)

Sedgefield Tennis club with Neil and Lanie. Cherie, second from the right

long red hair, with the help of the tennis club from Sedgefield raised the

most just hitting R3700! Excellent for a non-member!

Swimmers,

counters and

timekeepers.

Magic Mike- at 74

opted for the

"easier" medley

mile!

Thanks to everyone who made this a great event. It was a great turnout and hopefully it will be

bigger and better next year.

Diarize FEMS WC 2020--- 29th August

The Last Word

What’s the Best Way to Start Off a Swim Season? by Rick Madge

A new swim season is about to start, and in the process of preparing my annual training plan I decided to investigate how other swim teams and other sports team start off their seasons. After all, I’ve borrowed enough ideas from cycling and other sports that its possible they have some good ideas in this area as well.

What I found was a bewildering and scary variety of ways to start a season. I’m sure not all of them are relevant to swimming, based on significantly different use of energy systems, length of the sport’s season, and individual goals of the coaches, but it still surprised me.

Early season training theories can be broken down into three broad categories.

Hard Early Training

This category was easily the most common one when looking across sports. Interestingly, the emphasis typically comes with a complete acknowledgement of a relative lack of focus on technique. The idea seems to be to get them in shape, and then worry about technique later. For land-based sports this often involves a LOT of running, which makes sense if the running technique is already sound, or of relatively little importance to the sport. Surprising to me, many swim teams adopt this attitude as well. There doesn’t seem to be much concern about pounding out the swimming distance without ensuring proper technique.

An extreme variation of this is the hell week. It’s amazing to me how many sports teams start off the season with a hell week. Everybody from high school football to local hockey teams to university sports teams like to start the season off with a complete shock to the system. I was surprised to find out that a local non-swim team just started out their season with a hell week, with a first practice that involved up to 2 hours of running

including stairs. From the sound of it, the quality of subsequent practices dropped sharply after that, so I’m not sure what that accomplished.

The US Navy SEALs have a much harder variation of this with their insanely demanding SEAL training. And even though these incredible athletes / soldiers are already in phenomenal shape, they still wait until their third week for their hell week. I think this lesson is important. Hell weeks can only make sense if the athletes are physically and mentally ready to take it on. Putting unprepared bodies through a training shock can and does result in injuries and demoralization that doesn’t benefit anybody.

Mix It Up

Some sports teams use the first weeks to work on basic physical movements, essentially the ABCs: Agility, Balance and Coordination. Strength work can be added as well, and overall this can be pretty demanding. This is ideal for land-based training due to the incredible variety of possible activities but can be done with some creativity in the water as well.

The general idea is that significant sports-specific training is put off for a few weeks while the basic building blocks of the athlete are established. The amount of time in this phase is often dictated by how long the particular season for the sport lasts. For a swim team this general preparation phase often lasts 3-4 weeks.

Easy and Fun

Many teams with young children start off the season with lots of fun, and easy technique-based activities. To me this sounds perfect, although it can bother the occasional serious young athlete, or the much more common serious parent. However, starting the season more gently is excellent for athletes who have not yet developed an emotional involvement with the sport. It seems that this approach is done the best when technique and general ABC development are embedded in fun-oriented activities that have the kids wanting more.

Summary So what did I learn from this activity? First off, a hell week is not for us. Most of our swimmers have had 2 months off, will be relatively out of shape, and will have lost some muscle memory for their strokes (often a good thing as bad habits are forgotten as easily as good habits). Giving them a potentially demoralizing and debilitating volume of work at the start of a 10-month season seems folly to me for so many reasons. Also, my swimmers will already be emotionally involved with the sport, and so limiting ourselves to easy and fun activities isn’t productive or rewarding. This leaves some variation of Mix It Up. I love the idea of doing non-swimming-specific exercises now while we works on our ABCs, both in the water and out. Then we can treat the loss of muscle memory as an opportunity to develop proper stroke and turn techniques by doing some focused technique work. Next, we can provide some base conditioning with lots of kicking and streamlining work. And finally, I’ll need to provide some socialization activities for friends who haven’t seen each other for 2 months, and for new members to feel like they’re part of our team. I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that this matches how the best coaches I’ve ever had and worked with start their seasons. But it’s good to know how they got there.

South African Masters

See you all soon, enjoy the new season, train hard. Hugs, AND…