Coaches' Corner

		Qualifying Times 400 Kick Challenge JASI Top 20
Head Coach - Peter Burgon	Assistant Coach - Hayden Brown

7 January 2012

I hope everyone has had a fantastic new year and is ready for all the excitement, challenges and successes that lie ahead in 2012.

What a finish to 2011 we had with the trip to Melbourne for the Victorian State Championships lasting a bit longer than expected, due the earthquakes on the 23rd and flights being cancelled. The team behaved impeccably throughout the ordeal, as we watched some people throw tantrums and tears at the airport staff. This was true of the whole trip, with staff at our accommodation praising the swimmers on their behaviour and respect for the apartments and others in the building. This topped of what was a fantastic experience for the swimmers, competing and racing in one of the best facilities in the world.

Taking the swimmers to the pool on the first day they were introduced to the indoor 50m pool with diving platforms, which all thought was an amazing pool in its own right, and it is, as this is the pool that has been used for many World Cup meets and National and State Championships over the years. However, this is now the warm up and swim down area pool.

Walking out from the corridors through a back door the new pool all came into view. Jaws dropped and eyes widened as the swimmers saw the spectacular arena in which they would be racing for the next 6 days. For those who have not been there you will be impressed by some of the pictures taken while we were there, which hopefully might make their way to the newsletter and website. There is no doubt that the whole occasion lifted everybody there, you could not help but get excited by the competition, the competitors, the teams, the facility and the running and organisation of the event. This was matched with the performances, swimmers had to challenge themselves to achieve in the morning swims as making top 10 for finals was tough. Made even tougher as only 2 visitors can make the final. Visitors were made up from 11 New Zealand teams plus all the teams from outside Victoria - Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia. So the team and individual goals for all were simple enough on paper, but now they had to put them into action.

The morning sessions were all about doing best performances to improve rankings, the better the performance the higher up the rankings to now be in the top 10, then not just be in top 10 but be in the top 2 visitors to swim the final at night. In the finals it is about going faster than the morning, improve ranking and start to challenge for podium positions. The morning sessions were the key to success at this meet and for this to be successful the swimmers needed personal best performances in the heats, the response was fantastic. At major events like this the team should be looking for at least an 80% strike rate for setting new personal best times. Out of 41 events entered 43 new personal best times were recorded as some swims not only produced new personal best times but also their splits recorded set new personal best times.

Day 1
The meet started with a busy morning session 1 with everybody swimming and PBs coming in thick and fast, Sam and Caitlin went off first in the 200 Fly. Sam setting new PBs at 50, 100 and 200 in the heat swim and qualifying for the final from 18th place. Caitlin then got the news that her event was now unfortunately going to be a straight final and she would only get 1 chance at it. Michael, Tiffany and Jade stepped up next for the 50 Free, with both girls setting new best times and Tiffany so close to the final in 11th place. Sam was joined by Jarryd for his first swim in the 100 Free next, followed by Caitlin producing another best time for her 100 but also at the 50 split, before Jade stepped back up for her 100 Breast and PBs at 50 and 100. The morning session finished with Tiffany and Michael in the 400 Free, Michael jumping up the rankings to break into the top 10 but unfortunately miss out on the visitors rule.

Session 2
Up stepped Sam and Caitlin for their 200 Fly finals. Marching out to the blocks in front of a huge crowd (there were between 4 and 5 thousand spectators at the finals sessions) the excitement levels were high and Sam produced another very good swim, not quite as fast as his morning effort, which knocked 13sec off his PB, but still good enough to place 9th. Caitlin not getting the chance to swim the event in the morning then had to trust all her skills and ability to take on the final, and she did, swimming excellently and breaking her PB on the way to winning BRONZE and the first medal of the meet by a visitor.

Day 2
Sam and Caitlin were up first again on day 2, this time in the 400 Free with both setting new best times and Caitlin qualifying for the evening final from 13th place. 100 Back next for Tiffany, Jade and Michael with all 3 setting new PBs, Jade even setting a new 50 PB in the process and qualifying for the final from 19th place. Sam and Jarryd went in the 50 Free next, with a PB to Sam before Jade took on the 400IM. Swimming in the first heat, she swam a fantastic race and set a 5sec PB to be in the final easily as long as the visitor in the next heat did not go any faster than Jade, even though she had a faster qualifying time. We watched and timed the 2nd heat comparing splits, it was close, only 0.2sec in it but in Jade's favour.

Session 4
3 finals tonight, 400 Free to start off with and what a swim, in the morning Caitlin knocked of 2.5 sec from her best, in the final she swam a superb race placing 6th and smashing another 7 sec off the time she did in the morning. After a big morning, Jade had to back up her excellent morning swims and did just that again going faster in both her 100 back final and then, with not as much rest as in the morning, going faster again in her 400 IM final. What a great day of racing and performances by the team in the heats and finals sessions, a fantastic day.

Day 3
Not as busy a day with only 4 morning swims. Caitlin had a straight final for her 400IM, but in the morning she had a good swim in the 100 back where she set PBs at both 50 and 100. Jarryd also had his 100 Back where he set a new 50 PB at the split while Michael and Tiffany both went in the 200 Free.

Session 6
It was a long wait until the end of the session for the 400 IM final, but as we had found on the previous 5 sessions, the atmosphere the music the racing and the event itself meant that even though sessions were long, time went by quickly. Going into the final ranked 5th a big swim was needed in order to step up on the podium again. By now some of the competitors were becoming familiar and there were some swimmers who were known to come home in the Free very, very fast. Pacing the swim well and executing her race plan an 8sec PB put Caitlin back on the podium this time for SILVER.

Day 4
4 swims again this morning with Caitlin and Jarryd both setting new best times in the 200 Free before Jade and Tiffany went in the 200 IM. New best times again for both girls, Tiffany also setting a new 50 Fly PB in the process, while both also jumped up the rankings - Jade to 9th but missing the final on the visitors rule. 5 personal bests times from 4 swims, not bad.

Session 8
Shopping - with no finals we took the opportunity to take a wee look around the city, headed into city on the tram which we were getting used to as we used it everyday to get to the pool and back, hit the shops and then an early night as we got ready for the last two days of competition.

Day 5
5 morning swims plus we knew that Michael would be swimming in the fastest heat in the finals at night for the 1500 Free. Jade started the morning off with a good PB in her 200 Back placing her 5th for the final but agonisingly she was the 3rd visitor so would not be able to swim the final. The 100 Fly had Sam and Caitlin swimming, Sam setting new best times again in his fly at 50 and 100 and Caitlin qualifying for her 4th final of the meet which was added to later on when she qualified for her 5th final in the 200 IM.

Session 10
In a close final in the 100 Fly, Caitlin improved on her morning time but not quite enough for another podium position. Michael followed up in the next event in his 1500 Free final, swimming a very good race showing much more control and subsequently knocking a good 10sec off his best time. Caitlin had the final swim of the night in her 200 IM final where again she stepped up after what had been a huge week of racing for her already and delivered another PB.

Day 6, the last day
The week had flown by, it had been a fantastic effort by the team and we had been looked after very well by Janice. The meet had been exciting and going into a 6th day of racing was a new experience for all,l as NAGS are only 5 days. Jade started the last morning off with her 200 Fly, after a dive which was not one she can be proud off, she dug in deep and fought back to record a new PB. The diving here was another new feature for the team to experience and learn from as the pool uses the new starting blocks with the movable back step which gives more forward push. Everyone learned quickly and apart from this one dive the starts were all very good. Jade got the chance to prove it was a one off when she was joined by Tiffany and Michael for the 100 Free, a good dive this time and she set a new PB again. The last event for Jasi was the 200 Back with Caitlin and Jarryd racing, we thought this was the last event of the meet for us but with both setting big new personal best times we had to double check the rankings with Caitlin jumping form 25th to 9th to make her 6th Final.

Session 12
What a way to finish with what was an unexpected, but well deserved final. With nothing to lose Caitlin went for it and proceeded to set a new PB at 50 then 100 and go 3 sec faster than her morning swim for the 200.

Swimmer of the meet was Caitlin Rennell, for which she will receive the Jasi Trophy for top international performance of the year. All 6 swimmers produced personal best times from their events and learned some huge lessons and conducted themselves superbly. The swimmers are a great credit to the club for their conduct and behaviour on this tour, from the praise received for their behaviour at the apartments to when we got to the airport to leave ( after more shopping ) and find our flights were cancelled due to the earthquakes. While we watched a few others throw tantrums and complain, the team stayed relaxed and maintained a very good sense of humour and knew that things would get sorted out. A huge thanks to Janice for being team manager for the tour and to Lyndon Hadden, who came to our assistance when flights and accommodation were needed to be found to get us all back to Christchurch.

16 December 2011

Thank you to all for a their efforts in running our meet last weekend. It was a very well attended meet and some good racing. A huge amount of work went into organising and running the meet, we cannot do it without the help and the time that all the officials and time keepers put in on the day itself and also for the preparation, planning and running of the meet by the committee, especially Suzy Sugrue.

Congratulations to Jade Rogerson who won her age group and the prize money for being top FINA points scorer from all her events. We also saw Jasi retain the Russley Trophy in the last event with 4 out of the 6 teams disqualified for leaving their lanes when their team had finished. Well done to the Jasi team and Michael Carter, who did the right thing and stayed in his lane showing respect to the other teams until they had all finished.

This weekend a small Jasi team of 6 swimmers head to Melbourne to take on the Victorian State Championships. It is going to be very tough racing, but it will be very exciting seeing the psych sheets out and seeing the opportunities that the swimmers have to be successful in Australia, which is something they have never had the opportunity to do before.

Good luck to Sam Blackmore, Michael Carter, Jarryd Drummond, Tiffany Hamilton, Caitlin Rennell and Jade Rogerson. Racing starts on Saturday 17th December and goes through until Thursday 22nd.

Entries are now all in for Canterbury Champs and info will be on the Jasi website soon. It will be a different experience this year, but the change of venue will be good. Jasi swimmers always race well down in Dunedin at their Neptune short course meet, so here is the chance to swim well in Dunedin on a long course.

Below are the squad promotions so far. Congratulation to these swimmers who will start in their new squads 9th January 2012.

J -JAG Squad
Julia Harrison, Nathan James, Sally Mun, Archie Perriam, Mary Virtue, Eddie Wu.

JAG - A Squad
Jake Jensen, George Long, Alexandra Wilson.

Finally, from myself and Hayden, have a great Christmas and New Year. We look forward to seeing you all refreshed and tanned after the break.

8 December 2011

Congratulations to all the trophy and prize winners at this years Jasi Awards night. All results on www.jasi.co.nz

The evening show cased another very good year for Jas,i which was made all the more remarkable by the events of the past 15 months. After losing our home pool for 18 months in 2007, and just when we were getting back to normal after a year of being back home we, along with the whole city, took some very big knocks and the results of these are with us now and for the foreseeable future.

Even during this time there were many highlights and high points in the year. There were 27 Jasi swimmers who took more than 100 seconds off their times compared to the previous best in 2009 which was only 23 swimmers. We also have 2 more Jasi swimmers who have now made New Zealand squads with Chan Min Park selected for the NZ Age group squad and Caitlin Rennell selected for the NZ Youth squad. We also had a year where there were many new faces swimming and racing for Jasi. While we had a lot of younger swimmers, which we have not had for a number of years, this was balanced against having to say goodbye to a few senior swimmers who have spent their swimming life with us and now moving onto their future careers in the work place.

One Trophy which was not awarded on Sunday night was the Jasi Masters Scholarship Trophy. Every year Jasi Masters present this trophy and a cheque for $250 to a Jasi swimmer in recognition of what they have done and with a view to helping them take on the the challenges of the year ahead. This year's winner took her performances to a whole new level. After having her National meet postponed here in Christchurch due to the earthquake and her preparation changed dramatically, she did not let it faze her. She got stuck into her work and made sure she would be ready. At the NZ Div 2 meet she won 6 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze individual medals. Her performances qualified her for Open nationals and the NZ short course championships where she finalled. This was a great season with her hard work and dedication paying off in huge way. Congratulations to Laura Sugrue on an outstanding 2011.

This weekend Jasi host our Christmas cracker meet. Racing starts on Friday night 7:00 with swimmers needing to be there at 6:00. This meet will also be the last chance for qualifying swims to be done for the 2012 Canterbury Champs, which will be held in Dunedin. Entries for these champs will be due in on Monday 12th December.

Over the course of the weekend there will be time to go over your entries with your coach if you have not done so already. Last weekend was the Canterbury memorial meet and was a great turn out by Jasi swimmers and a huge number of best times recorded and medals won:-
Adelaide Perry - silver
Alex Boyle - 2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze
Amy Bull - 3 bronze
Amy Sugrue - gold and 2 silver
Archie Perriam - 2 gold
Bailey Perriam - 4 gold
Caitlin Hendren - bronze
Charlotte Blair - silver
Emily Rennell - 4 gold, bronze and 2 silver
Emily Stewart - 2 gold, 2 silver
Emma Hodgson - silver and 3 bronze
Jackson Olds - gold and silver
Jake Jensen - gold, silver, bronze
Jarryd Drummond - gold and silver
Johnathan Gell - silver
Joseph Ni - gold and bronze
Laura Biddiscomb - 4 gold and silver
Liam Makinson - gold, 2 silver and bronze
Michael Hodgson - gold 2 and bronze
Nicholas Yan - 2 bronze
Rebecca Gell - bronze
Scott Hallaway - gold and 3 silver
Tamati Muir - 3 gold, silver and bronze
Tegan Makinson - gold and bronze
Virginia Hogan - 2 gold and bronze