The final stops on the Regional Swim Clinic tour for the 23/24 season was the South West with both Harvey and Pinjarra hosting back-to-back clinics over Saturday and Sunday. Drew Corrigan and Kaila Warner were our fabulous coaches for both clinics with 34 attendees across the weekend. It was great to see the spread of clubs that had members attend, the 12 clubs that had representation were Australind, Beverley, Bridgetown, Bunbury, Busselton, Geographe Bay, Harvey, Mandurah, Manjimup, Peel, Pinjarra and even Swimming WA’s SWASP program.
Corrigan and Warner were extremely approachable and were engaging with the participants and parents from the minute they arrived in the South West to the minute they left. Both clinics were scheduled to last three hours; which could be a long time for most young swimmers however Drew and Warner made it enjoyable and got adequate time to focus on each of the four strokes. Approximately 45 minutes were spent on each stroke, with each element being broken down into simple drills that focused on specific elements of technique. Corrigan and Warner split the clinics based on ability so were able to give a good clinic experience to each child and help them where they needed it.
We were very lucky to have two multi-class participants join us for the Pinjarra clinic. These boys only ever trained for 30 minutes or 45 minutes at a time, but thoroughly enjoyed what they were getting from the clinic with Corrigan and Warner and lasted nearly two hours; Mum was pleasantly surprised and credited the passion from the travelling coaches for keeping them in the water.
The six hours worth of pool deck mentoring was taken up by five local swim teachers and coaches. Hailing from Bunbury, Geographe Bay, Harvey and Peel they were able to walk the lanes alongside Corrigan and Warner, got to ask questions on how to explain certain drills better and at one point jumped in the water to understand further what a drill felt like having never heard of it before. The insights that were picked up during the clinic were highly valuable and the conversations between the group post clinics were even better for networking and sharing contact details.
Thank you to the two host clubs across the weekend in Harvey and Pinjarra for welcoming us all, to the Shire of Harvey and the Shire of Murray that made the booking process easy and as always to the Department of Local Government Sport & Cultural Industries for your support in helping Swimming WA put on these events and visit our regions.
