Developing our volunteers, coaches and teachers.
As part of Chippenham ASC’s Swim 21 accreditation, all volunteers, coaches, teachers have a personal development plan. There is a template on the ASA site at
http://www.swimming.org/library/document/swim21-personal-development-plan
The purpose of a PDP is to identify what new knowledge, skills & experience is needed to carry out the current role more effectively and in addition, to prepare for future roles/tasks. The PDP should clearly link into the club’s and the employee/volunteer’s objectives and values as well as the competencies required for the role. The PDP could involve training courses, spending time with others, mentoring & coaching, study & research. The overall outcome is that all parties are beneficiaries of the learning.
For example as a L1 Coach and L1 teacher I was keen to improve my stroke analysis and be able to improve swimmers technique in specific strokes. I therefore took the opportunity to attend the butterfly and breast stroke clinics organised by the South West Network hub at Bath University. I then looked for opportunities to use this new knowledge as part of the routine training programme for our swimmers.
Skill development can be met by other means e.g. by shadowing our more experienced coaches or shadowing a learning/teaching session.
Once coaches and teachers have identified their training objectives and the actions they could take to meet them, all coach and teaching plans are discussed and agreed with either the Head Coach (Nigel Butler) or Head Teacher (Heather Butler).
Stephen Miller
Chippenham ASC
Newsflash
We need more licensed officials to run events and to complete behind the scenes roles. Why not start to train as an official? Its not as daunting as you think. Most of the training is done on pool side at a pace that suites you. Join a Judge 1 course to see what it is all about. Questions? Please ask Darren Hall or e-mail the club This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
If you are a parent of a CASC swimmer and have an hour or two to spare each week please contact a member of the committee either on poolside or via the 'contact us' link above as we are always looking for help from committed parents. Support is welcome both on poolside and behind the scenes with club administration / management functions.