Duncan Goodhew encourages parents to prioritise swimming lessons

Duncan Goodhew has said that parents should put swimming lessons “front and centre of their priorities” as the country comes out of lockdown. Bromsgrove Swimming Club couldn’t agree more with his sentiments as they re-launch their Learn to Swim program.

Swim England have announced that five million swimming sessions have been lost during the pandemic and 240,000 children have missed out on learning how to swim 25m.

Lockdown has given Head Coach Matt Lowe a chance to look at the club’s current training schedule and he is excited to announce major changes to their programmme for the youngest swimmers, “Our younger swimmers have had to face longer out of the pool than most of our other members which has been incredibly hard for them. If we go back 12 months they would swim for 30 minutes each week, I want them to have more than that, I want them to develop their passion for being in the water, to enjoy it, to have fun - children learn so much more through games and play alongside the more structured coaching.”

The plan is to get the younger swimmers in the water for an hour each week, this an ambitious strategy by the club and one that is a huge step forward for the development of their swimmers. “The young swimmers are the foundation on which our club is built” Matt explains “these children are our future competitive swimmers, the early years in the pool are so important, not just to their development into competitive swimming but to keep them safe in the water.”

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