Welcome to Fox Hollies Swimming Club
Fox Hollies Swimming Club is an independent, family oriented, competitive swimming club. Our club is open to anyone over the age of four. Emphasis is on competitive swimming, but we have sessions for swimmers of all abilities including non-swimmers. All are welcome.
We compete in a variety of leagues and galas. Some of our members have represented the City of Birmingham and the County of Warwickshire at a competitive level.
We hold several swimming sessions a week at Fox Hollies Leisure Centre and King Edwards Schools.
On Sunday May 6th Philippa Audley arose bright and early tentatively looking forward to swimming in her maiden Midland Championships, Fox Hollies SC’s only representative at the districts this year in Coventry. Well, at least she could finally get hold of a Midland hoodie, t-shirt, swim cap, pencil case and tooth brush. I made up the last two.
Philippa swam in the 17yrs 50m Breaststroke, her strongest event, having qualified at the recent Birmingham Open event. We have made several adaptations to Philippa ‘s stroke in recent months and technical changes to her start and race tactics. While all of these have helped I genuinely believe that most significant improvement has been to her sense of self belief which has been steadily growing over the past 4 months.
In the heats Philippa swam 37.08 secs and qualified 3rd fastest for the final! This was 1.3 seconds faster than her most recent swim at Coventry in the Warwickshire county championships in March (a significant margin in a 50m swim). While being delighted I was still sure that a few tweaks to the performance could help her swim even faster. Later than afternoon Philippa swam 36.45 to win bronze medal in her age group and achieve a new personal best time of more than half a second (two second faster than the swim in the Warwickshire’s!). I’ve just looked up Philippa’s national ranking with that time on the ASA website and noticed she is 12th in her age group for this year!
It was a cracking performance from a cracking swimmer and great person to coach. I hope that Philippa can continue to train consistently over the next year as I believe that she can qualify in other events later this year and next year at Midland level. Philippa is a very talented swimmer who has a fantastic attitude and her ability to understand instructions and implement a plan is something that the other swimmers at Fox Hollies should look to.
I wish her luck in her A level exams which have started this week and to her credit we’ve even been revising while training, with me grilling her on chemistry, maths and biology – there’s dedication for you!
Finally, shame on me for taking more than a week to write this!
Liam
We have three Team Captains appointed this year by both the Senior and Junior Coach :
Abbie Rhodes (Junior Captain)
Hi my name is Abbie, I’m 12 years old and I am girls team captain. I have been swimming with Fox Hollies for about 2 years now and I am loving every minute. I have had many achievements and I have won a few medals and trophies at open galas. I would like everybody to love swimming as much as I do and I want everyone to feel welcome so I will do my best to help you in any way that I can. Abz.
Daniel Higgins (Junior Captain)
Hello, I’m Daniel Higgins (but you can call me Dan if you like). I’m 12 and I’ve been at Fox Hollies for three years. I train 5 nights a week and I
don’t really have a favourite stroke but I often do Fly in the team galas and I swam 100 and 200m Breaststroke at the Regionals in 2011. I like having fun with my mates – fun is the most important part of almost anything, why do it if you don’t enjoy it? I think that’s what swimming is about, making friends as well as getting faster, stronger and fitter. Anyway, as one of the Junior Team Captains I will strive to help you out at galas or open meets, whether it be where to go, advice on the race or whatever. Don’t be afraid to ask me about anything, that’s what I’m here for! Dan
Alex Martin (Senior Captain)
My name is Alex Martin, I am 15 and I am currently the Senior Squad Captain. Since the New Year we have been training really hard, working on aerobic and anaerobic training. Although the sets have been a challenge I have enjoyed them a lot. Especially how the sets vary from day to day and keep me interested. I also like how we have our own personal training times and how we have to use them in the sessions, they also give us a challenge every time that we use them! I think that I have improved a lot since training after the Christmas holidays, as my
fitness has improved massively, as has everyone else’, which is shown every time that we swim. My targets for the next month are to PB in all my favourite events and to continue to try my hardest in all of the sessions. My favorite healthy meal for a swimmer would be ham and cheese pasta! My top tips for younger swimmers are to give 100% effort whenever they are swimming, swim to win but most importantly enjoy yourself!! Alex
We want your vouchers! The club is collecting Tesco’s Vouchers for Schools & Clubs. Please hand your vouchers to Yvonne.
I love it when a plan comes together. So said Col. Hannibal Smith of the A Team, a staple of my Saturday morning TV viewing as a kid. The Easter weekend’s Open Meet at Stetchford pool has been the focus of the senior squad’s main training cycle this year and this was my opportunity to test out my regime and see how the swimmers responded to it.
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Well, it’s all over and Saturdays can resume for us all (for now!), and not a bad return for the Fox Hollies “Massive” (a bit of street lingo there) from the Warwickshire County Championships. A great number of Personal Best times were swum, medals were won and further strides were made by ALL in terms of demonstrating the conduct expected of county standard swimmers. I am increasingly satisfied that our swimmers are setting the highest standards on pool side and thanks must go to our skilled crew of Team Managers for their help in setting the tone and keeping things on track.
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The programme, qualifying times, and entry forms for the Boldmere Water Carnival at the end of June are available now. Please return entry forms and swim fees to Natalie by 31 March.
The second in the trilogy of county saturday’s was an altogether more satisfying experience than the first, in my opinion (a bit like The Empire Strikes Back). Saturday 10th March will forever live in the memory as the day that Ben Withington insisted that he’d spend his last 24 hrs on the Earth (should a fictional meteor be on it’s way, you understand) seeking out coach Roy to dole out a bit of revenge, and then spending the rest of the 24 hrs hiding in a cupboard! (“it would be worth it, Liam”)
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Hot off the press, we have the entry forms for this year’s Ickle People Junior Meet. Please return completed forms and swim fees to Natalie by 31 March.
