Droitwich Dolphins - Competitive Swimming Club.
Important update |
| Posted by Steve Redfern (ddsc admin) on May 27 2009 |
Droitwich Dolphins is in reasonably healthy shape when it comes to qualified ASA officials, particularly when compared to some other clubs within our county who may have larger numbers of swimmers.
Qualifications available are as follows:
Consider that every gala we enter our teams into, or galas that we swim internally, require a multitide of officials to allow them to run, and several of the above roles are required for each gala.
Qualification for the roles are achieved sequentially, starting at Judge L1 and through to Referee. DDSC qualified officials are as follows:
We also have several training and mentoring plans underway, as follows:
Congratulations to Chris Hadley and Steve Groves who recently completed their mentoring courses and passed their practical exams for Judge Level 1. Both will be embarking on J2 mentoring and training later this year, and can now officiate at external league and county galas.
At the top of this page I mentioned that we are in healthy shape with respect to qualified officials.... BUT.... consider for a moment that when it comes to internal championship galas where 20+ volunteers are required, it is the same faces that work at each gala. It's really very pleasing when parents of new swimmers volunteer their services, and this helps us to rotate the burden a little. But we need more!
It's very frustrating when we try to run a championship gala and find ourselves short of roles, particularly timekeepers. When trying to find new volunteers, the response is so often "I'm here to watch my child swim - if I help, I won't be able to watch the gala"...... well it's a good job that this isn't the response of the majority, or there would be no gala and nobody would be able to watch their children swim!!
At the recent 1500m championship event, we had to run with insufficient officials. We had to double up the starter and finish/turn judge roles with timekeeper roles for the outside lanes. This could well mean that illegalities were missed due to lack of focus, and created unnecessary and unfair stress for the officials concerned.
I would like to publicly thank all those parents who continually offer their services, and often miss their own children's swims, to ensure that our club is able to continue to run these very successful club championships.
If there are any parents who would like to offer their services at the next championship gala, please feel free to add your name to the list that will be posted on the bulletin board well in advance of the gala. The programme of events can be found on the Calendar tab of this site. Do not be shy and do not be afraid - timekeeping really is an easy task, but it is oh so important.
Last changed: May 27 2009 at 6:24 PM
Back| Jo McConnell ( parent of 2 swimmers and committee member) | By Unknown on May 27 2009 at 9:41 PM |
| Well said Steve, it was indeed very frustrating on saturday night when we were so short of officials , and I had to start the races, time keep lane 6 and try to also do the finish positons, I know others were also doing multi roles on the night and as you say this is not ideal. We are a small club and therefore rely on the same helpers all the time, yes one night I would really like to just it and watch my children swim, but I know this will probably never happen as I cannot see a list of officals go up and not tick off my name, knowing we are so short of qualified officials. Please consider carefully what has been raised by steve as soon, the old failthfull helpers will move on as their kids grow older and leave the club and then what will come of the club championships and league galas???? | |
| By Ben Gallant on Jun 04 2009 at 6:28 PM | |
| When Ben first joined the club I offered to time keep. I did some whilst in Shetland but no-one ever took me up on the offer and this is the first time that I have heard anything about it. Perhaps other parents are similarly not aware what the position was. | |
| By Unknown on Jun 16 2009 at 1:13 PM | |
| Firstly - welcome to the officials team, it will be great to have any new volunteers. There's always a list on the notice board before a gala asking for names of anyone willing to help, so if you look for this you can add your name if it isn't already there. Secondly, it's interesting that you didn't know that there were opportunities to help. Perhaps you can help out with this as well and talk to other parents, let them know that the opportunity is there, they are very welcome. |
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