Friday 21 December 2007

Confirmed NEW YEAR training in NAC for 2nd & 3rd SQUADS

CONFIRMATION
There will be a Training Session for ALL 2nd & 3rd Squad swimmers on Thursday 3rd January 2007 in the NAC from
8.00am to 9.30am.
Diving Blocks will be in place and the TEAM members will be afforded the chance to practice diving from the blocks as well as the opportunity to swim in a Long Course (50M)
pool set up.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

Tuesday 18 December 2007

McSherry & Thom to Represent Leinster TEAM

WELL DONE, CONGRATS, YIPPEE, YAHOO and lots of HO! Ho! HO!
to both Amy McSherry and Ian Thom on their selection today to represent LEINSTER and the club at the CELTIC TRI-NATIONS meet in Edinburgh in February 2008.

After their strong performances at the Winter SC Championships in the first week of December they have been rewarded with these selections as part of a 30 strong TEAM to go to Edinburgh.

Well done to you both, your hard work and dedication and attention to detail in TRAINING EVERYDAY has paid off.

TEAM TSC is proud of you!!

Monday 17 December 2007

Saturday 8 December 2007

IRISH MINOR Schools Champions in TEAM TSC

A HUGE congratulations to our club swimmers who swam to IRISH MINOR Schools titles, medals, Finals and GREAT PB's on Saturday in the NAC.


Our NEW IRISH MINOR Schools Title holders are
Alison O'Driscoll for her Gold Medal performance in the Girls U12 50BS
Jonah Clegg for his Gold Medal performance in the Boys U11 50BC and a super tight race to finish 2nd in the 100IM. Well done to them both on their great swims and the PB's also.


Congrats also to Rory Fleming and Luke Dillon who both managed to qualify for the finals and finish 7th in their respective events. For both boys it was their first ever IRISH final and a great experience for both of them. Excellent PB swims too were delivered by Kieran Hayes, Cathal Tan and Caoilfhinn Tan in their respective events.

All of these results continue to demonstrate how the emphasis on IMPROVING SKILLS EVERY DAY in training is the KEY to successful swimming. Well done to you all on your hard work.


Looking forward now to the NUIM Devils meet tomorrow.

Thursday 6 December 2007

Leinster SC Champions & a lot of PB's


LEINSTER SC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Last weekend in the NAC saw another great set of performances by TEAM TSC Members in the 1st Leinster Winter SC championships. One of the primary targets for the TEAM this side of Christmas would be to be sure that ALL members are back to PB swims and still training hard. With a total of 87 PB's (not including Relays) form a total of 149 individual swims (including Heats and Finals) showed just how strong the team performed across the meet.

We had a great weekend as a TEAM which was topped off with Ian Thom's (left) LEINSTER CHAMPIONSHIP win in the Mens Freestyle Skins competition in a new PB time of 24.95. Ian's ongoing commitment to working hard also paid huge dividend for him in the placing 4th on a 53.8 100FC swim and a 4th in the 200FC also. Backed up by some great swims from Andy Farrell, Brian Lee & Peter Sherry it was great to see TEAM TSC Men's team finish 4th in both the Medley & Freestyle relays. Andy's individual swims were strong throughout the meet and an equal PB swim int he 100FC saw his recent illness not detract from his efforts. With PB Swims from Daire O'Driscoll, whose ongoing development of his skills saw huge PB's in his 1500FC and 200Fly and medal winning performances for him in both events (silver in fly & bronze in 1500) too across a number of his events. I think Daire is demonstrating that the focus on technique and skill development is a KEY factor in improving your results in swimming. Liam O'Neill's monumental performance in the 100FC saw him crack the sub 60 seconds and Finbar McTiernan's impressive display int he BC also saw him swim PB's in the 100 and make the final in the Skins competition. Not to be outdone on the PB's Michael Gray also set lifetime best times in his 100FC, 200FC and 100BS. Our younger Men, John Martin, Conor O'Keeffe and Brian Feighan also demonstrated that their efforts in training together over the last number of months has definately paid off for them as they ALL swam PB's across a number of their events. John's impressive 100FC & 400FC were equalled by equally impressive PB's from Brian Feighan in the same events and a Massive PB for brian in the 200FC, thus again reinforcing the quality of the technique work he has done since September. Conor's PB's in the 100FC and 100BC were just reward too for his efforts. A special request by Leinster Swimming has been made to me to ask if the "Conor O'Keeffe School of Streamlining" would consider releasing Conor to share his skills with the masses as his hugely improved skills in this area were noticed by many coaches.!!

And WHAT about the LADIES??



Well what can I say, if the lads swam well and delivered numerous PB's our girls continued the Clubs success with some MASSIVE results by the Girls team. Amy McSherry (left) was by far and away in her best form EVER as she demolished each and every swim she had to set new best times across her three main events and qualified for 'A' finals in those events and finishing 4th in the 100BC and 400FC and 5th in the 200FC. Happy too with her swims was Laura Martin who swam PB's in her 400FC and equal bests on the shorter Freestyle events. Again her focus on technique is paying dividend too since September. Both Gemma Houlihan and Aoife Newe who have increased their training volumes considerably snce the start of the season saw strong results delivered with tactically better races than they have had previously. Both girls continue to impress in training and their ongoing commitment to developing their skills dominates their daily effort.

All of TEAM TSC girls were fantastic all across the weekend as Anne Marie Finn swam to a 100% PB success during the meet with excellent performances across her events and a great start to the year. A BIG well done too to Ciara Robinson, Martha O'Donoghue and Alison O'Driscoll who ALL swam 100% PB's too across their events. Alison's powerful 200BS and fantastic 200IM times were ones to take note of over the weekend. Martha & Ciara were essentially swimming their first OPEN meet and handles themselves with distinction in their efforts. After a tough month of training Niamh Murphy and Dayna Clegg swam very heavy programs over the weekend racing some 18 races for Niamh and 15 races for Dayna. A very tough program for them both but strong PB performances across a wide range of events with Dayna's impressive PB's in the 800FC, 200BF and 200BC and Niamh's strong PB in the 400IM the best events of the weekend for them both.

Both Niamh and Dayna were joined by Emma Crossan, Grace Branagan & Niamh Bryson who also produced best times in their events and saw both Grace and Emma also deliver strong relay performances to demonstrate the strength and depth of the TEAM TSC squad. Niamh Bryson continued her strong results this year with a Leinster Regional squad qualifying time in the 200FC and equally strong performances in the 400FC and across her Breastroke events. Emma too also showed her class as she swam strong PB's in the 200FC, 400FC and 100BF. Emma has also increased training volumes since the start of the month and this additional effort was obviously paying off across her varied swims. Grace Branagan's exquisite performance in the 100BC on the final relay of the weekend immediately following her PB in the 200BC final saw her post one of the fastest set of times by an athlete of her age in a number of years. The team stood in awe of the 1:10.4 100BC lead off on the relay and then were gobsmacked as Grace had just delivered a superb 2:29 in the 200BC and won the 'B' final finishing 7th overall in an open senior event. Essentially Grace delivered another 100% PB set of swims across the distance and middle distance freestyle events and also across her favoured backcrawl events.

Without fail the TEAM who swam at the weekend delivered encouraging performances and is very focused now on the next 22 weeks which will see the IRISH LC Nationals be the culmination of the next block of Training. En Route to the LC Nationals the athletes will continue to race in the Leinster Senior School (6 Weeks), Leinster Distance Gala (8 Weeks) and Irish Senior Schools (9 Weeks) and LEinster LC Championships (12 weeks) and Dave McCullagh Gala (17 Weeks). There will also be some smaller Club meets in between which will help the athletes to stay sharp and fast over the course of their preparation.

Well done to the entire TEAM on this great start to the YEAR. Looking forward too to the Christmas CAMP where yet again Rudolph's Revenge will bring fun and challenge for ALL of you.