RBS Swimming & Triathlon Coaching - Blog

Claire with two 'Silver Medals' from the 2006 IPC World Championships in Durban

My name is Claire Cashmore from Kelly College and I am swimmer off to Beijing to compete in my second Paralympic Games for Great Britain. I competed in Athens at the age of 16 and was fortunate enough to win two unexpected bronze medals in the 100 backstroke and 200 Individual Medley. This made me realise that all those early morning starts had paid off.

I was born without my left forearm and have consequently learnt how to adapt to life without it. If anything, it has made me more determined to prove to others that there is very little that I can’t do.

My classification is S9 in all strokes apart from breaststroke where I am SB8.

Before Athens I lived in Kidderminster and trained at Wyre Forest Swimming club, Steve Joyce and all the other coaches were responsible for my preparation and all did a great job, thank you again to all. Post Athens I decided to move to Kelly College a specialist sports school in Devon for my A levels, which helped balance my academic and swimming lives. I have been lucky enough to work with Robin Brew for four years which is a whole Paralympic cycle. Robin was selected as a coach to join us in Beijing which for me personally is really important as he understands me as an individual.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support and I will keep you posted on my progress out in Beijing. We leave on Saturday 23rd August.

- can’t wait!

Birmingham was the launch-pad for Britain’s Paralympic Games campaign as the city played host to the complete Paralympics GB team on Saturday 26th July, just weeks before the team departs for Beijing.

Amongst the entire team was KELLY Swimmers Claire Cashmore, Louise Watkin, Lauren Steadman and coach Robin Brew who will all be departing for China on the 23rd August. The Team was paraded from Broad Street to the NIA, via Brindleyplace where they were met by a Chinese lion and a band of drummers. The team then continued on to the NIA to attend a team-building gala dinner.

For an inspiring glimps at our Paralympic heroes in action take a look at the following 30sec link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwGq9JyH-zo

Lauren Steadman, Robin Brew, Louise Watkin

Learning to relax in the water and balance your body is an important part of swimming development

In Part 1: How to approach your swimming we looked at how effort, rhythm & timing, balance, feel for the water, and streamlining can affect your swimming speed vs the amount of effort that you expend.

Key area 2: is to understand some key factors of preparation, which will help you to get the best return for your investment of valuable time.

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The need for a good swim section is obvious, for one it puts you in contention with your key competitors and secondly you really get the feeling you are competing rather than just taking part. It is no secret that for most triathletes swimming presents the greatest challenge in the quest for speed and efficiency and if you are one of many who are continually frustrated by a relatively weak performance in the swim section of your triathlon then you need to read on.

Swimming need not be your “bug bare”; it is simply a matter of understanding some key principals. These principals can be broken down into two key areas.

Key area 1: is to understand how to approach your swimming, as this will allow you to make a huge saving on energy costs.
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Resident Nutrition Specialist, Melissa Arkinsall, offers up some more nutritional gems for followers of Robin Brew Sports - The facts about recovery nutrition:

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Our new Nutritional Specialist, Melissa Arkinsall, comes to Robin Brew Sports with a wealth of knowledge to impart to our attendees and site visitors - a sample of which you can find here:

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Bermudan Kelly College student, Flora Duffy, has been selected by a Tripartite Commission made up of the ITU, IOC and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) to receive an invitational place at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games triathlon.

Flora has shown tremendous promise on the ITU circuit. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games she was an eighteen year old racing with the elite women and finished an impressive 8th place. Later that year she was a silver medallist at the 2006 junior World Championships in Lausanne. In 2007 Flora raced to her best World Cup finish ever, a fifth place in Lisbon, Portugal.

Kelly College, Director of Swimming and Triathlon, Robin Brew said “Flora has improved dramatically since her time at Kelly, the work in the pool has improved her confidence and ability to stay with the lead pack, Rich Brady has done a great job in keeping her injury free and ready for the stat line, this will be a great experience for Flora and we are all very proud of her achievements”

Watch Flora’s interview on BBC Spotlight TVM

Claire Cashmore is one of Kelly College’s Paralympic swimmers off to Beijing this summer. She was interviewed by The Kidderminster Shuttle about her preparations and hopes for the event, which you can listen to via a podcast on their site.