Our third and final instalment of our club community series we are talking to Sean Davis and Ariel Darley from Warringah Aquatic Swim Club on the Sydney s Northern Beaches.

The coaches and committee at Warringah have created a fantastic environment where all the kids know each other by name, even if they are 10-15 years apart in age.

Lach chats to Sean and Ariel about what their committee has done to promote this, what their long term goals are and the importance of a strong coach to committee relationship.

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Imagine having the challenge of turning a swim club into a community with members from 5 different swim centres. Debby Tatolli, Head Coach of Kincumber Pacific Dolphins Swim Club, is an incredible woman who manages to do exactly that.

Debby and Lach talk about what strategies herself and the committee use to engage and encourage members from all over the NSW Central Coast

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We now turn our attention towards club committee members and how they can create that family-like-feel of a swim club.

Lach sits down with his friends Jo and Dave Potter, life members of Mingara Aquatic Swim Club on NSW’s Central Coast. They discuss the importance of a strong, supportive committee, how to welcome new members and make them feel valued, and how to turn a club into a community.

The post SDR061: Create a club community (part 1) with Jo and Dave Potter appeared first on Mensard.

This final episode of our Young Officials series features Toby Williams, President of the Manly Warringah Football Referees Association.

On the football/soccer pitch, you see an abundance of young people donning the referee’s strip, so Toby and Lach chat about what swimming can learn from soccer, including mentoring, payment and pathways.

The post SDR060: Attracting young officials to swimming (part 4) with Toby Williams appeared first on Mensard.

This episode is Part 3 of our Young Officials series.

Lach speaks to Lucy Graham, 19 years old and from the Jervis Bay area, which is a part of the SESA region in NSW. She is about to go into her 5th year of being a technical official and has plenty of experience under her belt officiating all around NSW and ACT. Lach and Lucy talk about how she got into officiating, what it s like being mentored by a highly qualified official and much much more.

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Part 2 of this series sees Lach move back into the swimming world and sits down with Isaak Wilson, a young technical official from the Wollongong region of NSW and is a part of Swimming NSW’s Youth Advisory Panel. He is one of the most experienced young technical officials on deck and is a big advocate for getting young people actively involved in officiating.

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One of the biggest issues we have at swim meets is not having enough technical officials.

As we get older and busier, we look to our youth to rise up and help run swim meets.

In this podcast we are talking to a former swimmer and young Netball umpire, Lauren Bird, about why Netball has so many young umpires and what swimming can do to attract more young technical officials.

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Our athletes deal with constant pressure from themselves, coaches, parents and other athletes. All of these factors can cause an athlete to spiral into a deep state of depression and anxiety.

Since 1985 The Black Dog Institute has been at the forefront of mental health research.

On this episode Lach chats with NRL Legend Wayne Wigham about his work with The Black Dog Institute and how to recognise and deal with anxiety and depression.

The post SDR056: Motivation and dealing with mental illness with Wayne Wigham from the Black Dog Institute appeared first on Mensard.

On the eve of the start of the 2020 Swim League season, it was halted by a global pandemic. Now it is back in a new modified version, with 10 Gala Days across overy corner of New South Wales. Lach sits down with Adam Beisler for an exclusive interview about the upcoming Swim League season.

The post SDR055: Swim League is back! An exclusive update on the 2020 season with Adam Beisler appeared first on Mensard.

Annie Crawford AM, is Founder of The Can Too Foundation.

Can Too combines fitness, health and wellbeing to raise funds and awareness of cancer prevention and research. Their participants range from advanced athletes to the plain old Jane or John and one of the biggest challenges they face is getting someone to step out of their comfort zone.

Annie and Lach discuss how to step out of your comfort zone, how to motivate peers as well as yourself and the excellent work of the Can Too Foundation.

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