This year Artemis Aquatics will be introducing a new award known as Swimmer of the Term. Swimmer of the Term will recognise a member from either our Learn to Swim program or Swimming Club who has achieved significant individual growth as the result of hard work and dedication. 

Congratulations to the first recipient of our Swimmer of the Term award, Charlize.  

Charlize came to Artemis Aquatics earlier this year and was assessed by our coaches as best suited to our Stroke Learning level in our Learn to Swim program.  

Though her stroke technique was strong, head coach Brad Harris, believed that she needed to improve her breaststroke kick and together they set that as a goal for her progression through the program. 

Charlize took Brad’s feedback onboard and signed up to two sessions of Stroke Learning per week. 

Two sessions a week allows for faster development and that was definitely the case with Charlize.

“In our top levels of Learn to Swim we encourage students to attend two sessions a week,” explains Harris. 

“The more time swimmers can spend in the water with their teacher, a consistent teacher, means that their improvement is times two.” 

After a few weeks of training Charlize’s development was noticeable. 

“After Charlize’s initial assessment she came to ask me what she needed to do to get to our squad level.

“She worked really hard and within the next few weeks she had mastered her breaststroke kick and moved from Stroke Learning into Stroke Development to work on her breaststroke timing. 

“She quickly achieved that and found herself in Stroke Advancement and now in our school holiday program she has been asked to train with our Development Squad.  

“So we’re talking Stroke Learning, Stroke Development, Stroke Advancement – three levels passed all in one term! 

“We as coaches can only do so much, but you could just see the intent and focus that Charlize had at training. 

“She was the one who really invested and it was so exciting to see.” 

Now Charlize is in our Development Squad she has the opportunity to represent the Swimming Club in competition. 

“Our Swimming Club trains four times a week and during those sessions we work towards learning how to race.  

“This involves dive starting from the blocks, learning more about the competition rules and regulations, as a club we go to competitions and race and the first competition that’s coming up will be a road trip to Ballarat, which will be really exciting.” 

Congratulations Charlize on being our first Swimmer of the Term!