Dolphin Swimming Club selected as Swim Ireland's Club of the Year

THE Swim Ireland Annual Awards were held at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown recently and the large attendance welcomed the opportunity to recognise the achievements of athletes, coaches, volunteers, clubs and the wider aquatics community after a three-year enforced break.

Special guests in attendance included Sarah Keane, Swim Ireland CEO & President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland; Peter Sherrard, CEO of the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Olympian Brian Clifford. Clifford was marking the 50th anniversary of his participation in the Olympic Games, held in Munich in 1972.

One of the big winners on the day was Dolphin Swimming Club, which was named the ‘Club of the Year’. They were one of four clubs shortlisted for the award, along with Kingdom Swimming Club, Tralee; Claremorris Swimming Club and Cathal Brugha Water Polo Club, Belfast.

The Mayfield-based club impressed the selection committee with a detailed submission outlining the club's three-year strategic plan. A club in growth, it encounters a range of demands across the key services they provide. These services range from a hugely popular Learn to Swim programme, which naturally feeds talented swimmers into its competitive programmes. While primarily a competitive club, given its location in a DEIS area, it is sensitive to the role it plays in the local community ensuring ample opportunity for all children to learn to swim.

ANNIVERSARY

The club celebrated its 120th anniversary in the 2021/2022 swim season. The club has grown from strength to strength over that period. That phenomenal growth has placed greater demands on the voluntary management committee, which is responsible for the daily management of the club, funding the various programmes and accessing grant funds and other sources of income to ensure continued growth. This was the underlying decision which led to the formation of the three-year strategic plan.

Key themes of the strategic plan include access to pool time; teacher and coach availability; availability of funding and grant income; a squad restructure; education, training and equipment; community & member engagement and communication strategy.

The club were only in the first year of the plan when the Covid pandemic hit causing nationwide pool closures. The management committee quickly adopted the mantra ‘No Pool No Problem’. 

They saw that the immediate priority was to keep the club and swimmers as connected and as active as possible so that when the time came for them to get back training, the transition would be as smooth as possible, but at the same time ensuring the members maintained a good level of fitness.

There were weekly challenges, setting goals with members encouraged to regularly update the coaches on their progress. When society started to gradually open up, socially distanced training took place at outdoor venues and swim sessions at Cork Powerboat & Water Ski Centre, Dripsey. For some members, swimming was their only sport pre-Covid. 

The dryland sessions proved very popular and were a source of great excitement. Because of this, the club looked to see how they could diversify their training. Initiatives included weekly gym/dryland sessions for all ages; stroke camps for junior members; mindfulness, visualisation and mental health seminars; yoga and pilates; long course training in UL; CrossFit weekend training, including weights, running and sea swimming; Mixed Martial Arts defence and ring training for strength and conditioning.

The payback for this investment saw the Club named outright winners of both the Aspiring Champions and Future Challenger regional meets and they were also the top performing club at the end-of-year Nationals, both Irish Age Groups and Summer Open.

The club have also worked to retain older swimmers (16 years plus), traditionally the group with the highest dropout statistics. A new more flexible squad allows participation while they pursue their school exams and begin university.

Swim Ireland are in the process of releasing their Diversity & Inclusion Policy. This forward-thinking club ‘ticked’ a lot of boxes in this area. They cater for a wide diversity of swimmer needs. 

Membership includes multiple deaf swimmers and a significant number of neurodiverse (autism spectrum disorder) children with varying degrees of severity. The Head Coach is upskilled as a Special Needs Teacher and has a greater understanding of the needs of those children. As a club, they listen to the parents and ensure integration, inclusion and aim to provide the best experience possible.