THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH

Winning is a habit, but unfortunately so is losing.

- Vince Lombardi

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE

The learn to swim program will continue as normal during the Xmas period, with the exception being that there will be NO classes on public holidays.

The squad program from Dolphins to Senior Elite will have their training bloc recess until Tuesday 4th January.

CONTENT PAGE

Page 2 – Upcoming Club Events

Page 2, 3 – Upcoming HKASA Events

Page 3 – Head Coach Report

Page 5 – LTS Head Teacher Report

Page 6 – Masters Report

Page 7 – General Information

UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS

Masters Swimming Annual Awards Dinner Friday, 3 December

7pm for pre-dinner drinks on the Deck Celebrate with food, wine, fun and prizes

$480 per person (incl. 3 course dinner with wine)

Please sign up at Main Reception or with Gill Devereux at gill@devereux.net

Swim Team Dinner 2011

Tuesday, 18 January 6.30 – 8.30pm Function Room

$128 per adult / $95 per child

For all Dolphin, Dolphin +, Shark, Shark +, Senior, Senior Elite, Junior Elite Swimmers

Sign up at the Sports Desk or by fax to 2522 2512 Deadline: Tuesday, 11 January

UPCOMING HKASA EVENTS

LC Swim Team Competition

Division 1 (Part 1) SC Swimming Competition Date: 5 Dec 2010, Sunday (Shing Mun Valley SW Pool)

Division 2 (Part 1) SC Swimming Competition

Date: 8 Jan 2011, Saturday (Shing Mun Valley SW Pool) Closing date for entries: 17 Dec, Friday

Division 3 (Part 1) SC Swimming Competition

Date: 11 Dec 2010, Saturday (Shing Mun Valley SW Pool)

Masters Swim Championships

Annual Long Course Masters Swimming Championships – Part 1

Date: 12 Dec 2010, Sunday (Kowloon Park SW Pool)

Short Course Masters Swimming Championships – Part 2 Date: 30 Jan 2011, Sunday (Shing Mun Valley SW Pool)

Closing date for entries: 7 Jan 2011, Friday

HEAD SWIM COACH REPORT By John Dempsey Head Swim Coach

HKASA AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS (November 6th and 7th) What a weekend it was 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 bronze medal 19 top ten finishes. AND, 21 Personal best times swum. After talking with some old time members of the club, it is believed that this is the best performance from the LRC swim team for quite some time. Leading the way with a Gold medal swim in the 200m Butterfly was Sherman Chau. Sherman’s time of 2.24.08, was a 3 second PB, and was inspirational to all of us lucky enough to have witnessed it. Sherman has endured a difficult 15 months or so and showed what hard work, grit, and determination can bring if you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Great job Sherman, I am sure there are more great swims to come. Not to be outdone, our newest and one of a set of twins, Estephe Corlin showed what a remarkable talent he is by taking the Silver medal in the 10 and under 200m Freestyle in a 4.5 sec personal best time of 2.25.64. Great job Estephe.

Sarah Hsu our club captain, swam the swim of her life in winning the Bronze medal in the 14 year old girls 200 butterfly. Sarah swam an incredible 11 second personal best to finish in 2.32.73, finally realizing that she is indeed a 200 flyer!! Wonderful effort Sarah. Nicholas Lim the youngest member of our team at 9 years of age showed what a great talent he is by achieving a top ten finish in ALL of his events, even though he is still eligible for the same age group next year. Pascal Snelling is one of the most improved swimmers in our squad. His 200 backstroke time of 2.29.14, was an incredible 6.86 sec personal best, finishing 6th in his age group, which was followed by a great 100 back, in 1.08.43, a 1.66 second Personal best which also gave him a top ten finish. For a swimmer who was nowhere near the qualifying times last year, Pascal has developed extremely well and worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months and is now bearing the fruits of his labors. I look forward to the next 12 months with a great deal of expectation. Julian Snelling is undoubtedly the hardest working member of our squad, he needs to be, because he loves taking on the toughest events on the program. His 400 Individual Medley time of 5.14.72, was a 3 second personal best and ranked him 5th in his age group. Julian has been an inspiration not just to me, but to all his team mates who train alongside him and I am sure that we have not seen the best of Julian by a long way. Hard work ALWAYS pays off. Perrine Corlin is another young star in the making. The ten year old twin sister of Estephe swam in 5 events and finished top ten in 3. She is a huge talent and I am confident that we will see significant improvements in her performances over the coming months. Kris Chu was the final member of the magnificent 8. Whilst Kris only swam the 50m back in an personal best time of 34.33 he showed his great team spirit by arriving early on the day of his competition and stayed well after his event was over to cheer on his team mates, this is what being part of a team is all about, well done Kris. All in all, I think these swimmers did a remarkable job and made me a very proud coach. I am sure that all of their team mates who realize the work that these swimmers put in would agree that they all achieved the results they deserved. I would like to thank Sandra Kan, Chang Lim, Richard Chau, Jeffery Chu, Sydney Dinsmore, James Snelling and Mr. and Mrs. Corlin for making my life easier and for making the weekend the success that it was.

LTS HEAD SWIM TEACHER REPORT By Jonathon Quinlan

Dear Parents and Swimmers, November was an interesting, fun and educational month as water safety and survival skills have been incorporated into swimming lessons. On that note, I would like to thank students for being co-operative by showing up to lessons with long sleeve clothing (and not mind getting clothes drenched and soaking wet!!!) Basic water skills that were included and introduced in lessons were treading water, survival backstroke, front and back floats and lap swimming (all with clothes on). Students found many of these tasks fun and challenging and have gained a wealth of knowledge that will benefit them for the rest of their life! Well done to all students and thank you to all the LTS Teachers for your patience and support!

Apart from all the water safety skills, students have shown remarkable swimming progress across the LTS program at all levels. Starting from November 2010 and going forward, students who are promoted will be awarded both a badge and certificate for their efforts. As we are now closely approaching the end of the year, please read carefully below the LTS cancellation policy over winter.

Important Notice – Learn to Swim Program Cancellation Policy during winter!!!!! Please be aware that the Learn to Swim Program (Tadpoles, Jellyfish, Starfish, Seahorse, Sea Lion, Swordfish, Platypus and Stingray classes) will be operating (apart from Public and Statutory Holidays) throughout all of winter this year. (This does not apply to Squads. Squads will be suspended from the 20th December and will resume as normal on the 3rd of January) Members who wish to cancel must fill in a green cancellation form available at the Sports Desk with 28 days advance notice. Spaces will not be held over winter for the Learn to Swim Program and re-application (via application form available from Sports Desk) will be required if you wish to re-enroll into swimming lessons. The LTS program had a small number of student promotions for the month of November.

Highlighted below are the student movements for the month. Athena Shang Jellyfish Odessa Lidstrom Starfish Max Baldauf Seahorse Connor Scott Seahorse Hugo Van De Velde-Meyers Seahorse Bharat Malhotra Sea Lion Arjun Mukherjea Swordfish Congratulations to the above mentioned students who will receive badges and certificates! Students who have not received a certificate or badge can find me at my office located in the Old General Managers Flat above the Junior Library. We have vacancies in our Thursday morning Tadpole classes so please spread the word and sign up now! I also have space available in my Adult Learn to swim classes that run on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 10:30am-11:30am. Please contact me (Tel: 3199 3594 email: devswimcoach@lrc.com.hk) if you have any questions regarding the LTSP.

MASTERS REPORT

By Brian Goldberg Dear Masters Swimmers, The HK Winter is virtually upon us. And although the air is crisper, we can all be thankful they've finally turned up the water temperature a bit in the outside pool... it's refreshing to jump in there after quickly tip-toeing your way out from the locker room, as Coach Dempsey leaves you little choice to stand around waiting like a frozen puppy... better to dive in and start the warm-up set, rather than be scolded by the army sergeant! As I'm writing this on Thanksgiving Day, we have much to be thankful for the fabulous & friendly "Duel in the Pool II" swim meet held against the HKFC on Fri Nov 5th. It was a rollicking good evening: Twenty-five LRC Masters swam in the programme comprising serious sprints, “The Eliminator” race as well as the fun “Fruit” relay. There were a handful of false starts (sympathetically forgiven and allowed to re-start). Stefan Rust almost took it TOO easy in Round 1 of the Eliminator, but held on to win. And I nearly needed a defribrilator after being forced to race in every event (why am I the only guy under 40??). Special accolades to Rose Kehoe for her first ever race participation!

In a see-sawing night the Football Club swam strongly in the Ladies races while the LRC dominated the Men’s racing. When all was said and done, however, the HKFC edged us out by a mere 7 points (108 to 101)... and the new "Mega Gold Trophy" which was just purchased from an unknown supplier in Shenzhen was taken back to Happy Valley. Awards were presented for LRC’s outstanding performers of the night: · Loretta van Honk – who stepped up to race and excelled in all her individual events. · Lynette Cheng – swimming strong especially her come from behind effort in the 50m Backstroke. · Andrew Kehoe – tackling events other than freestyle and surprising himself with how well he swam. Very much looking forward to Dec 3rd's Annual Masters Swimming Dinner... should be a wonderful evening with our "family" LRC Masters Swimmers. And lastly, we're looking at 2011's Aussie Masters Games (Adelaide) as a possible target for the main event of the year to aim for. Dates are yet to be confirmed, but somewhere around Oct 7-16... that's a great time of year to be in Adelaide (Spring season!), especially with the Barossa Valley and Clare Valley wine regions only a short drive away.

GENERAL INFORMATION

CLUB SHIRTS AND TEAM GEAR

Available at the Sports Shop ALL swimmers MUST wear goggles and swim caps during training at the LRC. ALL swimmers representing the LRC at swim meets will be required to wear team gear and Swim caps. The Sports Shop stocks Team Hoodies, Team Shirts and Track pants. Should any member wish to sell or exchange fins that they have outgrown please contact Hema on recreationadm@lrc.com.hk and we will arrange to advertise in FASTLANE and on the noticeboard.