Welcome to Staffordshire ​ASA

Welcome to the website of the Staffordshire Amateur Swimming Association.

There are 27 swimming clubs in Staffordshire. You can find more information about our clubs in the club listings.
Staffordshire ASA Position Statement – County Championships 2021 during Covid 19 

Over the last six months our swimming and competition programmes have been brought to a standstill by events relating to the Covid Pandemic. The situation has become so radical that the holding of all swim Competitions has been declared illegal by the Government.

However, much activity has been undertaken at Regional, National and International level investigating any opportunity to ease this lockdown. Some of your colleagues on the County Executive have been involved in these discussions.

Regrettably time has passed without any major change in restrictions and the usual timescale for the holding of County Championships in January/February has been declared impossible by ASA/Swim England. Unfortunately, we have little choice other than to accept this situation in the overall interest of Swimming and the safety of our swimmers.

Regrettably this has also impacted on our Swim League programme , the County Masters Championships and the Annual Three Counties Competition.

The Executive are keen to hold the Championship should the climate change sufficiently, to allow safe and legal competition for all concerned, we would take the opportunity to promote the championships in the new County window extended to 25th July, although the consensus of opinion is that regrettably this is unlikely.

You can be assured your Executive colleagues have held a number of meetings via the Zoom medium in an attempt to update ourselves as much as possible with all directives and instructions from the Region and Swim England. The County Secretary has cascaded to Clubs all appropriate information.

As the return to active 'Water' based Competition is impossible to predict at this time we would encourage all Clubs, who are able, to undertake Level X Competitions as a means of qualification for future championship events at all levels. More information relating to this concept is to be advised by Swim England in the immediate future.

As a County we plan to hold our AGM in December via Zoom and more information relating to this will be advised to you all over the next few weeks. The Executive are conscious that you may have questions relating to future events, should it be deemed necessary the executive are happy to meet prior to the AGM via Zoom. 

Good luck and best wishes to you all for a speedy and successful return to 'normal' swimming. Hopefully in the near future.

Issued 14/10/2020
Issued on behalf of the Swimming Leadership Group , Swim England

Dear all
 
Over the past three weeks, the Swim England Swimming Leadership Group has held a range of meetings with those volunteers who are responsible for organising County Age Group Swimming Championships. We have also met with Regional Swimming Managers. This is in addition to meetings with Swim England staff and with members of the Swim England’s Sport Operations Committee – the committee that oversees the work of all aquatic disciplines.
 
The unanimous view expressed in all of these meetings was how much the County Age Group Swimming Championships mean to the entirely swimming community. They are excellent competitions, organised by highly-committed volunteers and officials. Sadly, the meetings also acknowledged that it was highly unlikely that it would be possible or indeed safe to run these events in their usual January-February window in 2021. We have therefore decided to suspend this 2021 County Competition window.
 
The safety and wellbeing of our athletes has to be our number one priority. Staging the events in their original timeframe would result in championship weekends that are significantly reduced in size and number of competitors, owing to social distancing laws.
 
That said, the swimming community is keen to ensure that these events happen in 2021, wherever possible. We have therefore taken the decision to introduce an alternative County Championship window that will run from late May to 19th July 2021. We are also planning to offer another racing opportunity to Counties later in the year so that older swimmers sitting public examinations are provided with the opportunity to participate in a county event at an appropriate time.
 
Currently, the plan is to run Regional Championships within their usual window and this decision will be kept under constant review. Swim England will be meeting with Regional and County Swimming Coordinators on a regular basis over the coming months to put plans in place for the revised county window. We will also be communicating with all members regularly about the matter.
 
In the near future , we will also be publishing further details of our full Return to Competition strategy, including our plans for the phased return of Open Meets.  The first significant stage of our Return to Competition is Level X Racing, details of which will be published in full next week, following completion of the pilot scheme announced last week.

Issued 08/10/2020