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 Amateur Swimming Association - V-Swim Competition

We have now launched the Staffordshire ASA V-Swim Competition. For more details please head to our V-Swim pages.

Dated: 07/12/2020
​Staffordshire Amateur Swimming Association - May 2021 Update

At long last we can see light at the end of the ‘Covid’ Tunnel!

Over the past 12 months or so swimming, as we know it, has been decimated by circumstances beyond our control. County and Regional Championships, Open Meets, Swim Leagues and many other events from Local to National level have been cancelled. However there are now a number of events on the horizon which will help, as a County, to pave the path toward a return to the water.

County V Swim Competition

Bob Powell has circulated all Clubs with this ‘unique’ Staffordshire spin on the ASA National X Swim programme.

Entries have begun to be collected and collated from 12th April to end of May. The first listings to be produced early next month and monthly thereafter. This will display rankings of all submitted Category 2 Club Swimmers in age groups starting 8,9,10,11……16+.

Hopefully this will provide interest and encouragement to all Club swimmers as part of ‘getting back to normal’. All individual entrants will be acknowledged with a specially designed badge and awards will be given to Category Leaders at the end of August (or later should it be prudent to extend the programme).

County Development Pathway for 11 Year Olds

This National programme will be run in a slightly different format to 2019 when it was rolled out with great success to Staffordshire Swimmers. Unfortunately in 2020 it was impossible to stage for obvious reasons but the 2021 programme has already started. Our County Coach, John Davey and members of his team have attended a virtual Zoom Meeting relative to the scheme format and expectations.

The next stage will be an online Development Day for all Swimmers who are eligible for inclusion to the Programme which will be held over the next few weeks. Details will be circulated soon. The final element will be face to face in September/October.

Selected swimmers will be advised closer to that time when we hold our development day at Newcastle under Lyme School, as we did very successfully in 2019.

County Championships 2022

The County’s showpiece event WILL take place next year, unless we are prevented from doing so by measures beyond our control.

It is planned to be at Stafford Leisure Centre Pool in the usual January/February slot.
We are fortunate to have a very good relationship with Freedom Leisure and we are assured that we will continue to have advantageous access to dates as soon as we have our event programme designed and they have opened their 2022 Diary.

Swim England West Midlands Festival of Swimming 24/25 July 2021

In lieu of the Regional Championships this event is open to West Midland affiliated club swimmers registered on or before 13/04/2021. It will take place at the Alan Higgs Centre Coventry (Long Course).

Attempting to get the Region’s prime event underway has been fraught with problems, least of all the timescale.

Swim England will not release a license until early in June. Details of the programme, entries, terms and conditions etc will be published and distributed by the Region to all clubs as soon as the license is granted.

WILL ALL CLUBS PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE ROLL OUT OF DETAILS OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS IN VIEW OF THE VERY SHORT ENTRY TIMESCALE  AVAILABLE.

And fnally.....

As the County Executive we are committed to supporting your best interests as far as we are able. We receive the same information, by and large, that you do via Swim England and the Region. However, should you wish for help, guidance or assistance with any element of swimming which causes you or your Club concern, please do not hesitate to contact our Secretary - Jo Evans, Swimming Secretary - Dave Fereday, Coach - John Davey or our Technical guru, Bob Powell. We will endeavour to assist wherever possible.
​
All contact details are contained in the County Handbook or on the contact page.
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