Aquabatix was invited to give free artistic swimming taster sessions to children at the new Grange Paddocks leisure centre launch in Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday 23rd October.
Aquabatix Director, Commonwealth medalist and Olympic Team GB High Performance Manager from 2012, Adele Carlsen, lead the artistic swimming taster sessions with Olympian artistic swimmer Katie Skelton providing a demonstration of artistic swimming skills (formerly known as synchronised swimming) for the children, before assisting in the water with the lessons and demonstrating simple moves for them to copy such as the oyster and tub.
The Grange Paddocks centre, which is run by Everyone Active, is a state of the art sports facility, replacing the old sports centre that was on the same site. Olympian and world champion hurdler Colin Jackson officially opened the new facility before Adele and Katie, along with Olympic swimmer Grant Turner, took 90 children through their paces for the free aquatics session. Each group of around 23 children between the age of 8-12, tried their hand at artistic swimming, fast swimming plus some lifesaving skills before having a go at racing an Olympian in the pool. The artistic swimming session consisted of some underwater swimming and sculling technique work as well as learning new skills like the oyster and tub.
All the children had a fantastic time, with Adele saying “They were one of the best groups we have had so far. They were all keen to learn and all of them had big smiles on their faces when we finished. The swimming teachers from the centre were so keen to learn how to teach the skills that we were showing the children, so it’s great we can now point them in the direction of www.artisticswimmingcourses.com“.
