When entering the foyer tell the person on the front desk that you are with the Masters group and you will be able to enter without paying at the front desk. H2O Fitness members should not swipe their cards. Everyone now pays $7 on Wednesday nights. Meet in small Marshalling Room at 6:30pm, swimming starts at 7:00pm and concludes 8:00pm. Cost $7.00 (see below) pay Club door person at marshalling room, this includes pool entry. Supper after swimming is provided occasionally, dates will be advised in advance, tea, coffee and finger food, a gold coin donation expected unless otherwise advised.
Except for the Christmas to New Year period, Public Holidays and times when the pool is required for State, National or International events we train every Wednesday night.
Tuesday and Thursday Mornings 7:30am to 9:00am
We have an active sub-committee who schedule events on a regular basis. One major event for the year is the annual presentation dinner. It usually has a theme and members are encouraged to dress accordingly. There are awards presented, both serious and humorous. The annual dinner also provides an opportunity to meet members who for one reason or another are unable to attend training nights.
Throughout the year there are swim meets hosted by masters swimming clubs. In the South East corner of the State there are enough clubs to ensure that there are regular opportunities to compete and meet socially, without having to travel too far. Every year there is a State Titles and Club Championship held, which alternates between a venue in the South East corner of the State and a venue in either Central or Northern Queensland. The State Titles is open to all masters swimmers, there are no qualifying times.
The National Swim Meet rotates around the State and Territory Capitals, with the host city being published several years in advance. There are no qualifying times for the Nationals and no requirement to have competed at the State Titles. In Queensland it is not uncommon for the State Titles to be held after the Nationals. For those of us who just go along to make up the numbers the Nationals can be a good excuse to do some travelling as well as an incentive to do some additional training.
The FINA World Masters Swim is held every two years. For this and other international competitions you must be at least twenty five. The World masters provides an opportunity to travel overseas and meet people from around the World.
In inter-club State and National swim meets, heats are seeded based on nominated times provided by the swimmers and not by sex or age group. The idea being to provide everyone with the best possible competition. There are in general no finals with placings within age groups being determined by heat times. The age for competition purposes is the age as of the 31st of December of the year in which the swim meet is conducted. Age groups are generally five year bracket 25 to 29, 30 to 34 etc except for the lowest age group 18 and 24. Sanctioned swim meets may include 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m events in all four strokes; Individual medley 100m (short course), 200m, 400m and 800m; 1500m in freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. The longer distance form stroke and medley, that is, more than 400m being less common events.
Relay age groups are based on the sum of the ages of the team members and are in 40 year brackets, 80+, 120+ etc. Mens', Womens' and mixed (two men and two women) relay events are held, almost always 4 x 50m freestyle or medley, giving a total of 6 commonly conducted relay events. 4 x 100m freestyle or medley relays are rarely included in swim meet programmes and are not included in the State, National or FINA World Masters Swim programmes.
Aerobic swims are long distance swims (distances 400m and beyond) which are timed swims that can be undertaken either under competition conditions or supervised by another club member. Swimmers can gain points for the club and also qualify for National badges. To complete the full program a swimmer must complete a total of sixty two swims in the competition year! The 400m and 800m swims must be must be swum five times in different calendar months to gain points or award badges, which are available for the four strokes and an individual medley. Also points and award badges can be obtained for single half hour, three quarters of an hour, one hour or 1500m swim in freestyle, backstroke or breaststroke. The points gained are supposed to be representative of the swimmers level of aerobic fitness (assuming average technique). Aerobic swims can provide a measure of a swimmer's progress in both fitness and technique. It is possible to fully participate in this program without leaving your home pool!
There are other postal swims run by other Australian clubs with a variety of awards and levels of challenge. There are also International postal swims including the British one hour and United States Masters 5km and 10km swims. Over the years BSM members have achieved placings in both of these postal swims.
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