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Victoria NextGen program “open for business”

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VICTORIA – On any given day at Swimming Canada’s NextGen Institute Program – Victoria, you might see a medley swimmer from New Brunswick, a distance swimmer from Calgary, or a provincial development camp from Saskatchewan.

That’s because the high performance daily training environment has welcomed visitors from coast to coast – at least a dozen visits and counting since joining Swimming Canada’s High Performance Network last year.

“It’s been super busy so it’s been really good,” says Lead Coach Brad Dingey, who heads the program with High Performance Centre – Victoria Head Coach Ryan Mallette and other Swimming Canada high performance staff offering technical oversight.

“We’re working hard to make sure people recognize we’re here and we’re open for business,” says Dingey. He hopes his six-swimmer group gets as much from the stimulus of having visiting training partners as the visitors do from their time with his program.

“Literally and figuratively, we live on an island, so our access to training partners isn’t always the best. It’s almost quid pro quo: If we get someone in who can help our training dynamic for half a week, a week, or even two, we’re always eager,” he says.

The NGIP-VIC is a Swimming Canada program, in partnership the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, Swim BC and Own the Podium. The group trains at Saanich Commonwealth Place alongside the High Performance Centre – Victoria, with targeted access to the same world-class integrated support team, which includes specialists in physiotherapy, massage therapy, mental performance, biomechanics, physiology, nutrition, and strength and conditioning. The high performance program’s goal is to ensure a progressive stream of coaches and athletes are being trained to standards required to win Olympic and World Championship medals.

Swimmers such as Jade Hannah and Faith Knelson have already graduated from the NextGen program to the HPC-VIC. In April they represented Canada on their first senior national team at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, joining fellow NextGen grad Sarah Darcel.

Swimming Canada High Performance Director John Atkinson was keen to acknowledge that the program in Victoria was working with coaches and athletes from across Canada and throughout British Columbia. For example, Swim BC has sent three different camp initiatives over the past few months.

“Visits such as this are great for the development of both swimmers and coaches,” Atkinson said. “This would not be possible without the support of Own The Podium and the NextGen program support.”

Among the recent visitors was 16-year-old medley swimmer Jacob Gallant and his coach Marta Belsh of the Fredericton Aquanauts Swim Team. The pair spent a few days in April as guests of the NextGen program.

“He really enjoyed the environment and how the practices were laid out,” said Belsh, who took advantage of the opportunity to consult with Dingey, Mallette and Swimming Canada IST Director Dr. Allan Wrigley, a world-class biomechanist.

“While I was talking to Brad and Allan it was actually interesting that there was very little technical (correction) in terms of where to put your hand or enter into the water. It was more about the basics of body position in the water, balance, rhythm of stroke and setting up those foundations. Sometimes we get away from that and think we need to correct the strokes and go into details rather than looking at the stroke from a different point of view. It was interesting for me to take a bit of a step back to see the overview of the stroke and aligh everything first before making those small detail movements,” she said.

Belsh also came away reinvigorated by the efficiency and pace of the practices, which she’s tried to instil throughout her program back in Fredericton.

“I already see a difference in how we implement that in our regular coaching groups, and cutting chit-chats to a minimum and pushing the quality of the practice.”

Dingey welcomes enquiries from any Canadian clubs, coaches and swimmers interested in visiting. He can be reached at [email protected]