Hi I’m Steve Parry and I’m here to tell you about British Gas SwimBritain.
British Gas they’ve got a great aim, they want to get more people swimming regularly by 2015. So in order to take part in SwimBritain they’ve got a team challenge, there’s four of you, you’ve all got to swim 1000m. You do 250m each in a relay until you’ve done the 100m.
SwimBritain is going to help you get fitter, and healthier and they’re even going to give you tips along the way. This is all going to cumulate in ten events, in September at venues across the country.
Now the logistics of this event are super easy, you’re going to get a swimming cap, a t-shirt and a timing chip, you pick them up at the venue on the day. So all you need to think about is the regular stuff – your swimming goggles, and a pair of trunks. You could wear these, or perhaps some of these. You might want two towels as well, instead of one, one for pool side and one for when you get changed at the end, maybe a bit of shampoo as well, and last but not least, make sure you take some water with you.
So how does the SwimBritain relay work? Well, you’ve got to get your team mates, here’s one of mine, meet Chris, just happens to be an International swimmer, I’ll have some of that! He’s going to lead off, let’s go Chris!
So when he’s done his 250m, he’s going to make sure his timing chip registers, don’t worry, there will be people there on the day to make sure that happens. Chris is then going to walk over to his second team mate, who’s going to be in the transition area, and he’s going to give him a high five, nice high five! Then Chris is good to go, he can go have a little rest. It’s going to get very crowded if all of you are waiting at the end of the pool so we’ve got a rule, only the person next can be in the transition zone.
So SwimBritain is going to be like no event you’ve ever done before, largely because of these bad buoys, they’re actually called buoys, you’re going to have to swim around them.
When you’re swimming down the pool, you’ve got to keep the buoy to your left hand side, and when you’re swimming back up the pool, you’ve got to keep it to your right hand side, just keep an eye out for them, you can’t miss them!
Stay as tight as you can to the buoy, you’ve only got to swim 250m, there’s no point swimming any more than that if you don’t have to.
Once you’ve got the team together, make sure you get the opportunity to train together, set yourself both an individual goal and you know what, challenge the other guys on your team as well, you might surprise yourself and with some good training beat the time that you thought you were going to go.
What about making some hoodies with your team name on there? You’re taking on everyone else in SwimBritain, you’ve got to go in there in the right frame of mind. Maybe you want to go in some fancy dress, I don’t suggest you swim in the fancy dress, that might slow you down a little bit, maybe you could even come up with your own song, I can see all four of you doing the Gangham Style, maybe not.
Most of all, make sure there’s some cracking banter between you and your team mates and you maximise the fun that we’re going to have on SwimBritain.
Good luck and enjoy!