Hucknall synchronised swimming coach pleased her team can train again

A woman from Hucknall, who is head coach of the oldest synchronised swimming club in Nottingham, is relieved that her team can begin to train in the pool again.

Livvy Shelton, primarily coaches the Green Arrows Artistic Swimming Club's 13-18 team who use Nottingham Boy's High School's pool for their training sessions. She has been involved with the club since 1995 as a ten-year-old and went on to captain the team before moving into coaching in a voluntary capacity.

The club, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in September, have been unable to train for much of the pandemic due to government closures of pools and leisure facilities. In total, the club have missed around ten months of poolside activity.

Although frustrated by the situation, Miss Shelton did everything she could to keep the spirits of her young swimmers as high as possible. This included running weekly Zoom sessions for some 'land training' exercises for the girls to maintain their flexibility and muscle memory.

She said: "Land training basically consisted of a bit of Yoga, a bit of Pilates, split stretching. I was trying to look at different videos, I'd gone on some different classes to try and get some ideas. I think at times I had 13 or 14 swimmers attend every week in the first lockdown.

"All the girls and the parents were very grateful, they were very positive with it all. And then when January came round I thought well to keep the swimmers motivated, I'll do a swimmer of the month award even though we were land training at the time. I thought whoever puts their all into land training, I can see them on Zoom and see what they're doing, so if they get 100% attendance, keep up the hard work, support others then I can be like actually you deserve this you've worked really hard for it. So I came up with the idea, I bought some little trophies and designed a certificate and it's been a massive hit with swimmers and parents and some coaches as well."

As well as the physical benefits, the Zoom training also had a hugely positive impact on the mental health of the attendees.

"It was just nice for them to see each other, obviously for six months they've not seen each other. And yet even now we've not been back as a full club since the end of Feb 2020 or the beginning of March 2020 because they have to split the sessions because of number limits due to social distancing.

Inevitably, there have been a few team members who have quit the club during the pandemic and Livvy is keen to act quickly to ensure she still has a healthy number of members.

"We welcome members anyway but at the moment we have got space for other swimmers. I know we need to do a recruitment push but obviously at the moment with how things are I don't think anyone's very keen on trying to start something new with everything else going on in the world which is fair enough."

The club are currently following strict Covid guidelines and taking the necessary precautions to keep both swimmers and coaches as safe as possible. This includes the swimmers arriving in their costumes to avoid the use of changing facilities and sticking to the strict one way system on their way in and out of the premises. The club also has a Covid officer who sends out weekly health checks to the members to ensure that they are fit enough to attend training.

The Green Arrows are now hoping that there won't be any further closures so they can continue the momentum they are beginning to build by being able to train regularly again. There is even hope that they'll be able to put together an outdoor display later in the year to celebrate the special milestone of the club.

If you are interested in joining the Green Arrows, or for much information about the club, visit their website by clicking here .