After four months out of the water, Everyone Active have confirmed that we can resume training from Wednesday 29^th July 2020.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank all our members for your genuine support and patience during this difficult period, hopefully we can come out of this a better and stronger club.

Unfortunately Abbs Cross and Becontree 50m pool will not be reopening until September at the earliest as there are still ongoing negotiations with the school and the local authority. However, we have been able to secure additional water time at Central Park and Sapphire leisure Centres.

Although this will mean a total change from our current schedule, we are very fortunate as other clubs in the region are struggling to get water time from their pool providers.

Training schedule

All existing squad timetables are cancelled and our phased return to training schedule will come into effect from Wednesday 29^th July, until further notice.

Click HERE to view the Return to training schedule.

This first phase of returning to training will include the 6 weeks between the 27^th July to 7^th September 2020. Therefore, there will be no summer shutdown this year. We will be training throughout the month of August; I am sure you will appreciate this after such a long time away from the pool

Our phased return timetable is the approach that is recommended by Swim England. It has been designed to ensure all squads can access appropriate training and to fit in line with our pool availability. All squads during this period will be operating on reduced number of hours. This will allow us to accommodate the whole club but is also a reflection of needing to run a progressive programme taking into consideration the past four months spent out of the water. Missing such a large period of training may increase the potential risk of injury.

Whilst we are excited to be returning to training and to start working together towards our goals and objectives it is important that swimmers and parents are comfortable with our new training environment. While the club’s vision to help every athlete achieve their potential hasn’t changed due to the impact of Coronavirus, our training environment and the way we work together will be very different during this period

Pool arrangements

Based on the advice from Swim England and in consultation with our facility providers the layout of our sessions will also change. We will be working to a maximum of 6 swimmers per single lane and the coaches will be assigning swimmers to specific lanes. These lane assignments must be adhered to by all swimmers.

In line with Swim England guidance our pool sessions will be for the sole use of the club and no member/public lane swimming will be allowed for the duration of our scheduled session.

Please ensure that all swimmers have read the following two documents before returning to training.

• Guidelines for returning to the pool
• What to expect

Parents viewing

One of the Clubs key values is ‘Teamwork’ and we certainly include the support parents give to all swimmers within this model. However, on the return to training parents will not be allowed to accompany swimmers inside any of the training venues and will be asked to drop their children off at a designated point where they will be escorted poolside by the squad Covid liaison officer.

Equipment

In order to keep everyone safe we are also asking that all equipment is labelled with swimmer’s names on them and that they have been cleaned, preferably sterilised, before and after each session. This may add to work at home but will help athletes adhere to Swim England guidelines and ensure they get the best out of every session they attend. Once equipment is to be used again, swimmers must ensure that their equipment is not shared in any way.

Strength & Conditioning

During this first phase of training our S & C classes will continue via Zoom. The sessions now carry even more importance as they also act as a way to prepare the body for returning to pool training.

Documents for review

All three important documents below must be completed for each swimmer before they can return to training.

• RTSC Health Survey – online form for completion.
• RTSC Declaration form – online form for completion.
• RTSC Code of Conduct – read, sign, scan and return to romfordtownsc@aol.com

We hope this communication will help you understand how RTSC will be operating over these 6 weeks of training and we very much look forward to having everyone back in the water and enjoying training again

The last few months have been incredibly tough for everyone and I hope all our efforts now get us back into the water safely.

RTSC Executive Members

.

Swim England has today (15.06.2020) published its comprehensive Returning to the Pool guidance.

We sincerely hope that you have all managed to keep safe & well in these uncertain times. We will endeavor to provide further updates as soon as we possibly can.

James Gibson raises team morale during lockdown

Continue reading →

Following the Government announcement to close leisure facilities in order to reduce the spread of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we have no choice but to take the following action.

• All Romford Town club activity has been suspended with immediate effect (20/03/2020 – 6pm). This includes all squad training sessions and the learn to swim programme.

These are unprecedented times and we kindly ask that you remain patient with us while we work with the governing bodies to find a solution to our swimming predicament.

We sincerely hope that you all keep safe & well in these uncertain times and we will endeavour to provide updates as soon as we are in a position to do so.