We teach all levels and abilities of swimmer from the timid and frightened 4 year old to the competent and capable 50+ year old. Small class sizes usually ensure that swimmers get the best possible chance to learn with the additional help and support of the teachers and helpers.

Swimming Club links can be found on the last page

To teach and promote the sport of swimming

Our Aims

Success Stories

Richard Charlesworth - (Founder member swimmer)

· 2008 1500m freesytle British Champion;

· Beijing Olympic Team 2008;    

· 2007 European Junior Open Water Champion; 

· 2007 5k fastest recorded British pool time.

 

Richard is a founder member of Starting Blocks Swim School. He was one of the first swimmers to join a small group in 1992 at Cavendish School at the age of 5. He stayed with us until he was 9, then he joined Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club to continue his swimming skills and improve his all-round strokes. I continued to coach him there, along with other volunteers and when, around the age of twelve years, he reached county level and moved to Hatfield Swimming Club.  His challenges got harder still but was rewarded by achieving National success at age fourteen when he won the 4 x 100m freestyle relay with Hatfield team members.  At sixteen he became the 400m and 1500m freestyle National Age-Group champion.

At the age of 16 he was selected to train at the British Swimming Offshore Centre on the Gold Coast in Australia where he has competed against with some of the best swimmers in the world.  Following a 5k event in Manchester in a time of 53:10:90 he achieved the fastest ever time swum in a pool by a Brit.  Consequently at the age of 18 (2007) he tried his luck at Open Water competitions both in Australia and in Britain.  He took silver medal in the British Open Water Championships in London Docklands in 2007 and went on to be crowned European Junior Open Water Champion in the 5k event in Milan, beating his nearest opponent by 25 seconds. 

He has since become stronger and stronger at both the 5 & 10k and finished a hat-trick for Britain in the South African Open Water Championships  where he took the bronze medal, just missing out on a place in the Open Water Olympic Trials.  Not deterred, in April 2008 he swam in the Sheffield pool at the Olympic Trials and in the 1500m freestyle heat and finals took 27 seconds of his personal best time to clinch a place at the 2008 Olympic Games in Bejing.

We are all very proud.

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Richard is currently studying and training in LA. He returns occasionally for family breaks and also to compete in the European and World class events.