St. Vincent and the Grenadines is set to host the upcoming OECS Championships — a major regional competition featuring athletes from across the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The event will bring together eight participating teams, including St. Vincent, and is expected to be one of the largest and most anticipated sporting events in the region this year.
SVG National Swim Team Preparation for OECS
Within the country of St. Vincent and the grenadines, there are three main swim clubs that train all year-round. Namely, Black Sands Swim Squad (BSSS), Blue Marlins Swim Club (BM) and H2O Lions swim club. Within these three clubs, BSSS and BM operate out of Rathomill in a six lane twenty-five-meter pool and H2O Lions at Questelles beach on the leeward coast. The national team is typically chosen from the top performers of each swim club. Once the team is finalized, the swimming federation along with the national coach will collectively decide times and dates for national team training.
Currently, team SVG is training for the upcoming annual OECS Championships from the 7th to the 9th of November hosted at the Shrewsberry Aquatic Centre in Rathomill here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
National team training commenced on the 29th of September and will conclude on the 5th of November, two days before the championships. Training takes place in the mornings from 5:30 AM to 7:00/ 7:30 AM from Monday to Friday, after which all the athletes attend a full day of school and return in the afternoons for club training. On weekends training times range from 4:00-5:30 PM. Within the five and a half weeks of training, the swimmers will endure multiple forms of intense training at specific periods which will prepare them for competition. During the week the focuses of training are:
Speed endurance
Race pace training
Race focussed technique
Kicks
Stroke mechanics
Aerobics
Dryland (stretches, mobility exercises and moderate bodyweight exercises)
On weekends the focuses are:
General stroke technique
Dry land (intense swim specific full body bodyweight/weight training)
Relay training/ relay preparation
Race pace training
The last week and a half of training focusses on taper (race conditioning and finetuning) and hypoxic training (intentionally limiting oxygen intake by reducing the number of breaths per length to improve breath control, oxygen utilization).
8 islands including SVG we will also see,
Anguilla,
Antigua & Barbuda,
BVI,
Dominica,
Grenada,
St. Kitts and Nevis,
St. Lucia.
