Avery Barnett dreams of swimming in the Olympics.
To help reach that dream he attended the Brent Hayden Swim Camps over the weekend at the Penticton Community Centre. It’s the second time Barnett has attended the camp, as Hayden and wife Nadina Zerifeh were asked by the club to come.
“I really wanted to improve how I was doing my strokes for distances,” said Barnett, one of 17 swimmers in the camp. “I found that because I’m a larger guy (6-foot-4), that with my shorter stroking it wasn’t helping me out as much versus having a longer stroke. They have helped me with that.”

After the work he had done in last year’s camp, Barnett noticed a difference in his performances.

“I’m very trusting they know what to do,” said Barnett. “He’s a great role model. I just really want to see where this will take me in life.”

Barnett’s friend Xelian Louw also wanted to see what he could learn, entering it for the first time.
“I’m going to remember these things for a long time,” said Louw, who focused on working on his techniques. “I don’t think it’s going to be hard with him telling me.”
“A lot of them get so inspired by Brent and his story,” said Zerifeh of her husband, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London. “As a kid he failed swimming lessons twice. It kind of inspires them in a different way. They want to be here.”
“It’s really amazing. It teaches you how to do strokes,” said Madison Seeley, who worked on her freestyle swim, as well as flip turns and starts. “He helps you get faster and improve your stroke. It’s just fun to know how you can get better.”
Of the 17 swimmers, six returned for a second time and Hayden saw how much better they are.
“You can definitely tell how they respond a lot quicker,” he said. “What we taught them last year, as soon as you start reminding them, it kind of comes out of the depths of their memory. They are physically able to adapt to the direction that we’re able to given them.”
After spending time with swimmers in the water and providing tips, Hayden told the group when they get home to write down things that are in their mind so they don’t forget. There was a lot of information to absorb. He also emphasized the importance of them pushing themselves.

“We can definitely make them faster swimmers by the way they swim,” said Hayden. 
Stroke counts were performed and there was a decrease in every swimmer.
“They are taking fewer strokes per length. They are going to have more gas in the tank,” said Hayden, who won a gold, three silver medals and a bronze in world championship competition, to go with eight medals in the Commonwealth Games, including two gold. “They are going to be moving through the water a lot more efficiently. Each stroke is going to be more effective.”

Hayden said you don’t know how every athlete will learn. He said being able to explain things and show it visually are two important ways. Zarifeh said it is important they learn how to do techniques properly in the camp and execute them in practice properly.

“You can’t go into a race and expect to do it when it isn’t done right in a practice,” she said. “It’s reaction time. It’s when you’re racing, every little bit counts.”

What both of them saw in the swimmers was a desire to learn.

“They responded amazingly,” said Hayden.

Original article:
http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/sports/olympian-provides-tools/

Kids in the West Kootenay had the chance to swim with an Olympian over theweekend.

Brent Hayden, who won a bronze medal for Canada at the 2012 SummerOlympics in London and a gold at the World Aquatic Championships in 2007,was in Castlegar over the weekend, holding a Brent Hayden Swim Camp(BHSC) hosted by the Kootenay Swim Club. Participating swimmers were notonly from the Kootenay Swim Club, but also the Castlegar Aquanauts, theNelson Neptunes and Trail. The juniors spent two hours with Hayden in the pooleach day, while the seniors spent three hours in the pool on both Saturday andSunday. Both groups also spent some time in the classroom with Hayden,learning about nutrition and the mental aspect of sport.

During the classroom portion, Hayden shared his journey from being a young,unfocused swimmer who failed swimming lessons to standing on the Olympicpodium in London.

“Not everyone has to be born with an obvious talent,” said Hayden. Talent canbe developed through hard work and dedication and perseverance. Justbecause you weren’t necessarily born with the gifts of a certain task, maybeyou were born with the ability to push through obstacles that other peoplewouldn’t have been able to face.”

Hayden held a similar camp in Castlegar last year, and many of the kidsseemed familiar with him and even to idolize him a little bit. When Hayden toldthe kids that he’d brought hats from his new clothing line, the kids were awareof the line and were excited about getting a hat. Many of them also wore BHSCt-shirts.

“It’s great because we get to build on what we were able to teach them lastyear and then be able to throw in some new stuff on top of that,” Hayden saidof his returning students.

The Kootenay Swim Club’s goal inholding the camp was to help promoteswimming as a sport and bolster its ownmembership.​

“Our philosophy as a club is to promotethe mental aspect of sport and the sportof swimming. With the amount ofchoices that families have between soccer and hockey and lacrosse andmountain biking and skiing, there’s a lot of pulls on the purse string,” said DavidMcCullough, president of the Kootenay Swim Club. “We’ve noticed that withthe Stingrays and TRAX (Trail Regional Aquatic Excellence) as a competitiveclub in Trail, Nelson with the Neptunes, Aquanauts in Castlegar, there’s a lot ofdifferent components. So we’re trying not to protect our membership, butbolster our membership and promote swimming as a sport. That’s a hard thingto do when you have two different associations and five different clubs.Everyone is fighting for membership.”

The Kootenay Swim Club and TRAX are affiliated with Swim BC, SwimmingCanada and the Fédération International de Natation (FINA), whereas theAquanauts, Neptunes and Trail Stingrays are associated with the BC SummerSwim Association.
McCullough hopes that having Hayden put on one of his camps will show kidsthat they can go far in the sport.

“Swimming isn’t hockey, but it is an essential piece of sport and having anOlympian come to our community to share the goals are achievable if you putyour mind to it, so that it’s not just a picture on the TV screen,” saidMcCullough. “Here’s an individual that’s live and in person and can tell themwhat he did to get there, and how he accomplished it; it motivates them tocontinue in the sport and gives them the proper technique to develop in thesport.”

“I would love for them to stick in swimming. Canada has a history of a lot oftalented swimmers coming from small towns,” said Hayden, who grew up in Mission, BC.

Original article:
http://www.castlegarnews.com/sports/swimmers-dive-into-camp-with-olympic-medalist-brent-hayden/

Williams Lake Blue Fins swimmers were treated to some world-class instruction last weekend in Quesnel from Canadian Olympic swimming bronze-medalist and world champion Brent Hayden.
The Blue Fins joined members from the Quesnel Waveriders for the clinic, hosted by Brent and his wife, Nadina — a former national-level swimmer — for two solid days.
“[They] instilled their knowledge and passion of swimming to more than 60 swimmers at the Quesnel Pool,” said Blue Fins head coach Chad Webb.
“Brent and Nadina were in and out of the water all weekend with the swimmers teaching them technique and dryland skills that will help them swim faster.
“Nadina shared her war-torn childhood in Lebanon and how she overcame many obstacles to get where she is today.”
Meanwhile, Hayden passed along his Olympic experiences and knowledge with many hours of teaching and inspiring young swimmers to reach high for their dreams, Webb said.
The Quesnel Waveriders Swim Club hosted the event while approximately 20 Williams Lake Blue Fins attended one- and two-day camps to improve their performances.
For more on the Williams Lake Blue Fins visit www.wlbluefins.ca or e-mail Webb at bluefins@live.com.

http://www.wltribune.com/sports/278735261.html?mobile=true