Sweetwater Coaching will be attending the ‘River Source a White Water Symposium’ on the 28/29th January. We will be providing something a little different and have decided to offer ladies only white water skills clinics. Why ladies only? Apart from being able to meet as many of you as possible, the main reason is to celebrate the recent achievements in ladies white water kayaking. These include Nikki Kelly’s successful descent of the Stikine River and Claire O’Hara setting new standards at the World Freestyle Championships.

The clinics are all about developing river and/or creeking skills, not forgetting discussion and advice on how to succeed in reaching your dream goals and recognising your own successes. We are offering intermediate skills coaching on the Saturday, and advanced skills on the Sunday. So why not sign up for a day of river skills coaching and chat with us about your own aspirations? If this appeals to you here’s the booking link: River Source a White Water Symposium Hope to see you there.

Sweetwater Coaching are proud to announce that Kim Aldred will joining the ASP team. Kim is a very talented junior athlete and achieved 4th place in the World Championships 2011 and has shown a level of commitment and motivation required of a potential world champion.

We kick started the new competitive cycle with a team training day down at Nottingham White Water Course to welcome Kim, hold a post review of the recent world championships and discuss training/performance goals for 2011/12 before taking to the water for a great days boating.

Claire O’Hara has won two Gold medals for Great Britain at the World Freestyle Kayaking Championships and been crowned Ladies Freestyle Kayaking World Champion and Ladies Squirt Boating World Champion 2011.

The 2011 ICF World Freestyle Kayaking Championships took place on the River Isar in Platling Germany with 222 athletes competing from 26 countries. Claire travelled out to the event in her specially logoed VW T5 Van and spent 9 weeks training on the river in Platting before the event. She beat former World Champion Emily Jackson from the USA and competitors from all around the world to win the Freestyle title and paddlers from Japan, USA, Germany and New Zealand to defend her World Championship Squirt Boating title. She won the squirt boating event with a massive score of 946.6 (366 points ahead of second place) which would have also placed her 3^rd in the men’s event! In the qualifying round of the squirt boating event, Claire dominated throughout, qualifying for the finals in first place 1000 points clear of her closest rival in the ladies and 200 points clear of the men with the highest combined score of the event.

This is the first time the Freestyle World Championships have been won by a British lady since 1999 and the first time everthat a female athlete has won two gold medals at the same World Championship event. Her team mate James Bebbington also brought home the Gold medal in the men’s event. James is the first British man ever to win the Freestyle World Championships and the first European to win it since 1995.

In total, team GB brought home 6 medals: 3 Gold medals – Claire (x 2 – Squirt Boating and Ladies Freestyle Kayaking) and James (Mens Freestyle Kayaking), 1 Silver- Jamie Austin (Mens Squirt Boating) and 2 Bronze medals – Bren Orton and Gabby Bates (Junior Mens and Junior Ladies), making this the most successful event in history for the Great Britain Freestyle kayak team.

‘These are our best ever results and we are very proud of all our athletes.  This is the just reward for all the hours they have all put in over the years.’ Tim Ward GB Freestyle Chairman.

The World Championships are held every two years.  In her first World Championships in Canada in 2007 Claire came second winning the silver medal, just missing out on the world title. In 2009 she became the World Champion winning the gold in the Ladies Squirt Boat Event. Now, two years later, not only has she defended her World Championship title she has also added to it with her first International Freestyle Gold medal, taking home the Double World Championship Gold. She is delighted that all her training and hard work paid off.

‘This finals day was incredible. I had been training so hard for it and when it all came together in both events, to win the two Gold medals was amazing.’ Claire O’Hara

Claire is already back in the UK training as she is currently taking part in the 2011 British Championship series. Then she will be back out on the road to train for the European

Championships, which will be held in Vienna, and the World Cup which will be held at the site of the 2013 World Championships at the Nantahala Outdoor Centre in the USA next year.

Claire, 29, from Meanwood Leeds is currently a self-funded athlete and works for Notre Dame Catholic 6th Form College Leeds as a FE Sports Coordinator. She trains at Leeds Met University, the Village Hotel and Leisure Centre, Leeds, and at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, as well as on rivers across the UK and all over the World. Claire has the support of a number of individuals and organisations which help her compete and train to such high level. Claire would like to say a special thank you to VW Van Centre West Yorkshire, Dennis Newton at Sweetwater Coaching and all her sponsors for all their help and support in getting her to this event.

Claire is currently looking for financial sponsorship to help her continue to train and compete so she can continue to be the top female Freestyle Kayaker in the world. If you can help her in any way please get in touch.

For more information on Claire and her success at the World Championships check out her website and blog at www.claireohara.co.uk or contact her direct on ohara_claire@hotmail.com and 07985 200550.

Over the next two weeks twenty-five of the world’s most talented, most versatile, and most progressive kayakers will be competing in a multi-disciplined, 6-stage competition on spectacular whitewater across Quebec. James ‘Pringles’ Bebbington will be representing  GB, and back home the freestyle and river running community will be rooting for him all the way.

The races include a Time-Trial down a steep section of slides and waterfalls, a Giant Slalom which will challenge the competitors with the worlds first 18 gate course on class 4/5 whitewater, and an intense head to head down one of Quebec’s infamous big volume rapids. The freestyle events will highlight the worlds best wave surfers with events on both mid-sized waves that will allow for tricks to be linked in sequence, and big dynamic waves that will show those with the most control, style, and wave awareness.

After three races and three freestyle contests the Grand Prix World Champion will be crowned.
The Whitewater Grand Prix is hosted by the Québec Whitewater Kayaking Federation and is supported by the Association of Whitewater Professionals (AWP).  The Whitewater Grand Prix aims to showcase the sport of whitewater kayaking and some of it’s most talented athletes.

If you would like info as the event unfolds click on the White Water Grand Prix Logo.

Very rarely, these days, do you get to paddle a completely new playspot. And if you do, so often you’ll have heard about the spot from your fellow paddlers; they’ll tell you about the holes, the waves, and the moves that you can stick in each one.  However, on those rare occasions when neither you, nor your paddling buddies, know anything about the new playspot before you arrive, there’s a real sense of excitement and adventure about the paddling you’re gonna do that day!

This was one of the reasons why it was so special to be asked to go and paddle the new olympic white water course at Lee Valley park. As I drove to the course with Tim and Alan Ward that morning, we speculated about the course: Would there be some chunky holes? What would the waves be like? Could we stick moves like pistol flips? What combos would we be working on?

The site, which has been built specially for the London 2012 games, is indeed very impressive! There are two separate courses on the site: the Olympic course; on which the slalom event will be run at the games and the Legacy course; which serves as a great secondary course and has some great features for freestyle. There is also a brand new centre with an amazing roof terrace from which you can see all the action.

It was great to hold a youth freestyle series event here.  One of the reasons why the olympic venues are so important to sport in the UK is that they should give our young athletes the opportunity to reach the top in the future. It was fantastic to see this happening right from the word go; with Britain’s top young freestyle paddlers being the first members of the general public to paddle the Olympic course.

The day began with a coaching session, where we pushed all the athletes to get the hole wired ahead of the competition that afternoon. The site we were using was the main hole on the Legacy course. Sweetwater athletes James Weight and Bren Orton looked particularly strong as they threw down some impressive McNasty and Phonix moves. As the day progressed these began to be linked with other moves such as Blunts (to look a bit like a KY), Cartwheels and Loops.

The competition was, as always, great fun. The more experienced paddlers helped and encouraged the novices, which created a friendly and supportive atmosphere.  On top of this, everyone loved the novelty of the conveyor belts to transport you back up to the top of the course!

Special thanks go to Matt Chadder, along with Mike and Becky, for making the day run so smoothly, and to Lee Valley Park for letting us be the first to hit some awesome moves on this brand new, multi-million pound course. That’s something I can’t claim to be true every time I go paddling!

Sweetwater will be will be joining forces with James Reeves team manager to help coach a new Level 6 UK pro-team under the wing of the highly successful ASP programme.

Level 6 are currently looking for 5 freestyle kayakers to join the team, if you would like to be considered send your paddling profile or CV to freestyle@jamesreeves.net and then come along to the selection weekend on 21st and 22nd May at the National Water Sport Centre, Nottingham.

Further details on team selection requirements and what the sponsorship provides can be found on the Level 6 website; www.levelsix.com

• James Weight
• Joe Bradly
• Bren Orton
• James Benns
• Claire O’Hara
• Gabby Bates
• Rachel Bovic

The Sweetwater Athlete Support Programme (ASP) was established to provide athletes identified with international potential with the necessary opportunities to achieve international success.

ASP status is designated to athletes that have demonstrated, and continue to demonstrate, outstanding abilities and commitment to freestyle paddlesport. ASP allows the athlete to enter into a training and competitive schedule which, by design, will lead to consistent improvement with respect to international results.

This programme is funded by Sweetwater Coaching and provides access to:

• Specialist coaching
• Performance Analysis
• Performance Conditioning

Claire O´Hara a member of the Sweetwater Athlete Suport Program (ASP) will be featuring in the BBC Inside Out programme on Monday BBC1 at 7:30pm. I´ll also be making a guest appearance.

The programme is running a feature on white water kayaking in England and has been following Claire’s activities for a few weeks. The film crew also spent the morning with us at Holme Pierre Point white water course during freestyle competition training sessions. Claire is currently focused on preparing for the world championships in 2011.

I’ve just recently spent two days providing performance analysis and coaching with the Spanish Freestyle Team. It was a pleasure to work with an old colleague of mine Andrew ‘Jacko’ Jackson, now team coach for the Spanish National Team.  Over the two days we  profiled the athletes, recording various aspects of their performance before formulating a strategy to further enhance their training plans in preparation for the world freestyle championships 2011.  The weekend was a great success and the team is on track to meet it’s training and competition goals. Sweetwater would like to take this opportunity to wish the team all the best in achieving their aspirations for 2011.

Our intention is to provide a highly motivated and fun learning environment that provides you with easy to understand breakdowns of each skill, how the skill and feature interact, and the body movements required to achieve the desired outcomes.

As with all our courses we aim not just to coach you the latest freestyle skills, but also empower you with the skills to self-direct your own learning and continue acquiring those tricky moves you desire. Our guarantee is that you will achieve a slick set of manoeuvres and understand what is required to progress to achieve your ultimate aspiration.

Price: £85

To book this course or further discuss you suitability please email: service@sweetwatercoaching.co.uk