About The Titans

A competitive swimming club for competitive swimmers

Think Big…Win Big
“It’s not good enough to simply dream, you have to dream big! Anything is possible you just need to believe it. Whether you think you can or you can’t you’re right”.
(Gary Hall Jr, 5 times Olympic Swimming Gold Medallist

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of godlike giants. The Titan Oceanus was the god of the great earth-encircling river, the font of all the earth’s fresh-water. He was depicted as a bull-horned god with the tail of a serpentine fish.

In the pool we pride ourselves on being the heirs to this dynasty of giants.

The Titans was established in 2008, as a meeting of minds, between Ellesmere College >> – a school with a great sporting heritage – and the parents of some of the top young swimmers in Shropshire, united in their desire to create an ambitious, positive and competitive swimming club.

The result:

A centre of swimming excellence in the heart of the North Shropshire countryside.
A club where winning and competing at the highest level is the benchmark for success.
A belief that if it is possible, we can achieve it.
A club in which the Head Coach knows each and every swimmer and cares passionately about their success.
A positive and enthusiastic culture which is contagious to all who come into contact.

To maintain this standard the Club adopts and implements a selective membership policy (PDF), to ensure that all swimmers share the same goal of achieving swimming success at the highest level. The Club operates two squads – a Junior Development and a Senior Competitive Squad. In both squads the emphasis is on quality not quantity of swimmers, with the Club limiting its total swimming membership to 46 - ranging from children as young as 8 upwards.

In such an environment a great deal of one to one coaching can be given to individual swimmers, and productive use can be made of underwater video analysis and specialist training equipment.

The Club is affiliated to the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) – West Midlands Region and Shropshire County - and has adopted their Child Protection Procedures (PDF) and Equity Policy (PDF)

The Club has been awarded Swim 21 Skill Development and Clubmark status. We hope to become the first club in Shropshire to be awarded Swim 21 at Competitive Training level.

The Club believes that competition and success are key ingredients to building self confidence. Only those swimmers who wish to swim competitively are therefore encouraged to join the club, and many, if not most, of the swimmers in the Club have enjoyed considerable success at County, District and National level.

Individual and team targets and goals are seen as key motivational tools, and recognition of achievement of those targets and goals and frequent two way feedback between coach and swimmer are made use of at every opportunity.

The will to win is reconfirmed at all times.

Speedo North West League

The Club competes in the Speedo North West League. However, the main competitive emphasis is placed on attendance at Open Galas throughout the UK – which afford swimmers the opportunity of swimming sprint, middle and long distance events and in more elite and prestigious circles.

Allocation of swimmers to a particular squad is based upon ability, ambition and age. Pool, land based & coaching time are therefore largely structured in accordance with the requirements of Long Term Athlete Development. Young swimmers, starting off in our Junior Development Squad are allocated 3 weekly training sessions totaling 4.5 hours. As swimmers progress and wish to devote more time to training, further pool, land based and coaching time is allocated up to a current maximum of 12.5 hours per week. In time it is anticipated that the Club will increase its total pool and land training hours.

All short course pool training and land training take place at Ellesmere College. All Long Course pool training takes place at the Liverpool Aquatics Centre.

Our 5 Year Goal

All too often swimming clubs lack direction, leadership and vision.

The Titans have very clear, defined and written 5 year goals to be achieved by January 2014. We are happy to be judged by the achievement of these targets.

We want to become the top swimming club in Shropshire, as defined by our medal tally at the County Championships. We want 100% of our swimmers to reach County qualification level and the majority to be serious contenders for medals.
We want a minimum of 50% of our swimmers to qualify for the District Championships.
We want a minimum of 25% of our swimmers to qualify for the National Championships.

The Coaches

Jon Pardoe

Our Head Coach, Jon Pardoe is an ASA licensed UKCC Level 3 coach with years of experience in developing some of the best young swimmers in the UK.

Jon is aided by the very latest in Dartfish Video Analysis >> and is able to draw on specialist nutritional, coaching and motivational expertise and resources from his previous business background and from around the swimming world.

Darren Mew

The Titans Breaststroke Specialist coach Darren Mew was a finalist in both the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics.

Winner of numerous World Championship and Commonwealth Games medals and the holder of multiple English, British and Commonwealth records.

In 2004 Darren set the 3rd fastest 100m breaststroke and 5th fastest 50m breaststroke time in history.

Helena Kocourkova

Helena is the Underwater Dolphin – “The Fifth Stroke” specialist on the Titan coaching team.

Helena is a member of the Czech Republic national fin swimming team and has competed all over the world.

The Ellesmere College Link

As part of our relationship with Ellesmere College, the school is prepared to offer bursaries and scholarships to the College based upon swimming ability. Such an award can be worth up to 50% of the normal day or boarding fees.

As a general guidance for considering such awards, a candidate will need to have achieved multiple District Qualifying Times in the immediate 12 month period prior to the application and be ranked in the ASA top 75 swimmers by age and sex in at least one event. To be performing at this level by no means guarantees such an award, but performance below this level would be an indication that a scholarship award was unlikely to be made.

The Titans wish to gradually develop this relationship with Ellesmere College providing benefits to both parties.