Back, from left, Mahima, Katie, Elise, Jake, front, Jake and Fletcher are all enjoying the benefits of training under Ben Hiddlestone for the Casey Tiger Sharks. Picture: Meagan Rogers.By Marc McGowan
THE Casey Tiger Sharks will be looking to ensure their future when they hold three try-out days at their two bases over the next month.
The Casey Arc Swimming Pool try-outs will take place on 24 February between 1pm and 1.30pm and on 4 March from 5pm to 5.30pm.
Cranbourne Swimming Pool will hold its half-hour audition on 24 February from 3pm.
Tiger Sharks head coach Ben Hiddlestone believes the trials are vital to his club’s continued success that included an eighth-placed finish in last month’s Victorian Long Course Swimming Championships.
“We’re looking for the future crop. All of the spots in our national, state and junior squads are taken, but we have got about 10 spots available in our development squad,” he said.
Hiddlestone hoping children between the ages of six and nine will claim the places and said they did not have to have more than a basic ability to swim.
“In a year we can develop them, work on what they lack in terms of skill, teach them to love racing and really sow the seed and plant good training habits in them,” he said.
Potential recruits will need to be able to swim 50-metres freestyle, 50-metres backstroke and 25-metres breaststroke, but if they show a lot of potential the latter criteria may be excluded.
“I’ll have a real close look at them and I’ll give them some tips and a coaching lesson for half an hour for free,” he said.
On being selected in the development squad, parents will be given an extensive 50-page handbook described as the ‘A to Z’ of swimming that will explain the finer points of the sport.
Anthony Coulsen, 22, who has been at the club for eight months after switching from his head coaching role at the Oasis Otters Swimming Club, will be primarily in charge of the junior and development squads.
Hiddlestone will join Coulsen at times to provide a superior coaching environment.
He is a fervent believer in developing talent from its infancy, a coaching ethos he learnt under master coach Dennis Cotterell on the Gold Coast.
“It’s much more satisfying getting them at a young age and watching them grow into top swimmers,” he said.
