Ayrton Sweeney hosts workshop in Ruimsig
Youngsters benefited from workshop
Swim Factory, in partnership with Maragon Ruimsig, recently hosted one of South Africa’s star swimming performers – Ayrton Sweeney.
Ayrton, who has just returned from the Senior Africa Championships in Algeria, where he won a gold medal in both the 400m individual medley and 200m breaststroke, came to share information about his journey in swimming.
He presented a workshop, where he focused on the individual medley as an event and worked on the medley transitions and drill that he does with his coach, National Head coach Graham Hill. He also gave a talk on social media responsibility, using his YouTube channel, where he introduced the South African swimming team members to the community as an example.
“This was the most important part of the workshop in my opinion. Our youth are still learning about the consequences of this very public life that we now lead, and that silly comments or photos on social media can have disastrous consequences for you in the long run. Our athletes are people too, and have to be incredibly responsible about their public interaction in order to remain a useful marketing tool for their sponsors. This is a large part of how they are financially supported now. Social media can therefore become a useful resource to our athletes, and hopefully they can learn how to use it to create opportunities for themselves,” said Tracey Hemphill from the Swim Factory.
She added that they will be hosting this kind of workshop on a regular basis, with the aim of elevating coach and athlete performance, both in the pool as well as from a mental and emotional standpoint.
They have partnered with Ayrton, as well as Martin Binnedell, who is one of the club’s leading breaststroke performers, to ensure that the younger athletes get the information they need to be the best they can be.
For more information on these workshops, visit the Swim Factory Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/swimfactory.
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