Swimming South Africa (SSA) strives to achieve and maintain a leading position as one of the top eight aquatics countries in the world.

This document outlines the entire operation of SSA

in broad terms, and is based on assessments made by the various parts of the organisation on best practice. It provides long-term objectives and estimated budgets based on what our national swimming federation can realistically do in order to achieve the above vision. SSA is making strides towards achieving this holistic plan, but with additional resources the organisation can make a very strong impact on Aquatics in the country. SSA has committed itself to obtaining the funds required to deliver a world-class service, and has therefore refocused its’ marketing and corporate strategy to support this objective.

SSA’s approach is reflected in the diagram below:

The executive function of SSA is fulfilled by a 7-person Executive Committee, elected by members of the Council, made up of 15 provincial associations. SSA is responsible for five Aquatics disciplines, viz Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Waterpolo and Open-water swimming.

SSA has as Associate members DISSA, SASSU, USSASA and Masters Swimming.

Various other elected committee’s exist to oversee or provide guidance and input into the various aspects of the organisation, such as selection.

The expenses of the organisation that support the core business of SSA (assuming implementation of the full range of products and services described in this document), including salaries, staff training, executive costs, information management, marketing and communication (including broadcasting costs of Telkom Splash), will amount as follows:

The LTS Programme has as its’ main purpose to deliver on the second and third corporate objectives of SSA. LTS relies heavily on the Human Resource Development and Facility Management components of SSA to deliver a holistic service to communities in South Africa. The main thrusts of LTS are delivery of Activity Programs and Development of Clubs.

The concept of activity programmes was only introduced in October 2001 and has been a resounding success. In total more than 20 000 children younger than 13 years of age participated in these programmes from October 2001 till April 2002 (this can be substantiated through registers/database). These programmes create awareness amongst the general public of swimming and aquatic activities:

• As a Vital Life Skill
• To reduce drowning Statistics
• To provide a healthy lifestyle
• For recreational purposes

The programmes include:

• Pool Splash focussing on skill development & water safety programmes in the swimming pool environment
• Ocean Splash which deals with water safety and skill development in the ocean environment
• Rural Splash dealing with water safety and skill development in the rural environment i.e. rivers, dams.

These programmes are delivered in partnership with:

This programme looks at a focussed approach to the development of clubs in previously disadvantaged areas in partnership with local authorities. The programme objectives are:

• To develop sustainable aquatics clubs in previously disadvantaged areas of RSA
• To increase the number of club swimmers in previously disadvantaged clubs, and representing clubs at national competitions
• To capacitate the administrators and coaches of the clubs
• To assist these clubs with equipment requirements
• Where needed leverage upgrade of the facilities where the clubs operate.

25 Clubs throughout South Africa (list available) have been identified for the first phase of this project. These clubs sign an agreement with SSA, whereby SSA agrees to provide resources and services to the clubs to help them grow into sustainable structures. SSA commits to a club for 3 years by which time the club should be self-sustainable and permanent members of the national programme (including competition, talent Id, etc). The geographical breakdown of these identified clubs is as follows:

These clubs are assisted with:

• Strategic planning
• Administration training/upskilling
• LTS programmes and training
• Coach development
• Coaching grant
• Leveraging for infrastructural development
• Swimming equipment

The budget required for implementation of the Learn to Swim programme is as follows:

The Athlete Development (AD) unit of SSA has as its’ main function the responsibility to deliver on the first corporate objective of SSA, and as such strives to produce a National Senior Team, representative of the demographics of South Africa, that consistently produces medal-winning performances at major international meets. In order to achieve this, the AD Unit has implemented processes and projects around:

• Implementation of a development pathway (or development plan) that categorises swimmers as gold, silver or bronze level swimmers. The plan outlines requirements for achieving each level, focuses training so that swimmers are able to take the step to the next level, and stipulates support and/or services required at each level. This programme underpins all the work of the AD unit of SSA.
• Talent Identification (strongly linked to the Development Plan)
• Fast tracking of talented black swimmers
• Development of all specialised expertise required to support our swimmers, including coaching, medical & scientific support, management, etc.
• Implementation of centres of excellence focussing on the top two levels of swimmers, ie Gold (youth and senior) and Silver. A National Training Centre and 3 Regional Training Centres to service the Gold level swimmers, and co-operation with the Provincial Academies to service the Silver level swimmers. (Bronze level swimmers are to be looked after by the provincial swimming associations).
• Maximising the international competition programme to assist in strategically achieving the performance objectives of SSA. This will include planned athlete and team preparation (eg camps, preparation competition, etc)
• Maximising strategic partners throughout South Africa (eg 3 tiers of Government, Macro-bodies, Schools, NLB, etc)
• Implementing effective management, communication and marketing strategies.

From a High Performance perspective, the Athlete Development Unit intends working with Tertiary and other institutions as follows:

The National Training Centre is up and running, and requires inflationary related increases. The first Regional Training Centre should become operational on a small scale during 2004, and build up to become fully operational by 2008. The remaining two Regional Training Centres will be implemented partially at the beginning of 2005, and build up to become fully operational by 2008. It is also intended that SSA find additional funders for these projects, and negotiate beneficial arrangements with the various service providers.

The Athlete Development unit has a strong focus on development of black swimmers. The main objective of the fast tracking and target team programmes, are to ensure demographic representivity of all national teams. To achieve this, two main approaches are used, viz fast-tracking squads and target teams.

Each Training Centre will have a Fast-Tracking squad. This squad will comprise of a minimum of ten swimmers identified through the Development Plan. The aim of this program will be to get previously disadvantaged swimmers who are between the bronze and silver levels up to the silver level and beyond. This squad will get all the support services that any other swimmers in this program will get. Selection of these fast tracking squads will be done based on set criteria. The selection process will be transparent and justifiable.

Target teams will be selected, building up to about two hundred swimmers (identified through our Development Plan) countrywide. The intention is to begin with 50 swimmers in 2005 and increase to 200 swimmers by 2008. It is the aim of these target teams to further develop young swimmers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who have shown potential (based on both water and land based tests). They will be developed through the provision of coaching support, scientific testing and the provision resources for the specific needs that a swimmer might have.

The service providers for these target teams would be:

• Provincial Academies, through their talent identification and development component
• Provincial Swimming Federations
• Tertiary institutions in the identified areas.

Criteria for selection into these Target Teams would be transparent and justifiable. Support services that would be available would be based on specialised expertise as developed by Swimming South Africa.

Many of the black swimmers on these programmes fall into either the bronze, silver or gold level as defined by SSA, and as such will receive the support stipulated by the development plan, but they may require a special focus to maximise their potential, and improve the sport within the black community of South Africa. The end result of this programme will be that black swimmers integrate naturally into the existing SSA programmes and structures. These swimmers should be able to move into bronze level or from bronze to silver level, through this intervention.

At present, the Athlete Development unit of SSA offers the products and services described above, but on a small scale, as availability of resources (specifically financial) limits the roll-out of the programmes. The estimated total budget per annum on an annual build-up of the programmes (as well as annual increases allowed for inflation), is broken down as follows:

The following schematic represents the SSA plan to provide a performance pathway for swimmers, from mass-based swimming to elite level competition. It incorporates the work done by Learn to Swim and Athlete Development ad strives to bridge the gaps athletes experience between the various levels of performance.

The objectives for competing internationally are:

• Creating opportunity for competitive participation at International Level.
• Providing all swimmers with a fair chance for National representation and experience. Teams are selected to compete at various competitions according to the level of competition. Eg Teams selected for Africa Competitions not as strong as FINA World Championships, Olympic Games.
• Participation at International Competitions is a good indicator of whether goals and targets are being achieved and ensuring that, as a country, South Africa is maintaining international standards.

An Athlete Development Committee has been established within SSA to oversee the longer term strategic management of participation in the international programme. This committee is responsible for the development of a 4-year international programme per discipline, as well as criteria for each identified event. Selection committee’s (one per discipline), managed by the SSA office, make recommendations to the Athlete Development Committee on selection, based on the published criteria.

A prudent competition budget is broken-down as follows:

Objectives for our local competition include:

• Creating opportunity for competitive participation for all levels according to ability.
• Creating the opportunity for measurement of development and improvement.
• Provide trials for selection of various teams.
• Provide opportunity for Provincial Affiliates to organise and market the sport in the region and encourage Local Municipalities to upgrade and maintain competition facilities.

Our local competition programme has been carefully organised in such a way as to obtain maximum benefit for all levels of athletes. The programme underpins the national Development Plan, and supports talent identification and development.

This domestic programme covers all disciplines and events are categorised according to age criteria and performance levels. Inter-Provincial and Inter-Club competitions are held for the various disciplines as well.

Provinces are afforded the opportunity to bid to host any of the national events. The competition remains the property of SSA, and the organising committee is the vehicle that presents the event. The budget required to host these events is as follows:

Swimming South Africa considers it important to host various international events in our country. The benefits of this include:

• Providing an opportunity for more South African, and African, swimmers to participate in international competition
• Building the swimming brand in South Africa, developing greater interest in our sport
• Bringing the sport, at international level, to the ordinary South African
• Developing South African competence to deliver world class events

The following two events are to be hosted by RSA:

• FINA Swimming World Cup (Short Course): currently a three year agreement exists for RSA be host this event annually from 2003 to 2005. RSA would like to see this become an annual feature of our calendar well after 2005.
• Water-Polo International Tournament: Hosting of this event is on once-off basis, and is scheduled for December 2004.

SSA competes in an annual Brazil-South Africa Junior event. SSA has a good relationship with Brazil, and our swimmers compete against each other every year, according to an agreement. The most beneficial way to maximize this arrangement, would be the establishment of an annual event, which would extend the opportunity to more young South African swimmers.

South Africa is seen as a very strong player in continental swimming and as such is expected to host African events from time to time. SSA would ideally like to host a Junior African Competition every second year to promote youth swimming on the continent.

The total budget required for hosting of these events is estimated as follows:

This aspect of SSA contributes to the second corporate objective. The aim is to develop skills covering all aspects of the sport, and at the same time developing the general competency levels of the individuals concerned, helping them to offer enhanced skills to the market place.

These training programs involve the development and printing of resource material, training of facilitators and running training course. The intention is that SSA offers training for all levels of competence (foundation to elite).

The training courses available are (information is available on the SSA database outlining how many people, and details of these individuals, have been trained thus far):

• Basic LTS Instructor Course
• Todswim Instructor Course
• Unemployed Youth Business Skills Training Course
• Level 1 Swim Coaching Course

• Splash Polo Instructor Course
• Synchro Fun Instructor Course
• Diving Badge Instructor Course
• Technical Officials Course
• Administrators Course
• Facilitators Course

SSA is currently undergoing a review process of all educational material, to ensure that the SAQA standards and requirements are met. The next phase is to develop educational material for courses not yet in existence.

Delivery of educational programmes is done through strong partnerships with the following organizations and structures:

• Provincial Swimming Associations
• Clubs
• Local authorities
• Local NGO’s
• Schools
• Departments of Education
• SANDF
• SAPS Waterwing (agreement currently being negotiated)
• Department of Water Affairs
• Tertiary institutions

The budget is as follows:

This component of SSA strives to achieve the third objective of the organisation. Aquatics as a competitive sport is dependant on the availability of suitable facilities to maximise the potential of athletes. With specific emphasis on our athlete development and club development programme, we identify facilities for upgrade and then make submissions to local authorities, tertiary institutions and the National Lotteries Board for such upgrades.

The following grid indicates SSA’s strategy for facility upgrades for the period up to and including 2008, ensuring that South Africa becomes a force in world aquatics:

The budget required is as follows:

The following would be the requirements of the University of Pretoria, as the Swimming Centre of Specialisation (over and above services listed above under Athlete Development):

• Co-ordinate scientific and medical services for all swimmers on the gold, silver and bronze level programmes (this would require co-operation with each RTC and the 9 provincial academies)
• Develop and update protocols for all scientific and medical testing
• Co-ordinate research
• Provide a swimming coaches information centre/service
• Monitor and update the talent identification programme (Development Plan) of SSA, to ensure relevance
• Ensure that scientific and medical services offered to the Swimming programme are benchmarked against the best in the world, and are continually monitored and improved.

The following is a summary of all SSA’s budget requirements for the period 2004-2008.