Articles by Dartes Swimmers Past and Present

Rebecca Milnes: Her Decade at Dartes!

Introduction

A week or so ago Rebecca Milnes (SAS) offered to write a short article for the website describing the changes she's seen at Dartes during the decade she's been here. How could we turn her down?

For those who don't know Bex, she was the first Dartes girl to qualify for Nationals at an event greater than 100m for 4 or 5 years (800m Fc in 2001). Since then she has gone on to become a regular member of the GB triathlon team and even managed to win a Gold medal at the ITU World Championships last year. That's right, she is a World Champion (in her age group at least)!

Yet when she arrived at Dartes all those years ago, Rebecca looked spectacularly average. Her biggest talent then, as now: a work ethic second to none!

Which just goes to prove, if you want something hard enough, and you're prepared to do the work that's necessary, any one of you can achieve your goals too!

Date: 15 Nov 2008
Author: Rebecca Milnes

Here's what she had to say:

Her Story

Hi my name is Bex Milnes. I have been swimming with Dartes for the past 9 years, and although I am currently based in Birmingham I still make the odd Saturday morning session when I am up visiting family.

I managed to get down to Adwick a few weeks ago for one of the legendary Saturday morning sessions and whilst following the blue line up and down the pool trying to keep up with the young whipper snappers, I found myself thinking about my first experiences of Dartes and how things have changed over the years.

I first started at Dartes because my feeder club coach Sue Finney (at South Axholme Sharks) somehow saw a glimpse of potential. She decided that the best way to help me progress in swimming was to get myself to Dartes where I would be coached by some of the best coaches in Doncaster and be among the elite swimmers in the area.

My first session was a Saturday morning swim at Hall Cross pool. I remember being in the changing rooms and hearing the highly motivational tones of Mick Gartside saying something along the lines of:

"Hurry up you great baboons and get yourself onto the poolside"

My first session was coached by Malcolm Morling. He was a perfectionist on technique, which was exactly what I needed as I was the kind of swimmer that just got in and didn't really think about anything apart from keeping on the persons feet in front of me. Little did I know that this first session marked the beginning of a fantastic life changing experience for both me and my parents who would, in years to come, find themselves getting up at 4am, 3 mornings a week to take me training.

Happy days!

During my first year in Dartes I found myself progressing quite quickly and got moved up from Malc's lane to be coached by Mick Gartside and Dave Cuthbert, who soon discovered I had a bit of an aptitude for the endurance side of things and decided to exploit that. I did my first 800m Free at Leeds during the 2001 Yorkshires and found that I was only a few seconds off my National time. We worked really hard for the next few months and the next 800m I did I managed to get my first and only NQT (National Qualifying Time).

At the time I didn't really understand what this meant. All I remember was being put in the top lane with the likes of Helen Walker (Adw), Leanne Stacey (Adw), Andrew Butterfield (Edl) and Alistair Davis (Spa) and being told to keep on their feet for as long as possible. We did some killer sets and only years later would I understand what an achievement it was to gain NQT in my first year of serious swimming. I feel this is a great testament to what Dartes has consistently provided for Doncaster's swimmers over the years.

I feel a great strength of Dartes is the commitment of its coaches. If you talk to any athlete performing at a decent level they will always tell you that consistency is the key. This is something that the likes of Mick Gartside, Dave Cuthbert, Andy Wallace and Derick Fretwell have provided throughout my time at Dartes, and continue to do at both Dartes and the feeder clubs in the area.

One of the biggest influences in my swimming career is Mick Gartside. For those newcomers to Dartes, Mick was the coach before Roy Shepherdson's brief tenure. I'll never forget morning training during Mick's years, it looked a whole lot different to what it does now.

We swam two mornings a week at Hall Cross, and swimmer participation consisted of Katie Johnson and me. If you look at Dartes now you can see the drastic developments that have taken place. We now have 5 mornings a week, 5 evening swims and 5 conditioning sessions. The conditioning sessions too have changed, they're a whole lot different to running around Town Fields with Mick chasing the stragglers with a stick!

These huge changes occurred when Roy Sherperdson took over as Head Coach. Although he is no longer involved in the club I would argue that he was one of the best things to happen to Dartes. Not only did he create the perfect environment to enable swimmers to get the very best out of themselves, but he also introduced a sense of discipline throughout the lanes which was enough to make even the most rebellious of swimmers pay attention.

Perhaps the best thing Roy achieved though, was to introduce the club to the fantastic coaching ability of Andy Wallace. Andy started off as Roy's right hand man. Then with Roy's departure, Andy had the mammoth task of salvaging a group of devastated swimmers, continuing the club's development which Roy had started, and proving himself to a group of very unhappy and disillusioned parents.

If you ask me, Andy has managed to do this and so much more. When I was swimming on that recent Saturday morning session, this was so clear to see. He has put together a fantastic group of coaches dedicated to helping the club succeed. He has a great relationship with his swimmers and their parents, and you can see he has the complete respect of everyone involved with the club. On top of all that, he is always willing to expand his knowledge about swimming to enable his swimmers to gain that extra edge.

My reason for writing this article was not to highlight my personal achievements within the club. It was to help you see the huge progressions that Dartes has made over the past 9 years. I hope that speaking as an outsider who has the privilege of training within this set up, I have enabled both swimmers and parents to see the huge advantages training at Dartes can provide. As someone who has trained with elite clubs both all over the UK and in Australia, and across a number of different sports, I've found very few that can challenge Dartes in terms of the quality and availabilty of training and the dedication of its coaches. To anyone who wants to get the best out of themselves, it's right there, handed to you right on a plate. The rest is down to you!

Happy Training :-)

Rebecca's very own website can be found at www.rebeccamilnes.co.uk. Take a look and see what she's been up to recently in the world of triathlon.