The Annual Summit is an opportunity for BC's artistic swimming athletes, coaches, officials, and administrators to come together and share ideas, best practices, and technical knowledge.
Although the global pandemic has impact the sport sector in many ways, it also created the conditions to step back and evaluate how we deliver artistic swimming. In doing so, we've explored delivery models that nurture equity, diversity and inclusion and alternative ways to train and support each other. In many ways, we've gone back to basics!
The 2021 Back to New Basics Summit will allow us to collectively explore opportunities to share and consider successful practices for delivering artistic swimming through a holistic lens that will shape our sport delivery for the future!
Welcome Back to the New Basics!
Please click on the image below to see the full schedule of activities and facilitated sessions.
Once again, individuals will register themselves for the Summit using the BCAS 2021 Back to New Basics Registration Form. Clubs are not required to compile their club registrations into one submission.
BC Artistic Swimming is very pleased to announce that again this year BCAS members can participate in the 2021 Summit at no cost and you are welcome to participate in as many sessions as you like! Please click on REGISTER NOW below.
Please register by October 14th to secure your spot!
Register NoW
In this session, Olympian and Senior National Team member, Claudia Holzner, will lead athletes through a yoga session that will provide techniques and activations that will support their artistic swimming training. The session will also include a question and answer period with Claudia.
Coaches are invited observe or participate in this session. Athletes must have a person in the room with them if they are participating from their home.
Facilitated by a member of Motivate Canada's viaYOUTH Pro program, this session will explore how youth can support youth in having a voice and being heard.
Breath Control Training is scientifically proven to maximize artistic swimming performance – safely, effectively and in the shortest possible time frame while reducing the risk of injuries.
This session will explore the science behind the breath. We will perform exercises to optimize the biochemistry and biomechanics of our breath in order to boost performance while increasing safety. This session will also help athletes explore the physical and mental performance benefits of breath control training which include:
In this session, nutritionist, Sydney Shindle, will cook a breakfast of champions with the athletes while providing them with health and nutrition information and guidance. Put on your apron and get ready to create a winning meal in the kitchen!
SLIDE DECK
For the last 2 years, BC Artistic Swimming has engaged its board, staff and members in a culture change initiative called EVOLVE. In this session, BCAS Executive Director, Jennifer Keith, will present the findings from the 18-month EVOLVE initiative delivered in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and with the generous funding from Sport Canada's Innovation Fund.
We will also learn more about the national initiative RISE UP, Canada Artistic Swimming's action plan for a safe and inclusive environment and their commitment to reviewing their practices, creating new standards, and embracing change.
WATCH RECORDING
Join us for the annual review of the 2021-2022 Technical Package. Learn more about the rule changes that affect the delivery of artistic swimming this year and how events and competitions will be managed under the pandemic restrictions.
What would happen if coaches from across BC conspired to support each other? What if coaches shared best practices, tips, tricks, and drills that have been proven to get the most out of athletes, help with corrections, and keep training fresh? Let's find out!!!
The Epic Drill Swap will allow artistic swimming coaches throughout BC to put their heads together to and to share their 'secrets'. Facilitated by Sport Services Coordinator, Disa Fladmark, this session will include a video clip followed by break-out sessions where coaches can discuss and share strategies to improve the performance or address corrections.
Build your network, support one another and have some fun working with coaches you may not often confer with in your artistic swimming community. Come prepared to share!
This panel discussion will look at how safe sport intersects across many facets of our sport and provide you with information and practical tips on how to create a fun, safe, open and welcoming environment that nurtures diversity, equity and inclusion for everyone. From the BC Universal Code of Conduct to inclusive leaders and creating safe and welcoming spaces for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, we all have a role to play in how artistic swimming is delivered in BC.
Facilitated by BC Artistic Swimming Director, Elise Fagnan, each panelist will bring their experience and knowledge to the session sharing practical information to support program delivery. We are pleased that the following panelists will join Elise on this journey:
Facilitated by BC Artistic Swimming Sport Development Director, Tanya Magee, this session will involve a deeper dive into Appendix P of the 2021-2022 Technical Package to review the land skills judging criteria. Tanya will be supported by member of the BC Officials Committee and the session will include an open forum for discussion about the judging criteria and what the judges will be looking for during competitions.
Our BC Officials Committee have been hard at work during the off-season! A topic that arose from our 2020-21 season of virtual competitions was the need for standardized routine feedback that is meaningful for coaches and athletes. Join members of the BCOC - Anne-Marie North, Christina Demiris and Lisa Balcombe - as they share their work in this area and consult with coaches to ensure routine feedback supports their needs.
Join Kara Heald, Artistic Swimming Program Manager and FINA Innovation Committee member, to learn about the new FINA Judging System that will go into effect in the summer of 2022 and how it will positively impact our sport.
Join Certified Nutritional Practitioner and former artistic swimmer, Sydney Shindle, for an in depth look at RED-s - an updated and more comprehensive version of the female athlete triad.
Energy deficiency can not only affect athletic performance, but can result in downstream consequences at the physiological level, in both the short term and long term. We will explain how to identify the signs of RED-S, why avoiding RED-S matters and how to encourage adequate nutrient consumption by avoiding traditional methods like calorie counting. You will leave this session with a clear understand of what RED-S is, as well as how to support your athletes by encouraging adequate energy consumption based on their unique needs.
Your BC Officials Committee has been hard at work addressing the details to best support athlete and coach development in BC. Join members of the BCOC - Anne-Marie North, Christina Demiris and Lisa Balcombe - as they share the work they've been doing to create standardized routine feedback.
Andrea is the new Safe Sport Manager with viaSport where she is responsible for the implementation of the Safe Sport Initiative, dispute resolution management, and supporting work that fosters a positive culture and relationships.
Andrea has been working in the sport sector for over 20 years in Great Britain, Switzerland, and Canada, including three Olympic Games. She has a Masters of Science in Exercise Physiology from UBC as well as a Certificate in Organizational Coaching from UBC. Her career has progressed from being a Performance Scientist for British Cycling, to consulting, to being Head of Science, Medicine, and Innovation for Cycling Canada. She experienced sport as a ballet dancer and a rowing coxswain (who she then coached). She brings this experience with her to the role of Safe Sport Manager with the aim of making sport a positive and healthy experience for everyone. Her hobbies include street photography and adventures.
The BC Official Committee is a Special Committee that oversees the Officials Certification Program and ensures professional development opportunities are available for judges and referees. The committee also creates training materials, tracks statistics, evaluates officials, and trains and oversees deck volunteers.
The BCOC also works with BC Artistic Swimming, coaches and officials across Canada and around the world to support the sport of artistic swimming and the holistic development of athletes at all levels of the long-term athlete development pathway.
Members of the BCOC include:
Christina Demiris Anne-Marie North Debbie Provencher Lisa Balcombe Madeleine Ramsay Sharon Devana Carol Stewart
Christine is a first generation immigrant settler who moves through the world as a nonbinary, genderfluid, queer woman of colour. They've been a lifelong multi-sport athlete whose work lies particularly within the 2SLGBTQI communities using anti-oppression framework, to make sports and physical activities more accessible for underrepresented marginalized populations. This work includes ensuring that mainstream athletic spaces can strive to be safer and more inclusive for everyone from a trauma-informed and harm reductive lens. They are a certified learning professional, healing-centred/body positive movement coach, and physical and health educator for children, youth, and adults. Christine is currently working as an equity, diversity and inclusion learning consultant who designs, develops, and delivers adult learning / workplace training and designs and facilitates strategic planning on EDI. Specifically in the sports context, they were one of the founders and previous chair of Flags of Glory and currently sits on the Sports Inclusion Task Force as one of the coordinating member working to strive for 2SLGBTQI inclusion in sports across Canada. They have worked with sport organizations including the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports, Canadian Association of Coaching, and often support physical educators who are coaches working in schools and those running queer recreational sports leagues.
(Photos courtesy of Canada Artistic Swimming)
Claudia Holzner has been training and competing in the sport of Artistic Swimming for 19 years and has represented Canada at International events around the world for the past 12 years. This summer Claudia competed at the 2020 Olympic Games where she placed 5th in the world alongside her duet partner Jacqueline Simoneau and placed 6th in the team event! She is a 3-time Pan-American Games champion, winning gold at both Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019 in the team event, as well as gold at Lima 2019 in the duet event with her partner Jacqueline Simoneau. Claudia has also competed for Canada at 4 FINA World Championships including Barcelona in 2013, Kazan in 2015, Budapest in 2017 and Gwangju in 2019. During the pandemic, Claudia completed her 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training as a way of calming her mind during the uncertainty of what was happening in the world. She is now attending Concordia University in Marketing, teaches yoga online and also works part time with CAN Fund – a nonprofit organization that helps fund the athletes that compete for Canada!
Disa joined the BCAS staff in August 2019 and fills the role of Sport Services Coordinator where she supports the delivery of all BCAS programs and manages events and competitions. She is a long-standing member of the association bringing experience as an athlete, coach, official, and administrator.
Disa began her artistic swimming career in the mid 90’s when she joined her first competitive team, working her way up to the senior level where she swam a senior solo with the Coquitlam Coralinas. Having coached her first recreational team in 1999, she has been coaching for more than 20 years working with athletes of all levels and abilities. Through Disa's leadership and guidance, her teams have had many podium performances at provincial championships and she has nurtured athletes to success at national competitions. She has also continued her journey as an athlete competing in Masters’ events since 2001 and became a Level 2 trained judge in 2018.
Disa is a certified Competition Development coach and recently completed her Advanced Coaching Diploma with the Canadian Sport Institute. She completed her Masters in Professional Communication in 2015 receiving recognition for research challenging the current framework of sports in Canada and the limitations it places on the female athlete.
Elise is a Competition Development Certified coach with a diploma in Kinesiology. She recently completed her Bachelor of Nursing Degree at UBC and now works at the BC Children’s Hospital.
Elise has coached at all levels of the sport, including recreational, provincial stream, national stream, and masters’ as well as at the BC Summer Games. She competed with Vancouver Pacific Wave for ten years and currently competes as a competitive Masters athlete for Vancouver Masters Synchro. Elise competed at the 2019 Canadian Masters Championships in Quebec City in the Duet events and won a Gold medal with her team in the Combo event.
Elise has been a member of the on the BC Artistic Swimming Board since 2015 and is currently a member of the Governance & Nominations Committee. She has also previously served as Chair of the Sport Development Committee.
Jennifer holds a business degree specializing in Marketing as well as a post-graduate diploma in sports administration and has worked in the Canadian sport sector for more than 23 years.
Jennifer has worked within the Long-Term Athlete Development framework since 2002 leading one of the initial pilot initiatives and has worked with sport organizations to redesign their delivery models and streamline operations. As a Club Excellence facilitator, she has worked with a number of organizations across Canada helping them to improve their governance and operations with the primary goal of spending more time and energy fulfilling the needs of athletes rather than managing administrative issues.
For 10 years, Jennifer’s work focused on supporting sport delivery across Canada that follows an ethical and values-based pathway ensuring a positive experience for all. She has worked with the True Sport Foundation and Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport using sport as a platform to deliver educational programs broaching subjects such as ethical decision-making, body image and appearance and performance enhancing drugs. Today, she is a certified True Sport Champion using her professional and personal platforms to nurture a good sport experience for all.
Jennifer also served on the BC Soccer Women’s World Cup Legacy Committee, the New Westminster Soccer Club Development Committee and club executive, and was a member of the viaSport Safe Sport Working Group. She also provided support within her community to the PLAY New West initiative.
Currently, Jennifer is the Executive Director of BC Artistic Swimming and takes on additional sport consulting work from time to time. She lives in New Westminster with her husband, 11-year old step-daughter and 5-year old daughter and coaches soccer and ringette.
Kara is the Artistic Swimming Program Manager for Canada Artistic Swimming. With a passion for the advancement of sport and athlete and coach development Kara has contributed to athlete and coach development in the sport of artistic swimming in an administrative role since 2003. Kara holds an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a certified Competition Development Coach and Master Coach Developer through the National Coaching Certification Program of Canada.
In her role with Canada Artistic Swimming Kara is responsible for the Coach Development and Coach Developer pathways, the AquaGO! program, managing artisticswimmingcoach.ca, is the CAS performance analyst, supports officials, provides athlete development/talent ID support to the CSO and is sitting on the FINA Innovation Committee providing support on the implementation of the new judging system.
Lindsay is a member of the Board of Directors of Canada Artistic Swimming (CAS) and the Chair of the CAS Rise Up Management Committee. Lindsay is serving her second term as a CAS Director but has been involved in artistic swimming for over 25 years as an athlete, a coach, a club head coach, a provincial team coach, and now a University program head coach. Outside of artistic swimming Lindsay is a professor of Kinesiology at McGill University where she leads a research program focused on supporting participation in physical activity and sport among people who face disproportionate barriers to accessing and maintaining participation in those spaces.
Motivate Canada is a charitable organization specializing in Youth-Driven Development™ – a unique youth-social impact framework that unlocks the innovation potential of young people while inspiring them to create positive change within and for their communities.
viaYOUTH Pro is a roster of qualified Youth-Driven Development™ professionals, specializing in motivational speaking, facilitation and mobilizing youth-led innovation.
Breaker of world records, bearer of much medal hardwares, and holder of world, continental, and national titles. Ness Murby is a dual national born in Melbourne (Australia) and a Canadian Paralympian. A versed traveller, currently residing in Vancouver BC, Ness has lived in Australia, England, Hong Kong, and Japan and journeyed well beyond.
Born with a rare congenital condition affecting his vision, Ness is no stranger to adapting or proactively pushing against prejudice for “a fair go”. With a career that’s spanned continents and sectors alike, Ness has an expanding list of credentials. Be it from his first degree in industrial design or his present field of Mental Health, he believes in facing obstacles and forging beyond them. He works to be a catalyst for change. In 2020 he co-founded TougherThan.com, a platform for challenging the comfort zone and exploring the mechanics of mindful impact and personal growth.
He’s represented three countries in three sports. Tokyo, Japan, however, was the genesis of his world sporting “career” and formative life lesson — the challenge is always with yourself. Following the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, he immigrated to The Pacific Northwest in 2012 to make British Columbia home. Since 2015 he’s represented Team Canada and is currently ranked in the top 8 for Blind (F11) Discus.
Ness came out publicly as transgender in 2020. There has never been an openly transgender athlete at the Paralympic Games. Now the first Athletics Canada national team member and Canadian Paralympian openly out as trans, his work in DEI advocacy is far from over. Ness advocates “there is enough room for all of us”.
Sidney is a Certified Nutritional Practitioner and a lead faculty member at IHN, the Institute of Holistic Nutrition. She runs a private practice both in person and online and leads corporate seminars in nutrition and wellness. She has decade of national level coaching experience and 5 years of experience in health and wellness. Sidney believes that by providing the right knowledge and tools, clients are able to develop and sustain their own foundation of good health. In her spare time she enjoys whipping up healthy gluten-free treats, tasting local fare on her travels and visiting sandy beaches around the world.
Tanya began her swimming career at the age of 6 with the Coquitlam Coralinas and was first selected to Team Canada at 15. She competed on the National team for 7 years, living in Montreal and training at the Centre of Excellence. Her budding coaching career started when she was 14 and she continues to coach with the BC Aquasonics. She has also coached for Dollard Synchro in Montreal, was an Apprentice Coach for the National Team in 2008, and Team BC Assistant Coach for the 2011 Canada Winter Games Team.
Tanya is a Chartered Professional Coach and holds an Advanced Coaching Diploma. She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education and Coaching. Her decision to pursue coaching and sports as a profession has allowed her to combine my two passions in one career: teaching and artistic swimming.
Tanya is the Sport Development Director and High Performance Coordinator with BC Artistic Swimming where she supports sport development at the grassroots and for the provincial Ignite program. She is a mom of two daughters, Rya and Addisyn, and can be found watching her kids participate in one of their many sporting activities!
Tyler Huston is a Respiratory Specialist, Nurse, First Responder Paramedic, Performance Coach and Director of Breath Control.
Tyler has spent years working with athletes and clients within community, sporting organizations, clinical rehabilitation and hospital settings. Tyler has collaborated with Medical Experts, Professional Athletes and Coaches, Military and Special Forces Trainers and Personnel, as well as First Responders to develop the Breath Control Training (BCT) Program.
The Breath Control Training (BCT) program is scientifically proven to maximize sports performance – safely, effectively and in the shortest possible time frame while reducing the risk of injuries.
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