The young swimmers at the BIS Flying Fish club may be spending a lot of time in the water, but it's definitely the skies they're aiming for.

With commendable performances and success in several recent national and international swimming competitions, confidence is high, and training is...rigorous. The dedicated team of competitive swimmers is at the school's swimming pool at 6: 15 in the morning, every weekday, for an hour and half's worth of practice uttil they're off to school. They're back in the pool at 4: 30 pm, for another couple of hours' training.

The Flying Fish club is a completely voluntary organisation, started by parents of students of the BIS school, two years ago.

“We wanted to give our children the opportunity to hone their talents, and be able to cultivate their interest in the sport.” Denise Goetz, secretary of the club told the Phuket Post. “The parents all join in voluntarily, and spend a lot of their personal time overseeing the activities of the club.”

We are seated by the school's pool, watching the young swimmers aged between 6 and 17 swimming their respective routines all long the length of the pool.
“The children choose to be in the club for different reasons. Some join to learn how to swim, some simply for the love of the sport and to be better swimmers, while others are keen to compete at national and international levels,” says Denise. “So we give them exactly what they want.”

“The students that do not wish to compete have a much less strenuous routine, and also train for much shorter periods.” explains Vivian Jumabhoy, committee member. “The ones that are keen to compete stay the entire time and our coaches guide them accordingly.”

There are not many opportunities for the students to compete at the level they would like to on Phuket, and the Flying Fish club was started with the idea of providing the swimmers with this exposure.

Just recently in October, the BIS Flying Fish swim club set off with a squad of 41 swimmers to compete in the annual SWIMFEST meet at the ISB school in Bangkok. Flying Fish were awarded an impressive 4th place overall, even though they competed against squads more than twice their size. Coaches, parents and swimmers are thrilled with the overall result and with the individual performances of all swimmers who managed
amazing “personal bests” over the two days.

The swimmers also came away with a haul of medals and new course records. Just the kind of boost of confidence they need. The exposure allows the team to be aware of the level of competition
outside the state, and to set their goals accordingly.

Helping them achieve these goals are the two coaches at the Flying Fish club. Peter Rothenstein, the coach from Germany, who holds a German national record in the 10x100mtr freestyle that is still unbroken, is excited about the prospects of his wards. “It's a paradise for coaching,” says Peter of working in at the BIS, in Phuket.

“You can kill your students...in a good way, of course” he clarifies, “motivationally. They respond very well to training.”

Oat Sethsothorn, the other coach, has been a Thai national champion swimmer, and knows a thing or two about competitive swimming in Thailand. He also knows quite a bit about coaching international students, have spent time in the US many years ago, on a coaching apprenticeship. “Its great to be able to help these kids get what they want out of this sport,” he says, “of course, the first thing is to teach them to love the sport and enjoy it, and the rest will follow.

“A lot of the children in our club are half or fully Thai, and are eligible to be national swimmers. I would love to help them achieve their goals. Students from other countries also like to be able to compete in their nations, and when we travel abroad, this gives them the opportunity to do so.

“Like on our recent trip to Singapore, a lot of the Singaporean children enjoyed competing in their country.”

Bianca Goetz, 12, is from Singapore, and we asked her what it was like to be in the competitions. “Tough!” she told us. Beating her personal times was what she enjoyed most, “and the medals,” she adds shyly.

Brimming with confidence are the two captains of the Flying Fish club, Karnnika Porter and Gavin Lewis. They have been doing some pretty strenuous practice all the time we've been there, and, according to coach Peter, it's going to get more rigorous.

They take this bit of news quite stoically, focused as they are on their next goal. They're training to compete in the South Thailand trials to be held in Krabi in a few weeks time, and both harbour ambitions to swim for Thailand.

“It gets tougher and tougher with every level of competition,” says Gavin, “but I love the challenge. I like to set new goals after every competition.”

“We're training very hard for Krabi,” says Karnnika, “I want to compete internationally .This is what I want to do, professionally.”

In fact, that's what both the captains are working towards...the Olympics, no less. Without a doubt, they are an inspiration to the youngsters in the team, and the Flying Fish club is all about helping the children achieve their dreams.

Helping the club in its endeavour are principal sponsors, the Yamu and Mr David Bateson. The club is actively looking for more sponsorships, and invite individuals and organisations who would like to help the club to email info@flyingfishphuket.com. Website: www.flyingfishphuket.com