Charitable social enterprise Greenwich Leisure (GLL) is at the forefront of an innovative new swimming scheme that is being piloted at the organisation's flagship sports venue - Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

The second Amateur Swimming Association Beacon Swimming Programme took place last week, involving over 85 swimmers from 18 clubs, drawn from across London and the South East.

Designed to improve their Butterfly and Breastroke technique, participating swimmers were coached by Head of Aquatics at Crystal Palace and former Olympic coach, Ron Philpot.

Participants were divided by age with a 9- to 12-year-old group and an over 13-year-old group, each spending four hours a day in the pool.

The pool sessions were then followed by workshops that covered topics such as injury prevention, sports psychology and dry land training.

The Beacon programme was launched in 2009 with the aim of providing consistent training and support to club swimmers and their coaches.

The Crystal Palace initiative aims to enhance the support available to clubs within the region and is structured to provide training from foundation level through to national and international competition.

Commenting on the clinic, coach Ron Philpot said, "The swimmers all found it a tough and challenging day, but each one came away with an idea of how they could improve their technique and most importantly a determination and motivation to achieve their aims in their chosen sport."

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre is managed by charitable social enterprise GLL on behalf of the London Development Agency.