Dear Parents and Swimmers,

I hope you have all had a great weekend! Congrats to all swimmers who are finishing up school this week, and especially to all those graduating and/or moving up to Middle School, High School, and beyond!  I've kept emails fairly short this season, but this one promises to make up for it!  Please make sure your read all sections that are relevant to your family (regular vs speedy meet swimmers), as there is important information about both upcoming meets in this week's email.  

Re-cap from last week:

I want to thank all of the parents who helped with our Speedy meet assessment and our annual Time Trials. Both events ran smoothly, in large part due to your help and support!  Last week we focused on the basics of all 4 strokes.  For our younger swimmers we are still focused on body positioning and breathing.  For our older swimmers we added a focus on turns.   

Practice this week: Our focus this week will be on breaststroke, starts, and turns.  

Monday and Tuesday:  Normal practice schedule

Wednesday:  PICTURE DAY. We WILL have practice.  Wednesday's schedule is as follows:

• Individual pictures start at 5:15.
• Speedy Meet practice 5:30-6:00.
• Team picture at 6:00.
• 10 & under practice following team picture until 6:45.
• 11 & up practice from 6:30-7:30

Thursday:  NO PRACTICE--1st REGULAR SWIM MEET OF THE YEAR!!!

Important announcements for swim meet:

• Thursday 6/6(Wynfield @ Northstone). 
• Address:  15801 Northstone Drive, Huntersville, 28078
• 5:00-5:15pm: Arrive and check-in with coaches.   Each swimmer will always check in with the same coach, split alphabetically by last name as follows: Coach Emily: A-B; Coach Dylan: C-D; Coach Riley: E-G; Coach Bri: H-L; Coach John: M-P; Coach Tiffany: Q-Z. PLEASE help us by knowing and reminding your child which coach to check in with.  As the visiting team we will warm-up from 5:30-5:55. The meet will begin at 6pm.
• Before you arrive (or, if you need assistance, when you arrive) be sure to mark your child's arm with their events, heats, and lanes. This helps the swimmers, the child gatherers, and the coaches make sure we get the right kids in the right place. It is also helpful for younger children to have their name and age marked on their right shoulder. Instructions for how to mark your child's arm are in the "FAQ" section of the "about" tab on the team website. 
• Please help your child set up a space in our team area. We really need parental support for this. It is very important that swimmers sit together to support each other and to make sure they don't miss an event.
• Swimmers will need to wear their team suit tomorrow. Don't forget to bring team caps, goggles, several towels, and healthy snacks--and water! Parents and other visitors might want to bring extra chairs as well! See the FAQ section of the team website (under the "about" tab) for ideas for snacks. 
• Parents who are volunteers--thank you for making these meets possible! Please do your best do be on time, as the first meet is always a bit tricky as people figure out their roles! 
• Heat Sheets for each meet will be posted on the Wynfield Waves website under the "meet entries 2019" tab. Thursday's heat sheet will be posted as soon as it becomes available, most likely Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.  If you want a hard copy for the meet you should print these from home. A huge thanks to Lisa and Jenny for making this happen!
• RELAYS: In an effort to maximize the number of relays we have and to give all swimmers a chance to swim in a relay, I may sometimes opt to "swim up" some of our swimmers. Thus, an 8 year old might find themselves on a relay with 9/10 year olds, or a 12 year old might be swimming with 13/14 or even 15/18 year old swimmers. Please know that when I make these decisions I do my best to respect the level that each swimmer is at. I hope these relays offer a chance for swimmers to get to know each other a bit better. Please know that I will not swim a 9/10 swimmer up (since that would mean swimming 50's instead of 25's) unless I have cleared such a change with the swimmer and parent(s). If you ever have a question or concern about this, please let me know!
• *Meet Sign-outs: If your child will NOT be swimming on Thursday, please sign them out no later than Monday at 6pm. I will be finalizing meet entries Monday evening, and it is important that I have the correct swimmers marked to put together relays.
• I will be at the pool before practice all week and will gladly answer any lingering questions you may have!
  

Friday:  NO PRACTICE.

Saturday, 6/8:  Speedy Meet @ River Run

• Address:  18801 Greyton Lane, Davidson, 28036
• Arrive by 8:30 so that we can make sure all swimmers are labeled, warmed-up, and ready to go for our 9:00am meet start time.
•  Make sure your kids eat breakfast. Fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels, etc. are all good choices. Try to avoid anything too heavy on the tummy! 
• Don't forget to bring the following:
  • team suit (already on)
  • cap and goggles
  • water bottle
  • 2 towels
  • sunscreen
  • optional: deck chairs for parents
• Upon arrival parent volunteers will check in with Heather in the morning. Swimmers will gather with the coaches.
• Speedy meets to not require us to register swimmers ahead of time, so we will line students up to swim in the morning. The events will run in the following order: 25 Freestyle, 25 backstroke, 25 breaststroke, 25 butterfly. Swimmers may swim in all 4 events, or they may choose to swim only the events they feel comfortable with.
  If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected].

A few more items to keep on your radar:

1.  PLEASE look at your calendars and sign your swimmers out of any meets that conflict with other summer plans. This is VERY IMPORTANT as the entry of 1 swimmer directly affects how a number of other swimmers are placed in relays. The sign out form can be found on the team's website or by following this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepvF3VSMNvFH_ytCtGES4ZjCWZeQS8N739CIHQcu_Fa9ub6g/viewform

2. Illness: If your child is sick, please follow school procedures of being at least 24 hour fever/vomit free before allowing himģher to return to practice. This helps to not spread illness, but is also in the best interest of the recovering swimmer.

3. Severe weather: If we are at the pool and have to stop practice, we need to clear the pool AND the deck. Please help us with this by gathering your belongings and children as quickly as possible.

4. During meets, please make sure that your child stays in or near the team area.This helps child gatherers and coaches! Sometimes swimmers get sick and we have to make a last minute change to a relay, and we need to be able to go to the swimmer area and quickly locate whoever we might be looking for!

5. During meets (and practices) we kindly request that parents cheer, motivate, double check that their child is drinking plenty of water, etc. However, please try to refrain from coming behind the blocks or coaching from the side. I know this can be hard, especially if your volunteer job puts you behind the blocks, but we ask that you do your best to honor this request. Sometimes there are lane and heat changes that only coaches and meet officials are aware of, and once swimmers are behind the blocks, they need to be listening to the coaches. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

I hope you all have had a good weekend, and I look forward to seeing you this week!

~Coach Tiffany