Good Afternoon,

Thank you all for your patience and flexibility as we tackled our speedy meet assessment and time trials this week. We were blown away by what we saw, and are all very excited to see our swimmers grow this summer!

This week's focus in the pool:

• Speedy Meet Swimmers: This week coaches will continue to introduce and reinforce skills for freestyle and backstroke. For swimmers who show a good working understanding of both free and back, we will begin introducing breaststroke.
• 10 & Under: With only 2 days of practice before our first meet, we will use Wednesday and Thursday to get “meet ready.” We will be working on legal starts, legal and fast finishes, and learn how to have fast and legal relay exchanges.
• 11 & Up: With only 2 days of practice before our first meet, we will use Wednesday and Thursday to get “meet ready.” We will have an extra focus on starts, turns, and finishes, all while continuing to try to build a bit of endurance!

***REQUEST: Please make sure your swimmers are prepared for practice. We expect all swimmers to wear a cap and goggles at each practice. Please consider the following:

• Caps are important because it prevents swimmers from picking up their heads and shaking their heads while swimming. Good technique in swimming involves the whole body–head to toe. When swimmers do not wear caps, they are reinforcing bad habits with head and body positioning when they have to shake their head to get their hair out of their eyes!
• Goggles are important because they maximize visibility. This is important to be able to swim straight, and especially for timing of finishes and turns. Swimmers use visual cues (backstroke flags and the “T” on the bottom of the pool) to judge distance to adjust stroke lengths for proper turns and finishes. If your swimmer struggles with goggles, it might be useful to try different styles. As coaches, we recommend the Speedo Vanquisher goggles. These goggles come with 3 different nose pieces that can be removed/adjusted to allow for the perfect fit on your swimmer’s face.
• Swim Suit: Please encourage your swimmer to wear a swimsuit meant for competitive swimming. In particular, we discourage boys from wearing swim trunks. Many times these are loose and swimmers break their streamline when pushing off the wall or diving in to pull up their swim trunks and tighten the waist. A jammer will stay in place and allow your swimmer to focus on swimming and technique.

This week’s schedule:

• Monday, 5/27: No Practice - Memorial Day
• Tuesday, 5/28: No practice due to FRIGID temperatures
• Wednesday, 5/29: Practice 6:00-8:00
• Thursday, 5/30: Practice 6:00-8:00
• FRIDAY, 5/30: FIRST SWIM MEET AT WYNFIELD (details below)

Upcoming Meets:

• Friday, 5/30: HOME MEET vs. Highland Creek. The declaration window for swimmers is closed. Any swimmer who has NOT been declared as “attending” will NOT be entered in the meet. If there are changes to your swimmer’s availability AFTER the declarations window has closed, please contact the coaches AS SOON AS POSSIBLE by emailing to [email protected]. I will send out more meet specific details later this week, but please plan for a long, fun-filled evening. Swimmers will arrive no later than by 4:45. Warm-ups will begin at 5:00pm. The meet will begin at 6:00 pm, and will end no later than 10:00pm. *I will send out detailed meet information Thursday afternoon.
• Thursday, 6/5: Meet @ River Run (Athletes need to be declared as ATTENDING or NOT ATTENDING no later than SUNDAY, June 1st.)
• Saturday, 6/7: FIRST speedy meet of the season @ Peninsula