Waverunners,

I am including the morning practice schedule for Monday-Thursday moving forward in the AM (mornings). This starts tomorrow, Thursday 05/22. We will host practice on Monday, although we know it is a holiday and know that some may have plans.

Morning Practice Schedule:

Starting Thursday, 05/22, we will begin morning practices Monday - Thursday. Here is the schedule for those practices by time and age group:

• 7-8 AM: 15 & Up
• 8-9 AM: 13/14
• 9-10 AM: 11/12
• 10-10:45 AM - 9/10
• 10:45-11:15 AM - 7/8
• 11:15-11:45 AM - 6 & Under

Fun Friday and Stroke Clinics: 

We will host Fun Friday as we typically do! Coach Jenna and Zach will host stroke clinics from 9-10 AM and we will have fun Friday from 10-11 AM after every meet. We know how much this fun hour means to our swimmers so we will continue to host it! This will start after the first home meet. We will announce the stroke clinics schedule and which strokes will be covered each week the week of each clinic. These are meant for swimmers who need more help with that particular stroke.

First Swim Meet:

We need everyone RSVP for the first meet by this Friday. This will help the coaches seed the meet! I will send a full meet Q&A this weekend for you to review! Directions for RSVP are below in the previous week’s emails.

Previous emails’ info below:

Competitive Swimming 101:

Competitive swimming comes with extensive technique and terminology, and it can be overwhelming learning this while also in the water. It may be helpful to go over these videos and terminology at home, so that your athlete can be more prepared at practice.

This is a reminder of the requirements for each age group for competition:

• 10 and under swimmers: the athlete will be able to complete 25 yards of all four strokes legally, a 100 yard Individual Medley (all four strokes together), and 50 yard freestyle
• 11 and up swimmers: the athlete will be able to swim 50 yards of all four strokes legally, 100 yard IM and 100 yard freestyle

These are the four kinds of swimming techniques that swimmers will be competing in. Please watch these with your swimmers to get to know what they will be introduced to.

• Freestyle (FR)
• Backstroke (BK)
• Breaststroke (BR)
• Butterfly (FL)

As we begin prepping for swim meets, we will place swimmers in the events that they can legally do, so it is vital to put in the work at home as well as in the water!

Basic Swimming Terminology:

• Bilateral Breathing: Typically, this means breathing every 3 strokes, but it can refer to any breathing pattern in which you breathe to the left AND to the right
• BK: Backstroke
• BR: Breaststroke
• Breakout: How you reach the surface after a start or push off
• Build: Increase speed throughout swim. Easy at the beginning, building to fast at the end while still maintaining good technique
• DPS: Distance per stroke. The distance you travel during one stroke
• FL: Butterfly
• FR: Freestyle
• IM Order: Individual Medley Order is the order that all four strokes must be swam in. Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle
• KOB: kick on back in streamline
• Pull out: The underwater pull and kick in breaststroke
• Set: the practice assignment
• Streamline: The push off and diving position

Positive Attitude & Willingness to Try New Things:

We know that so much of what we do is new to our swimmers. All we ask is that we encourage them to try new things, have a positive attitude, and try their best. Likewise, we have a great tradition of sportsmanship and team chemistry over the past 41 years at Waterton, and it starts with our individual families trusting our coaches.

Coach Jenna and Zach have ample experience at the year-round, high school, middle school, and lessons levels for coaching swim. They will place your swimmer in the best position to experience success, we as parents (I include myself here) need to be patient with the process.

Nutrition & Stretching:

As with any sport, nutrition is a key part of prepping your body to practice and complete. Along with bringing your hydration and healthy snacks every day to the pool, making sure your swimmer is well fed and hydrated prior to practice will help them take on the full body exercise that competitive swimming provides them.

Lastly, some basic stretches prior to arriving at the pool and once they get home will help swimmers avoid cramps, aid their performance, and improve their recovery.

**ALL INFORMATION BELOW THIS IS FROM OUR PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS**

The official schedule has been released on our website and all meets are open for you to RSVP and sign up for volunteer spots!Let’s try and get those in now! Some side notes:

• Our senior meet is on the second home meet, third week of the season, because we know a lot of people usually are out that last week!
• We will be announcing our meet themes soon!

How to RSVP & sign up for volunteer spots:

From the website:

• On the right-hand side of the page, you will see our upcoming swim meets. Click on a swim meet, select “Meet Entry”
• If you are not logged in, it will ask you to log in (this is with the email you used at registration)
• Once you are logged in, it will have your swimmers there. Simply select if they will attend or not
• Once you have selected this, you will be prompted to signup for volunteer spots

From the SwimTopia App:

• If you are part of multiple SwimTopia accounts, make sure you are in Waterton :)
• From the Home Screen, you can select the upcoming swim meet at the bottom, then under attendance declare each of your swimmers individually
• You can then sign up for volunteer slots under “Meet Sign Up”

Reminder: you are required to do a certain number of shifts per season, but we all end up doing more because of the size of our team. Please be a good team player and step up to help when it is needed.

Fun Fridays:

New this year: we will only be hosting Fun Fridays on Friday mornings after HOME swim meets. This is to give our coaches and head volunteers time to prepare ribbons properly.

For our new families, Fun Fridays are a quick celebration on Friday mornings where the team comes to get their ribbons, get some breakfast snacks, and play with their friends.

Online Team StoreYou can also find this link on our website.

Parent FAQ Page for Swimsuit Fitting

Team Handbook - Goes over volunteer positions, expectations, etc

Afternoon Practice Schedule:

As mentioned at registration, our afternoon practices will run from 05/12 - 05/20 on Monday-Thursday. Here is what that schedule looks like by time and age groups:

• Monday/Wednesday
  • 4 PM - 15 & Up
  • 5 PM - 6 & Under
  • 6 PM - 11/12
• Tuesday/Thursday
  • 4 PM - 9/10
  • 5 PM - 7/8
  • 6 PM - 13/14

We will not have practice on Wednesday, 05/21 for the last day of school.

Morning Practice Schedule:

Starting Thursday, 05/22, we will begin morning practices Monday - Thursday. Here is the schedule for those practices by time and age group:

• 7-8 AM: 15 & Up
• 8-9 AM: 13/14
• 9-10 AM: 11/12
• 10-10:45 AM - 9/10
• 10:45-11:15 AM - 7/8
• 11:15-11:45 AM - 6 & Under

Meet Schedule:

Our swim meets are on Thursday evenings starting May 05/29 at 6 PM. Here is the schedule in the meantime for our home and away meets:

• 05/29 vs Cooper’s Pond (Home)
• 06/05 @ Parkview Poolcats (Away)
• 06/12 vs Rivermist (Home - Senior Night)
• 06/19 @ Hanary West (Away)
• 06/26 @North Forke Plantation (Away)

What to have on hand:

Swimmers are expected to have the following items with them (they are provided a team t-shirt and swim cap for swim meets):

• 2-3 competition goggles - must wear at all times in the pool
• 2-3 practice swim caps - must wear at all times in the pool
• Practice swim suit (not a play suit, but a competition suit) on to swim in and a back up pair - must wear at all times in the pool
• Multiple towels
• Hydration items (water/gatorade)
• Snacks (kids burn a lot of calories!)