BLUE ASH YMCA SWIM TEAM
NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 24, 2007
PARENT’S
MEETING SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, 2007
We
will have our Annual Parents' meeting Sunday, September 30th at the YMCA at
6:15 PM in the basement. All families should be represented, usually lasts about
an hour. All new families definitely need to be represented!
MEET SCHEDULE
IS finalized and is now on our website – but it is always
subject to changes!
SWIM CAPS AND COACHING FEES
We still have a few families that have not paid their
initial coaching fees! Please do so quickly!
We will be ordering personalized swim caps for every swimmer
this season- IF fees have been paid- an order will be placed soon. Each swimmer
will get 2 caps with their last names.
TRAINING GROUPS As swimmers get acclimated
into their training groups, we need to remind parents of a couple of items:
1. Our first few weeks, we’ll be emphasizing stroke
improvement through teaching and strokes drill. Training distances will be less
than normal, with emphases being place on correcting stroke mechanics or
learning new techniques.
2. Swimmers must maintain good behavior during their time at
the YMCA. Swimmers on the team are always being looked at and everyone at
the YMCA scrutinizes any misbehavior. Parents observing misbehavior should
bring it to the attention of the coaches or YMCA Staff or try and handle it
themselves.
3. One of our main goals is to be sure all swimmers are
having fun at practice and enjoy practicing.
4. With our system, of offering more practices than swimmers
need to come to, sometimes results in some large groups at some practices. Like
wise, other practices have very small attendance. Therefore, do not judge our
training groups until families sort out the days they’ll be coming to practice.
After a few weeks, practices usually level out.
5. We are also evaluating our swimmers and training groups,
there may be a swimmer or two moved to a different group. We’ll let you know if
that is going to occur.
Parent Information
Please wait until after practice
or before practice to talk to your swimmers’ coach. Please do not take time
away from your Coach and the swimmers during practice since we are limited to a
specific amount of time in the pool to swim. Also, the safety of our swimmers
is important and the coaches need to watch the pool during practice.
Also, parents much watch practice
from the lobbies of the pools. An extra person on the pool deck just adds more
distractions for the swimmers and coaches. We want the swimmers to give their
full attention to their coach during their practice.
Valuables We recommend that swimmers lock their
valuable in a locker at the YMCA. All
swim bags should either be brought on to the pool deck or place in or on top of
a locker. Please do not use benches or counter in the locker rooms to store
your bags.
Practice Schedule
Changes
Every week read this
section of the Newsletter to see if your swimmer's group is affected.
Saturday, September 29 - Elite or Senior
Practices start at 8:00 AM in the Fitness Center, check with your coaches about
Saturday Morning practice each week.
Elite Group's before
school practices will not start until sometime in October.
We have had a good two
weeks in the outdoor pool. Elite
and Senior will continue all practices in the outdoor Pool and hopefully going
until late October outside.
Adv Age will also
continue all practices in the out door pool for a few more weeks, Monday and
Wednesday they will have a dryland activity first, the other days – swimming
only!
Dolphin Group will swim
Tuesday – Thursday – Friday – Saturday practices in the outdoor pool – as long
as it is nice.
KAST-A-WAY NIGHT Thursday, October 4th Kast-A-Way Swim Shop will be at
the Blue Ash YMCA to sell team suits, training equipment and other apparel for
our team. They will be there from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, thus being available for
most practices. Please stop in and get anything you need. New swimmers will be
taken care of by the sales ladies. We our team suit is a Speedo suit –
Endurance training for
the older girls, Eclipse Splice for the younger girls, boys will continue with
a Jammer. The boys and older girls will be a solid, with the younger girls 2
solid colors. These suits should be around for a longer time. We will also
embroider a BASH logo onto the suit (optional).
We are also encouraging
older swimmers to purchase a team warm up jacket. Samples will be available at
the fitting.
TRAINING EQUIPMENT
The coaches of some of
our younger swimmers want their swimmers to purchase fins this season.
This is the equipment
needed by each groups. The YMCA supplies kick boards; pull buoys and some hand
paddles. Older swimmers can purchase their own it they would like.
Junior Team – Goggles with extra goggles in your swim bag
Blue Group - Goggles
with extra in your swim bag
Dolphin Group – goggles and rubber fins
Adv. Age Group – goggles and rubber fins
Senior Group – goggles, swim caps for girls, fins,
snorkel, mesh bag, water bottle
Elite Group – goggles, swim cap for girls, fins, snorkel,
mesh bag, water bottle
All equipment should
have names in permanent markers.
Extra goggles are
recommended for all swimmers – a light color for indoors, a dark color for
outdoors
Swim caps- all swimmers
that use caps should carry an extra or two in their swim bags
Fins – younger swimmers
should get all rubber fins with enclosed foot (no straps).
Coaches can answer
questions on equipment.
USA SWIMMING
REGISTRATION Over the next few week we are going to
register swimmers for USA Swimming. We are a YMCA Team, but we do swim a few
meets that are USA Swimming. The meets are similar, just in a different pool
with different faces. We pick and chose
a few of these meets each year and we are planning on offering more than in the
past. We are planning to swim in the following USA Swimming meets this season–
our December bus trip to Fischers, IN, SwimIndy meet in January and a meet or
two in February (Y meets are limited then) and a few meets in the summer. The
extra fee is $53 (up from past years). We charge your entry account and send in
one check. We recommend all older swimmers sign up and any 12 – 9 year
olds who have competed in pervious YMCA Winter AA Championships. New swimmers
to the team or those that have never competed in the Winter AA meet should not
worry about signing up this season. Anyone signing up now will have his or her
registration last from now till next December 2008. Questions about this should be directed to your coach! We are
doing this on-line so, just inform your coach that you would like to be
included in this registration process.
Our annual bus trip this
December is set – we are going to Fischers Indiana. We will leave the afternoon of December 7th and return late on
Sunday, December 9th after Finals. This is a USA Swimming meet that
requires an extra registration fee. More detail are available from Coach Bill
or Coach Evan and information will be on our website!
Would your company
be interested to place your logo on our team tee shirt for the season?
About 175 tee shirts - cost – is $1 per shirt for a 3 x 3 inch square on the
back of each shirt.
EMAIL FOR COACH BILL Contact Coach Bill at his email address –
CoachBill88@SwimBASH.com or by calling him at the YMCA at 791-5000
between 11 AM – 2 PM weekdays.
Watching Your Child at Swim Lessons or
Swim Practice
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
2101 North Andrews Ave., Suite 107
Fort Lauderdale FL 33311
For
over four years I watched my daughter swim under the direction of other
coaches. I have also watched her at basketball practice and games, and dance,
and figure skating. I know the joy of
watching her in these activities. I
also know and understand the overwhelming desire to direct, correct, encourage,
and sometimes scold my child at practice.
But those are not proper parental behaviors once I have released her
into the care of a coach or teacher. As
a parent, am not to interfere with the practice or attempt to talk to my child
during the practice session.
In
our swim program, we want the child’s attention focused on the coach and the
tasks at hand. Occasionally children
miss an instruction, or have a goggle problem, or are involved in some other
distraction, or are simply playing and having fun – which is all normal
behavior for young children. We view
these little difficulties as part of the learning process and we allow the
children an opportunity to develop the self discipline and self reliance needed
to overcome these difficulties without the help of moms or dads.
We know it is common in many other
youth sports for parents to stand at the sidelines and shout instructions or
encouragements and sometimes admonishments to their children. However, in our swim program we ask you not
to signal them to swim faster, or to tell them to try a certain technique, or
to offer to fix a goggle problem, or to move away for some other “menacing”
swimmer, or even to remind them to listen to the coach. In fact, just as you would never interrupt a
school classroom to talk your child, you should not interrupt a swim practice
by attempting to communicate directly with your child.
What’s
wrong with encouraging your child during practice? There are two issues.
First we want your child to focus on the coach and to learn the skill
for their personal satisfaction rather than learning it to please their
parents. Secondly, parental
encouragement often gets translated into a command to swim faster and swimming
faster may be the exact opposite of what the coach is trying to accomplish. In most stroke skill development we first
slow the swimmers down so that they can think through the stroke motions. Save encouragements and praise for after the
practice session! This is the time when
you have your child’s full attention to tell them how proud you are of them.
What’s
wrong with shouting or signaling instructions to your children? When I watch my 9 year old daughter play in
a basketball league I understand the overwhelming desire of parents to shout
instructions to their children because that is what I want to do. But those instructions might be different
from the coach’s instructions and then you have a confused child. Sometimes you might think the child did not
hear the coach’s instruction and you want to help. Most of us do not want to see our own kids make a mistake. The fact is that children miss instructions
all the time. Part of the learning
process is learning how to listen to instructions. When children learn to rely on a backup they will have more
difficulty learning how to listen better the first time.
As
parents, many of us want our children protected from discomfort and adversity
and we will attempt to create or place them in an environment free from
distress. So, what’s wrong with helping
your child fix their goggles during practice time? Quite simply, we want to encourage the children to become self-reliant
and learn to take care of and be responsible for themselves and their own
equipment. Swimming practice is a
terrific place to learn these life skills.
Yes, even beginning at age 6 or 7.
If you
need to speak to your child regarding a family issue or a transportation issue
or to take your child from practice early you are certainly welcome to do so
but please approach the coach directly with your request and we will
immediately get your child out of the water.
If you need to speak to the coach for other reasons please wait until
the end of practice or call the phone number listed above.
I have
been coaching young children for over 30 years. I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy their enthusiasm and energy
and wonderful personalities. I coach each
of them with care for their safety and concern for their social, physical,
learning skills, and life skills development.
Thanks for bringing your children here as we both teach and direct them
to become more responsible and confident young people.