Jasper- Important

Like Matt talked about last night in dry land: Make sure you are well prepared! That means all swim equipment (Swim suits, caps, goggles, fins, pull buoys if you have them), dry land clothes, outdoor clothing, shoes for exercising and playing outside, etc.

Also we are asking you to bring a log book (something to write practices in) for the week.

We leave Millennium Place at 7:30am on Friday December 28th
Arrive home Jan. 5th at Millennium between 6:00-7:00 pm. We will make a call out with a more precise time on our way home.

Local Training Camp

To all those that are not attending Jasper: an email has been sent out with training times. I am writing practices and Ryan, Chelby and Silken will be helping to make sure you are training as hard as you need to. The practices will be at the pool and will be given to you on the days of the practices.

Your camp is as follows:
Friday December 28th from 4:00-5:30pm
Saturday December 29th from 8:00-9:30am
Sunday December 30th 8:00-9:30am
Monday December 31st OFF
Tuesday January 1st OFF
Wednesday January 2nd 4:00-5:30pm Dry land 5:40-6:10
Thursday January 3rd 4:00-5:30pm Dry land 5:40-6:10
Friday January 4th 4:00-5:30pm Dry land 5:40-6:10
Saturday January 5th 7:00-9:00am Dry land 9:10-9:40

Be sure to have proper dry land apparel for the practices.


Work hard! Have Fun! Have a great holidays and I look forward to hearing about it when I am back! We have some big meets coming up right after the holidays so remember it is important to work hard over your school break!

Rockin Time Trial

Thanks to all the parents who helped out at this last minute time trial! It was a huge success for our group. First Josie achieved her 1st A Time in the 100 back even though her goggles were falling off! Way to go! Second Melissa blasted past her B Time and almost got her next age group out of the way! Sierra and Jasmin swam a hard race and just missed their B times but we will get them at Mayflower or Blue Bear!

What a great Saturday Morning!

Time Trial Information Part 2

Hello, the time trial is a go! Sanction approved. Times will count!
If you are not in any of the events you still have practice. You will just have about a 30 min break to cheer on your team mates and then practice will resume! Remember your dry land clothes too!
Here is what I am thinking for events:
In the 400 Free: Melissa, Jasmin, Sierra, Marielle and Liam from Senior Development along with Brooklyn and Matt from other groups.
In the relays: No one from Senior Development
100 Back or 100 Fly: Josie, Robyn and Caylee plus others from Matt or Ryans groups.
50 Free: Sarah plus some from Matt or Ryans groups

This is for qualifying purposes so if I am missing anyone please let me know!
If you are around to time or officiate please show up on Saturday morning!

December 400 Free and other events Time Trial

Hey group!

Important: Dec 15, 2007

What: Time Trial

When: Warm-up 6:50 am

Start Races: 7:45 am

Events: 400 Free (All not qualified for B's), and some other fun ones such as 100 Fly, 100 Back, 200 Medley Relay and 50 Free.
Bring: Team Racing Suits, Towel, Cap, Goggles, and a parent to time or officiate. Make sure to have a good breakfast and a good night sleep before hand! Let's get those standards out of the way now!

Those not in the time trial will still have regular practice.

PCS Recap

It was a great trip to Victoria for the members of Senior Development. While in Victoria we got to see lots of fast racing from the Senior group and other swimmers from within Canada and not to mention a glimpse of the ocean! We saw Nadine make her 1500 Free Senior National Time, Erin make her Western and Brendan and Connor make their 13 year old A times! Way to go! Along with those qualifying swims we had a great weekend as a team finishing in 5 place overall.

Jasmin continued on from last weekend with another 100% best times in all of her swims and a heartbreaking DQ in the 400 free after breaking the 6:00 barrier. Don't worry though we will get it again soon!
Marielle had a a great meet even though battling through a cold and some nose bleeds with big best times in her freestyles and 200 IM.
Caylee showed that hard work has paid off with best times in 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 Fly.
Kevin showed his strengths in all 4 strokes with great IM swims. He also showed he will be a medal contender with a 2:45 200 Back.
Connor showed us big swims in the 400 IM, 200 Fly and 200 Breast while racing himself into a finals at this fast meet!
Ryan decided it is best to swim in circles for his races this weekend. Hmmm I think we will be changing that won't we! He swam to best times in the 200 free and 200 back and pulled out a 33 50 free to anchor the relay!
Brendan swam to an impressive 100 % best times and the proud winner of swimmer of the meet for the group! He got his 13 year old A time in the 200 Fly, made a number of finals and was the winner of the 800 free with a amazing swim at the end of the meet.

Way to go to all the swimmer from the team! It was a great meet and maybe we will have more swimmers from the group attend the next big travel meet!
Thank to Ian and Debbie for being great chaperone's!

On to Christmas Camps we go!

JP Fiset

It was another great meet for Senior Development! We had two club records made by members in the this group with the 11-12 400 Medley Relay (Connor, Brendan, Ryan and Kevin) and the 13-14 400 Medley Relay (Max, Kam, Calvin and Brayden) both setting new marks in these relays. We also saw Lauren and Calvin reach their 400 Free B times qualifying them for Age Group Trials. We also had the following swimmers finish the meet with 100% best times: Brendan, Jasmin, Kam, Kevin, Josie, Connor, and Liam. We had a number of first time swims in the 100 fly, 200 fly, 400 IM, 1500 Free , 800 Free and 400 Free and within these swims we saw great success. As we move onto PCS and Christmas camp we have may swimmers with their eyes on new qualifying times at the A and B level. Let's keep up the great work.

Practice Changes: From Matt

Schedule for those not attending Victoria swim meet
Thursday December 6th no swimming
Friday December 7th no dry land after practice
Saturday December 8th no dry land after practice
Monday December 10th no dry land after practice

During this time there will be workouts left for you to complete by the coaches. Senior you will have 1 lane and Senior Development you will have 2 lanes. There will be a coach there to supervise but they may also be coaching their own group. If you would like to complete some core work on your own in place of dry land it would be encouraged.

Comic

Thank you group for showing this to me!

Group News

With the 5km swim and what has been our hardest week of training under our belts we are now moving onto swim meet season. With JP, PCS and 10 and under series for all of the group it should be a very exciting time! The group had many people rise to the challenges of the week and I am looking forward to another great set of meets!
Keep it up!

Runners, Shorts and T-Shirts

With the season well underway I am sending out this important reminder. We have dry land 3 times a week upstairs. Monday we have abs and plyometric activities, Friday we are doing tumbling and Saturday we are running/ leg exercises or on the bike. I have already stressed the importance of proper equipment such as shorts, t-shirt and runners (with socks). It is still a problem within the group. The reason why we go upstairs it for strength and injury prevention. But to accomplish these I need to see you dressed for the task. If we feel you are not dressed properly for the activity we are going to ask you to watch, which is not simply us being mean but also for your safety. There are many articles about the importance of running shoes in knee and ankle support that I have if you are interested.

Remember your:
SHORTS OR ATHLETIC PANTS (not jeans or khaki's)
RUNNERS AND SOCKS
T-SHIRT

Swimming News.. Canadian Edition

News from my favorite event and someone I used to race:
Audrey Lacroix of Montreal put together the finest short course swim of her career on Wednesday as she won the gold medal in the women’s 200-metre butterfly to conclude the fifth stop on the World Cup swimming circuit.Lacroix clocked two minutes and 04.53 seconds to smash her previous national short course mark of 2:06.90 set at the British Championships in 2004. She also came within 0.49 seconds of the world record held by Yang Yu of China since 2004. In fact, Lacroix appeared headed for the world mark. She was under the record at all three splits (50-100-150 metres).

For Swimming News within Canada, check out www.swimming.ca

Training Camp

Stay tuned for info on Jasper. Matt will be sending it out shortly. Attending from Senior Development is Sierra, Caylee, Max, Kam, Connor and Brendan.

For those who are staying home we are looking at camp either starting on Dec 28 or Jan 2 depending on which coaches are home and how many swimmers are around for the earlier dates. If you are not here for the Dec 28 start please let me know. Stay tuned for more info!

5 KM National Pool Championships

We are planning to take part in the national 5km pool championships in our home pool during practice time Saturday November 17th . Not the whole group will be doing the 5Km but some part of the distance. Please show up on time 6:45 on this day as we need swimmers to be organized for 7.

In the 5 Km are Kam, Max, Calvin, Brendan, Kevin, Caylee and Robyn.
Doing a 3Km or 1500 is everyone else. I will be deciding what distance closer to Saturday. 10 and Unders are for sure doing a 1500.

And with that we need some volunteers. We need 1 chief timer, 1 referee to oversee the event and at least 7 lane timers/counters (preferably 14, 2 per lane).

All swimmer results will be posted on the Swim Canada website and this is a great opportunity to get some more awareness out about the number of strong dedicated athletes that we have in our program.

Poppy Aggregates

10 Years Boys
1. Ryan Schamber

11 Year Boys
1. Kevin Labonte

12 Year Boys
3. Brendan Elford

14 Year Boys
3. Kam King

Poppy Recap:

I would like to congratulate the whole group on a job well done over the long sessions at the pool. We had great swims at the beginning of the session right through to the end of the long days. The whole group was dropping up to 1 minute from swims all over the place.

With 100% Best Times we had Jasmin, Kam, Kevin, Robyn, Liam, Lauren and Melissa with many other just adding time in one or two of their 7 swims. We had Sarah and Josie achieve QT times and both are getting closer to their A times. Lauren, Melissa, Jasmin, Marielle, Sierra and Calvin all inching closer to QT times of their own. Achieving their first B Times in the none QT events was Robyn in the 200 Free and Marielle in the 100 Breast and the Kings qualified for Senior Champs. Also great job to Liam in his first swim meet with the team.

It was a great meet that leaves me very excited for things to come! Thanks to all the parents that helped at the meet and Joe for running such a tight ship when the roof was falling down.

With all these great swims under our belts it is back to practice for the next couple of weeks. That being said we are still going to need to remember that turns are very important and we get chances everyday to work on them. As we move into JP and PCS we will be working on more race specific skills in practice for you to apply in your races.

Keep up the good work.

Warm up and Warm Down

Warm UP and Warm DOWN are IMPORTANT

Warm up is not only in the pool but out of the pool too. We talked about this in dry land on Monday. I am expecting the senior development group to be using their time on deck to improve strength and flexibility with the dynamic exercises we went over with you. Warm-up is one of the most important elements of an exercise program. It is particularly important to prevent injury. The objective of the warm-up is to raise total body temperature and muscle temperature to prepare the entire body for vigorous activity. There is an important difference between warm-up and stretching. Many people stretch and call it warm-up. This is incorrect. It is important to warm-up before stretching. If one stretches the muscles without prior warm-up, the muscles are cold and are more prone to injury, such as muscle tear or strain. Before exercising, begin with a warm-up period to raise the body temperature. You want to get the heart pumping and increase blood flow to the muscles before stretching.

At meets- Warm up
As we are moving to higher levels of swimming it is important that we understand what we need to do before we race. I am going to try and help you set up a warm up that will help you be ready to swim fast! I believe that your warm up should include: swim, kick, drills and some speed play. We will be talking about this more at the up coming meets.

At meets- Warm down
We are starting to gain muscle in our bodies and with this the importance of warming down increases. Warming down provides benefits to the body.
1. Returning heart rate to normal
2. Preventing blood pooling: Along with your heart beating at a higher than normal rate, it's also pumping out more blood. After your race you need to allow the body to cool down so blood will not pool in different parts of the body rather than redistributing.
3. Preventing muscle pain: Your muscles work hard for you during your races. They are tense when you are done and therefore need to be stretched out a bit afterward. Allowing the time to do so can prevent muscle soreness later on.
4. Replenishing your fluids: A lot of natural water can be lost during your workout so it is important to drink some fluids after your workout is complete to help rehydrate the body.

Saskatoon- Saturday Finals and Sunday

The group continued on its successful way. We had great swims from the whole group. The 400 Frees were super fast with Connor getting under 5:20 and Kevin and Brendan improving their best times. Connor got within 2 seconds of his 13 year old A time in the 100 Br.
Sunday was a long day for some of the group. A few had a 400 IM, and 1 or 2 200's stroke. Rather than place emphasis on the results I am going to say that it was nice to see that even though it was the end of our first heats and finals meet I saw everyone putting in 100 % and trying to work on the things that we had learnt about already in the meet. Also the trip to Fudruckers may have been in the back of their minds.

Way to go group! Congrats to Robyn, Ryan, Kevin, Connor, Brendan and Calvin for a great first meet!

Saskatoon- Friday Finals and Saturday Heats

We accomplished what we set out to do every finals.... SWIM FASTER. Every finalist was faster tonight than in the morning. Ryan saw the biggest drop in his 200 IM.

After a long night, we came back and swam amazing 400 frees. Ryan and Kevin got their Youth Recognition times in the 400 free, Robyn followed it up with her 12 year old B time and her first time under 6:00. Calvin swam a big best time and now is only 2 tenths away from his 14 year old B. We saw other best times from Robyn and Connor in the 100 Breast. Robyn, Kevin, Brendan and Connor in the 50 free.

Saskatoon- Distance and Friday Heats

It has been a great start to the meet.
Thursday we had Brendan and Connor in the 1500 free. Brendan took over 2 minutes off his best time to finish in 21:45 and it was Connors first ever and he finished in 22:02. The boys were 1 and 2 in the 11/12 boys.
Friday Heats:
There were a bunch of really great swims this morning. Robyn took 15 seconds off her 200 IM and 6 off her 100 free. Calvin took off 13 off his 200 IM and 5 off his 100 free.
Ryan and Kevin are dominating the 10 and under boys. Both had best times in the 200 IM with Kevin taking off 11 and Ryan 4. Kevin was the lone 10 year old in the 100 fly and he beat his best time by one second. Both were in the 200 Back, with Kevin under 3:00 (11 year old A) and Ryan taking off 7 seconds.
Our 11-12 boys swam tough this morning after their 1500's. Both right on Best Times in their 200 IM and 100 Fly's. Connor was a best time in 100 Free almost getting under the 1:10 barrier. Brendan was under 3:00 in his 200 Back right on his best time.
I am already noticing that we need to work on our skills more! Streamlining 101 to follow the meet!

Off to Finals we go!

Meet Planning

Due to the variety of levels in this group, I am asking that you can give me some kind of idea what meets you are planning to attend. I have emailed to all of you an excel sheet that you can either print off and fill in, or fill in and email back to coach_kellie@silvertide.ca I hope that this will help me plan the season to meet the needs of all the swimmers in the group. Please note that this will not be the means of scratching from a meet, you will still have to watch for the meet info sheets and let Matt know of any cancellations by the deadlines.

If you have questions about the qualifying meets ask your swimmers or me for help. Most of the qualifying meets are either a B level or above.

Climbing the Ladder

The group has started the goal setting for the year (those who were at practice Friday) and we had some education on the levels of swimming. We are focusing in on the B, A, Age Group National and Youth Recognition Standards. Each person in the group has goals that correspond to these standards. We now know about the teams that some swimmers in this group are going to be aiming for such as the 13/14 Dual Meet in Kamloops and the 12 and under North/South Alberta Dual Meet in Edmonton both which are selected at short course provincials.
On the road to these goals I am going to keep reminding you to work on technique, streamlines and turns on every length and off every wall each and everyday.
The last 2 weeks have been about getting endurance and aerobic work into practices. We will continue to increase the aerobic component and add more and more quality work into each practice.

Great Job! Lets Keep it Up!

Trivia #2

What Olympic Qualifying event happened on Sunday? Who were the top Canadians?

Trivia!

There were 3 world records broken over the weekend! What were they???

Congratulations Ryan! The 3 world records were 800 Free at 8:09.68, the 1500 Free at 15:42.39 and the the 800 again at 8:08.00 by Kate Ziegler. These were short course records.

GOAL Sheets

I will be handing out goals sheets for you this week. Please complete them and bring them back to me when you are done so we can go over them.

Practice Changes

If you are not attending Saskatoon, there will be no practice Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be the same swim times, but dryland will be cancelled friday and saturday.

Upcoming Group News

Meets are approaching!
We have Josie at 10 and under series this weekend.
Robyn, Ryan, Connor, Calvin, Kevin and Brendan at Saskatoon the next weekend.

The rest of you are attending our own meet in the beginning of November.

We need to keep working on our skills (streamlining and kicking) each and every day!

Punctuality

It is extremely important for you to try to be at practice 15 minutes before the scheduled time to get in the water. I know that this is hard for some of you during school days but there should be no excuse on Saturday morning.

These 15 minutes are a great time to work on you flexibility that we have all noticed we need to work on.

That being said... Most Tuesdays I will be having Matt start your practice as I am going to be subbing every Tuesday in Leduc/ Beaumont.

I also appreciate all of you that have been letting me know when you are not going to be at practice each week.

Thank you.

If I am subbing...

Hi Senior Development!
Just a reminder if I am subbing in Leduc or Beaumont and might be a few minutes late for practice. If that happens, Matt will get you started on warm up.
I will always be there before warm up is over.

After Practice Snacks

I am going to encourage all of you to pack a healthy snack to help you recover after every practice before dryland or in car on the way home.
Also for our Saturday morning I am insisting that you find some thing that you can eat before you get to the pool that way you will have the energy to get through our 2 hour practice.
We did have a few this week who did not eat before they showed up.

Dryland

All of you need to have proper runners and clothing (shorts and a tshirt) for all dryland sessions. We are in the gym sometimes and we can not be leaving water all over the gym.

National Time Standards

Here are the new 2007-2008 National Time Standards
http://www.swim.bc.ca/admin/docs/Time%20Standards/National_Standards_2007_2008.pdf

Swim Alberta Time Standards are avaliable at
http://www.swimalberta.ca/swimmers/index.htm

Welcome Back!

Hi, to all Senior Development swimmers and families.
I want to thank you for making my first two weeks with Silver Tide great!
I am excited to see what this group can do over the 2007-2008 season.
If you ever have any questions do not hesitate to ask.
We have a number of meets coming up quickly before Christmas. We need to pay attention to the website and make sure to follow those cancellation deadlines!