Schedule Changes and EKI Weekend

Reminder to all the the new schedule change takes place on Thursday this week. Do not forget.
This week the group with be divided with some at EKI and others getting back into training for the end of season meets.

Thursday: We have Distance swims from Kevin, Ryan, Brendan, Connor, Sarah, Jasmin and Robyn at EKI. James, Liam and Caylee with have practice that night at MP and then come to the meet the next day. All other not in the meet with have regular practice.

Friday: At EKI we have Kevin, Ryan, Brendan, Connor, Sarah, Jasmin, Robyn, James and Caylee. Liam still does not swim at EKI on Friday so can choose to come to the meet for a warm up during finals or practice Friday night. All not in the meet have regular practice with the first half being you helping out with Junior and then a short set after that.

Saturday: All EKI swimmers at the meet. All others no practice.

Double Double Teams!

Congratulations goes out the Yellow Team who pulled out a close victory over team Red and Blue. The overall highlight from the coaches was the excitement about swimming within Silver Tide. We had many great swims that were accompanied with great team support. With new A qualifier Alyssa Byrne, and new B qualifiers Haley W and Marielle Froese leading the way. Along with near A misses from Halle Elford and Liam Strocher. I am sure a few 8 and under club records were broken and maybe a few others. We have to wait for results to come in to be sure. I was most impressed with the appearance of Silver Tide on the pool deck and how enthused you all were to cheer on your team mates.

Double Double Team Challenge

For the Double Double the swimmers from elite, senior development and senior will be divided into teams of 15 and will be competing against one another over the weekend in the areas of appearance, performance and attitude! We will be going over the teams and points on Friday night.

Good luck and have fun!

Swim-a-thon May 10th

Swim-a-thon this year is on May 10th. It is from 6:45- 9:00. Senior Development will be swimming as many lengths in 2 hours as they can, not just the standard 5Km for time. We are going to see who can go the furthest. Remember to eat well that morning to fuel your body for the 2 hours of swimming and also remember your water bottles that have slowly been disappearing from the deck!

Schedule changes to the end of the year

This is the new schedule starting May 1st
Monday: Stays the same with swimming from 3:45-5:30 and then dryland till 6:15
Tuesday: Stays the same with swimming from 3:45- 5:30
Wednesday: Changes: Swimming from 5:30-6:30, Running from 4:00- 5:00, Stretching and Abs on deck from 5:00-5:30
Thursday: Stays the same with swimming from 3:45- 5:30
Friday: Stays the same with swimming from 3:45-5:30 and then dryland till 6:15
Saturday: Stays the same with swimming from 6:45-9:00 and then dryland till 10:00

These changes are because of the summer club joining us in the pool! Welcome back to the new summer club head coach Mike Clark. Any questions please ask.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Kam, Max and Karlyn for being selected to the Alberta Triathlon Team this summer!

Moving Forward

In the next two weeks everyone has a swim meet. It is important that you are at practices everyday. Long course season is a lot shorter and therefore we have less chances to qualify for meets. The whole group is entered into Double Double and for most it is their first long course meet of the year.

EKI is the next weekend and everyone will be swimming that weekend either practices or at the meet. We have Brendan, Connor, James, Kevin, Ryan, Jasmin, Sarah and Robyn qualified for the meet. At that meet it is heats and finals and ALL swimmers are expected to be back for finals each night. Distance events start Thursday and everyone but Ryan has an event that night.

After EKI we head back to training and move onto swim-a-thon, Silver Cup, Red Deer or Cascade, then the provincial meets start. After that there is Age Group Nationals and possibly a meet in San Jose (Far Westerns). Stay tuned for more info to come.

With only a few chances to qualify for that next level it is important to stay healthy and get to the pool everyday.

Stroke Camp

It was a great weekend in Grande Prairie for Syd, Sarah, and Jo this weekend. Along with me we ventured to the IM, breast and distance free camp on Friday to do some great training and to take in as much as we all could. The report from the coaches at the camp was that our three swimmers were all very coachable and should be very excited to swim fast this long course season, each receiving various prizes over the weekend for great skills, leadership and ability to take in new information and apply it to their strokes.

I was very lucky to attend this camp and will be applying the information that I learned within every practice. The main focus of the camp was efficiency and always swimming with good skills all the time. Something that we have been focusing on in practice since the switch of seasons. Also I am going to pass on the information and the execution of the skills but it is up to you as swimmers to use them all the time. I am not in the water for you!

Remember to takes more energy to do a slow turn than a fast one!

Skipping Ropes

Please bring a skipping rope to every practice. Now we will be starting with 5 minutes of skipping along with our regular warm up routine every day. Also on Saturday you will be doing skipping along with running so make sure to have proper running shoes as we will be going outside once the weather is nice enough. By not having proper equipment (shorts, shoes, etc) you are inviting an injury to happen especially since we are at the peek growth time for most of the group.

Also on the equipment note: next year we will be sending out an equipment list for the groups. Some ideas to think about are a pull buoy, paddles (No bigger than one inch bigger than your hand. For most finger paddles will do) and small fins (not zoomers) in a mesh bag.

The trip to Fudruckers.. and the swim meet in Saskatoon

It was a great start to the 2008 long course swim meet season for everyone who attended the meet. Results to come... But from what I saw: Halle, Nicole, Kathleen, Robyn, Josie, Brendan, Robyn, Marielle all posted 100 % best times (7 out of 7). Karlyn, Brea, Erin and Sarah P all had great swims to start the season with a few best times mixed in.

In the Septathalon meet format, the times from all 7 swims are added up to create an overall event winner.

In the 10 and under we had Halle and Josie place in the top 3 with Josie winning the B category and Halle coming 2nd in the C category. In the 11-12 girls Marielle was 2nd in the C category and Robyn was 3rd in the B category. Brendan was first in the B category for 11-12 boys. Karlyn won the 15 and over A category with Brea placing 3rd in the B category.

Not to mention the great swims from Kathleen and Nicole in their first ever long course meet!

Novice Series

Hot from the meet results: Liam qualifies for B's in the 200 IM. While I was not at the meet I heard that it went well and that the relays were an exciting finish to the meet.
Some stats:
5 Best Times: Sarah, Liam, Lauren, Sierra
4 Best Times: James, Kevin
3 Best Times: Jasmin
2 Best Times: Ryan

Way to go! On to long course we go!