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OFF
THE BLOCKS
October 2009
E-mail: bendswim@coinet.com
541-317-8462
In
This Issue
Head
Coach’s Corner
Shane’s
Turn
Kendra’s
Report
Jeff’s Rundown
HEAD
COACH’S CORNER
It’s the
end of October and we’re already two competitions into the
season. I want to
thank everyone that took part in the 27th Annual
Blue-White Intrasquad Meet, which was won by the White team by 40
points. We are
carrying over 180 swimmers in the program, which is where we hope
to stay from now on, as all groups are at capacity.
I want to take
this opportunity to welcome all our brand new swimmers to the Bend
Swim Club:
Alyssa
Almand
Blue
Jesse Bandy
Blue
Josh Bandy
Bronze
Meghan Barrett
Red
Merritt
Bjork
Red
Shae Boos
Blue
Lance
Borgers
Red
Eleanor Brownlee Blue
Lily
Chrisman
Blue
Avery Cloninger
Blue
Olivia
Cloninger
Blue
Ben Dillard
Red
Brandon
Dougherty
Blue
Elliyana Ferrin
Blue
Chyna Fish
Bronze
Kellie Foley
Silver
Leslie
Foley
Silver
Cole Fuller
Blue
Marc
Grignon
Red
Zach Griswold
Red
Emma
Hakala
Red
Laura Harrell
Bronze
Anna
Hornbeck
Red
Chiara Iovino
Red
Cybele
Jung
Blue
Macy Kaufman
Red
Elijah
Krause
Red
Logan
Lovejoy
Red
Kiki Lindsay
Red Julie
Merrick
Red
Max Mitchell
Red Cole
Moore
Blue
Rebecca Murphy
Blue
Caroline Offenhauser
Red
Christian Offenhauser
Blue Alex
Sarmiento
Blue
Alyssa Sarmiento
Blue
Jordan Sheller
Blue
Jill Sojourner
Blue
McKenzie Vincent
Bronze
Bayley Wells
Bronze
Cassie Wettstein
Red
Ian
Wilson
Blue
As you can see,
A LOT OF NEW FACES! On
behalf of the entire Bend Swim Club family…WELCOME
ABOARD!!!
Our first
invitational of the season was the Hood River Harvest Invitational,
October 16-18. BEND
finished 2nd behind the Portland Aquatic Club in the 8
team meet. Over all,
we recorded right around 75% best times for the meet, which is
outstanding for the first competition of the season. The biggest time drops out the
Silver and Groups included:
Abby Andresen
200 im 5.7 seconds, Carson Brenda 100 breast 2.3
seconds
Matt
Carpenter 200 im 14 seconds,
Elizabeth
Cobb 200 breast 1.9 seconds
Ben Daley 200 free 6.4 seconds, Ali Epple 100
back 5 seconds
Tim Gorman 200 im 36 seconds, Kaylin Ivy 200
free 9.3 seconds
Kevin Jackson 200 breast 19 seconds, Emily
Kerins 200 free 3.3
seconds
Brooke Miller 200 fly 8.4
seconds, Jeremy Moon 500 free 20
seconds
John Murphy 400 im 19
seconds, Joseph Murphy 500 free 27
seconds
Jackie Nonweiler 200 back 4 seconds, Maddie
Olsen 200 breast 1.6 seconds
Abby Sorlie 200 im 5.2 seconds, Anne Souther 200 breast 3.4 seconds
Sarah Jane Souther 200 breast 6
seconds, Daniel Walker 200 im 10
seconds
Hopefully everyone had a chance to get down to
the Harvest Festival, where they could partake in everything from
wine tasting to rock climbing.
Austin
“Spiderman” Snyder Jewsbury was the
best on the rock wall I saw. The timeline was 2:30pm each day
and the drive back up the
Hood
River
Valley
is
one of the prettiest I make every year. If you missed out on attending
this meet this year, mark your calendars for 2010.
Well, that’s what took place in October; now let’s look
ahead to November and December. Hopefully, everyone that planned
to attend got entered in the McMinnville Invitational. Those Bronze, Blue, and Red group
swimmers that didn’t enter McMinnville will have first shot
at filling up the bus for
Corvallis
on
November 21. The cost
of this trip is $35.00, and it is “first checks in the
box” , first serve, meaning that, just because you wrote your
name on the sign up sheet doesn’t mean you are guaranteed a
seat. You are NOT ON
THE BUS UNTIL YOUR CHECK IS IN THE DUES BOX! All 13-Over Silver and Gold group
swimmers should plan on competing at the Hi Desert Classic, a
senior meet, hosted by the Bend Swim Club. This is a great opportunity for
all families to earn some volunteer hours by coming down and timing
for a couple of hours.
All parents of swimmers competing are expected to help out
somewhere. The biggest
need will be timers as many of the team traveling to
Bend
will not be bringing parents with them.
OK, now let’s look at December. There are three meets in the
month of December, and we’d like to see everyone get to at
least one. The first
weekend of December is the Oregon Open in
Corvallis
.
The time standards for this meet are the
Oregon
14
year old “A” times, so this encompasses primarily the
Silver and Gold groups. If you don’t have the QT
for this meet, then the following weekend, we’ll be competing
at the Tigard-Tualatin Holiday Invite, December 12-13. This will be the meet we
encourage everyone in the Bronze, Blue, and Red groups to
attend. We are working
on getting rooms at the Holiday Inn Express-Wilsonville to take
care of those that need hotel rooms. The meet is a split session
competition, meaning the 11-unders swim in the morning, while the
12-over swim in the afternoon. The final competition in December
is a tentative meet here in Bend, December 19 from approximately
1:00-5:00pm with Cascade Aquatic Club and Madras Swim Team. This meet is for our newer
“C” swimmers, so please, if you have been in the
program for a couple of seasons or more, your meet for the month on
December should be Tigard-Tualatin. If you want to do both,
that’s fine, but TTSC should be the priority.
Time for my Swimmers of the Month, and I’ll start in the
Silver group by recognizing two swimmers that have come into this
season with great attitudes and work ethic. Both have rapidly become the
leaders in their lanes in practice every day and should be ones to
watch later this season. The SOTM honors for the Silver
group for the month of October go to Elizabeth
Cobb and Jeremy Moon. Moving on to the Gold group and
we recognize two swimmers that, while the season is still early,
have already shown they will be forces to be reckoned with come
December. Both have
the ability to “find another gear” at the ends of
sets. Congratulations
Brandon Deckard and Mason
Allen.
That’s it for this month. Make sure to get those all
important volunteer hours to Kim Hogue and introduce yourself to at
least one new person each night you attend
practice.
SHANE’S TURN
Welcome back to another year of Bend Swim Club swimming. Also,
welcome all new swimmers to the Bronze group and the Bend Swim
Club. I’m looking forward to another great
season.
We will be spending the first few weeks working on perfecting all
four strokes. It is very important that we get the correct
technique down for each stroke as early as possible. Performing
correct stroke technique at an early age will build a great
foundation for swimming fast as each swimmer moves on with their
swimming career. I want everybody in the Bronze group to come to
practice with the idea that they are going to learn something new
each and every day.
The emphasis on the Bronze group is to continue to develop a strong
foundation in all four strokes and all starts and turns.
Swimmers in this group are introduced to interval training and are
encouraged to attend at least one meet per month. The Bend
Swim Club is a competitive swim team. As such, it is understood
that participation in swim meets is an important part of
one’s success on the team.
Bronze group practices emphasize the following
skills:
- Reinforcement of correct body position
and streamlining
- Introduction to interval training
- Stroke adjustments made throughout the
workout and with the framework of a set
- Equal emphasis on both long and short
axis strokes
- Introduction to racing strategies and
meet preparation
- Team work and fun
Things to do at a swim meet
- Upon arrival at meet check in with coach and
let him know you are there.
- Arrive on time to get a proper warm up.
- Bring an extra pair of goggles.
- Bring at least two towels.
- Have mom or dad go over heat sheet and make
sure of the events you are entered in.
- Check with coach to see what relay you will be
swimming in.
- Stay together as a group; before you leave the
meet notify coach you are leaving.
- Swimmers if you have any questions about your
event...check it out with a coach.
- Swimmers before and after your event check
with your coach for their comments and your
splits.
What you need to know
- Eat a light breakfast, or snack before you
leave home. Stay away from fatty foods or dairy products.
- Bring snacks to eat while at the meet. Bring
fruits, bagel, raisins, power bars etc.
- Drink fluids…Sport drink diluted
½ water, or water …DO NOT DRINK POP.
- Very important…stay dry and warm when
you are out of the water.
- Warm down after every event that you are
in.
- Stay rested between events, off your feet
sitting down.
- Above all do your best, think of all the
training tips your coaches have taught
you.
Swimmer of the Month
This month’s swimmer of the month award goes to
Ben Brockman & Hannah Peterson.
Ben has really stepped up his workouts; by leading his lane on
tough sets and has showed the drive to change his technique. I look
forward to Ben having a wonderful season. Congratulations
Ben!
Hannah also become a lane leader and looks like she is on a
mission to crush her competition. Congratulations
Hannah!
Kendra’s Report
The last month
in the Red Group has been nothing short of exciting! Try-outs
were a huge success and we have thirty kids in the group, which is
really really awesome! Most swimmers got a chance to swim
their first meet here at Juniper Swim and Fitness at the Intrasquad
meet where lots of questions got answered about swim meets,
swimmers learned how to read a heat sheet, find their heat and
lanes, 8 & under’s learned about the bull pen, and
everyone got a chance to race! Quite a few best times came
from our returning swimmers, and brand new times for our new
swimmers, it was a great chance to see all the kids get up and
race. A few of our veteran swimmers (including Sarah &
Casandra Shaffer, Ella Frank, Analee Gorman, Gharett Brockman,
Olivia Schultz, KiKi Lindsay) got a chance to swim in Hood River
where we saw lots of best times, a few DQ’s (but not too
many!) and even an A time! Ella Frank got her very
first A time in the 50 Backstroke!
If you’re going to Madras this weekend a few important things
to know: BE ON TIME FOR
WARM-UP’s! It is so important that every
swimmer warms up with their team. So leave Bend with plenty of time
to find the pool, pick a spot to sit, change into your suit, and be
in the pool when it’s time. Warm-up’s start at
9:00am this weekend in Madras.
Another thing to know is this: Check with the coaches about
RELAYS. We never-ever-ever-ever go off what
is printed in the heat sheet. The coaches will make the
relays (depending on who is at warm-ups-- another great reason to
be on time!) at the meet, so have your swimmer check with the
coaches to see if they are in a relay. We try to get everyone
on at least ONE relay – either Saturday or Sunday.
Other helpful hints: Bring a chair to sit on (there are bleachers,
so this is not mandatory!), some cards to play, books to read and
snacks to eat! The meet won’t last ALL DAY it should be
done in plenty of time to watch the Duck game and/or trick-or-treat
on Saturday! But bring some stuff to do while you’re
swimmer is waiting for their event!
If you have ANY other questions ask me! A great time to chat
is before or after practice.
Now for our Swimmer Of The Month – Goes to a young lady who
has improved leaps and bounds! She is a great listener, a
great leader, and an all around great kid! She races
everything we do in practice, she is sometimes our demonstrator,
and was a secret weapon at the intrasquad
meet…..Maddie Coleman! Keep up the
great work!!
Jeff’s
Rundown
Well here we
are back in full swing for the short course season. I’m
really excited for my second year with the Blue Group, and I know
we are going to see really good things out of the group this
season. First off, I’d like to welcome all of the new
swimmers in the Blue Group. It is an amazing thing to see the
transformations that many new and old swimmers take in this
group.
Looking now at
the Hood River meet, we had some very good swimming for the first
meet of the year. I love to see everyone so anxious about
accomplishing their goal times so early in the season. I wanted to
mention a few reminders to both swimmers and parents involving swim
meets.
To Swimmers:
·
Make sure you make it to meets on time! This is not only so you can
be involved in the full warm-up, but it is important for us to know
that you are there for making relays
·
Take care of yourself. This means staying hydrated, eating healthy
foods, and keeping yourself warm and dry.
·
Check in with a coach. Before and after your race, make sure you
check in with myself or coach Mark.
·
Be aware and prepared. You can’t depend on your parents at
swim meets all the time. You need to be aware of where we are in
the meet, and when you are swimming.
·
Race with your head! There is a reason why you check in before your
race, so when can talk about how to swim a certain race. This
involves using your head when you race, and not letting it all go
out the window when you dive in.
To
Parents:
·
Do your best to get your swimmers to the meet on time. If you know
you are going to be late ahead of time, let a coach know so we are
aware.
·
Give your swimmer some freedom and responsibility. Swim meets are a
good chance for young swimmers to grow and mature as individuals
and athletes. Let them get to their races on their own, let them
socialize, and let them learn how to take care of themselves. There
will be an occasional failure, but the lessons learned from these
experiences will be well worth it.
·
Relays posted in heat sheets are almost always wrong. We always
make adjustments for those that are not there, and we always try to
get everyone on a relay at least once. That means we have to change
things around quite a bit.
With that, keep
these things in mind for the next meets coming up, which I will do
a quick run through. I’m excited for the Madras meet coming
up this weekend. This will be an excellent meet for our new
swimmers, and don’t worry I will have a swim meet 101 rundown
with all the new families this weekend. Coming up closely we have
McMinnville and the bus trip for November, and the Tigard meet in
December. Keep in mind Tigard is really the only chance to race in
December, so do your best to attend.
Swimmers of the Month: My
swimmers of the month for September and October go to Mikayla Grover and Angie Lindsay. These two are
just now really starting to set goals for themselves, and they have
high expectations. I love to see the drive they have, and the
positive attitudes they bring to practice. Congratulations Mikayla
and Angie!
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