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No, we understand that people have other
commitments. However, keep in mind that the more practices you
attend, the faster/better you get, the better the coaches get to
know you, the better you get to know your teammates. etc. If you
don’t go often, you start to get bored/frustrated at your
lack of progress, you want to go even less, and before you know it
you’ve stopped going altogether, and it’s too late for
a refund...Also, if the team spends one whole practice working on a
particular skill, such as dives or flip turns, and you miss it,
you’re then at a tremendous disadvantage at the next meet.
No; however, the more meets you attend, the
better you get. The meets are also where the coaches get to know
you better. If you don’t attend meets, you miss the
camaraderie, you start to get bored with the practices...if you
think about it, being on the team but not attending the meets is
like joining a baseball team and not showing up for the games.
Also, to attend Championships, you must have swum at least two
individual events at four meets.
It depends. Dual meets, which are between just
two teams, go pretty quickly, and usually end in mid-afternoon. All
of our home meets are dual meets, and, with our eight lane pool,
usually end by about 2:00 PM. Invitationals and Championships,
where all six teams participate, can last until 6:00 PM or longer.
No, the team pays your fees to attend the meets.
However, if you sign up for a meet, then don’t show up, you
will have to pay the team back for fees paid on your behalf. If you
know that you can’t attend a meet, you must go online and
remove yourself from that particular meet registration. If the
deadline to do this has passed, you must tell a board member
immediately in order to avoid having to pay back fees. If you know
in advance that you can’t attend a particular meet, the best
thing to do is not sign up in the first place.
Absolutely. Every family is responsible for one
two-hour shift at every meet. There are always sign ups at the pool
for these jobs, and there will be people at the meet to explain the
jobs to you. In most cases, children will not be allowed to check
in to the meet if the parents aren’t signed up for a job.
If it’s an away meet, then as soon as your
child has completed his/her relay, you may leave, once your camp
area is cleaned up. At a home meet, however, all families must stay
and help tear down the meet. This involves putting away chairs,
rolling up electrical cords, taking down pop-ups, and general clean
up. If everyone participates, this process takes under thirty
minutes!
In an emergency, you can leave early, as long as
you’ve cleared it with your coaches and a board member.
Here’s why: If you’re signed up for a meet,
you’re automatically entered in the relays. The freestyle
relays are at the very end of what can be a very long day, and if
you cut out on a relay, that means that three other people who have
waited until the end can’t swim. To the younger swimmers,
especially, this disappointment is huge. The parents of the people
who waited can get pretty upset, too! Also, relays are worth double
the points of individual events, so losing relays can cost the team
lots of points.
The computer picks the relays, based on which
combination of swimmers will produce the fastest swim. The coaches
can use their discretion to change the relays around if they choose
to. This is why a swimmer might be on a different relay from week
to week, with different swimmers, or even swimming different
strokes.
On the medley relay, each swimmer swims a
different stroke (back, breast, butterfly, and free), while on a
free relay, everyone swims freestyle. Medley relays are the first
events of the day, and free relays are at the very end.
Time Trials are to set baseline times for all of
your swimmers’ events. Most Improved Swimmer awards are given
based on improvement from Time Trials. For the first few meets,
relays are determined using Time Trials times. Time Trials is also
run like a meet, so people can get a feel for what the different
jobs are.
Sometimes the coaches think that a swimmer
hasn’t mastered some basic skill necessary to move to a more
challenging practice (like flip turns, or certain drills).
Sometimes a coach might feel that a swimmer lacks the maturity to
be in a harder practice, where the swimmers have to be able to
watch the clock and make the set without talking or horsing around.
If you think your child is in the wrong lane/practice, feel free to
approach the coach BETWEEN practices, and discuss it in a
nonconfrontational way.
If the coach knows beforehand that someone is
going to be late, or if it’s a once in a while thing, it can
be overlooked. Chronic tardiness is not OK, nor is showing up to
practice without proper equipment and attitude.
The coaches work on all strokes and skills in an
orderly fashion. It’s possible that your child missed a day
when a particular skill was introduced, though of course they will
go back from time to time and work on them again. Flip turns,for
example, can be practiced by the swimmer at every practice, every
time he/she comes to a wall. Many drills are also precursors to
learning the actual stroke; dolphin kicking with a kickboard is
actually part of learning butterfly, for example. Breaststroke and
butterfly, in particular, are tackled during the second season. If
you feel that your child is missing something that he/she should
know, then please approach your child’s coach between
practices to get clarification. Talking to a coach doesn’t
necessarily mean that your child will be taught that particular
thing immediately, only that you’ll be given information
regarding why he/she doesn’t know that skill yet.
Every family is required to volunteer during our
fireworks fundraiser and do a shift. We are requiring a $100
deposit this year that will be returned to all families who have
completed their shift at the fireworks booth. There are many
jobs besides working in the actual booth, like setting it
up/tearing it down, bringing inventory to the booth (a truck is
needed for this), attending the information session at the
beginning,and even bringing your camper to the site to spend the
night and keep it safe from pranksters.
This is not recommended. There can be literally
thousands of people at a meet, and there’s no way to know who
belongs there and who doesn’t. A good rule of thumb is "If
the swimmer can drive himself/herself to the meet, then that
swimmer is probably safe." Otherwise, a parent or responsible adult
should be there to watch the child, and to watch the child swim.
Ripon Sea Lions cannot be responsible for children who are dropped
off and left unattended at the meets. If there’s no way for a
responsible adult to accompany a child to a meet, then arrangements
need to be made in advance with another parent or family to watch
that child.
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