Welcome to the 2022-2023 Season!
SCAR News – Welcome to the 2022-2023 Swim Season!
Hello Scarborough Swim Club,
In our first month back in the pool, our coaching staff and their respective groups have been
hard at work laying the groundwork for the season ahead. It is so critical in our first 6-8
weeks that swimmers work to re-establish good habits and review the important
fundamentals that we’ll build upon throughout the year. Coaches and swimmers are working
through expectations, training etiquette, goal-setting, and familiarizing themselves with our
stroke and skill must-sees within each group level.
Families may have also noticed our team members cheering in each of our Saturday
morning sessions thus far. This is part of our initiative to bring our swimmers together as a
tighter unit; and to be loud and proud. This involves rehearsing three variations of SCAR
cheers for competition, as well as creating an opportunity to meet someone new from each
group in these early weeks. The coaches have also shared a rule that swimmers must say
hello to SCAR teammates (swimmers and coaches) when in passing around the facility or
otherwise. A simple ‘hello’ goes a long way.
We’re excited to announce that our Heat Winner Hat has returned this season. It was
immediately impactful at our Pan Am Invitational meet last May where swimmers were much
more aware when teammates were taking to the starting blocks. The Team would begin with
a “Let’s Go SCAR!” Teammates were then actively engaged in cheering and supporting one
another, and watching for heat winners. Should a SCAR swimmer take the heat, they were
awarded The Hat. This also aims to create more confidence in our swimmers, as well as
encouraging ‘swimming to win’. We want to be tough to race against. And we want
teammates rallying around one another.
This year, we will also see the return of Super Saturdays: a combined Saturday morning
workout that invites all competitive swimmers and our strongest SCAR Swim Academy
members to take part in a fun team event. Super Saturdays involve multiple stations, each
hosting a different stroke or skill. Swimmers are then placed into groups containing members
from each competitive group. These groups all rotate through each station, learning from
each of our coaches, before moving into team relays. Our first Super Saturday will be on the
morning of October 15. We will also be having a very special guest taking part in our first
Super Saturday of the season, so do not miss it. SCAR will also be hosting an Open House
for all our families this same morning. Our Board members will be on-hand to walk our
families through some important elements to being on the team, answer some FAQ, chat
officiating, commitments, and other club-related topics. Coaches will also be available to
meet and speak with parents following the pool session.
In other exciting news, I’d also like to take a moment to congratulate our SCAR membership
on becoming the Top Fundraising Club ‘Per Registered Swimmer’ (PRS) last season in
Ontario. Our Club raised $11,245 with 28 swimmer participants out of 90 registered
competitive swimmers (31.1% participation), raising an average of $401.61 per swimmer!
Congratulations! And thank you to those who took part and helped SCAR achieve this. We
do hope to eclipse this feat later this year.
Please continue to read along for some upcoming important dates, and hear what each of
our coaches and groups have been working on thru September. As always, please reach out
directly to your child’s coach should you have any questions at all. We’re here to help!
Upcoming Dates:
Sat, Oct 15 – SCAR Super Saturday w/Special Guest (swimmers) & Open House
(parents/guardians)
Sat-Sun, Oct 22-23 – RHAC Fall Classic (Markham Pan Am Pool)
Fri-Sun, Oct 28-30 – TPASC Hosts FINA Worlds with its stop in Toronto
HP-Gold – Chris Ellul, Head Coach
Firstly, I’d like to start off by thanking all our wonderful secondary school graduate swimmers
and instructors that spent so many important years of their lives as members of the
Scarborough Swim Club. We wish you all well, and please stay in touch!
As always, our class of returning and new HP-Gold swimmers will be targeting provincial and
national competitions this season, while working through our process goals. It’s crucial that
my swimmers have clear short and long-term goals to understand where they want to go, but
it’s as important to understand the process and what’s going to get you there. As a group,
we will continue to do every part of our training with a purpose.
In the first four weeks of the season, HP-Gold has been reviewing good habits and the
expectations set out for them, as well as building up our general fitness base. Rehearsing
and executing proper strokes and skills is critical in the early-goings, and it will continue to
serve us well throughout the year.
As we continue to progress our own training schedule, adding our 7 th and 8 th pool sessions,
integrating our extended activation, on deck dryland and recovery routines, and Academy
strength sessions, swimmers will find to have themselves a busy schedule. This includes
school, homework, social/free time, and any other activities they may be involved in. I want
to remind my swimmers to please be forthcoming and communicate with me on a regular
basis about your schedule outside of swimming, and how you’re doing. This better allows me
to support each of my swimmers, and manage them on daily basis. I want my swimmers to
enjoy living fit, to have fun, and to be effective in school, swimming, and anything else that’s
important to them. Happy swimmers are fast swimmers, and I’m here to support you.
Thanks very much everyone. I hope to see as many parents out for our Open House on
October 15 th as possible. Please join us. You’re all apart of our Team!
Chris Ellul
Head Coach, Director of Swimming
Scarborough Swim Club
Silver and Senior Select,
Wow! I cannot believe that the first month of training is already completed! It seems like time is rushing on by, but I guess that’s how the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun.
Throughout the month of September we had started off a little easier, keeping the metres down and focusing on some important technical feedback and learning new skills. The swimmers will have noticed a different style of training in comparison to last season when focusing on the technique of our strokes. Working on new skills for a longer duration has helped the group consolidate some of the new skills they are learning, and this will help set up the whole season as we move out of an acquisition phase to a building phase.
In the month of October, I will be focusing more on building up the swimmers endurance, while teaching them methods of being more explosive. I will also be having a heavy emphasis on utilizing the legs, both under water and while actually doing the stroke. Along with building up the legs, the focus in dryland will be more on the upper body, and explosive cores. This will directly translate into a more powerful stroke and help the swimmers achieve their goals.
All the best,
Patrick Garcia
Head Age Group Coach
Scarborough Swim Club
Bronze & Junior Select
We are one month into our season and I am so pleased with the group. Many know each other from previous years or groups but everyone has done a wonderful job of blending into one. For those of you who do not know me, this is my 16?…17?….18th? year of coaching competitively and 4th with Scarborough. I love working with kids who have a passion and helping them reach their personal goals.
For the last three and a bit weeks, among these things, we have been focusing on two important elements. One, kicking, kicking, and more kicking. Every stroke requires a strong and consistent kick to propel them forward. The second, are their streamlines, kicks, and first strokes off each wall. This skill is missing from many in swimming but allows swimmers a powerful start and establishes the start of a race.
Moving into October I will have the swimmers fill out their goals both long-term and short-term. I would also like to see swimmers review their goals and add a focus to each meet RHAC being the first. This does not mean drop time in each event but rather maintaining stroke count, staying low during a fly breath, or keeping knees narrow in breaststroke. In practice, we will be increasing our distance while trying to maintain stroke and skill quality. And as always more stroke work!
Let’s get to work!
Laura Watts
Age Group Coach
Scarborough Swim Club
Hello Development 11&U, 12-13,
Congratulations to everyone on a fantastic start to the season! With our first month coming to an end, I have to say I am very impressed by how quickly everyone has learned and adapted to our expectations for the season. I can already see each of you finding your groove in our workouts, and I can’t wait to see that strength and confidence continue to grow as the season progresses.
Throughout this season in Development, our focus will be on learning, practicing, and building upon the fundamentals of proper technique for each stroke, turn, and start. This month, swimmers were introduced to each of those technical aspects with a stronger focus on head and body position and kicking. We have been doing a lot of sets that keep us moving as much as possible to help build up our endurance, along with sculling to develop a strong feel for the water, and underwater streamlining to maximize those pushes off the walls. Moving forward, we will maintain this strong focus on our technical standards while also working to improve our efficiency in the water through stroke counting.
We have also spent this month learning/re-familiarizing ourselves with our Team Activation routine. This is a crucial part of our dryland training this season and we will continue to work towards mastering each part of activation over the next several months. In our Saturday morning dryland sessions, swimmers have been introduced to a few basic upper body, lower body, and core exercises with a central focus on maintaining good form. We will continue to practice and build upon these moves as the season progresses.
I am looking forward to seeing what this season has in store for each of you! Let’s maintain this fantastic start we’ve had and continue setting ourselves up for success!
See you at the pool,
Christina Ramsay
Development Coach
Scarborough Swim Club
