Goodman Pool Waves Swim Team Parent Handbook 2013

Transcription

1 Goodman Pool Waves Swim Team Parent Handbook

2 Table of Contents: 1. Welcome to the Waves! a. Introducing Our Coaches! 2. Practices a. Schedule b. What To Bring c. Guidelines for Parent Observation During Practice 3. Meets a. Schedule b. Buses/Transportation to the Meets c. Away Pool Addresses d. Eligibility & Age Groups e. Meet RSVP f. Competition Guidelines g. What To Bring h. Possible Swimming Events (by age group) i. The Basics of Swim Meets j. Aquatic Terminology/DQ Rules k. Meet Rain-Out Policy l. Home Meets Parent Volunteers 4. All-City Meet a. Eligibility b. Schedule We have a very talented and excited coaching staff that is eager to start working with each and every Goodman Wave this summer! (From L-R)Head Coach Sarah Fischer, Lead Coaches: Tony Harth, Caleb Cole, Zoey Schuck, and Dave VanVeen 2

3 Welcome to the Waves! Welcome to the third year for the Goodman Waves Swim Team! The Goodman Waves are a collaborative effort through the cooperation of the Madison City Parks Department, the Goodman Pool Foundation, the Shelly Glover Sports Education Foundation, and the efforts of a number of individuals from all around the Madison area swimming community. Whether your family is new to swimming or you were raised on the pool deck, we re sure that you re going to love your experience with the Goodman Waves! The Goodman Waves is a part of the All-City Swim league, a recreational summer swim league that has been in Madison for over 50 years. More information about the league and the twelve involved teams can be found on the league website, If you are looking for more information on the Goodman Waves team, or on any activity at all at the Goodman pool, please visit the pool s website at Parents, please like us on Facebook!! We are hoping that our use of this social media tool will help get the word out to your friends, family, and neighbors in the Madison community about the Goodman Pool Waves Swim Team! Throughout the season, we d also LOVE for you to contribute your pictures/videos to the team page so all parents can enjoy them. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns throughout the season, please the coaches at our team address: goodmanwaves@gmail.com. We look forward to a great season with each and every one of you! Thank you for being a part of the Goodman Waves! 3

4 Team Practices This year we have are implementing a few new initiatives for our practices, we will have five different groups with different practice times. Our goal is to provide the best possible practice environment for all of our swimmers. We recognize that not all swimmers of the same age have the same instructional and training needs, so the groups described below have some inherent overlap of ages. At the beginning of the season, coaches will be able to advise parents as to which group their swimmer might be working with. Please do not be alarmed if your swimmer s group changes throughout the season. We are prepared to move swimmers between groups in order to find the best fit for all of our athletes. Swimmers may be moved up or down so they are challenged appropriately and so they will neither feel bored nor overwhelmed during practices. We aim to make this a summer of growth, learning, and fun! Silver Royal White Purple 9:00:00 9:15:00 9:30:00 9:45:00 10:00:00 10:15:00 10:30:00 10:45:00 11:00:00 11:15:00 Swim 9- Dry Land 10:45-10:45 11: : :45 Swim 9-10:15 10:15-11: :45 Dry Land 10:15-10:45 Dry Land 10:15-10:30 Swim 10:30-11:30 Stretch 1010:15 Swim 10:15-10:45 Group 1: Silver These are our oldest and most experienced swimmers, typically ages 13 and older. These swimmers are familiar with proper technique of all four strokes and are working to build endurance and speed throughout the season. They will practice each morning, from 9-11:15am. Group 2: Royal Swimmers in this group are generally between the ages of 10 and 13. Breakers will focus greatly on improving their swimming skills and stroke technique. They will practice from 9-10:45 am. Group 3: White These swimmers are between the ages of 9 and 10, this has historically been our largest group. They will be learning the mechanics of all four strokes and how swim practice and meets are run. Their practice will be held from 10:15-11:30 am. Group 4/5: Purple - These are our newest and youngest swimmers, or those that are 9 years old and younger. They will be working on endurance in the water and learning all four strokes. They will practice for 45 minutes, from 10-10:45 am each morning. This group will periodically be split up and work on different areas depending upon ability and need. Because the groups start at different times, we ll begin each day with stretching and announcements. Please make every effort to get your swimmers to the pool on time so that they don t miss anything important! 4

5 What To Bring to Practice a. Swim Suit You CAN wear your team suit. b. PRACTICE swim cap (especially for those with longer hair) c. Goggles (get fitted at Walter s Swim Shop!) d. Towel e. Tennis shoes and appropriate workout clothes for dry-land f. Post-practice shower supplies/change of clothes, if desired g. Willingness to improve individually and as a team h. Your great attitude & work ethic Guidelines for Parent Observation During Practices We LOVE parent involvement and support for all of our swimmers! You are more than welcome to attend practices. We encourage your cheerful participation at all swimming events. Should you need to get work done during practices, Wi-Fi is available for your convenience. Our practices will be coinciding with swimming lessons offered at Goodman Pool. To ensure uniformity of rule enforcement, Goodman Waves parents are asked to follow the same rules as those set forth for swimming lesson parents. All are welcome to observe practice from the designated cabana areas inside Goodman Pool or from outside the pool gates. These rules have been set by Goodman Pool to minimize distractions for our children during practice/lessons and for the safety of all children in the pool. No one is allowed to sit on lawn chairs or along the pool deck during practice/lessons. Should you choose to sit outside of the designated areas, expect to be politely asked to relocate. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated! Should you need to speak with the coaches for any reason, please come early to practice and/or send an to the team address (goodmanpool@gmail.com). We will be happy to set up a convenient time to meet with you that will not interfere with practice time. PRACTICES START FRIDAY, JUNE 14 th at 9:00am! See you then! 5

6 Waves Schedule 2013 You need to sign up your child to be in the meet by the Thursday before the meet no later than end of practice (11:30 am). If you do not sign them up, your child will not be entered in the meet. The coaches need to know in advance in order to properly prepare the team s entries. Sign-ups will be posted on a bulletin board at the pool. Please not that this schedule is NOT inclusive of all WAVES events! Throughout the course of the season, we ll be planning some fun social events, dress-up themes for each of our meets, and other activities to promote Goodman Waves team spirit! Week 1: NO MEET!!! Week 2: Saturday, June 22 nd Away vs. Middleton & Middleton Theme: Superhero! Sunday, June 23 rd Mock Meet at 7pm Week 3: Wed, June 26 th (6pm) Away vs. Hawks Landing & Hawks Theme: Funky facial hair (mustaches highly recommended!) Saturday, June 29 th HOME vs. West Side Theme: Goodman Pride Week 4: Saturday, July 6 th Nakoma Theme: Red, White, and Blue Week 5: Saturday, July 13 th Bluff Theme: Movie Character Week 6: Saturday, July 20 th HOME vs. Monona Theme: Zoo Animal! Week 7: Saturday, July 27 th HOME vs. High Point Theme: Tye-Dye Week 8: All-City Week Middleton Sunday, July 28 th All-City Warm-Ups Time TBA Thursday, August 1st Preliminaries (11 18 year old Individuals) NO TEAM PRACTICE! - Theme: Zombie Friday, August 2 nd Preliminaries (8&U 10 Individuals + 8 & Under Relays) NO TEAM PRACTICE! - Theme: Surfer Style Saturday, August 3 rd Finals (All Individual Finals Relay Finals) NO TEAM PRACTICE! - Theme: Secret Agent 6

7 Buses and Transportation to Meets The Waves will provide buses to and from our meets for two away meets of the season. All swimmers are encouraged to meet the bus at Goodman Pool on the morning of the meet, ride the bus together as a team to the meet, eat bagels, and take the bus back to Goodman Pool at the end of the meet. This serves to promote team bonding and good sportsmanship among all team members. If a child is unable to ride the bus back to Goodman Pool with the team, parents are permitted to sign their OWN child out from the meet. Unless previous arrangements have been made and cleared with the coaches prior to the day of the meet, parents will not be allowed to sign out a child that is not their own. Pool Addresses We highly encourage parent involvement and attendance at all Goodman Waves swim meets. For that reason, a list of our away meet locations and their pool address has been compiled for your convenience. (This information, along with maps of the areas around each pool and additional information about each pool is available at Week 1: Mock GP Week 2: Middleton 2400 Park Lawn Place, Middleton, WI Week 3: Wednesday: Hawks Landing 88 Hawks Landing Circle, Verona, WI Saturday: GP Week 4: Nakoma Country Club Road, Madison, WI Week 5: Maple Bluff Kensington Drive, Madison, WI Week 6: GP Week 7: GP Week 8: (All-City!) Middleton 2400 Park Lawn Place, Middleton, WI

8 Eligibility & Age Groups All Goodman Waves Swimmers are welcome (and highly encouraged!!) to participate in home and away meets throughout our season. The best way to gauge personal improvement is through competing and repeatedly making personal bests throughout the years! Dual and triple meets against other teams in the All-City league are comprised of various events. Swimmers are divided by gender and compete against others in their same age group. Age groups are as follows, according to the swimmer s age as of June 1 st, 2013: a. Eight & under b. Nine - Ten c. Eleven - Twelve i. Thirteen - Fourteen j. Fifteen - Eighteen + Nineteen year olds (2013 High School Grads only) Meet RSVP! Each swimmer may be entered in no more than two individual swimming events and no more than two relays. Swimmers will need to sign themselves up for individual events for EVERY MEET in which they wish to participate. The coaches will not enter a swimmer into the meet unless they have signed up and, thus, we know they will be in attendance. PLEASE sign up each week at practice on the meet board or (as a last resort) via (goodmanwaves@gmail.com) by NOON on Thursday before the meet! If your swimmer will not be attending the meet that weekend, please encourage them to signout on the meet board. This RSVP gives us a better idea of what our team might look like for that meet s week. Based on the attendance response received from the sign-in/sign-out board, coaches will use their discretion to assemble as many relays as possible. (With busy schedules during the summer, some swimmers are only available for a portion of the morning. Please talk with a coach about these individual concerns.) 8

9 Swim Meets The Basics It makes a swim meet more interesting if you know what is going on. For each race, we begin with a quiet start. Once the gun or buzzer has sounded to signal the start of a race, cheering and hollering may commence! There are two basic categories of races: Relays and Individuals. All recognized relays involve four swimmers on each team. The most common relays are medley and freestyle. In the medley, each of the 4 swimmers does an equal distance of their specific stroke. The medley order is: Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly Freestyle. In a Freestyle relay, each of the 4 swimmers swim an equal distance of the freestyle. The individual races are broken into 5 categories: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and Individual Medley (IM). The IM consists of 4 equal distances of all the strokes in the following order: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breastroke, and Freestyle. At each meet, you will see Stroke & Turn judges on each side of the pool. These judges are determining that the rules for each stroke are being followed. Their main objective is to determine that no swimmer gains an unfair advantage by violating the rules. If a swimmer violates the rules, they will be disqualified from that race. Stroke and Turn judges are looking primarily at the following: Backstroke: The primary rule is that the swimmer must be on his back. The swimmer is allowed to roll onto the chest before turning. Breaststroke: This is the most formalized of the strokes. On starts and turns, the swimmer may pull in any fashion that keeps the arms underwater at all times and is a simultaneous movement of both arms. The kick must sweep out then end with a frog kick motion in a simultaneous movement of both legs. The swimmer is not allowed to flutter or dolphin kick (any up and down motions with the feet). When touching the walls for turns and finishes, both hands must touch at the same time. Butterfly The butterfly is similar to the breaststroke in that all movements must be simultaneous. The swimmer must bring his arms over the top of the water when recovering from the last pull. The kick must be a simultaneous, up and down movement of both legs and both hands must touch the wall at the same time. Freestyle: In most cases, there are 2 rules to follow 1. You must touch the wall with some part of your body when making a turn. When executing a flip turn, the feet must touch the wall in the push-off. 2. You may do anything you like to get yourself from one end of the pool to the other; Nothing is barred, except pulling along lane lines, grabbing another swimmer or pushing off the bottom of the pool. 9

10 Possible Events (by age group) Eight & Under: 1. Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly 25 yards/meters (one pool length) 2. Individual Medley 100 yards/meters (one length each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle) 3. Medley Relay 100 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 25 yards each) 4. Free Relay 100 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 25 yards each) Nine Ten + Eleven - Twelve 1. Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly 50 yards/meters (two pool lengths) 2. Individual Medley 100 yards/meters (one length each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle) 3. Medley Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 50 yards each) 4. Free Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 50 yards each) Thirteen - Fourteen 1. Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke 100 yards/meters (four pool lengths) 2. Butterfly 50 yards/meters (two pool lengths) 3. Individual Medley 100 yards/meters (one length each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle) 4. Medley Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 50 yards each) 5. Free Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers swim 50 yards each) Fifteen - Eighteen (+ eligible Nineteen) 1. Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly 100 yards/meters (four pool lengths) 2. Individual Medley 200/meters (two lengths each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle) 3. Medley Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers will swim 50 yards each) 4. Free Relay 200 yards/meters (4 swimmers will swim 50 yards each) 10

11 Competition Guidelines 1. Our meets are schedule to being at 8am. Warm-Ups will likely begin at 7am. 2. Swimming events will run in the following order: Medley Relay; Freestyle; Backstroke; Individual Medley; Breaststroke; Butterfly; & Free Relay. The only exceptions to this order are that the freestyle relays for Eight & Unders will be swum at the end of all backstroke events and prior to the individual medley events; and the Eight & Under 100 meter individual medley events will be swum after the meter butterfly events. 3. Youngest swimmers swim first. 4. Girls precede boys. What to bring to meets Experienced Waves, Parents, and Coaches recommend bringing the following: 1. Team suit 2. Goggles well-adjusted and leakproof! 3. Extra goggles just in case 4. Team swim cap and a spare practice cap in case one rips! 5. Dry clothes 6. Towel 7. Plastic water bottle 8. Folding lawn chair for parent 9. Quiet activities: books, ipod, playing cards, and so on 10. Highlighter to mark your swim program 11. Sharpie or ballpoint pen to write on your swimmer s hand 12. Healthy snacks as an alternative to concession stand food 13. Sunscreen, insect repellent, hat, sunglasses 14. Good luck charms 15. Your outstanding sportsmanship and a positive attitude! Each meet will have a dress-up theme to help support team spirit. As one of the smaller and the newest team in the league, it s even more important for Goodman Waves swimmers (and parents!) to make their presence known at meets! 11

12 Aquatic Terminology DQ (Disqualified): A swimmer commits a stroke violation or fails to touch properly. Event: Any race or a series of races, in a given stroke and distance. False Start: Any swimmer who is not motionless when the starting gun is fired or who leaves the starting blocks before the gun is fired, is charged with a false start. Heat: A division of an event; needed when more swimmers compete than there are lanes available at one time. There may only be 1 heat for an event, or dozens for a larger event like the All-City Meet. I.M.: Short for individual medley, an event in which the swimmer uses all four strokes in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Lane: Specific area, marked by lane lines, where a swimmer is assigned to swim. Lane Lines: Continuous floating markers attached to a line stretched from the starting end of the pool to the turning end of the pool, for the purpose of separating each lane. Leg (relay): The pad of a relay event that is swum by a single team member. Meet: Competition designed to be a learning experience. By implementing what has been learned in practice, the swimmer tests themselves against the clock to see how he is improving. Relay: Event where 4 swimmers compete together as a team to achieve one time. Scratch: To withdraw from an event in a competition. Split Time: A time for a portion of a race, or a swimmer s leg of a relay. Starting Block: The platform the swimmer stands on to begin a race. Backstroke Flags: Located about 15 feet from each end of the pool and strung across the pool above the water, indicating to backstroke swimmers that they are nearing the end of the pool. Disqualification Rules There are two basic reasons for disqualification: (1) To keep a swimmer from gaining an unfair advantage over the other swimmers, and (2) To help the swimmer learn what he/she is doing wrong so the mistake can be corrected. Meet Rain-Out Policy In the case of potentially threatening weather on the day of a meet, always assume we will have the meet unless you hear otherwise. Parents will be notified via and information will be posted on 12

13 2013 All-City Swim Meet All-City is the season-ending, weekend-long meet that allows our swimmers to compete against all other swimmers in the All-City League. This is a great opportunity for our swimmers to participate in one of the largest outdoor swim meets in the country! Every year there are new swimmers that are understandably a little reluctant or unsure about doing the All-City Swim Meet, and sometimes these nerves prevent them from participating. One of the highlights of the season last year was watching a whole team of new swimmers loving their All-city experience. Circle your calendars today! Eligibility 1. A swimmer must swim in at least one individual event in at least three meets to be eligible to compete in the All-City Meets. 2. The age of an individual for competitive purposes for the entire season will be his/her age on June 1. All-City Swimming Schedule Meet start times TBA 1. Thursday: 11-12, 13-14, and individual prelims. 2. Friday: 8&U and 9-10 individual prelims. 8&U Relay Timed Finals. 3. Saturday: All Individual Finals and All ages other than 8&U Relay Timed Finals. All-City Host This year s host is Middleton. The website for the meet is: The coaching staff will attend a league-wide meeting the first week of practice to get much more information about this meet. We ll be passing all of this along as well, so keep an eye on your s. 13

14 Finally, a reminder to all Wave s parents. Recreational sports programs, including the Goodman Waves, are generally only successful if they have strong parent support and participation. Last year our parents did a FANTASTIC job stepping up to host our home swim meets. However, even with that great showing, we couldn t have held those events successfully without support from the city, from the visiting teams, and from some additional volunteers. As we get ready for the 2013 season, we ll be looking for our parents to take a more active role in the Waves. Many All-City teams have parent booster-clubs or parent boards that take on many of the responsibilities currently being handled by the Goodman staff. We know that this support and parent infrastructure doesn t happen overnight, but we re continuing to develop that support this summer. We need all hands on deck for our two home meets. Many of the jobs are fairly simple, but we also have some need for parent s willing to take on some of the trickier jobs related to hosting a meet. As we get further into the season, you ll get plenty more information on volunteering at meets, but please talk to the coaching staff if you re willing to tackle a larger responsibility than just being a timer! We may need parents to help at other points in the season as well, possibly with some of our team functions or social events. Watch for more information on this as the season moves forward. We need to provide a total of 12 volunteers to help make the All-City Swim Meet run smoothly. This is the smallest obligation of any of the member teams, and I think it would send a great message to everyone else in Madison if we were able to fill these volunteer slots, and then some! Many clubs also have parents that are active during the offseason. This might mean helping to plan some aspects of the following season, helping to order team suits and clothing, or even serving as the Goodman Representative on the All-City board. Obviously not all of this is going to be in place for this season. But, if anything sounds like an area in which you d be willing to help, you ll be hearing from us! GO WAVES! 14