Even though we are approaching the end of the season in two weeks, I'm going to start a series of blog posts to address some of the questions and concerns you all voiced through your comments on the recent Google form.
I'm going to start off with the philosophy that guides our team practice structure and scheduling. Several folks made comments about practice length, times, and why we break kids up in the way that we do. Probably the most common question we get is "Why doesn't everyone practice at one time? It makes it so much easier for parents with multiple kids in different age groups."
I agree that it makes life easier for the parents. As the parent of a three-year old, I understand the challenge it can be to get one child in the car, let alone two or more as is the case when I have my nieces and nephews with my wife and I.
Ultimately though, as coach, I have to consider the best thing for the swimmers and the team. It isn't the best use of our limited time and space, as well as human resources, for us to have all of the swimmers in the water at one time. The different needs of the various age groups are just too great, and by limiting the number of swimmers in the water, it helps our coaching staff best address those needs in an efficient and age-appropriate manner. Breaking the swimmers up helps us to be as effective as possible when coaching the kids.
As for the times we have practices, there is a method to the madness.
It may not be easy to get the kids out the door to make 7:30am
practice, but it is in their best interest for a number of reasons. Our
older swimmers often already have a fairly solid technical foundation
compared to our youngest swimmers. With that in mind, our
morning practices are geared towards conditioning mixed with technique
instruction. The pool is typically cooler in the morning than in the
evening, and it is a better environment for them to exert themselves in the cooler
water. We also typically have more lane space in the morning, and the
bigger bodies need to spread out more than our smaller, younger
swimmers. The evening practices are more technique focused and typically don't involve the kind of exertion the morning practices do. Morning practices often are about 2,000-3,000 yards with fast intervals, while the evening practices often are between 500-1,000 yards (1,000 being for the 9-10 year old practices) and are made up of slower intervals with more time for instruction.
On occasion, I have allowed some families to have their swimmers of different ages practice with siblings. While there are exceptions made, I still prefer the swimmers to swim
with their appropriate group. Swimming with different groups can often
cause our swimmers to plateau or regress because the appropriate needs
aren't being met for those swimmers. In most cases I will OK this after I have had a chance to see the swimmers in the water and judge if their presence at a different practice would be useful to their continued improvement (not too hard and not too easy-- think Goldilocks). I also have to consider whether their presence will be a distraction or disruption to the other swimmers (if there is so much attention on one swimmer that it ultimately detracts from the practice).
Finally, the needs of other recreation center members and patrons need to be taken into consideration when planning practices (and meets, too). While the team is sponsored by the Valdese Recreation Department, we are only one group that uses the facility on any given day. During the morning time, there are many lap swimmers who use the facility, as well as various aquacise classes. Evening practices are often held at the same time as swim lessons, practices for Xcell (the USA Swimming program based out of our pool who many of our swimmers have a relationship with, as well as myself as a part-time coach), and also, depending on the day, public swim time. All of these programs would potentially have difficulty with their own planning and participation if we were to change up practice times or increase the number of swimmers we have at any one practice time.
As for swim meets, you'll notice we seldom have home meets in back-to-back weeks. This is because the swim lessons offered by the Valdese Recreation Department are taught in two week sessions, and we schedule with their calendar in mind to cause as little disruption as possible to those sessions. Our rule of thumb is one home meet per two-week swim lesson session. If we have back-to-back weeks with home meets, it is because swim lessons were not being taught one of those weeks or the first of the two weeks is the end of one session and the second week is the beginning of another. The past two weeks are a great example. We had a home meet this past Thursday and we will have another home meet this Tuesday. If you look further along the calendar, you'll notice there aren't any home meets after this in the following two weeks. This also also helps us cause minimal disruption to the other programs I mentioned earlier in their mission to serve their patrons and members.
I hope this helps clarify why we do things the way we do at VTST with regards to practices and scheduling. I appreciate the chance to address your questions and comments, and I will continue to do so in the coming days. Feel free to email or use the google form if you have anything to discuss, and I will be happy to do so. See you all at practice this week! Happy Sunday!
