What ARE they doing?!
A Few Key Things for the New Swim Parent
Valdese has experienced a lot of growth over the past few years, and here a few common things I get asked from our new parents. I really enjoy speaking with parents and getting to know them, but my hope is that this will help our incoming folks feel a little more confident when they get on the pool deck with their swimmer.
Communication is KEY…
I like to think of myself as open and available to all of our member families. I encourage you to reach out to me if there is something you would like to discuss. Trying to have a serious discussion with parents before practice is often difficult as my focus is elsewhere, and I want to be sure to give you my undivided attention. The easiest thing is to email me a number where you can be reached, or try to speak to me after all practices are concluded.
As for mass communication with team members, it is important to sign up for our text service, and, if you use twitter, to follow us (@valdesetorpedo) there, as well. Whenever a new blog post is posted, I will send out a link through Remind and twitter. If we have to cancel a practice due to weather, I will send out messages through Remind first.
First, a little about the pool…
The pool is 25 yards in length, and one length is the same as a lap. It isn’t uncommon to hear people describe a lap as a “down and back,” which is actually two laps (a 50). The gutter is the little track running along the outside of the pool, which serves to minimize disruptive waves by collecting water as a swimmer comes storming into the wall for a finish or turn (When the water is still, it is clean, when disrupted or choppy, we call it dirty). At either end of the pool, there are flags positioned to alert backstrokers to the wall. We will work with your swimmers to perfect their stroke count so they will know just how many strokes (single arm motions, in this instance) it takes them to get from the flags to the wall so they can come in fast without bumping their head.
For racing, we start from the blocks on the deep end of the pool. All backstroke events and the medley relay start with the swimmers in the water instead of diving in from the block. Some swimmers less confident from the blocks can start from the wall or from in the water, and all shallow-end starts (such even-number swimmers in 100 yard relays) start in the water. We will work with your swimmers throughout the season on starts using the wall and the blocks, so if they don’t know how to dive, that’s OK, we will teach them!
What’s my Age Again?...
We divide our swimmers up into several age groups for competition, and these translate into our practice schedule breakdown, as well. Your swimmer is able to compete at the age they are on June 1 of the current year. The age groups are 8 and Under (we do use 6 and Under for 25 free only, as well), 9-10 year olds, 11-12 year olds, 13-14 year olds, and 15-18 year olds.
Swimmers may “swim up” to any age group above them, but they may not “swim down.” This happens most often for relay events when we may have three swimmers of an age group and need to bring a fourth swimmer up to field the relay. We typically try not to swim anyone up more than one age group, but a shift may impact relay composition for younger age groups. For example, if the 13-14 boys only have three swimmers, we will likely bring up a faster 11-12. If there are only four 11-12 swimmers, we will need to bring up a 9-10 for that relay. Relays are a lot of points, so we don’t want to leave them open without an entry if we can help it.
For the Gear-heads…
Swimming really doesn’t require a lot of gear to compete in. Give someone a suit and goggles and they are good to go. Many of our older swimmers will use fins for practices, but there is no need to run out to get a pair. Generally, if your swimmer is in high school or about to be in high school, you may want fins. Talk to a coach to figure out a good pair of fins. Speedo, TYR, and Finis make some good fins for a variety of training purposes.
We don’t have a team suit to speak of, but we do ask swimmers who compete for us to use our team cap if using a cap (our caps are currently latex). The easiest and least expensive suits are often just plain, black suits. Locally, CBS Sports in Morganton, Dick’s, or Academy typically have suits available during summer months. Online, swimoutlet.com is the place to go. TYR, Speedo, and Dolfin are the market leaders, and most suits from them are great. Girls need to have a one piece, and boys need either briefs or jammers. Trunks are not advised as they create large amounts of drag, and two-piece suits may come off when diving.
Invest in some good goggles, and buy several pairs (I have about 4 pairs of the same type that I have used since I was in middle school, and I will likely never go to another goggle!). Since we are swimming in the summer, your swimmer will need some reflective goggles to fight off direct sun. However, getting at least one clear pair will be good for meets when the sun goes down. Find a pair that fits well by trying them on to see if they seal around the eyes BEFORE putting the strap over the swimmer’s head.
In practice, our younger swimmers often use kickboards to help build leg strength. A good kicking base is KEY, and so you will see us kick quite a lot. Older swimmers will use pull-buoys, shaped foam meant to immobilize the legs, to build shoulder, core, and catch strength. You may see us use buoys with 9-10 year olds towards the end of the summer, but generally we won’t use them with the younger swimmers. Similarly, we don’t use kickboards with our older swimmers.
Now, the events...
When we swim, we compete in multiples of 25. I often describe this to folks as thinking of counting money. Four quarters makes a dollar, just as four laps makes a 100. For our purposes, we will swim 25s, 50s, 100s, and a 200 IM (more on that in a sec), and a 200 freestyle. We do have longer events at the Sprint/Distance meet every year, but in our standard meets, the 200 is the longest distance we swim. All pools we compete in will be yards with the exception of McDowell, which is a 25 meter pool, and slightly longer than the other pools we use.
There are four strokes used in competition. The two that kids often catch on to the quickest are freestyle and backstroke. These are not overly difficult to master, and they are often taught in swim lessons. Butterfly and breaststroke are more complicated with regards to timing, and often take more time to master. The individual medley, or IM, or the medley relay, or MR, are composed of equal distances of all four strokes. So in a 100 IM, a swimmer will swim a lap of butterfly, a lap of backstroke, a lap of breaststroke, and a lap of freestyle, in that order. In a 200 MR, a swimmer will swim a 50 of backstroke, the second swimmer will swim a 50 of breaststroke, the third swimmer will swim a 50 of butterfly, and the final swimmer will swim a 50 of freestyle, in that order.
The event order for our regular meets is as follows:
- 200 Open (Free)- All ages may swim 200
- Medley Relay (8 and unders swim 100, everyone else swims 200)
- Sprint Free (8 and unders swim 25, everyone else swims 50)
- IM (8 and unders, 9-10, 11-12 all swim 100; 13-14 and 15-18 swim 200)
- Back (8 and unders swim 25, 9-10, 11-12 all swim 50; 13-14 and 15-18 swim 100)
- Longer Free (8 and unders swim 50, everyone else swims 100)
- Fly (8 and unders swim 25, 9-10, 11-12 all swim 50; 13-14 and 15-18 swim 100)
- Breast (8 and unders swim 25, 9-10, 11-12 all swim 50; 13-14 and 15-18 swim 100)
- Free Relay (8 and unders swim 100, everyone else swims 200)
To see examples of correct versions of the stroke and what officials and coaches want to see, I encourage everyone to visit https://www.usaswimming.org/officials/officials-training-videos and view the videos. This will arm you with some more knowledge about correct procedure for swims. Over the course of the summer, your swimmers will become more knowledgeable regarding these rules themselves. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect! Ugly strokes aren’t necessarily illegal, and officials are trained to give the benefit of the doubt to the swimmer!
Wrapping up…
This is the first of several posts I'll be putting up over the next week. I am really excited for this season, and I hope you all are, too!
