Northville Women’s Swimming and Diving 2011
Introductions
Welcome to the 2011 season of Women’s Swimming and Diving. I am very excited about the upcoming season. Hopefully it will be filled with a lot of hard work, dedication, ups, downs, wins, and most importantly FUN!! Good luck throughout the season and if you work hard you will achieve everything you set forth to.
Schedule
The first official practice will begin on August 10, 2011, however I encourage all of you to start before that on your own! Due to the increasing amounts of swimmers on the team, we will be split up into two teams. These teams will be determined at a later date. The schedule for these teams will be as follows:
Aug 11th - Sep 2nd
A team 8-10 Swimming, 10-10:45 dryland
B team 9:15-10 dryland, 10-11:30 swimming
August 10th practice will be all groups together from 9:30-11:00- we will not be swimming
Sep 6th
A Team
Mon-Fri- Swimming 2:30-4:30, Dryland 4:30-5:15
Morning practice- Mon, Wed, Fri 5:30-6:30
B Team
Mon-Fri- Dryland 3:45-4:30, Swimming 4:30-6:00
Morning practice- Tues, Thurs 5:30-6:30
All Saturdays A Team 8-10 B Team 10-11:30
I will provide a schedule of all the meets and where they will be held. All meets and practices are subject to change in case of emergencies.
Practices
Practices are the key to becoming a successful swimmer. It is here where you can fine tune your stroke, increase your speed and endurance, and try new techniques that may work best for you. I take practices very seriously and expect you to do the same.
Varsity Letter
The biggest reward a swimmer can receive at the end of the season is their varsity letter. Swimmers will earn their letter by achieving a certain number of points based on attendance, points in a meet, improvement, and whatever else the coach feels like giving them out for or taking them away. The point system works as follows:
• Attendance- If the swimmer is at every practice, meet, or function, they will receive 50 points. If they have any excused absences they will only get 47 points. For each unexcused absence the swimmer will lose 5 points (and you can go in the negatives!) Attendance points carry on from year to year.
• Points earned in a meet- however many points that swimmer earns for us in a meet goes towards their varsity letter.
• Improvement- Every time a swimmer swims a P.R. (Personal Record) they will receive an additional 2 points.
A swimmer MUST receive 150 points in order to receive their letter.
An excused absence is any time the swimmer has talked to the coach about being absent PRIOR to the event, practice, function, and the coach approves the absence. Once you reach three excused absences, that counts as one unexcused and you will be held out of the next meet. An unexcused absence is when the coach knows nothing about the absence, or the coach does not feel that it should be excused. Each unexcused absence results in a suspension of the following meet!!! Athletes can be removed from the team if this becomes a problem. You are also required to be at practice (excused or unexcused) the day before a meet or else you will not be competing at that meet.
Examples of unexcused absences- Work, homework, sick without a doctor’s note, trips with friends, group projects. This list is not final and can change to include more reasons. Examples of excused absences- family vacations made prior to season, sick with a doctors note, school function that is required, funerals. The best way to know if your absence will be excused or not is to ask me, and I will tell you.
I also expect everyone to be on time and prepared when practice starts. If you are tardy three times then that will count as an unexcused or excused absence depending on why you were tardy. Being prepared means dressed and ready to practice, mentally and physically.
Parents
Parent support is a big part of a winning swim program. I encourage all parents to take a part in their child’s sport. There are many things that need to be done, such as preparing food after meets, organizing pasta parties before meets, helping to run the meet, and much, much more. I hope to be in contact frequently with parents.
Questions or Concerns
If any parent or swimmer has any questions or a concern regarding what has been outlined in this packet, or about anything else, feel free to email me at mcneff00@yahoo.com.
Thank you,
Brian McNeff
Swimming can cause injuries and conditioning can help reduce that. Swimming is obviously the best way to get in shape for swimming, but if you can’t join a team then you can do other things to help. Here are some exercises that we would normally do that you can do on your own. It also always helps to do things in groups, so it might help to have some friends on the team that you can do them with.
Run- any distance is good, but the more the better!You can also run stairs
Lunges- you can also do side lunges, or hold weights while you do it
Calf raises
Step ups
Stream line jumps
Shoulder circles- go both ways
Shoulder raises- just raise your arms up and down, add weight if you want more of a workout
Shoulder circles with tennis balls- hold a tennis ball and roll it in circles against a wall for 30 sec
Situps- front and side
Pikeups
Supermans- move your arms and legs up and down for added exercise
Planks-hold yourself up on your forearms and feet