Minnow, Nova, Wahoo, and Dolphin
Weekly Newsletter
9/29/02

Important Dates

Event	Date	Location
Techno Meet	Tues., Oct. 1st	Candler Swim Club
Bubble Up	Saturday, October 5th	Candler Swim Club
WOW Invitational Swim Meet	Sat. & Sun. Oct. 12 & 13	Wilmington, NC

First Techo (Technique) Meet of the Season
Date:  Tues., Oct. 1st
We will have our first techno meet of the season for the Minnow, Nova, Wahoo, and Dolphin practice groups.  A techno meet is where swimmers will be put in a meet environment, and the coaching staff will evaluate the swimmers on skill development rather than the time on the stop watch.  The coaching staff will give them a grade on how they executed the skill.  This will take place during their normal practice times on Tues., Oct. 1^st. Please make sure that you get to practice on time on Tues. so we can get through the meet events for each child.

Bubble Up
Parents, remember bubble up is this coming Sat., Oct 5th. We need every parents help to put up our dome for the winter. There will be food provided afterwards, the cost is $3.00. Also after Bubble Up we will be having a general meeting with all the RSA membership. Please make every effort to make it to Bubble Up this weekend. Bubble Up will begin at 10:00 AM.

Technique for the Week

Dolphins
This past week we have had a focus on breaststroke. Everyone has done a good job concentrating on the drills, some of which are very difficult. We need to make sure we are squeezing our legs together every time we kick so our ankles and knees touch. For this week, we will move onto butterfly. This is a difficult stroke and we must make sure that we concentrate on the drills at practice. We have also done some extensive work on freestyle flip turns. This week we also added the backstroke flip turn. You must know your stroke count to do these correctly. We will also work on the breaststroke and butterfly turns this week. Starts will also be a part of our practices. This is something we will continue with for the next few weeks. Remember, every single time you do anything more than a 25, you need to do a flip turn. The only way you will get better is to keep practicing.

Wahoos
Great job this week in practice! This week we will finish up breaststroke. Remember we need to keep our feet flat and turn them out to the side so we are able to push water back. Along with keeping flat feet, we also need to squeeze our legs together, making our knees and ankles touch everytime we kick. We will also continue to work on freestyle flip turns and introduce backstroke turns. We will continue to spend time on these along with starts so that we will be ready for the meet in Wilmington.

Novas and Minnows
Excellent swimming this week! I have seen such improvement from these two groups. This week we worked on backstroke, and most Novas began work on breaststroke. The first thing we do in breaststroke is take a breath when our arms come apart. Remember this and it will be easier to get the timing of the stroke down. Keep working hard!

What To Bring To Practice

• Swim Suit
• Towel
• Swim Cap- recommended for girls with long hair
• Goggles- these really are a must
• T-Shirt and shorts for dryland exercises
• Running shoes or sneakers for dryland exercises
• Sweats- the air has been a little cold the past week and it may not be a bad idea to bundle up after practice
• WATER BOTTLE- It is really a good idea to bring a water bottle to practice. A lot of you may not know that you do sweat while you are in the water and it can cause dehydration. Dehydration can cause you to get head aches and make you feel sick and we do not want any of that.
  

Minnows, Novas, Wahoos, and Dolphins keep up the hard work this week in practice. We have so much to get done before the first meet in practice so we need to make sure we have good listening skills. The meet entries for the WOW Meet are posted on the bulletin board, so please be sure to check them. Great job this week!

Coach Brian