2013 SWIM TEAM HANDBOOK
2013 Swim Team Director: Wendy Sims
WELCOME MESSAGE FROM SWIM TEAM DIRECTOR:
Welcome back to all our returning Woodside Sun Devils and welcome aboard to all new swimmers! We’re excited to get started on another fun and successful summer swim season. Please read and keep this informative booklet so you can refer to it throughout the summer. Further communications concerning mini-meet registration, meet sign-outs, dual meet times and location, stroke clinics, and other important information will be communicated through our website (www.woodsideac.com), email, the swim team bulletin board, and the weekly newsletter. It is essential that you read your email, the newsletter, and refer to the board, as these are our main means of communication.
As in past years, our coaches will make non-practice time available for talking to parents during the swim season. It is extremely important that the coaches devote 100% of their attention to the swimmers during practice in order to conduct a safe and constructive practice. Please arrange a mutually agreeable time that does not interfere with practice to discuss any questions or concerns you might have. As has been the practice in previous years, we are also asking parents to stay off the pool deck during practice. Parents are always welcome to observe from the snack bar area.
This year the coaches and I need to emphasize once again the importance of swimmers signing out of meets they do not plan on attending. The complications and stress involved in restructuring a line-up immediately before a meet are both tremendous and completely avoidable in most cases. Please be courteous and take the time to sign out of any meet you cannot attend. Thanks to all of you for volunteering your valuable time and expertise, making this another fantastic summer swim season!
Wendy Sims, Woodside Swim Team
A MESSAGE FROM OUR COACH:
Dear Parents and Swimmers,
Welcome to the 2013 summer swim season at Woodside Athletic Club! I am so excited to be continue with this team as the head coach. The assistants who will be working with me are fantastic in their energy and knowledge of the sport, and also Woodside’s history. I’m looking forward to a new season of hard work, lots of fun, and hopefully some victories!
As the head coach, I hope you as parents and swimmers will expect, and be flexible to, some changes. Any decision I make will ALWAYS have the best interest of the swimmers and the team at heart.
Keep in mind that I absolutely love a heavy amount of involvement and support from the parents. This team could not run without your help, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. However, please let the coaches do the coaching. I promise that we will be attentive to your children while they are in the water. Please let us be the ones to critique and correct your child. I can assure you that things will run smoother and your child will be happiest if there is a defined line between their coach offering instruction, and their parent offering support and cheers! Thank you so much for your cooperation.
With that said, if you have any concerns or questions for me, I want you to feel free to address them. If you choose to see me in person, my only request is that you do so outside of practice times. You can also email me (anne410@aol.com) with a concern and I will get back to you within 24 hours.
On behalf of my assistants, thank you for letting us serve as your coaches. You make it possible for us to spend our summer doing what we love! I am ready for a fun and successful 2013 season.
Go Sun Devils! ~Coach Anne
FOR PARENTS OF SWIMMERS AGE 10 AND UNDER:
A successful swim season can only happen when all team parents contribute their time and talents to the children on the team. Volunteers are needed to organize and help at all the special events and activities listed in this booklet. In addition, we need parents to coordinate and run vital functions during our meets. A team as large as ours, with many young swimmers, requires a huge volunteer effort, especially during the meet itself. One area in particular that is especially labor intensive is marshaling. (For new parents, “marshaling” is placing the kids in the correct order for the correct events. Marshaling is done only for the swimmers 10 years old and under.) Because we have so many parents whose children benefit from marshaling, we are assigning every parent of a marshaled swimmer to work the marshaling area once or twice during the season. Don’t worry if you didn’t sign up at registration – we’ll find you! This schedule would require approximately a one to two hour time commitment. Thank you in advance for your understanding and willingness to serve.
FOR ALL PARENTS:
For all parents, we need new parents to volunteer to chair and organize certain areas that have previously been handled by parents who no longer have children on the team, or who would like to work in a different area.
Please consider taking on a new and more involved role on the team and help to fill some of these spots. This in an excellent opportunity to meet and work with friends and neighbors while contributing to the success of our team and having a great time in the process.
SWIMMER ELIGIBILITY
To become a swim team member of the Woodside Athletic Club “Sun Devils”, children must be able to swim a single length of our 25-meter pool unassisted. It is for the safety of our younger swimmers that we are most concerned. A swimmer may join our team up until May 29, 2013.
REGISTRATION
It is important for our swimmers to register as soon as possible. No un-rostered swimmer is permitted to swim in a meet. A swimmer’s age as of May 30th determines his/her age-group placement for the summer.
2013 DUES
$110 for one swimmer
$195 for two swimmers
$250 for three plus swimmers
Dues help cover our team expenses, such as membership in the NSSL, coaches’ salaries, A and B Finals, ribbons/awards, post-meet events and most other social activities.
TEAM SWIMSUITS
Our team suit helps build the Sun Devil team spirit as well as enable our coaches to identify all of the Woodside swimmers during a meet. We ask that each swimmer purchase a team suit. Team suits can be purchased or ordered from Bloomfield Sport Shop.
TEAM NEWSLETTER
Each week a team newsletter will be posted downstairs by the swim team bulletin board, distributed via email, and posted online at www.woodsideac.com. Please be sure to take the time to read it every week. Each newsletter will contain information you will need to know for the upcoming week, as well as planning information for the weeks ahead. Communication between swimmers, coaches and parents is essential to the success of our program.
SWIMMER PREPARATION / ATTITUDE
Swimmers must come to practices and meets, physically and mentally prepared to train and compete to the best of their abilities. Proper attitude is a key ingredient to successful participation. Swimmers should be ready to go – with swimsuits on – ten minutes prior to their scheduled practice or warm-up time.
PRACTICE ATTENDANCE
Team members are required to attend all practices... and please... no parents on deck during practice. Performances in competition reflect the effort put forth during our practices. Our coaches ask that the swimmers let them know in advance about any practices they might be missing due to any conflicts they might have.
MEET ATTENDANCE
It is essential that all swimmers sign-out of any dual meets or championship meets they will not be able to attend. Sign-out sheets for the entire season will be posted the first week of practice and removed four days before the meet takes place. This gives our swimmers ample time to sign-out and our coaches enough time to organize and plan an effective line-up. It cannot be stressed enough that swimmers and families must show the courtesy of removing themselves from a meet they are not planning on attending. If your swimmer becomes ill on the day of a meet, please inform the coaches.
MINI-MEETS
Mini-meets are age group meets attended by all teams in the league. The events are limited to same-age swimmers, which provides a greater opportunity for success. The meets are optional, but our coaches highly encourage attendance. Times achieved at mini-meets can be used as seed times in all other meets, including A and B Finals.
TEAM PICTURE
A team picture of our WAC Sun Devils will be taken on a date in June, yet to be determined. Watch the bulletin board for final date and details. Team photos and individual pictures will be taken and available for purchase.
POST-MEET ACTIVITIES
The Sun Devils host social events following each of their three home meets; a pizza party, an ice cream party, and a pizza/DJ party. This is an opportunity for our team to celebrate together as well as socialize with other teams. All swimmers and their families are invited to remain after our home meets and share in the fun. We rely on parental support to make these social events a success. The calendar of social events is posted on our website – www.woodsideac.com
CONCESSIONS
The Sun Devils have a concession stand at all home swim meets. We need everyone's participation throughout the summer to make this project a success. Proceeds from our concessions support team expenses not covered by our dues. Concessions are an important revenue generator for our team and the best way for us to keep our registration fees reasonable. Every family is asked to donate a 12 pack beverage as well as baked goods, veggies, fruit, etc. at each home meet. Please watch the swim team board for concessions sign-up sheets prior to our home meets. Thank you in advance for your willing participation and for understanding that no one should enter a meet empty-handed!
FINALS MEETS
Every Woodside swimmer has the opportunity to swim in a league finals meet at the end of the season. There are two meets – “A” and “B” Finals. Swimmers must qualify for A Finals by having one of the two fastest times in his/her age group in a particular event. Swimmers can only swim in two individual events, so it’s quite possible that a swimmer with the third or even fourth fastest time in an event might also qualify if the swimmers above him/her are already entered in their maximum number of events. Coach Weaver will post a “Top Times” list to keep swimmers apprised of their standing. Don’t leave town without checking to make sure your swimmer is not an A Finals swimmer!! At A Finals, Woodside will compete against the twelve other teams in the league for the league championship. Our points standing at the end of the meet determines our meet schedule for the following year as well as significant bragging rights.
Swimmers who don’t qualify for A Finals swim in B Finals. Swimmers may choose their events. Like A Finals, swimmers taper for this meet in the hopes of achieving their personal best times.
DUAL SWIM MEETS (Schedule posted on the website)
All Sun Devil swim team members swim in every dual meet. Coach Anne will inform swimmers the morning of the meet which events they will be swimming. Swimmers who are not entered in regular events will swim in exhibition heats during the meet. A great deal of work is involved in preparing a line-up for a team our size. It is imperative you sign-out of a meet on the appropriate sheet on the bulletin board if you do not plan on attending. Every swimmer has a responsibility to our team and this includes informing the coaches when you will be unable to attend a meet, or stay until the conclusion of the meet - regardless of whether you are swimming regular events or exhibition events. Missing just one swimmer on the afternoon of the meet causes a great deal of confusion and stress. If your swimmer becomes ill on the day of the meet, please inform the Coach Anne or call Wendy Sims (248) 396-8870.
PRACTICE ATTENDANCE GUIDELINES
All Sun Devil swim team members are expected to attend all practices. Please let the coaches know in advance of any absences you may be expecting. The general guidelines for practice during inclement weather are:
Practice: Thunderstorm watch. Rain. Temperatures above 45 degrees.
No Practice: Thunderstorms or lightning. Temperatures below 45 degrees.
Whenever possible, we will post a notice of canceled practice on our website.
STROKE CLINICS
Coach Anne will be running a series of optional 4-day, 30 minute/day stroke clinics this summer. Each week will cover a different competitive stroke, as well as starts and turns. Clinics will begin after the public schools are out for the summer. Sign-up sheets will be posted on the swim team bulletin board downstairs at Woodside. Swimmers can sign up for any week individually, or participate in all four weeks. In general, the clinics run Monday through Thursday and cost $25 per swimmer per session. 10 & Under sessions run from 11:00 – 11:30. 11 & Up sessions run from 11:30 – 12. Payments go directly to Coach Anne.
Stroke Clinics will have a heavy concentration on the technique for that week’s stroke. Starts and turns for that stroke will also be covered. Parents are encouraged to take advantage of not only these clinics but other clinics and private/semi-private lessons offered by our coaching staff. Please check the bulletin board each week to see what clinics are available. Clinics are especially useful in refining stokes through targeted drills and for learning and perfecting starts and flip-turns. Practice time is really for training and it is difficult to teach these skills when there are so many swimmers. The high level of individual attention at clinics is extremely effective; coaches then look to ensure that swimmers are applying the skills they learn in clinics to practice. Please take advantage of the extra time the coaches put in for your swimmers. This is crucial to their success and improvement this summer.
