March 15, 2010 - March 21, 2010
Practice Changes
Senior Group: The Senior Group will follow an adjusted practice schedule this week. Check your email or text messages from Scott for more details, or contact Scott directly if you have questions about the schedule this week.
Junior Group: Follow the Normal Practice Schedule through Thursday of this week. There will be no practice for the Junior Group on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this week due to the coaching staff attending Age Group Champs. Swimmers attending the VAST meet on March 27th and 28th should speak with Collin for practice instuctions during these days.
Gold & Silver: Follow the Normal Practice Schedule through Thursday of this week. There will be no practice on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday due to the coaching staff attending Age Group Champs. Gold swimmers are invited to attend Wednesday evening practice with the Silver group due to this change.
HS Prep: Follow the Normal Practice Schedule all week. Blacksburg High School students should follow the adjusted practice schedule that Scott has developed. If you have questions about this schedule, contact Scott Baldwin.
Level 1, Level 2, & Bronze: Follow the Normal Practice Schedule through Friday of this week. There will be NO practice on Saturday or Sunday due to the coaching staff attending Age Group Champs.
Other Upcoming Meets and Special Events
Our Annual Awards night is scheduled for Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at Christiansburg Middle School at approximately 6:30 PM. There will be no practice on this day and we strongly encourage all swimmers from Stroke School to the Senior Group to attend. Our Annual Awards night is a BIG DEAL. All swimmers will receive their trophies or plaques on this night and each swimmer is recognized for their achievements this season. In addition, this is the place for our World-Famous Slideshow. If you have pictures from this season that may be good for the slideshow, send them to Scott Baldwin.
This night also serves as our general meeting, where officers for our NRVA Board of Director's are elected. Finger foods and refreshments will be served. More information to follow, but please plan to attend!
If there are any other swimmers tht are interested in attending the VAST meet on March 27-28th, but have not completed the online signup, please contact Scott Baldwin immediately.
Visit the NRVA Page for the next meeting time of the NRVA Board of Director's.
Additional Information
We will take a one week, Spring Break this year. Friday, March 26th will be our last practice of this Short Course season and of Session 2. Our first practice of Session 3 and the Long Course season will be Monday, April 5th. There will be no practice for any groups between Saturday, March 27th and Sunday, April 4th, with the exception of the Season Ender VAST Swim Meet held March 27th and March 28th.
We will offer a Summer League Tune Up clinic beginning Monday April 12th. The clinic will be offered at Blacksburg Aquatic Center from 6:00-7:00 PM from Monday to Thursday for approximately 6 weeks. More details to follow. If you know someone that may be interested, please feel free to contact Scott Baldwin.
SCRIP order deadlines for this month are Wednesday, March 17th, and March 31st. SCRIP cards make a great Easter treat for kids and parents alike. In order to meet the $7.50 processing fee, we must have meet a certain minimum order. If that minimum order is not met, it will be held until the next order date. Please call or email Brenda Whitesell with any questions. Click here for more information about SCRIPS.
Check out pictures that Caisy Ho, our Live Action Swim photographer, has taken at swim meets over the past few weekends. The gallery is available at his website, but it is password protected. The password is located in the email sent out each week announcing the weekly newsletter availability, or ask a coach or parent at practice. Click to see Meet Photos and for Information on Ordering. Caisy is available at most swim meets to photograph your swimmer, and when you use his services, about $5 goes to support the H2okie swim team.
Virginia Tech Swim Camp registration has opened for their stroke camp, held June 20-24, and their sprint camp, held July 18-21. Both camps will be held at War Memorial. Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving is a huge supporter of H2okie Aquatics and one of our Team Sponsors. We encourage our swimmers to attend either Virginia Tech swim camp if they are interested. It is a lot of fun for the kids! Reserve your spot now.
Question of the Week
Question of the Week (Submitted By: The Grove Family): What is tapering and how does it relate to my swimmer?
In general terms, Taper can be viewed as a particular part of the season for a year round swimmer. Because it's shorter than say "Fall, Winter, or Spring" perhaps it could be viewed as "Allergy" season, a short but intense few weeks. "Taper" summarizes a year's worth of work where a swimmer is focusing intensely on a final meet of the season. From a coach's standpoint, "taper" is a word that must be used carefully because it is much more complex than a label for the last part of a season.
Tapering a swimmer involves many factors. We will look at practice performances (times that that they are able to hold on sets), their last swim meet, their body type (lean or high in muscle mass), whether they are a boy or girl, and lastly what events they are preparing for peak performances. All of these factors or variables are closely interwoven to get a swimmer ready to swim their best on a given weekend.
Tapering began many years ago and was a very descriptive word describing the reduction in swimming volume (yards per week). Swimming has evolved quite a bit in the last 10-15 years and Tapering could now be better served by the word "Tune-up". Coaches will focus on more quality work and spend an increasing amount of attention on the little things of a swim like starts, turns, breakouts and finishes. Focusing or "tuning up" the little things is money well spent as the body of work for a swimmer has already been done. There is little a coach or swimmer can do at this part of the season to improve their fitness. All of the aerobic conditioning was performed in the previous 6-8months of training. You cannot "Cram" for championship meet like you can for an exam. We say at the beginning of each training season, that this is a marathon, steadiness, stay the course (through the good and bad), and practice, practice, practice will serve you best.
Swimmers with the most "money in the bank" (swimmers who come to practice each day and make deposits through working hard) and those swimmers who are very high in muscle mass will benefit most from Taper or Tune-up season. But ultimately for a swimmer to have a great year end meet, they need to have a positive support system at home, have done all of their homework, be determined to succeed, be willing to take chances on themselves and GO FOR IT!
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