In this Update:

• Practice Notes
• Junior Hammerhead Practice Change
• Evening Practice Tonight at 7:00 pm, rain or shine
• Meet 1 Info

Practice Notes:  We finally had our first official practice of the season.  We’ve compressed a lot of growing pains into one morning and there are some challenges we’ve working through.  We’ve got a meet tomorrow, a coach that is seeing many of these kids for the first time, and kids that haven’t been in the water since last June, moat that aren’t yet back to their old level.  Normally all of these things would have worked their way through the weeks of preseason training, but we’re trying to do it in one morning. 

To get through this we ask for some help and understanding.  Here are few suggestions:

• Swimming is different from other sports you might be used too.  First there is a lot of yelling.  Kids are wearing swim caps and their ears are usually under water.  Yelling is just part of it.  Do not equate yelling with hostility or negativity, it just the way it needs to be done to communicate instructions with someone swimming. 
• Swimming is also different because spectators, swimmers and coaches are all together in close proximity.  As such, parents should not treat this peculiarity as an opportunity to interact with kids and coaches while practice is ongoing.  No one would ever run out on a football or soccer field during practice, the same needs to be true on the pool deck. 
• Swimming is an athletic endeavor and as such it is a constant challenge to improve oneself.  People improve by getting out of their comfort level, pushing harder, and exerting maximum effort.   I understand the temptation to temper expectations on what we believe our children are capable of doing.  I’ve seen it repeatedly that we’re usually wrong because they are capable of much more than what we think.  Don’t cheat yourself out of that wonderful moment of watching your child do what you didn’t think was possible. 

Junior Hammerhead Practice Change:  We have a lot of juniors with varying skill levels.  To address this we are going to have two blocks of junior practice as follows.

• 3 & 4 yr olds:  8:00 – 8:30 am
• 5 and over: 8:30 – 9:00 am

Evening Practice Tonight at 7:00 pm, rain or shine:  If the weather does not cooperate for swimming, we will be handing out the swimmer gear.  Bags and shirts are being delivered this afternoon.  We’ll have them in the clubhouse.  Please make sure to put names on everything. 

Meet 1 Info:  @ Deerfield Spalding Lake (Google Map), Wed May 31: 

Location: 3880 Spalding Dr, Atlanta, GA 30350.  They are trying to make as many parking spaces at the club available to our team as possible. Carpool if you can. Overflow parking directions:  turn right onto Spalding Dr., take 2nd right on North Spalding Lake Drive, 2nd right on Landowne, right on Avignon.  You will see the sidewalk at the corner of Avignon/Landowne. Please make sure everyone parks on one side of the street.

Arrival Time:  4:30 pm.  Apply sunscreen at home so their arms are dry when they arrive.  Sharpies and sunscreen are not a good mix. 

Pre-meet:  Make sure the kids eat healthy and stay relaxed during the day.  This is not a day kids should be hanging out in the hot sun at the pool all day long.  Rent some movies, read a book, clean their rooms are all some good suggestions.  Yes, feel free to tell your kids it’s a rule they have to clean their rooms before going to a swim meet.  It’s the Michael Phelps rule.

Entries:  Our entries are submitted to the home team.  They will consolidate the entries for both teams and send us the Meet Entries Report and Meet Program (AKA Heat Sheet).   We will link these on the website when we get them.  You’ll go to the Swim Meets menu and pull up the meet to see them under the Meet Documents.  These entries do not become official/finalized until 30 minutes before the meet starts.