February 13, 2024 NEWSLETTER 20
WORKOUT CHANGES
Wed Feb 14 Age Group Gold/Silver 5:30 – 7:00 am CGAC
Wed Feb 14 Age Group Blue/Bronze 5:30 – 6:15 am CGAC
Wed Feb 14 Age Group White/Orange 6:15 – 7:00 am CGAC
Mon Feb 19 Senior Gold/ Silver 5:30 - 7:30 am CGAC - NO PM
Mon Feb 19 Senior Bronze 3:00 - 4:00 pm CGAC
Mon Feb 19 Age Group Gold/Silver 4:00 - 5:00 pm CGAC
Mon Feb 19 Age Group Blue/Bronze 5:00 - 6:00 pm CGAC
Mon Feb 19 Regular schedule for Fundamental 1, Age Group White and Age Group Orange
Wed Feb 21 Fundamentals 1 5:45 - 6:45 pm CGAC
Thur Feb 22 Senior Gold/Silver NO PM workout
Thur Feb 22 Age Group Gold NO AM workout
Thur Feb 22 NO Skills workout
Thur Feb 22 Senior Bronze 4:00 – 5:00 pm CGAC
Thur Feb 22 Age Group Gold/Silver 5:00 – 6:00 pm CGAC
Thur Feb 22 Age Group Blue/Bronze 6:00 – 7:00 pm CGAC
Fri Feb 23 Senior Gold/Silver 5:30 – 7:00 am CGAC
Fri Feb 23 Age Group Gold/Silver 5:00 – 6:00 pm WSRC
Fri Feb 23 NO workouts at CGAC
Sat Feb 24 NO workouts at CGAC
NO Workouts Mar 10 to 17 for Senior Bronze, Age Group, Development and Introductory Programs - ENJOY YOUR MARCH BREAK!
THE COACHES REPORT
SHOWING UP! (from SWIM SWAM contributor and CONQUER THE POOL author Olivier Poirier-Leroy)
You can’t always control your training environment, and you certainly cannot manipulate how tall you are or how big your feet and hands become, but there is something you can control about your swimming, and it still counts for a lot. It’s old fashioned, it’s quasi-boring and it’s not some fancy new swim gadget. It’s showing up. In the face of fatigue, of doubt, of uncertainty, it’s making the repeated decision that you are going to show up.
Showing up removes the need for perfection. Swimmers who consistently perform at a high level understand that not every practice is going to be flawless. There will be days where no matter how well rested or how well warmed up you are, the stroke just isn't there. Does this mean the process is flawed? Or that no good can be drawn from those less-than-awesome workouts? Of course not. The consistent swimmer understands that this is part of the deal. All too often swimmers fall into the mental trap of believing that if they set a goal to do something in the pool, and they fall off even a little bit, then they have failed. That if a practice goes poorly, this means that their season-end goal is done with. That bad workout or bad set launches them into a demoralized spiral of less than optimal practices that lasts far longer than the original bad outing. Those who show up understand that it is about doing it better, on average, over the long haul. It's about PERSISTENCE! There will be the occasional dud, but just as they don’t let a great practice get them carried away, great swimmers don’t allow the infrequent stinker to derail the overall upward trending of their swimming skills.
Showing up isn’t the silver bullet solution most swimmers are looking for when they ask what it will take to make the next move up the ladder. Most people – as is typical of our culture these days– are searching for a shortcut, an easier way to get where they want to go. Ultimately, no matter what it is you want to do with your swimming, it will all come back to one question…
Will you be the swimmer that shows up today?
BOARD of DIRECTORS POSITIONS
If you are interested in joining the LAC Board for the 2024-25 swim year please contact the nomination committee by emailing Donna at [email protected] before March 31st.
SWIM-A-THON APRIL
On behalf of the board and coaching staff we are excited to announce that our annual Swim-A-Thon campaign for the 2023-24 Swim Season has begun!
What is Swim-A-Thon: Swim-A-Thon is a national fundraiser for our sport. The fundraiser is a great team building event for swimmers at all stages of competitive swimming. At the end of the fundraising campaign, swimmers will be given the opportunity to complete as many lengths as they can (up to 200 lengths or 5KM). Development swimmers will have the opportunity to swim for one hour while our Age Group and Senior programs will swim for one and a half or two hours. Those who participate will celebrate the completion of Swim-A-Thon with snacks and the opportunity for LAC prizes. Let’s get fundraising!
When is Swim-A-Thon: It will take place Saturday April 6th and Sunday April 7th
Sat Apr 6 Age Group Gold 5:30 – 7:30 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Age Group Silver 5:30 – 7:30 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Age Group Blue 5:30 – 7:30 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Age Group Bronze 5:30 – 7:30 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Age Group White 7:30 – 9:00 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Age Group Orange 7:30 – 9:00 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Fundamentals 1 7:30 – 8:30 am CGAC
Sat Apr 6 Skills 7:00 – 8:00 am CHOCC
Sun Apr 6 Fundamental 2 8:00 – 9:00 am CHOCC
Sat Apr 6 Senior Gold 9:30 - 11:30 am WSRC
Sat Apr 6 Senior Silver 9:30 – 11:30 am WSRC
Sun Apr 7 Senior Bronze 1 & 2 9:30 – 11:30 am WSRC
How to Participate: Our club once again will be fundraising using Swim Canada’s online fundraising program. Please click this link to set up your own Swim a thon page donate.swimming.ca.
WESTERN - LAC SWIMMING COURSES
Western has teamed up with LAC to provide some advanced swimming courses.
Here are the first courses being offered.
Bronze Medallion and Emergency First Aid/CPR B at WSRC
Dates: Course 1: Feb 15-18 Course 2: March 14-17
Thursday/Friday 5-9pm
Saturday/Sunday 9:30am-5:30pm
Registration for both courses can be found here:
Bronze Medallion and Emergency First Aid/CPR B - Western Sports & Recreation (westernmustangs.ca)
Western also has a NL course if anyone is interested https://shop.westernmustangs.ca/program/GetProgramDetails?courseId=82a1b374-d91e-464c-af87-5179b9f70262
ALL TIDES SPIRITWEAR – Is now closed.
Items are expected in early March, please watch the newsletter for pick up times.
IT’S OFFICIAL!
Western Region Short Course Championships (WOSA) - February 23 - 25, 2024
WOSA Senior Officials – The need may have changed!
First of all, thanks to everyone who has responded to my cries for help! The flood of email has been much appreciated. I have not had time to assess where things stand but it looks a lot better now!
All of the Western Region teams have submitted at least 1 entry file and at the present time it looks like we may be able to run the morning sessions single ended, in the deep end only. There are lot of positives, if we can still pull this off when entry adjustments are cut off on Friday. Most of the swimmers prefer deep end starts, better blocks, backstroke ledges, more rest between events, and continuous warm-up/warm-down in the shallow end. There could be more.
What this also means though is that we need fewer officials for the morning sessions. If we cannot use you, please know that your offers are still very much appreciated. You will also notice that there will be fewer minor official spots available for those sessions at least to start.
That said, we WILL still be running the afternoon sessions double ended and we still need full staffing for those sessions, so please let’s give the 12 & Unders our best LAC meet experience by filling all of those jobs!
WOSA Minor Officials: Sign-ups was posted today.
LAC – February Freestyle Development Time Trial – February 22, 2024 – Warm-up 5:30PM to 6:15PM - Thanks again to those who have responded to my email that went out on Monday! I have not had time to go through the email yet, but I will get back ASAP with assignments or to let you know that the spots have been filled. If I am still short, then there will be more communications!
Pro Tip: If you have volunteered for a senior official position but I have not responded by the time the minor official positions have been posted, and you are worried about session credits, then go ahead and sign up for minor official positions and if you get a senior position in same session and time slot, you can then remove your sign-up for the minor official position to allow someone else to take that job.
Other Upcoming 2023/24 LAC-Hosted Meets:
April 14, 2024 - LAC - Long Course Pentathlon
May 10 - 12, 2024 - LAC - Hollandia Spring Invitational
July 13 - 14, 2024 - LAC - Dr. Paul Hauch Invitational
Meet Set-up: I would like 1 to 3 people to learn how to set up the timing system and offices, to share that work, and also so there is back-up in case I am unavailable for some reason. Please let me know if you have an interest. It does not need to happen at WOSA. It can start at future meets with knowledge building over time. You need to have some comfort with technology and MS Windows (VS Apple and others).
Clinics: First of all Sorry for booking the final pre-WOSA clinic on Valentine’s day!. Obviously, I am not getting enough sleep! Thanks to those who are coming out in spite of my faux pas!
- Wednesday, February 14 – Inspector of Turns 7:30 to 10:00 PM – lots of jobs available for those with this training.
A few clinics are also available to take online as e-modules which allows you to take them whenever it suits you. If you go to Swim Ontario - Clinics there are instructions on how to take the online clinics. The Zoom clinic presentations can be found online as well. Great for review but, reading those does not count as taking the clinic.
If you have any officiating questions please contact me, Mark Lukings, L.A.C. Co-Club Officials Chair at [email protected] Note: This is volunteer work for me, so I may not get back to you immediately but, if urgent, I can handle a reminder.
If you have any officiating questions please contact me, Mark Lukings, L.A.C. Co-Club Officials Chair at [email protected] Note: This is volunteer work for me, so I may not get back to you immediately but, if urgent, I can handle a reminder.
SWIM MEET VOLUNTEER SESSION CREDITS
Please note that high school students can get their volunteer credits for school as well as session credits for your swim family by helping out at our meets.
To check your session credit balance - log on to your LAC account on the website, go to "my account" and click the "service hours" tab to view your account summary. Any questions contact Donna at [email protected]
Our club has a long-standing policy regarding volunteer participation in our hosted swim meets, which includes the earning of mandatory session credits through working at our hosted swim meets. The session credit policy can be found on the LAC website under the "parent info" tab under "LAC policy #2 - Club Hosted Meets and Session Credits".
Families of swimmers in Age Group and Senior are required to earn 22 session credits.
Families of returning Development swimmers are required to earn 11 session credits.
New families are not required to earn session credits but can transfer up to 5 session credits if they should decide to volunteer (which of course is encouraged and applauded).
Families with swimmers that have transferred from another team are considered returning swimmers and are subject to the session credit policy.
Any unworked session credits will be billed to your swimmer account at $40 per session at the end of the season.
The Session Credit Policy is under the constant scrutiny of the Board of Directors.
