OCTOBER 10 2023 NEWSLETTER 4
WORKOUT CHANGES
NO Development Skills workout on Tues October 31
THE COACHES REPORT
With Thanksgiving behind us and our first Time Trial and Banquet on the horizon, the fall season is ramping up. It is very important for everyone to do their very best to get just a tiny little bit better on a daily basis. The training habits you are forming now are the habits that will show up in competition sooner or later in the season, so hopefully you are working purposefully and persistently on good habits like streamlining and dolphin kicking underwater off the wall and taking at least one arm stroke before you breathe on the break-outs and finishing every repeat and every set as well as you start it. Remember, competition is not about "rising to the occasion". When you go to a swim meet your performance will not be magically elevated to a new level that you never practiced at - what really happens in competition is you perform at the level of your training in the days and weeks prior to the meet. At swim meets, we fall back on our training more than we "rise to the occasion." Thus, the importance of perfecting your technique, especially when you are working really, really hard.
Fall Start Up Time Trial
This Sunday is race day- the LAC Fall Start-Up Time Trial! For those of you new to LAC, a time trial is an in-house (LAC only) racing opportunity, where all times will be official but there will be no awards.
As we prepare this week for the first time trial of the season, we need to remember it’s good to be excited but stay patient with our results. This is only the first racing opportunity in our 10-month season. Great things come from consistent effort over a long period of time!
Event Selection
When it comes to entering events, event selection is done by the LAC coaching staff. As mentioned last week, each group has a seasonal plan. The events that swimmer’s race is also part of a well-balanced seasonal plan.
The goal for our younger athletes is to race most distances in each stroke at least once per season to monitor their progression from season to season. As we approach championship season following the winter break, the coaches will fine-tune the event selection for each swimmer.
Nutrition Information Sessions:
This year the LAC Coaches have arranged for a sports nutritionist/dietitian to come and speak to some of our LAC athletes. Better understanding Nutrition and learning how to fuel our bodies is important for athletes of all ages and we are looking forward to learning something new at these sessions. Each swimmer is required to have at least one parent attend with them, as parents are usually the ones who purchase the groceries and do most of the food prep.
Senior Gold/Silver/Bronze: Thursday October 19th 5:30-6:30pm @ Medway Arena
Age Group Gold/Silver: Friday November 17th 6:30-7:30pm @ CGAC meeting room
2022-23 LAC ANNUAL BANQUET – SIGN UP DEADLINE OCTOBER 11!
The final date for sign ups will be October 11 – the hall requires our final numbers - so no sign ups will be accepted after this date. We will be hosting our 2022-23 LAC Banquet in person on Sunday, October 22nd at the Hellenic Centre on Southdale Road. Doors will open at 4:30 and dinner will be served at 5:00 PM. Due to the size of our club, the banquet is for returning LAC swimmers and their immediate family members only. Each swim family is allowed their swimmer(s) plus two guests, any additional siblings will need to pay $30. We are looking forward to celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of our swimmers! PLEASE INDICATE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ATTENDING IN THE NOTES WHILE SIGNING UP (EG. 1 SWIMMER, 2 PARENTS)
Those of you who won annual trophies at last year’s banquet, i.e., Most Improved Swimmer, please return them to your coach ASAP.
FUNDRAISING
Uncle Dad's Pizza PIus - pick up is Thursday October 12, 2023 between 6:00 - 7:00 pm at CGAC
IT’S OFFICIAL!
Registration of Officials: Please see last week’s newsletter if you are planning on volunteering at a meet and you do not have an official account or you have not yet registered this year. If you logged on and you did not see the consent forms then your account is still linked to last season and we need to move it to this season. Please let us know if you are stuck and we can fix that.
Next meets:
October 15, 2023 - LAC - Fall Startup Time Trial
November 4, 2023 - LAC - November Time Trial
November 23, 2023 - LAC - Nothers - Development Time Trial
November 24 - 26, 2023 - LAC - Nothers Fall Invitational
December 16, 2023 - LAC - Holiday Time Trial
Signing Up To Work At Meets: If you want to be a senior official and you have taken the clinic for the job you want to do then email me a separate email for each meet with the meet name in the subject and tell me the sessions and jobs that you would like to work. For minor officials, please look for the meets under events when logged into your LAC account. Click on Jobs and then follow the instructions. When you get the comment pop-up box, please provide the FULL name of the official who will be doing the job. We need to know who that is EVEN if it is the person who is named on the LAC account. We cannot assume who that is because we need to confirm qualifications. If someone else shows up and they are not qualified than we will be short an official.
When to Arrive: Please arrive 45 minutes before the session starts (not the warm-up, the actual racing). Go to the meeting room on the entry level and check in and then wait there to hear the briefing that will be 30 minutes before racing starts.
What to Wear: There is a dress code. Timers and Chief Timers wear white shirts. All other officials wear red shirts. Black pants are ideal but we generally let officials wear dark shorts, unless it is a championship meet. Footwear should be CLEAN and something that can get wet and will not slip on a wet surface.
Clinics: People are asking about clinics. I do not typically host clinics prior to the first time trial but I teach a bunch between then and Nothers in late November. In the meantime there are some online clinics available for anyone who has an officials account. If you go to Swim Ontario - Clinics there are instructions on how to take the online clinics. You use your officials account username and password to access these courses. A session credit is given for each clinic taken the FIRST time except you must take BOTH the Intro Clinic AND the Safety Marshal clinics to get one session credit. Refresher clinics do not get a session credit, but you are always welcome to take refreshers!
First Zoom Clinics: I plan to start this season’s clinics with an Introduction to Swimming Officiating/Safety Marshal clinic, and a brand new clinic which will be an Introduction to the Timing System Operator position. If you have not tried the Timing System Operator job, but you have an interest, I encourage you to join and discover what I think is one of the best jobs on deck. This will be more of a Demo than a clinic. Dates and times to follow in a separate email when the sign-ups are posted.
If you have any officiating questions please contact Mark Lukings, L.A.C. Co-Club Officials Chair at [email protected]
SWIM MEET VOLUNTEER SESSION CREDITS
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.
