OCTOBER 17 2023 NEWSLETTER 5
WORKOUT CHANGES
NO Development Skills workout on Tues October 31
THE COACHES REPORT
The LAC Fall Start-Up Time Trial:
Congratulations to all of the LAC athletes who participated in the time trial on Sunday. LAC had 232 swimmers participate in the event which is the highest number of participants in the Fall Start Up in LAC history. The coaches picked up a few reminders from the event that we will share over the next few weeks with you.
When LAC left the pool on Sunday morning, there was a significant mess left behind. Please note that the London Aquatic Club rent the CGAC facility, and we are fortunate to have a great relationship with the City of London. Please - encourage your swimmer to make sure they clean up their garbage/recycling or any mess they may create!
For those new to racing you may have noticed that some swimmers received a “DQ” or disqualification. A disqualification means that there was a rule infraction in their race. For example, if you touch on your front in backstroke- that’s a disqualification. While you or your swimmer may be disappointed having received a disqualification, it’s an excellent learning opportunity! We learn from our DQ’s so we know not to repeat the behaviour.
Reminders: Parents and Family members viewing Practices:
Please remember that while you’re excited for your swimmer and eager for them to improve, it’s very important not to interfere in work-out. We ask that if you choose to spectate, you do so from upstairs and leave the interactions between coach and athlete- just that- between the coach and the athlete. Taking the athlete or coach’s attention away from work-out can have a negative impact on work-out for the entire Group.
Photos and Videos - Please note the City of London aquatic facility rule; “Please only take photos or videos of your immediate family.”
Swim Ontario and Swimming Canada Camps and related programming:
Ewan Shearer – Nominated to the Swimming Canada National Development Program ID Team based on performances from the summer of 2023.
Grier and Lauren Stokley – Nominated to the Swim Ontario Youth IM Program, first Camp, Thursday, November 9th 2023 at TPASC; based on LC results from summer of 2023.
Ahmed El Tatawy – Nominated to the Swim Ontario Relay Initiative Camp, November 1-3, 2023 – at TPAC; based on LC results from summer of 2023.
Coach Elizabeth Moskal has been invited to attend the Swimming Canada Junior Camp, held at TPASC from October 15th – 21st as part of a Coaching Professional Development opportunity.
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
LAC BANQUET
A reminder for those that have signed up, the 2022-23 LAC Banquet is 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.
IT’S OFFICIAL!
Thank you Fall Start-Up volunteers! 95 heats of 50s! Wow! AND we were pretty close to on time with a new Ref and 2 new Starters. Nice work everyone! It is very easy to fall behind in a 50s session that has a lot of new swimmers. Thanks to the office staff, regulars, extras, and our Meet Manager for all the extra effort to keep us on track! Great job everyone and thanks for helping! It seemed like everyone had fun and success!
Registration of Officials: If you are planning on volunteering at a meet this year, and you have not already done so, then please register your account, if you have one from last year, or email me to ask for an account for each new volunteer. You will need to provide the name, gender, age (if less than 18) and email address for each account.
Next meets:
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 with the meet name in the subject and tell me the sessions and jobs that you would like to work. For minor officials (Timers, Safety Marshals and Judges of Strokes and Turns), LOG into your LAC account and look for the meets under events. Click on Jobs and then follow the instructions. When you get the comment pop-up 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 because we need to confirm qualifications. If someone else shows up and they are not qualified, or not registered, than we will be short an official.
Clinics: People are asking about clinics. I am planning on hosting Zoom and Live clinics starting next week. Sign-ups are posted on the LAC website. The Inspector of Turns clinics will probably be live at CGAC. The rest will probably be Zoom. 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! In fact I recommend it if you took the clinic more than a few months ago and have still not done the job. This is particularly true for Judge of Strokes and Turns. Please do not sign-up if you do not think you can do the job, or when you sign-up put your name and beside it put ‘New’ and we will try to arrange for you to have experienced people available to guide you. Also, the Strokes and Turns Clinic videos are available to watch online and that is also a great refresher.
What clinics should you take? The priority clinics are the Introduction to Swimming Officiating (Timer) and Safety Marshal clinics, the Inspector of Turns clinic, and the Stroke Judge clinic. These give you more understanding of your swimmer’s sport and there are more jobs available for these positions. Beyond that, I recommend taking them all to maximize your knowledge and to make this more interesting. The timing of the clinic offerings may not work so that you can do them in a particular sequence so do them in the order that fits your schedule but try to get the Introduction/Safety Marshal as soon as you can.
Round 1 Clinic Schedule (Could be subject to change) - PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THESE CLINICS ON THE LAC WEBSITE:
- Introduction (Timer)/Safety Marshal – Zoom – Mon, Oct 23 – 7:00 to 9:30 PM
- Chief Recorder (Recorder-Scorer) – Zoom – Tue, Oct 24 – 7:00 to 9:00 PM
- Timing System Operator Demo – Zoom – Thu, Oct 26 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM
- Inspector of Turns – LIVE at GCAC – Fri, Oct 27 – 7:00 to 10:00 PM
- Administrative Desk (Clerk of the Course) – Zoom – Thu, Nov 2 – 7:00 to 9:00 PM
- Inspector of Turns – LIVE at GCAC – Fri, Nov 3 – 7:00 to 10:00 PM
- Chief Timekeeper – Zoom – Mon, Nov 6 – 7:00 to 9:00 PM
- Chief Finish Judge/Chief Judge Electronics – Zoom – Wed, Nov 8 – 7:00 to 9:00 PM
- Meet Manager – Zoom – Thu, Nov 9 – 7:00 to 9:30 PM
- Starter (Starts the Races) – Zoom – Thu, Nov 16 – 7:00 to 9:00PM
- Stroke Judge – Live at CGAC – Fri, Nov 17 – 7:00 to 10:00 PM
- Introduction (Timer)/Safety Marshal – Zoom – Tue, Nov 21 – 7:00 to 9:30 PM
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.
