Olympians Swimming

"Learn to Swim the Olympian Way!"

Burnaby, Langley, & Abbotsford

WELCOME BACK! - LOSC September 2020 Aldergrove Pool Time and Space Schedule and Notes

Zachary Haw

 

September 4th, 2020

Dear LOSC Families,

We are glad to announce that the September 2020 training schedule has been released after the Township of Langley allocated us time and space at Aldergrove Pool.  Our intent was to keep the schedule as similar as the previous schedule at our pools. However, there may be some changes in your child(ren)’s schedule due to limited pool space availability at the Aldergrove Pool. For the most part, the schedule does remain the similar. This schedule is effective Tuesday, September 8th, 2020 for National, Provincial, AGP, and Regional while other groups will start Monday, September 14th.

Registration is first come first serve due to limited pool time and space. If you are interested in swimming at the Aldergrove pool please do the online registration by Tuesday September 8th.  Should there be a situation where there are more registrants than programmed space, we will base our decision on who is able to join based upon the timestamp that our Team Unify registration system has recorded. It will be first come first serve.

This schedule and guidance sheet will remain effective until the end of September. October 2020 may or may not look different depending on the availability of pool space in the Walnut Grove Pool and WC Blair Pool. The club’s intent is to return to Walnut Grove Pool by Monday October 5. However, this decision is up to TOL’s Mayor and Council where each family’s voice and letters would help increase the chances of opening earlier.

For National and Provincial Swimmers, please note we are swimming more than previous years at this time. Usually the Walnut Grove Pool is closed until late September and we only swim three to four mornings a week. We normally run dryland sessions early in September. With your support and voice, we are hopeful that we will be back at Walnut Grove Pool in October. However, for swimmers in WC Blair Pool, we have not heard any information pertaining to the re-opening. We anticipate that it would open later, but your voice (through emailing Mayor and Council) will help increase our chances in returning there.

As the Township of Langley has placed an additional cost to user groups with the addition of guard fees and limited lane bather load, there would be a supplemental cost per month. We have had an anonymous donor donate money to offset some of the extra lifeguarding costs which will help reduce the cost for families for the month of September. Therefore, the cost to families will be less than originally thought. If you would like to further help alleviate these costs please feel free to find a sponsor who will help offset these costs. 

 

Our ESTIMATE at this time for the lifeguarding fees for September will be in the range of (per swimmer per week):

  • $15 per swimmer per week for National Group
  • $10 per swimmer per week for Provincial Group
  • $7 per swimmer per week for AGP
  • $5 per swimmer per week for Regional Group
  • $5-10 per swimmer per week for Masters, SI&C, Mini O/OW depending upon how many days a week you swim.   

While this may be an additional cost on families, attendance to swim meets would be different than previous years. At this time Swim B.C. has not authorized competitions like in the past. We foresee this fee to be temporary and be canceled out by the swim meet dues you would have normally paid.  We will determine final prices after registration is finalized by Tuesday, September 8th. We continue to petition the Township to eliminate these costs via sharing the pool space with the public and allowing increased bather loads (through cohorts) for user groups to use as per viaSport (Provincial Sporting Body) and Swim BC (Provincial Swimming Organization) guidelines. For more information, please see Swim BC Return to Sport Plan – Phase 3.

In terms of swim meets and competitions, we have reviewed guidelines of ViaSport and Swim BC to help us plan for the upcoming season. With the progressive loosening of restrictions placed, cohorts are introduced and limited swim meets are permitted. Swim Meets provide swimmers the ability to set goals and achieve them, thus helping in progression and motivation. The swim meets that we have traditionally attended will not be and look the same in the short term. What we can do now are smaller meets involving racing against our teammates (time trials) or with another team (dual meets). More information will come as we have more information about these meets. We foresee all groups benefiting from this – from the National Group swimmer wanting to achieve their first Nationals cut to the Regional Group swimmer wanting to achieve their 4:00 200 IM Regional cut. We will also do out best to provide a venue for Olympic Way swimmers and Stroke Improvement and Conditioning swimmers who want to experience their first swim meet or continue to hone their skills.

We have formulated some notes for each group’s guidance. Please note, should there be times where your practice schedule is earlier than usual, we understand that some may attend workouts late. Please do your best to communicate these to your coach/es as soon as possible. Please take some time to read these:

 

National Group:

  • Schedule fairly similar to old schedule before

Provincial Group:

  • The schedule and amount of pool space is fairly similar to previous years
  • At this time, we will be offering limited dryland since we are swimming more than normal in September and there is no space around the Aldergrove Pool. We encourage families to do dryland exercises (abs, body weight) on their own.
  • Swimmers may need to get out of school earlier due to the location of Aldergrove. However, we see this as a short term situation.

AGP Group:

  • You will have practices with National Group and Provincial Group depending on the day that you are swimming. Please be aware of this
  • You are registering for 4x a week. We have offered some flexibility of scheduling for your group by having 6x a week time slots. However, you will need to pick 4 days you wish to attend and commit to those days until we have normalized our schedules or end of September. Please advise the office of which four days you would like to swim. We will re evaluate things at this time.

Regional Group:

  • You will be swimming part of your sessions with Provincial Group
  • Swimmers may need to get out of school earlier due to the location of Aldergrove. However, we see this as a short term solution.

Olympic Way:

  • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday swimmers will be swimming in the Teach Pool area of the Aldergrove Swimming Pool
  • Friday and Saturday swimmers will have the potential to swim in the 25m lanes pending pool space availability. If not, there will be space in the teach pool.
  • You will have the ability to choose 1-3x a week of practices depending on your family’s goals and needs. The days you choose to commit will remain the same until the end of September.  We will re-evaluate things at this time.

Mini Olympians:

  • Swimmers in Mini Olympians will be combined with the appropriate Olympic Way group.
  • Swimmers are expected to be able to swim 15m unassisted
  • Instructors may or may not be in the water with the swimmers
  • You will have the ability to choose 1-3x a week of practices depending on your family’s goals and needs. The days you choose to commit will remain the same until the end of September.  We will re-evaluate things at this time.

Stroke Improvement and Conditioning:

  • We have tried our best to continue offering the Stroke Improvement and Conditioning Group.
  • There is very limited availability than normal days, however by registering first, you are able to secure your slot.
  • You will have the ability to choose 1-4x a week of practices depending on your family’s goals and needs. The days you choose to commit will remain the same until the end of September.  We will re-evaluate things at this time.

Masters Group:

  • We have allocated some time and space for you in the mornings to swim with National and/or Provincial Group. We will come up with a pricing structure should you wish to swim more than the traditional 1-2x a week.
  • Should swimmers want to avail of this, swimmers are expected to be competent at training and who need or want a workout without a lot of hands on coaching. Coach Brian or Zach will provide a workout but will be coaching their respective groups as a priority. 
  • We will offer Masters Tuesday & Thursday with Coach Kayla. We will need a minimum number of committed participants for this group to take place. 

Again, thank you and we hope these notes help guide you for this coming season and more specifically, September’s pool schedule.

 

LOSC Staff