Welcome to Carlouel Yacht Club Swim team

Home of the Pirates

www.tbaycarlouel.net

The 2015 Swim Team Practice begins on…

Tuesday April 7TH

 

Welcome, all new families to the CYC Pirates Swim Team.  We are available to answer all of your questions and make you and your swimmer feel right at home! Swimming is a great sport and our team is the most fun in the Tampa Bay area!

 

Also, this website has a lot of information about the team and the sport of swimming. Please browse through it.

 

Swim Practice

Swim team practice is  Tuesday-Friday 4:30pm til 6:00pm and Saturday 8:30am til 10am  (6 and unders 4:30 to 5:30 Tuesday - friday)

April 2nd. Practices are in the afternoon for the remainder of the school year, and begin in the morning during the summer. Please check the practice schedule for any changes.

It is important to be on time for practice and ready to swim with goggles and caps on so that your swimmer will have the advantage of a proper warm-up time.

Please apply sunscreen to your child before practice and administer ear drops before and after practice if you so desire. They are over the counter and help dry out the ears and prevent infection (i.e. Swimmer’s ear, euro dry)

 

Be sure to review the website regularly and check your folder every-time you attend practice.

 

 

 

 

Swim Team Requirements

CYC welcomes all swimmers! New swimmers are required to: 1) be comfortable in the water (bobbing), 2) swim with face in the water, 3) swim freestyle half length of pool without touching the side or lane rope, 4)  float on their back.  In consideration of all who practice, and for the safety of all swimmers, a swimmer who regularly holds up their group may be requested to schedule and self pay for private swim lessons. Those requests are left up to the discretion of the coaches.

 

Schedule

Practice times are arranged by age groups. Times vary throughout the summer.  If you have a conflict with your designated practice time, you are welcome to attend another practice session. If you have 2 swimmers assigned to two different practice times it is best to have your younger swimmer practice with the older group. Generally, it is best to have your child swim in their appropriate group since the exercises are targeted to that age group.

 

Swim Meets

There are generally three types of swim meets: Dual meets, Championship meets and Invitational meets.

Dual Meets

Dual meets are practice for the championship meets. It is when our team swims against one other team. They can be located either at our club or at our opponent’s location. These meets are important to attend because it gives your swimmer an opportunity to get accustomed to swimming in meets, a chance to have their swim recorded and logged to see improvements, while at the same time createing camaraderie within our team.

During most dual meets, swimmers will usually swim at least 2 individual events and 1 relay event. The hosting coaches choose the events that the swimmers will be swimming. There may be an “IM Meet” where each swimmer swims the Individual Medley (IM). In the IM event each swimmer swims all four strokes equaling 100 yards. (25 yard butterfly stroke, 25 yard backstroke, 25 yard breaststroke and 25 yard freestyle).

Warm-ups typically begin at 5:30 p.m. with the meet starting at 6:00 p.m.  Again this is a general guideline – ALWAYS BE SURE TO CONFIRM MEET WARM-UP AND START TIME.

Be sure to arrive by the start of warm-up.  This promptness will also ensure adequate time for the swimmer to adjust to the opposing teams pool and get the proper amount of time to warm –up, which will help eliminate injuries such as muscle strains.

 

Championship Meets

Championship meets are important to attend. These are “team” meets where our team’s combined score could qualify us for a trophy. These meets are large and more formal. There are many teams participating. Swimmers can be disqualified due to incorrect technique of starts, strokes, turns andfinishes. If your Swimmers receive 1^st– 16^thplace or are identified as an alternate, you will need to come back in the afternoon/evening to swim in the finals for the PCL and PAL meets (1^st– 8^thswim together and 9^th– 16^thswim together and the alternates substitute for “no show” swimmers)

The 6 & Under swimmers may have a separate schedule from the other swimmers. In the past, it has been on Sunday afternoon and are timed finals.  6 & Under swimmers do not come back for finals. Please pay attention to the CYC website to ensure your swimmer is present at the appropriate times.

There is a big team party at the club on Sunday evening after these meets. The Championship Meet Party includes dinner, DJ and dancing.  Information will be provided to RSVP for the parties.  Please check the website and your folders for this information.

 

 

Invitational Meets

Invitational meets are similar to championship meets. They are also large, more formal and swimmers can be disqualified. Our team is “Invited” to attend these meets. There are usually no separate finals event like in the championship meets. The events are “timed finals” which means that they only need to swim once to determine placing. These meets are usually split into 2 sessions (morning/afternoon) based on age group.

 

WHAT TO DO AT A MEET:

When going to any meet, bring the following:

§  Goggles (extra pair, if possible)

§  Swim Cap (girls should have them, some boys like them) must be a CYC cap.

§  Towel(s)

§  Permanent marker and highlighter for heat sheet

§  Snacks (usually available for purchase at a snack bar; some locations do not allow coolers)

§  Bottle of Water or Sport drink

§  SUNSCREEN

§  Shoes that can get wet and easily slip off when ready to swim

§  Folding chairs for both you and your swimmer (s)

§  Championship Meets: Highlighter, pen (for heat sheets) and permanent marker for writing heat/lane information on the swimmers hand

§  Phones, iPods, books, card games are useful to pass time between heats. You are responsible for these items

§  Wear your Pirate apparel; we are a team and it is great to be able to show it off.

 

WHEN YOU ARRIVE AT THE MEET:

Check you swimmers in with the coaches (Away) or check in Volunteer (Home). Make sure they get to their warm up area. Younger children (6 & Under and 8 & Under groups) will have designated areas to sit and chaperones to assist them. Be sure your younger child has been identified by their chaperone. If there are no chaperones then you are responsible for making sure your swimmer is lined up when it is time for them to swim.

Find yourself a place to situate your chairs. There is usually a CYC team area. You can find it by looking for people wearing PIRATE gear. If you are at a championship meet, purchase a heat sheet and identify your child’s placement in the events so that you know when your child will swim. Write event #, heat/lane information on your swimmers hand, so they will be sure which heat/lane they are in. (HEAT SHEETS MAY BE DOWN LOADED ONLINE AT MEET HOST’S DESCRETION)

 

After warm-ups, the meets usually progress by gender, event and age group.  Girl’s events will always be odd numbered and boy’s events will always be even numbered.  Most large meets will have scoreboards that have the event number listed.

Below is an example of the events scheduled for a meet:

 

Event # 1 - 25 Yard Freestyle 6 & Under Girls

Event # 2 - 25 Yard Freestyle 6 & Under Boys

Event # 3 - 25 Yard Freestyle 8 & Under Girls

Event # 4 - 25 Yard Freestyle 8 & Under Boys

Event # 5 - 50 Yard Freestyle 10 & Under Girls

Event # 6 - 50 Yard Freestyle 10 & Under Boys

And so forth….

 

The events are separated into what are called “heats”.   Each “heat” is comprised of the number of swimmers for which there are lanes available.  For example, at our pool we have 6 lanes so we swim 6 swimmers at a time.  Some pools will have 8 lanes and some may have 10 lanes.  There will be multiple heats for each event.

Relay Teams are chosen based on Coaches discretion and will be posted on the bulletin boards prior to the meets.  Be sure to check with the coach before you leave a meet because your swimmer may be in a relay.

Events by Age Group

The following provides a guideline of the events that are swam by age group. 

 

 

AWARDS

 

Awards are presented as follows:

Dual Meets

Usually top 6 in both individual and relay events are given ribbons.

*      During PCL meets, ribbons will be awarded for each heat (1^st– 6^th) of all events

*     PAL meets: ribbons will be awarded for overall 1^st– 6^thplace Finishers of each event. “Heat winners” ribbons are also usually handed out to the 1^stplace swimmer of each heat. (Ages 12& Under)

*      Some meets do not give out ribbons, so please prepare your children so they aren’t disappointed.

Championship and Invitational Meets

Awards vary for these meets.  Places can be awarded up to 16^thplace, although some do not go that high.  Sometimes medals are awarded for the top 3 finishers of an event.  There are trophies at both the team level and the individual level that are earned by scoring points.  Points are accumulated when swimmers place in each event.

CYC Awards

At the end of the season we will have an awards banquet.  This is a fun event for our swim team families.  Each swimmer will receive a participation trophy and if they participate in all 4 major meets (Dick smith Invitational, PCL Championship, Bardmoor Invitational and PAL Championship), they will be awarded the “PIRATES BOUNTY AWARD” trophy as well.