What a great weekend! Shamrock was an amazing success, with parents volunteering left and right, while our swimmers swam incredibly well.  Not to mention the fact that Coach Kevin was gone to Seattle with the Senior Sectional qualifiers who also swam pretty stinkin’ fast.  Truly a great weekend! 

Click here for the Senior Sectionals recap and here for the Shamrock Shakeup recap.

A special thank you to all of our parents who made it happen!

Here’s what’s coming up:

Annual Meeting

Our Spokane Waves Annual Meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 23^rd at 6:30 pm in the Robinson Teaching Auditorium at Weyerhaeuser Hall (on Whitworth’s campus). 

It is essential that at least one parent from every family attend this meeting.

The Annual Meeting is when the general membership (that’s you!) votes on the election of Board of Directions position, changes to our By-Laws, approvals of Policies & Procedures, and any other business that the full memberships needs to deal with.  For more information, please click here .

Age Group Sectionals—March 19-21: Federal Way, Washington

Last year, 9 swimmers went over to the 1990 Goodwill Games pool and competed at one of the fastest age group competitions in the nation.  This year, we are sending 12 swimmers and 2 relay teams.  Not only that, our average number of qualifying times per swimmer has increased from 3.5 to 4.5.  Great work swimmers on striving for your goals!  Make us proud at AGS! Remember—no practice on Friday, March 19 or Saturday, March 20.

Swim-a-thon

We hope by now that you’ve gotten the memo that FRIDAY MAY 7 is our annual Swim-a-thon!  This is our only fundraiser for the year, and we need all families to participate in order to ensure the long-term financial health of the team.  The coaches are asking all swimmers to participate!  We will hit the ground running on this right after our Spring Break.  For questions, contact Toni Endebrock.

Triple Pentathlon: April 16-18—Whitworth University Aquatic Center

Mark your calendars!  Entries and Job Sign Up will be posted soon.  We need tons of parent support and welcome all swimmers who want to participate! 

Spring Schedule

The schedule for the next few months is up under the Calendar section of the website.  You’ll find basic info on what meets we are planning to attend and what our practice schedule is.  There is a bit of a change that is worth mentioning: starting April 5, all practices will begin 30 minutes earlier than the fall/winter schedule.

Masters swimmers: remember, starting Monday, April 5, we will begin our morning practice schedule.

Here’s the breakdown:

Ripples: 6:00 – 6:45 PM

Age Group & Regionals (M,W,F): 5:00 – 6:30 PM

Senior & Regionals (Tu,Th): 5:30 – 8:00 PM

Masters: 5:30 – 7:00 AM

Training Tip of the Week

 Surviving Fear of Failure

Fear of failure is the athlete's worst enemy. The thinking of high-stress athletes is dominated by nega­tive thoughts and worries about failing. Unchecked, these concerns with failure undermine confidence, enthusiasm, the willingness to invest and persist, and, most importantly, the athlete's belief in himself or herself. It is these thoughts that transform the competi­tive athletic situation from what should be a welcome challenge to a threatening and unpleasant pressure-cooker. It is these thoughts that trigger the high physical arousal that interferes with perform­ance and with the ability to concentrate fully on the task at hand.
The ideas that underlie fear of failure do not arise in a vacuum. They almost always have been communicated to youngsters by their parents or by other important adults. This is not surprising, because the basic beliefs underlying such ideas are very wide­spread and accepted in our culture, which emphasizes achieve­ment as a measure of personal worth. In our society, an untold number of children fall victim to their parents' demands that they perform exactly as expected, and to condemnations when they fail. Too often, the child's achievements are viewed as an indication of the worth of his or her parents, and failure brings reprisals based on the parents' feelings that they are to blame or that they them­selves are inadequate. For many children, love becomes a premium handed out on the basis of what a child can do rather than simply on who he or she is.
The fastest and easiest way to create fear of failure in a child is to punish unsuccessful performance by criticizing it or by withholding love from the youngster. Under such circumstances, children learn to dread failure because it is associated with punish­ment or rejection. They also learn to fear and avoid situations in which they might fail. The unfortunate lesson they learn is that their worth and lovability depend on how well they perform. In­stead of trying to achieve in order to reap the built-in rewards of achievement and mastery, children strive to perform well to avoid failure. As a parent, you can have a dramatic impact on helping the young athlete develop a positive desire to achieve rather than a fear of failure.

Reprinted and adapted from Parents’ Complete Guide to Youth Sports, (1989) with permission from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), 1900 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1599