AquaHawk Family - 

Welcome to the 2022-23 Year for the AquaHawks! I hope that your school year has started better than how I started, being sick! Now that we are back into a school routine, that means that we are approaching the start of the Short Course season. For those of you who reached out while I was sick, I’m still working on catching up on these items. If it’s not addressed here, then I’ll get back to you ASAP.

• Linked here, you will find a one page timeline on what the Short Course season will look like between now and the end of March. It is not designed to give you everything; that simply is not feasible. This overview should give you a starting point for planning and what potential conflicts might be on the horizon with other sports and family activities. 

• If you have not been on the website recently (DCAquaHawks.org), please be sure to log in and review the updates there. As I finish more documents this week, they will go there first. More specific information on schedules, meet, and financials are all there and not attached to not bog down this email. 

• The major unknown at this time is the updated registration process for USA Swimming. I have meetings this week on how this will be implemented for clubs starting September 1st. What I do know: beyond completing our registration page, you will be forwarded to the USA Swimming website to register your child there as well. This will also mean that you will pay two separate fees during the registration process: the team registration fee, which includes the 2022-23 team outfitting, and the USA Swimming registration fee on their website.

• Our registration platform will open on Wednesday, August 24th. I’ll send another email when it opens with more clarity on how the updated process will work and finalize the financial components for the upcoming year.

We are building momentum going into the Short Course season, but there are areas that we must continue to strive to become better. The largest area is the concept of Decatur Central Swimming & Diving. DTAC, DCHS, and DMS are not separate organizations, WE ARE ONE PROGRAM THAT HOUSES THREE COOPERATIVE TEAMS. This is the reason why we all wear the same competition attire and our coaching staffs overlap; we strive to give our student athletes the best and most consistent experience possible throughout their time in the DC Swimming & Diving program. I believe this is what makes our program unique when we are compared to other youth programs inside Decatur Township. For us to capitalize on this, we need our families representing THE PROGRAM. Wear the apparel with pride, talk about the program with friends and family, encourage new athletes to join the program. Lastly, let’s work on changing how we talk about swimming. There are two distinct seasons in our sport, Short Course and Long Course. The school teams will be encompassed into the Short Course season, but BOTH seasons are critical to the long term development and success of our student athletes. 

The other major area that we strive to get better is our continuity in our training. Our program operates approximately 48 weeks in the year. We are swimmers, we must swim year round. We are not “just HS swimmers or MS swimmers”; this labeling only limits/narrows the student athlete potential. Consistency in training will provide the swimmer the opportunity to have a higher floor and higher ceiling of success. Consistency is putting together weeks on weeks, months on months of training together with minimal interruption. There is no secret or shortcut to this; this UNCOMMON level of commitment and effort is counter-culture to what we see throughout our lives and social media channels. For a “HS Swimmer” to start swimming when the HS season starts in late October/early November; they are already behind the training paradigm by TEN TO TWELVE WEEKS, not including the 17 weeks of the previous Long Course season. For the “MS Swimmer”, that gap is at minimum SIXTEEN WEEKS. We do not simply “restart” to catch up those who choose not to be prepared; they must accelerate their progressions to meet our year round athletes. This might also explain your student athlete’s struggle and frustration when they return to the water after a long break; they simply do not return where they left from the previous season, which for some athletes might have been the previous February/March timeframe. Aerobic conditioning and the feel of the water, which are the cornerstone of swimming, begin to decline after ten days of inactivity. The more time away, the level of decline accelerates sharply (between 25-40% of peak fitness). You might hear your student athlete say they feel like “they are starting over”. It is this principle that predicts the floor and ceiling of capabilities for the student athlete. To level up as an organization, we have to getting out of the cycle of RESTARTING and getting into the cycle of CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT. This is the “secret” to find the pinnacle of human performance, not just swimming performance.

We have all heard something similar to the following statement from Malcolm Gladwell: “To gain mastery in something, one must achieve 10,000 hours of deliberate work and practice.” What is overwhelmingly focused on is the number of hours, but the more important part of deliberate work and practice that is required to gain mastery. In a distracted world that is working on numerous things at once, a person must learn how to focus their attention, commitment, and effort to the activity without distraction. Day after day, week after week, and month after month, the ability to be deliberate in attitude, commitment, and effort will raise both the floor and ceiling of your student athlete’s potential. Again, this action is UNCOMMON in today’s world. To summarize the true intent of this quote, this is what our theme for the 2022-23 season for the program:

UNCOMMON Attitude & Commitment + HIGH QUALITY Effort = UNCOMMON SUCCESS

Now, there will be some people who read the last paragraph and jump to the conclusion that they “should just sign off their parenting rights to the coach, since I’ll never see my child ever.” Yes, I have had a parent actually say that to me; no, I’m very content with going home to just my wife and my furry children every night. I want families and student athletes to take breaks and vacations. Ten and under athletes do not need to give up other sports or activities and specialize in swimming to reach the pinnacle of the sport. This is why we have a progressional load program that emphasizes the long term development of the student athlete in swimming. This is why I, as the leader of the program, give out as much information on schedules and events as early as possible. This is why I am putting this information to you as a parent or student athlete to absorb and discuss; this is not one size fits all. There must be deliberate planning to make sure these breaks do not interfere with the goals that the student athlete is striving to achieve. Do not be solely dependent on motivation of the student athlete; motivation is not a constant in life. Motivation and excitement for something ebbs and flows throughout time. Example: When you get a new phone, you are probably very excited, don’t want to set it down, figuring out all the new features, ect. What happens four/five weeks later? How about three/four months later? More than likely, that excitement has disappeared, but does it mean it’s time for something new? Motivation works the same way; if the student athlete does not have their own goals or falls short of their goals, they are going to get frustrated. Our society is teaching us that if you are not achieving what you want as soon as possible, it is best to move on to something else. This is what makes what we are encouraging more difficult to teach to our student athletes; we must teach our student athletes how to be committed to their goals. Goals take time to achieve…more time than our society cares to wait for.

We look forward to seeing everyone back soon! I welcome your feedback to my writing if you care to share it or if you have any questions. Will you be ready to support us as we chase the UNCOMMON? Let's get started!!!

Swimmingly,

Coach Grace