MM Weekly Announcements for Week of 02/02-02/08

John VanDriessche

Dear Marlin Families,

Practice Schedule

Penn High School

Splash 1 & 2: Monday & Wednesday 6:00-7:30

Splash 3: Monday 6:00-7:30, Tuesday 5:30-7:15, & Wednesday 6:00-7:30

Splash 4: Monday 6:00-7:30, Tuesday 5:30-7:15, Wednesday 6:00-7:30, & Friday 5:00-6:30

Fins Flex: Monday 5:30-7:30, Tuesday 5:30-7:15, Wednesday 5:30-7:30, & Friday 5:00-6:30

Fins Compete: Monday 5:30-7:30, Tuesday, 5:30-7:15, Wednesday, 5:30-7:30, & Friday 5:00-6:30

Fins Compete AM: Wednesday & Friday 5:30-7:30 AM

Elite: Next scheduled practice after high school season.

New Prairie High School

Splash: Monday & Wednesday 5:00-6:30 CST

Fins: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday 5:00-7:00 CST

Elite: Next scheduled practice after high school season.

Knollwood CC

Splash 1

Monday & Wednesday 3:30-4:30 or 4:30-5:30 or 5:30-6:30

Tuesday & Thursday 4:00-5:00 or 5:30-6:30

Splash 2

Monday & Wednesday 3:30-4:30 or 4:30-5:30 or 5:30-7:00

Tuesday & Thursday 4:00-5:30

Splash 3

Monday, Wednesday 5:30-7:00, & Saturday 7:30-9:00

Practice Notes:

New Prairie families continue to use door N18 to enter the building. Penn families use door D. If you arrive at Penn and the gallery door is locked, please feel free to get my attention on deck to let me know.

No practice at Penn on Thursday due to high school girls sectionals

Here is the link for this week’s Fins practices. Please share these with your athletes.

Coach’s Corner

This week, I was asked what our athletes should do if our practices are canceled, and funny enough, this question came up just before the Penn pool closed! We’re actually in the process of building a more complete dryland program for our Fins Athletes, including parts that can be done at home. We're also looking into partnering with some third-party providers who specialize in dryland programming for clubs.

First and foremost, let’s not panic when a snow day or a pool maintenance issue causes us to miss a practice or two. We wouldn't worry too much if our child had to miss a few days due to illness, so let's try to approach these unexpected breaks with the same mindset.

Second, it’s important not to go overboard. We don’t want to introduce anything too new at this point in the season. For example, starting weightlifting now (unless guided by a qualified S&C coach) might not be the best idea. Similarly, some might think going for a long run is a good substitute for swimming cardio, but while distance running might improve overall heart health, it’s not necessarily the best way to improve swimming performance. I’ve got lots of thoughts on the effects of running on swimmers, but I’ll save those for a future Coach’s Corner!

My best recommendation for athletes during an extended break from the pool is simple: put down the phone and get moving! I’m a big fan of yoga for its mobility benefits. We incorporate yoga into our high school practices once or twice a week, and I try to include it at least once a week during morning Fins practices. Two YouTube channels we use are Swimming Specific Yoga and Yoga With Adriene.

If you have any thoughts for future Coach’s Corner topics, feel free to reach out—I’d love to hear your ideas!

IA Jr. Superstar Invitational/Riley High School/February 15 & 16

The meet is being held at Riley High School. You can view our entry by clicking here. All other pertinent information will be in the weekly email the Sunday prior to the meet

USA Memberships

We will need all of our athletes that have not done so already, to renew their USA Swimming memberships. Here is the link. From my experience with my own athletes just purchasing the membership will initiate the transfer process.

If you qualify for the Outreach Program email me and I will send you the link you will need to use for registrations.

If you have any questions about any registration issues you can reach out to me or our team/business manager Kelly Laneman ([email protected])

Fall and Winter Meet Schedule/Dates of Meet/Location/Deadline to commit

This is our tentative meet schedule for the fall and winter. We may add meets if we find ones that fit our club’s needs. There will be two different dates listed with each meet The first date listed is the day(s) of the meet and the second date is the deadline to commit.

Swimmers wanting to compete will need to commit to those meets. The deadlines will be based on deadlines that were set in previous years. They may change once the meet hosts posts the meet information. When committing to multiple day meets, if the option to select the days you want is not available, leave a message in the notes section stating the specific days you would like to attend.

Some meets will be marked with an * and those will require swimmers to meet minimum time standards. You can view all pool locations on our website under the "Pools" tab.

DUNE Sweater Weather Swim Spectacular/Our Results

CON Skypoint Transit Invite/Our Results

GSI Goshen Rays Veterans Day Meet/Our Results

ELK Rudolph Romp/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Our Results

IA Tim Welsh Invite/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Our Results

CON IMXtreme Invite/Concord High School/Our Results

IA Jr. Superstar Invitational/Rolfs Aquatic Center/Feb. 15&16/Our Entry

CON Leisure Pools Last Chance Showdown/Concord HS/Feb. 28-Mar. 2/TBD

*IN Swimming Divisional Championships/Lake Central HS/Mar. 7-9/Feb.23

*IN Swimming Senior State/TBD/Mar. 13-16/Feb.23

*IN Swimming Age Group State/TBD/Mar. 21-23/Feb. 23

*USA Swimming Speedo Sectionals/IU Natatorium Indy/Mar. 27-30/Feb.23