New Member Q & A
1. What suit should my child wear for practice and do I need to purchase the team suit for meets?
The kids wear a racing suit for practice. That would be a one- piece suit for girls and a jammer or brief for boys. They can wear any suit for a meet, the team suit is not required.
2. Do they always wear swim caps for practice, or just for meets?
Girls are required to wear a cap for practice and meets. They can wear any cap for practice but for meets swimmers need to wear the team cap. It is up to the boys if they choose to wear a swim cap. If they wear a cap in a meet, it needs to be a LAC cap (color according to the practice group).
3. What type of equipment is required?
Look under the Team Store tab on our website. Practice equipment is listed by practice group. You can buy all of your swimmer’s equipment from Jack Pearl’s or if you prefer, SwimOutlet.
4. How many meets are there per season? Where are the locations of the meets?
Most of our meets are in the state and in the Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo areas. For higher level swimmers there may be some out of state meets. We usually have one meet per month, and meets are 1-3 days. You will always have options to decide which meets to attend and which sessions to go to. If it's a 2-3 day meet they are not required to swim every day. The sessions will be divided by age group and they will swim in the morning or afternoon depending on the age.
5. How do I find my child’s practice schedule?
The practice schedule is under the “Our Club” tab. We will email to specific groups, if any changes are made to the practice schedule listed.
6. What is the practice policy? And who do we notify if she is absent/sick for a day?
The practice policy expectation depends on the group. As swimmers advance the coaches like to see them at more practices.
In the 12 and under group (Junior), there are two levels:
The Junior or Orange Cap Group provides optional practices for our busy swimmers! The Junior Plus or Purple Cap Group provides practices to those who have achieved specific times based on our LAC goal chart AND commit to coming to practice everyday. For example, most of our Juniors will be in the Orange group, but once they hit the Purple time standards, they will have the option to move to this group if they want to commit to coming to practice everyday. Coaches will make the decision as to who moves to the Purple Group.
The Senior Group is broken into three levels:
The Seniors (or White Caps) will have optional practices for our kids who are multi-sport athletes/activities and want to maintain technique for the upcoming High School or Middle School seasons. Most of our kids will fall into this group.
The Senior Plus Group (Black Caps), will be kids who have hit time standards for this group, based on our LAC Goal Chart, AND commit to coming to practice everyday.
The National Team (American Flag Caps), will be ones who have achieved Sectional Cuts and are striving to reach Future, Junior National, Senior National, and Olympic Trial Cuts. These practices will be required as well. Like the Junior Group, if a swimmer hits sectional cuts but doesn’t want to commit to the club season, they will be placed in the White Cap group. This practice will run at the same time as the National Team, but will focus on different areas of training/development.
Our swimmers in the Orange and White Cap Groups do not need to notify the coaches if they are not attending practices, BUT it would be nice to hear from you if this is the case! The Purple, Black and American Flag Caps are required to contact the coaches if they are missing practice.
7. What is the best way to contact my child’s coach?
Our Coaches are very busy coaching on deck so it’s best to email them if you have concerns, questions or need to update them about your child
