On the morning of October 31st 2003, 13 year old Bethany Hamilton grabbed her surfboard and headed to Tunnels Beach in Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands. Along with her best friend Alana, and Alana’s father and brother, they arrived at the beach to discover next to no surf. Regardless, they all paddled out into the calm water in hopes that the waves would eventually pick up. As Bethany lay on her stomach on her board, she let her left arm hang off the side in the cool water. Suddenly,...

POST RACE TALKS WITH COACH After each race it is vital that your swimmer consult with a coach about the swim. It allows us to communicate (feedback/educate) our feelings about the race, put together a plan for practice, and sometimes talk about our next event. After each swim speaking with coach should be the at the top of for both coach and swimmer, we may have some notes on the race, and it is the perfect opportunity to communicate while the swimmer is still putting together an idea of how...

MISSING RACES Missing races happens sometimes. The meets are busy and distracting and every meet flows at a different pace. When your swimmer misses a race, they need to come talk to coach. First off, to see if we still have time to sneak them into another heat. (Please note: this only happens at the discretion of the head meet official and can never be guaranteed, and never looks good for our team). Secondly, to talk about why the race was missed and about making sure it does not happen...

SCRATCHING EVENTS It goes without saying, but we'll say it anyways: if your swimmer is hurt, and cannot safely swim in a particular race or event, we will scratch the event. Each event your swimmer signs up for at a USA sanctioned event has a fee. These fees vary depending on the meets and the distance of the swims. When we submit entries to a hosting team for a meet they require us to pay via check for all those events. Once that entry file is submitted (on the registration...

TECH SUITS (Outcomes vs. Process) As coaches we want nothing more than to see your swimmer swim a best time in every race. Tech suits do provide a little extra help along the road to achieving goals, dropping time, or making a cut time. As your kids get more into the sport and you become more experienced swim parents, we want to make sure we acknowledge the downsides to these kinds of suits and the message they send to the kids. Tech suits emphasize time. They emphasize outcomes: “did I...

Here is the step by step process for signing up for Swim meets. Step 1: Log in to your TeamUnify account using your email and password, if you need your password changed, email your coaches to have it reset. Step 2: Click on the ‘Events’ tab to view the available meets and find the meet/meets you would like to attend. Step 3: Click the ‘Edit Commitment’ button underneath the swim meet. (pictured below) Step 4: Click on the ATHLETE NAME you would like to sign up for the meet. If...

I'm sure as some of you know there are a few smartphone apps you can download to make things a little easier for you. The first app is "OnDeck Parent" this app is a TeamUnify created app and allows you to view practices, time standards for USA swimming, any news posted up on the team site and even commit swimmers to meets/events right from the app. makes things super convenient. All you have to do is log in with your normal TeamUnify account just like you do on our site,...