October Sockeye Scoop

IST Communications

October Sockeye Scoop

 

  • News and Announcements
  • Squad Spotlight
  • Schedule Adjustments
  • Upcoming Swim Meets & Team Events
  • Knowledge Deep Dive
  • Team Resources

    

News and Announcements

 

Possible Date Change for PNS Long Course Senior Champs

We would like to share that PNS, the governing body of local swimming, may be changing the date for our Long Course Senior Championship meet this Summer. This change may occur due to other USA Swimming meets Junior Nationals and Futures being scheduled for the same weekend. There are several possible alternatives that we would like to make you aware of as you plan the rest of your year as this is an IST-hosted event and as such has volunteer requirements:

  • PNS LC Champs may switch from 7/25-7/27 to 7/19-7/21

  • PNS LC Champs may switch from 7/25-7/27 to 8/2-8/4

 We will provide an update as soon as PNS finalizes this decision. 

 

Holiday Training Break

IST has two upcoming training breaks during Thanksgiving and the holiday season. We will be off on 11/23-11/24 for Thanksgiving and 12/23-1/1 for the holiday season.

 

Sockeye Service Spotlight     

We would like to highlight several of our Senior athletes that volunteered their time in the community during our August training break. Pictures from the event can be found here .

 

Senior Social Recap

Thank you to IST Board Member Sarah Keibler for organizing a Senior Fall Social at Bob’s Corn Maze in Snohomish! 15 athletes and families participated. Pictures from the event can be found here .

 

Swim Across America Gear 

Special towels and swim caps are at the IST dryland space for those who participated in our Swim Across America fundraiser! Come by during our regular office hours to pick up your SAA swag!

 

Trivia Competition

It’s time for another trivia competition! The seventh person to email [email protected] with the total number of swim meets in the short course 1 season (September to end of December) will win a giftcard to a local Issaquah business and be announced in our next newsletter!

 

IST Team Store

You can always purchase IST gear at the team store here . Not only is this the best place to shop for swimsuits and practice equipment, but you can also order team shirts and swag! Remember that their is a discount on gear purchased through this store and that IST receives a portion of every purchase.

 

Squad Spotlight

Check this space in each Sockeye Scoop for highlights from one level of our team. More information about each individual IST training group can be found on the website under Team Info > Group Information . In this Scoop we highlight the Senior Program :

 

Senior 1: The theme the last couple of weeks has been training to be well rounded in all 4 strokes while becoming stronger swimmers and technically sound in each stroke. In the beginning of the season we had a lot of IM and freestyle themed practices and now we are transitioning into more stroke focused practices. A key theme has been applying the skills and drills we’ve done during the technical piece of practice, while being consistent with them for the rest of the practice. 

 

Senior 2: Senior 2 is currently training for the 500 free and 400 IM events at Fall Open! Intensity and yardage are increasing steadily. This week is IM focused, with their 10x100 IM test set coming up. 4 athletes joined Coach Darla on a hike at Poo Poo Point on Saturday the 7th! It was a blast with a gorgeous view of Mount Rainier. 

 

Senior Performance 1: The theme the last couple of weeks has been the word “finish” with the goal of being stronger in the second half of our races. We’ve been adding what we call “finishers” to our practices, sprinting and racing just before practice is over. Training a crucial race element to compete until the very end!

 

Senior Performance 2: The last month or so has seen Performance 2 working on building general aerobic capacity with a recent shift to more sprint-focused work as we approach Fall Open weekend. Technique items have included a focus on balance, body line, posture, pull pattern, and enhancing feel for the water as the athletes returned from the summer break. We've taken advantage of the combined training environments to build cohesion between the various Performance groups as well as Nationals. Over the next couple of months, we'll look to shift to aerobic maintenance while ramping up intensity and refinement of race details and pacing heading into championship season.

 

Senior Performance 3: The theme of our season so far has been “enjoying the journey”. We have enjoyed joint practices with the other Performance groups and Nationals, as well as our first squad hike of the year at Rattlesnake Ledge! In the water we have steadily increased our aerobic capacity while utilizing a technical theme of “building power through pressure”. This has been in conjunction with our technique cycles of balance, posture, breath control, and early stroke/skill work. I am looking forward to the Fall Open this weekend where the group will swim the 200FL and 500FR for the first time this season, and to approaching peak practice capacity while focusing more on speed work in the coming weeks.

 

Nationals: The Nationals group has had a productive start to the season.  We began by developing technique and setting up great habits before adding more rigorous training demands.  We have increased our volume and intensity on a weekly basis up to this point - and this week is the final week of our capacity (endurance) training phase. Nationals swimmers will be competing this weekend in the 200/500 Free and the 200/400 IM, among other events. Following the IST Fall Open, the training will shift to our utilization phase - a more race pace and speed-based focus. 


 

Schedule Adjustments

Anticipated practice adjustments have been posted to the website under Schedules > Training Cancellations. Please make sure to check the website a couple of times per week in order to make sure you don’t miss any last-minute changes!

 

  • 10/21-22 - No practice due to IST Fall Open
  • 10/31 - No practice due to Halloween

    

 

Upcoming Swim Meets & Team Events

 

2023 IST Fall Open

     Meet Date: Saturday-Sunday, October 21-22

Location: Snohomish Aquatic Center, 516 Maple Ave, Snohomish, WA 98290

     Notes: IST-hosted meet! Swimmers will have the opportunity to compete in a wide variety of races over two days.

 

2023 Chinook Pentathlon

     Meet Date: Sunday, November 5

Location: Mary Wayte pool, 8815 SE 40th St, Mercer Island, WA 98040

     Notes: Swimmers will complete a pentathlon of events based on their age group. Please visit the “events” page of the IST website for more information.

 

2023 IST November Time Trial Invitational

     Meet Date: Sunday, November 12

Location: Snohomish Aquatic Center, 516 Maple Ave, Snohomish, WA 98290

     Notes: IST-hosted meet! Swimmers will have the opportunity to compete in 4 events (25, 50 or 100 of each stroke). This is the first of the two-meet series for our Steelhead swimmers.

 

     2023 IST November Distance Invitational

     Meet Date: Sunday, November 12

Location: Snohomish Aquatic Center, 516 Maple Ave, Snohomish, WA 98290

     Notes: IST-hosted meet! Participants from Gold, Performance 1, Performance 2, Performance 3, and Nationals will swim the 1650 FR.


 

 

Knowledge Deep Dive

Check this space for website tips and tricks, swimming trivia, general swimming knowledge, and happenings around the wider world of swimming. In this newsletter, we share a message from Coach Nate about his podcast with former IST Head Coach Kyle Johnson:

 

Hello everyone,

 

I am excited to share a weekly podcast that I have started with Kyle Johnson titled “I Don’t Get It”. Kyle was IST’s Head Coach in the early 2000s and was instrumental in establishing pieces of the IST stroke curriculum while he worked with Olympic Trials level athletes. Kyle and I started this podcast to talk about our shared swimming experiences and philosophies. We put out a new episode once a week and currently have four on Spotify. Please check out the podcast and leave a review here !


 

Team Resources

General Inquiries and Billing Questions: [email protected]

Volunteering Questions: Heather Liati ( [email protected] )

Officiating Questions: [email protected]

Teamwear Questions: [email protected]

Head Squad Liaison: Brenda Ralphs ( [email protected] )

Questions About Your Athlete: Your Athlete’s Coach

IST Team Store: https://www.swimoutlet.com/collections/sockeyes

IST Website: www.istsockeyes.org