Swimmer Motivation and Team Apparel Store Link

Heading into another week of swimming! I hope school is going well and I have enjoyed meeting and working with some of our new athletes! I have a few things to share.

Motivation

As we prepare for our first Intrasquad meet and USA Meet for the top 3 groups in a couple weeks, I want to go over some things we are doing to help motivate the swimmers. As some of you know, USA Swimming is more of an individual activity. Team-scored events do not really exist, relays are scarce, and many swimmers are competing in events with a huge number of athletes from a large geographical area. To help with that, I am starting a few new things. I am also looking for some help from you on a couple of pre-existing items as well. Educating your swimmers about these times early helps them understand what the next steps are and what they might look to achieve in the future. 

1. Team Records
   1. Over the summer, I created a master list of ACSS’s USA Swimming short course yard records. With some of these records dating back to 2015, your swimmers can look to beat the times of the highest-performing athletes from our team's short history.
   2. These are attached and posted on the bulletin board at the swim school.
2. Team IMR Scores
   1. These scores are calculated based on the performance of each swimmer in all four strokes and IM. This is a great way to set goals for becoming a well-rounded swimmer!
   2. These are attached and will also be posted on the bulletin board at the swim school. I will update them periodically throughout the season. What is posted now is everyone’s scores using their times from last season.
3. Conditioning Practice Awards
   1. I explained the process to our younger athletes at last week’s Sunday conditioning practice. Four small practice awards/recognition will be given out at each 12&Under conditioning practice to recognize athletes who demonstrate proper technique, consistent kickouts, overall improvement, and leadership.
   2. This type of training is hard and tends to be rather boring for younger swimmers. This was designed to give each swimmer something to focus on and an opportunity to show off their skills or abilities during a hard set.
4. State Cuts
   1. These are based on the historical performances of athletes within Maryland Swimming. These are very challenging times; only a few swimmers from our team typically qualify each season. It is a great achievement and a major goal for many of our athletes.
   2. These are attached and can be found on Maryland Swimming’s website
5. USA Swimming Motivational Times
   1. These times are based on the historical performance of athletes throughout our country. They are great for setting goals and benchmarks for athletes.
   2. They are also used as qualifying standards for some meets. For example, you may need an “A” time to swim in a certain event or qualify for a championship meet.
   3. These are attached and can be found on USA Swimming’s website or by searching Google.

These links can all be found under the "Swimmers" tab of our website. 

Intrasquad Meet #1

If you have not committed to this meet already, please do so this week. I will usually build the meet the day before and send out information Friday night or Saturday morning.

Keep in mind that we will be beefing up a few things about this meet since we can now count these swims as USA times! We will need to have people officiating and three timers per lane. We will need a lot more volunteers for these times to be official! There is a standard swimmer entry fee of $20. No fees per swim.

Team Apparel Store

This link will be live until September 29^th. These items will obviously not be here for the first meet, but they will be ready by our meet in October. Some people also like to get a Christmas gift checked off the list early!

It is preferred that each swimmer wear a t-shirt at the meets. Especially younger athletes. You are also welcome to purchase other winter-related items preparing for the season.

 https://velocitymaryland.chipply.com/AquaCultureSwimSteam/

Thanks,

Coach Galen