Preseason Practice Info

Hello swim families,

We are about one month away from our first meet! Practice starts June 1^st!

The calendars attached are a new item for us. I really wanted something all-inclusive. Once practice groups are finalized, I will send out a copy with the group times printed on this as well. All practices, meets, and the swim team party are all listed on these calendars. Please print them or save them to the home screen on your phone because they are a great resource. There is a link embedded in each meet that will give you directions to that pool if you have not been there before. The QR code at the bottom will send you to the practice groups on our team website once it is finalized.

Practice Details:

• As you can see Sunday evening and all morning practices will be held at HCC. Weekday evening practices will be held at Aqua Culture.
  • We chose Sunday as our evening practice at HCC because we thought there was increased availability on that day. We expect Sunday practices to have good attendance to allow evening swimmers to truly take advantage of the opportunity to swim at HCC! It also allows coaches to immediately react to the mistakes we saw at our meet on Saturday.
• Specific practice groups and time assignments will be made once registration officially closes next week. As a general rule, the youngest kids will swim first and older kids will swim last within those time frames.
• Older kids will continue to have dry land worked into their practices. Make sure they have appropriate shoes and clothing.

Practice Requirements:

• You are not required to come to every practice on the calendar.
  • 10&Under: 2 swims a week. One of those should be a class at the swim school.
  • 11&Older: 3 swims a week. One of those can be a class if enrolled.
• You are welcome to attend more practices than what is required. We will have plenty of swimmers who attend 3 and 4 practices a week in addition to their lessons. But do not feel overwhelmed by our schedule. It can be daunting seeing 4 evening practices in one week.
• As a reminder, the practice schedule is designed in a way that all swimmers will still be able to get a sufficient amount of time working on the competitive aspect of swimming while being able to attend their weekly class on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.

Information on Harford Community College (HCC) Practices:

First of all, we are guests in their facility and are paying to rent space here. We must foster a good relationship with this facility as they have cooperated with us on numerous occasions, and we hope to continue this relationship.

• Unlike Aqua Culture, younger swimmers can not enter the facility on their own and may not play in the facility without supervision. Swimmers under the age of 12 should be escorted to the pool deck and escorted from the pool deck and outside. Swimmers should not be roaming around the dry side of the facility unattended.
• Clean-up will be essential and items left behind are subject to disposal. HCC is kind to us and we do not want to incur additional fees or be bound by additional rules as a result of an increased workload on their staff.
• We would like to keep the use of the locker rooms at a minimum There is no way for us to safely monitor the behavior in those areas. Swimmers should arrive in their suits. Swimmers should also leave in their suits when possible.
• We ask that food stay off the pool deck at HCC. No one is there long enough to require a snack. Fluids including water and sports drinks are always allowed.

Other reminders:

• Meets will be posted on the team website soon. That is where you will commit to attend or scratch a meet.
• We are asking you to sign up for your volunteer requirements by June 4th. This will be available within each swim meet event on our team website soon.
• If you still need a suit, please reach out ASAP! You may have to order one from Agon if there is nothing available from our preseason order.
• We are still accepting new swimmers! If you know anyone interested, send them my way.

Thanks,

Coach Galen