November Update 11/16: Lots of Important Stuff!

Hi team!

Got several important updates I would like to share this morning! I know it’s a long read but I hope that you all find it helpful :)

• November 25th deadline for the home meet is coming up! I have uploaded the meet files and so you should be able to see the order of events. Entries are subject to change and approval by coaching staff as always, but feel free to write preferences in the comment box or pick out those preferred events. Please try to attend as this will count toward the 2 YMCA meet qualifying requirement for Y-State!!

• We will be bringing back Swim-Up-The-Skagit! I will be posting more detailed information soon, but briefly it will feature an open facility (shoot hoops, lift weights, use equipment, lounge in the lazy river, etc.), a potluck, tie dye shirts, and swimming for distances and prizes! This was also our team’s primary fundraising tool to provide gear and more opportunities back when I was a swimmer; swimmers pledged to swim a certain distance and called family members for donations. We will have donation goals and raffle drawings as incentives:)

• We will be ramping up our practice intensity going into the main meet season with a goal of maintenance/tapering for Y-State (or Y-Regionals for those qualified already). For the swimmers who are already qualified for Regionals, the plan is to increase the intensity this week (especially for our high school swimmers coming off of a long taper) and put in 12 weeks of focused training:) This will leave us with about 2 weeks of tapering for Regionals and 1 week of maintenance/recovery for Y-State. Especially for the Tsunami swimmers, the focus during this phase of our periodization will be on increasing lactate thresholds and increasing top speeds!

• Our coaching staff is working on having laminated workouts available on the pool deck for our swimmers who wish to put in extra time outside of official practice hours! This is more for older swimmers who can swim in the mornings or for those wanting to swim on the weekends. I will elaborate more on this and further recommendations soon and will post them to the website under the Swimmers tab (under team focus). Update to that tab will come soon, it’s just a lot of editing and writing that I want to make sure is coherent and accurate :)

• Most important of all, my biggest goal with this program is to keep practices fun and exciting! I am happy to hear the positive feedback and greatly appreciate it. Looking forward to more fun and fast swims!

Oh, and our swim team caps have finally arrived! I have been passing them out (everyone gets 2), but if you have yet to receive yours, just let me know!

Best,

Joseph Shelly