Aquadawg Weekly Update: Fall/Winter Season

Welcome to our Aquadawg blog!

I will be posting weekly updates for the Aquadawgs and their families. These updates will include a recap on the week, things for parents and swimmers to think about, reminders about upcoming meets and events, and any other information I find might be helpful to you. If you are curious feel free to browse the blog and read some of the posts from last season.

Some general information about practices...

•  Practice Times

• Beginner Tue/Thurs 4:30-5:30 pm

• Intermediate Tue/Thurs 5:30-6:30 pm

• Advanced Tue/Thurs 6:30-8:00 pm

• Locker Rooms: Please have children (especially the beginner and intermediate swimmers) use the family locker rooms. These locker rooms offer private dressing areas and showers unlike the adult locker rooms. 

• Equipment: fins, goggles, kickboard, swim cap (girls only), mostly black swim suit for swim meets, and pull buoy (advanced only)

• Parents are not allowed on the pool deck during practice. This is due to our lifeguard ratio. The lifeguards are responsible for watching the people on the deck as well as the swimmers in the pool. I will allow parents on the deck 5 min at the start and end of practice to drop off and pick up their swimmers.

• Swimmers please remember to go to the bathroom BEFORE practice.

• ALL of the forms and the results for the swim meets will be posted on the Aquadawg website. Bookmark that page it is important to be able to access it. 

• Any questions, concerns or comments email Deb: djrothstein@vosymca.org. Deb will forward emails to me as necessary and I will respond. 

• Follow this blog by email! Scroll down to the very bottom of the page you see "follow by email". If you enter in your email and click "submit" your email will be notified every time I post something new on the blog. This is very useful and the best way to stay up to date on information.

• Follow the Aquadawgs on Instagram @ymcaaquadwags. Feel free to tag us in any of your Aquadawg photos.

I am so excited to be starting off another swim season. All of the groups are almost full! It is a wonderful feeling to be carrying this momentum into our fall/winter season.

I would like to let all parents and swimmers know that I will not be at practice on THURSDAY. I have an out of town funeral to attend so just know it is not normal for me to miss a practice. I believe that Coach Deb will be filling in for me, so all of the swimmers will be in good hands. 

The swimmers are off to a great start. All of my groups are full of motivated swimmers who act like they want to be there. On Tuesday, the groups worked on freestyle. The beginner group worked heavily on streamlines, blowing bubbles, rotating from side to side, and alternating side breathing every three strokes. The intermediate group worked on streamlines, rotating from side to side, alternating breathing every three strokes, and keeping their elbows high. The advanced group worked on rotating from side to side, alternating breathing every three strokes, high elbows, good body position, and learning how to incorporate good technique with speed. Next week, I look forward to working on some of the other strokes with the groups as well as dives and possibly turns with my older groups.

Our first swim meet is November 8th at the Ahwatukee YMCA, warm ups start at 7:00 am. The form for this meet will be linked on the Aquadawg website. The meet entry form is due to me by Thursday the 6th. Please mark those date on your calendar!

Thanks!

Coach Alisha

Weekly Update #7: Season Wrap Up

Aquadawgs!

Thanks for another great week of practice! We are nearing the end of our season...can you believe this is our last week of practice!

As we come to the conclusion of our season don't forget:

1. SIGN UPS: sign ups for our next season (October 14-December 21) are going on NOW! There are limited spots so sign up ASAP...and I promise THE POOL IS HEATED! :)
2. SWIM MEET: October 4th is our final meet of the season. Bring your meet form to me (Coach Alisha) by Thursdays practice. Remember you can only swim 4 events. 

This last week at practice was probably our toughest one yet. I really pushed a lot of our swimmers this week. During this week I was looking out for swimmers who were excelling as I pushed them. I also introduced swimmers to stuff they might learn in the group above them to see how they handled it. I did this because I wanted to see what swimmers might be ready to move up a group. This last week gave me a great feel for where all our swimmers are at. Feel free to ask me if your child should stay in the same group or move up for next season. But do keep in mind, swim team is not swim lessons. Children are expected to be in the same group for multiple seasons and possibly a few years. That is normal. Moving up usually happens with not only improvement but also age. 

Beginner group worked on Backstroke and introductory flip turn work.

Intermediate group worked on IMs and did some harder more challenging sets with intervals.

Advanced group did some intense freestyle workouts. A special shout out to this group, they endured some of the most challenging workouts I have ever written for the Aquadawgs. They handled it well and felt very accomplished, tired, hungry and sore after...as they should have. GREAT JOB to this group I was very impressed. 

Also thanks to Ingelise & Katie for attending the high school swim meet this week. It was fun to watch the high school swimmers and talk about swimming. 

Here are some pictures from the high school meet this week to show just how much fun we had. (Most of these pictures were posted on Instagram follow us @ymcaaquadwags)

There is another DV meet on Wednesday against Hamilton. It is at the Nozomi Aquatic Center from 4-6pm.

Lastly, here is an article Coach Deb posted on my Facebook this week. It is a good read especially going into our final meet! Read it here. 

Coach Alisha 

WELCOME

Welcome to our new Aquadawg blog! We have a couple of new features that you might be interested in.

• INSTAGRAM! We now have an Aquadawg instagram. Our username is @ymcaaquadawgs. You can follow us on instagram and tag us in any team photos (maybe we will even repost them). You can also see a slideshow of the instagram photos on the left side bar of the blog. 
• Blog updates by email. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page you see "follow by email". If you enter in your email and click "submit" your email will be notified every time I post something new on the blog.
• Star swimmers of the week are posted with their name and picture if you click the tab on the top of the page. 

Thanks for visiting our new blog!