Hi Poolsharks -

Welcome to Week #2! Thank you to each of our parents & families for a great start to the season - May is very busy and you all are doing a great job of getting your kids to practices as much as possible. Thank you also to our Age Group Captain families for starting to send out & organize Age Group get togethers - these are a lot of fun and a great way to get to know each other (parents & kids) as we head into Meet season.

Our coaches are ready & available to give private lessons - HERE is the info (please reach out directly to the coaches).  

10 Things if you only have 2 min:

1) stormy weather affecting practice - make sure you have your Remind set up for last minute weather cancellations etc

2) 15 meter lake lanes vs 25 meter racing lanes

3) Big Buddy application HERE (deadline Tues May 13)

4) Time Trials & Team Pic (declare & volunteer HERE - will go LIVE this Wed night)

5) Taco Tuesday (tomorrow)

6) Merch sale thru this Friday

7) First 2 weeks are hard - lets stick with it!

8) Kyle & Kathryn O'Day Dryland Wednesdays

9) Swim Strong

10) 3-6-9-10 season awards

In Detail if you have more time:

1) Stormy Weather - This week's weather looks promising, but not 100%. It will be our coldest week of the season - the water temp last week was 77 degrees which was the warmest ever starting day temp ever.  Today (Mon) we are closer to 73 degrees water temp and this is pretty cold, so we will be 2/3 dryland activities and 1/3 water.  If the weather looks unsure, please try to stick around practice rather than drop off - coaches will take care of swimmers during storms in the dance hall / bathrooms etc, but ideally parents are around to help reassure their children and take them home if possible. Make sure to be on our Remind text alerts for practice cancellations/updates.

Remind swimmer last name A - L remind.com/join/2025vpca

Remind swimmer last name M - Z remind.com/join/2025vpca00

2) 15 meter Lake Lanes vs 25 meter racing lanes: except for Starfish (always in racing lanes 1 & 2), groups shift courses every other day. The shorter lanes allow for more focus on technique & drill work while the 25 meter lanes can work on building up swimmers endurance. Either distance will help all levels of swimmers with their growth.

3) Big Buddy Application - HERE - We are going to match up 100% of our Starfish & Poolsharks ages 4-8 with a Big Buddy (ages 9-18). Our buddy program helps build connection, community, and friendship between swimmers outside of their own age groups while also growing the leadership skills of our bigger kids.

We have 87 Poolsharks that are ages 5-8 so we are hoping that we have 87 Big Buddies (this is almost exactly 1/2 of our Poolsharks ages 9-18).

We encourage ALL Poolsharks who meet the guidelines below to consider applying to be a Big Buddy this season and supporting our team in this leadership role.

Big Buddy Guidelines

*Age 9-18

*commit to participating in at least 3 out of 5 of our meets

*cheer on Little Buddy during meets or at Starfish practice

*say Hi to Little Buddy when you see them at practice/at pool

*write & give an encouraging note for each meet Little Buddy participates in (can give a small treat if you’d like but this is not expected)

*Big Buddy cannot already be on the full time Poolshark coaching staff (although volunteer coaches may be Big Buddies)

4) Time Trials - declare & volunteer YES / NO by next Thurs May 15th

We will take our team pic around 5:15 pm on this day - Time Trials is usually are heaviest attended meet of the season.  

How to declare & volunteer: Go to our home page HERE > Meet Info & Key Dates > Signup Calendar > go to May 20 Practice Meet/Time Trials & click on GREEN icon Meet Entry > Edit and for each of your children select 'attending this meet' or 'not attending this meet'

*Events for Time Trials (Tues May 20th- all swimmers should arrive between 4 - 4:30 pm, we will start warmups at 4:45, meet starts at 5:30, will end ~ 8:30). This is a school night so if you need to leave early - please put in your notes when you declare YES, that you only want to swim in the medley relay & the freestyle - those will be over by ~ 7 pm.

#0 - this is for all of our Starfish and/or 6U swimmers not quite ready to do a full 25 meter swim independently. This will be the ONLY race our Starfish will do.

Medley relays - we will try to get as many kids as possible into a medley relay. We will NOT do free relays.

Freestyle - 100% of our swimmers will be entered in the 25 or 50 free

Non Free Individuals - back/break/fly - we are going to enter most of our swimmers in a 2nd individual race (the back, breast or fly, NO IM). The goal of this is to see if their technique is legal, get some baseline times especially for our 11 year olds swimming 50's for the first time, and generally more race experience. If your child has a preference for back, breast or fly - put this in the notes section 'ex: Henry would like to swim the backstroke.' And we will try our best to make this happen, but please keep in mind that we have 277 kids on the team so it is not 100% possible we can honor all requests, but we will do our best.

Here is what a Home Meet timeline typically looks like:

Timeline:

4:00 - 4:10 all swimmers arrive at the pool in this window and ages 4-14 go to sit with their age group bullpens

4:15 - 4:25 warmups for our 6U/8U kids

4:25 - 4:35 warmups for our 9-10 & 11-12

4:35 - 4:45 warmups for our 13-18 kids

4:45 - 5:15 opposing team Warmups

4:55 team meeting & team cheer on wooden deck

5:05 swimmers head to their bullpens

5:05 Timer Meeting

5:15 6U relays & 7-8 relays get ready

5:17 National Anthem

5:30 pm Meet Begins

9:30 pm Meet Ends

5) Taco Tuesday: Tacos from Las Tres Salsas will be offered 2 Tuesdays in May (May 6^th and May 13th).

To pre- order (for next week): Please text Sergio Magos at 404-645-9651 with your order and prepay on Venmo (@SergioM6). Order by Monday at 9 a.m. for Tuesday. Make sure it is clear that you are placing your order for VENETIAN POOLSHARKS for date xx/xx/xxx. Preorder meal: $12--- Taco Plate: Choice of two tacos (chicken, steak, pork (al pastor), chorizo, grilled veggies) with rice and beans, and a cup of sliced fruit (mango and pineapple)

Menu to buy in person: Tacos $5 Quesadillas $13 Burritos $13 Tortas $13 Taco bowl (rice and beans + 1 meat) $11 meat options= steak, chicken, al pastor (marinated pork), chorizo, or grilled veggies

6) Venetian Poolsharks swag - Poolshark parent Kerri Ohlandt is our swag leader - HERE is the google form to order, and HERE is the menu of items. Deadline to order is this Friday May 9th.

7) We will talk to the swimmers about these first 2 weeks of Poolsharks may be hard for most of the kids and that is okay - swimmers are in cold water / air, around new people, challenging their bodies & minds to new muscle movements and activities - recognizing this - the coaches will continue to encourage the kids and remind them that they 'can do HARD things!' and this is something important and good to work towards, and be proud of.  

8) Kyle & Kathryn O'Day - info HERE - Kyle (trains with Olympic, NCAA athletes and beyond) & Kathryn (KONA Ironwoman) are teaming up to help lead professional level dryland activities for our Poolsharks, one practice per week.  We are excited & thankful to have the O'Days on our coaching staff - they are also Poolshark parents of James (7) and Max (4).  

9) Swim Strong - reminder additional opportunity - info HERE - Coach Blair has teamed up with Coach Phil Stringer, to offer a strength training program focusing on will teach foundational strength movements, explosiveness, and shoulder prehab. Location is at Phil's gym on Church St. Click on link to learn more about schedule & pricing.

10) 3-6-9-10 seasons of commitment awards - We do these awards to honor and value the seasons to seasons commitment of our swimmers & their families dedication that make our team possible. Swimmers that are in their 3rd (mesh training bag), 6th (towel), 9th (parka) and 10th (name engraved on wooden shark board at the pool) seasons of being a Poolshark/Starfish will receive an award this season (this is paid for by the team).

We hope to have these items available to give out by mid season.  

Please continue to reach out with questions/concerns and we look forward to Week 2!

Have Fun, Race Hard, Do Your Best, Go Poolsharks!

- Coach Beth

404.630.1440