hi Poolsharks!

Welcome to Week 6!  This is a long email...but please hang with me as the goal is to keep our families informed.  

We have updated our 10 seasons Shark Board - thank you to Poolsharks Will & Maggie Monroe's grandfather, who has updated the board for us the past 2 seasons.  We added 8 new names this season (Coach Silvis, Tatum H, Ali E, Coach Matthew M, Macey C, Lucien M, Coach MC, Coach Jack M).  

We head to the Winding Vista Vipers this week!  Away meet so no Starfish.  6 lanes, heated, short course meters.  It looks rainy, but fingers crossed, and please bring gear to stay as warm and comfortable as possible.  If weather affects the meet - here is the plan: any thunder after 7 pm, meet will be moved to the next day.  Hard stop end time at 10:15 pm.  If a makeup is necessary - it will be the next day (Wed) and I would send a form for families to let us know if their availability changes (for swimming & volunteering).  

This past week, we had 190 kids compete at Echo Ridge.  I loved how hard we raced.  I did not love what i heard about some of our Bullpen behaviors (throwing trash, taunting tennis players, not listening first time to parent volunteers).  So we discussed this at practice - about our character expectations and the need to be better moving forward.  Even if you were not the one making bad choices, to be BRAVE and check in with your teammates and help lead them to be their best selves.  If there are swimmers still struggling with bullpen behavior, moving forward they will stay with their parents during the meet and/or their parent will be in bullpen with them the whole time.   

HERE is our parent view for attendance - 33 points is the goal to earn the special cap!  Swimmers with perfect attendance can earn this as early as this Thursday!  If you notice an error, please send me a polite brief note with the updates that need to be made.

We have data reports to share - all posted HERE on our Signup Calendar under our most recent meet (Echo Ridge).  Please consider carefully if you choose to share these lists with your swimmer or not - for some kids, these are big motivators while some kids may feel other ways.

The list that I think swimmers have the most autonomy in achieving, is our Jaw Droppers list - as this is reflective of how much they are improving throughout the season, rather than being the fastest swimmer or winning races.

We will recognize the overall Jaw Dropper (time improvements) & Top Chomp (high point) for each age group at the end of the season celebration on Thurs June 25th (during regular practice AM times).

Poolshark Top 11 Times (fastest 11 times in each race for each age group so far) - this is how our A relays are built and the swimmers in Heat 1 (the scoring heat) for each meet. It is 100% quantitative and data based.

Jaw Dropper (top 11 swimmers in each age group that have dropped the highest percentage of time this season & earned the most speeding bullets so far).

Top Chomp (top high point scorers per each age group so far)

ASA Divisionals - HERE is the league (Atlanta Swim Association) championship info site - everything from parking passes (they will sell out) to lots of general information about the meet. About half of our Poolsharks choose to attend the championships, that will take place on Wednesday June 24th (arrive ~ 8 am - 1 pm end time) and it is a great opportunity for our kids to have an experience swimming in Georgia Tech's '96 Olympic pool, racing kids from all over metro ATL. 

Deadline to declare is in one week on Monday night June 15th, 11:59 pm. This is a hard deadline as we need to confirm all entries, and turn in to the league.

Payment must be received by that Monday also - please put in note 'divisional fee for Johnny Rocket (your childs name)'

Venmo: @Beth-Lewis-7 (last 4 digits are 1440)

PayPal: [email protected]

A few swimmers have asked coaches what they should swim - I think there are 2 ways to go about this depending on your goal. Option 1 - swim what you LOVE (make sure you are legal at it though, ie do not swim breaststroke if you still have an illegal kick). Option 2 - score points / earn a fancy ribbon - the times shift a little bit each year, but if you look HERE, you can see results from our Divisionals last year to see what times it takes to earn a medal (top 10) or a ribbon (11th thru 30th).   

Most of the time, Option 1 & 2, are really the same thing since we often do best at what we love.

When: Wednesday June 24th @ 9:30 am - 1:30 pm ish (warmups are TBD assigned and will begin as early as 8 am). We will NOT have swim practice this day.

Where: Georgia Tech Natatorium

Cost: families pay $30 per swimmer plus a parking pass that you should definitely buy ahead of time HERE ($18). The league charges us $50 per swimmer and Venetian will pay $20 for each swimmer towards the $50 cost.

Who Participates: This meet is recommended for our swimmers ages 5-18 that would like to experience a championship meet, and can legally swim their race (they DQ out the wazoo at this meet). If you are not sure if this meet is a good fit for your child, please do not hesitate to reach out to me and we can discuss. Our goal is to have 12 kids per age group attend this meet so we can have 3 relays per age group (that is also the max # of relays allowed per team per event). Parents will choose the 2 individual events their child swims (not coaches) when they declare online and indicate those races in the 'notes' section. We will try to get everyone in at least 1 relay if we have the numbers to support that but it is not 100% always possible.

Fri June 19th - we will have a special guest at Poolshark practice. USA National Team member, All American & NCAA champion for Harvard, GHSA State Champion for Paideia, American Record holder in the 200 free, and last but not least Poolshark record holder and ALUM, Dean Farris! (also is known as Starfish Killian's uncle). Dean will give a brief 'hello' to our Poolsharks at the beginning of each practice when we meet on the wooden deck, and then float from lane to lane to help kids with their skills. I am excited and thankful for our Poolsharks to be in the presence of a real life superhero in Dean, who is also humble, gracious and a wonderful role model.

Planning for Week 6:

Mon AM June 8 - regular practice 

Tues AM June 9 - regular practice

Tues PM June 9 - meet @ Winding Vista, 5:30 start (arrive by 4:25)

Wed AM June 10 - regular practice (with donuts & awards)

*Wed June 10 - makeup meet if necessary

Thurs AM June 11 - regular practice 

Fri AM June 12 - regular practice 

Planning for Week 7:

Mon AM June 15 - regular practice & ASA entries & fees due

Tues AM June 16 - regular practice

Tues PM June 16 - home meet vs Lake Claire, 5:30 pm start, USA & World Cup THEME

Wed AM June 17 - regular practice (with donuts & awards)

Thurs AM June 18 - regular practice 

Fri AM June 19 - regular practice with Dean Farris as Special Guest

Club Swimming - at the end of the season i will share links to a handful of local year round swimming opportunities.  90%+ of our Poolsharks are not year round swimmers, but if your child is loving swimming and does not want to stop, there are lots of great local options.  Dynamo's Coach Ian Murray appreciated visiting the meet this week @ Echo, and shared the attached doc for interested families.  

Reminder to keep up with the Poolsharks via our Instagram site - thank you to Coach Emily for leading our social media and putting our weekly Bulletin Board together!  

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

- Beth

404.630.1440