McDonough County, Illinois, YMCA - DOLPHIN SWIM
TEAM
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Dolphin Swim Team
Philosophy-Goals
Congratulations and Welcome to the McDonough County YMCA DOLPHIN Swim Team!On the YMCA Swim Team, every swimmer is a champion. Swimming is a wonderful sport--with benefits to the body and mind. Everyone knows the health benefits--a great aerobic exercise that is nonviolent to the body. But did you know that swimming will help your child become a better time manager and, as a consequence, probably a better student? Most importantly, character development is an integral aspect of YMCA swimming. Our program offers an excellent opportunity to learn the values of caring, honesty, responsibility, and respect. It also provides an activity that the family can do together. Moms, dads, and siblings all have a job to do on the DOLPHIN Swim Team. Please, get involved and enjoy your swimmer's efforts. The DOLPHIN Swim Team is happy you have made the decision to give swimming a try, and we hope you enjoy it for a long time. Practices Training Etiquette The swimmers are encouraged to participate in the meets, but they are never required to participate. All swimmers may participate in all meets. The more meets that the swimmer competes in, the faster that swimmer will advance in ability. To participate in the Junior District meet, swimmer must be 12 & under and may not have made district qualifying times. To participate in District meets, swimmers must be either 13 & older, make qualifying times or receive a coach's recommendation to attend. To participate at State, qualifying times must be achieved. It is important to let swimmers know that most of the competition is with themselves. Swimmers practice to improve individual times in the events they swim. So the competition is really between the swimmer and the clock. Of course other kids are swimming at the same time, and it is always wonderful if your swimmer can come in first in their event. We try to focus on times--can your swimmer improve personal times from the last meet. It is a great idea to keep a personal log of your swimmer's times. Just record the event, the date, and your swimmer's time. It is helpful for the kids to see their times go down on paper. At season end, swimmers are awarded a personal best certificate which is a record of the swimmer's personal best times. New team records are then placed on the Record Board near the Swim Team trophy case. Meets are a chance for the swimmers to officially improve their times. Only the times recorded at meets make the swimmers eligible for the District and State swim meets. Qualifying times will be posted on the Bulletin Board. The swimmers usually receive ribbons or medals for their participation in the meets. The DOLPHINS swim against Bloomington, Jacksonville, Peoria, Warren County, Canton, Knox County, Quincy and other teams at the invitationals. We also compete at Junior District, District, and State Championship meets. - Please sign up for each meet by the established deadline. This may be found on the Bulletin Board and must be marked yes or no by every swimmer. Parents are responsible for this commitment. For dual meets, sign-up deadline is usually the Monday night prior to event. Invitationals and Championship meets, have deadlines up to a month in advance. If a swimmer signs up for a meet, it is essential that they fulfill their commitment. Entry fees will be billed to those who sign up for an invitational meet and don't attend. Swimmer must also contact coach or board member if unable to attend. It is detrimental to the coach and to the team if entered swimmers don't show up.- The meet schedule includes arriving at the time the Coach requested, taking stuff to designated area, getting into suit, warm-ups in the pool, short meeting with Coach prior to competition, swimming the meet, cleaning up team area and returning home. It is important to note that warm-ups are very important. Swimmers must arrive at the meet in time for warm-ups or risk being scratched from competition. Most scratch meetings are held prior to the warm-ups. - Once at the meet site, the team gathers in the same general area. This may be in a gym or on the pool deck. This varies by meet, but it is important that all members and families stay together. What To Bring To Meets The dual and triangle meets move fast because there are only one or two other teams; consequently, fewer swimmers are swimming. A dual or triangle meet usually lasts 2 to 3 hours. For away meets, parents and friends may want to bring a
folding chair, as many facilities don't have enough seating for all the
guests. Invitationals Be sure to bring all of the regular stuff -- suits, towels, goggles, caps -- and extra stuff like sleeping bags to rest in, pillows, favorite cuddly things, games, books, magazines, cards, puzzles, and anything else your child might like to do as they wait around between events. It is also helpful to bring a permanent marker, a highlighter and a pen or pencil. Although food is usually available at the invitational meets, you never know what it is going to be and you know it is going to cost something. It's a good idea to bring some food of your own -- bring your child's favorite healthy snacks, juice, and a water bottle. Coolers are welcome, but usually must be kept in a designated spot away from the team area. And don't forget to bring things for yourself. It can be a long day if your have to spend it sitting on a gymnasium floor. Bring a folding chair, something to read, a craft you like doing, or your own pillow, and maybe your swimmer will share a sleeping bag! The main invitationals are the Jacksonville Invite, Canton Invite, Knox County Invite, Warren County Invite, the Bloomington Invite, and our own DOLPHIN Invitational: the Coca-Cola Classic. What Else Should You Know?
age groups: the swimmers are divided into age groups. Littles is 6 & under. Cadet is 8 & 9. Midget is 9 & 10. Prep is 11 & 12. Junior is 13 & 14. And Intermediate is 15 and up. Littles & Cadet are combined during relay and individual medley events. bull pen: a place the swimmers go right before their event. It is usually a group of chairs in rows and allows the meet organizers to line the kids up in the order they will swim. The kids are called to the bull pen by their event numbers. DQ: occasionally swimmers are disqualified or DQ'd from their event. This may be for an improper start, turn, or stroke completion. It happens to every swimmer sometime. First-year swimmers should be warned that this can happen, and that it is part of the learning experience. The penalty is that the swimmer will not get credit for the race (or a ribbon), and the team will not get any points. event numbers: all dual and most invitational meets are organized in the same order. Each meet starts with the 200 freestyle individuals, and then goes on to the medley relays, individual medley, 25 and 50 freestyles, butterfly, 50 and 100 freestyles, 500 freestyles, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle relays. Each event is numbered separately by gender (boys or girls) and age groups. So the meet begins with event #1: girls, junior 200 yd. freestyle. exhibition race: at most meets the team is only allowed to enter three individuals in a particular event for the purpose of achieving a finishing place, time and team points. Sometimes additional swimmers are entered by the coaches in this same event. These swimmers are swimming what is called "exhibition". Their time will still be official and can be used for qualification at the championship meets, however they will not achieve a ribbon or gain team points. An "X" is usually placed next to their final time for clarification purposes. Don't let your child get discouraged if he or she swims an exhibition event. Everyone does, usually several times, during the season. Remember that the time is what is important! false start: the swimmer leaves the diving block before the race officially starts. This is like jumping the gun and this also happens to every swimmer sometime. The penalty is DQ. This is handled in various ways from not getting to swim the race at all to being allowed to swim the race, but not scoring any points. False starts are decided on an individual meet basis. heats and heat sheets: swimmers are divided into age groups to swim each event. If an age group has more swimmers in it than there are lanes in the pool, the event must be divided into groups. These groups are called heats. The swimmers are divided into heats by their seed times. The slower swimmers or swimmers with NT swim in the first heats. The faster swimmers in a heat swim in the middle lanes. Invitational meets may have as many as 14 teams in the meet. This means there will be lots of heats in some events. The organizers of the meet provide a print out of the meet called a heat sheet. This allows parents to know when their swimmers are swimming -- you look up your child's event, find their age group, and look through the heats to see when your child will swim that event. There is usually a small charge to purchase a heat sheet at the invitational meets. Heat sheets are not used at dual and triangle meets. seed times: final times that were attained by a swimmer at a previous YMCA sanctioned meet that are used to place the appropriate heat in a subsequent meet. NT: literally means "no time". Used in the absence of a seed time on a heat sheet to indicate that the swimmer has not swam this particular event during the current season at a YMCA sanctioned meet for a final time. Strokes
Responsibilities
See also, Practice Information. Swimmers should also pay attention to your time away from the pool. Eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep will also help to improve your swimming. Don't forget your homework or your parents who have made a financial as well as a time commitment. They are driving you to practices and meets and picking you up too. Let them know you appreciate them! Parents' Besides the financial commitment, parents make a commitment in time as well. Parents agree to bring their swimmers to practices and meets, and parents are asked to help at all the home meets and some away meets. This might mean being a timer, helping in the bull pen, becoming an official, or writing ribbons. Of course, this kind of participation makes swimming more enjoyable for the whole family. Parent Guidelines - When an athlete first comes out for the team and starts practicing, it is possible for him to worsen rather than improve. This is likely due to the emphasis placed on stroke technique in these groups. It takes a great deal of the swimmer's attention to master these skills. These new sets of habits are the basis for later improvement. As training proceeds in the senior levels, additional stress is placed upon the muscles. The muscles will at first break down under the demand of additional work, and this can explain an initial lack of improvement. As the need for improvement is realized, the muscles will gradually strengthen and the athlete's performance will improve. Thus, at higher levels of training, practice attendance is important. - Plateaus can occur both in competition and training. The more successful athletes are those who work through this momentary delay in improvement and go on to achieve greater performance, approaching their personal potential. - Swimmers aged 10 & under are the most inconsistent swimmers, and this can be frustrating for the coach, parent, and swimmer alike. We must be patient and permit these youngsters to learn to love the sport. - It is the coach's job to offer constructive criticism of a swimmer's performance. It is the parent's job to supply the love, encouragement, and recognition necessary to help the young athletes feel good about themselves. - Parents' attitudes and models often dictate those of their children. Be enthusiastic about taking your child to practices and meets, fundraising projects, meetings, and so on. - If parents can offer insight on their child to the coach that will enable the child's coach to work more effectively with the child, please be sure to contact that coach. - If you have any questions about your child's training or about team policies, contact your child's coach directly outside of practice time. Criticizing the coach in front of the youngsters undermines the coach's authority and breaks the swimmer-coach support necessary for maximum success. Coaches will be available shortly before and after practices on most days, and are always available by e-mail or telephone outside of the normal practice time. - Any disagreement with a meet official during a meet should be brought to the attention of the coach, and be handled by the coach. - The communication between coach and swimmer is very important. A two-way relationship must exist daily at all practices. It is imperative that the coach have the swimmer's full attention at these times. It is for this reason that we ask parents to watch practice only from "off the deck" and not to participate in the coaching in any manner. In fact, your swimmers are in good hands, relax, and let the coaches do their job. - In general, it is best for parents to refrain from making stroke corrections or trying to coach their swimmer. When parents interfere with opinions as to how the swimmer should swim, it causes considerable and oftentimes insurmountable confusion as to whom the swimmer should listen to and respect. If you differ with something, please confer with the coach. Our coaches would enjoy the opportunity to further discuss the program with you. - Remember that swimming should be fun. Be enthusiastic and supportive. Fees REGULAR SEASON 2008-2009: Fees are due due
Oct. 13, 2008 (1st one half) & Nov. 10, 2008 (2nd one half). The season
will begin with the first official practice, Oct. 6, 2008. Not sure about
joining? Come try us out FREE for 1 week! (Emergency form & team application must be turned in
before swimmer is allowed to participate in practice, even for new swimmers
trying the team out for 1st week FREE) Have a Question About the Team? first incidence - verbal warning second incidence (same swim session) - short, sideline sit-out third incidence (same swim session) - sit out balance of swim session Three practice sit-outs and the following procedure will be put in place: The parents are notified that their swimmer is in danger of losing his/her swim team participation for the remainder of the year. The parents are informed first that their child is temporarily out of practice, meet, and team participation until the parents meet with the coaches and board. The coaches' and parents' views will be listened to and carefully considered by the board. The board will determine if the coaches are acting responsibly and correctly and if the warnings are or are not justified. The board will, on conclusion of the discussion, reinstate the swimmer with a clear understanding that the swimmer is-- I. Reinstated without prejudice because the coaches were not justified, or II. Reinstated. The coaches were justified. The swimmer continues; however, the swimmer will have only one more session sit-out remaining. That being the swimmer's fourth sit-out since the beginning of the year, it will also be their last. Should a fourth sit-out be required the swimmer will sit out the remainder of that practice, and the parents will be notified that their swimmer has lost his/her team membership for the balance of the year. This clear understanding will be conveyed verbally at a meeting with the parents, coaches, and board members, and it will be confirmed in writing. The possibility of the swim-team member losing their swim-team membership is not limited to the above policy. The YMCA Member Discipline Policy takes precedence in the event an individual's behavior: (quoting from the YMCA policy): a. Becomes inappropriate for the situation b. Affects the safety of others c. Interferes with other members enjoyment and use of the facility d. Fails to demonstrate respect of the rights of others The following procedures will be followed:
It is understood that a member's participation is at the discretion of the YMCA of McDonough County. (End of YMCA Policy quotation.) In addition, for clarity, no hitting of any kind will be tolerated. The swim team Board feels it has adopted a plan put forward by the coaches to reduce problems and improve the quality of this valued YMCA program. We believe this policy will be welcomed by all. Thank you... The Parent Association, Board of Directors YMCA of
McDonough County Dolphin Swim Team Philosophy Program Goals
- To teach total fitness since all components of fitness influence faster swimming. - To engage in athletics with a full gamut of youth sporting experiences which teach swimmers to deal with winning, losing, officiating, awards, competition, teammates, coaches, parents, spirit and strategy. - To motivate and teach swimmers how to strive for self-improvement throughout the season and life. This is accomplished through awards and individual recognition. - To establish a meet schedule which encourages participation, motivation and success. - To keep the parent(s) informed, aware, and active in team matters. - To cultivate positive mental attitudes, since positive attitudes are contagious. This is especially true for the older swimmers who serve as the role models for our younger swimmers. - To promote swimming as a great sport for life participation. - To have fun!!
Thank you for your support and encouragement. You are helping your child to grow in so many ways. Swimming is truly a sport that will last a lifetime! Now, have fun!
Last Updated 08/18/08
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