Welcome To Kingfish!

 

Coaches

 

Equipment

Practices

• Swimsuit (Recommended to use endurance suit)

• Goggles (Recommended to use membrane style goggle)

• Towel

• Pull buoy * (if the adult sized ones are to big)

• Kickboard * Lock

• Swim bag

• Shorts (for dry-land) *

• T shirt (for dry-land) *

• Gym shoes (for dry-land) *

• Water bottle full (drink between sets)

• Don't bring expensive items!

Optional Items

• Drag suit *

• Paddles (depending on the level) see coaches first.

* denotes above level 1 swimming

Swim Meets

• Team suit (TYR smoke either blue or green)

• Goggles

• Towels or towel and shammy

• Lock

• Swim bag

• Warm up suit

• Healthy snacks

• Water

• Sharpie dark color

• Something to do between events (I suggest homework or a book)

• Don't bring expensive items!

Optional Items

• Spare suit and goggles

• Deck shoes (Cloggs)

We get a discount on team suits from . They are located at: 2743 University Dr.; Auburn Hills, MI 48326. They sell a full line of swimming gear.

In the spring and summer, Costco and Sam's clubs sell Speedo goggles for about $15 for a 3 pack. For swimmers that need prescription goggles, I would suggest http://www.aquagoggles.com/ the cost is about $24 per pair and each eye can have a different prescription.

Practice suits. Different strokes sells merchandise at a lot of swimming meets. Also, they have �grab bag� suits (nearly 50% off). I would recommend a suit that is endurance, chlorine resistant, or a polyester mix suit. These suits will last longer.

Practices

Practices are held at Mott or Kettering depending on the month.  In case of pool closure or a need to reschedule the calendar will be updated.  If the notice is late in coming (unexpected closures, bad weather), you can sign up for text alerts to your phone by clicking here, and filling out the on-line form.

 

Practices are based on the swimmers skill level. At levels three and four, practices begin with an hour of dry land training (including weights). Levels one and two then join the team in the pool. The first hour of practice is devoted to stroke work. After this first hour, level one swimmers are finished, and others come out of the pool to stretch, do visualization exercises, hear any announcements, and have a bathroom break. Then the swimmers return to the water for their second hour of practice; generally freestyle work.

 

Swimmers need to know a few basic things about swimming Lane Etiquette. The coaches will have you "swim straight" or "swim circle". Generally, swimming straight is for when you have 2 or less in your lane. Swimming circle is for more than 3 swimmers. We use the line in the lane a lot like the yellow line in the road to assure swimmers do not crash into each other. When turning, start moving over to the left as soon as the swimming in front passes allowing for people behind you to properly turning also.

Circle Swimming	Swimming straight

When starting, we swim 5 seconds apart to give a little slack between swimmers. We do encourage passing. When passing tap once on the foot of the swimmer you caught up to and then pass in the center of the lane.

 

The key to make the work out successful for you is to work consistent and as hard as possible.  Set goals for every practice! Set both quality and performance goals.

 

You will need to know how to check your heart rate.  Feel your neck for a pulse (below your jaw and on either side near the front).  It should be faint while sitting and reading this document.  Watching the clock count the number of beats for 6 seconds.  Add a zero to the number and that is roughly your heart rate.  For example:  In practice you count 12 beats in 6 seconds.  Therefore your rate should be about 120 beats per minute. 

Keeping it fun

A few days each week, relay races are held at the end of practice. This offers the kids a chance to have some fun competition, as well as practice starting from the blocks.

During the first half-hour of practice on Fridays, we generally play a modified game of water polo, called water ball. This is a nice break after a week of hard work. Periodically, throughout the year, we have social activities (Halloween party, Holiday party etc). These provide a nice break in the routine, and allow the kids and parents alike the opportunity to socialize and get know each other. Typically, these parties consist of a meal, then games and fun in the pool. We usually ask for a minimal donation to cover the cost of the main course (generally pizza), and swimmers and parents provide various side dishes, etc.

Courses

In swimming you will hear the term "Short Course" or "Long Course".  The season runs from September - April.  Meets for short course are held in 25 yard pools.  We practice with our pools configured for yards during this time of year.

Long course season is from April - August. We have our pools configured for meters during this time a year.  Meets are held in 50 meter pools.

Each season ends with a championship meet.  We have two breaks from swimming, in April and August, each about one-two weeks long. 

Leagues

The primary league we are affiliated with is USA Swimming.  This is a good resource to help educate yourself on swimming.  I have bookmarked a few pages on the team site.  Normally, to enter this type of meet you will need about a month or so notice.  We have the meets we are planning on attending listed on the swim meets page

United swim League is more geared to our beginner swimmers and having fun.  Entering this level meet does not require a lot of notice and we make adjustments on the fly.

Swim Meets

Signing up for meets is easy, the coaches just need to know if you are going to attend.  Click here for the on-line meet sign-up form. We will attach the meet packet to a newsletter like this one. This meet packet provides details about the meet including; location, format, qualifying times, and safety information. Basically, it will include everything you will need to know about it.

Swim meets are the candy of swimming, they are the reward for all the hard work our swimmers put in at practice. The majority of swim meets we participate in follow the same format. A swim meet generally runs all weekend. Each session is about 4 hours long. Friday night usually consists of distance events. On Saturday and Sunday there are two sessions. The session your child participates in will depend on their age, but it will be either morning or afternoon.

 

Check-in

The session starts with check-in. Check-in sheets are usually located near the locker rooms. The swimmer should find their name and events listed and highlight them (Do not use a pen, use highlighters). This is very important, as a swimmer who is not checked in can be scratched from all their events. After changing into their suit, the swimmers should take their bag, with towels, cap, goggles, snacks, water. etc. onto the pool deck and locate one of the coaches. We generally like to have the swimmers on deck and ready to go 10 to 15 minutes before warm-up begins. Their coach will inform the swimmers of the warm-up routine, and help them find a lane.

Warm-up

Parents, warm-up is chaotic! Imagine 150 to 200 Swimmers in the pool at the same time doing various stroke, starts, etc! But the swimmers are all supervised by their coaches. Swimmers must enter the pool feet first during warm-up. There is no diving until the official designates certain lanes, as one way sprint lanes. A swimmer in a start lane must exit the pool at the end of the lane, or switch to a two way lane to return to the starting end of the pool. This is for the safety of the swimmers.
 

Swimmers should come to the meet with their event numbers and names written on their hand in sharpie, with space left to add heat and lane numbers.

 

For example:

Event	Description	Heat	Lane
12	100 Free
24	200 Fly
28	50 Breaststroke

Heat sheets come out just before the start of the meet.  They are posted around the pool and the coaches have a copy.  This allows the swimmers to fill in the heat and lane assignment. 

 

For example:

Event	Description	Heat	Lane
12	100 Free	3	6
24	200 Fly	1	8
28	50 Breaststroke	6	3

Start of the Meet

The events will begin immediately after the National Anthem.

When the event is within about 10 minutes, a swimmershould report to their assigned lane and wait behind the starting block. This is a time to stretch out and visualize the event. The referee will blow the whistle several times (short blasts) to alert swimmers the race is about to start. The long whistle blow signals the swimmers that it is time to step up on the blocks. The official will announce "Take your mark." At this time the swimmers get in their starting position, and they must stay still until they hear the one that announces the start of the race. Occasionally, the referee will ask swimmers to stand from the start position, then take their marks again.

In order to save time, some meets use "fly-over starts."  This type of start the swimmers are stepping onto the block when the last swimmer finishes.  The swimmers finishing the race stay in the water.  While the next heat starts.

 

Timers are volunteers who manually record a swimmers time. In addition, time is kept electronically. The pads hanging on the wall under the blocks stop the clock for that lane when the swimmer touches them. Occasionally, these malfunction, usually because the swimmer does not touch the pad hard enough or on the top edge corner. In this case, the swimmer can ask the manual timer for their time.

Immediately following the race, the swimmers should report to their coach to go over the race and receive instruction. The swimmers will be given instructions on cooling down in the warm-up pool.

When a swimmer has a long stretch of time between events, they should use the warm-down pool to swim and stay loose, at the direction of their coach. Swimmers should wear sweats when not in the water to stay warm.

Parent information about meets

Most meets have a concessions stand, swim apparel vendor (different strokes), awards booth, and results posting. During the start of the race parents should not yell out to the swimmers or use flash photography. If there is questions on an official's call, let the coaches handle this.
Swimmers compete with other swimmers of like skill level and age grouping. These other swimmers are in the pool to motivate the swimmers to do well. The improvement of time in an event is what matters (comparing this meet to last year's meet at the same time.). Don't forget to pick up the awards for your swimmer before you leave the meet.
Entry to the meet and concessions are generally cash only.

Qualifying times

Beginner swimmers will start with "C" times. As the improve, they will achieve "B" times which are faster than "C" times but slower than "A" times. The championship meets at the end of short course season each have their own qualifying times, i.e. district meet (Q3), the Junior Olympics (Q2) and the state meet (Q1). Q3 is for swimmers slower than Q2 times, Q2 is for swimmers with events faster than Q3, but slower than Q1, and so on up through the zone, sectionals and national times.

Meets are sometimes listed as A/B or ABC meets this get back to the time standards above. This will be listed on the meet packets we send out. Some meets have themes such as "swim your own age meet" where kids swim against their own age instead of their age groups (9/10, 11/12, etc.)

Events

Individual events

• Swimmers swim butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke in separate events, with the events ranging from 25 - 200 yards (or meters), depending on the age group. Freestyle events are also swum in separate events ranging from 25 - 1650 yards (or 1500 meters).
• Swimmers also swim individual medleys (IM's), an event in which they use all four strokes in a specific order - butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl. Distances range from 100 - 400 yards (or meters), depending on the age group.

Relay events

• The medley relay is an event in which four swimmers on the relay team each swims a different stroke - backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Distances in the medley relay range from 200 - 400 yards (or meters).
• The freestyle relay is an event in which four swimmers on the relay team each swim freestyle. Distances in the free relay range from 200 - 800 yards (or meters).

Officials

They are here to help the swimmer learn. Please do not argue with them. Leave this up to Coach Brad and myself to do. When a swimmer gets disqualified the official will come talk to the swimmer to explain what they did incorrectly. When this happens to a swimmer, they should listen and ask polite questions, if they do not understand. They will then come see one of their coaches to help make sure they understand why they were disqualified. Hopefully not happen again. Being disqualified only effect that race, not the entire meet.

Team Roster

A Kingfish Roster is sent out from time to time. During the team parties you can network with the other parents for information sharing and car pooling.