Hello, Fall Conditioning Swimmers and Families!

Here we are with another Coach Update! This past week we have been able to have practice every single day!! How awesome is that?!

Week in Review:

Our groups were able to practice everyday this week, which was just so wonderful. 8U continued working on their freestyle, in particular working on stretching and lengthening their arm strokes. They also had a chance to practice underwater dolphin kicks, dives, and sprints! 9-12 and 13+ also continued their freestyle work-- learning and practicing flipturns, underwater kicks, head down breakouts, and sprints. We got a lot of chances to practice race-pace freestyle for every group!

Swimmers of the Week:

Starting this past week, the coaches recognized 3 “Swimmers of the Week” who we feel, for different reasons, went above and beyond during their practice times. Without further ado, here are the Swimmers of the Week for the week of 8/31:

Name: Freja Ilic

Age: 9, 10 in 23 days!

Grade: 4th

Favorite stroke: Backstroke

Favorite thing about swimming: She likes to be in the water and being a confident swimmer.

Favorite place to vacation: her hometown in Sweden.

“It’s refreshing to see Freja’s excitement and dedication to swimming. She shows up every practice (at 7am) with a big smile on her face and ready to work hard!”        - Coach Caleb

Name: Elizabeth Tanriverdi

Age: 10

Favorite Stroke: Freestyle

Fun Fact: “My older brother twisted his ankle three times!”

Favorite place to vacation: Thailand

“Elizabeth comes to practice with a huge smile on her face and keeps smiling all the way through the workout! She always has a positive attitude, asks questions, and challenges herself-- in short, she never gives up.” -Coach Tjasa

Name: Gus Bolton

Age: 4

Favorite thing about swimming: jumping off the diving board (specifically loves pencil jumps)!

Favorite food: jam/jelly wrap

“Gus is one of our youngest and newest Greenmeadow swim team members. He comes to every practice with a big smile always ready to listen and work hard! So excited to see his progress this season!” -Coach Malia

Notes About Air Quality:

We will continue to assess the air quality day-by-day, considering each day whether it is safe to hold swim practice and, if not, canceling. The coaches will make our final call by 2 pm; If we deem it unsafe, parents will receive an email notification via Swimtopia canceling swim practices for the day. If it is safe, there will be no email sent out. In other words, the assumption will always be that practice is happening unless we cancel via email! We use many different air quality online measuring tools-- AirNow.gov and Purple Air most of all. If we see that the air quality has surpassed 150 (marked “unhealthy for all groups”) we will cancel practice. We will also cancel if the forecast shows the AQI surpassing 150 during the afternoon swim practice times. The pool will remain open unless the AQI reaches 190-200. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at [email protected], or Coach Caleb at [email protected] .

Practice Schedule/Lane Assignments:

Please find our fall conditioning practice schedule and lane assignments here .

Practice Structure:

This upcoming week, we will start our backstroke focussed practices. Here’s what you’ll need to bring to practice:

• Mask (make sure to always wear a mask on deck and to remember to walk one-way around the pool!)
• towel/flip-flops/clothes
• Goggles
• Cap (optional, but encouraged)
• Water Bottle (pre-filled, this is especially important due to the poor air quality)
• Kickboard (we can provide kickboards that we sanitize between groups, but it is recommended that you bring your own)
• Fins (optional, but encouraged)

Gear:

If you want to buy gear for the upcoming season, check out the Greenmeadow team store on Swimoutlet.com for everything from t-shirts to goggles to kickboards and fins.

Parent Reminders:

There WILL be practice on Labor Day (Monday, September 7th)

Contacts:

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any of the coaches:

Coach Tjasa Kmetec [email protected]

Coach Caleb Fenner [email protected]

Coach Malia Jefferson [email protected]

Thank you, everyone!

Coaches Tjasa Kmetec, Caleb Fenner, Malia Jefferson