Hello, Fall Conditioning Swimmers and Families!

I hope this email finds you well!

Week in Review:

We are back in action after a rough few days with the smoke in the air, our little maintenance closure and a holiday. This week we were able to work on freestyle, butterfly and backstroke. All groups did amazing and we were able to add some fun in playing games and jumping off the diving board!

Swimmers of the Week:

Name: Jack Whitehead

Age: 9

Favorite stroke: Freestyle

Favorite snack: Nacho Doritos

Favorite color: Green or Navy Blue

Jack has come to every practice with a smile on his face and ready to swim! He has been making great improvements on all his stroke technique.

Name: Ellie Silverstein

Age: 8

Favorite stroke: Breaststroke

Favorite snack: Nacho Doritos

Favorite color: Turquoise

Ellie comes to every practice ready to work hard. She leads any lane she is in and is learning very quickly how intervals work.

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 feel free to reach out.

Practice Structure:

Every group, with the exception of the Jr Marlins group, will begin practice with a warm up that includes all 4 strokes. I believe that every stroke should be done in some capacity every practice even if it isn't the main focus for that day.

For the next few weeks this is what each warm up will look like:

Parent Info:

Here’s what your swimmers need to bring to practice:

• towel/flip-flops/clothes
• Goggles
• Cap is encouraged for any swimmers with hair long enough to cover their eyes
• Water Bottle (pre-filled)
• Kickboard
• Fins are encouraged. They are great when working on almost every single drill we will do in practice.

*Beginning Saturday September 18th we will be combining the 9-12 and 13+ Saturday practices. Moving forward we will have one practice from 9:00am-10:00am. The 9-12 kids will be given the option to get out after 45 minutes but are more than welcome to do the full hour if they would like that extra push.*

Coaches Update:

Our assistant coaches are Coach Anna and Coach Katie. Both are swim instructors here at GMCA. Katie will be with us Monday/Tuesday and Anna will be with us Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. Here is a little more information about them. 

Anna Contreras 

Coaching Experience: 

Anna started working at Santa Clara Swim Club in the Learn To Swim program at the age of 16, as a swim instructor for all ages. She enjoyed working with the special abilities program there as well. She soon was promoted to be a deco supervisor and shortly after she was once again promoted to be a part of the administrative staff along with continuing her work with the children.

In 2018 she began age group coaching and working with the per-competitive developmental program. 

Goals for her career:

To help swimmers learn life saving skills as well as achieve their goals to be the best that they can be.

Personal fact of interest:

She has a cat named Hybrid and enjoys spending time with family and friends in her free time.

Katie McCracken

My love of the water and swimming began at a young age. My parents had such a hard time keeping me out of the water, that love turned into an 8-year competitive swimming career.

Over those 8 years I spent 4 years on a year-round swim team known as The Wave Makers, 3 years on a summer team called Killarney Farms, and 1 year swimming for Branham High School.

Those years of experience equipped me with the skills necessary to lead and instruct lessons at Waterworks Swim School where I taught kids as young as 3 years old as well as teaching adults for a year and a half!

My personal strengths and what I excel in are endurance races, swimming medley relays, 500 relays, and 800 relays. My strongest strokes are freestyle and backstroke. I take pride in teaching kids the proper techniques for the swim strokes but am of the mindset that swimming should be fun, and I want to instill within them a love of swimming and the water. My hope is that my students will one day join a swim team if they wish and maybe someday, they will teach their own kids to love the water as well.

Contacts:

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

Coach Alana Ezrré [email protected]

Coach Caleb Fenner [email protected]

Coach Anna Contreras [email protected]

Coach Katie McCracken [email protected]

Thank you, everyone!

Coaches Alana, Caleb, Anna, and Katie!