Jon Vorpagel and Dan Velez with the Olympic Dream International Swim Clinic recently conducted a clinic for a group of Park Village swimmers. Both Jon and Dan spent an hour in the water breaking down the freestyle and breaststroke and offering insights on improvement to our swimmers. Afterward Dan shared his experiences from the 2008 Olympics and brought along some of his artifacts from Beijing for our kids to see. He also spoke to the swimmers about what it took for him to make the Puerto Rican Olympic team and kindly posed for photos with our swimmers.
We would definitely recommend this clinic to other clubs that may be seeking something insightful and educational for its swimmers. Our team members and parents were impressed with the clinic and the material. Jon and Dan were great with the kids and we would definitely consider inviting them back in the future. You can reach them at olympicdreamisc@gmail.com if you are interested in having them conduct a clinic at your pool.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
WinSwim "cookbook" now available
For those of you who are using WinSwim (and even those of you who just might want to see what it’s all about), I have finally completed a “cookbook” document that describes how to use WinSwim to enter, seed and time a TSA dual meet. Please don’t send feedback and questions to me via email; instead, please post them to the Google Group dedicated to TSA WinSwim users.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Get ready for the start of the season!
Hello TSA Reps,
As we prepare to kick off the first meets of the season Tuesday, I want to remind you all of a few housekeeping tasks you should take care of before then:
1) Log in to your account on the TSA web site. Doing this now will ensure that you don’t have a crisis the night of your first home meet when you suddenly realize that you have forgotten your password J. If you already had an account on the site, your password is unchanged. If you are a new Rep or Alternate, then the person who created your account for you (most likely one of your predecessor from your team) should have sent you your initial password. If you don’t know or can’t remember your password, email me and I’ll reset it for you.
2) Update your contact information. Once logged in, click the “personal” link and fill in or update any of your contact information that is missing or outdated. It’s very important to enter all your phone numbers, as another team’s Rep may need to contact your urgently on the day of a meet if, say, their pool had to close suddenly due to a contamination accident and they want to find out if they can switch the meet to your pool.
3) Enter your club’s information. From the “club” link, select “Update your club’s information” and fill in anything that is missing, especially your pool’s address and phone number. New this year is a “Number of Swimmers” field; please update this to reflect the number of swimmers on your team’s official roster (the one you must submit to the Scorer’s table at each meet in accordance with TSA rules). If you add swimmers to the team during the season, please remember to update the swimmer count field on the web site as well. Another club information field this year is “Mascot”; fill this in with “Sharks” or “Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches”, or whatever your team calls itself.
4) Enter your club’s roster (optional). Also on the “club” link, look for “Manage Roster”, “Promote Roster” and other roster related operations. This will allow you to enter your team’s roster, which will give you pull-down name menus for entering swimmer names in meet results (for new records and for triple- and double-winners). If you had your roster on the site last year, you can promote it and then remove the swimmers no longer on the team before you add swimmers who are new to the team this year.
5) Practice entering meet results. If you have never been a rep before, click the “results” link and play around with entering meet results for one of your three home meets. Remember to clean up from your practice by setting the meet status back to “Meet Not Held Yet” when you’re done.
6) Put a reminder in your schedules for entering meet results. The home team’s TSA Rep will need to enter meet results on the web site no later than 8:00 PM on the evening after the meet. If you can do nothing else by that deadline, at least enter the meet score and meet status, which should only take about 30 seconds of your time. You can then come back and enter the rest of the results (no more than 10-15 additional minutes) later. The reason we really want to get the meet score by 8:00 is because that’s the deadline for submitting our results to the News & Observer so that they can print them on the Scoreboard page of the Thursday sports section. If your meet is postponed due to weather, please indicate that in the meet status as well before 8:00 Wednesday.
7) Know your responsibilities as a TSA Rep. You should be familiar with the TSA Rulebook, particularly the sections concerning weather delays and postponements. You may also find this checklist helpful in remembering your duties before, during and after a meet.
8) Stroke & Turn Judges. The list of TSA-certified Stroke & Turn judges is available here. The list will be updated if there are corrections or additions.
On a separate topic, I wanted to pass along a free tool that my club has found useful this year for tracking which swimmers will be absent for which meets. It’s a website called MySignup.com, and it’s very easy to set up and use. Take a look at this example to see the type of interface we have for each meet. The password is “tsa”. If you configure your own similar signup pages, you can assign a password so that only families on your team get access. Signup results can also be downloaded to a spreadsheet if your coach doesn’t want to check the whole roster for “no” answers.
I wish everyone a safe and storm-free season!
As we prepare to kick off the first meets of the season Tuesday, I want to remind you all of a few housekeeping tasks you should take care of before then:
1) Log in to your account on the TSA web site. Doing this now will ensure that you don’t have a crisis the night of your first home meet when you suddenly realize that you have forgotten your password J. If you already had an account on the site, your password is unchanged. If you are a new Rep or Alternate, then the person who created your account for you (most likely one of your predecessor from your team) should have sent you your initial password. If you don’t know or can’t remember your password, email me and I’ll reset it for you.
2) Update your contact information. Once logged in, click the “personal” link and fill in or update any of your contact information that is missing or outdated. It’s very important to enter all your phone numbers, as another team’s Rep may need to contact your urgently on the day of a meet if, say, their pool had to close suddenly due to a contamination accident and they want to find out if they can switch the meet to your pool.
3) Enter your club’s information. From the “club” link, select “Update your club’s information” and fill in anything that is missing, especially your pool’s address and phone number. New this year is a “Number of Swimmers” field; please update this to reflect the number of swimmers on your team’s official roster (the one you must submit to the Scorer’s table at each meet in accordance with TSA rules). If you add swimmers to the team during the season, please remember to update the swimmer count field on the web site as well. Another club information field this year is “Mascot”; fill this in with “Sharks” or “Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches”, or whatever your team calls itself.
4) Enter your club’s roster (optional). Also on the “club” link, look for “Manage Roster”, “Promote Roster” and other roster related operations. This will allow you to enter your team’s roster, which will give you pull-down name menus for entering swimmer names in meet results (for new records and for triple- and double-winners). If you had your roster on the site last year, you can promote it and then remove the swimmers no longer on the team before you add swimmers who are new to the team this year.
5) Practice entering meet results. If you have never been a rep before, click the “results” link and play around with entering meet results for one of your three home meets. Remember to clean up from your practice by setting the meet status back to “Meet Not Held Yet” when you’re done.
6) Put a reminder in your schedules for entering meet results. The home team’s TSA Rep will need to enter meet results on the web site no later than 8:00 PM on the evening after the meet. If you can do nothing else by that deadline, at least enter the meet score and meet status, which should only take about 30 seconds of your time. You can then come back and enter the rest of the results (no more than 10-15 additional minutes) later. The reason we really want to get the meet score by 8:00 is because that’s the deadline for submitting our results to the News & Observer so that they can print them on the Scoreboard page of the Thursday sports section. If your meet is postponed due to weather, please indicate that in the meet status as well before 8:00 Wednesday.
7) Know your responsibilities as a TSA Rep. You should be familiar with the TSA Rulebook, particularly the sections concerning weather delays and postponements. You may also find this checklist helpful in remembering your duties before, during and after a meet.
8) Stroke & Turn Judges. The list of TSA-certified Stroke & Turn judges is available here. The list will be updated if there are corrections or additions.
On a separate topic, I wanted to pass along a free tool that my club has found useful this year for tracking which swimmers will be absent for which meets. It’s a website called MySignup.com, and it’s very easy to set up and use. Take a look at this example to see the type of interface we have for each meet. The password is “tsa”. If you configure your own similar signup pages, you can assign a password so that only families on your team get access. Signup results can also be downloaded to a spreadsheet if your coach doesn’t want to check the whole roster for “no” answers.
I wish everyone a safe and storm-free season!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
List of certified Stroke & Turn Judges now available
Vice president Mike Kaufman passes along the following news:
Attached please find the certified listing of all Stroke and Turn Judges for 2009. If we have missed someone, please let me know ASAP so we can verify the training date and get the person added to the list. Sorry for any misspelled names. Tony, thanks again for getting some many training sessions together for Stroke and Turn.
Have a great season and we will see you around the pool
Mike Kaufman
Thursday, June 4, 2009
YOTA Stroke School
YOTA STROKE SCHOOL
The YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA) is continuing to offer new opportunities for families in our communities. We will begin a NEW Stroke School Clinic program to help swimmers learn the proper stroke technique for more efficient swimming. All lessons will be given by our experienced and certified YOTA Coaching Staff. We hope you will come join us for an educational experience!
6 Sessions Dates:
#1 Oct. 3, 4, 17,18, 24, 25
#2 Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 6, 8, 20, 22
#3 Jan. 8, 9, 23, 24, 30, 31
#4 Feb. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#5 Mar. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#6 May 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16
Time:
11:00-12:00pm (Saturday and Sunday)
Location:
OPC 1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh (the old YWCA building just off of Wade Avenue). Pool is located in the back entrance of the Interact building.
Cost Per Session:
$90 for 6 one hour lessons, given in a group setting
Lesson Plan:
Day 1: Freestyle, Day 2: Backstroke, Day 3: Breaststroke, Day 4: Butterfly, Day 5: Review, Day 6: Fun Race Day
Requirements:
•Must be able to swim a lap of freestyle with no assistance and have had an introduction to butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.
•Ages 6-12
•YMCA membership NOT required-all are welcomed.
Make Up Policy:
•Should YOTA cancel a class, we will schedule a make up date depending on pool and staff availability.
•If you miss for outside circumstances a make up will be unavailable.
Refund Policy:•If a participant drops out prior to start date of the session a full refund will be given.
•If a participant drops out for medical reasons then a full refund will be given only if the session hasn’t begun.
•No refund will be given once a class has completed its 2nd day unless for medical reasons then a percentage could be refunded.
Coordinator Contact:
Tammy Minyard 919-832-9088 ext. 6 tammy.minyard@ymcatriangle.org
The YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA) is continuing to offer new opportunities for families in our communities. We will begin a NEW Stroke School Clinic program to help swimmers learn the proper stroke technique for more efficient swimming. All lessons will be given by our experienced and certified YOTA Coaching Staff. We hope you will come join us for an educational experience!
6 Sessions Dates:
#1 Oct. 3, 4, 17,18, 24, 25
#2 Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 6, 8, 20, 22
#3 Jan. 8, 9, 23, 24, 30, 31
#4 Feb. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#5 Mar. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#6 May 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16
Time:
11:00-12:00pm (Saturday and Sunday)
Location:
OPC 1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh (the old YWCA building just off of Wade Avenue). Pool is located in the back entrance of the Interact building.
Cost Per Session:
$90 for 6 one hour lessons, given in a group setting
Lesson Plan:
Day 1: Freestyle, Day 2: Backstroke, Day 3: Breaststroke, Day 4: Butterfly, Day 5: Review, Day 6: Fun Race Day
Requirements:
•Must be able to swim a lap of freestyle with no assistance and have had an introduction to butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.
•Ages 6-12
•YMCA membership NOT required-all are welcomed.
Make Up Policy:
•Should YOTA cancel a class, we will schedule a make up date depending on pool and staff availability.
•If you miss for outside circumstances a make up will be unavailable.
Refund Policy:•If a participant drops out prior to start date of the session a full refund will be given.
•If a participant drops out for medical reasons then a full refund will be given only if the session hasn’t begun.
•No refund will be given once a class has completed its 2nd day unless for medical reasons then a percentage could be refunded.
Coordinator Contact:
Tammy Minyard 919-832-9088 ext. 6 tammy.minyard@ymcatriangle.org
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
2009-2010 YOTA Swim Team Evaluation Schedule
All evaluations will take place at the YMCA Oberlin Program Center located at
1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh, NC 27605. The entrance to the aquatic facility is located in the
back of the Inter-Act building. Please park in the back parking lot where you will see the
entrance to the YMCA aquatics facility.
Evaluations are scheduled on the following dates:
June 11th, June 18th and July 2nd from 6:30-8:00pm
Each evaluation session will be limited to 20 swimmers per training group.
To Sign up for an evaluation:
Contact Head Age Group Coach Brendan Betts via email at brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org
Prior to signs up, please take the opportunity to read through our Training Group Standards on
our website located at www.ymcatriangle.org/YMCA_Swim_Team/Training_Groups.aspx.
Please include in your email the following information:
1. Child’s full name
2. Child’s date of birth
3. A brief summary of your child’s swimming background
4. The group your child is trying out for
5. Your name and contact information – email address and phone number
Once your child has completed the evaluation we will let you know whether or not your child
has met the standards required for the designated training group. If your child does not meet the training standards, we will recommend that you enroll your child in the YOTA Stroke School
and the appropriate swim lesson program at your local YMCA branch.
The YOTA Coaches will contact you by Monday, July 13th to inform you whether we have
space for your child. At that time, we will provide registration instructions. Once all of our
spaces are full we will form a waiting list at each location, for each group. We will contact those
who are on the waiting list as soon as a spot comes available.
If you have any questions, please contact Brendan Betts at (919) 832-9088 ext. 3 or
brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org.
All evaluations will take place at the YMCA Oberlin Program Center located at
1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh, NC 27605. The entrance to the aquatic facility is located in the
back of the Inter-Act building. Please park in the back parking lot where you will see the
entrance to the YMCA aquatics facility.
Evaluations are scheduled on the following dates:
June 11th, June 18th and July 2nd from 6:30-8:00pm
Each evaluation session will be limited to 20 swimmers per training group.
To Sign up for an evaluation:
Contact Head Age Group Coach Brendan Betts via email at brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org
Prior to signs up, please take the opportunity to read through our Training Group Standards on
our website located at www.ymcatriangle.org/YMCA_Swim_Team/Training_Groups.aspx.
Please include in your email the following information:
1. Child’s full name
2. Child’s date of birth
3. A brief summary of your child’s swimming background
4. The group your child is trying out for
5. Your name and contact information – email address and phone number
Once your child has completed the evaluation we will let you know whether or not your child
has met the standards required for the designated training group. If your child does not meet the training standards, we will recommend that you enroll your child in the YOTA Stroke School
and the appropriate swim lesson program at your local YMCA branch.
The YOTA Coaches will contact you by Monday, July 13th to inform you whether we have
space for your child. At that time, we will provide registration instructions. Once all of our
spaces are full we will form a waiting list at each location, for each group. We will contact those
who are on the waiting list as soon as a spot comes available.
If you have any questions, please contact Brendan Betts at (919) 832-9088 ext. 3 or
brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org.
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