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News Digest: January 2008
SAVE THE DATE The annual Saluki Awards dinner will be held at Ace's Catering in Herrin this year on Sunday, 16 March. The event is still in the planning stages and full details are expected to be released in early February. But mark the date for the social event of the season!
The Racing Team will be in action this weekend inside the Cape Girardeau bubble for the annual Gator Great Times Invitational. This is the last full blown meet prior to the championship series of meets that begins on 9 February with the Tri-State Championship. All information regarding the meet and warm up times is available by clicking links on the calendar page. Clicking on the name of the meet will reveal the complete Saluki entry along with warm up and start times.
Yes, There is Saturday Practice
This Week! For the first (and probably last) time this session we will be able to hold practice on Saturday. Weekends during the Winter session are usually packed with meets or other activities at Shea and the Saturday practice times take a beating. So lets take advantage of this rare opportunity. Jedi and Group 1 athletes usually do not have practice on Saturday but are welcome to attend this week.
Racing Team Gets Early Dose of
Adversity for 2008 The annual Gabrielle Rose Invitational in Memphis, Tennessee provided a venue for some late season prelim/final efforts in a team trip atmosphere. Although the social atmosphere led to a good team environment the actual atmosphere did not. Problems with pool chemistry made it difficult to breathe on Sunday and this took its toll on many performances. Although time drops were minimal the squad did turn in several best times and 8 new improved National Age Group Standards.
Tri-State Championship is Our
Annual Nickname Meet The upcoming Tri-State Championship (9-Feb) is our annual nickname meet where athletes get to have their nicknames appear in the meet program. Some athletes already have nicknames but others need to get them to the coach as soon as possible. Just some samples: Babs, Gargantua, Tater. Some athletes have asked if you need a nickname to participate in the meet and the answer is no. But if you want to compete under your nom de plume then send it to Saluki HQ pronto!
Additional Beginner Class Added
to Swim School Line Up It seems that our Beginner classes are very popular for the upcoming Winter session; both have filled. We have adjusted the schedule slightly and added another beginner class on Tuesday and Thursday beginning on 19 February.
Championship Qualifiers List
Available A list of Saluki qualifiers for the upcoming championship meets is now available. The list in is PDF format. The list will be updated after every meet leading up to the championship season which gets underway with the Tri-State Championship on 9 February.
How Do You Know Who's Signed Up
for a Meet? And Other Stuff Did you ever get the feeling that you were the only one not in on a joke? That everyone else knew something that you didn't? There are a lot of situations in life where you might feel this way but knowing about Saluki meet information isn't one of them. All meet information is linked to our calendar page. Finding out what you need to know about a meet before leaving home is a simple matter of visiting the website. Indeed, through every stage of the meet registration and entry process the calendar page is the portal for everything you need to know about a meet. The calendar page lists the meets we will be attending. On the page there are links that offer directions, the actual meet invitation from the host (if it's available in PDF format) and a map. Additionally, if you click on the name of the meet itself you will also get a list of all athletes who have registered for the meet, warm up and start times and other details that apply to our own entry into the meet. If you click on the name of the meet after we've sent our entry to the host they you will see a list of events and seed times for each athlete entered. Just about everything we can think of about a meet is available from the calendar page. And, since we know that Saluki families depend on the website for all up to the minute info about meets (and practically everything else), updates or changes are posted promptly. So next time you need meet information don't panic. Details you seek are almost certainly on the web!
Over 40 Saluki spent the weekend in Paducah churning the waters of the Executive Inn's 25m pool. The Saluki 9-10 boys (Matthew McAuliffe, Tyler Underwood, Taylor Yucus and Jake Stone) won both of their 4 x 50 Medley and Freestyle relays and the Saluki 13-14 girls relay (Natalie San, Austyn Sigler, LeeAnn Jones and Braci Dutton) took first in their 4 x 50 Medley. When the racing was finished Jacob Stone emerged as the high point winner for the 9-10 boys age group. As always full results will be available in the Saluki Update.
And the Holiday Season
Continues... Everybody's back at work and the kids are back in school but for the Racing Team the holiday season continues. Modifications to the practice schedule will continue through 11 January. We will be following the schedule at right through next Friday. On Monday, 14 January our regular training schedule will resume with our coaching staff back at full power.
I COACH...SO YOU
DON'T HAVE TO
By BILL PRICE With the Paducah Swimfest coming up next week I am preparing for a barrage of questions about how to convert times from one course to another. The Swimfest is run in a 25 metre course so naturally the times turned in by our athletes will have no comparative value to what they are used to. Is this a good thing? I say yes and here's why. By removing the ever present and easy way to evaluate an athlete's performance we are all forced to examine the finer details of each race--preparation, technique, strategy etc. In a 25 metre pool these things take center stage because the times produced are irrelevant for comparison. The post race discussion with the coach takes on more meaning when there is no best time to outshine a bad turn or a lazy finish. Our swimmers will not have any best times in Paducah next weekend because we don't know what their best times are in a 25m course. The times produced still "count" since the meet is a sanctioned USA Swimming competition, and all of the qualification and achievement lists that matter have short course metre (SCM) times. However, the meet, unlike every other one we attend, will be focused on something besides the usual finish time. While it's natural to try and put the meet into the same context that we're used to we will have an opportunity to evaluate performance in a different way. No matter what you hear or how often you see it done there is no accurate way to convert a time from one course to another. There are simple mathematical relationships that can be made between the courses (a yard, after all, is a fixed distance shorter than a metre) but in a practical sense they have nothing to do with actual races performed by real people. Nevertheless conversions are done and by many different methods. The complexity of some of the conversion methods only strengthens the illusion that something highly technical is taking place. It’s not. The time is the time. No one who knows anything about swimming takes conversions seriously. At Paducah I'll be looking for good racing, good technique and the drive to be the best swimmers we can be in every race.
Swimfest Warm Up and Start Times We haven't received any modifications of the warm up times from the Swimfest host so we are assuming the original info we published in October is correct.
Meet Registration for the
Championship Season It's hard to believe but the championship season for 2007-08 is upon us. Registration for the final meets of the 2008 short course season will soon be closing. The deadline for the Gator Great Times, the last full blown meet until the Championship season officially begins, is Tuesday, 15 January.
Registration for Winter Swim
School Session is Now Open The Winter Swim School session will begin on Monday, 28 January and registration is now open. Classes for preschool, beginner and stroke development groups will be offered. |
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Racing
Team Prepares for Great Times
SWIMFEST