Dolphin Swim Club Newsletter

Important Dates:

Nov. 4-5 Montrose Meet

Nov. 13 NJ Entries Due

Nov. 24 – 26 No practices!!

Dec. 1-3 NJ Meet

November Bingo Schedule

(Team Members are on the website: www.grandjunctiondolphins.com)

Nov. 7 Young

Nov. 14 Walton

Nov. 21 Fischer

Nov. 28 DePuey

November Birthdays!!

11/2 Autumn Fisher 13

11/18 Chaerin Kang 10

11/20 Ben Deters 5

11/20 Nela Polan 19

11/22 Karolina Latek 11

11/22 Cyrus Pearo 14

11/24 Cody Fisher 14

11/26 Madeline Laiche 15

11/27 Lawson Baber 13

2007 USA Registration cards are on the bulletin board at the pool!! If you have not registered for 2007, please do so by Nov 30!

Holiday Practice Schedule – see Calendar!

This is a bit confusing, however, we need to take advantage additional pool time when Mesa State Women’s Team is on break and at holiday training site in California.

November 2006

From our Head Coach – Dale Leonhart

Here come the Holidays!!!

We have meets to attend (Montrose, North Jeffco, Montrose Devo), and ‘holiday training’ schedule modifications. Take note:

MEETS:

Montrose Fall Open on 4-5 November

North Jeffco Fall open on 1-3 December: meet info will be on line and at pool.

Montrose Shark Developmental for ALL swimmers on Saturday, 16 December.

Texas Trip:

We have found tickets for $180 round trip from Denver to Houston and back. We need to know how many Gold and Platinum swimmers will go to this meet. Commit by giving Dale a check for the Air Fare by 7 November.

You must attend at least 75 practices to go to this meet: November has 29 sessions and December has 41 sessions, (counting holiday doubles). Total = 70.

Historically, this trip costs about $550 / swimmer. This includes air fare, van and gas, motel, and food.

LET ME KNOW EITHER WAY YOU DECIDE. THANKS!!!

Goals; Imagine a tree.

Its roots are symbolic of your swimming foundation: your skills and expertise at performing fundamental techniques.

Its trunk represents your commitment and determination.

The branches equal the important aspects of your preparation; your endurance, your anaerobic power, your strength of both mind and body.

The leaves are all of the hours devoted to practices, meets and events, and sacrifices made as you strive to achieve your stated goal(s).

The top of this tree is the apex; your goal that you are committed to achieving.

Enjoy the climb!!!

Parent “Food”: Or how to be a better swimming parent.

WE all want what is best for the child. This is sometimes hard for coaches to understand and sometimes hard for parents to understand. Tension between coaches and parents can be avoided if we agree on two rules: first, cut each other some slack and not jump on and over-react to the first rumor that comes around. Second, let’s communicate, often, and not just when there is a problem.

YOU are key to your child’s swimming. A parent’s attitude toward swimming, is key towards the child’s attitude and success. Swimmers take cues from their parents. If the parent shows no value in swimming, that he does not appreciate having to drive to practice or sit in the stands during meets (or time!), that is not going to matter if the child skips practice, then chances are very good the child will lack commitment, have little success and lose interest in swimming. Support your child’s swimming by being positively interested.

ALLOW your swimmer to be resilient. Failure, and facing failure, doesn’t cause kids to melt. Failure isn’t such an evil thing that parents should shield their kids from it. Allow them to fail, then, teach them to get up and try harder to succeed. If parents continually protect their child from every failure, they never learn how to cope with it. Even worse, they never learn that they are responsible for both their failures and their successes. Allow them to stand on their own, and you will be helping them immeasurably down the road.

I have many more of these ‘nuggets’ of wisdom to share. I’ll find a way to get them to you.

Swim School:

Amber has the following info regarding swim school schedules for the rest of calendar 2006.

The current session will end on Wednesday, November 29.

She will conduct a “seven” week session beginning Monday, 4 December. It will end on Wednesday, 17 January 2007. She will not have school on the two Holiday Mondays, (25 December and 1 January), but, will have both Wednesdays of those weeks.

The cost of these SIX week / 12 LESSON sessions is $60, NOT $30, as is posted on the registration sheets at the pool. $80 per session if NOT USA registered.

USA registration provides the swimmer with secondary liability insurance and if you intend to participate in more than one session, it is to your benefit. Cost is $53 per calendar year.

Amber can be reached @ 216-8259 if you have questions.

Have a great November! Looking forward to seeing you and yours at the pool and in meets!

From Board President – Brett Walton

Bingo!

Last night was the end of the first round of the bingo sessions. Up until this point, the board has attended each week to train the teams. That meant an extra 6-9 volunteers attending each week. From this point on, it’s up to each team to conduct the session. Your team leader will contact you a few days before your session as a reminder. Your team will depend on you to attend. If everyone participates, there are enough team members on each team to make bingo an easy and fun fundraiser. If you have a question about your team, the members are posted on the website (www.grandjunctiondolphins.com). If you are not on a team, please call one of the team leaders to volunteer. This is a very important fundraiser for our club!!

Grants:

The board continues to work on submitting grants for travel and equipment funds. We are also investigating the possibility of pursuing a competitive aquatic facility. Stay tuned for more info!

Please feel free to call me with questions or concerns! 241-2333