Dear THAT Families,

I would like to welcome all of you to the 2010 swim season. This is our first weekly newsletter, new to the team this year. The coaches hope that this will be a way to keep everyone updated on a weekly basis and help with better communication. We are hoping to get the newsletter out every Sunday to let everyone know the upcoming activities for the week ahead.

As you all know practice begins this Monday, May 24^th. The practice schedule is listed on the team website under Practice Schedule. We would ask that all swimmers please attend their scheduled practice time for the first few practices. The coaches will use their judgment and move swimmers around according to ability in the first few days. Please remember to bring goggles and girl’s hair should be either pulled back or in a cap.

We will have a coach’s notebook that will be located inside the ribbon box at practice every day. If you have any questions/concerns feel free to leave us a note and we will respond in a timely manner. On the website under Coaches there are also the e-mail addresses of each coach. All you have to do is click on one of our names and you will be redirected to our e-mail. This is also a great way to get in touch with all of us.

The first swim meet will be June 16th and they will continue every Wednesday throughout June and July. If your child will not be able to attend a swim meet please let us know as soon as possible. We will have a “not attending” list in the ribbon box for every swim meet. All you need to do is add your child’s name to the list. With 220 swimmers on the team it is hard to keep up with who is attending meets and this is the most convenient way.

Every week there is a swim meet there will be a meet theme. This gives the children a chance to dress up if they wish and have some fun. We will be announcing meet themes both at practice, and they will be posted in the weekly newsletter on the website. Please check back as the season continues for updates.

We will also be posting a general practice schedule in this newsletter every week. It will consist of the stroke we are focusing on each day and a generalized idea of what will be going on. The first week we will be working on general swimming skills. Each day this week, we will begin by stretching and practicing the strokes on the pool deck before getting in the water. On Monday we will work on freestyle, Tuesday we will focus on backstroke, Wednesday we will focus on breaststroke, Thursday on butterfly, and Friday will be a review. Our goal is to at least teach all swimmers the techniques of each stroke. We will continue working on each stroke as the season progresses. On Monday, we will also be teaching the swimming basics and swimming terminology. Please try to have your swimmer attend as many practices per week as possible, as practice is the best way to improve.

We look forward to working with each swimmer this season! We are all extremely excited and we hope you all are too. Please let us know if you have any questions. We would be happy to address any concerns. Our goal is to make sure that each swimmer has a fun summer swim season and that they learn something in the process.

Sincerely,

Your Coaching Staff