Tag Archives: TAGS

TAGS Victory, Spring Break

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Just a few notes for the week…3/11/13

1.       We will be following our regular practice schedule this week, Spring Break, no changes. We will, however, be a little more “recreational” this week, a little “less” emphasis on the swimming focus, and a little more emphasis on games/fun drills/giving the kids a little bit of a “break” from the typical routine.

2.       This past weekend, Nitro captured its 6th consecutive TAGS swimming championship.  We were in 3rd place after the first night. Our Nitro athletes got stronger as the meet progressed, taking the lead on Friday, and expanding that lead each night. 74 teams were represented from across Texas, and the top 15 teams with their respective points scored are below:

1.       Nitro Swimming 2,642 pts

2.       The Woodlands Swim Team 2,326 pts

3.       Lakeside Aquatic Club 1,942 pts

4.       Alamo Area Aquatic Association 1,464 pts

5.       North Texas Nadadores 1.045 pts

6.       Frisco Aquatics 718 pts

7.       El Paso Aquaposse 686 pts

8.       Dallas Mustangs 533 pts

9.       Magnolia Aquatic Club 527 pts

10.   Aggie Swim Club 522 pts

11.   Blue Tide Aquatics 519 pts

12.   Longhorn Aquatics 505 pts

13.   Premier Aquatic Club of Klein 468 pts

14.   Metroplex Aquatics 456 pts

15.   First Colony Swim Team 434 pts

 

**I want to say Thank You to all of the parents who made the trip possible for their kiddos, and especially THANK the kids who attended the meet for the sole purpose to swim on a RELAY. I will be recognizing these individuals at the end of season NITROS being held on Saturday evening, April 13th at Gateway Community Church on McNeil. Details to come, but the entire team (ALL Groups) will be invited to attend, and there will be no cost to our families.

 

3.       We’ve added a “Niitro at the Races” to our meet calendar for FRIDAY NIGHT, March 29th!! This is a bit of departure from our typical Saturday afternoon meets, and we wanted to give you a chance to keep your Saturday afternoon “swim meet free.” This meet is specifically designed for our Intro to Nitro, Technique & Fitness (TF) and our Bronze swimmers who have VERY LITTLE or NO MEET EXPERIENCE. The meet is NOT an officially sanctioned USA Swimming meet; we coaches run the entire meet from start to finish; and we purposely keep it a laid back/relaxing/fun environment for our developing swimmers. Meet warm up will be at 7:00PM, and the meet start will be 7:30PM or a few minutes earlier – as soon as we get things ready to roll. I expect the meet to last around 90 minutes or so. If a less experienced Intro to Nitro or a very nervous TF swimmer, I recommend 25’s of all four strokes. If a little more experience, OK to swim some 50’s and a 100 IM!!! Registration is now open on the website and we will cap the meet at the first 150 swimmers.

4.       We’re also adding a meet for our more advanced Bronze swimmers, our Silver, Adv Silver, some Gold, HS Training, and Senior the first weekend in May – and it will be held in an outdoor pool in Round Rock, hosted by Aquatex. I talked with their head Coach last week and we’re figuring out the details. We will communicate once we get the events line up finalized. It will be a Saturday only meet on May 4th.

5.       Summer practice schedule and a more detailed upcoming meet schedule will be communicated sometime next week.

6.       Thanks for being a part of Nitro, and we’ll see you at the pool!! Coach Mike

2011 SCY TAGS Recap: how far we’ve come

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This past weekend showed just how far we’ve come as a program at the “A” Championship meet. The meet was for athletes who had achieved an “A” time standard in their events, but not quite TAGS or USA Swimming Sectional time standards. I’ve pasted the total team results below to give you an idea of the points scored.

Looking beyond the actual points, those that were there saw what practicing the right things daily over an extended period of time (in this case approximately 6 months) can produce. They saw what committing to a daily regimen of stroke improvement, working hard, pushing their teammates around them every day can do over the course of a half a year or longer. Some of our young athletes saw phenomenal time drops. Others saw a few good ones, and a few not so good. Others are still a little ways away from seeing their time to shine. This is all part of the sport. If you do the little things right every day, make the corrections, work hard, sooner or later you will pop through the other side with some great results. Sometimes it takes a little longer than what you want, as any long time swimmer will tell you. When you do have one of those meets where every event you do is a time drop – just learn to smile and enjoy that moment a little bit, and take what you can into your next event. When things don’t go like you hoped, make your adjustments, and push onward to the next one. Regardless, you’re back in the water Monday at practice.

 

Here are the combined Team scores from this past weekend’s meet. Congratulations to all who participated:

  1. Nitro Swimming 4,975.50
  2. Texas Gold Swimming 2,323.50
  3. Lost Creek Aquatics 1,608.50
  4. Cedar Park Swimming 1,010.50
  5. Unattached 602.50
  6. Longhorn Aquatics 559
  7. AquaTex Swim Team 548.50
  8. West Austin Aquatics 533
  9. SwimBelton 528
  10. Heart of Texas Aquatics Team 459
  11. Pflugerville Area Swim Team 403.50
  12. Northwest Austin Makos 381
  13. Lone Star Aquatic Club 216
  14. Temple Area Swim Club 174.50
  15. Anderson Mill Swim Club 106
  16. Sailfish 82
  17. Hays Swim Club 76
  18. Capital of Texas Aquatics 74
  19. Heart of Texas Swim Team 37
  20. Fort Hood Area Dolphins 27
  21. Westwood Aquatics 22

 

I want to send out a special “Thank You” to our parents/grandparents/Nitro fans who were at the meet this past weekend supporting our athletes. I was proud of all of you —  for keeping your cool in hot, and a little crowded conditions. I witnessed some less than stellar human behavior on a number of occasions, but thankfully, it wasn’t from any of our own fan base, so I do appreciate that. Little eyes are upon you in all you do, and you all set the right example – Well Done. Also – Thank You to those who filled in as timers.

Championship Shirts for upcoming meets

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The newly designed, extremely bold Nitro t-shirts are available at the front desk for $15. The front says Nitro “Championship” Swimming, and there is something special on the back, as well as design work on each sleeve. Sadly they were not in time for the B Champs and BB Champs meets that we as a team won quite handily, but we will have them in time for this weekend’s A Champs meet.

If you have earned a TAGS cut, we will all wear this new shirt on Friday morning, March 10th for the TAGS parade of teams. Show your Nitro pride with this new shirt!

Changes to Championship Meet formats

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Coach’s Note 10-04-10        Championship meet format is changing…Forget JO’s, forget STAGS, and well, changes at the TAGS level as well.

For those of you new to USA Swimming, perhaps new to South Texas Swimming (that is the “territory” or the LSC – which stands for local swim committee that Nitro belongs to), there are two seasons of swimming: Short Course and Long Course. To confuse you even further, short course season is longer than long course season, as it runs typically throughout the bulk of the school year. Whereas long course season (so named because the meets are typically swam the long ways, 50 meters) spans the late spring/early summer – end of April into August.

There are membership meetings held a couple of times per year where the various committees involved in swimming get together and discuss proposals, vote on items, and help steer the course of competitive swimming in our area as well as state wide, and across the country. This past weekend played host to the Texas Senior Circuit meetings on Friday; the Texas Swim Association (TSA) on Saturday, and the South Texas Swimming meeting yesterday, Sunday. Tim attended the Friday session. I attended Saturday’s session. Tim, Ryan and I attended the Sunday South Texas meeting. We were in our seats from 8:15AM until about 4:00PM. I have included below what was decided on by the membership and how it impacts how things had been done in the past. Read on if interested…

First off – TAGS (Texas Age Group Swimming Championships). The TAGS committee voted to go back to 10 & Under, 11-12 combined, 13-14 combined, “A” final only coming back at night for finals. In other words, if you are  11, you will be competing against the 12 yr olds to battle for a nighttime swim in the top 8. Same thing if you are 13 —- battling the 14 yr olds for one of the top 8 spots. No more “B” final swim for the 9-16th place finishers – at least not for this coming year. I am working on changing that back as I don’t believe timelines warranted a move to make the meet smaller than what it already was, and I liked the idea of bringing back more swimmers with more opportunities to swim at night in finals. But legislative steps take time, and I will do what I can on this. What this means for us in the short term is that RELAYS WILL BE KING !! Whoever owns the relays in the most age groups, will more than likely win the meet. So – NI-TRO RE-LAYS ! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) NI-TRO RE-LAYS ! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)…

LSC Champiosnhip meets: Get familiar with USA Swimming time standards — Specifically A, BB, B time standards. You can find these at www.usaswimming.org and clicking on time standards, then finding the 2009-2012 time standards. They will be grouped in three different categories: Long Course Meters (LCM), Short Course Yards (SCY) and Short Course Meters (SCM). The majority of the meets we swim are LCM in summer and SCY during the school year.

We are following the lead of most LSC’s in the country and going with a “Tiered” Championship meet approach. I will have the exact dates in a few days, but once the new year hits, there will be a “B” Championship meet, and the only swimmers eligible to swim in those events will be those who have a “B” time in that event, but not fast enough to have a BB time in that event. If a swimmer has a “BB” time or faster, they would not be eligible to compete in that event at the “B” Championship meet. Participation in these meets are not mandatory, and we will have other meets where our “B” level swimmers will be able to compete.

About two to three weeks later, there will be a “BB” Championship meet.  This meet will be for those who have achieved a BB level time in a particular event. A swimmer who has achieved an “A” time or faster in an event would NOT be eligible to swim that event at the BB Championship meet.

The meet that technically will replace STAGS will be an “A” Championship meet, where “A” times or faster are required to swim in particular events. This will be held BEFORE TAGS during short course season (school year) – typically end of February. This meet will be held AFTER TAGS during Long Course Season, and I believe it will be first week of August 2011. The voting body decided to split up our LSC into a north half and a south half for this meet, and it will be all age groups at this meet together – our 10 & Unders, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18. So no more splitting up the family, separate meets, driving headaches, etc.

8. Congratulations to Nitro’s own Lauren Davis, who was elected as one of only two swimmers in our entire LSC as an Athlete Rep !!

That’s it for now. When I get exact dates and more details, I will pass them along. Thanks for being part of Nitro ! Coach Mike.

Texas Age Group Championship Meet

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TAGS meet this weekend: As with all of our meets, plan on being on deck, ready to roll at least 15 minutes before our scheduled warm up time. We might have a few swimmers who will have permission to come in a little later for the Sat AM warm up, but the coaches will handle that on a case by case basis.

We love to show a coordinated front for our team.  Swimmers and Coaches will be wearing the new black “Powered By Nitro” t-shirt on Friday.  Parents, please plan on wearing Nitro shirts in the stands. Be friendly, and be ambassadors for the sport. If you happen to see a Nitro family with some open seats near them, make some new friends. Cheer for every Nitro swimmer – not just in finals, but in prelims as well. You never know what can happen as far as team standings go. I can tell you as a former swimmer, hearing the yelling from the stands definitely elevates the performance level in the pool.

Nutrition Tip I borrowed from Coach Greg’s note to Age Group:

For those swimming TAGS – Nutrition advice during the meet

  • Eat      last full nutritious meal 3-4 hours before the event.
  • Between      events – If hungry eat simple, easy-to-digest foods like banana, graham      crackers, fruit juice.
  • To      aid recovery between big sessions with multiple events and      relays  – Organic Chocolate Milk (chocolate milk is what most of      the college coaches and trainers are using these days).
  • Purchase      extra caps at the front desk – we will not have them at the meet.

Nitro sent 70 kids to the Junior Olympics meet in Belton this past weekend and came away with the team championship ! The kids looked awesome, had a lot of fun, and you probably saw several of them walking out of the swim center today with medals hanging from their necks and ribbons in their hands. Nitro brought back a lot of hardware (5 large bags filled with medals and ribbons). Way to go Nitro !

Changes for the Fall schedule are being worked on.  It will look very similar to last season’s, with the main differences of some practice time extension for our Senior Champs group, looking to add another sub-group for our 13 and olders to create a great home for our kids who aren’t quite ready for our Senior Champs and State Sectional groups.  We are also hiring a dedicated dryland coach to elevate our strength levels of our swim groups all the way from our Silver groups on up through National. Our kids should see a real difference in their strength levels this upcoming season. The dryland workouts will be IN ADDITION to the regular practice times in the water, and they will be INTENSE !!

Heading into Long Course Champs

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One last note about the championship meets this weekend: I’ve talked to our Gold and Advanced Silver groups about this and wanted to share the same with all of you…

In the big scheme of things, this weekend’s meets are just small blips, and are only a small part of the development of our swimmers. A bad swim doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a bad meet. Contrarily, a great swim doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the swims will be great swims. We have been working with the kids to remain fairly level headed on great swims as well as the not so great – all part of the process. They have been instructed to warm down immediately after their swims, then once warmed down properly, to dry off, get clothes back on, and come see their coach to review their race. If it was a great swim, then we try to get the kids to use that as a springboard into their next swim. If it wasn’t such a great swim, then we get the kids to begin thinking about their next swim as soon as possible. If we see a lack of effort, we coaches will handle that with the swimmer.

We’ve stated this many times before, USA Swimming preaches it, the American Swim Coaches Association subscribes to it – and that is this: Your job as a parent is to encourage and support. It’s that simple. All that your swimmer wants is for you to be proud of them – that’s it. They don’t need you to plan their strategy, remind them of their tendencies, critique their race, criticize their performance, etc. They need your encouragement and support.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but follow baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr’s advice and act like you are the GRANDPARENT and not the parent when it comes to sports competitions. Grandparents are just happy to see their grandchildren perform – regardless of outcome. We’ll have our share of disqualifications, less than stellar races, some unforeseen mishaps — all part of the game, not the end of the world. We are teaching the kids how to deal with things like that, and they are learning a lot about life at the same time.

Something I forgot to mention: With the TAGS meet being as close as it is to the STAGS/Senior Champs meet weekend, several of our swimmers will be either staying home this weekend or swimming a handful of events (not their best events) in preparation for the TAGS meet. So you might be wondering why certain relays look like they do, why isn’t so and so in a certain event – but I wanted you to know that.

Lastly, I spoke to the kids about properly representing our team, themselves, and their families when away this weekend — whether it be hotel, warm ups, during their races, in restaurants, etc. We are the performance bar that other clubs are trying to emulate. Our kids know that the number one compliment we coaches can get from other clubs, meet officials, etc., is that our kids are NICE. The number two compliment we can get is that our kids know how to race.

I want that also to go for our parents as well – the #1 compliment we can get about our parents is that our parents are nice. One quick point of protocol – that is generally frowned upon in the swimming circles: Don’t save seats in the bleachers. First come, first seated – that’s how it works. However, that being said, get there EARLY and see if Nitro parents can sit with other Nitro parents — we’re easier to spot if you’re wearing Nitro t-shirts or polos  (hint hint). If another parent from another club is saving seats, etc., just find another place to sit, and round up a few other Nitro parents and have fun together at the meet.

That’s enough soap boxing for the night – I promised my son a game of baseball in the Wii before he can go to bed, so I have to get busy !!

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of our program, and we’re looking forward to a great meet weekend ! Be proud of your kids, but more importantly, let them know it. Go Nitro !! Coach Mike.