Hi everyone,

1. ANNOUNCING Winter swim at The St. James, Saturdays 4:30-5:30PM, starting Oct. 7th, ending May 18th, with some weekends off. Coaching led by Coach Catherine and our great coaching staff. Cost is: $310 for the first swimmer in a family, $285 for the second, and $260 for any additional swimmers. REGISTER HERE! Right now, this link is exclusive to swim team families and I'll leave it that way for a short time so grab your spot while it's there. I need a head count ASAP because demand is heavy and I'll order more lanes if necessary. However, don't delay because the number of lanes available is not unlimited, so if you wait, you could be out of luck. This program keeps your kids in the water, gets them some exercise, and allows them to progress in swimming over the winter rather than regress. Please read the details at the bottom of this email BEFORE signing up your kids or emailing. For example, Little Lazers are almost never eligible. And, if you have a question about the program and intend to attend the banquet tonight, just talk to me or Kate or Catherine tonight. Otherwise, email us with questions..
2. Strategic plans: Last year, Kate, Catherine, and I decided that our strategic direction should be to improve the whole team in backstroke and to get as many 8 and unders legal in breast and fly as possible, and the progress we made is why we won the division (in addition to Kate's "It's a Beautiful Mind"-style studying of the numbers all year long). I was simply hoping to become mediocre in backstroke since the Lazers have had a mental block on backstroke for as long as we've had anything to do with the team. Catherine and the staff managed to make us dominant in backstroke in our division, and to get several 8 and unders legal in breast and fly. This year we continue to focus on 8 and under legality, and we are going to turn our focus to starts, turns, and finishes. This will be a focus at winter swim and early next season. We will send out videos on these subjects for kids not participating, but this alone is a good reason to sign up for winter swim. You may have noticed some improved turns at Divisionals today - the coaching staff worked hard on this during the week.
3. Additional strategic idea: We won't know what Division we'll be in next year until March, but we will be moving up. (Have I mentioned that my lucky number is 13, just like Taylor Swift? Did you know that my order number at the 5 Guys Fundraiser was 13? Just saying...) As a result, our entire team will have to work together to get better to compete. Our fast swimmers will have to get faster (we will work on this) and we'll need to develop the speed of everyone. The one thing everyone can do to improve is to get stronger. As a result, we will send to everyone swimming-specific dry land strength training programs that we hope as many as possible will work at. It will have the greatest effect for 11 and ups, but it will be good for everyone. (Anyone who has concerns about various strength training myths (e.g., girls will get "bulky", it will hurt the kids' growth plates and they won't grow, etc.) come talk to me, this isn't that kind of workout and those ideas aren't true anyway.) We will also see if we can arrange some dry land workouts to supplement our winter swim program.
4. COMING ATTACTIONS: This started out as a much longer email (really, really long, even for me) that I wrote in a fever dream in a trance after Divisionals. Kate thought it was too much all at once, so I'm cutting it off here. However, I will follow up tomorrow with some thoughts on where we are as a team, and some ideas on how we will try to improve next year (and lower the drama). Look for that in your Inboxes tomorrow!

Additional Notes on Winter Swim: Remember that this is more like full Lazers practice than like Little Lazers, so a swimmer has to be able to swim multiple lengths (25 yards at TSJ) unassisted (and the water is deep!). If your swimmer was successful at big Lazer swim practice this summer s/he should be fine for winter swim. Some younger swimmers might also be ready, but check with us first. If you're not sure, email myself or Kate or talk to Coach Catherine and we can figure it out.

Thanks!

P.S. We will also try to have a spring tune up if there’s room at The St. James for swimmers who didn’t join the winter swim program, but the best idea is to participate in the program and/or a program that swims even more.