CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR SWIMMERS OF THE WEEK:

Our swimmers of the week are Owen Beddingfield and Caroline Griggs! Owen always puts so much effort into practices and has a great attitude. Caroline always brings her positive attitude to help push and bring up her teammates.

COACH'S CORNER:

• Coach Hope: Hello everyone! We have now created a solid foundation for all four of the strokes. I’m so excited to see how well everyone does at Time Trials this week, and giving us coaches more feedback as to what is necessary to work on. Early in the week, we will work on the smaller aspects of racing (starts, turns, and finishes) before continuing on building endurance and improving stroke work. On another note, I would like to ask parents to remind their swimmers to come to practice with their listening ears and to be respectful towards their coaches as well as their fellow teammates. Thank you for another great week!

• Coach Sophia: Hi everyone! This past week I started to teach the kids the fundamentals of backstroke and breaststroke in preparation for time trials. I also went over how to dive with most of the kids on Thursday and Friday. I’m really excited for time trials and I hope to see the kids there. On Monday I plan to do a recap on all of the strokes and what will be expected of the kids during time trials. I will take the results from time trials and based our next few practices on what I saw needed attention. For swamp pups I plan to introduce arms for the kids that are ready to start moving on. Most likely this means that I will be dividing the practice into two groups so every kid can get a practice that is best suited for them. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

TIME TRIALS MEET THEME: WESTERN! In addition to being prepared for our team picture, please wear your most spirited western outfit. We will be having meet themes throughout the year to boost team spirit and add even more fun to this year!!

TIME TRIALS: Time Trials are this Tuesday June 6 (tomorrow)!

• The pool closes to residents at 5p
• Arrive at 4:45pm to get settled and numbered (real meet arrival will also be 4:45p). Numbers are written on the swimmer's arms and there is a sheet with swimmer numbers for reference. Find the table at the meet with the swimmer numbers and sharpies. This number will be your swimmer's number for the entire season. Experienced parents suggest putting sunscreen on first, letting it dry and then marking the swimmer's arm with the Sharpie. Sunscreen is a great way to get marker off when you need to do that.
• We’ll do our team photo with Time Trials this year. That will add some time to the meet, but we don’t have another team to swim against, so hopefully we can run through the practice meet fairly quickly. Meets can run until 9pm (with 6 and unders finishing earlier than that as they only swim up to the breaststroke event -4th event below)
• Time Trials are run like a real meet. Swimmers should wear their team suit if they have them (or a black or red suit to match the team), swim cap, and goggles. Arms should be marked in sharpies with swimmer ID numbers. 
• We run the events in the following order after warm ups and the national anthem: 
  • 1. Medley relay (7-8 age group through 15-18),
  • 2. Individual freestyle (6U through 15-18),
  • 3. Individual backstroke (6U through 15-18),
  • 4. Individual breaststroke (6U through 15-18),
  • 5. Individual butterfly (7-8 through 15-18), and
  • 6. Freestyle relay (7-8 through 15-18).
• Papers called “heat sheets” will be on display on a board at the meet (coaches and several volunteers will also have these to do their jobs, like kid pushers, clerk of course, etc), showing the lane and heat that each swimmer will be in. Please review heat sheets with your swimmer, and check relays in addition to individual events. Swimmers might swim in a relay of an older age group when there are not enough swimmers in that age group to make a team of 4.
• If your swimmer’s status has changed (especially if they planned to swim and no longer can), please let us know ASAP. Coach Hope ([email protected]) and Coach Sophia ([email protected]) need to adjust the heat sheets and having as much time as possible to do that is very helpful. You can copy the board ([email protected]) so that we can try to get heat sheets updated before they are printed. We understand kids can get sick at any point and sometimes meets can be overwhelming, so please just communicate with a coach if you need to leave, or your swimmer can no longer participate in event(s) planned.
• Time Trial results will be available on the Swimtopia app. If you have the paid version, you can get results for your swimmer fairly quickly. If you have the free version, it might take a day or two for the times to appear in the app. The paid version offers a free 7 day trial is is $2.99/mo. You can sign up for the 2 months of swim season and cancel at the end of the season. 
• Swamp Shack - will be serving food (pizza only for Time Trials, meets will have pizza, Chick-fil-a and Smoothie King) and snacks. Be sure to have cash or purchase a $10 Swamp Shack Card on our (https://oxxford-hunt-swim-team.square.site).
• Parking - Home Meets we ask Swampfoxx families to walk/ride bikes to allow parking for the other team. If you drive please obey the No Parking signs that will allow Fallsworth Drive to stay open and for cars to have proper access to the road.

MARK SWIMMER AVAILABILITY: It is important for all swimmers to be declared the attendance for time trials and meets. This should always be done at least one week prior to a meet so the coaches can properly plan the heat sheets and minimize changes. The first meet is a week from Tuesday, so please mark your swimmer availability for the 1st meet (6/13) meet by Tuesday 6/7. Attendance will close on Friday 6/9 for the meet Tuesday 6/13.

MEET VOLUNTEERS: We ask that one parent plan to volunteer at each home swim meet. We want all families to do their part to help. There is a wide variety of jobs to fit the needs of most families. If you are interested in learning about a particular job, you can shadow a more experienced volunteer for part of their shift. Time Trials is a great opportunity to try a new job. We'll have 'teacher' and 'in training' positions - so if you're new to the team, grab an 'in training' position to learn the ropes. Jobs for the first meet on June 13 are now open as well: https://oxxfordhunt.swimtopia.com/swim_meets. If the position you want to learn is already filled, just let Diane Johnson ([email protected]) know and we can probably have you join the others who are learning.

VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE NEWS: Thank you to our Memorial Day Committee for making our first holiday pool party of the season a success, especially considering the weather was not in our favor!

MORNING PRACTICES (9-10a daily) begin Monday June 12, marking the beginning of traditional calendar schools summer break! Congratulations to year-round school Track 1 swimmers on finishing your school year.

SWIM CAPS: If your swimmer has not received his/her free swim cap, please see Katie Richards during practice this week.

USED TEAM SWIMSUITS: Looking for a new-to-you suit or have a suit your swimmer has grown out of? Our team has a Swap Box to help exchange suits - the box lives in the SwampShack, please ask a lifeguard to get it out at any time.

Please let us know what questions you may have or use other parents as a resource, either in person at the practice or via our FB parents forum!

Your Oxxford Hunt Swim Team Board