Gold Team Practice

M-F  5:30-7pm; Sat 9-10:30am

Gold team will be coached by Cathy Ruffing.  New and younger Gold swimmers should attend three to four practices weekly.  Older returning swimmers should attend four practices weekly. 

 

Each practice will start with 30-40 minutes of dryland exercise.  All swimmers should arrive with appropriate clothing for indoor or outdoor activity, especially good shoes.   These activities could include running, calisthenics, tumbling, agility drills, motor skill development, team sports, or free play. 

 

Attendance

In general Gold swimmers should plan to make 3-4 practices a week.  During times that swimming is the only physical activity they are doing; swimmers should come more often than the minimum.

If you are going out of town for an extended time (a week or more) we can often arrange for your swimmer to go to a couple workouts with the local USAS team where you are staying. 

Gold team swimmers who are sick or injured should not attend practice.  If they have missed 2 or more workouts please email of call the coach and see if he or she can come in and do a modified practice.  

Meets

Competition is very important for Gold team swimmers.  Competition will help them learn to set goals, perform complex tasks under pressure, and practice good sportsmanship.  While we let Gold swimmers attend some bigger meets than blue team, we still want their focus to be pretty local.  We stress personal management and self-improvement.  Parents should not be overly concerned about a swimmers competitive level, whether it is very high or low.  Looking at this year’s calendar Gold team swimmers should attend the following:

Intersquad meet                                    October 7.

ABSC dual meet                                  October 27.

CAD Meet                                           November 10-12.

Woodie B. Invite                                  December 1-3.

Rays Coaches Invite                             January 20.

Age Group State (if qualified)    February 16-18

  or Sat fun meet                                   February 17

DeKalb Aquatics  dual meet                 March 3.

Divisional Champs                                March 23-25

 

Equipment

Gold team swimmers should have a practice suit, team suit, and team cap (if they wear a cap).   Try to use their team suit only for competition.  Competition suits should be comfortably tight, plain Lycra suits (no leg or bodysuits).  All swimmers should have a team suit before our first dual meet at ABSC.  You may also want to purchase a team warm-up team parka or other team apparel.

For equipment, gold team swimmers need their own training fins and a swim snorkel.  You may also want to purchase your own kickboard

Our supplier is Friends Unlimited.  They have an on-line catalog that you can get to from our web site.  They will have a team outfitting Tuesday Sept. 12.