White Group Blog

Positive Affirmations

2010-05-17T21:45:00.001-07:00

Rainbow Classic

2010-02-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

This past weeknd we swam at the Rainbow Classic. A great time was had by all. We all sat together, cheered each other on and had a great time being with each other at the meet. I just want to say that everyone swam great. Our next meet is the March Madness that will be the first weekend of March, that will also be held at Mercer Island.

2010-02-10T12:30:00.001-08:00

Next Saturday February 20 will be having a letter writting for the swim-a-thon. Keep in mind that the Swim-A-Thon will take place Saturday April 17th. Make sure you pencil this date in. This a very important event due to the fact that this is our major fund raiser of the year. Also that day we will be doing a clinic and fun relay day for the kids.

2010-02-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a great last two weeks, everyone is having a great time. We have spent a lot of time working on turns and kicking and everyone is doing aaa great job. Let's keep it up.

October Chaallenge

2009-10-20T12:19:00.001-07:00

The second meet of the season was a great success. I think you should all give yourselves a big pat on the back. With a very high number of best times, and new PNS times, it was a very successful. Get ready for some great practices and even better meets

Pasta PIg Out!

2009-10-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

Get ready to swim FAST at our

First Challenge Meet of the Season

Pre-Meet Pasta Pig Out!!

FRIDAY – OCTOBER 16TH

5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

WEST Swimmers & Families Invited to attend!

Questions?

Contact Elaine … LarryLaurent@Verizon.net

October Meets!

2009-09-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

Our first swim meets are coming up!

All WEST Swimmers are automatically entered in the meets unless we receive a non-participation form for a meet.

First up is our White vs. Blue dual meet where our WEST team is divided into two teams for camaraderie, competition, fun and pizza!
This is on Sunday October 4th at 1 PM:
http://westcoastaquatics.us/stuff/Oct4_WhitevsBlue.pdf (Download meet info here)

If you can not make this meet, please download and fill out this Non-participation form by Tuesday September 29 (you will be charged the meet fee if we do not receive this form on time): http://westcoastaquatics.us/stuff/NP_Oct4_WhitevsBlue.pdf

Our regular meet for October is the October Challenge at Mary Wayte Pool on Mercer Island the 17-18.
Swimmers 10 & older should try to attend both Saturday and Sunday to get the full meet experience and variety of events.
All 8 & under swimmers should attend on Sunday afternoon since there will be 25’s of each stroke and 8 & under specific events.
9-10 year olds should attend at least on Saturday morning since there will be 50’s of each stroke for that age group.

Download meet information here:
http://westcoastaquatics.us/stuff/Oct17-18_OctChallenge.pdf

If you are unable to attend one or both days of the October Challenge meet, please download and fill out this Non-Participation form by Tuesday September 29 (you will be charged the meet fee if we do not receive this form on time): http://westcoastaquatics.us/stuff/NP_Oct17-18_challenge.pdf

Please note, once we mail in our check to the meet host, we are unable to get a refund. This means if your plans change, a swimmer gets sick, etc. we can not refund your meet fees.
We enter meets as early as possible since many meets fill up quickly. Meet entries are finalized and mailed in within a day or two of the due date listed on the Non-participation forms.
If you do not enter a meet and your plans change, it may be possible to enter the meet on the day of the meet by paying a “deck entry surcharge”. Please discuss with your coach if this situation occurs.

Thank you!!

Peter

Fairshare Meetings

2009-09-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Mon Sept 21st
6-6:45pm White l& Green I
7-7:45pm Blue

Tues Sept 22nd
6-6:45pm White ll & Green ll
7-7:45pm Age Group

Make Up Meeting - Tues Sept 29th
7-7:45pm All Groups

Buy Stuff, Earn Money for WEST

2009-07-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Shop Now to Support
West Coast Aquatics

2009-2010 Meet Schedule

2009-06-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to next year’s meet schedule. I’m still working out some possibilities but it is generally the way it will be.
http://westcoastaquatics.us/team/meets/2009-10.html

Enjoy!

April Shower Recap and Swimathon

2009-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hello White Group Family! I hope everyone is doing well. I'd like to recap what was an outstanding meet for us at April Showers in Port Orchard. The kids swam for the first time in a long course pool and at first were intimidated by the length and size of it. However, they did an outstanding job and I was really quite impressed at how well the kids were doing. Everyone also got best times in everything! :) I want to also thank the parents who helped out at the swimathon. It was amazing to me and probably you too at how well the kids swam. Everyone swam at least 1 mile and some came close to 3 miles! This blows me away. I am very proud of how well each child did. We will be going to Pasco at the end of the month for our first outdoor meet. This looks to be an exciting meet for those going. As always, if you have any questions about anything you can ask me before or after practice and I'd be glad to help you.

Thanks,

Coach Shawn

Silly Head Games

2009-05-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Swim A Thon!

2009-04-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is that time of year to fill the WEST coffers... Swim A Thon!!

All WEST swimmers have received Swim A Thon Packets from their coaches and should be well on their way to making this the best year ever for WEST fund raising!

We had a record breaking year last year and have the potential to do even better this year with 30 more swimmers participating!

Donations may be based on a per lap basis (.01, .05, $1.00....) up to 200 lengths in 2 hours on April 25th or a simpler flat offering ($5.00, $10.00, $100.00...).

We are a non-profit so all donations are tax deductible! Be sure to approach your favourite businesses that you frequent, friends, family, strangers in the street, etc...

This is typically the time when all WEST families fulfill or surpass (some do so hugely!) their fund raising requirements (families will be billed the difference for any fund raising below group/team requirements).

Thank you in advance for making this the greatest event ever in the history of WEST!!!

End of Short Course Season

2009-03-27T10:03:00.001-07:00

Wow! This season went by really fast! I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I am very proud of all of the accomplishments that the kids have made so far. This past weekend was especially great as many swimmers got personal bests. They were both very fun meets for us. We will be having our Swimathon coming up soon. It is important that we have full participation from our group as we can have a really cool party if we are the most successful group. If you have any questions about the smimathon let me know asap or you can also call the front desk. As a reminder we will not have practice next week as it is spring break week. Thanks a lot!

Coach Shawn

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. We have been working a lot more on breaststroke this past week, and I have seen a lot of improvement in it. Last weekend we had the Bellingham meet. For many it was their first time going to a meet where we stayed the night. We had a blast there! There were many personal bests and great experiences. Thanks to those that went. Next week we will be using the fins as week do more work on butterfly so please bring them. Again, if you ever need help with anything let me know! Thanks.

Coach SHawn

February WEST Hosted Meets

2009-01-28T14:53:00.001-08:00

Thank you to those who have already signed up to take part in our February meets and earn your Fairshare hours!

We still have a few openings to fill so we may be staffed to run the meets the typical high quality WEST way....

February Distance

- Sunday the 22nd

February Invitationa

l- Saturday the 28th and Sunday March 1st

Thank you for your participation in our program!!

It's a New Year

2009-01-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hello White Group Family! I hope everyone's new year is going well. The January Challenge was a great meet for us. Many of our swimmers swam the 100yd races again for the first time since October and had best times. We have made great improvements since then and it shows. We are continuing to build more of the basics of swimming technique and having fun doing it. The February Challenge is coming up soon in Bellingham which takes place the 7th and 8th of February. I'm looking forward to another great meet and experience. If you have any questions about anything please let me know so I can help you. Have a great week!

Coach Shawn

Week of December 7th

2008-12-09T10:29:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. We've made great strides in our overall stroke improvement for white group. No where was this more obvious for me than this past meet at Marysville. We had the fewest DQ's of all of our meets and many swimmers were swimming breaststroke and or butterfly for the first time in a meet. As a great bonus many swimmers got best times in a majority of their events. I couldn't be more happy! As we finish the end of this year let's keep up the great work and enjoy the holiday season. If you have any questions please let me know after practice or by email. Thanks.

Coach Shawn

"11" Freestyle

2008-11-18T11:07:00.001-08:00

We have been focused on the 'basics' of competitive swimming by breaking down strokes into their components and rebuilding. This helps the swimmers body adapt to proper movement, head position and balance in the water ensuring progress into faster swimming!

I have been sold on the use of sculling to initiate a feel for "catch in the water as well as rehearsing proper balance for several years now and have expanded upon that into several drills that were introduced to all the WEST age group swimmers this past year. Coach Troy mentioned to me the concept of "11" after he saw a coach demonstrate some techniques and drills at a weekend conference this past summer. After some experimentation I adapted that "11" into a freestyle drill and guess what, our friend Glen Mills of GoSwim fame took two of his DVDs and merged them into that same "11" drill!!

The value of this drill was shown this past weekend at the Distance meet in which swimmers were showing greatly improved form and efficiency leading to faster times!

The following video is from GoSwim...swimmers should watch and listen so they may further understand what we are doing with this "11" concept.

Breaststroke Drill: Butt Head (Please have your swimmers review this)

2008-11-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

October Challenge

2008-10-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope everyone is well. The swim meet was a very good for the kids and myself. I was able to learn a lot about the strengths and weaknesses about the kids. Some of the things things that we'll change for the meet are having all kids in white group sitting together during the meet. This will hopefully solve some of the issues on finding the kids and getting relays together. Plus the white group kids will get to know each other better. Another change I have made is I've taken most of the swimmers out of the 100's. This was too much for the majority of white group. This means that if your child is not swimming a 100 they will NOT SWIM ON SATURDAY. I will be gone Thursday through Sunday of this week and will be back on Monday. If you have any questions please email me.

Thanks,

Coach Shawn

Now Recruiting Upstanding WEST Parents for the November Invitational Meet!

2008-10-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

The November Age group invite at Kamiak is just around the corner and it is time to put our best foot forward and show that WEST spirit.

Please remember that hosting swim meets helps our team and supports our swimmers.

Everyone had an opportunity to experience our new sign up procedure for the Intrasquad Meet in October. There were some challenges with the program but hopefully the kinks have been worked out.

To review

click on this

link

, then click on the box with session and job you would like to volunteer to do and enter your name.

The program saves automatically so you can simply exit the program when you are done.

Questions about any of this can be directed to

Margaret Brunke

at fairshare@westcoastaquatics.us or

Pam Williamson

at meetdirector@westcoastaquatics.us

Week of October 12

2008-10-16T20:13:00.001-07:00

Hello again! I just want to put out some reminders. We have the October Challenge at Kamiak high school. We need to be there at 7:45AM on Saturday and NOON on Sunday. We've been putting a lot of work on making sure we get good starts this week and finishing properly. My goal is to have no DQs this meet. Make sure your child comes and sees me before and after each race. I look forward to seeing everyone there. If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks,

Coach Shawn

Week of October 5

2008-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well. We have continued our quest of mastering the breaststroke kick. We've had more that have gotten it yet there are others that need work. I have started to use a pair of breaststroke fins to fix the kick but I only have one pair. If you are interested in getting a pair, let me know. We can get them for about $32 dollars if there is an order of 12 or more. They generally cost about $45. Let me know what you think. We will be having the October Challenge on the 18th and 19th. The times for the meet are on the website. If you have any questions, feel free to talk to me before or after practice. Take care.

Thanks,

Coach Shawn

Week of September 29

2008-10-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hello again White Group Family! We've been very busy this week working hard on breaststroke kicking. Everyone is getting much better. We will begin using the NEW KICKBOARDS on MONDAY of next week and the fins should be in next week also. We also have the White vs Blue Meet this Saturday, October 4th. Pictures will be taken at 12:45 PM and the swimmers will meet with their buddies at 1:00 with warmups at 1:15. Please be early. If you have any questions feel free to email me. See you on Saturday.

Coach Shawn