Pentathlon - This Weekend!

Please look over the psych sheet to see what team your swimmer will be with (Ghoul or Pumpkin Head). During warm ups (at 8AM - be at the pool at 7:45AM), Ghouls will warm up in the lanes closest to the scoreboard in the outdoor pool, Pumpkin Heads will warm up on the opposite end. Your swimmer will receive their caps before they warm up with their appropriate "team" for the meet.

After warming up, we will do a cheer and new swimmers will go to their Senior buddies.

Please help out to process! Look to see what team your swimmer is with and send them to that side. I will be with Pumpkin Heads - Coach Stephens will be with Ghouls. Look for one of us to go to. Parents are asked to hang out in the inside pool (find a good seat for the meet!). Send your swimmer with their towels out to the pool.

Pentathlon Buddies List For Green/Gold/AG3

Pentathlon Psych Sheet

The meet should be about 3-3.5 hours long. Please plan on more than one towel and check out the Dynamo Monthly for our Meet Survival Guide that I have been working on. It will give you all you need to know for swim meets. As always, please e-mail or call me with any questions!

Snack Schedule as of 9/23/09

Please look over the snack schedule and mark your calendar for the date you signed up! If you have not signed up yet contact the appropriate group mom below to pick a date.

Green/Gold: Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson - epwjohnson@mindspring.com
AG3: Mrs. Kay Williams - kaywilliams@mindspring.com

AG3 Group Snack List
Green/Gold Fun Friday Snack List

For AG3 plan on about 20-24 swimmers on Saturdays.

For Green/Gold Fun Fridays plan on about 40.

If something comes up and you will not be able to be there on the date you are scheduled, you are able to drop snacks and drinks off at any time during the week at my desk. We also have a fridge to store items that need to be kept cold. Just be sure to write the group name and date the snacks are for on the packaging so I know where they go.

Thanks!

Coach Amanda

Goggles Guide

In all of my years of swimming and coaching, this is the first time that I have found an article that breaks it all down and makes sense when it comes to goggles. If only I knew then what I do now!

Finding a pair of goggles...

The best goggles are the ones that fit comfortably without leaking. Everyone has a different shaped face, and what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another. You need to find a pair that will suit the shape of your face.

A quick test - take the goggles out of the packet. Lean over, so your face is facing down towards the floor. Press the eye cups into your eye sockets and let go - they should stay in place if they are a good fit. You can make adjustments to the spread of the eyepiece, but if the goggles don't hold without the strap, at least for a few seconds, they probably will need a very tight strap to keep the water out. Don't be tempted to compensate for a bad fitting pair of goggles by tightening up the head strap. Although this may be necessary for racing, it is really no fun having sore eye sockets after a swim, so you want a pair that are watertight with only a low tension in the strap.

It is always a good idea to try before you buy - find someone at swimming who has a different pair than you and try them out, it will give you the best idea as to whether they will suit you, even if the adjustment isn't perfect.

Care for your goggles...

Caring for your goggles can be a drag, especially to keep them in as-new condition, but it can be worth it. Our top tips:

• After swimming give them a rinse in clean water (e.g., in the shower), the chlorine in the pool can eat away at the seals
  
• Between swimming sessions, make sure you let your goggles dry out and store goggles in a dry place, not in the bottom of your bag. This is particularly true of those with foam seals, which can breed all sorts of mould and bacteria.
  
• It can be worth investing in a pouch or using the original box to store your goggles in to protect them - scratched goggles are as hard to see through as fogged up goggles.

Fogging...

Fogged up goggles have to be one of the most annoying things in swimming; not being able to see where you are going let alone the coach, pace clock, etc. can drive you mad! It's a perennial problem, though and happens to everyone, but why and, more importantly, what can we do about it?

Why do goggles fog?

Basically, because the air inside your goggles is moist (it picks up water vapor both from the atmosphere in the pool when you put your goggles on and from the surface of your eyes) and the fact that this air is kept warmer than the water outside. The temperature of your goggle lens drops due to the cooling effect of the water and when a certain temperature (known as the dew point) is reached, the water vapor in the air inside the goggles condenses into plain old water on the surface of the lens -condensation, just like you get on the inside of a car windshield. This layer of condensation is what causes your view to be obstructed.

How Can I Stop Them Fogging?

A few things can help to prevent this from happening, only a couple of which are really practical. For example you could regulate the moisture content or temperature of the air inside your goggles to prevent the dew point from being reached, but this would be very impractical.

The two most successful solutions are:

1. Allow a small amount of water into your goggles. The water acts as a windshield wiper as you turn your head, washing away the fog. If you have the right amount of water, it will sit far enough away from your eyes and wont irritate them. This obviously won't work for all strokes (particularly, backstroke!).
   
2. You could use some sort of surfactant on the lenses to prevent condensation from forming, which is the best and most widely used solution. Many swimmers swear by either spitting in or licking their goggles which provides a coating to the lens. The man-made alternative is an anti-fog solution which provides this coating nicely, at a price.

Generally, whichever solution you adopt, it is wise to keep the inside of your goggles clean. Any dirt, particularly in the corners, will act as the starting point for condensation, and mean it will be more easily created. Dirt will also exacerbate the problem, by making it harder to see where you're going.

My goggles always slip when racing - is there anything I can do to stop this?

It can be wise to slightly tighten your goggle strap for racing, but you shouldn't rely exclusively on this to keep your goggles on your head - you need to have a well-fitting pair to begin with. If you do tighten it up, make sure that it doesn't cause the nosepiece to slip and become longer - this will just make the problem worse. If you have a well-fitting pair, properly adjusted and they still come off, there are a couple of other things to try. If the strap slips and the goggles end up around your neck, or even worse in your mouth, try wearing them underneath your swimming cap, this will help keep the strap in place. If the lenses flip off or slip and fill with water, you perhaps should look at your diving technique (poor streamline and too steep dive angle) - talk with your coach, he/she'll help.

"Having uncomfortable goggles can make practice miserable and having goggles that fit well and stay on during a race is imperative for good swims. Just as with suits, swimmers should have more than one pair of goggles...swimmers should not use the same pair of goggles for practice that they do in a meet. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is because goggles wear out and loose their seal after a number of practices and swimmers are more likely to feel the effects of this when they dive off the block at a meet. Also, swimmers should wear their meet goggles tighter than their practice goggles. Young and old swimmers alike are prone to forget to tighten their goggles before their first race and this can lead to goggles in the mouth or around the neck shortly after the dive."

Thanks to Derbyphoenix.com for the article.

How To Update Your Insurance/Emergency Contact Info on the Team Website

Your Swimmer’s Account Information * IMPORTANT *

Everyone is missing 1 important piece of information from their accounts if not more than this. Please follow the instructions detailed below to check on your account information.

1. Log into the website and click on “My Account” on the left hand side.


2. 3 Sections appear right of the way vertically on your screen; the middle one has your “Billing Information.” Next to “Billing Information” are 2 more tabs. Please select “Insurance/Emergency Contact.”


3. You will have 4 places for information we at Dynamo need to have on record for your child to swim with us. In the 1st one, “Insurance Carrier,” please list the name of your insurance provider and the account number. In the 2nd one, “Insurance Carrier Phone,” please list the phone number to your insurance provider. With the last two, “Emergency Contact” and “Contact Phone,” please list the person in case of an emergency you would like us to contact first and a number we can best reach them at. The information on this page is necessary in the instance that something happens with your son/daughter during their time here at the pool.


4. Click “Save Account Changes.”


5. Get back into your account again by selecting “My Account.”


6. Go to the 3rd section of your account that lists the swimmers being billed on your account. Select your child’s name (if you have more than one swimmer, you will have to do this for each of them one at a time).


7. On your “Member/Athlete Profile” you will see two sections. The first one list all of your swimmers information when it comes to name, birthday, t-shirt size, etc. The second section has 3 tabs – select “Medical Information.”

8. From there, please enter in the following information:

a. “Physician’s Name”

b. “Physician’s Phone Number”

c. “Special Medication” – if there is anything you think we should know about – tell us! Better to be informed than surprised when something happens!

d. “Medication” – this information is important in the instance if your swimmer is taken to a hospital, if you are unavailable we will be able to list the known medication to the attendant.


9. Click “Save Changes” when done.


10. Click “Save Account Changes” when brought back to your member account screen. And you are done!

Parent Meeting Agendas

To acces the parent meeting agendas from this week click on the appropriate group for the link:

Age Group 3

Green/Gold

This link will take you to a website that I have uploaded these files to and will upload other files necessary for the group for you to easily.

Let me know if you have any problems accessing it. Thanks!

Coach Amanda

Swimmer's Nutrition

Great nutrition handout put together by our very own Coach Ben from a presentation he gave on it a couple of years ago. I wanted to share it with everyone.


Nutrition and Swimming


Determinants of Athletic Performance

• Genetic Makeup


• Athletic Training


• Diet

There are no nutritional shortcuts to athletic performance

6 Essential Nutrients

1. Carbohydrates
- For athletes 60-65% of all calories should come from carbohydrates. Less than 10% of this amount should come from simple sugars.
- This is what gives us energy when we need to go fast

2. Protein
- 1.2 g/kg/day it the recommended amount of protein for endurance athletes
- The average American diet exceeds the RDA
- This is what builds muscle

3. Fats
- Important for some vitamin absorption
- Higher fat diets have resulted in better performance than low fat diets
- This is what gives us energy when we need to go a long time

4. Water
- 2 cups immediately before exercise
- ½ - 1 cup for every 15 minutes of exercise
- Athletes should be drinking at least 12 cups of liquid per day

5. Vitamins
- Not essential to performance but essential to health and producing enzymes
- A good multivitamin is not a bad idea

6. Minerals
- Not essential to performance but essential to health, fighting disease, and producing enzymes
**Many athletes do not meet energy intake requirements**

7. Consult a doctor or knowledgable professional before taking any supplements. Iron is very important especially to adolescent females.

Important Tips to Remember

• Eat a variety of foods


• Balance food intake with physical activity


• Choose a diet high in fruits, veggies, and unrefined grains


• Choose a diet low in total and saturated fat


• Moderate sugars


• Moderate sodium/salt
  
  

Meet Day
Eat breakfast at least 45 meets before warm-up begins.

During the meet choose the following foods: milk (regular or chocolate), spaghetti, yogurt, beans, protein and energy bars, sports drink, water, fruits, and nuts. Choose fructose over honey or sucrose (simple sugars).

If you have more than 2 hours between events or sessions: breads, potatos, cereals, honey.
Eat small amounts at a time to help avoid spiking blood glucose levels either up or down.

Fun Facts

Drink carbohydrates especially right after warm-up in practice to ward off fatigue for an extra 15-30 min.

Eat meals consistently throughout the day to replace energy in muscle (snack about every 2 hrs.)

Don’t eat within 5-30 min of practice or races (it will actually hinder performance)

Sports drinks are good for sodium, potassium replacement and recovery, but nothing can beat water.

Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein within 45 minutes after practice to prepare your muscles for the next day (yogurt, chocolate milk, bagels, fruits, and sports drinks are great)

Don’t skip breakfast even for an early practice, food signals to your body to start working
Energy bars (carbohydrate, protein, or mixed) can be great, but make sure you read the label.