Swim Omaha Weekly Email
November 29th
SWIM OMAHA TEAM NOTES
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Upcoming dates
Kansas City Blazers - Dec 3-5 - Entries submitted
CBSC Holiday Classic - Entries submitted
- Short Course meet schedule it online.
More information below group information sections.
Lockers rooms are still closed at this time.
Literature for Parents and Athletes
- Parent Coach & Athlete: a handbook for age group swimming parents: by John Leonard
- Swimming World Magazine
- Splash Magazine (by USA Swimming)
- Positive Coaching by Jim Thompson
- Children & Sports Training by Jozef Drabik Ph.d.
- Climb to the Top by Dennis Pursley
- Target on Gold by Dr. Keith Bell
- Championship Sports Psychology by Dr. Keith Bell
- The Overworked American-The Unexpected Decline of Leisure By Juliet B. Schor
- The Inner Game of Music & The Inner Game of Tennis by Barry Green
- Champions Are Made, Not Born by Summer Sanders
- Golden Girl: Natalie Coughlin by Michael Silver with Natalie Coughlin
- Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: Joan Ryan
- The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive by Jim Afremow and Jim Craig
From Coach Lisa to ALL Swim Omaha athletes
I was not a stellar athlete. I did swim lessons on Saturdays, like many kids. I was 9 when Coach Don Kimball approached me, told me I was pretty good in the pool, and asked me to join the swim team. I was shocked and amazed, because I was not good at sports. I was one of those kids picked last for every softball game, dodge ball, and Red Rover. I loved games and enjoyed Phys Ed, but was always a slow runner and tended to duck away from any ball flying towards me. I had never won ribbons on “Track & Field Day”, nor had I ever been asked to join a team in the past. I bounced out to the car that day and told my Mom that Coach Kimball liked me and wanted me on the swim team. She was more shocked than me! This was the first time I had been asked to join a sport.
For the next several months, I begged, bargained and nagged my parents to let me join the swim club. Finally, shocked by my persistence to participate in a sport, they agreed to sign me up for a season of swim club. So, my parents are the first reason I am a swim coach.
In swimming, I found nirvana. Finally, a sport I could do. I loved that I didn’t have to run and I loved that it wasn’t a sweaty, dirty, smelly sport. I quickly made friends, got the team suit and team warm-up and learned to eat Jell-o out of a box. I learned how to make and consume gorp by the pound and I picked the obligatory stuffed animal to drag to all the swim meets.
My first meet was at a 25 Meter, outdoor pool in Fremont . I crashed into the ropes like a ping pong ball, missed the wall on the flip turn, backed up to touch the wall, bounced from rope to rope back down the lane, lost my cap and goggles and still won my heat. Coach Kimball told me I did everything possible that could be wrong without getting disqualified. At this point, I believed I was a real swimmer.
Many years later, at a Coaches’ Clinic, I ran into Coach Don Kimball. At dinner one night, he told everyone the story of my first meet, and added that he almost told my parents to find a different sport because I was such a bad swimmer. He wasn’t sure I would ever be coordinated enough to have success. The only reason he didn’t speak with my parents, he said, was because of the smile on my face after that ugly 50 Meter Freestyle at my first meet. He was beaming throughout that banquet as he correctly believed he contributed to my coaching career. So, Coach Kimball is the second reason I am a swim coach.
My last year at UNO, Doug Krecklow and Mike McKamy asked if I could coach novice kids a couple nights a week which I did for the winter of 88/89~~this was my first coaching job!
Also during my last year of college, while I was student teaching, I coached the Bryan Junior High School Boys Swim Team. It was a very short season, but those boys left an impression on me that I still think of every time I see a Bryan swimmer at Metro State . That young team was the highlight of my student teaching experience. By the fall of 1989, I was on board for club and high school coaching with a little Elementary Music on the side.
I swam club from 1976-1980 and swam for Westside High School my sophomore & junior years 81/82 & 82/83. All the years that I swam, my grades were better, my time management skills improved, my commitment and follow through skills improved and my ability to work with groups and be a part of the team experience improved. I learned to prioritize and set goals. I learned that there is always another goal~~you are never finished! I was excited to have the opportunity to pass the things that I learned from swimming on to younger swimmers.
As a club coach AND a high school coach, I have had the privilege of watching 32 years worth of swimmers grow up into amazing young adults. I’ve even seen some of them grow into the parents I wondered if they could ever be. I am now coaching children of children that I coached, but that doesn’t in any way make me old, I am sure!!
This is the joy in swimming for me: It is watching these naïve; clueless, gawky kids grow into caring, responsible, cooperative young adults who can commit to excellence. It is helping kids acquire the skills that I learned in swimming, which I believe to be critical to daily life. It is seeing athletes learn the input-outcome relationships and make choices to come to more practices and work harder. It is watching them learn to navigate relationships, with us, their coaches, with their parents and with other teens. Emotions run high sometimes, arguments, spats and accusations fly, and then they make up. In the end, they are closer than before, due to the process of working through conflict to reach understanding….What a great life lesson!
It is NOT who swims what event or what relay in what time and for how many points or what size trophy. Twenty years from now, nobody but your coach will remember your place or your splits, but everyone will remember the relationships and the friends.
I know that every youth organization says it, but we TRULY do have the best kids in the world, right here in our sport, right here in Swim Omaha .
Novice and Bronze - Coach Lisa
Please remember your parka, warm ups, or other items to walk to your car after practice.
Silver - Coach Vic
Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!
Monday- Thursday 6:00-7:15 and 7:00-8:15
Friday- TBA depending on water time. Will send an email by Wednesday.
Upcoming important dates to note:
** No practice Dec 7th due to HS school meet
** we will practice December 20-21 early time slot only.
** moratorium starts December 22-26 NO practices.
** holiday break schedule coming soon.
Gold - Coach Teryn
For the meet please make sure we are wearing orange caps.
Make sure to order equipment.
2022 Midwestern Midwest All Star Information
Please complete the entire application and submit - Click button below for links.
Please submit prior to December 15 if you have any idea that you might be in the Top 5
MW All Star Coaches will choose the athletes and events from the submitted applications
Selection will be based on Top 5 in event and other factors.
2022 MW All Star Team Waiver and Code Forms
Waiver and Code Forms MUST be signed and submitted prior to December 15.
Meet info:
Wellmark YMCA Aquatic Center
501 Grand Ave
Des Moines, IA 50309
January 15-16, 2022
Meet is a FAMILY Travel Meet
MW has determined that this meet will be a FAMILY Travel Meet, rather than a Team Travel Meet. MW has every intention of keeping this meet as a Team Travel meet in the future. However, with the Covid situation still in flux, MW feels it is in the best interest of athletes and families to travel as a family. Information on a hotel block for MW families will be posted when it becomes available.
Safe Adults at Westside
Doug Krecklow
Todd Johnson, the Aquatics Director
Dave, custodial Engineer
Meet entries and deadlines
The meets that Swim Omaha plans to attend are posted on the schedule and also as events. Most meets do not have information available until 4-6 week before the meet. Once meet information is available events are updated as well as deadlines.
Once a meet file has been sent to the host team we do not send a second entry file. This does create problems and can cause errors in the team entries.
Below are directions on how to sign up for events.
• Athletes (age 12-17) must take “Safe Sport for Athletes”
• Athletes (age 18+) must take “Athlete Protection Training,”
• Parents must take “Parent’s Guide to Misconduct in Sport.”
Metro Area High School swim schedules
Fundraising
Amazon Smiles - Select Omaha Westside Swim Club
TAGG - Select Swim Omaha
TAGG
- TAGG Participating Business List- Link to View
- TAGG Participating Business List Code (Scan with Camera)
- Omaha Participating Business List – Download List
- Lincoln Participating Business List – Download List
- TAGG Catering List (Omaha) – Link to view or Download List
- TAGG Overview Video – YouTube Link
- ‘How to TAGG’ Demo Video – YouTube Link
- Download App Link – Link to Page – Include this link when promoting TAGG online or through email. When this page is accessed from a mobile device, it goes directly to the App Store for that device (Google Play or App Store)
Swim Omaha
Email: SOCoachLisa@gmail.com
Website: SwimOmaha.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/108737654386/
Twitter: @SwimOmaha