Week 2 and The Week Ahead

Another great week of practice. Our more experienced athletes are working hard, and our newer athletes are learning the ropes. These guys look like they are ready to go for our first meet on Tuesday.

CHANGES AHEAD
Well, just when you think everything is routine and figured out, changes come around. There is one minor schedule update that you will see regarding our meet Tuesday and there are a few changes to the routine that we were just getting started.

PRACTICES UPDATED - DRYLAND & WEIGHTS 

Dryland will begin on Monday.  Dryland will run Monday-Thursday. ALL team members must have decent workout shoes and shorts and a t-shirt for this.

We are going to try something new with our more experienced athletes and put them in the weight room two days a week to lift. We have two groups that will be lifting and alternating days and weeks.

CAR POOLS UPDATED 

Obviously, with half of the drivers on a given day staying at the HS to lift, it creates some transportation challenges for the non drivers. You can find a copy of the updated carpool schedule in the link that is in the banner on the right of this page.  Below is this weeks schedule and the schedule for every week when Monday is an odd number. You can see that for most of the athletes that need rides change one driver takes them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while the other takes them on Tuesday and Thursday. The drivers will flip flop next week.

PARENT VOLUNTEERING UPDATED  

Many of you have already signed up for breakfasts, snacks, etc.. If you have forgotten where that signup is, fear not, I have included a link in the right hand banner of this blog. If you have questions you should contact Coach Tolsma (areal.tolsma@gmail.com)
TIMERS
There is also a link in that banner for TIMERS that we need for home meets. We typically need 8 timers for a dual meet but we will need 16 for our Invitational on January 18. Dave Huisman is your contact for timers.

MEET TIME UPDATED
We have our first meet this week. Due to a middle school meet prior to our meet, the time has been bumped to 6:30pm

Tuesday, Dec. 10 @ West Ottawa (No Bus)
   5:30pm Warm Up - 6:30pm Start,
   On Deck 5:15

PRACTICE SCHEDULE UPDATED - EXAM WEEK
ALL PRACTICES will be limited to two hours. Athletes are still expected to be at ALL practices and meets. Practices will start 3:30 and we will be done promptly at 5:30 for the swimmers.
During exams your school days are shorter, so use that time off as study time. Study efficiently without the some of the media distractions that some of you often study with.

The time in the pool is a great break from the books and the extra exercise will help your brain think clearer. In fact research shows that physical exercise is vital to helping you study and cope with the stress of things like exams. Read this research and this article.

CHRISTMAS BREAK UPDATED
Our Christmas Break practices are posted on the calendar.

COMMUNICATION REMINDED
You can get text reminders by texting "@hchsswim" to 81010
You can also follow HC Aquatics on Instagram and Twitter.