SWAT’S STAR TIMES February, 2006
Visit our
Website at www.swatelpaso.com
TEAM
SWAT is a swim team that empowers young people to
excel in life through dedication, discipline, and teamwork while having fun.
Parent Information:
The following
articles were taken from USA Swimming Web Site for your information. If you want to learn more about this or other
topics you can visit their web site at www.usaswimming.org.
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Help Your Child Set Performance Goals (1/1/2006)
Goal setting, especially with older swimmers, is
mainly the domain of the coach and swimmer. This is another example of the need
to “let go” and trust the coach! Younger swimmers may want your guidance
is setting goals. (Then again, they may not!) First make sure that the
goals are the swimmer’s goals, not your personal goals. Avoid statements like
“I want you to do this,” or “I think you can do that.” Second, make sure that
the goals are compatible with instruction given by the coach. For example, if
the coach is working on long term growth and encouraging your child to complete
IMX events, you should not be talking about getting an “A” time in the 50
breaststroke! Finally, focus on performance rather than outcome goals.
Performance goals emphasize skill improvement. Outcome goals emphasize winning
or time achievement and place undue pressure on the athlete. Examples of
performance goals are completing each race legally or maintaining a breathing
pattern. Achieving performance goals is one sure way to measure skill
improvement.
(This article on nutrition was taken from
the
Eating Colorful Foods: Anti-oxidants vs free
radicals
What are the first three foods that
come to mind when we say “carbohydrate?”
1. Pasta
2. Rice
3. Bread
Each if these is excellent. But what do they have in common? They’re all white!
One of the most overlooked sources of carbohydrate is fruit. Yes, FRUIT. Fresh,
canned, frozen, dried or juiced. No matter how you look at it, fruit is an
excellent source of carbohydrate. Not only does fruit provide carbohydrate in
the form of natural sugars (versus refined sugar), the bright colors of fruits
indicate that they are also excellent sources of vitamins and minerals,
including a sub-group called anti-oxidants.
You might recall that exercise is the stimulus that leads to training adaptations.
And that adaptations to training occur ONLY is you give the body the right
kinds of fuels during periods of rest.
Well, one of the side effects of exercise is the generation of “free
radicals.” Free radicals are molecules that can actually cause damage to
muscle tissue above and beyond the damage caused by exercise. The
damage caused by exercise is normal. It serves as part of the stimulus for
training adaptation to take place. But damage caused by free radicals is NOT a
desired part of the training process. Damage caused by free radicals (aka
“scavengers”) circulating in the bloodstream after workout can continue well
into the recovery period. This is when the body is supposed to be adapting!
Anti-oxidants “absorb” free radicals, neutralizing their effect in the body
before their damage to muscle tissue can amount to much. A diet consistently
rich in fruits (and other colorful foods, such as VEGETABLES) is apt to keep
the body consistently supplied with anti-oxidants, which will assist the body in
keeping free radical formation to a minimum. This a good reason to eat lots of
colorful foods during the recovery time between workouts.
Colorful foods include, but are not limited to:
Apples, Strawberries, Blueberries, Bananas, Oranges, Kiwi, Watermelon,
Raspberries, Grapes, Mango, Papaya, Apricots, Red peppers, Broccoli, Corn,
Squash, Carrots, Peas, Green beans, Tomatoes
Colorful foods DO NOT include: Skittles, Jelly Beans, M&Ms, and Fruit
Loops!
UPCOMING
EVENTS:
-
ELTS 2006 Valentine Swim Meet, Tigua Pool (11200
-
Border Short Course Championships, Tigua Pool (11200
-
Please register online or contact Jose
Alcoreza, dues to be paid by registration deadline on all of these events.
FROM THE BOARD:
Congratulations to the following
swimmers that will be going to
Itzel Blancas (100 Fly),
Tara Lore (200 breast),
Ixchel Torres (50 back, 100 back, 50 breast), Idaly Rios (50
back, 100 Fly),
(Just a note to all, the coma after the events on parenthesis
is because they are close and can still make more times in the last upcoming
meet).
WAY
TO GO GIRLS! Keep it up!
More Information:
From the Editor:
I recently received “Splash” magazine
for the month of January and February, in this issue I found an article that
caught my attention and since I needed to write something more to fill in the
second page of our newsletter to keep the format intact, I decided to write
about it and give you all my point of view.
There is an article about SWAP (Swimming With A Purpose magazine)
written by a 14 year old swimming girl that surprised me with all the
information and research this girl is putting into it to make it available to
her peers and get them more involved in participating both at the pool and also
sharing with others their commitment to the sport and their experiences out of
the pool. The main topic here is that
she is only 14 years old and she has decided to express herself on the reasons
why and the purpose she swims, which sometimes makes me wonder if all the kids
I see at the pool and their parents really like it, if they have set goals, or
if they do it just do it to keep the kids occupied. This teenage girl has set her own goals and
made her own decisions about what she wants to bring into the sport of swimming
as well as what she wants to gain from it.
On the other hand, our team SWAT has expressed in several occasions
about the way to try to get participation from both the kids and parents at the
meets; we are a competitive team and sometimes at the meets we can not even get
enough swimmers to complete a relay nor do we have enough parents that volunteer
to help out. I personally have been
involved in the sport for only 14 months, both my daughters swim and I feel
very proud about the way they handle it.
In the beginning, I did not know what to expect or what to do as is
natural for newcomers into any sport or activity. I decided that the only way for me to learn
more about swimming was to first learn to swim my self, so I joined a program
in which I would be able to learn to swim and also could reach some kind of work
out habit that would help me understand the hour and a half the kids spend
swimming every day and the purpose of having them in a competitive swimming
team. I have learned to appreciate the
sport and my girls’ hard work after the first session I took and also by being
there at the pool watching them most of the time for the entire hour and a half. The other way I became involved with the
sport was to accept this task of writing the newsletter for all of you every
month; which, by the way is not as easy as I thought it would be; but, nevertheless,
has brought me across so many interesting and helpful topics and information
beyond anything I ever imagined. The
only sad part about this is, as I mentioned before that we are close to 100
swimmers and I hear that only about 20-25 percent of them take advantage of the
competitions; furthermore, I try to gather information for this newsletter
every month and some times I don’t even know if all the parents read it or if
any swimmer knows about it. By the way
this newsletter is also posted in our bulletin board at the pool. In the past months I presented to you an open
area for any of you to express concerns, problems, ideas, or information that
you would like to share with all of the rest of the team; unfortunately, so far
only one parent has participated and no swimmers. I would like to get more participation so
that we can make this letter more complete and also more interesting and to
preserve a guideline for future swimmers and SWAT. I personally feel this information is
critical and important for all of us to know so that we can understand our
swimmers better and help them in whatever way we can to reach their goals. Finally, the girl in Splash magazine that
started this article has put out a website to make her information available to
everybody who has access to the internet.
If any of you have a chance I strongly recommend you to look this up,
her web address is ( www.swimwithapurpose.com
). I would like to hear your comments or
share your information with the rest of the team. You can e-mail me or give me any information
or things you want me to include at the pool.
We also would like to get some pictures of the meets so that we can
include them on our website or in this newsletter so it would be more appealing
to all. People lets get it done. GO SWAT!
Yours truly,
Hugo
Blancas
From the Treasurer:
Parents:
You may
notice a couple things on your dues bill for January. If you have
not paid for your swimmer’s US Swimming registration, there is a charge of $52
per unregistered swimmer. Your child must be registered with US Swimming
to swim with SWAT. This entire fee goes to US Swimming, not to SWAT.
Your dues
may have gone up $5 for some of your children. This increase means your
swimmer has moved up a lane in ability. It costs more, but it is a good thing
and a sign of progress.
It went by
quietly but a 5 year losing streak ended. Our club garnered more points
than the El Paso Aqua Posse at the January 2006 Ft. Bliss Barracudas
meet. Of course they did not have 80 swimmers, but neither did
SWAT. Getting your swimmers to meets makes all the difference. They
learn to compete by competing, and will help them enjoy the sport. Get
your swimmers to meets.
Thanks,
Tom Lore
Treasurer
Social
Events (Birthdays) HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Lerma,Dennise (2-03), Compean,
Adriana (2-9), Gutierrez, Adriana (2-13), Hernandez, Laura (2-20), Blancas,
Iliana Vianey (2-28).
SWAT Board of Directors
President: Manuel Quińones / maquinon3@aol.com
Vice-Pres: Rosalba Bazar / rosalbabazar@sbcglobal.net
Secretary: Angelica Castrejon / acastrejon@elp.rr.com
Treasurer & Officials Chair: Tom Lore / tlore@handgards.com
Fundraising: Laura Nicli / laurapnicli@elp.rr.com
Entries Chair , Team Roster, & USS
Registration: Jose
Alcoreza / alcoreza@att.net
Team Equipment & Border Rep: Kerry Lore / klore@epelectric.com
Safety Chair: Jim Holcomb / jholcomb@utep.edu
Newsletter: Hugo Blancas / hugoblancas@hotmail.com
Events: Armando Licon / ALICON2@elp.rr.com