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.
|
Learn How to Deal with Disappointing
Performances (5/1/2006)
Sometimes, in spite of the best
preparation and intentions, swimmers have disappointing performances. Learning
to deal with disappointment is one of the important lessons of sport. As a
parent, you must also learn to deal with your child’s disappointment. Although
you mean well, children can detect phony comments and resent them. In short,
praise generously and criticize sparingly, but don’t be a phony. When a child
knows she did not swim well, a comment like “I thought you looked great” is not
helpful. Similarly, telling a child “it’s not important, forget about it”
denies the child the dignity of her disappointment and unhappiness. Acknowledge
the child’s unhappiness for a reasonable amount of time and then encourage the
child to move on by focusing on the next race or meet. Do not conduct “post
mortems” or in depth analysis of the performance. Leave that to the coach. If
the child is unduly upset, she may be enjoying the attention she is getting
from you by continuing to carry on. “Take your wind out of her sails” by
changing the subject, leaving the area or sending her back to her teammates.
Remember, love, support and move on!
(This
article on nutrition was taken from the
Lesson
6 - What IS One Serving?
Coaches….Got 15 bucks? Go to
your local super store and splurge on one of the most valuable Nutrition
teaching kits you’ll ever own. You may even have these things lying around the
house. Here’s the list:
· 1 tennis ball
· 1 baseball
· 1 deck of playing cards
· 1 book of matches
· 1 CD case
· 1 1” wooden cube
· 1 nickel
Why would you want these things? Each item represents the
approximate size of a serving for various foods. See the table below for
representations:
|
Item |
Serving it Represents |
|
Tennis ball |
1 cup of cooked rice; 15
grapes |
|
Baseball |
12 oz potato; 1 cup of cold
cereal |
|
Deck of cards |
3 oz cut of meat |
|
Book of matches |
1 tbsp of oil, salad
dressing or mayo |
|
CD case |
1 slice of bread |
|
1” wooden cube |
1 oz of cheese |
|
Nickel |
2 oz of dry spaghetti, 1 cup
of cooked spaghetti |
For real life food models, try Nasco’s
on-line catalog of Food Replicas. (Health Education Materials
- Nutrition)
UPCOMING
EVENTS:
-
FT. Bliss Air Defenders meet,
-
DSSC Fathers Day Meet, Tigua Pool (11200
-
Please register online or contact Jose
Alcoreza, dues to be paid by registration deadline on all events.
FROM THE BOARD:
The board of directors from SWAT
wants to thank all the parents and swimmers that participated and help at our
Sprint Invitational long course meet.
Also congratulations to all the swimmers for an outstanding performance
and coaches for a great job, SWAT finished in 3rd place
overall. The following swimmers have
already qualified to the long course TAGS meet.
Idaly Rios (50 and 100 Back), Ixchel Torres (50 & 100 Back, 50 &
100 Breast), Paola Lauritzen (50 & 100 Breast), and Alejandro Ruiz (50
Back). Congratulations and good luck!. GO SWAT!
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ALSO WISHES A VERY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY
TO ALL THE MOMS FROM OUR TEAM. HAPPY
MOTHERS DAY!
More Information:
Drink Water
This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week is
an excerpt from the January-February 2006 issue of Splash, in which special
correspondent and Olympic gold medalist Nicole Haislett offers some nutritional
guidelines for swimming fast. Here, Haislett writes about the importance of
drinking water.
Haislett’s Tip:
Water, water, water! Everyone should
drink lots of it, especially athletes. I think swimmers forget they sweat in
the water. According to medical research, 75% of all people are chronically
dehydrated, and even mild dehydration will slow a person’s metabolism as much
as 3%. Lack of water is the biggest cause of daytime fatigue. I always carried
a water bottle with me. It becomes habit. Remember, coffee and sodas don’t
count. If you’re trying to cut back on calories, drink a large glass of water
before and during your meals.
Nicole Haislett was a 1992 Olympic gold
medalist and former American record-holder in the 200m free. She is now a
professional chef.
Can I work on my stroke and still swim fast
in practice?
This is a good question. Often times when you
learn a new skill or try to change your stroke, you have to swim more slowly
for a while before you will swim faster. This can become frustrating since
everyone wants to swim fast, even in practice. So, to slow down on purpose goes
against our natural instinct and desire to race. But this is why it is
important to slow down when learning a new skill. The more you do something,
right or wrong, the more it becomes a habit. Your body learns to activate
muscles in a certain way, and eventually the motions you make become second
nature. If the habit is a good one, then you have no problem. However, if you
are doing a skill incorrectly, every time you do it wrong, you reinforce that
bad habit in you body. (For example, if you have a bad arm pull, think how many
times you reinforce that bad habit during even one practice). Before you can
learn to do a skill correctly, you have to "unlearn" the incorrect
way. It takes a lot of thought and concentration to break an old habit. When
you try to swim fast, it is natural to focus your attention on going fast and
not necessarily on holding your "new" technique. When this happens,
the body goes back to what it is familiar with, and that usually is the
"old" technique. So to make a long story short, while you are
learning a new skill and making it a habit, it is OK to swim more slowly; in
fact that is what you should do initially. Then, as you become
more comfortable and the new technique becomes a habit, you should try to swim
faster and faster. Chances are you will be able to hold the new technique.
Does it make a difference if you breathe
every 2nd or 3rd stroke?
This is a question that is asked a lot. In
reality, it does not matter whether you breathe to the right or the left.
However, if a swimmer always breathes to one side he/she typically will develop
an asymmetry in their stroke. This may be pulling harder with one arm than the
other, having more body roll to one side, etc…
The most efficient swimming comes when an
athlete's stroke IS symmetrical. One of the best ways to do this
is to focus on alternate breathing, or breathing to both sides in practice. In
breathing to both sides in practice, you set up good habits and should develop
a symmetric stroke. Then in the race, it should not matter if you breathe only
to one side. The symmetrical stroke that you developed in practice should still
be there for the competition.
Social
Events (Birthdays) HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Broussard, Andrew (5-02), Sarabia,
Carlos (5-11), Renteria, Gabriella (5-11), Rincon, Kevin (5-15), Gonzalez,
Jesus (5-18), Ramirez, Paulina (5-21), Escobedo Sammy (5-30), Lucero, Andres
(5-31), Lucero, Humberto (5-31).
SWAT Board
of Directors
President: Manuel Quiñones / 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