Hello Wahoo Parents and Guardians!

Thank you all for your attendance and participation in the meetings this week! Go Swimmer Suppot Team!  We are so pumped for another great season and excited to work alonside you all to provide the best support team for our Swimmers. 

Below is everything we covered for your reference this season:

Team Mission: Our top priorities are Sportsmanship, Fun and Growth: we will emphasize sportsmanship in and out of the water, during practice, at meets and with our competitors. Fun- while practicing and competing. Encouraging our Swimmers to focus on their Growth, both big and small achievements as well as set backs are all positive parts of real growth and we will encourage a positive look at all of it.

From the beginning of the season to the end there will be a lot of growth. We are excited to be a part of your family’s Summer.

Parents & Guardians-Best ways to Support our Swimmers:

1. Praise their hard work, they are going to be doing a lot of it over the next few months and the encouragement from their personal cheering section is powerful stuff.
2. Keep it positive especially after races. Think about the last time you worked really hard on something (maybe a race, built something, led a project at work) and shared your efforts with your family, were you hoping for their support or immediate critiques of your accomplishments? It's SUPPORT!  Help them focus on the effort and help them learn their times as that is where they will be able to see their personal progress. Enjoy this season with your Swimmers, and as their Coaches we will focus on how to help your Swimmer improve and grow throughout the season.
3. For both practice and Meets please refrain from sideline coaching. This can be confusing to the Swimmers and inhibit the Coaches from doing their jobs.
4. Encourage Regular attendance to practice. It is important for personal and team growth. Practices are a powerful opportunity to build camaraderie.
5. Did we say keep it positive? Encourage them to challenge themselves, encourage them to recognize the work they are doing. You are not only a role model for your children but your parent peers as well, this is a great opportunity to motivate each other.

Communication with Coaches: We have the best interest of your Swimmers in mind and with that being said we need to be fully available to them during practices and meets. Please contact us outside of these time and if needed to set up a time to discuss something. 

Encourage your Swimmers to talk to the Coaches about any goals, concerns, help, questions they may have. Advocating for themselves will not only help us to hear from them but it will strengthen their confidence and self image.

REMIND App: Text 81010 with the message @Wahoos22 to be added to our team Texts. We will use this to send out updates, messages and weather cancellations. This can also be used to send texts to the coaches.

Summer Travel & Schedules: We get it, you’ve got more than just Swim team going on. If your Swimmer is going to miss practice or a meet please send us an email with the dates.

Here is an overview of this Season’s calendar:

Champs info: JRAC Champs is a meet that your Swimmer can qualify for and will be on July 27th at the NOVA facility in Regency Square. As the Season progresses many of your Swimmers will make qualifying times. Qualifying for Champs is a big achievement! However, there are a limited number of spots for each age group and the fastest qualifying times will make the Champs Team. We will continue to follow up on qualifying information throughout the season and have more details for the qualifying Swimmers towards the end of the season.

A note on Meets: Event seeding is based on a myriad of factors that we must consider.

We do not take requests for specific events. Over the course of the season, Swimmers will have opportunities for new challenges and growth in their races!

Swimmer Expectations:

1. Good sportsmanship in and out of the water, during practice, at meets and with our competitors
2. Regular attendance.
3. Come ready to have fun and be challenged.
4. Experienced Swimmers: there is a lot of leverage to be a positive role model and a team leader. Encourage your experienced Swimmers to refrain from saying things like “this is so easy” “I can already do starts, turns, strokes, etc”, these comments create a negative and discouraging environment for their teammates and a difficult frame of mind for coaches to help overcome. Instead, encourage your experienced Swimmers to use their influence to help their teammates grow.

Swim gear:

-Caps: prevent hair from getting in your face, eliminate drag so your Swimmer can swim faster, keeps hair out of the Pool (really, that should be #1), and helps your cheering section find you at meets. Swimmers are required to wear their team cap for meets (not another team).

-Hair: if your Swimmer has long hair and does not want to wear a swim cap for practice they will need to have their hair pulled back.

-Goggles: protect your eyes, increase visibility in the water, we recommend mirrored goggles that block the sun, its good to have a few pairs in case your Swimmer’s goggles “disappear”.

-Suits: Swimmers should wear their team suit to compete, if they do not have a team suit, a black and dark blue suit (team colors) is accepted by the league.

JRAC rules state: no tie-back suits at meets & suits cannot go past the knee.

Team Suit fitting is on Wednesday 5/25.

Swimmers Aging up & New Swimmers (especially 9 year olds): Aging into an older age group can be a challenging season for your Swimmer. If you have a Swimmer who is aging up into an older age group, especially the 9/10 age group, they will need some extra encouragement this season. They will benefit from your help to guide them to focus on time improvements and all of the effort and hard work they are putting in. 

For New to Swim Swimmers their progress and what they are learning will take time.  Expect to see visible growth and progress at least 1 month in, typically you will start to see change around the 3rd Swim Meet.

8 & Under Swim Test:There will be a swim test at the end of the first dayof in-the-water practice (once they are all warmed up) and any Swimmers who are not able to swim the length of the pool will be referred to our Swim Team Prep program, which will begin registration in June. *We want to ensure the safety of every Swimmer and with the large size of this age group we need to know that no Swimmer will be in danger is they are not quite ready for practice in a larger group.*

Pool Status, Weather & Action Plan: The pool’s much needed improvements have experienced some delays and it is likely that in-water practices will be delayed. This is no problem for us! We will use our dry land practice plan to build camaraderie, strengthen and condition, practice our sportsmanship and have fun! 

On the note of inclement weather or cold water days: we will notify you all via REMIND text and email. Typically we will have a dry land practice, especially for the younger ones. If there is lightning or intense rain we will cancel practice. We do like to wait until we really have to make the call because, well, weather in VA is quirky like that! 

Volunteer Info:Swim meets are one of the most fun parts of swim team. It takes A LOT of volunteers to make each meet happen so just like most summer swim teams, Woodmont relies on parent volunteers.

Having enough Volunteers means the meets start on time, run on time and run smoothly. Not to mention your Swimmer will be cheering you on, too!

We are thankful to each one of you for your time and for sharing your Swimmers with us this season. 

-Coaches Erica, Abbey & Molly