ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               1-03-11

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

SENIORS ROCK 12 TRAINING TRIP PRACTICES,

INCLUDING 100 X 100 & A PRACTICE WITH SCOTTSDALE AQUATIC!!  

            Fulfilling their annual training rite, 12 Elite Seniors traveled 2300 miles last week to train 12 times in 6 days outdoors in Arizona. While the Seniors just barely escaped the Blizzard of 2010 in NJ, they did experience some weather issues of their own (which they dismissed with dignity and determination).

            Leaving early on December 26 (just before the blizzard hit NJ), the Elite Seniors arrived in sunny and warm (70s) Arizona and got in 5 tough practices on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in perfect training weather. Ironically, as the weather improved in NJ, it got worse in Az. Practices on Wednesday (overcast & wind), Thursday (rain & cold: temps in high 30s) and Friday (cold: temps in high 30s) were extremely challenging for the obvious reasons; however, the Seniors hung tough & continued to train hard thru their practices.

            The Seniors trained twice a day for 2 hours apiece, about 12,000 yards per day (over 7 miles) within 7 hours time. In the morning they trained long course; 3 hours after the conclusion of the 1st practice, they were at it again in a short course pool.  During a standard training week, Elite Seniors train about 32,000 meters.

            Despite being tired and dealing with the unusual weather in Arizona, the Thursday am practice (which was long course) was one of the highlights of the trip. The Seniors trained with host club Scottsdale Aquatic Club (a Level 4 Recognition Club and Silver Level Competition Club) for 2.5 hours, performing their practice. Not only did the Seniors hold their own against the 60+ SAC swimmers, but our swimmers actually moved up within their lanes as the practice progressed and were leading lanes and dominating the practice by the end of practice (Strand lead the fastest lane, Mango, Sebastian and Li were leading the 2nd fastest lane).

             The Seniors followed up that practice with an excellent 100 x 100s SCY practice (appromixately 6 miles of training within 1 practice!!) for their last practice on New Year’s Day. Thankfully, the Seniors had sun and it had warmed up to 50 degrees!.

Despite being very tired, swimmers still managed to “play” after practices. The swimmers attended the Insight Bowl (held at ASU football stadium-walking distance from the hotel) and Tempe’s New Year’s Eve Block Party along with exploring downtown Tempe.           

The coaches and swimmers would like to thank David Strand, Pat Mango and Don Mango, who accompanied the Seniors on the training trip. Mr. Strand helped by driving the swimmers to and from the practices while the Mango’s helped with organizing several nightly activities. The Seniors would also like to thank ESCPO for sponsoring the Block Party Tickets and the pre-party Pizza Dinner on New Year’s Eve.

 

Swimmers participating in the trip were: Matthew Ahlmeyer, Priya Duvvuri, Michael Li, Brent Jones, Alex Mango, Ali Morreale, Maggie Nelson, Ryan Sebastian, Andrea Shepard, Lindsay Stearns, Michael Strand & Ryan Wyer.

 

SMALL GROUP TO TRAVEL TO WASH, DC TO COMPETE IN FEB AT IMX GAMES:  

 

            7 Elite Seniors and Senior Preps will travel to Washington, DC in early February to compete in a meet against top regional competition (Maine thru West Virginia). These swimmers will compete in what is billed as USA Swimming’s Eastern Zone IM Xtreme Challenge Games 2010-11. The swimmers who will be participating are either Elite Seniors or Senior Preps and are 14 years or younger; they are: Juliet Felsen, Jess Gorham, Ryan Sebastian, Andrea Shepard, Sarah Slepian, Lindsay Stearns & Caroline Watt.

 

            USA Swimming is gently prodding clubs to develop swimmers that are versatile and well conditioned. Several years ago, USA Swimming created IMX scores (one can go onto USA Swimming website and find their IMX score) to encourage stroke and distance development. Last year, USA Swimming financially backed regional IMX structured meets for swimmers who are 14 & Under and have IMX scores higher than 1800. This year, USA is again backing a regional IM Xtreme Meet. 13 LCS in the Eastern Zone have been invited to participate.

 

            For three reasons, Elite is taking a small contingent this year (Elite has approximately 25 swimmers who have an IMX score higher than 1800). Reason #1 is that this is the first time Elite is participating in this meet (it is the 2nd year of the meet) and Head Coach Bill wants to understand the meet, the competition level and the complexity of traveling with swimmers 14 years and younger before taking a large group. Reason #2 is that the meet information was just provided in late December; attempting to coordinate a large scale travel trip with virtually no lead time and without prior experience suggests Elite will not be able to coordinate this trip for a large group in its accustomed well run style and Reason #3 is that USA Swimming has just released (again, in late December) its Model Travel Policy (related to Athlete Protection). This policy needs to be either adhered to OR a USA Swimming Club needs to have in place a comparable Club Travel Policy starting January 1, 2011. Elite will establish its own Club Travel Policy (Elite already adheres to many USA Swimming’s Travel Policies) but may not be able to establish this formal Club Travel Policy prior to the team traveling to Wash, DC.    

 

WINTERFEST ENTRIES UPDATED; PRINCETON ENTRIES ARE ALSO POSTED:

 

            Based upon last week’s performances, Elite was able to modify its entries for Winterfest 2011, adding those swimmers and swims achieved at Gator Grid Iron.

 

            Meet information for Princeton Invitational (Elite co-hosts this meet at Princeton University) has been sanctioned. As a result, Elite has posted those entries also. An attempt was made to provide as many different events per swimmer between the two meets (Winterfest-qualifying meet & Princeton-Open Meet) held in January.

 

….JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE NOT TO LOOK AT OUR PRACTICE SCHEDULE: HIGH SCHOOL MEETS TO DISRUPT PRACTICES:

 

            In December, January and thru the middle of February, high school & middle school swim teams conduct practice and meets at the two pools Elite uses. Incredibly, a total of 7 high school and middle school teams use either Newark Academy or Morristown-Beard School during this time in addition to Elite. What these means to us is that Elite’s practices will be disrupted as meets will encroach upon Elite’s practice times.

 

            On days when there are no meets, Elite’s practices will be held at the usual time. However, on those days when a high school or middle school is using one of our pools for a meet, our practices might be shortened at the front end or on the back end. And meets get canceled and rescheduled. So, please continue to check the practice schedule for practice time changes on a daily basis!!

 

PARENTS: PLEASE BE PROMPT IN PICKING UP SWIMMERS:

 

            Parents are requested to be prompt in picking up their swimmers at the end of practice. Recently, especially after the Wave Golds on weekdays and the Wave Teals on Saturday, swimmers have had to wait 30-45 minutes after practice for their ride.

 

            Bill has asked the coaches to remain at practice until the last child has been picked up (for the obvious safety reasons). Coaches are more than willing to do so occasionally. But Elite coaches have other full time jobs and several are attending school in addition to their primary jobs and coaching. It is unfair to ask the coaches to spend an additional 30-40 minutes waiting for parents to pick up their children.

 

            Elite is prompt about ending practice on time. Please help out the coaches by being prompt to pick up your child.

 

JOURNALISM INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE WITH SWIMMING WORLD AT CERA VE INVITATIONAL IN JANUARY:

 

            Recreating the opportunity provided to New Jersey Swimmers last winter, Swimming World and Berkeley Aquatic Club will provide journal internships during the CeraVe Invitational Meet to be held January 14 thru January 16, 2011.

 

            With the overwhelming success of the Summer 2008 Beijing Olympics and what swimming as a sport provided to that success, swimming is becoming more main-stream each year. NBC Sports has increased its coverage of high level swimming, including telecasting the Pan Pacific Games this past summer.

 

            Swimming World, the most widely read swimming magazine, will be providing internships for those people in New Jersey to 1) to interview Olympians and top swimmers at the meet 2) to be  involved in producing content for Swimming World’s magazine and website-both audio and visual and 3) to interact with the Swimming World Staff.

 

            For the past two years, Elite swimmer Sam Duren (now a Senior Prep) took advantage of this opportunity.

 

            Forms for applying for the internship are attached to this memo.     

 

TIMING COORDINATORS ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN RESPONDING TO EMAILS:

 

            Parents of Elite swimmers are asked to add the following four email addresses to your e-mail address book to ensure you receive important information regarding Elite Hosted Meets, Timing Information for all other meets and Parent Association Information.  Adding the e-mail addresses will insure that these important e-mails do not go to your junk/spam folder. 

 

Carolyn Balbo -                     cbalbo@comcast.net

Sanjeeta Mukherjee -        sanjumukhe@gmail.com         

Sue Duren -                            sueduren@aol.com

Antone Balbo -                      abalbo@comcast.net

 

NEXT UP: WINTERFEST; GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be Winterfest (qualifiers only) in early January. Information regarding these meets is posted on the team website at: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Meet%20Schedule/homepage.htm. Please have your swimmer get in the habit of checking this page on a regular basis (and report back to you about details such as warm-up times, entries, meet locations!

 

WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK THE WEBSITE:

 

            If you have questions about Elite, your first source of information is Elite’s website located at eliteswimclub.org.  When in doubt, first check the website!!!