2007-2008 Practice Schedule

Practices Beginning September 12, 2007

Super Swimmers

Level 1 5:30-6:15 PM, T & Th
Level 2 5:30-7:00 PM M-Th (pick 2 days)

AGD, Seniors, HS Prep

5:30 – 7:00 PM, M-T-W-Th
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Sat.

Masters

6:00 – 7:00 AM, T & Th
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Sat.
Optional evenings

2007-08 UCSC Indoor Season Details

Indoor season starts with registration
on Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Come between 6:00 and 7:00 PM to the circle drive in front of the Natatorium (7420 Shaftesbury) to receive a registration and information packet, meet coaches and current swimmers, ask questions, and be measured for optional team swim suits if desired.

Practice starts Wednesday, Sept. 12

Practice schedule

Super Swimmers
Level 1 5:30-6:15 PM, T & Th
Level 2 5:30-7:00 PM M-Th (pick 2 days)

AGD, Seniors, HS Prep
5:30 – 7:00 PM, M-T-W-Th
9 – 10:30 AM, Sat.

Masters
6:00 – 7:00 AM, T + Th
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Sat.
Optional evenings

The UCSC Board wants to take this opportunity to welcome all new and returning swimmers for the coming season.

This year we will again be utilizing this website as our source of communication. Please sign up for email updates using the "Subscribe" window at right (scroll down). This will send you an email whenever this site is updated.

Information regarding practice changes, upcoming meets, practice calendars, meet results etc. will be updated in the website.

We will still send out information via email when necessary. We will try to keep emails to a minimum, but it is important we have a current email address to let you know about certain things.

If you experience any problems with the website (actually a blog masquerading as a website), or have any suggestions for it, please contact:

George Lenard @ george1314@charter.net or gll@hdfh.com

Important Swimming Story in Wall Street Journal

I thought many of you would be interested in this.

Perhaps even a team outing to see the movie together?

The following is a partial quote from the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, March 20, 2007:

Minorities and the Swimming Gap

Perhaps no institution in America is less racially diverse than the swimming pool.

The result: Black children drown at rates far above average.

The problem has drawn little attention because drownings kill a fraction of the number of African-American children who die in, say automotive accidents, and because black parents haven't much protested against the dearth of pools and swim instruction in the inner city.

In part this is because of higher priorities such as improving schools and reducing crime.Yet it also reflects the lingering effect of spurious research -- some of it published in academic journals as recently as the 1960s -- describing blacks is inherently less buoyant and disadvantaged in water.

Little wonder that black parents in disproportionate numbers of never learned to swim, have harbored a fear of water and have cautioned their children to stay away from it, according to many who studied the problem. . .

Now, a coalition of local and national health officials and some groups are creating programs to teach inner-city children how to swim, focusing particularly on minorities. . .

The same parents who make sure their children can read, write and play basketball need to make sure their children can swim.This is a life-saving skill.

These efforts are expected to get a boost from the release this week of a movie featuring a long-ignored hero in American storytelling -- the black swimmer.

Called "Pride," the movie is based on the true story of a Philadelphia parks-and-recreation coach who salvaged an abandoned pool and turned and inner-city group of blacks into athletic stars. Leaving their dingy pool for meets in fancy suburbs, the young black swimmers encounter looks of disbelief from their all-white competitors.

But the results make clear that nothing inherent is keeping blacks from achieving success in the pool.

Public-health officials hope the publicity about African-American success in the pool will put misperceptions to rest and help narrow a swimming-proficiency gap that helps explain why black children between ages 10 and 14 drown at 4.5 times the rate for white children.

Swimming ability is such a vital survival skill that some health officials believe it should be a school requirement.

• Check out info on the Pride movie, including a link to the trailer.

• USA Swimming has a new program to address the problem. It includes "Sponsor a Swim Lesson":"Through retail partnerships and individual donations, the USA Swimming Foundation will provide free swimming lessons to children who can’t afford them in ethnically and economically diverse areas. The first program will launch in March with a soon-to-be-announced retail partnership."

• UCSC alum Emily Lenard will be Swim Lesson Coordinator at Heman Park this summer, and UCSC alum Jesse Winters has offered to help out with UCSC. There may be some opportunity to work with them on participating in "Sponsor a Swim Lesson". It could be a good recruiting opportunity, as well as just plain a good thing.

E-mail subscription

This year I changed our e-mail subscription service to what I hope is a more reliable one, Feedblitz.

If you sign up at right under "subscribe," you will receive an e-mail each time new material is added to this site.

Although we are communicating a lot through regular e-mail, the subscription will ensure that you are alerted to special items such as the meet photos I posted yesterday.

Missed last night's parent meeting? Here's the lowdown.

About 10 of us met at the Nat last night and kicked around a number of issues for quite some time.

The following are our recommendations. If you have any disagreements, questions, or comments, please use the comment function at the end of this post or e-mail us at universitycityswimclub.com.

Practice schedule:

Eliminate Saturday practices for kids. This is the most popular practice for Masters, whereas it is not well attended by the kids. Eliminating it will allow the Masters to spread out over more lanes, while also allowing Jon to focus fully on the Masters swimmers.

Older non-Masters swimmers who are able to keep pace with Masters and do the same workouts as Masters will still be welcome.

Eliminate Friday practices. Friday night, for obvious reasons, is the least well attended of our practices. Currently, attendance is usually only a couple of summers.

We will maintain this time slot availability for possible special events as announced, such as intra-team meets, family swim, pizza parties, etc.

Practice times.

• All kids will start practice at 5:30pm.

• The more advanced swimmers will practice for an hour and a half, ending at 7:00.

• SuperSwimmers will end at 6:30.

• The beginning swimmer class will be Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:15.

Coaching staff supplementation:

To avoid having to cancel practice due to coach absences, we will explore the possible availability of several individuals as on-call substitute coaches. We will also talk to them about taking over the Tuesday 5:30-6:15 beginning-swimmers class.

Finalizing the fee structure:

Beginner class. This class on Tuesdays will be 45 min/week at a cost of $30/month. This comes to $7.50/45 min, which is comparable to Clayton Center group lessons, and cheaper than one-on-one private lessons.

At this rate, enrollment of two kids will cover our coaching cost for this class; four or more kids will make a positive contribution to team finances.

The suggested maximum age for this class is 6, subject to coach's discretion.

Other age groups. No change to present fees.

• Super Swimmers pay $50/month and practice twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday).

• Age Group Development (AGD) pay $75/month and practice 3-4/wk.

Timing of promotion to AGD is subject to coach's judgment, normally around age 9, or for older beginners, at least within a year of starting with UCSC.

Other arrangements may be considered in the future.

Meet registration:

We continue to have some difficulty competing with large clubs in getting registered for meets, most recently getting shut out again by our Clayton neighbors at CSP.

We will make clear to the CSP-Swim-Your-Own-Age organizers and Ozark Swimming that this is a big deal, and hope for some "political" flexibility.

However, we can improve our registration chances by:

• Notifying UCSC early of participation preferences

• Responding quickly (even no-thanks) to email questions on participating in a particular meet, so we can finalize our applications as early as possible.

Action as a board:

The above recommendations were adopted at an informal meeting with no representation of Masters swimmers. That is why at this time they remain recommendations only, and why we seek additional input.

We intend to schedule a board meeting on these and other issues after putting together some budget figures. Please volunteer for the board. Masters swimmers are particularly needed -- your interests should be represented on the board.