Welcome!

Welcome to my Blog!

My New Year's resolution is to do a better job of communicating with our Swim School parents.

I have a passion for teaching people to swim and for the sport of competitive swimming. I get to share this passion with your children, but rarely have the opportunity to spend time talking with parents before or after practices.

I hope to use use this blog to present the information I share with the swimmers at practice and to answer questions from parents.

There are no practices this week. Happy Holidays! We start back on January 7. Click for the Winter Schedule: www.btaquatics.org/winter2008.htm.

PLEBES & PIRATES: We teach Face-Up First. Aquatic balance is the key to efficient swimming. Swimmers must be able to attain a relaxed, floating position with the head in-line with the spine and the torso horizontal to the surface of the water. Having the face out of the water is the key to survival. It is our philosophy to not move on to other swimming skills until this basic skill of balance has been mastered. Elementary backstroke arms ("Little Bird, Big Bird, Fly") do not interfer with development of face-up aquatic balance. However, leg movement does interfer. We do not add leg movements to the stroke until balance has been achieved. When we do add kicking movements to the stroke the movements will then be propulsive in nature and not just used to keep the body afloat. It is important to be patient and master aquatic balance before moving on to strokes.

VOYAGERS: The B-T Aquatics Ten Training Habits are the foundation of the Voyager program. The Ten Training Habits are posted on posters on the west wall of the pool for all to see and are listed below. Practice make habit. We want our swimmers to develop good training habits from the very first practice.

1. Support Your Teammates
2. Positive Personal Attitude
3. Effort
4. Listening
5. Be on tTme
6. Be Informed
7. Streamlines
8. Turns
9. Finishes
10. Wall to Wall

WE SWIM FOR GOOD TIMES! Our motto states that good times are important to us - both fast times on the clock when we compete and fun times every time we get in the pool.

IMPORTANT DATES: January 7 - Winter Session resumes, January 11 - Entry Deadline for Super-Swimmer Splash, January 14 - Super Swimmer Splash Meet at 4 PM See the website for more information: http://www.btaquatics.org/ Scroll down to the bottom of the page for a new feature showing more event information.

Hope this helps! Check back on January 7 for the next post.

2008 is going to be a great year filled with GOOD TIMES!

Coach Jeanie Neal