Welcome to the Nova Synchronized Swim Club!

This handbook is designed to help parents and their children have a successful year by providing information, guidelines, and club policies.

The items presented in this handbook apply to all levels of swimmers unless otherwise specified. Please note that information in this handbook is subject to change: if there are any discrepancies between executive motions or coaches' decisions and what is stated in the handbook, the most recent executive motion will take precedence.

www.novasynchro.org

Please refer to the Nova Synchro website for further information of interest to parent and swimmer alike. The site is a valuable resource. It includes the club newsletter; the year's calendar of practices and competitions; news about upcoming activities and events; photos; a list of the current Executive members and their contact information; links to Synchro Alberta and Synchro Canada; and even step-by-step instructions for gelling hair.

Contents

1. Nova Synchro Club

1.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. The sport of synchronized swimming

2.1 What is synchronized swimming? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.2 Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.3 Routines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.4 Team selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.5 Extra routines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.6 Required equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.7 Synchro competitive structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.8 Synchro Alberta tier-testing qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3. Training

3.1 Land drill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.2 Dry-land training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.3 Stretching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.4 Swimming drills and time trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.5 Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4. Swimmer obligations

4.1 Code of conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.2 Attendance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.2.1 Vacations and extended absences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.3 Disciplinary policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.3.1 Disciplinary procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.3.2 Appeal procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

5. Nova Synchro Club coaching staff

5.1 Role of the Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5.2 Obligations of the Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.3. Role of the Head Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.4. Role of the Club Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

6. Competitions

6.1 In-town meets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

6.2 Out-of-town meets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

6.3 Parent responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6.4 Swimmer responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6.5 Coach responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6.6 Head Chaperone responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

6.7 Chaperone responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

7. Nova Synchro Club organization

7.1 Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

7.2 Roles of the Executive members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

7.3 Registration and costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

7.4 Club financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7.4.1 Annual fee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7.4.2 Withdrawals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7.4.3 Swim-a-thon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7.4.4 Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

7.5 Nova Synchro Club participation points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

7.6 Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

APPENDIXES