NOVA
SYNCHRONIZED SWIM CLUB NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER
2004
Just
a Reminder…
Their will be NO practice Saturday, December 18. Practice
will resume after Christmas holidays on
Monday,
January 3, 2005
for Tiers 4-6 at 5:00pm - 8:00pm and on
Tuesday,
January 4, 2005
for Tiers 1-3,
6:30pm – 9:00pm
or
9:30pm
for those extra routines.
If you have any questions, please contact your coach.
Thank you.
Dates
to remember
Feb. 4-6 (all tiers) Northern Trials (
Edmonton
)
March 4-6 (tier 6) Provincials (
Edmonton
)
Mar
31 – Apr 3 (tier 6) Westerns (
Kamloops
)
April 22-24 (tier 1 – 5) Wildrose Classic (
Calgary
)
NOVA
EXECUTIVE MEETING
- January 11/05
NOVA
GENERAL MEETING
- January 18/05
All families will be contacted in the new year with the times
and locations of these meetings.
I
would like to take this opportunity, to thank the many people that
have spent time volunteering for Nova in the last couple of months.
Please keep in mind that Nova Synchro is a club run by its swim
families, and there is always an ongoing need for volunteers.
Best
wishes for a wonderful and safe Holiday Season.
Sharon
Thurston
President,
Nova Synchro Club
Head
Coach Report
Time flies when you’re having fun, as the saying goes and
things continue to progress quite nicely at the pool. We are already
into December, with the competition season quickly approaching.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the
families for their understanding during this first part of the
season with the various aspects of ‘tier testing’ that we have
conducted.
Alberta
is one of the first provinces in the country to adopt a ‘tier
test’ approach rather than the nationally adopted ‘STAR tests’
that have been done in past years. This allows for more streamlined
testing and requires the athletes and coaches to train fewer skills,
thereby allowing them to in essence ‘master’ each skill before
testing. Everyone involved has shown much dedication and
perseverance in this process and I’d like to thank the swimmers,
parents and coaches for their patience. We have successfully passed
everyone in their appropriate tier level and are looking forward to
what the season holds.
The Club hosted a Halloween party on October 28th,
involving all swimmers in the Club. The athletes participated in
relays that included face painting and the creation of “garbage
bag costumes”. Team spirit was plentiful and all that participated
enjoyed the break from the usual training schedule.
NOVA’s annual Swim-a-thon took place on November 2nd
& 4th. Overall the showing was strong with some
swimmers completing over 250 laps. A big thank you to all parents
who helped out by counting laps – we couldn’t do it without you.
We also held our first in-club meet of the season on November
18th. This competition was be a figure “transition”
meet, meaning the swimmers performed parts NOT whole figures for a
panel of judges. This meet always serves as a good opportunity for
coaches and athletes to receive feedback from judges early in the
season. In addition, it serves as “practice” for the
competitions that take place early in 2005.
The Christmas Watershow will be held on December 16th
from 7:30-9:00 PM. Swimmers will be required to be at the pool by
6:30 PM (normal time). Coaches will conduct a wrap-up team meeting
after the Watershow is complete. For all 3x and 4x/week swimmers,
the first practice back after the holidays is Monday, January 3rd
(at GMCC from 5-8 pm) and for the 2x/week swimmers, it is Tuesday,
January 4th (at U of A from 6:30-9 pm – normal time).
A note to all families regarding Spring Break:
Due
to the close proximity of Spring Break with some of the most
important competitions of the season, the coaches have instituted
the following training schedule to provide families with some time
off during Spring Break while attempting to leave adequate training
time to prepare for these important competitions. Families are STRONGLY
encouraged to adjust vacations/time away according to this schedule
so that the teams can prepare to compete. Since synchro is primarily
a team sport, ANY missing team member hinders the team’s ability
to prepare and ultimately perform at peak at the competitions that
happen a mere 2 weeks from Spring Break. I cannot stress enough that
each athlete’s attendance at the scheduled practices is ESSENTIAL
to the success of the team at this crucial competition time. If your
family has planned time away during this time that cannot be
changed please contact your daughter’s coach ASAP to advise
her so that she can make arrangements for those practices. Training
times for Spring Break are posted on the club website: www.novasynchroclub.org
under the ‘Year at a Glance’ calendar. Should you have any
questions, please feel free to contact your team coach.
A note to parents: I will be away from December 31-January 31
inclusive. In my absence, Cheryl Malachowski will be Acting Head
Coach. Should you have questions or concerns that cannot be
addressed by your daughter’s coach, please contact Cheryl at
cherylmalachowski@hotmail.com.
Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable Christmas break! See you
in February!
Kari Donahue
Caitlin’s
Newsletter Update:
Hello
Everyone!
I would like to take this time to congratulate the Tier 3
team on doing such an excellent job these past few months with their
test testing, learning new figures and team choreography.
This year the Tier 3 team is swimming to a compilation of
music from the musical ‘Stomp’ and various other African beats.
The music is very upbeat and fun to choreograph. Everyone seems very
excited about this year’s routine and have been so patient with
the many timing and choreography changes. The Tier 3’s have also
been completing monthly time trials and have been pushing themselves
every month to beat their times. Good Job!
Remember
to keep stretching and land-drilling over the Christmas holidayJ
Have
a great ‘Synchro’ break and I will see you in January.
Caitlin
McElhone
Tier
1"G" Team
I
continue to enjoy my coaching of this group of young athletes.
They are learning that each practice is an important piece of
building a great competitive season and future synchro plans.
They are beginning to understand the importance of listening to
coaching instructions and when it is acceptable to have a little
creative time. Keep focused girls, try your very best and give
yourself credit for small improvements that happen at each practice.
Our
music theme this year is "weather." We are making
steady progress at choreographing the routine and we look forward to
performing a section of it at the Christmas Watershow.
The
next major focus of our training is to improve our flexibility and
core body strength. This month splits and time trials will be
done. Extra practice on splits at home would be of great
benefit, particularly over the Christmas break.
I
would appreciate if you would let me know when your daughter will be
missing a practice. This will help me to plan effectively.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Keep
up the good work Alison, Ariell, Heather,
Kimberley
, Olivia and Sari.
Keep
synching,
Gail
McKnight
Hi
Everyone,
So December is finally upon us and synchro is getting busier by the
minute. Routines need to be choreographed, counts learned,
land drill done and still have some time for fun! I would just
like to take this time to acknowledge my teams hard work. It
took us a while to understand each other, but I think we are getting
there. Our team is doing an awesome job picking up on my
hectic teaching of the routine, thank you girls. They have
been working hard and you'll get to see all their hard work at the
watershow. I would just like to wish everyone a Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year. May your breaks be wonderful and
may you all come back to practice in January full of chocolate and
lots of land drill!!! See you all at the Watershow and then in
January.
SMILE :)
Amanda
Hello
All,
I
would like to update the tier 2 "L" Team progress since
September. A big accomplishment was achieved by some of my swimmers
this past Sunday by officially completing their tier 2 testing
requirements. Congratulations girls on all your hard work and
remaining positive throughout that whole process. Speaking about
hard work, we have ploughed through choreography of our
"Beach" Themed routine and are almost done, yeah! I
would like to thank the girls for being focused and being
enthusiastic in practice, without that I do not know if we would
have progressed so quickly. This is a lively and quick routine that
always keeps the girls on their toes, therefore it is really
important that they count and stay on time with the music.
In
terms of training, we have been focusing on body awareness in
all positions by getting the girls to really pay attention to the
smaller details that can make a big difference, and just recently
have incorporated sculling to improve the girls stability and height
in figures. I have seen a large improvement in these two areas
(body awareness and sculling) in the past 2-3 weeks, and eager to
see further improvement. Keep the great work up team!!
Laura
Mumme (Coach)
Nova
Tier 6 Open Team
Wow!
It is hard to believe that 2005 is nearly upon us! The season thus
far has been a whirlwind of endurance and technical preparation for
Tier testing of which all of the girls, by the way, passed with
flying colours! Now onto prepping for the City of
Edmonton Kirsten Normand
meet being held on Saturday, December 11, 2004, at the Kinsmen
Sports Centre. This is the first time since the induction of the new
Tier system that the Tier 6 team has had to train figures as well as
routine. The girls have taken on the challenge and have been working
adamantly on the synchro basics of core stability, position accuracy
and sculling technique. Judges comments from the November transition
meet emphasized the need to also focus on knee and foot extension,
along with not taking “rest” periods in the middle of a figure.
Kari and I are also pleased to announce that our “Spy” team
choreography is now complete. We all look forward to it being
performed in its entirety at the annual Christmas Watershow.
Starting January 3rd, let the changes, and 4 week
countdown to Northern Trials begin!
Just as a reminder to all parents and swimmers that Kari will
be away traveling for the entire month of January. Any concerns must
be directed to Cheryl by home phone, cell phone or e-mail.
Wishing everyone a relaxing and Merry Christmas filled with fun,
family and friends!
Cheryl
and Kari
