JANUARY 19, 2008

I was recently asked by a Dolfin parent how many practices should a
swimmer attend per week. Since only Group 5 has practice requirements
(and they are very lenient), I guess there is no real yardstick to make
this decision with. The way the team is set up, for instance, is if you
are in Group 3 where 5 practices are usually offered each week, a Group 3
swimmer should come to 5 practices/week. In Group 1&2 where 4 practices
are usually offered each week, a Group 1 or 2 swimmer should attend 4
practices/week. Group 4&5 swimmers should be coming to all 6 practices
each week. Although we don't have practice requirements, until about 2
1/2 years ago we had a good core in each group who attended all the
workouts their group offered. As that core of swimmers have gotten older
and graduated, the number of swimmers taking advantage of our program has
decreased. I think we have two swimmers who attend all 6 workouts each
week and a few more who attend 5/week on a regular basis. Apparently
more swimmers on Dolfins tend to have other activities that occur during
our practices and are content to juggle schedules to include these
activities, or they enjoy attending fewer practices/week than past
members. The coaches would obviously like to see more of your swimmers
each week, but we do the best we can with what we have.

On another note, however, we are a competitive swim team, not swim
lessons, and we are all about practices leading to meets. We have good
but limited resources. Our pool time is pretty good for a team of our
size (123 members) and we have a good size coaching staff, but we do not
have enough of either to have members who never attend meets. I've often
wondered why someone would join a swim team and not go to meets! Meets
are the best part for our younger swimmers! What could be better?! You
get new stuff all the time with suits, sweatshirts, goggles, T-shirts.
Your parents wake you up for the meet but you probably sleep on the way
to the pool. Then they serve you the entire time you are there! They
get you food, drinks, make sure you are enjoying yourself. Adult coaches
give you tons of attention. You get up on a block and hundreds of people
are watching you perform! You get ribbons and medals and everyone tells
you what a great job you did! At practice, coaches yell at you to get
your rear-end in the pool then make you swim lap after lap after lap
after lap....! Go figure!