- Why do the "big kids" swim early and little
kids swim so late? The younger swimmers go to bed a lot earlier and need
to get home.
- What is the difference between long course
and short course USA season?
- When will my child move up to the next level?
- When and where do we pick up our ribbons from
the rec. league meets?
- When and Why do swimmers get stars in the
summer?
- Long Course vs. Rec League? Does long course
refer to my swimmer?
- RKSA or BNSC?
The pool water at Metcalf is too warm for Silver and Gold swimmers. They
swim well over 5,000 yards a practice, which is way too much yardage to swim
in warm temperature. Some of the younger Developmental swimmers say they
'freeze' when they practice at McCormick, so the Metcalf temperature is more
appropriate for them and offers a good transition for swimmers coming from
the Swim America pool. (SA and Metcalf are the only warm water 25-yard
pools).
McCormick is available from 4- 6pm, because ISU offers rec swimming for
their students beginning at 6pm every night. We were fortunate this school
year to rent Metcalf a little earlier a couple days a week. Obviously, we
have to take what is available, and are grateful to ISU to get the pool time
we have!!!
Unit 5 pools aren't ideal since we can't get in there until after 6pm (and
sometimes even later), and the cost to rent Unit 5 is more than double the
cost of renting pool time at ISU. Bronze practices at Normal West on
Thursday evenings, which we feel is a necessary investment to get them more
yardage and space to train, and they can also
practice going off the starting blocks. Unit 5 pools are 8 lanes, which is
great!
The Long Course season starts in the Spring (after Short Course Yards --SCY) and continues until
the beginning of August. Long Course is 'meters' and is referred to as "LCM"
in the time standards. The LCM season also has a championship season (like
SCY), and those meets are posted on the Illinois Swimming website. Long
course meets are swum in a 50 meter pool, which is approximately 55 yards.
Therefore, there are NO 25 yard events, and the shortest events are all 50
meters. Unfortunately, our community does not have a 50meter pool, so those
meets are travel. Facilities who have a 50m pool, typically divide their
pool into 2...25-yard pools during the short course season. RKSA competes in
both Rec League and Long Course meets in the summer, which can be confusing.
However, rec league meets are not certified Illinois Swimming/USA meets.
Training for long course is the most challenging and requires the highest
level of commitment, but is also considered the highest level of swimming.
The first consideration is if the swimmer can achieve the time standards
for that training group. Those standards are posted on the website under the
specific group. For example, one requirement for Bronze, is all strokes must
be 'legal' so if a swimmer cannot be legal in a meet, they need to work that
through before being considered. Age, behavior, and 'times' are also factors
that are taken into consideration for all the training groups. The second
issue is space. Is there space to move up? No one wants 7 swimmers in a
lane, including swimmers who may want to move up. Quality is always an
issue. And thirdly, you or your swimmer must talk directly to the head group
coach. Janell is the head group coach for Developmental and Bronze; Rob for
Silver and Gold. Therefore, all questions/concerns with Developmental and
Bronze, go to Janell, not to Rob!
You pick up your ribbons at the first practice following the meet. The
ribbons will be in your bin. Please do not try and pick them up from the
awards table. Sometimes the people doing awards need to go back and change
things on the ribbons. If you pick them up, then they will not be there for
the awards people to correct. So, please pick them up at practice. Thank
you.
RKSA awards stars (this year red) for best times obtain by Developmental
and Bronze groups after each rec. meet. Based on the time improvement
report, any Developmental and Bronze swimmer who had not swam an event
before and obtained a new time or dropped time from a previous swim had a
best time. If a swimmer was DQ'd or had a No Swim, there is no star award.
On the envelope found in your folder, it will state the meet and number of
stars achieved for each meet. You may sew these stars on the RKSA summer
rec. team shirt or use them in another fun way.
No stars are given for Bloomington Park's meet at O'Neil park, since it is a
25 meter pool.
If anyone in the Silver of Gold group would like stars too, please email
joesalboyce@verizon.net and I will put them in your folders. Also, if you
should find an error, again send an email.
All new swimmers to the team begin in our summer local rec
league which is a program that begins in early June and continues
through the end of July with the Conference Championship. Everyone
participates in rec league, however, some of the more experienced swimmers
also compete in USA swim meets during the summer, and all of those
competitions are held in a 50Meter pool, which we do not have in Blm-Normal. (That
is why Rob has been taking them down to Lincoln, so they can practice in a
50m pool.) Once, fall begins, the 50meter long course season is over, and
we'll resume with the standard USA Short Course season which is all done in
25 yard pools. We hope all of our summer swimmers will continue with the
team and participate in USA swimming competition which begin in the Fall and
continue through March. And, competitions are more like 1/month, unlike rec
league. It takes a huge commitment on our part to offer both
rec league and USA swimming during the summer months, but it is a service we
feel is important.
BNSC stands for Bloomington Normal Swim Club which is the official
name of the not-for-profit organization. (Swim Team and our lessons's
program, Rob Knight's Swim America, are officially two separate
organizations.) Our USA swim team is registered with Illinois Swimming as
Bloomington Normal Swim Club, but our 4-letter required club code is still
RKSA. We are planning on making the club code BNSC when we renew our team
charter in the Fall. Our local rec league team is still called RKSA through this summer! Since the team is not-for-profit, we can
accept State Farm Good Neighbor Grants for volunteers who work 40 hours,
which is really easy in the summer. See Rob if you would like to apply for
a $500 SF Grant. They are very much appreciated, and help keep cost under
control. FYI: The average cost of swim team is about $22/week per
swimmer, which includes a lot of practice time and coaching hours. (It
costs more in gasoline to drive them there!).
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Revised: 07/25/08.
