Good Evening Aqua Amigos,

We head into our first true week of summer swim as we head to our normal practice schedule and have our first meet. There is plenty to get to so I will keep the preamble brief for this week. So see below for info on practice schedules, meet sign ups, team gear, and much more!

Practice Schedule

We move to our full summer schedule starting Monday and carrying through the end of the season. While we give ages below to help make it easier to know what practice to be at, we do base practice groups on skill level. So it is possible that we ask your swimmer to come to a different practice than they would slot into based on age below. Here is the schedule we will hold now going forward:

Monday-Thursday:

8:30-10:00AM - 13&0 + 11-12 year round swimmers

10:00-11:00AM - 9-12 year old + 8&U swimmers legal in all four strokes

11:00-11:45AM - 8&U Swimmers

Fridays*:

8:45-10:00AM - Fun practice for all swim team members

Mondays and Wednesdays:

4:00-5:00PM - Makeup practice for swimmers of all ages

*There will be no practice this Friday, June 19th for the Juneteenth Holiday

Inclement Weather

To keep things in the practice realm, we had a couple of stormy days this week and seems like a good time to give you all our normal process for weather.

As a general rule we will hold practice if the pool is open. Did you know you can see what the status of the pool is on the ANCC app? It’s true. On the home screen of the ANCC app there is a tile for ‘Perry Weather’. Clicking on that will allow you to see if either Arlington or Fairfax pools are closed for weather and how long until the all clear (barring more lightning).

We will always email out via Swimtopia any changes or cancellations to the practice schedule. There is no need to email the coaches or Wendy to ask if practice is on. If you have not heard anything from us, then you can assume there will be practice until you hear otherwise. Practices are not mandatory, so we trust you to use your best judgement if you are worried about driving all the way to Army Navy just to have the pools close.

Our First Meet!

Blue & Gold Time Trials – Thurs, June 18th – 5:00PM Warm Up – 5:30PM Start

Your swimmer must be marked as ‘Available’ for the meet by 6PM Tuesday or they will not be entered into the meet.

We have our first meet on Thursday. This is an intrasquad meet that we use as our time trials. Swimmers should compete in every event that they are capable of swimming (not just the ones they want to). That way the coaches have the best set of information for making lineups throughout the season.

For those attending their first Army Navy meet, here are a few things to make note of:

• Make sure your swimmer has a water bottle and a towel. There will be no towel service during swim meets.
• Swimmers should remain on deck in the team area throughout the meet. Spectators will remain up on the Dive Inn deck and Sun deck. If you would like to watch the meet from the deck the only way to do that is to pick a volunteer position.
• Please make sure your swimmer lets a coach know if they are going to leave deck. It will not be as important this Thursday, but in our dual meets it is imperative that we know where the swimmers are.
• Heat sheets with heats and lanes for all events will be posted in multiple places in the spectator area so you will always know where to find your swimmer.

The meet will be accompanied by a buffet and the Dive Inn will remain open until 7PM. After the meet please plan to stick around and hang out with all your new and old friends. We will play some music and keep the pool open until 9PM for swim team members. Swimmers may bring an innertube (no rafts please!) for the pool party.

Team Gear

For those that have not grabbed their t-shirt and cap included in this season’s registration yet, we have a few more chances this week to pick them up. There will be a table set up at the entrance of the pool house (not at the check-in desk) on both Monday and Tuesday. We will be set up from 9:30-11:00AM Monday and Tuesday. Please make sure to stop by and grab your gear.

Swimming on TV

If your little swim nerd would like to watch some of the world’s best this week the Indianapolis stop of the TYR Pro Swim Series. So if your kid does not want to wait until LA2028 to see the likes of Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressell, Ryan Murphy, Torri Huske, Gretchen Walsh, Bobby Finke, etc… you can tune in to either USA Swimming Network (an app you can download, not an actual channel anyone has) or abbreviated highlights of finals will appear on Peacock live each night. The meet runs June 17-20. Finals will start at 6PM each night.

Looking Ahead

We have two dual meets next week against Washington Golf on Tuesday and Congressional on Thursday. The deadline to get entries in for Washington Golf will be Sunday night and the deadline for Congressional entries will be Tuesday night. You can go ahead and mark your swimmers' availability now so you don’t forget.

That’s all for this week.

From the Deck,

Coach Ian