Thought for the Week

Inspiration can come from all different places and I rescently had some via a You Tube video. RICE recently bought an underwater camera, part of the companies promotional department sends out weekly videos using their products. This weeks was a couple that is base jumpers. In the video the man said "The key to happiness is having dreams and the key to success is fulfilling those dreams." I think with swimming Dreams/Goals are what drives us. These dreams are often not spoken but internalized within the athlete. By doing so there is no risk of let down or disappointment because they are never spoken or written. Go ahead and write down your 5 biggest goals in swimming. "Swimming in the Olympics" should not be the default make them more attainable and personal. Then take these dreams and go out there and do what it takes to make them happen.

USA Swim Meets Handout

Parents - Please follow this link for the PDF version of the handouts from our rescent parent meeting. If this is your first USA swim meet please read through the PDF prior to the meet. We will have many veteran parents at the meet to help if needed. If you are unable to open this link/pdf we will have physical handouts available in the expandable in the lounge area.

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Signing Up for Swim Meets

Parents and Swimmers - I wanted to send out a quick email regarding signing your swimmers up for swim meets. Prior to getting into the details a quick reminder that we will have a "New to USA Swim Meets" Parent Meeting on Wednesday, September 28th from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. This is a must attend for any parents with swimmers new to USA swimming. We have this meeting once a year so even if your swimmer wont be attending the first meet you will want to attend for future meets.

Many of you may have already received emails regarding the upcoming meets that have been posted on our website. As we get info on the meets and add them to our site an automatic email goes out by group for the meet. Because it is sent by group and not age you may recieve an email for a meet that your swimmer can not attend. Please disregard emails that do not apply to your swimmers age or current time standards. In this email there will be basic info for the meet. Start and Finish Date, Registration Deadline, Click able link to "attend this event", the event link for more information and a basic description of the meet.

To begin comtting your swimmer to this event click on the "attend this event" link. This will brring you to the event sign up page. You should see your swimmers name listed on this page. By click their name a new page appears with a drop down box and a comment box. You can eitehr select "Yes, please sign up ____ for this event" or "No, please do not sign ______ up for this event". Select which applies to your swimmer. It does make the registratoin process easier for the coaching staff if you select to "do not commit" instead of not selecting an option. You can also leave a comment in the comment box such as " we can swim on Saturday an Sunday" or "we can swim on Saturday but have to leave no later than 2:00 pm". Any additional information you leave will help the coaching staff when choosing entries. If you log in and commit your swimmer with a good lead time to the event it will allow the coaching staff to discuss entries with your swimmer. When no information is left the coaching staff will assume your child is swimming in every session of the meet.

Once you select to "commit them to the event" a new page will appear with event options for the meet. (If the meet file is not yet available this option will not appear.)  You can then select events from the ones available. These are used as suggestions from the swimmers when the coaches begin the entry process. The coaching staff will have select the events that your swimmer will swim in the meet. These may or may not be the ones suggested through the sign up process. If your swimmers events have been accepeted they will have a check mark next to them. If they have been rejected there will be a stop sign next to them. Any event with out a check mark should be viewed as not yet approved. 

More information will be covered in a litte more detail at the parent meeting as well as the actualy pre meet, day of and post meet process. 

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Practice Changes for the week of 9/12/2011:

Friday 16th: The Recreation Center will have an early closure due to staff meetings.

Group 1 Navy: No Practice

Group 1 White: Regular Practice

Group 2: No Practice

Group 3: Regular Practice

Group 4 Navy and Senior 1: No Practice

Group 4 White and Senior 2: 4:45 - 6:00 pm.

Masters: No Practice. Masters Social at Ragin Cajun. Check your email and the facebook page. 

Masters Social

Rice Masters swimmers will gather Friday, September 16 after evening workout at “The Original” Ragin’ Cajun, 4302 Richmond (inside the loop, just west of the railroad tracks) for a bite to eat and some conversation.

Mark your calendar, and plan to be there!

Thanks!

Al

Group 2 Parent Meeting

Parents - We will have our Group 2 Parent Meeting on Tuesday September 6th from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Each swimmer should have a parent representative at the meeting. The meeting will be held in the "wet classroom" (where the registration papers were turned in during evaluations) at the pool. Hand outs will be available at the meeting. Please make every attempt to attend.  See you at the pool, Jason Wedlick RICE Aquatics Head Coach www.riceaquatics.com http://rice-aquatics.blogspot.com

Group 1 Parent Meeting

Parents - We will have our Group 1 Parent Meeting on Thursday September 8th from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Each swimmer should have a parent representative at the meeting. The meeting will be held in the "wet classroom" (where the registration papers were turned in during evaluations) at the pool. Hand outs will be available at the meeting. Please make every attempt to attend.  See you at the pool, Jason Wedlick RICE Aquatics Head Coach www.riceaquatics.com http://rice-aquatics.blogspot.com