USA Swimming (RICE) and Summer League

It is that time of year when we have shaken off another winter and begun to enjoy the spring weather. With April and May right around the corner many questions have popped up about club swimming with RICE and local Summer Leagues. The following is Rice Aquatics (RICE) views and ideas on both club swimming and Summer League swimming in regards to your swimmers.

Please make sure to check the rules of your Summer League about involvement with a USA Swim Club. Most of the teams in our area allow swimmers to be involved with a USA swim club while also swimming with their summer league. While the coaching staff is familiar with many of the local teams we do not know the rules and by-laws pertaining to every local swim team.

Rice Aquatics would first like to recognize the importance of the local summer swim leagues and their involvement with the development within the sport of swimming. Any swimmer who wishes to swim on both RICE and their summer league team has the support of the coaching staff. It is important that during the Summer League season each swimmer maintain their normal practice attendance with RICE, while supplementing their off days with summer league practices. This will help ensure they are still getting the same amount of work and development needed with RICE and get the enjoyment of swimming with their summer team. The month of May is usually the most hectic time with both practices being conducted after school. 

Summer leagues are an important source of new swimmers to RICE. RICE swimmers who participate in local leagues can provide motivation for others to join the club while also being piers to others on their team. It also help RICE swimmers achieve some success among another set of piers within swimming. The number of meets alone provides many opportunities for positive feedback to the individual swimmer within a short period of time. Because of these qualities and many others, summer leagues can be very beneficial to younger swimmers when paired with club swimming. As the swimmer matures and achieves greater successes in their year round swimming we do encourage them to swim at the highest level possible, that being USA Swimming club practice and meets. For most swimmers this transition is inevitable at some point in their development. If you or your swimmer has a question concerning these topics the coaching staff is always open to sitting down and going over each individual situation. If a swimmer is not able to swim both RICE and their summer league we do encourage all swimmers to continue with RICE. This will help ensure they are getting the best opportunity for development within the sport of swimming.

Group 1 and 2 have the greatest mix of swimmers who actively participate in summer league swim teams. Please consult coach May, Paul M, and Jason in regards to your swimmers progress, summer intentions and scheduling questions. Swimmers in Group 3 are strongly encouraged to consult the coach Kyle and Jason when making decision about summer league swimming. Swimmers in Group 4 White and Senior 2 should be focusing on year round USA swimming and USA swim meets through out the year.

In closing club swimming is a year round process, many skills and traits we work in and out of the water get reinforced and built upon each practice, week, month and year. Their have been many studies done specific to swimming in regards of swimming club through both Long-course and Short-course compared to starting and stopping off in on in a year. These studies show that endurance and speed decline within 2 weeks of not training and skill traits diminish within a month. More importantly it also shows that once these swimmers do return to the sport the time it takes to re-learn old skills and develop new skills is significantly longer than the swimmer who has swam through the season.

Coach Jason

RICE Aquatics

www.riceaquatics.com

www.rice-aquatics.blogspot.com

Practice Change for 3.11.2011

Parents - We will be combining all Group 1's next Friday for a group bonding practice. We will go over stroke progressions, drills, kick sets and have some fun and games for the kids. Coach May will be running the group with Coach Paul C. assisting.
See you at the pool,
Coach Jason

Practice Week of 3.14.2011

Parents and Swimmers - We will be using the following schedule during the week of 3.14.2011. 

Group 1 - All combined 4:45 - 5:30 pm. Monday - Friday. On Monday and Wednesday practice may go just a few minutes past 5:30 as we will incorporate games and relays into the schedule. (Coach May and Coach Paul C.

Group 2 - Monday,Tuesday and Friday- Combined with Group 1 4:45 - 5:30, Wednesday and Thursday 4:45 - 5:45 pm. (Coach Paul C. and Coach Paul M.)

Group 3 and Up - Monday - Friday 4:30 - 6:00 pm. (Coach Paul C on Monday, Coach Kyle Tuesday - Friday)

While we have many swimmers attending different schools this is the most universal spring break and a natural swim break with SCY (25 yards) meets completed with TAGS and a move towards LCM (50 Meters) beginning in April. We will begin in full force starting with the week of 3.21.201. Swimmers in Groups 3 and up that are in town should make every effort to attend practice the week of the 14th. All swimmers should arrive in shoes just in case we do some out of water activities before or after practice. 

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Courtesy of RICE.edu


HOUSTON -- The Rice swim team won its first league title Saturday night, taking the 2011 Conference USA crown after more than three days of rugged competition held across town at the University of Houston Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.

The Owls built just a narrow five-point lead in the team standings after the final event held Friday. On Saturday the Blue & Gray extended the lead and swam-away with the C-USA Championship. Rice finished with with a total of 702 team points. East Carolina was second with 676.5 points while SMU was third (658 pts.) Meet host Houston was fourth (522 pts.) while Tulane was fifth (313.5) and Marshall was sixth (279).

For Rice head coach Seth Huston, the 2011 C-USA coach of the year in for the second-straight season, the roller-coaster season was a matter of getting everyone on the team on the same page. That is even more critical when the team is a swim team, and does not have any competitors in springboard or platform diving. Rice won the league crown without competing in the three diving events.

"Over the years, I kept thinking how can we ever make it happen?" Huston said. "This year all the pieces were kind of coming together. Even though it didn't really seem like it from someone on the outside, I felt like we were doing a lot of things right. Finally, the last pieces came together the last couple of weeks. We put it all together at the right time, the conference meet."

"Most anybody will tell you without diving you're not going to win, that's just the way it is," Huston said. "That's always kind of fun to try and prove them wrong. This was just a complete team effort. I am really proud of the team. They earned it."

The Rice distance swimmers set the tone early on Saturday. The Owls landed three of the top four spots and six in the top ten to pile-up some needed breathing room in the team standings. Freshman Quincy Christian finished second with season-best 16:45.58 that is the fifth-fastest mile in school history. Danielle Spence was third (16:45.58) and Alex O'Brien was fourth (16:53.30). 

Team depth and getting into the championship finals proved to be the key. Rice grouped three in the finals of the 200-backstroke. Senior Kait Chura was fourth (2:00.34), Michelle Gean was sixth and Stephanie Wei was seventh (2:02.45).

Chelsea Fong (51.03) and Kim Steinhouse (51.46) were seventh and eighth, respectively in the 100-freestyle with a pair of solid swims. O'Brien came up big with a third in the 200-backstroke (2:17.69) and Ashten Ackerman (2:22.31) and Kylee Talwar (2:20.59) were eighth and tenth.

Senior Erin Mattson was third (2:01.87) and junior Shelby Bottoms were fourth (2:02.58) in the 200-butterfly. Ackerman chipped-in a top ten in the race and the Owls were in business heading into the final relay, the 4x100-freestyle.

At this stage Rice almost had the meet mathematically locked-up. The Owls only needed to finish the race and not get disqualified with a false start or leaving the blocks too soon. Rice just needed to finish the race and no other team in the field would be able to catch team in the final standings.

The relay foursome of Kim Steinhouse, Michelle Gean Shelby Bottoms andChelsea Fong could have played it embarrassingly safe and even second place team (East Carolina) would not have been able to move ahead. To prove they had earned it, however, the Owls finished second in the race with a season-best 3:24.36 that provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Rice locked-up its first swimming title and after collecting the championship trophy gave coach Huston a celebratory shove into the Natatorium's deep end near the diving platform's 10-meter tower. Then assistant coach Jada Hallmark was in the water, and one-by-one the champions followed their coaches in for one last victory dip. The team then did the school's familiar "Stand & Cheer" cheer. A contingent of happy Rice fans in the stands joined-in.

One conclusion was certain as the Owls began jumping into the pool's deep end Saturday night. Rice had the divers to win a conference championship all along.

End of Season Reports

Parents and Swimmers - Over the next two weeks the coaching staff will be completing end of season reports for age group and senior swimmers. Included in this report will be grades for attendance, stroke technique, season improvements, areas of strength and areas needing improvement. Lastly will be a recommendation for group placement for the beginning of LC season. When making these recommendations we look at all of the points of the season evaluation as well as swimmers background (years on team/ groups), attendance, aerobic capacity (older age groupers) and plans for the summer sessions. For an outline of groups and typical swimmers in each group please open the attachment to this email or find out group progression under the parents section of the website.

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Practice Change for Next 2 Weeks

Swimmers and Parents - Group 4 and Up will be swimming combined the next two weeks from 6:00 - 7:30 pm. We will be completing our test sets I emailed out previously. Swimmers should arrive in shoes for running, drylands, and possible team building games. With most swimmers done with shortcourse we will be mixing things up a bit before getting into longcourse training. 


See you at the pool,
Coach Jason

C-USA Swimming and Diving Champs this Weekend

HOUSTON - After a lot of hours of preparation and miles of swim practice logged over the past year, Rice competes for the Conference USA title in women's swimming at the 2011 C-USA Championships across town at the University of Houston Recreation Center Natatorium this Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 23-26. The 21-event championship meet begins at 6 pm Wednesday with two relays - the 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle.

The championship kicks into high gear on Thursday morning. Preliminaries for the swimming events begin at 10 am Thursday through Saturday. The finals for each day's swimming and diving events are at 6 pm. C-USA students with ID may get into the meet free of charge. Admission prices for the event are: $5 for single-session tickets for youths (or a youth's full-session pass for $10); and $10 for adults per session (a full-session pass for adults is $25). Tickets are available at the UH natatorium an hour before the start of that day's session.

The Owls had another sound-and-solid season under head coach Seth Huston, now in his ninth year at the helm of the Rice program. Coach Huston is looking forward to the challenging task ahead. Where some may be looking at the current C-USA league-leaders for each event, Huston has his eye on the bigger picture.

"The conference has improved a lot and is much deeper then just a couple of years ago," coach Huston said. "Earning our way into event finals will be a key to our team finish. We are not placed very well in our pre-conference rankings, but we traditionally have made some big gains and swim our season-best times at the CUSA Championships. I am very confident that we will be moving up and scoring more points then the rankings would project. This is what we prepare for as a team all season. 

"We love to have our conference championships held at U.H.," Huston added. "We are very familiar and comfortable with the facility. I think cutting out the travel time and keeping our surroundings the same - where the girls get to stay at home in their respective Colleges - is good for our team. When we swim close to home we typically swim very well.

No doubt about it, the conference meet is an emotional time for the seniors. Rice has had the tremendous good fortune of having five standout seniors elevate the program the last four (and in one case five) years. Seniors Erin Mattson and Karen Gerken have won individual C-USA Championships in their events. Fellow seniors Ashten Ackerman, Kait Chura and Sarah Korellis have scored for the team at conference and set a high standard in the pool and in the classroom. That veteran group is brining along the Owls' talented freshman class, who is competing in their first C-USA Championship.

Thanks to the seniors, Huston thinks it's been a good mix. The Rice rookies are ready. Up-and-down the roster the team has been looking pretty fast.

"I think our freshmen get it," Huston said confidently, "that it's a big meet this week. They have been pretty big contributors to the team all year. Several of them are pretty seasoned veterans of championship swimming so they know the routine and importance of swimming fast in prelims and racing in finals.

"We have been a little faster in-season then in years past," Huston concluded. "We have had to step-up in a couple of our dual meets, and we have had a number of season-best performances popping up in the last few weeks -- which is where we like to be at this time of the year."

2011 C-USA Swimming & Diving Championship Schedule
WED., FEBRUARY 23
Diving Preliminaries - 3 pm
1-Meter Diving (Men)

Finals - 6 pm200-Yard Medley Relay
1-Meter Diving (Men)
800-Yard Freestyle Relay

THUR., FEBRUARY 24
Preliminaries - 10 am500-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Individual Medley
50-Yard Freestyle
Diving Preliminaries - 1 pm
3-Meter (women)

Finals - 6 pm500-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Individual Medley
50-Yard Freestyle
3-Meter Diving (Women)
400-Yard Medley Relay

FRI., FEBRUARY 25
Preliminaries - 10 am400-Yard Individual Medley
100-Yard Butterfly
200-Yard Freestyle
100-Yard Breaststroke
100-Yard Backstroke
Diving Preliminaries - 1 pm
3-Meter (Men)
1-Meter (Women)

Finals - 6 pm200-Yard Freestyle Relay
1-Meter Diving (Women)
400-Yard Individual Medley
100-Yard Butterfly
3-Meter Diving (Men)
200-Yard Freestyle
100-Yard Breaststroke
100-Yard Backstroke

SAT., FEBRUARY 26
Preliminaries - 10 am200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
1,650-Yard Freestyle Preliminaries & Finals
Diving Preliminaries - 1 pm
Platform (Men & Women)

Finals - 6 pmPlatform Diving (Women)
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (Men)
400-Yard Freestyle Relay