Winter's Just Around the Corner?

Swim Parents,

If you have a fireplace at your house/apartment, please drive over to our Lake Ridge property and pick up some firewood!

Most of it:

• is oak (with some hedge apple and ash as well)
• came from smaller trees that needed to be thinned
  
• was cut in May of 2010 (hot summers dried it out quite well)
  
• has been cut short, so it'll also fit in a smaller fireplace/chiminea

Address is 2361 Royal Lytham Court, Grand Prairie.

All firewood is right in front, so feel free to just pull in and load up.

There are a few larger pieces of hedge apple that y'all are also welcome to load up and split. That will be the longest/hottest burning wood we've got.

Also, we rented a chipper/shredder last year to chew up all the brush. There are several piles all around the property. Feel free to shovel some into the back of your vehicle if you want it.

Finally, snakes are a possibility when picking through the wood pile. Keep an eye out so you don't get a surprise.

Thanks,

Button

Setting a goal is not the main thing.
It is deciding how you will go about
achieving it and staying with that plan.



Thomas Wade "Tom" Landry

Lockers

Lockers were cleaned out over the summer.

It wasn't pretty...

This year, you'll be providing your own lock for your locker.

We'll have locker checks in October, December, and March.

Keep your locker locked when not in use!

Have necessary gear and clothes handy.

Don't store gear/clothes on top of lockers, on floors, or on benches.

Keep your locker clutter-free.

Use only the locker you have been assigned to.

Try-Out Make-Ups

Swimmers,

If you missed them in July, you'll need to make up your try-out.

Try-out sets are here.

Please choose one of the following:

Monday, August 22nd, 6:30 - 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, August 23rd, 6:30 - 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, August 24th, 6:30 - 7:00 p.m.

Thanks,

Button

Those who are blessed with the most talent
don't necessarily outperform everyone else.
It's the people with follow-through who excel.



Mary Kathlyn Wagner, a.k.a. Mary Kay Ash

Label Your Gear/Clothes

One more item to buy during tax-free weekend:

Sharpie

Swim gear should have two sets of initials: "T.H.S." & your own.

Dry-land clothes already have our T.H.S. logo, so just make sure your initials are on the tag.

Be Prepared!

Swimmers,

When y'all do your tax-free shopping this weekend, please pick up a spiral notebook for swimming. I'll be collecting these each Friday - for a grade. I'll return them to you each Monday.

We'll meet in my classroom (2122) during the first week of school. We'll take care of paperwork and watch some swim videos.

If you've not been placed into swimming athletics, please drop by my room Monday or Tuesday so we can get things sorted out.

We'll begin morning swim practices at the natatorium on Monday, August 29. Please have your gear by then.

Options for getting gear include the D&J shop at the natatorium, D&J's main store in Dallas, and Swim Outlet*.

Barefoot shipped us more dry-land shirts and shorts. Shirts are $5 each and shorts are $10 each. For thirty dollars, you'll have two of each.


Varsity (morning) group gear list:

mesh gear bag
kickboard
pull buoy
fins
hard plastic hand paddles
water bottle
snorkel
lightweight tennis shoes (for swimming)
training suit (2)
goggles (2)
dry-land shirt (2)
dry-land shorts (2)
quality running/cross training shoes

*Don't look for Team Gold to fly in via chopper, though.

Missed Try-Outs

Swimmers,

Several of you were out of town during try-outs. As a results, some of your schedules do not show your proper placement in the swimming athletic periods (morning or afternoon).

Our counselors will do their best to make schedule changes, but we cannot put off making up try-outs much longer.

Since the pool is closed for maintenance this week, we'll have to get everyone caught up during the first week of school.

Once it's ready, I'll post a schedule for make-ups here. Please check back later this week.

Thanks,

Button

Mark Your Calendars!

Our mandatory parent meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, August 25.

The plan is to meet in the MISD Natatorium classroom (next to the coaches' office) at 6:30 p.m.

We'll be teaming up with the THS golf teams (coached by Brad Higgins) to work a couple of Friday evening (7:30 p.m.) concession stands at Vernon Newsom Stadium.

Summit's swim parents worked at these last year and were very successful.

Our dates will be September 23 and October 7.

If you've been unable to work at our natatorium concession stand, this is a great opportunity for you to pitch in!

I'll pass on more info when I get it.

Updates

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Shanghai World Champs are coming to a close.

Swimming World's coverage is here.

FINA official results page is here.

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The beautiful thing about learning is
nobody can take it away from you.



Riley "B.B." King
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If you didn't take advantage of today's MISD physical offering at Summit HS, please schedule with your family physician right away.

Doctors are very busy with athletic physicals at this time of year. You'll need to take the new (and improved!) MISD paperwork with you. You can print it out here.

There is plenty to read, initial, and sign - so get an early start on your 2011-12 paperwork!!

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Our swimming/diving UIL alignment is the same as last year's. View the 5A alignment here.

Start getting motivated for 2011-12 by checking out last season's district and region results.

2011 District 9-5A Results

2011 Region III-5A Results

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Here's a little re-post. It's one of my favorite backstroke videos. Watch Ryan's rotation - he gets almost completely onto his sides while keeping his head back and stationary.



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Mansfield HS's Ian Betts ('11) qualified for USA Swimming's Junior Nationals earlier this week. Check out all of the MAC results from championship meets:

Sectionals

TAGS

Shanghai World Champs

Television coverage of the 2011 Shanghai World Championships is available from NBC and Universal Sports.

Schedule:

July 24 through 31 - 7:00 p.m. - Universal

July 30 & 31 - noon - NBC

Yesterday, both 400 meter free champions swam incredibly well-paced races. Check out these splits:

Federica Pellegrini - 2:02.30 - 1:59.67

Tae Hwan Park - 1:51.02 - 1:51.02

That's right. Pellegrini negative split the race and Park even split it - right down to the hundredth of a second!

Parker S.

The Texas Age Group Swimming (TAGS) long course championships are being held in Austin right now.

Congratulations to Parker S.!

In yesterday's prelims, Parker qualified him for next week's USA Swimming Sectional meet in Conroe.

He finished 9th in the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:20.71.

Wonder what that'd be in yards? According to the Swimming World conversion utility, that would be a 200 yard fly time of 2:01.85.

Check out all the results here.

New College Program

Dallas Baptist University will be adding both men's and women's swimming.

Keep an eye on the DBU Athletics website for more announcements.

The addition of the Patriots means there are now eleven (11) men's and fourteen (14) women's college programs in Texas.

When you do the common things in
life in an uncommon way, you will
command the attention of the world.



George Washington Carver

You never know how a horse will pull
until you hook him up to a heavy load.



Paul William "Bear" Bryant

Where have you heard this before?

Set goals to take 5 or 6 kicks off EVERY wall and then try and build on that number throughout the season. Give constant reminders until the underwater kick becomes habitual. Imagine how much faster and less tired you will swim if you can carry your momentum off the wall and take 2-3 less strokes per length!

Finis has updated their websites. Their post on underwater work is here.

Coach Huckabay is getting a set of new monofins like the one pictured.

If D&J does not have the snorkel replacement part(s) you need, find them at Finis here.

Backstrokers can find nose clips here.

We just got another shipment of dry-land shirts and we should be set for the fall. Shirts are $5 and shorts are $10. You should own two (2) shirts and two (2) pairs of shorts this season.

Note: Your coach put in 18,000 SCM last week. Shouldn't you be way ahead of that? Make sure you're getting in your dry-land and water work.

To be great we need to win games
we aren't supposed to win.



Julius Winfield Erving II, a.k.a. Dr. J

Prepping for 2012

Kathleen's time in winning the 200 LCM fly last month at Charlotte was 2:09.12.

Her best time of 2:06.44 was swum back in 2009.

So, why's she so happy?

It was an in-season best! Plus, that 2009 swim was in a tech suit, right?

This is a great example of staying positive, while looking ahead to make improvements.

Want to swim fast in-season? At your shave/taper meet?

The time to prepare is NOW!!

If you're not training long course with the club team or working out with the morning short course conditioning group, you need to be doing more dry-land work than ever!

If you don't have the summer weight program I've emailed out, fire me off a quick email and I'll send you one.

Great Swims

Want to see some of the world's greatest swimmers in action?

Of course you do!

Mary T. Meagher's coach, the late Bill Peak, was one of our sport's all-time greats.

He used to give Mary T a set stroke count for some of her butterfly races. If she used up her "quota" too early, she had to kick into the finish from that point.

His focus was on stroke length and efficiency. Watch this video and see how it worked out for her.

Mary T:


Aussie Ian Thorpe is making a comeback. He was also known for his great stroke length and efficiency. He also had a pretty good kick.

The Thorpedo:


Check out more swims via ASCA's Historical Video Series here.