Announcements 1-14-13

Hello Juneau Masters!

I have a few announcements as we lead into this weekend and our first meet as GSC Masters!

For those of you that are competing for the first time in a swim meet I have a few reminders/tips:

• Arrive at the pool roughly 1 1/2 hours before the meet start time. This allows plenty of time to relax, stretch, figure out your lane/heat, greet and chat with teamates, and be 100% ready for warm-ups when it's time to jump in.
• A warm-up will be posted on a whiteboard at the pool, normally prior to racing it's a good idea to swim anywhere from 1,000 - 2,000 yards, depending on what events you are swimming, how your body works, and how long you have until you swim. If the posted warm-up isn't working for you, feel free to do what you need to do!
• Lane etiquette is essential for a successful warm-up. Often lanes are crowded and the pool is wavy - please be aware of the other swimmers in your lane and their personal space. Master swimmers and Highschool swimmers will warm-up and cool down in seperate lanes per dual sanctioning guidelines.
• Bring an extra towel, warm deck clothes to wear inbetween events, healthy snacks and drinks, extra goggles/cap, comfortable suit to race in, lots of enthusiasm and of course your cheering squad.
• Know what events you are signed up for - mentally prepare for those events.
• Don't do anything that will make you sore for this weekend - try to take the days leading up to the meet easy - don't take them completely off, but give yourself a break on Wednesday/Thursday.
• This week while you are swimming, focus on doing legal turns, fast finishes and good starts. The coaches are happy to help with any questions or concerns you have regarding these ...
• As far as relays go - we will be competing these - they will be deck seeded, which means you can come up with your own relays :-) We will probably do one relay per session - 200 Free, 200 Medley, 400 Free ... however these are subject to change.

For anyone that is not competing this weekend - it's a great weekend to come watch and cheer on your teamates! I will also mention that ALL of the current Master's coaches will be competing (Sara said she is doing it - although not signed up yet...).

Meet start times:

Friday: warm-up's start at 4:30 PM
              meet starts at 6:00 PM

Saturday: warm-up start at 7:30 AM
                  meet start at 9:00 AM

Saturday: warm-up start at 3:00 PM
                  meet start at 4:30 PM

If you have friends/family coming to watch, please tell them to arrive a few minutes before the start time, sitting for an hour and a half watching warm-ups isn't very fun for spectators...

We don't have an offical timeline yet, but we're guess-timating the time will be roughly 90 minutes of running time per session. If you are swimming each session that means you will be at the pool quite a bit this weekend... please be mentally prepared for this - don't plan anything in between sessions on Saturday or after the meet on Friday (except lots of resting of course!).

While this meet is going to be only Juneau swimmers, I expect there to be some fast swims both from masters and high schoolers - be ready to race!

Lastly, on Saturday after the meet is over plan on attending some type of masters social - location TBD.

I hope you are all as excited as I am!

-Coach K