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Happy Thanksgiving
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.”
What does kindness and gratitude have to do with swimming? Everything. Swimming is a way to discover how to live life: Dedication, hard work, goals, successes, disappointments, joy, and good sportsmanship. What would we be doing for all of these swimmers if we ignored the need for fundamental human qualities such as kindness and gratitude all in the pursuit of faster times?
As a coach, I want to challenge myself to do as Emerson suggests, which is to be kind before it is too late, and the opportunity is missed. As an athlete, I know how much better I trained when I was alongside people I believed cared about me more than they cared about my swimming. Sometimes that caring didn’t always take the form of kindness (a demanding coach holding an athlete to honest personal accountability doesn’t ever feel kind...in the short run!), but it was always born from it.
We will be giving athletes, parents, and coaches an opportunity to post notes of gratitude at the pool through Thanksgiving. But I challenge all of us to show our swimmers how proactive kindness and continual gratitude truly can change the way we think about working together towards a common purpose. While it is nice to put a note on a window, it is much more meaningful for the note’s message to live in the space between people.
The “season of thanks” is not limited to shorter days and colder nights. It is only limited by our willingness to say, or not say, “thank you.” I know that the Ensworth Aquatics coaching staff is thankful every day for the chance to interact with so many incredible people, and I hope that those interactions build the true foundation of what we believe all of these wonderful young people can become in the years ahead.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Spirit of Gratitude
On Tuesday, students and teachers at Ensworth high school were given cards in which they could write a note of thanks to post to the Kindness Wall in our Academic building (or to pass along to the people whom they would like to thank). It was a light-hearted exercise where students and faculty could take a moment to contemplate what they are thankful for. Ensworth Aquatics would like to bring this sense of gratitude down at the natatorium, so we invite all team members to pick up a card, jot down a note expressing gratitude, and post it to Thanksgiving Window. Feel free to give the note to a special someone whose day would be brightened by a note of thanks. Our goal is to have a window filled with notes of gratitude in time for Thanksgiving
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Holiday Practice Schedule
Live Practice Schedule is updated with our holiday training schedules through winter break. Please review this information! If you know you will be traveling during the break, please contact your swimmer's coach to make practice arrangements while away.
Thanksgiving Holiday Practices
Wednesday, November 27
Marlins will practice from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. Seniors and Senior 1 will practice from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Juniors will practice from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Sharks: 8:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Dolphins will practice from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Stingrays do not have practice on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Thursday, November 28
Seniors and Senior 1 will practice from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Friday, November 29
Senior and Senior 1 will practice from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Juniors will practice from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Sharks will practice from 10:15 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Dolphins do not have practice on Friday.
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Swim Across America
This past weekend, Ensworth hosted a Swim Across America pool swim for the third year in a row. The pool was set up as a 35-Meter open water course plus six lanes in the deep end with 25-Yard lanes. With dozens of people showing up and taking to the water, it was a wonderful coalition of swimmers of all ages, sizes, abilities, and team affiliations diving in to “make waves against cancer.”
Participants’ team pages are still active, but so far our pool swim has raised $18,000 this year for the fight against cancer. Over three years, Ensworth has helped to funnel more than $60,000 towards cancer research through Swim Across America.
There is already a buzz about next year’s swim, and we would like to get more and more people in our organization, whether swim team, middle school team, diving, Swim School, or Team Prep involved in this great cause. We will share the date with everyone as soon as we have it and see if we can’t beat our three-year total in just one year!
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Baylor Meet Recap
Nearly 90 swimmers made the trek to Chattanooga this month to compete in the Martha Bass Invitational at The Baylor School. While the competition for hotel rooms due to a giant regatta in Chattanooga created some challenges, the competition in the water was even more fierce!
Let’s start with new Team Records set at the meet:
Lilly Robertson: Girls 11-12 500 Freestyle - 5:23..31
Lilly Robertson: Girls 11-12 200 Backstroke - 2:14.23
Matthew Hughes: Boys 13-14 1,000 Freestyle - 10:30.84
Jake Mason: Boys 500 Freestyle: 4:36.89
Kas McIntire: Boys 1,000 Freestyle - 9:32.24
Way to go, Lilly, Matthew, Jake, and Kas!
November meets mark an important point in the season. There is plenty of time to get great work done between now and the Holiday Classic we will be hosting in December. This means that athletes who feel good about where they are, have time to build on it, likewise, those who may not be where they want to be right now, have time to really step up their effort in training. Coaches watched for a number of things from their athletes at this meet: Race strategy, turns and streamline, stroke integrity through races, and toughness.
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Ensworth Aquatics Holiday Classic
We are very excited to host our inaugural Ensworth Aquatics Holiday Classic championship meet December 6 to 8 here at our home pool.
So how did this come about? We were approached by several major teams to host a midyear championship meet, mainly because we are recognized as having the best volunteers, who run great meets in one of the finest facilities in the Southeast. We also listened to our Ensworth Aquatics families who found it difficult to travel right after Thanksgiving, during a busy time of the year, right before exams and the holidays.
As a result, we have approximately 19 teams representing the finest clubs across Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama planning to bring 500 plus swimmers to race. The meet format will be timed finals on Friday afternoon (running two pools), and include prelims and finals for 11 & Older athletes on Saturday and Sunday with a middle 10 & Under session on Saturday & Sunday as well. There will be one heat of finals for 11 & 12-year-olds and two heats of finals run for 13-14 and senior. We plan to run 10 lanes for both prelims and finals. In addition, we will run distance events in two pools to help manage the timeline.
We heard you on not traveling; now we are going to need your help. It is going to be all hands on deck to run the meet. We are fairly certain we will have visiting clubs helping with some officials, but we are going to need each and every one of our families to give their time and talent to help host the meet. So find your babysitters, recruit family members to time, whatever it takes! We are asking each family to commit to 3 to 5 sessions for this meet. If we all volunteer it will be closer to 3. We have already started filling technical roles and ask you to go ahead and sign up to volunteer as Hytek/computer operators, Colorado workers, timers, meet marshals, hospitality, volunteer coordinators, concessions, officials and more. Some sessions we may need 20 timers…we need you! The sign up is accessible on our Meet Landing page, which can be accessed HERE. Please contact Naomi Kitahara kitaharan@ensworth.com if you are interested in learning a skilled position.
It is going to be an exciting, fast meet and a wonderful opportunity for our swimmers to compete at home.
Thank you, and see you at the pool!
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Marshmallow Mini
Ensworth Aquatics hosts the annual Marshmallow Mini Championships in just a few weeks. Krysten Call emailed the entry report to all families with swimmers entered in the meet. Please review the information as soon as possible.
Warmups for the Marshmallow Mini will begin at 12:00 p.m., and the competition will start at 1:00 p.m. If you have swimmers competing in the Marshmallow Mini, please sign up to volunteer for the meet by using this link.
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Upcoming Meets & Events
Click on the swim meet links to access meet and hotel information.
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Swim Meet Registration
Signing up for a meet is easy, especially with the OnDeck app. Please review this article for information on how to use OnDeck. You can also sign up directly through the team’s website. Information on how to do that can be found in the article as well.
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Birthday Shout Outs
Here are upcoming birthdays for athletes through November 30, 2019:
Oliver Pilkinton - November 18
Sophia Summit - November 18
Hunter Haney - November 19
Alexis Vaughn - November 24
Sarah Melton - November 27
Your teammates wish each of you the happiest of birthdays!
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Maintaining Healthy Habits through the HolidaysBy Coach Marli McIntire
It's time for gathering with family, friends, and food! This is also an important time of year to stay focused on your health and athletic performance goals. You can enjoy the holidays and keep your body ready for training and competition.
Below are familiar tips that hopefully will become part of an athletic family's lifestyle. Perfection is not necessary, but consistent, healthy choices add up for the good of the athlete.
Mindful Eating
This is so important and simple, yet few of us slow down long enough to "smell the food." Take in the smells and flavors of each bite of food. Think about what you eat as the energy that will fuel your next workout and competitions coming up in the near future. Notice how you feel as you eat. If you begin to feel overly full, stop for a moment and decide if you really want (or need) more. Never feel like you have to finish everything on your plate. Most of our typical serving sizes are more than we need. Consider smaller portions and more variety.
Hydrate
Maintain excellent hydration. Enjoy a special soda with cheery embellishments, but build a good foundation with regular water intake. This will also help with the super salty foods that find their way into almost every savory holiday side dish. Drinking water when you wake up, before, during, and after meals, and certainly surrounding practice times, will help to keep your body functioning at an optimal level.
Bring a Dish
Offer to bring a healthy item you enjoy to the gathering. Knowing for sure there is something healthy to add to your plate will help dilute the less than healthy options. Need an idea? Check out the Fruit Salad recipe below!
Protein & Color
Fill 25% of your plate with protein. Insert turkey! It will fill you up, repair muscles, aid in recovery, and get you ready for your next practice. Turkey is loaded with potassium (stabilizes blood sugar, maintains fluid balance and optimizes muscle and nerve function), zinc (builds immunity), niacin/B3 (supports brain function, lowers cholesterol, antioxidant), B12 (prevents anemia, may support bone health, improves mood, and improves the condition of hair, skin and nails). Cover about 50% of your plate with color or as many veggies and fruit as possible!
Savor Dessert
Go ahead and enjoy dessert, but don't go overboard. Remember tip #1! Eat mindfully and savor each bite.
Ignore Food Pushers
They encourage unplanned eating and make remarks like, "it won't hurt you". Although you can easily get back on track, remind yourself that you are an athlete who works very hard to maintain an athletic, performance-oriented lifestyle and strive to make good choices. You know how much time and effort it takes to be an elite athlete, and who knows, you may be a positive influence on someone else!
Take a Walk
Getting steps before and/or after the big meals will help everyone feel better. Time outside benefits all! More movement, fewer germs, greater space in the house...everyone wins!
Return to Normal
Get back on track with your healthy lifestyle ASAP. If you splurge on Thursday for lunch, get back to taking care of your athletic energy needs for Thursday dinner. Avoid the mentality of waiting until after the holidays to be healthy.
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Sharks at Baylor
The Sharks who attended the Baylor Invitational had a great meet. While not everyone swam best times in every event, we did see great swims across all events. The 500 freestyle, however, we saw drops of roughly 30 seconds from a whole host of swimmers.
As we go through the next few weeks, it will be vital to be at practice. Sharks are at the age where they will continue to improve because they are growing, but they will also stop improving if they do not start to pick up their aerobic training as well as continually reinforce proper technique and good racing habits. These kinds of gains can only be made at practice. Those who are here the most often, by and large, saw the best results in Chattanooga. Help your Sharks reach his or her potential at our Holiday Classic by ensuring they are at as many practices as possible between now and then.
Practices during Thanksgiving Break
Remember, Sharks practice from 8:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m on Wednesday, November 27 and from 10:15 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. on Friday, November 29. See you at the pool!
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Already Achieving Goals
We set a goal at the beginning of the season for Dolphins to try as many new events as possible by the end of the season. At our Baylor meet, a handful of Dolphins had their first go at one of the most "infamous" events: the 500 free. Congratulations to Lacie Large, Charlie Wile, Lola Tanley, Zoey Rushing, Molli Back, and Ava Massey for approaching such a tough race with confidence, trust, and joy. After the race, the majority of the group asked to swim it in the next meet!
Coaches are looking at entering those who are ready for the challenge in the 500 for our December meet. Note that swimmers are limited to three events on Saturday, so reach out to Coach Skyler or leave a note in the sign-up if you have questions about events for your swimmers.
Practices during Thanksgiving Break
Dolphins will practice on Wednesday, November 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends, and we will see our Dolphins again on Saturday for practice at our regular time. Once again, we urge parents to help their Dolphins arrive at practice prepared with sneakers and a water bottle every day.
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Baylor Meet Recap
Although we only had a handful of Stingrays participate in the Baylor Meet, they made a big splash! We had 8 first time swims… all of which were the tougher events for the 7-8 age group. We also had several personal best times. Way to Go, Katie Wile, Virginia Fruetel and Anderson Attmore.
No Practices during Thanksgiving Break
As was already mentioned in the Practice Information section, Stingrays do not have practice during the Thanksgiving break. We will see our Stingrays back at the pool on Saturday for practice at the regularly scheduled time. Enjoy your Thanksgiving! Once again, please make sure that your swimmer has their own set of fins, with their name on them. We use them often.
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Ensworth Aquatics Gear
Team T-Shirts
We appreciate everyone's patience while awaiting the annual shirts. The remaining shirts are available for pickup in the pool office during practice.
Speedo Merchandise & Equipment
Price drop! Thanks to All American Swim, our team suit prices have been lowered. Additional team gear, including warm-ups, swimsuits, backpacks, and equipment can be purchased directly at All American Swim or online. Visit the Team Gear page on our website for instructions on accessing our Ensworth Aquatics Online Store as well as the equipment requirements for each practice group.
To help our families who may have equipment/apparel they no longer need or have outgrown, we have a Swap Shop page (under the Competitive Team menu) where we will post any swim team-related items you want to sell, trade, or give away. This includes apparel, swimsuits, equipment, training aids, etc. Please email the description/photo to Naomi Kitahara. Alternatively, you can also post on the Practice GroupMe.
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USA Swimming - Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policy
This past summer USA Swimming implemented the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policy (MAAPP). This new policy is designed to safeguard athletes from potential sexual abuse by adults. All clubs are mandated to implement this new policy, which includes an Electronic Communications Policy that replaces the policy that has been in place since our club was founded. In order to finalize registrations, we ask that each family acknowledge the MAAPP. To access our full outline of the policy, follow this link to visit the information page on our website.
Use this link to complete the acknowledgment as soon as possible. This is a required step in USA Swimmings registration. Naomi Kitahara will be contacting all team members who need to comply.
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Ways to Stay Connected
GroupMe App
If you have not already joined your swimmers' GroupMe, please consider doing so. Parents, coaches, and staff use GroupMe to communicate last-minute updates, traffic issues, practice changes, lost and found, carpooling and much more. Each practice group has its own group text, and we believe if you ask any returning team members, they will confirm that GroupMe is an invaluable communication tool as it enables them to ask specific questions and plan activities particular to their practice group. Use this link to download the GroupMe app.
Click on the links below to connect with your swimmer's practice group and parent reps:
Parent Reps
Stingrays - Jessica Horne & Maureen Kolton
Dolphins - Lindsey Sanford
Sharks - Fran Spurrier
Juniors - Margaret Mason
Marlins - help needed
Senior1/Senior - help needed
Team Website & OnDeck
We are confident that everyone on our team has visited our team website by now, but beyond registration, it serves as the primary information tool for our team. Through our website, parents and athletes will commit to competitions, enter events, sign up to volunteer, access newsletters, review practice schedules, much more. Be sure to "Sign In" to the website to view all content. Go ahead and visit www.ensworthaquatics.com and bookmark it!
OnDeck is TeamUnify's supporting app that allows our staff to communicate through our website directly to team members' mobile devices. OnDeck also presents our website content to users with improved mobile device usability. What this means is you can enter into swim meets and signup to volunteer more easily on your mobile devices. Use this link to download OnDeck.
Social Media
Ensworth Aquatics is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Click on the icons below to connect with us through social media.
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