Thursday, February 24, 2011

I Can Swim Update

Looking ahead:  Our next fun event will be a little mock meet (just for our ICS swimmers) in our regular time on Tuesday March 8th at 4:15 pm.  This gives the kids a taste of competitive swimming, but without the pressure and just for fun!  I am letting you know ahead as this can be a good spectator event.

The final day of Session 2 is Thursday March 10th and ICS will resume with Session 3 starting the Tuesday after March break - March 22nd.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or ideas, please pass them along to Marina.

Thank You

The Deep River Candu Swim Club would like to thank all who participated in our 10th annual Powered By Pasta "Fun"draiser.  We had the support of a strong team in the kitchen helping Gary Festarini and  a great turnout of people enjoying the dishes that we prepared.  Thank you to all those parents who prepared desserts, volunteers that showed up to help setup or clean and to our swimmers who served the dinner.  The event is a intended  to be  a good  social event and fundraiser for the club and it was very successful, serving 170 hungry Deep Riverites!!! We hope to continue to strive to provide a variety of fresh dishes and fun in the future.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

NO LUCK IS NEEDED - SMALL TOWN, BIG WAVES WILL BE DEMONSTRATED!

The coaches would like to wish Matt all the best at Provincials!  Matt will be swimming from Thursday to Sunday in Ottawa with the top swimmers in Ontario!

Join us in wishing Ecaterina, Emily, Victoria, Claire, Gabe, Vincent, Adam and Liam personal bests at the Short Course Finale at Kingston Artillery Park this weekend!

All swimmers (fitness and competitive) are to be commended for accomplishing so much already this season!  Way to go!

COMPETITIVE/FITNESS UPDATES

Hello Candu-ers!
Here's a couple of upcoming events to note on your calendar.  For the items that require confirmation, please respond directly to this email.
MARCH 5/2011 YOGA SESSION (Open to all competitive and fitness swimmers):
On Saturday March 5th we are having a special dry land practice and breakfast.  Instead of a pool practice, we will be meeting at the CEC (Christian Education Centre beside the Community Church in Deep River) at 8am for a yoga class with Kirstie Smith. All competitive and fitness swimmers are invited to attend (parents too!). Even if you normally don’t come on Saturday morning, we encourage you to come out for this class.  And for added incentive…breakfast will be served for a twoonie by the coaches!!

Yoga is a perfect complement to swimming – the stretches and poses we do will help with increasing both flexibility and strength. Since most of you are new to yoga, Kirstie will go through all the poses with lots of instruction, but be prepared to work hard!

In order to get enough supplies for cooking breakfast, please let us know if you are planning to attend. Respond to deeprivercandus@gmail.com or just let the coaches know at practice. Also, let us know if you need directions to the CEC.

This is a great opportunity to try something new and I know it will be a benefit to you all, so I hope to see all your enthusiastic faces on Saturday March 5th!!!

Thanks!!
Melinda

PRACTICE CANCELLATIONS: There will be no practices from Mon March 14 to Fri March 18/11 because of the March Break.  Both Saturdays (March 12/19) will still take place.  Practices are also cancelled on Sat April 23 and Mon April 25 because of Easter.

SWIM-A-THON April 2/2011: A club fundraiser that everyone should attend!  Swim-a-thon packages will be coming out soon!  All programs/athletes of the Candu Swim Club will be swimming from 7:15-9:15am.  Competitive and fitness swimmers will see how many lengths they can swim in a 2 hour span to a maximum of 5km!  ICS Athletes will either sign up for the first or second hour.  Coaches will be making everyone a breakfast afterwards as a thank you!  We will also be taking a picture (with your permission) to show the community how widely the pool is used.  There will be an alternative date (TBD) for those with other commitments that day.  Doors will be open at 7am.

SUNDAES ON A SUNDAY April 10/2011: The club will be hosting a mini, non-sanctioned meet for the competitive/fitness and ICS Stage 2 and 3 Swimmers.  This event is similar to the Candy Cane Meet we attended in December with the Ravens of Carleton Swim Club (ROCS).  ROCS swim team will be our featured guest!  Races will take place from 1-3pm followed by 'make your own' Sundaes in the upstairs lobby from 3-4pm.  Track your child's progress and compare it to the upcoming Black Fly meet!  More details to come!

Until next time!
Fast and fun swimming!
Your Candu Coaching Staff

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I Can Swim is having Bring-a-Friend Day

    Thursday, February 24th
    4:00-5:00 pm
    We will have extra coaches on deck to keep this event safe and fun.

Please encourage your swimmer to bring a friend and share some fun in the water (and, it is a great way for your swimmer to see how well they are doing!).


Session 2 Interim Reports

Interim reports went home Thursday, or are going home today.  I wanted to make a comment on the number of numbered skills achieved so far this session (top section of report).  When starting the program, a large number of skills are achieved as we evaluate introductory skills that many kids already know, or learn very quickly.  Now, in the middle of the program, the hard work is underway and achieving numbered skills is more difficult.  I want to stress, however, it is not because your swimmer is not progressing - many have made great progress in the swimming strokes (developing proper kick, pull, timing and breathing), there are just fewer numbered skills to achieve.  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know - or come down to the pool and watch (we love having interested parents).

Happy swimming,
Marina

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Mike Brown Meet & More! WOW!

The Deep River Candus dove into 2011 with a splash!  Eight members of the team travelled down to Perth to participate in the Mike Brown Meet in early January.  Mike Brown, a former small town swimmer from Perth has recently announced that he’s coming out of retirement to once again participate in the Olympics.  Mike Brown serves as true motivator and mentor for our swimmers as he demonstrates that dreams can be achieved based on determination and hard work alone.  At age 25, he is a medalist at the Commonwealth Games and has participated in two Olympics already.
Ecaterina Facina (Age 10) swam 6 events including the 50m FR, 100m FR, 200m FR, 50m BR, 100m BR and 200m IM.  She took home 2 silver medals in her breaststroke events, a bronze in the 50m FR and achieved best times in all of her races.  Emily Paquette (Age 11) swam best times in all her races; the 50m FR, 100m FR, 200m FR, 800m FR, 100m BK and 200m IM.  Emily creamed her previous 200m FR time by 8 seconds with a final time of 2:51.95.  Claire Luesink (Age 15) swam her 100m FR, 400m FR, 200m BK, and 200m IM in record times.  She not only beat her seed times in preliminaries but also swam even faster in the finals!  Claire is to be commended for shaving 33 seconds off her 400m FR.
Gabe Roy (Age 11) swam 4 events including the 200m FR, 400m FR, 100m BK and 400m FR.  Gabe took off 6 or more seconds in all of his events and earned bronze medals for his 200m FR and 200m IM.  Vincent Martel (Age 12) swam 50m FR, 400m FR, 100m BK, 100m BR, and 200m IM.  He received silver medals for his 200m IM and 400m FR and bronze medals for his remaining events.  He demolished 35 seconds off of his 400m FR and 15 seconds off of his 200m IM.  Adam Paquette (Age 13) swam 6 events including the 200m FR, 400m FR, 200m BK, 200m BR, 200m IM, and 400m IM.  Adam took off significant time in all events and advanced to finals.  He received silver medals in his backstroke, breaststroke and IM and a bronze medal in his 200m FR.  Matt Ackman (Age 14) swam the 200m FR, 100m BR, and 200m IM events with speed.  Matt is to be commended for qualifying for an additional event provincially in his 200m IM with a final time of 2:24.40.  Liam Rodger (Age 15) also had an accomplishing weekend and received best times in all of his events; 100m FR, 200m FR, 400m FR, 100m BK and 200m IM.  Liam took home a bronze medal at finals in his 100m FR with a final time of 1:02.86.
Ecaterina Facina, Emily Paquette, Vincent Martel, Adam Paquette and Matt Ackman will demonstrate the Candus “Small Town, Big Wave” motto in the Eastern Ontario Regional Short Course Championships mid-February at the Nepean Sportsplex.  More excitingly, the competitive swimmers are gearing up for their big trip to Thunder Bay in mid-April where they will swim against other clubs throughout Ontario at Team Championships.  Stay tuned for fundraising initiatives the club will be completing over the next few months to help us get there. 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I Can Swim Update

We are nearing the half-way point of the second session of I Can Swim.  The swimmers have been working hard on the fundamentals of the major swimming strokes and are making nice progress.  We plan to issue interim reports next week.

Mitch is planning a special practice for the CANDU fitness and competitive swimmers, and our stage 3 swimmers (Brittany, Bianca, Eric, Stephen, Laura, Hannah Williams, Quynne, Philipp) are invited to participate.  A large number of coaches will be available to fix/refine/improve stroke techniques: Thursday, Feb. 10th 5:00 - 6:30 p.m..  Participants and their families are invited to join the coaches afterwards for 'wings' at the Bears Den (6:45 - 8:00 pm) as a club social.  Please RSVP and indicate whether or not you can attend the practise/wings (provide #s)/or both by Feb 3/2011.

Fund raiser - the annual Pasta Dinner will be held on Saturday Feb 12th, as part of the Deep River Winter Carnival.  Please see our blog to see how  you can support this worthy event.

Stay tuned for another clothing/swim suit order, as well as Bring-a-friend day coming later in February.