Free Trial Email #1
Hello! This is going to be one of a handful of documents I’ll be sending in the coming days. They will go over a wide range of topics, all designed to help you get a sense of what ASL is, what ASL does, and how ASL does it. To start this off, I’m going to as briefly as possible give you an overview of “year-round club swimming”.
We will have the Practice and Meet calendars up by the middle of next week, when we open Registration for returning members. You folks won’t have to register until the season kicks off on September 6th, and we will end the free-trial period after practice on Saturday, September 24th. After that date, you’ll need to have registered and paid with the club to continue training.
Until that date, you can come as often as you’d like, but I’d caution 9-under athletes to not go more than 3x a week, and once you make the decision to join, we really are happy for them to go 2x a week until they feel completely and enthusiastically ready to go more often. It’s a long journey, and it’s better to be cautious than cavalier with training frequency at that age.
We had two young men, aged 12, who started with us last September for the first time. 2 days a week, just learning and absorbing information and skills. By November, they saw some improvements at a meet, got excited, and started coming 3x a week. They both made some State cuts by January, and after competing in States in February, started coming 4x a week. They ended this summer, with one of them representing Georgia in the Zones All-Star meet as one of the EIGHT 11-12 boys chosen to compete, and the other scoring points and getting multiple finals swims at our 13-14 champs meet, just 4 days after turning 13, an impressive feat, as that is one of the tougher age-ups we have in this sport.
A lot can happen in a year, and I believe the cautious start was instrumental in the success of those two boys. They were EXCITED for each new step. They weren't doing a chore, or task. They were pumped to come to the pool each day, and they got their on their own, in their own time.
Lastly, please mark your calendars for September 17th. We’ll be hosting an In-House pentathlon at our Aiken pool. This is just a way to welcome everyone into the TEAM, and we’ll be doing ‘House Assignments’ (That will be a topic of it’s own in the coming days) before we begin racing. It will be a bring-your-own family picnic event, and will be an absolute blast for the kids.
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At the end of August 2021, we were about 120 athletes. We brought in over 100 new athletes in September, and had one of our best seasons ever! The future looks incredibly bright for ASL, with over 100 MORE new athletes registered for the free-trial in September. We are growing, to be sure, but we have the plans and structure to accommodate this growth, and an exciting and excited staff to make it all happen!
This sport is incredible, and builds lifelong friendships and bonds, and is one of a few sports that you can do for your entire life- we just had a 99 year old man swim a 1500m race, breaking 6 world records in his age group along the way. His 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 times were also World Records for the 95-99 age group!
I will cover “swim meets, and why we do them”, tomorrow! I hope this information was helpful!
