11 & Up - Week 1 2025 Update

May 23rd

Hello parents of 11& up swimmers and welcome to the 2025 Overlook Hurricane Swim Season!

After our first week in the pool we can definitely tell it’s been 11 months for most everyone but that is to be expected, and why we will be practicing hard to get them back up to speed these first 2 weeks.

I thought I’d share some updates and some YouTube links below for your kids to add to their playlist, and actually encourage them to follow the algorithm suggestions for MORE swim videos that will start to appear 😊

Starts & Turns:

I’m a big proponent of powerful starts and fast turns - and will push your kids on these facets as much as stroke technique. If we can improve their starts and turns, the drills and number of laps they do during the week will take care of dropping their times between each end of the pool.

11-12 yr old parents: Since your kiddo’s are now swimming 50’s (2 laps race minimum) in the meets, we started working on flip turns. We’re getting the basics down, but I’ve posted some videos below that should help get their mind wrapped around it a bit more.

Even our most veteran 13 and ups can benefit from the videos below as we get back into the swing of things. It seems we have less year-round swimmers in our arsenal this year so they don’t have as many kids to learn from by following & watching what those kids do 11 months a year. That’s where these videos (I hope) will help them focus on the little things that kids usually pick-up by watching others. If you go to the pool this weekend, have them put in some time trying to mimic the pros in these training clips.

We do have a couple starting blocks awaiting repair – so we’ll put more of a focus next week on starts/relay starts when we have all 6 lanes in action.

MORNING PRACTICE:

Morning practice will officially start Monday June 2^nd @ 9am, but if your kids are out of school next week, I will be available/at the pool Tues & Weds (May 27^th & 28^th) @ 10-11am with Ryder and some of his classmates that will be done with EOG’/finals.

FIRST MEET June 3^rd @ home. Please go ahead and register/RSVP your swimmers in SwimTopia so coaches can plan ahead if anyone is not going to make it. Even if you are NOT making a meet, please let us know in SwimTopia registration so we know ahead of time if we need to juggle in kids from other age groups to complete relays, etc.

We do realize it’s just summer league swimming so we want them to have fun, but we also want them to put in the effort and respect what their coaches ask of them -- so we’re going to be pushing them. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions (or if they come home complaining about us being heartless dictators 😊) feel free to reach out to any of us before or after practice, or you can call or text me at the number below.

Please have them watch these videos whenever they can over the long weekend so we can start getting them faster next week and THANKS for encouraging them to swim again this year!

Your coaches:

JD Kramer & John Stewart (11&12)

Lindsey Lawless & Amy Henty (13&14 / 15-18)

Technique videos:

Caleb Dressel – Flip Turns – Freestyle

https://youtu.be/Y4cDXisd6vw?si=8hMFoLiPPp8jS60P

Backstroke Turn – showing 1 stroke flip over

https://youtu.be/xmesFoXFA24?si=5_ip80bi3a347fVC

*know your stroke count!

Butterfly & Breastroke & IM “Open” Turns

https://youtu.be/6wr37EDpXMI?si=eybBQC0RWHqPkdKu

https://youtu.be/PqXrZuNCthg?si=kXldkyzCjzC3PRZZ