Dunn Loring Dolphins

A guide for the bewildered parents of new swim team members as well as a refresher for all returning families...

Introduction

Every swimmer's parent has experienced that first day of swim practice or that first swim meet where they wonder What is going on??? We've all been there before and will be glad to enlighten you in your quest to understand the world of Summer Swim Team.

Although this pamphlet is explicitly written for use by the parents of a new Dunn Loring Dolphins swimmer, the fundamentals?are true for any area swim team. It will (hopefully) provide some information which will help you understand what is happening while your child swims.

Your Team Reps, Coaches and fellow swim parents all want you to understand and enjoy our summer swim program.

Welcome to the Dolphins, We're glad to have you with us.

Chapter 1: About the Swim Team

Our Philosophy The philosophy of the Dunn Loring Dolphins is that having fun is the most important thing we can do. Most of the kids don't care if we're in a top division or a bottom division. We'd all like to be division champions, which usually means going undefeated, but only one team out of six can usually claim this honor. Personal development is what is most important and for a swimmer that means improving their times, refining their strokes and being a good teammate. We believe that by establishing a healthy environment that encourages the kids to do their best, recognizes their contribution and is fun for the entire family, we will have met our goals.

Parental Help It takes a village to run a swim team...We've taken our kids to other sporting events and probably stood by a two or three parents ran the team. Swimming isn't like that. You can't run a swim program without parental help. In fact, it takes over 40 parents to time, officiate and score a typical swim meet and that doesn't include pool set up and tear down or running the Concession Stand or team social activities. We have ask each family to volunteer for at least 15 hours during the season. There are positions for all parental abilities and some require less than 20 minutes of help.

You will be prompted to volunteer for every event that your child attends, so please consider helping out in whatever way that you can. You can find the list of volunteer jobs on our website under VOLUNTEERS .

Expectations Although swimming is considered an individual sport, our summer league is structured with an emphasis on the team. Any team is only as good as the people on it. In keeping with our philosophy, our expectations are simple:

1. The Dunn Loring Dolphin Swim Team is not a swim lesson program. A swimmer should be able to swim a length of the pool to join the team. We don't care how fast or how ugly or how legal the stroke is or how long it takes to swim that length. We'll help your swimmer become a better swimmer, but in fairness to the other 200 plus swimmers on the team, we must insist that all swimmers be able to swim. Your child will feel better and his/her being on the team if he/she is competitive with most of the other kids of the same age. We do try to help the kids improve their strokes as much as possible during the practices but if you want your swimmer to really improve, you should consider lessons or private lessons.

2. Let us know if you're going to miss. We're planning on your kids being available for all swim meets unless you tell us you are not available. We will ask you to fill out an availability form for each swimmer and for each parent at the beginning of the season. If you say that you are going to come to the meet PLEASE make sure you come. It causes a lot of problems, and often hurt feelings when people don't show up.

3. Respect for the coaches. Parents need to talk to the team reps if they have any questions during practice. Please do not interrupt the coaches while they are coaching. The swimmers are expected to pay attention and respect the coaches: with over 200 swimmers, disruptions aren't fair to the other swimmers.

4. Doing your best is a lot more important than being the best.

5. Have FUN!

Chapter 2: Important Swim Basics

Practices Practice times are posted on the website, the Swim Team Calendar and Handbook. Swimmers should come to practice regularly and be prepared to do their best.

Swimmer Apparel Swimmers should wear a swimsuit that will be comfortable for racing. The Dolphins, like every other swim team, have a team suit. The wearing of the team suit is highly encouraged, but optional. There is a culture shock for some boys who first see the tight swimwear for boys. Usually, when they realize that this type of suit makes swimming so much easier and faster, and that everyone else is wearing one, their opposition breaks down.

You should also consider buying at least one practice suit for your swimmer. Swim Outlet and other area swimsuit retailers frequently sell suits discontinued by manufacturers at a reduced price as practice suits.

Accessories for the well-dressed swimmer Every swimmer needs a towel (labeled with their name, please!), a swimsuit and goggles. Other accessories to consider are a sweatshirt (for cool days), a swim cap (especially for girls with long hair), water bottle, sun screen, and a bag to carry everything. During swim meets, you should make sure your swimmer has a water bottle and a light snack such as fruit, granola bars or other healthy foods. There will be plenty of sweet treats at the concession stands.

Parent Season Welcome at the beginning of the season, we will post a welcome page on our website which provides information on schedules, social events, points of contacts, and other important details for the season. All of this information can also be found on the Swim Team website.

Dolphin Digest Every week, you will receive via email our weekly digest of the upcoming events. All that information will be available on the Swim Team Webpage that can be accessed through swim team tab on the Dunn Loring Pool website: www.dlsc.net

Chapter 3: Organizational Information

Dunn Loring Pool 

The Dunn Loring Swim Club, of which we are either members or summer users, owns the facilities that we use. Although each member of the swim team and dive team pays a fee in order to belong to the team, the pool membership also subsidizes these teams. The Club is governed by a Board Directors. To be a member of the swim team your family must own a membership or have paid to use the pool for the summer season (filling an inactive member's slot) and meet other Northern Virginia Swim League (NVSL) criteria.

Team Reps and Coaches 

The people you'll run into the most in your swim team dealings are the Team Reps and the Coaches. The Team Reps are volunteer parents who were new to swimming at one time just like you re today. The Team Reps are responsible to the Pool Board for running every aspect of the swim team and are the representatives of the Dunn Loring Team to other swim teams and NVSL. It's a job that is impossible to do without help from a great many parents. The Team Reps hire the Coaches (with the approval of the Pool Board), who are responsible to the team reps for the swimming portion of the swim team program. The Coaches that the Dolphins hire are past swim team members themselves. They too were once a new to swim team and know what swimmers go through.

Swim Leagues. 

Dunn Loring participates in both the NVSL and Vienna Developmental League:

Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL) was started in 1956, by 8 Northern Virginia Pools founded the NVSL, Today the NVSL is the largest summer swim team league in the United States with >100 teams. NVSL hosted meets include Saturday dual meets, Divisional Relays, All Star Relays, Divisionals, and Individual All Stars. More information on these meets is available under the Swim Meet 101 tab.  

The Vienna Developmental League consists of the Vienna area pools (Dunn Loring, Cardinal Hill, Vienna Aquatic, Shouse Village, Vienna Woods, Lakevale, and Hunter Mill). These pools have joined together to conduct un-scored swim meets on Monday nights. The idea is to provide a fun meet environment that the whole team can participate in. More information on these meets is available under the Swim Meet 101 tab.

USA Swimming 

This is the governing body for swimming in the United States, USA Swimming establishes rules for strokes and for the conduct of completion. The NVSL swimming rules are USA Swimming rules with minor changes to accommodate the facilities and skill levels for in our league. Swimmers' times from NVSL meets will not be reported to USA Swimming, although these times will be published on the NVSL website.

Chapter 4: Swim Stroke Basics

If you are not a former swimmer, the strokes and their rules can be a cause of bewilderment. While the stroke rules are simple, most people do not have a copy of the USA Swimming Rules, so we will briefly describe the strokes below. The rules are the USA Swimming rules as modified for use in the NVSL.

Freestyle The freestyle is defined as any means of swimming across the pool. Any stoke and kick are acceptable although most kids will do the Front Crawl stroke in the Freestyle race. Many people refer to the Front Crawl as the Freestyle stroke. There are, however, a few don'ts associated with this stroke, specifically:

1.You cannot push yourself forward off of the bottom, walk or pull yourself along using the lane lines

2. In a 50 Meter race (two pool lengths) you must touch the wall at the 25 meter end before touching the wall at the 50 meter end( this may seem obvious, but sometimes swimmers miss the wall at the turning end of the pool).

Backstroke Like the freestyle, almost anything goes on the backstroke as long as you stay on your back. Watching swimmers learn the backstroke is perverse sense of fun as they bounce off lane lines and wonder where they are. Eventually, they will learn to guide off the lane lines, use the overhead backstroke flags and the lane line markings to know where they're at in the pool, and count strokes from the flags to the wall.

Backstroke starts are different from all other because the swimmer is in the water feet planted against the wall and hanging on to either another person's legs (called "Legs") or the lip on the pool awaiting the starter's signal.

If your swimmer is a backstroker, he or she will eventually learn the backstroke flip turn. This is the one exception to staying on your back and can be used only as part of a turn (not a finish) at the pool wall.

Breaststroke The breaststroke has two components, the kick and the arm pull. The pull and its recovery must both be under the breast and cannot extend further back than the waist area. The kick is a frog kick and the toes must be pointed outward during the propulsive part of the kick. The arm pull and kick must be in an alternating sequence and the elbows must stay below the water except for tagging the wall at the finish. Breaststroke turns and finishes require a simultaneous two hand touch.

Butterfly A well -executed butterfly, known as "Fly" is the most beautiful exhibition of power you'll ever see in a swimming pool. Quite frankly, the fly is the hardest stroke for most swimmers to perfect and while they are learning it many look like they are drowning. There are two components of the fly; the arm pull and the kick. The arm pull must be an over the water recovery (elbows breaking the surface of the water) with the arms moving simultaneously. The kick is a dolphin style kick with both legs moving simultaneously. Unlike the Breaststroke, there is no requirement to alternate the kick and pull. Turns and finishes require a simultaneous two hand touch at the wall.

Individual Medley The individual medley (or IM) is when an individual swims each of the four strokes in the sequence Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle. We swim a 100 Meter IM, which means the 25 Meters, or one pool length, of each stroke is swum. In a 100 Meter IM, every turn is a stroke change and stroke finish rules apply. This means no backstroke flip turns.

Relays There are two kinds of Relays, the freestyle relay and medley relay. Both involve a team of four swimmers, each swimming one quarter of the total distance. In the freestyle relay, each swimmer swims the freestyle. In the medley relay, the sequence is Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Freestyle.

In all relays, each swimmer must wait until the previous swimmer touches the wall prior to leaving the deck. Running starts or pushes from teammates are not allowed.

Chapter 5: Enjoy your summer!

We hope that you will enjoy your summer on the Dunn Loring Swim Team.

Now - explore the swim team website and:

• Pick your Volunteer Positions
• Look at the Calendar, Team News and register for team meets & activities
• Order swim wear or swim products from the Spirit Wear Store

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the team reps at [email protected].