Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Nikita Vasilyev & Cady Goone – During a brief review of breaststroke this past week, Nikita raised his hand politely and asked if it was OK to do an underwater pullout. The Coaches all looked at each smiling — and said “Absolutely!” Great to see carryover from lessons learned the week before. Nikita went on to demonstrate that skill in front of his group. Cady represents all what we love about coaching the Intros— always positive, with an attitude that can’t help but brighten up the room. Way to go you two! – Coach Ben, Coach Darren & Coach Mike
Bee Cave: Evangelia Spadini & Daniel Alpatov – Evangelia has done a great job with her stroke improvement. This week I noticed that she is attentive and works really hard. Evangelia also does a really good job of being kind to her teammates and making sure they feel welcome. Daniel had to stop swimming for awhile because he had his arm in a cast. He came back and didn’t miss a beat. He still swims with a waterproof cast, but it doesn’t faze him. He still swims super fast!! Well done and keep it up Evangelia and Daniel!! – Coach Sarah
Bronze
Cedar Park: Olivia Brown – I have known Olivia since she was just a beginner in the Nitro lessons pool, and it is awesome to see how much she has grown. She always pushes herself in practice and has proven her dedication by showing up to multiple meets! Just this week, Olivia nailed her backstroke flip turns we worked a lot on, and showed some beautiful under-waters off the wall. Keep up the great work Olivia! –Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Luke Rieder – Watching Luke jump off the walls, with no effort at all, is like watching one of our TAGS swimmers! We talk about how the head position is the key to everything, push off in the correct streamline, head tucked under the arms and you know that swimmer is comfortable doing what is needed underwater. Luke never cuts it short on his push offs and never shows any soft elbows, just great body lines and good hard swimming! Even coach Peter commented, “looks like he’s ready to make the big breakthrough!” Great job young man! – Coach Chuck
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Bethany Kwan & Andrew Bui – They both really stepped up their game and showed us great improvements in technique and endurance. Bethany had great progress in her butterfly and her timing of when to breathe and when to put her head down was spot on. Andre!!!!!!!! YOU’RE DIVING!!!! No more face plants, no more red chests, no more “Oww that really hurts.” Great job on keeping your head down and focusing on your body position. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Chloe Jiang – With the upcoming meet, this week’s focus was on flip turns and open turns. Chloe does a great somersault, but was having a bit of trouble getting her feet planted on the wall to push off. After having her look at some of the other swimmers to show her what I was talking about, it all made sense to her. The rest of her flip turns that day looked great! Chloe does great open turns, and demonstrated for the rest of the team during practice. She’s come a long way since coming back to Nitro after a bit of a break. Excellent work this week, Chloe! – Coach Peter
Silver
Cedar Park: Chad Park & Sophia Carey – It only seems right to recognize both of these swimmers, because without fail, they both tend to show up to practice even before me! But it was what happened during practice from both of them that caught my eye. Chad tremendously upped his kicking game – keeping the effort going all the way to the walls, pushed himself during longer sets, and really stood out when we worked under waters off flip turns – consistently kicking out strongly well past the flags! Sophia rarely takes it easy on sets, and loves challenges – which is why it was no surprise that when we had back to back races at the end of practice, she embraced her inner beast mode, went after it, and even dropped time! Both these swimmers are good examples of the kind of spirit we want at Nitro, and with their work ethic, we can only expect bigger and better things. Keep it up guys! – Coach Nick
Bee Cave: Casey Wei – Sometimes a swimmer feels more comfortable swimming in a lane where they can be third or fourth, cruise along with the other swimmers, this happens for many reasons, maybe your the youngest person on the lane, or it could be other swimmers might be bigger and stronger, but this should never stop your training, or your focus on improvement. Casey was prompted to come to practice and stand six feet tall in the water, and I must say there is not a single person in Silver who is taller in the water than Casey! This past week every time the group swam a repeat Casey was the leader, he worked on every aspect of his stroke and pressed the intervals faster and faster, to the point where now his lane must chase him! Casey always has a smile, no matter how hard the set is and this week he put smiles on the coaches faces! Keep up this great work young man! – Coach Chuck
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Annabelle Chang – Annabelle has done a commendable job not only coming to almost every practice, but making every practice count. She has grown tremendously as a swimmer while in the group and it’s paying off. Not only has she gotten much faster, but it’s evident she’s more confident in herself and her abilities and she holds her head high at the pool. I love the hard work you put in each and every day, Annabelle! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Cherry Wang – Cherry, this past week you came determined to make the difference and I have no doubt you made it. I can say that you experienced such a huge increase in your CONFIDENCE and your swimmer spirit became bigger and unique. Your excellent swim during the last practice of the week on Saturday was the perfect moment to close with a flourish. Without a doubt, you are the Swimmer of the Week. Keep it up Cherrie! Good job! FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS..SI SI SI!!! – Coach Felix
Gold
Cedar Park: Samantha Faulkner – Samantha is a great example to have in the Gold group! She is consistent in her attendance and works really hard to make corrections coaches send her way. Samantha has a great positive attitude and always seems to enjoy herself in the pool, even through the toughest sets! We are really excited to see her progress! – Coach Adam & Coach Jeremy
Bee Cave: Taylor Ashbaugh – Taylor has always been a hard worker, day in and day out. She was able to swim herself to an A time a few weeks ago here in Austin. With that A time she was able to qualify for the COR meet that took place this last weekend. At COR Taylor came out of nowhere dropping another 3 seconds from her time. She ended up making finals that night. This is a classic story of hard work does pay off. Thank you Taylor for being a great example and continuing to work hard. – Coach Allison
That’s it for now. Thanks for being a part of Nitro, and we’ll see you at the pool! Coach Mike.