Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Karina Choy and Dhaani Gohel
Intro CP worked on backstroke this week, focusing on shoulder rotation and “thumb out, pinky in”. Karina’s backstroke looked strong all around, from rotating shoulders to perfecting the teacup drill, but her underwater push-offs with 5 dolphin kicks were the most impressive! I already know what Dhaani is going to ask me after practice before she even opens her mouth—’how did I do?’ She demonstrated one-armed backstroke for the group this week with GREAT rotation and had nice tall arms. Most importantly, she is always eager to learn and improve! Awesome job, girls! —Coach Lindsay
Bee Cave: Ella Mitchell, Thandi Dusing, and Justin Chen
These three kiddos have made great strides since joining Intro! Every time I watch these three swim, I’m more and more impressed. Ella is focused and driven, all while having fun. Two weeks ago, I instructed Ella and Thandi to do EIGHT butterfly kick underwater for backstroke because five was simply not enough for them—both girls crushed my challenge. Both girls make butterfly look easy. Ella’s butterfly recovery arms nearly reach the lane lines they’re so straight! Thandi’s butterfly rhythm is spot on! Thandi took a small break during the summer and came back even stronger. Justin has been doing Nitro’s Summer Rec program; I have seen him not only improve all four stroke but also really develop a love for swimming. When told he would be advancing to Bronze, he could not wait to start swimming three days a week. I’m going miss his big smile and bright greeting as he arrives on the pool deck. All three of these swimmers will be moving to Bronze because of their hard work and effort. I cannot wait to see what wonderful things they accomplish this season! Keep it up; I am so very proud! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Jonah Sung
Another great week in the books for Jonah! As it was breaststroke week, I knew Jonah would excel. He has a naturally powerful kick, but he is also starting to understand the stable head position and the way you body moves to keep the hips up. Jonah has also been working to fix things on his freestyle and backstroke to make them a little more steady. A great demonstrator and an even better listener, way to go Jonah! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Zoie Burgess
I always know when a swimmer makes a move or step in the right direction, they finally trust their body line and length in the water, the splashing lessens, the stroke count shrinks down to only a few, the kick grows bigger and stronger, and what is left is this tall good looking butterfly, the same butterfly that Zoie finished the week with, it was just great to watch! Keep pushing that kick just as hard as you can young lady it will take you to Silver faster than you know. Great Job young lady! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Ria Modi and Elijah Kennedy
Awesome job this past week working on your freestyle and backstroke flip turns. Elijah spent some time with Coach Claire and we really saw some great results between the two. Fantastic! Ria…in addition to her flip turns busted out an amazing butterfly at the end of practice. Arms clearing the pool and fingertips up. Great job you guys, thanks for being a part of Nitro, and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Marcus Lapina
Marcus, this is long overdue my man. This is also the first SOW I’ve addressed to you, the recipient. Thank you. Thank you for being respectful. Thank you for working hard. Thank you for being a leader. Thank you for encouraging others even when they pass you. Thank you for being a big advocate for the YouTube videos. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your obedience. Thank you for letting me be your coach. Most importantly, thank you for your integrity. Marcus, thank you. —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Katherine Berntsen
Katherine Berntsen is relatively new to Silver in that she’s been with me less than 6 months. In that time she has become quite a leader amongst her teammates exemplifying a strong work ethic and dedication to technique. This week she made sure after every turn to hit her streamline and under waters off the walls, something that I STRESS with this group. Whatever skill we are working on, I see Katherine always giving it her best shot. She is a go-getter for sure, and seizes every opportunity she can to better herself, including taking Portuguese lessons just for fun. I’m not sure how to say ‘Way to Go’ in Portuguese, so I guess English will have to do for now. Nice job, Katherine. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Katherine Cui
Silver did a LOT of work on open turns this week, both on the “elbow your brother, call your mother” open turn and the “ear to ear” open turn. Katherine got so much better at her open turns this week! Not only did her technique improve, but her turn is lightning fast now! She is just one of those swimmers that gets it. I even had her demonstrate the “ear to ear” open turn for the group because hers looked so good. Turns are such an important part of swimming, and Katherine at only seven years old, has some of the best turns in the Silver group. Kudos, Katherine! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Logan Schaefer
I love that Logan is excited, consistent and works hard at practice. He comes prepared and ahead of time – eager to gives his best daily. Logan is also a positive person to have around the pool and is an asset to the group. No matter what set we are working on, Logan gets the job done, with a huge smile on his face showing his love for getting better and cheering for his teammates. Those characteristics, along with developing superior skills, led to him crushing his swims at Junior STAGS! Way to Logan! —Coach Paige
Gold 1 & 2
Gold 1 CP: Grace Yocum
Another great season in the books for Gracie. After coming a long way over the short course season, she has come even further this summer. Not only has she grown as a swimmer, she has matured tremendously, finding ways to stay positive even if the outcome isn’t what she wanted. Gracie competed and STAGS and Junior STAGS at the end of this season, and you can see how much her hard work paid off. Keep it up Gracie, can’t wait to see what the future holds for you! —Coach Adam
Gold 2 CP: TAGS Swimmers
This week is a special recognition that goes out to all Gold II TAGS swimmers. You’ve trained all season to bring a larger 10&U group to TAGS and you all competed beautifully. Lots of smiles, lots of cheering, and LOTS of fast swimming. Congratulations to: Alex Jiampietro, Amy Park, Marcus Pineiro, Victoria Vujosevic, Gannon Flynn, Kayla Gonzalez, Chloe Issa, Niko Kundivich, Ian Redmond, and Buttercup Rowe. —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Casey Wei
Casey was put in quite an interesting spot this past weekend. He was lucky to compete at TAGS on a few of our 10&U relays. During one of those relays that took place on Sunday, Casey was asked to swim twice on this relay. While this is not allowed, and the relay was DQed the boys on the relay all stood up to race like they were at the Olympics. Casey swam the backstroke and freestyle legs of the 200 Medley Relay. He went two best times and helped his team finish the race. It was quite endearing to see how much the boys actually loved the race, and I am positive it is one they will remember. —Coach Allison