Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Varsha Rao – Intro focused a lot this week on perfect streamlines off the wall every single time. Varsha made it past the flags every single time in a perfect streamline position. Varsha is always paying attention to the small details in order to make herself a better swimmer. Congratulations Varsha! Keep up the great work! –Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Paige Helm – One of the youngest Intro swimmers, Paige is also one of the strongest. She walks on deck smiling and laughing, and she leaves the exact same way. Her passion for the sport of swimming is endless. This week, Paige worked to understand the butterfly rhythm—focusing on two kicks with each pull. Joining Intro at the beginning of the summer, she has made tremendous improvements on her underwatersx and butterfly stroke. Way to go Paige! – Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Kyan Allen – Kyan has been stepping it at practice, pushing himself more than he used to. This week, instead of focusing on one stroke, we did some work on our 100 IM turns, preparing us to swim some IM’s at the end of the week. Kyan not only demonstrated really great turns, he made them look easy. After mastering the turns, he set his sights on the underwaters, tightening up his streamline and getting as many powerful kicks as possible. Awesome job Kyan! – Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Eli Sefcik – Six year old Eli has made a great transition into the Bronze Group, he has done a great job as well working the Long Course mornings, but this weekend he found a whole new purpose to train even better. Eli has yet to swim a sanctioned meet outside Nitro, so to drive all the way to Corpus Christi sit for hours and wait to do a time trial in the 50 free, his race was outstanding! He attacked the swim right from the horn, strong arms, big kick, quick breath, and a whole group of Nitro parents and swimmers cheering him on, with a final time of 53.26! The biggest smile and nothing but high fives all around. His swim was an inspiration to everyone who watched! Great job young man! – Coach Chuck
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Vy Truong & Rod Alcos – Vy has shown great improvement in her technique in the water especially in her butterfly with her arm exit and entry. More importantly she ALWWAYS rushes to our group if a bit late and is ready to get in the pool. Rod has AMAZING underwater streamlines. I’ve been watching swimming at the Olympics and have always thought that there goes Rod off each wall. Great body alignment and head position. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave: Bryce Clayton – Bryce is fairly new to Nitro, but he’s been doing an outstanding job in practice. This week’s focus was open turns with some breaststroke pullouts added in. Bryce did a great job familiarizing himself with the open turn as well as adding in the all important dolphin kick to his breaststroke pullout. He and several other swimmers were consistently getting to the fourth line in their pullout off of their open turn. It has been great to see Bryce put in hard work in practice and seeing it pay off. Great job, Bryce! – Coach Peter
Silver
Cedar Park: TiJim Fauver & Dylan Harrison – TiJim from last week’s practice. In addition to encouraging his team mates, I could tell he was concentrating on making his freestyle stroke as long as possible. Not only does he push himself, but others in his lane to go faster and work harder. Thanks TiJim for bringing a smile to everyone’s face and challenging us all to do our best! – This first week was great getting to know the Silver group. One swimmer in particular who really impressed me was Dylan. During each and every set I could hear him encouraging and helping his team mates. As we reviewed fundamentals of freestyle this week, I could see Dylan putting into practice longer arms, rotation from the hips, and faster, stronger 6 beat kicks. It’s not every day that you have a swimmer who strives in every practice to do better, but this week that is exactly what I saw from Dylan. Way to go, Dylan! Your encouraging, positive attitude is much appreciated by your peers and your coach. – Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Lily You – I am so proud of Lily’s improvements in Silver this summer. She does a great job paying attention to the details of drills and is never afraid to ask questions so she understands what to do. I appreciate her positive energy during practices, and I can’t wait to see her continue to succeed when she moves up to Advanced Silver this Fall. Great job, Lily! – Coach Lianne
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Maddie Worley – Whether she knows it or not, Maddie has swimming in her blood. We coaches have all seen her potential, and after this weekend at JR STAGS, it looks like she’s ready to light the fire. Maddie came away from the meet with a staggering 5 new BB cuts – and she was even knocking at the door on some A times! The most impressive part of her performance wasn’t even in the water – it was her confidence on deck. She was clearly on a mission to take care of business. Keep running on all cylinders, Maddie! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Wenchan Xue – Wenchan has earned this award based on her attitude and consistency in training, both technically and aerobically. She is definitely ready to see where she can go in this sport. She is a example of a leader: good at listening and making the correct application of stroke guidance. Good Job, Wenchan! – Coach Paige
Gold
Cedar Park: Gannon Flynn – After training hard over the summer, Gannon had a really great end to the long course season this past weekend at Junior STAGS. Not only did he get best times in almost every event, he cam home with 2 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals. In a couple of his events, Gannon did what the coaches don’t want to see…look at the other swimmers! Seeing his competitors next to him only made him more determined, pushing him towards some incredible finishes. Way to go Gannon! –Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Julia Carter – Julia has such a great heart for the sport of swimming. I was able to work with her a little more one on one this past week and I was able to see how receptive she was to making changes to her stroke. It is awesome to see the swimmer listening to what the coach is giving them and taking it to the next step to make the change in the water. Julia is competing at Jr. Stags this weekend, and I am for sure that she will give it her all with determination and fire in her belly. I am excited to see her results, as I can tell that she truly cares about all the work she has been able to put in the past few weeks. – Coach Allison