Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Praneel Hurry
Praneel is one of the hardest working kids in Intro. He always wants to better himself as a swimmer and be the best he can be. This week Intro worked on backstroke and what it meant to have good body positioning in the water. Praneel did a great job with his body positioning and hand placement in the water. Great job Praneel, keep it up! —Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Mia Wilson
Mia is one of those swimmers you look forward to coaching. She constantly wants to improve her technique and strength. Mia’s underwater streamline push-offs are some of the best in the group. This week Intro worked on butterfly; Mia led the group with her body waves (butterfly kicks), keeping her legs together, hips up, and eye looking down. She really got a feel for the butterfly rhythm when our “kick-reach, kick-breathe” drill was introduced. The only thing Mia might love more than swimming is giving wet hugs at the end of practice. Thank you Miss Mia for sharing your joy for swimming with me! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Viara Doichiev
When Viara first joined Bronze, there were many new tasks that challenged her. Backstroke flip-turns was one of those, but this week she made them look easy. Viara stayed fast into the wall, used her stroke count perfectly, and executed beautiful turns. Viara has also greatly improved her dives, gaining confidence each time she comes off the blocks. Viara is a girl you can always count on to show up to practice with a smile on her face, ready to have fun. Way to go, Viara! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Sophia Rodgers
Great work by this young lady, her turns are getting very strong, she has been focused on fighting to get as far as she can off the walls and using a bigger stronger fly kick. Learning how to race better means tapping into an emotional control, teaching your body to work past the pain and discomfort. Sophia out of breath has learned to push one or two more kicks when she would have surfaced a few months ago. This is a big step! Bronze trains to clear each Red zone, every swimmer as they gain strength and confidence explores their limits and Sophia has been pushing to the fruit loops so well its time for her to move to Silver! Great job young lady! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Iliana Tangarova and David Ng
Great job on the butterfly work this past week. Head position was really excellent as well as your hands and arm entry. Great use of including your core flexibility. In addition to swimming you guys just have an all around positive attitude whenever at the pool. Great positive energy and it shows. Thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Jared Wang
Jared is my hard and steady leader. He’s always respectful, always paying attention, and ALWAYS trying his best. This week was no exception. Jared not only learned advanced push-offs and open turns, but he even helped those around him who seemed to be struggling. I don’t only see Jared as a good swimmer though; I also see him as a kid with character worth emulating. We often think we should look up to someone older than us; but, sometimes, we should look up to someone younger than us (Matthew 18:3-4). I look up to Jared! —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Patrick Lemuel
Patrick did a fantastic job this past week as we worked on the timing of our breaststroke. We went over how we should keep the knees inside the line of the body as we kick and snapping the legs together to finish. We also talked about shooting the hands forward as if they were racecars. Patrick’s breaststroke has become so much more efficient as he continues to work on his timing and kick. He also has an awesome underwater pullout that stretches from the wall to the fruit loops. Way to go, Patrick! Keep working hard. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Jill Messersmith
Our main focus this week was our backstroke head position by putting cups on our forehead and doing various drills on our back. I saw such a great improvement from all of the Silver swimmers, but Jill definitely stuck out to me. Our goal for backstroke is to rotate our body while our head stays completely still, and it looked like Jill glued the cup to her forehead because that thing was not moving. Even when we did our full-stroke backstroke, Jill did such a great job keeping her head and the cup completely still. Great job this week, Jill! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Sabrina DeFranco
It is neat to see Sabrina train and learn at practices, as I can tell she is thinking through the technique and always gives it her all. Sabrina also has a very focused yet relaxed approach to swimming when it comes time to race, which is a superb skill that will help her for many years to come. I am extremely pleased with her success so far this season, and I look forward to her next meet. Congratulations, Sabrina. GO Nitro! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Jeremy Kelly
Jeremy has only been in the Gold group for a month or so, but he has been pushing himself to new heights every day. Jeremy has worked to improve his turns and his endurance as he gets used to the workload. All his efforts showed this past weekend at the Jungle Bell Splash meet, as he came away with life time best swims in all his events, winning almost all of them in his age group. Jeremy has a bright future ahead of him, keep an eye on this guy! Keep it up Jeremy! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Dillon Shadowen
Dillon is a true racer. As soon as he turns his engine on, that gas pedal stays all the way down. Dillon has bounced back from little league shoulder this season and is now 100% healthy – evident by his huge drops this weekend at the Jingle Bell Splash. There’s something special in him and it’s a lot of fun to see his growing success. Way to go, Dillon! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Anya McCallum
Yes! She raced, she finally raced! Anya was able to compete this weekend, and not only dropped oogles of time, but she did all of the little things well. She swim straight down the middle, no circle swimming, used her kick, and she worked so very hard to show that she was racing with fire in her belly. It was evident that she has been working hard and has done a great job at practice. I loved seeing the smile on her face, and the positivity she carried after her races. Way to go! —Coach Allison
Thanks for being a part of Nitro, and we’ll see you at the pool! Coach Mike.