Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Sophia Foster, Marshall Key, and Jason Li
This past week was backstroke week, and the groups looked awesome in the water. We focused on two main words when it comes to their backstrokes: Tempo and Confidence. Every group looked great by the end of their practices. I chose Sophia, Marshall, and Jason for not only their Tempo and Confidence, but also their long bodylines, steady heads, and their willingness to jump out of their comfort zones to demonstrate in front of their groups. Keep it up and get ready for Butterfly week this week! —Coach Mike
Bee Cave: Paige Helm
Last week, Intro wrapped up butterfly week and began focusing on breaststroke kick. Paige excelled in both strokes. She did a superb job with the rhythm of butterfly—getting her head down during “kick-reach” and taking a quick breath during “kick-breathe”. Paige nailed the breaststroke kick and did a great job gliding at the end of the kick. This cutie never steps on deck without a huge smile on her face. Paige’s light-heartedness and enthusiasm has captured all of the coaches’ attention. Thank you Paige for sharing your joy and love for swimming! Keep up the hard work! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Hannah Wilsan and Smriti Narayanan
These girls shared swimmer of the week honors for their work at the 11 and over End of School Splash swim meet. At a big meet with a lot of fast kids, both girls showed up ready to swim their best. Hannah show off her sprinting skills on Saturday with some fast 50’s, while Smriti competed both Saturday and Sunday, showing off her composure on some longer 100’s. Way to go girls, great showing this weekend! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Katherine Liu
What makes the difference in swimmers? What are the signs that a swimmer is ready for a move? Sometimes it’s simple, you see a swimmer far out in front of the group, maybe their turns and underwaters are as good as some of the higher groups, or maybe you see a swimmer now kicking as fast as they swam in the last meet! Now how about a swimmer that is showing all of these traits! Say hello to Katherine Liu, but you had better do it quick because she is moving to Silver June 1st. This young lady is going to be coach Peter’s go to girl when he needs someone to demonstrate almost anything. This last week watching her kick four 100 holding them under 1:45 was just amazing! Katherine thank you for giving me your very best every practice, Great Job young lady! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Ashlee Main and Aryan Sinha
We worked a great deal on hand and fingertip placement regarding our arm entry. These two really excelled at paying attention and listening to the details. Nice job on the freestyle kick set as well. Fast and furious kicking holding the board correctly and great 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: Katie Chang
Katie is the type of kid that makes your day just by her presence. She’s very smiley and respectful. Her attitude is always positive, and this week it was much appreciated. We had a new girl join the group – I knew I could count on Katie to make her feel welcomed. She helped her with all the little things that would make anyone feel a part of the group. Katie is naturally hospitable – very kind and friendly! You’d know why I’m using so many adjectives if you met her 🙂 On the swimming side of things, Katie’s great technique has been achieved by hard work and focus. Through practice and private lessons, Katie has made strides unprecedented in my experience with TF. I couldn’t be more proud of her! —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Anish Joshi
This week Anish Joshi impressed us all with his outstanding breaststroke technique. Anish has had a good grasp of what his body needs to do in order to make his breaststroke efficient. And this week as he and I worked on fine-tuning this somewhat, he has taken it to a whole new level. He has little to no head movement through his pull, he accelerates the hands through the pull shrugging his shoulders towards the finish, lunges his body forward, and has a phenomenal kick. Keep up your hard work, Anish! I’m so proud of your effort and what you’ve accomplished so far this year. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Gabriel Boyer
Gabriel had some really nice swims this past weekend at the 2017 ST TXLA 11&Over End of School Splash, shattering all of the seed times I entered for him. This was his first meet as a Nitro swimmer, and he absolutely crushed it. Gabriel always works extremely hard in practice, and it’s so great to see that hard work pay off in a meet. He’s got a bright future as a swimmer, and I am excited to help him get there! Great job, Gabriel! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Isabel Liu
Isabel has been working extremely hard since recently joining our group. This season she has made a commitment to have excellent underwaters, and her commitment is paying off – at practice and at meets. Isabel is an up and coming talent to come for sure! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Gracie Yocum
Gracie is an awesome athlete to have in the group. Sometimes it takes a little tough love, but she will work hard and get the job done each day. Gracie competed at the End of School Splash swim meet, and her hard work paid off, as she pulled off her first ever “A” time in the 400 free, setting herself up to get a couple more in upcoming meets. Gracie was aggressive, wasn’t scared to go out fast, something we have been talking about for some time. Awesome job Gracie, keep up the great work! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Rachel Miller
Rachel has improved tremendously since joining this season, particularly with her kicking speed. She is becoming a confident athlete, and while I’m happy to answer any questions, she’s listening better and asking fewer and fewer questions after being given a set. I have no doubt Rachel is only going to get faster and it’s neat to see her personally take charge of her training. Keep pushing, Rachel! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Aidan Burt
Whooohoooo Aidan! With just moving up to a new age group, it is always a challenge to balance out everything new from time standards, to racing, to simply just stepping up your game. Aidan did all of these this past weekend while watching him race at the TXLA 11&O meet. It is one of his first meets as an 11 year old, and boy did he rock it! I was super impressed with his attention to detail and how well he listened to the details before and after his race. Way to go dude! —Coach Allison
Thanks for being a part of Nitro, and I’ll see you at the pool! Coach Mike.