Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Simrah Khan, Ethan Ho and Alex Craig
There were a lot of standouts during butterfly this week and I saw some fantastic body waves. I have to hand it to Ethan though for his superb head and body position. This is a hard concept to grasp, but Ethan kept his head down, arms over his ears and pressed his chest and hips. Alex jumped into body wave work and showed great interest in wanting to do the skill correctly, which was so awesome to see. He slowed down his kicks and finished with long, straight butterfly arms that were spot on. I am so impressed with both these guys this week—way to go! And then there was Simrah. During Friday’sIntro groups, Simrah was following a teammate who lost a fin. Simrah never hesitated, didn’t wait to be told, Simrah went to the bottom of the pool, retrieved the fin, and delivered it to her teammate. Awesome to see such kindness!! —Coach Lindsay
Bee Cave: Luke Wilson
Luke joined into at the beginning of the school year and has shown me nothing but hard works smiles. From day one he was ready to jump right in and start learning. He picks up on the drills and technique quickly. Luke has definitely caught my attention on our warm-up kick set; he leads his lane with confidence and excitement. Everything presented to Luke—underwater streamline push-offs, catch-up freestyle, swordfish drill, backstroke finishes—he successfully learns and demonstrates. Way to go Luke; keep it up buddy! —Coach Raven
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Kaden Siltberg
We did a lot of kicking this week, and hands down Kaden rocked it. Right from the beginning of our kick set, you could tell he wanted to be as fast as he could. That turned out to be pretty fast, but he didn’t let up and consistently held under 1:20 for a 75 kick. Way to go, Kaden—keep up the hard work! —Coach Lindsay
Bee Cave: Isabela Whiteley
Isa just joined TF in September and already made it on the top 10 list for our kick set! I can’t believe the raw talent she has. Her streamlines are tight, her underwaters are fast, her head position is excellent, and her technique is just amazing! Isa also works her hardest every single practice. She’s constantly putting forth her best effort, and it does not go unnoticed! On top of all this, Isa’s attitude is outstanding – always coming with a smile, respectful to her teammates, and listening to her coaches. She’s a model swimming citizen for the rest of us to emulate! —Coach Jonny
Bronze
Cedar Park: Tanvee Athavale
Tanvee has been impressing me more and more in practice each week, but she got swimmer of the week for her efforts at the TXLA swim meet this past weekend! At a big meet with a lot going on, Tanvee handled herself very well. Even after one of her turns didn’t go as planned on the 100 IM, she came back stronger than ever on her next races. I saw Tanvee trying her best, but more importantly she was having a lot of fun! Way to go Tanvee! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Mia Singletary
The everyday struggle of swim practice can sometimes hide a true gem of a swimmer, all the groups push each and every swimmer, they get tired, loose focus, make mistakes, all part of learning. The Coaches wonder if the training is working, are we helping each swimmer to grow, get better, have fun learning how to race. This weekend Mia took on a large challenge for a 10 year old swimming 3 out of the first four events! The 100 IM started off with loosing her goggles on the start, then in the breaststroke she lost her cap, by the end of the race hair down her back she still dropped over 5 seconds! She came right back into the 50 free and dropped over 3 seconds. Took off one event and then jumped into the 50 breaststroke with another drop of over 4 seconds! This shows her coach the kind of heart this young lady has, nothing stopped here from pushing to the finish, no distractions, just racing and big smiles at every finish! What a great meet! Great Job Young Lady! —Coach Chuck
Silver
Cedar Park: Riley Nguyen
This week at practice, I challenged the team with a set of 5-6×100’s on various intervals, depending on what was best for each athlete. The whole team did very well, and it makes me giddy as a coach for the season; however, it was Riley Nguyen that FAR exceeded my expectations for this set! Riley also presents a champion-type attitude at practice each day and it is certainly standing out. Great job and looking forward to see you compete soon, Riley! —Coach Paige
Bee Cave: Pace Jung
Pace is probably one of the most gentle and good spirited individuals, who I believe could beat me up if it came down to it. That is not a challenge, but I’m just stating fact. Ok, lets straighten that out right now. FACT! This girl is TOUGH. and she shows it day after day, whether it’s coming back from a viscous nosebleed, or from the way she pushes herself on every set, you know you are going to have turn on some boosters to outwork her.
Now, Pace has always been the ideal teammate – nice and kind to those around her, a good listener, diligent hard worker, focused and driven, but over the past few weeks Pace has made some great strides not only in her technique, but her racing tempo – bringing out the BEAST MODE. With all these pieces coming together, you just knew something special was going to happen. And it did this weekend at the TXLA swim meet.
So cue – The meet. Pace dropped down race after race of dominant performances, and each looked better than the last. Great arm speed and powerful strokes in the FR, Consistent driving kicks on BK, good shoot and getting her head down in BR, quick breath in FLY, fast walls and past the flags underwater – just couldn’t ask for more! needless to say, I was dancing on the deck. and when you make coach Nick dance, you know something BIG just went down.
No meet is perfect. There will always be a few hiccups and things to correct, moments of triumph and moments of learning, times for hi-fives and times for consoling, it’s all a part of the process. And make no mistake about it, when it comes to progression, I believe you can learn more from a bad race than a good one. But sometimes it’s good to throw all that out, to take a step back and just say – great job. So Pace, GREAT JOB!
You hard work is paying off, and I know we are only going to keep it going. Keep rocking and rolling! —Coach Nick
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Sienna Chozick
Sienna rocked it at TXLA10 & Under kick-off. She started the day off with a stellar 20+ second drop in the 100 IM for her first B time and kept plugging away throughout the day with some big drops in each event. I ask my swimmers after almost every race: what is something that went well? Sienna liked the steady kick in her backstroke but was nervous about her flip turns into the bulkhead (they can be tricky!). So she put together a dozen turns in the warm-up pool before her race to ensure that her stroke count was indeed 5 before confidently carrying it out in the race. Instead of just guessing, she put in the extra effort necessary to really execute. To me this embodies: SMALL THINGS, ALL THINGS. And that’s what is at the core excellence. Keep with the grit, Sienna! —Coach Bobby
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Haley Tisdale
A great outing at the San Antonio meet from Haley! Haley may not be the most confident in her abilities, but she went down to a meet without her lead coach there and swam her heart out. Best time after best time, and glowing reports from the coaches that where there. Haley is starting to realize how much talent and potential she has, and I can’t wait to see where her hard work takes her this season! Way to go Haley, keep it up! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Philippe Diaz
Philippe Diaz has flipped his GO switch to ON! Philippe has really improved his athletic attitude at practice this past week. He has been working harder and made some great changes in his freestyle, but what really stood out was his performance at the TXLA meet. Philippe isn’t the loudest of kiddos around, but there were multiple times that I heard cheering for swimmers only to find a group of Gold II athletes at the edge of the pool with Philippe at the helm. Great job being a teammate others are lucky to have, Philippe! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Gillian Tetzlaff
Gillian is so naturally talented in the water. Every time she is able to make it to practice she is giving it her all, and listening to the focus points of each set. This past week she was such a great teammate. I saw her high fiving her team mates after sets and listening for whenever I yelled good job to someone to make sure they got an extra little high five from her! Outside of her stellar behavior she is just an all around genuine person and teammate and I am glad to have her be apart of Nitro! —Coach Allison