Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Ishaan Adoni and Devin Joubert
Intro CP worked on freestyle this week with big, relaxed arms and a fast breath. These two were awesome all around. Devin did a great job demonstrating the catch-up kickboard drill, especially the tall arms he used. A lot of new swimmers have trouble figuring out how to get a quick breath without turning their whole body over, but Ishaan’s got it! His hands have a great catch, too. Both these guys have been with Intro for about a month, and they’re fitting in just fine! Way to go! —Coach Lindsay
Bee Cave: Benjamin Choi
Woot woot! This young man has been doing some stellar things in the water since returning to Intro. Benjamin knocked freestyle week out of the park. He held a tight streamline during his underwaters and got them past the flags during each push-off. Benjamin kept a quick LOW breath during swordfish and catch-up freestyle drills. His low breath and tall arms were accompanied by a steady white-water kick. Way to go Benjamin! Keep it up! —Coach Raven
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Amanda Yin
Amanda comes to practice with a big smile on her face every day! She is always a leader including leading her lane. She has done a phenomenal job this past week working on her backstroke and has made some nice changes really making her backstroke faster. Keep it up Amanda! —Coach Dan
Bee Cave: Skyler Tseng
Skylar recently joined Nitro but has quickly made his mark! Although naturally quiet, he knows how to draw my attention with his streamlines. Skyler is a hard-worker and a respectful teammate. What’s interesting is how quickly I’ve seen results from his hard work. I swear he’s getting faster each practice – it’s incredible! Even though that sort of thing doesn’t last forever, Skyler has a good head on his shoulders, and I know his hard work will never cease. —Coach Jonny
Bronze
Cedar Park: Benicio Llorens
Ben has turned a corner this season, stepping up to be a leader in one of my Bronze groups. He is great with intervals, helps out his teammates, and has been working hard to fix some of the little things. This past week, he worked out on kinks on hos flip turns, like not breathing going into the flip and tight streamlines coming out from the turn. Awesome job, keep it up Big Ben! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Aradhana Arora
Aradhana shows great patience while working on her breaststroke, a very tall stretch with her head tucked under the arms, keeping the stroke count very low. When we pressed the pullouts off the blocks she still held a nice long glide really pushing the 3,2,1 rule even farther. This is going to make for some fast timed in meets. Coach Randy and I were very impressed how fast Aradhana is adjusting to the group and good her attention to detail has become. Great Job Young Lady! —Coach Chuck
Silver
Cedar Park: Samarveer Panag
I am honored to give him this award due to his excellent sportsmanship that was on display this weekend. Samar not only found out when his friend was swimming (his friend had recently moved to another section of our Silver program) and waited patiently to encourage and then congratulated his friend on a great swim. Not only was that kind hearted and what we love to promote at Nitro, but he also swam out of his mind and dropped almost 5 seconds in his breaststroke today! Way to go Samar! Can’t wait to see what else this season holds for you. —Coach Paige
Bee Cave: Naledi Dusing
The past few weeks, it seems Naledi’s cap finally decided to go on strike, which led us to the great cap debacle of 2017- I’m sure you’ve heard of it. But Naledi didn’t let that stop her. She turned the problem into an opportunity. Good cap, bad cap, torn cap, no cap, she knew she wanted to get better. And she did. If you know Naledi, she is a swimmer who won’t allow anything less than her best to go into the water, and you’d be hard pressed to watch her back off a challenge (going a 100 fly with 1 fin!). But she has also been impressing me with the little things lately, the small bits that make up the story – like having a tight streamline and underwaters off each wall, slowing down and focusing on drills, taking direction and applying the notes, even reading the clock when she led the lane.
Now it’s true, everything is a process. Swimming is a process. Life is a process. And although we are not defined by one moment, a few good ones certainly help us know who is who, and where we are heading. In the process of swimming, there hits a point where everything begins to come together, everything begins to click – I believe I saw that moment in Naledi this past week during one of our practices. During a last second impromptu Relay – Naledi jumped in trying to hold off a much older boy, and swam the FASTEST I had ever seen her. That moment, I got some goosebumbs.
It’s in moments like those, you see all the work that went into it. All the little things, come together, to create movement. And with Naledi’s work ethic and standards, I’m sure the momentum will only increase. Frankly, I’m just excited to see what she’ll do next. Great job Naledi! And keep it going!
Score –
Naledi = 1
Swim cap = 0
—Coach Nick
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Keean Daley
Keean shows up each day ready to learn something new. His willingness to attack each race at UT this week and consistently cool down in between races paid off. The work will begin to compound as he continues to take on bigger and bigger challenges. Keep grinding! —Coach Bobby
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Kylie Farris
Wow, what a weekend for Kylie! Kylie stepped up in a big way in many of her races at the TXLA meet this past weekend. Not only does she have tons of speed, she focuses in on the little things really well. She gets off the blocks quickly, maintains speed extremely well through her turns, and can finish a race like no other. She not only impressed me, but a few of the other coaches this weekend also. Way to go Kylie! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Kyan Allex
Kyan Allen has been hungry this past week. He has shown a clear drive to work hard lately and it is certainly standing out. Swimmers grow best when they compare their effort to their past performances and it seems like Kyan is pushing harder every day. Great job and let’s make this an even greater season, Kyan! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Caleb Bui
Wow oh wow!! Caleb, you showed a brand new side of your competitiveness this weekend! I was thoroughly impressed with the speed I saw from you, as well as the HUGE smile on your face throughout the entire meet. It sounds funny, but you’re growing up before my eyes, and I can’t be more excited to continue to watch you progress. I am hoping this write up shows you how excited and proud I am, and can’t wait to continue to work with you! —Coach Allison