Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Stanley Zimin – Stanley impressed this week with his Butterfly work. Butterfly is a difficult stroke to manage the timing of and Stanley rocked that this week. Very proud of Stanley, keep up the hard work! – Coach Flo
Bee Cave: Zoe Gonzalez – This young lady has really caught my attention over the last month. Zoe’s focus and effort is why I chose her for swimmer of the week. She has made tremendous improvements in her strokes which follows a great attitude at practice. Zoe has worked hard to improve her underwater push offs as well as her breaststroke kick. I am very proud of the progress Zoe has made over the past few weeks! Keep it up! – Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Samar Panag – This week, Samar went above and beyond on his breaststroke work. First, he improved his body position, or body line, by keeping his head down while gliding. Second, he was demonstrating beautiful breaststroke turns, and finishing them with perfect underwater pullouts. Samar is always trying to figure out how to improve, asking what he needs to work on at the end of every practice. That’s dedication the coaches love to see. Keep it up Samar! – Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Connor McClune – You have to step out of the shadows sooner or later, sometimes it takes a couple of disappointing swim to get the swimmer to accept that a change is needed, and Connor had one of those meets. His response was to change training lanes, start going g first in the lane instead of fourth, and what we saw was a different young man in the water. Every push off this week was pushed to the fourth line, as he said “it’s right under the fruit loops!” and that makes every swim less strokes. It’s great to see this change, a tire face, but a big smile; the next meet will be a different result. Great job young man! – Coach Chuck
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Sarah Chu & Aravind Shandilya – Sarah always comes to practice with a great sense of humor and always knows how to entertain her group. In addition to that she always leads her lane, always watches her intervals, always volunteers to demonstrate and always wants to improve in her technique. Aravind was having some difficulty with his breaststroke kick recently and under instructions he immediately corrected his kick. Throughout his practice this week you could see him going from an incorrect kick to the correct one. Great to see an athlete TRYING! Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave: Mohana Chavan and Alan Xiao – Mohana did an excellent job mastering the correct breaststroke timing and used her glide to set up her next stroke. She stretched tall and got the most out of each stroke. Excellent job, Mohana, keep up the great work! Alan, overall, is a great kid to coach. He works hard and focuses on all parts of his stroke. When he shot across the pool on his breaststroke, it was clear that he understood how to use his kick and glide to maximize each stroke he took. Excellent job, Alan, see you at the pool!
Silver
Cedar Park: Sahithi Vemuri – Way go Sahithi! You have been selected for this week’s swimmer of the week. Day in and day out I see you work hard at practice and overcome the challenges set before you. What I am most impressed by is how you maintain such flawless technique throughout each practice. In all the strokes you have learned how your body works to move in most efficiently in the water. From you head position, body line and kick you’ve placed yourself in a good position to make it easier on your body, helping you to acquire speed and endurance. Keep it up! – Coach Ben
Bee Cave: Haruki Okuno – Congratulations to Haruki! This past week Haruki was very successful at practice this week. In particular, he has mastered the progression drills for Breaststroke we worked on and his tempo has become smoother and stronger. He also completed 7 lengths of the pool in our 3-Minute Flutter Kick Challenge! He is getting faster and faster each day and I am excited to see his progress. Way to go, Haruki! – Coach Lianne
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Tyler Douglas – Big props to Tyler Douglas! Tyler is a strong-willed kiddo who grew his arms and legs before he quite knew how to use them. He is a tall swimmer who has needed to focus most on coordination and flexibility, and this past week he’s shown that he’s ready to step up to the plate. Not only did Tyler look more determined than ever in dryland, but he even stayed and practiced some pretty difficult skills even after all his teammates left the dryland area. I was very impressed with how self-driven he was last week and can’t wait to see what he can accomplish in the future. Keep it up, Ty! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Brock Weaver – Brock, the modus operandi of Coach Felix for this journey is “be better everyday by 1% and you will reach the stars”. This kid has understood very well this concept. He’s always willing and ready to try every challenge we have in practice, and I am extremely impressed with the positive results we have achieved. Good job my friend. Keep it up that you’re going on the right track! FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!!! SI SI SI!!! – Coach Felix
Gold
Cedar Park: Maddie Davis – Maddie has been working extremely hard on pushing herself to that next level at practice. She specifically has been working on extending her underwater kicks and working on her breakouts in all strokes! I’m excited to see them in work at her next swim meet! – Coach Jeremy & Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Liv Hantgin – While I wasn’t able to be on deck for the full week this week, I heard only great reports back from the coaches on deck of how well Liv has stepped up and fit right with the group. She has made a great effort to work with her team mates and learn to push herself whether it is in a kick set or working as much butterfly as she can. I can’t wait to get Liv into a meet to start racing to see what she is capable of doing. I can see big things coming for Liv if she continues to enjoy practicing and loving the sport. – Coach Allison
