Coaches
Please check our new Club Entry Form under Events.
USC – NEWS
Dear Parents and Swimmers,
Training:
We should all have settled back into training and pushing our bodies really hard.
Just to reiterate our schedule a bit more, as of last week we have now dropped WED PM training and added WED AM training instead, this is for all JNR and SNR squads.
Please note that as of MON 10th of June we have now added MON AM to the weekly plan.
The idea behind the weekly progression, is to serve as a nice mid week break for SNRS in particular, to have an evening off to catch up on homework and spending time with family, which I believe is really important in the success of any athlete, and for the JNRS is a great way to integrate them into morning workouts, which is essential to their long term swimming success. This concept will also assist me in the progression of swimmers mileage and frequency of training throughout the season.
I realize that the mornings can be quite cold, but generally once the swimmers arrive they get straight into the water and are warm within a couple of metres, we are blessed to have a complex where the pool temperature on average is 26 degrees daily.
I appeal to all parents not to be soft or feel sorry for your child, but to assist your swimmer in getting to AM training to give them the best chance possible of achieving their goals. We utilize the AM training to get in as much work as possible in our allotted time(Aerobic Base), so very little time to stop and get cold.
The most difficult part about morning training is getting there (parents job) and getting the swimmers into the water (coaches job), talking from years of experience of waking up and training early, the best part is leaving the complex feeling good about yourself and your early workout.
Prize giving:
The USC Committee has provisionally booked the date of Saturday the 27th of July, for our first Annual Prize Giving.
The club would appreciate your assistance by RSVP, to our Club Secretary Lisa Els elslv@polka.co.za, whether you and your family will be attending, this is needed to plan for numbers.
The committee would like to create a fun yet relaxed environment for our ceremony, the numbers will determine where we host our prize giving.
We would like to have a lunch time ceremony, with a Bring & Braai after so that the kids can play outside and perhaps folks may be able to watch a game of rugby.
Trophies:
This being our first USC Prize Giving, the club needs assistance from parents and companies willing to buy and sponsor trophies.
I have attached a list with the Trophy names and criteria, if you or your company would like to sponsor a trophy please select which trophy and RSVP to elslv@polka.co.za
If there is any other trophy that you would like to add to this list, please add the sponsor, name and criteria, your assistance will be much appreciated.
Gala’s:
USC will be attending its first away gala for the new season, a team of 13 swimmers will be attending the PEA Winter gala from the 19-21 June, the club would like to wish everybody good luck, especially those swimmers competing in a gala for the first time and for USC for the first time, we are all very proud of you.
Eastern Province Aquatics will be hosting their very first EPA SHORT COURSE Championships in Grahamstown on the 13 July, I would like to encourage as many USC swimmers to attend this gala, even though the gala will be competed as an OPEN event, this will be great opportunity for everyone to race and get some fast times at the beginning of the season.
USC will be hosting their own Short Course Gala on the 16 AUGUST, so please keep this date available, we would like to make this the best hosted local gala on the calendar, in order to do that we will need parents to help volunteer their time and assistance, please email Charleen Coetzer (Gala Management & Kit Co-ordinator) charleen@aloesolutions.co.za if you are willing to assist.
Away gala’s to look out for:
EPA Aquatics Short Course Championships, 13th July, DSG Grahamstown (Entry form is attached, it will also be put on the Web www.ultimate-swim-club.com and hard copies will be available at the pool. Please note that the closing date for this gala will be Tuesday, 18 June 2013, no late entries will be accepted.) Please note that entries can be done on the online entry form on the Web & if possible payment by EFT into the USC Club bank account.
Prestige gala, 9 – 13th of July, Durban, Kings Park
S.A. Short Course, 15- 18 Aug, Johannesburg, Saint Andrews School
Those parents who are interested in sending their children to compete in these events please contact Karen Smit (Records Officer) on 084 556 1057 or smitkaren@gmail.com, entries for away age group gala’s will needed to be handed in and processed at least 2 weeks before the gala date.
Our Official Club Away Galas will be: AQUABEAR 20 - 23 SEP (PE), EASTERN PROVINCE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS 5-8 DEC (PE), SSA LEVEL CHAMPIONSHIPS March – April (TBA).
Club & SSA Registrations
The cut-off date for all Club swimmers that are wanting to register with SSA in order to swim official gala’s in the forthcoming 2013/2014 season will be 31 July 2013. We will only send in SSA registrations to XBA again in December 2013 for existing USC swimmers. Parents must also remember that in order to swim an official gala, the swimmer must be registered at least 2 weeks before the date of the gala.
Kit:
A big thank you once again to our sponsor’s who made our Kit possible for our Level gala’s, Vello Metalworks, Ronnie’s Motors, Vincent Family Pharmacy!
The Committee has decided to sell the left over Hoodies, Vests and Shorts to those swimmers who competed at the Level Gala’s and to those swimmers who qualified for levels but however were not able to attend, those swimmers wanting those 3 items of kit can place an order with the club kit co-ordinator.
USC tracksuits will be ready to buy by this week Friday, the club has ordered only 30 to start with, the swimmers competing at PEA and or who have already registered with SSA will have preference.
TRACKSUIT: R550
HOODY: R250
VEST: R80
SHORTS: R120
SUPPORTERS GOLF SHIRT: R150
The club will be placing an order for all kit at the end of June; a 50% deposit must be paid into the club account before order is placed.
Note: The next order will only be placed again at the end of September.
Please contact Charleen Coetzer (Kit- co-ordinator) for quantities and sizes.
Website:
Our website is busy under construction, to try and make it a little more user friendly and to make it easier to find information for members. The club wants to make the website about the people, we are appealing to all of you to feed the club with any news or info that you feel would be suitable for our people, and by people we mean the whole family, so for example, my daddy climbed Mount Everest we want to know about it, send us a pic etc. Please post all info to either elsv@polka.co.za or coachmtp@gmail.com , or send photo’s, etc on a disc or flash.
The club has developed a huge viewer ship with over 3000 viewers in its first 3 months, we have received email requests from swimmers in France and Italy enquiring if they could buy our TIGER silicone Caps … the answer was NO!!! (You have to earn your Tiger Stripes)
If there is anybody interested in advertising on our page, business info or link to their business webpage, or sponsoring the swimmer of the month page, please could you contact Andre Schoombee (Fundraizing & Sponsorship) andre@schoombee.co.za or myself at coachmtp@gmail.com .
Thank You’s:
The club would like to thank Chantal Pillay, Karen Smit and Lionel Poovan for all their assistance in obtaining our Team Caps and T-shirts.
Pieter Hugo and Karen Smit for all their hard work behind the scenes to get the Club up and running and in good stead with XBA and SSA.
To all the family’s for all their continued support and efforts through these very busy past 3 months, we thank you all!!!
GO TIGERS!!!
MATT PALMER
HEAD COACH