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All parents of age group swimmers and all master swimmers are
included in the SARG parent organization. The board of directors is
elected from the parent group (new members each year, with each
member serving a 3 year term). The board has a variety of duties
from hiring and supervising the coaching staff, to organizing swim
meets, financing the organization and setting the overall policy for
the team. Any questions regarding matters such as billing, team
suits, working at swim meets, etc. should be directed to the board.
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SARG
Administrative Members
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Board Members
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Position |
Name |
E-mail Address |
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President |
Steve Miles |
e-mail |
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Vice President |
Scott Patberg |
e-mail |
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Secretary |
Kim Jarding |
e-mail |
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Board Member |
Sara Deel |
e-mail |
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Board Member |
Carla Barrett |
e-mail |
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Board Member |
Tina Martin |
e-mail |
Other Administrative Positions
|
Position |
NAme |
E-mail Address |
|
Treasurer |
Jill Miles |
e-mail |
SARG Coaches
|
Position |
Name |
E-mail Address |
|
Head Coach |
Jason Scott |
e-mail |
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Assistant Coach |
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Assistant Coach (Swim
Lessons) |
Lisa
Fuhrman |
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Meet Committee
|
Position |
Name |
E-mail Address |
|
Co-Meet
Director |
Steve Miles |
e-mail |
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Co-Meet
Director |
Suzanne Patberg |
e-mail |
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Concessions |
Tina Martin |
e-mail |
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Concessions |
Carla Barrett |
e-mail |
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Hospitality |
Kim Jarding |
e-mail |
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PARENTS’ RESPONSIBILITIES |
Please make every effort to have your swimmers at practice on
time. Realize that your child is working hard and give all the
support you can. Encourage good diet and sleeping habits. They will
serve your children well.
The greatest contribution you can make to your swimmer’s progress
is to be a loving, supportive parent. There is a link below to "The
Ten Commandments for Swimming Parents". It offers some very useful
and sound advice on communicating with your swimmer.
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The Ideal Swimming Parent |
By Brent Ransom, head age
group coach, Greater Toledo Aquatic Club
Some of you may not realize it, but you play a large part in the
success of your child’s swimming career. I don’t care if your child
is in it for recreation, or wants to become one of the best swimmers
in the world. You are a very important part in setting his or her
personal goals in this sport. “How is that?” you may ask. Well, I’m
going to give you some examples and tips on how to be the ideal
swimming parent.
Looking back on when I was a young, talented (yeah, right!),
age-group swimmer, I remember being overjoyed when I had to go to
the 111th Street YMCA in Chicago for swim practice. It was usually
the highlight of my day after breakfast. One of the reasons I liked
going to practice was the many friends that I had through swimming.
We would fool around, sometimes get into trouble and work very hard
when we were there. We weren’t the best swimmers in the state of
Illinois, but I bet we had the most fun.
Another reason I enjoyed going to practice was that it gave me a
break from my loving parents (or was it that they got a break from
their loving son…?).
My parents would drop me off and let the swim coaches deal with
their holy terror of a son. There was a trust factor there between
my parents and my coach. My parents trusted and believed in my
coaches, so it made the coaches’ job a lot easier. Even though I was
young, I noticed that strong relationship. This made me a happier,
better swimmer.
Swimming was such an enjoyable experience for my friends and me
that we always looked forward to doing it. If we did something wrong
at home or school, our punishment would be no swim practice, and for
me, not going to swim practice was like getting a needle from the
doctor in the rear end -- terrible! My parents wanted me to always
do my best and have fun in swimming, but they made sure I had my
priorities straight. My parents believed that respect, discipline
and education were the keys to making me a good person -- NOT
swimming. They believed if I had those three virtues instilled in my
life, I would be a better person, and also, by the way, a better
swimmer.
Those three things are all I learned from my parents about
swimming. They never told me how I should swim a race. They never
talked to me about my stroke technique. They NEVER tried to coach me
through any part of swimming. Do you know why? It is because my
parents are part of a group known as “dumb swimming parents.”
This is one of the main ingredients in being an ideal swimming
parent. Though my mom knew how to swim, she always acted like she
knew nothing about the sport. And my dad actually did know nothing
about the sport. He was a boxer when he was younger, and all he ever
told me to do was “Attack!” just like any boxer would say. They
never put any sort of pressure on me. All they did was support me,
no matter how I performed. My dad would give me a kiss on the head
and say, “Good job, peanut head.” The unconditional love and
positive support from my parents put me ahead of a lot of my
competition. Though my competitors may have beaten me sometimes, I
always knew I had my parents there to help me feel good about what I
had tried to achieve, and I wouldn’t give up.
Here at Greater Toledo Aquatic Club, we have a very good group of
energetic children who want to learn how to become better
competitive swimmers. As coaches, it is our job and our duty to help
them to achieve their goals as only swim coaches can. Please trust
us to do that job. By standing back and allowing us to do our job,
you show your child that we are worthy of their trust and that they
should be comfortable to form a solid coach/swimmer relationship
with us. Only you can be the parent, giving that unconditional love
and teaching them the virtues they need to be successful adults.
If you focus on that, and that alone, the swimming will come
along, too.
The four competitive strokes are (1) freestyle, (2) backstroke,
(3) breaststroke, and (4) butterfly. Events are held in all of the
competitive strokes at varying distances depending on the age group
of the swimmer. In addition, there is a combination of the strokes
swam by one swimmer called the individual medley. Other swimming
events include relays, which are a group of four swimmers who either
all swim freestyle (freestyle relay) or each swim one of the
competitive strokes in the order of backstroke, breaststroke,
butterfly and freestyle (medley relay).
The swim year is divided into two seasons. The winter, or "short
course", season runs from mid-September to mid-March. The meets are
held in a 25-yard pool. The summer, or "long course", season runs
from early April to mid-August. Meets are generally held outside in
50-meter pools (Olympic size).
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COMPETITION...and the winner is... |
The SARG staff does not see the first place
person as the only winner. We’d rather look to see who behaves
like a winner. There are certain characteristics of a winner,
and every swimmer, no matter where they place, has the
opportunity to emulate those characteristics: concentration,
listening skills, and working toward goals.
Sports are not an end in itself, but a vehicle we
use to teach children life skills and how to reach their potential.
We use sport as organized play to demonstrate and measure one’s
abilities. Seen in that light, winning without learning is not
SARG’s desired intention. In competition, the important measure is
not who collected the most medals, or even who improved the most
seconds. The real critical measure is who learned the most from the
competitive experience.
Swimmers quickly forget the medals, records, and
other material benefits. They will, however, remember the
development of interpersonal skills, discipline, listening skills,
time management, goal setting, and enhanced self- image. These are
the things that make the swimmer a more successful person with a
better chance of living a life closer to their peak potential, and
to contribute to the world they live in.
There are seven different age group
classifications recognized by United State Swimming (the governing
body of the sport): 8-Under, 10-Under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18,
and Senior. The Senior classification includes any age registered
swimmer who has achieved the prescribed qualifying time for the
event. Not all age group classifications are offered at every swim
meet. The swimmers age on the first day of a meet will govern the
swimmers age for the entire meet.
Within each age group there are different
nationally recognized levels of achievement based on times. All
swimmers begin as "C" swimmers. As they improve, they advance from
"C", to "BB", "B", "A", "AA", "AAA", and ultimately "AAAA". The
times required for each ability level are published each year by USA
Swimming. This permits fair, yet challenging, competition on all
levels.
In some cases, a swimmer may be in a different
class in each stroke. An example: a "C" breaststroke time, a "B"
freestyle time, and a "AA" backstroke time.
Some swim meets set certain qualification
standards. In order to swim in a certain classification, a swimmer
must have achieved the qualifying time for that particular
classification.
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TYPES OR LEVELS OF SWIM MEETS |
1.
Developmental Meets-These meets generally do not have any
qualification time standards. Most of the time these meets offer
each one of the competitive strokes in the two distances offered
for each group. Each swimmer is usually allowed to enter from
3-5 events per day.
2. Qualification Meets-These meets
have some type of qualification time standard(s) that a swimmer
must meet in order to enter the meet. Our state swimming body,
Indiana Swimming, Inc., sponsors these meets and sets the
standards prior to the beginning of the season.
3. State Championships-At the end of
each short course (winter) and long course (summer) season, a
State Championship meet is sanctioned by Indiana Swimming, the
governing body of swimming in the state of Indiana. Indiana
swimming sets the qualifying time standards for these
championship meets. Generally, the standards fall between the
national "A" and "AA" time standards. There are two
championships held each season: the Age Group Championship for
swimmers 14-Under and the Senior Championship open to any
swimmer in the state who has met the qualifying standards
regardless of age.
4. Zone Championships - After the
state championships are held in the summer, a swimmer may
qualify to participate in the Central Zone Championships by
swimming a national "AAA" time. This is an all-star meet where
swimmers compete as a member of the Indiana Zone team competing
against other states from the Midwest.
5. Speedo/USA Swimming Junior National
Championships-One of the highest levels of achievement SARG
swimmers strive for is the participation in the Junior National
Championships. USA Swimming sponsors an eastern U.S. Junior
National meet and a western U.S. Junior National meet each
season. SARG swimmers meeting qualifying time standards for this
meet travel to different locations throughout the eastern half
of the United States to compete against the best 18-Under
swimmers in the nation.
6. Phillips 66/USA Swimming National
Championships (Senior Nationals)-Other than the Olympic
Trials and the World Championship Trials, each of which is held
every four years, the highest level of competition for our
senior swimmers is the USA Swimming National Championships. As
with the Junior Nationals, SARG swimmers meeting the national
qualifying time standards travel to various cities throughout
the U.S. to compete against America’s best swimmers. Swimmers
can qualify for national teams that represent the U.S. in
international competition by their performances at Senior
Nationals.
Each season’s meet schedule is distributed at the
outset of the season.
1. The meet schedule has been established
with the expectation that swimmers will attend every meet
available at their classification level. In other words, a
"Gator" swimmer with "A" times should participate in all "A"
level meets for "Gators", a "Ally" swimmer in meets scheduled
for "Ally’s", etc. We do not schedule a meet unless we feel it
is important to participate. However, it is not mandatory to
attend meets. One can also choose to enter only one day of a two
or three day meets.
2. On an average, we want all team members to
compete once every three or four weeks. The meet schedule is
established with this philosophy in mind. In some cases, meets
of a similar classification (two meets for "Ally") are scheduled
as close as two weeks apart or as far as one month apart. This
happens when the meets that the coaching staff chooses from
offer no other alternative.
3. The coaching staff reserves the right to
make the final decision concerning meets SARG swimmers may
attend.
4. Team Effort Meets-Team championship meets
are either indicated on the meet schedule or talked about in the
parent meetings. Since the coaching staff places the most
emphasis on these meets, SARG swimmers who are qualified are
highly encouraged to attend. The Indiana State Age Group and
Senior Championships are always considered "Team Effort Meets".
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PHILOSOPHY OF COMPETITION |
SARG engages in a multi-level competition program
with USA Swimming that, like our training program, attempts to
provide challenging, yet success-oriented competitive situations for
swimmers of all ages and abilities. The following policies outline
our philosophy:
1. We emphasize competition with oneself.
Winning ribbons, medals, or trophies is not our main goal. Even
if the swimmer finishes first, but has swum poorly in comparison
to his/her own past performances, he/she is encouraged to do
better. The individual’s improvement is our primary objective.
2. Sportsmanlike behavior is of equal
importance of improved performance. All the coaches teach
swimmers how to behave like a champion when the swimmers have
both a "good" and a "bad" swim. Respect for officials,
congratulations to other competitors, encouragement to
teammates, determined effort, and mature attitudes are examples
of behaviors praised and rewarded by the SARG coaching staff.
3. A swimmer is praised for improving his/her
stroke or time. It is the coach’s job to offer constructive
criticism of a swimmer’s performance. It is the parent’s
responsibility to provide love and encouragement that bolster
the swimmer’s confidence along the way.
Swimmers are taught to set realistic, yet
challenging, goals for meets and to relate those goals to practice
to direct their training efforts.
Swimmers are prepared and encouraged to compete in all swimming
events, distances, and strokes. This policy promotes versatility and
encourages the swimmer to explore his potential in the wide range of
events offered in competitive swimming. Oftentimes, a swimmers
"best" stroke changes as they mature and his/her body goes through
physical changes
Much of the
Material provided on this page has been reprinted from various web
pages, news articles, and science journals. |
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