Hi Shark Families,

Congratulations to our All-Star swimmers for a second place finish! Attached are the meet results and scores. We were also awarded the Sportsmanship Award for our division this season. I love that we got this award! Thank you to all the swimmers for being competitive but respectful and thanks to all the families for making Cameron Wood an awesome place! 

Along those lines, I want to thank everyone on behalf of the whole staff for the very generous coach gifts! Thank You! I couldn't do this without the assistant and Jr coaches and the time they spend in the water with your kids and handling a lot of the chaos at the meets. Thanks again to all the parent volunteers and of course Ashley, Beth and Russell for managing & representing the team and coordinating volunteers.

This season seemed to rush by at a frenetic pace but despite that and losing my voice in the middle part, it was a great year coaching your kids! I always love to see swimmers improve but also see them find joy in swimming and the fun they have as a team.

Here are a few closing thoughts on the season:

• My yearly goal for the Shrimpers is to try to get them to swim freestyle with rotary breathing, but also get them to swim backstroke and introduce them very briefly to breaststroke and butterfly. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do this across the whole group this season. We had a handful of swimmers that picked up all four strokes and others able to do 2 or 3. Overall, though, we still have some who struggled with rotary breathing on freestyle and others where backstroke was difficult. I can't emphasize enough, especially for those Shrimpers moving to the 7&8 group next year, how highly I recommend lessons. The jump to the next age group means your child should to be able to swim all four strokes with some level of competency. If your child is remaining a Shrimper I still suggest lessons as well. There are many great facilities and I usually recommend Charlotte Aquatics* just down the street. They provide progressive classes and rising 7-8s should try to advance through at least Level 6 to be prepared.
• This season I did notice some non-Shrimper swimmers that struggled with competency in all four strokes as well. While we will always try to help these swimmers during the season, swim team is more about building endurance and refining technique. We are not able to spend a lot of 1-on-1 time teaching the stroke basics. If your swimmer still struggles with some strokes, I encourage looking at lessons prior to next season. 
• For kids that are going to move to the 11&12 age group next year, getting them into the pool prior to the start of the summer season will make a huge difference for them. This age group jumps from swimming 25 yards to 50 yards and already having some experience and endurance built up is truly beneficial. It is a big jump for a lot of swimmers to start swimming 50s and one that sometimes impacts their confidence. Lessons or winter/year-round swim teams can really help with this. See below for winter or year-round swim team options.
• As numbers go we were on the light side in the middle ages (11-14 y/o) this season. If you know of friends and families with kids this age, invite them to join the team next season.
• Lastly, If your swimmer is interested in winter or year-round swimming, please see below for some options in the area. I know we have swimmers that are or have participated on many of the below teams. Ask other families about their experiences and feel free to reach out to me if you would like to discuss.
• • SwimMAC (Year-round)
  • MSA (Year-round)
  • ATOM (Year-round)
  • Team Charlotte (Year-round)
  • Harris YMCA (Winter & Swim Lessons)
  • Levine JCC (Winter)

Thanks again for such a great season! Have an awesome rest of the summer and I hope to see you at the pool still.

Coach Chris