Vjo Shark Attack (june-july 2009 Edition)

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Vallejo Aquatic Club P.O. Box 5846 Vallejo, CA 94591 (707) 553-swim www.vallejoaquatics.org

Shark Attack

June - July 2009

The Official Newsletter of the Vallejo Aquatic Club Presidential Proclamation

2008 - 2009 VJO Board Debbie Rodinsky, President Angelynne Yee, Vice President Dove Butler, Treasurer Jennifer Unger, Secretary Diane Powell, Membership Debbi Tucker, Officials Debbie Rodinsky, Interim Meet Director

Fundraising can be tedious but it is a necessary event. As you may already know, our annual Swim-a-Thon and the meets that we host thoughout the year are VJO's major fundraising activities. Each are important in their own way, and help provide the funds for team events as well as the

Favaro swimming scholarship that was presented during our May meet. So, I would like to encourage you to get involved and participate. If you have any other fundraising ideas and/or would like to lead any of the fundraising efforts please let anyone on the board know.

A BIG thank you goes out to Debbie Cameron and Stephanie Castro for all of their planning and work on the Swim-aThon. Great job!

Debbie Rodinsky

Debbie Cameron, Newsletter

Coaches Coach Tuffy Williams Coach Aaron Jon Toch Coach Lesley Ruszel

Swim-A-Thon 2009 Make sure to get your pledges collected and turned in!

How to put the “Fun” in Fundraising Do it with some friends

Our 2009 Swim-A-Thon King & Queen – Captain Max Tiuseco (in the bikini) and Patricia Welton

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Reflections from the Deck continue to increase our numbers as more of you return. Now is the time to get yourself organized.

Coach Tuffy NOTES FROM THE TUFFGUY You now have been in the water going on your 4th week. We

Start by making a plan to get what needs to get done on a daily basis. •Get yourself prepared for your school day and swim practice the night before. Gather your homework, school supplies and pack your swim bag so you won’t be looking for something in the morning •Plan a time for your homework and stick to it, do it at the same time every day. •Come to practice everyday you can, prepared to do all you can to make yourself successful. Get in the pool when your time comes and the Coach says, “Get in”. Have your kickboard,

Fireworks, the Westside C/B/A+, Junior Olympics, the Swim-a-thon, and Far Westerns! Wow that was a lot!! I’d like to thank each and every one of you who made all those events possible-swimmers, parents, and staff. We certainly had a fun time staying busy!

Coach Aaron Jon What an awesome summer we had! June and July were jampacked with meets and activities: our WCAN dual meet, a wedding shower for the new Mrs. Lesley Ruszel, the Napa LC C/B/A+ and Summer Sanders Invitational, the A’s vs. Giants game, our annual Pool Party, the 4th of July Parade and

Congratulations are due to our swimmers who set new team records in June and July, Ares Elmore in the 13-14 Boys 50 meter Freestyle and Alyssa Powell in the 9-10 Girls 100 meter Butterfly. We also had 4 relay teams set new team records: 15-18 Girls in the 400 meter Medley Relay and 800 meter Free Relay (Camille Miguel, Tori Singley, Laurie Tucker, Patricia Welton) & 13-14 Boys 400 meter Free Relay and 800 meter Free Relay (Evan Augst, Ares Elmore, Brandon Miguel, Dylan Powell). Way to go!!

goggles and fins with you and at the side of the pool…not by the fence in your swim bag or have to have your parent bring them to you…this is your sport not your parent’s. •Honor swimming, Vallejo Aquatic Club & teammates by trying your hardest during practice. •Be positive! Instead of saying to your teammate “you cheated”, try saying something positive, “I liked the way you tried” or “nice swim” or “wow, you went fast that time”, etc. •Thank your parents often for this opportunity - it is not easy to get you to practice every day. •By all means “HAVE FUN!”

Finally I’d like to let everyone know about our next home meet, on November 13-15. We’ll need “all hands on deck” to make it another successful VJO operation. Not only are our meets an excellent opportunity for our swimmers to compete, but they are vital fundraisers for our team.

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SHARK PROFILES June - July 2009

Alex Yee

Age: 10

Favorite Strokes: Butterfly and Freestyle Favorite Meet Events: 50 Free Role Models: My parents Future Goal: To get a college degree. Hobbies: Swimming, piano, singing Favorite Songs: Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You Favorite Movie: Twilight Favorite Book: Twilight saga When Alex grows up, she would like to be a singer and an accountant. If Alex could change one thing, she would like to have a clean environment. Something interesting about Alex: She likes to watch musicals.

Rebecca Sabio

Age: 10 Favorite Strokes: Breaststroke Favorite Meet Events: 50 Breast, 50 Free Role Models: My mommy Future Goal: To go to Stanford Hobbies: Sleeping Favorite Songs: Boom Boom Pow Favorite Movie: The Game Plan Favorite Book: The Monster in the Closet If Rebecca could change one thing, it would be global warming and whaling.

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SHARK PROFILES

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June - July 2009

Bryce Yee

Age: 8

Favorite Strokes: Freestyle Favorite Meet Events: 25 Freestyle Role Model: My dad Future Goal: To get better grades Hobbies: Drawing dragons Favorite Songs: Sherry by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Favorite Movie: Harry Potter Favorite Book: Harry Potter If Bryce could change one thing, he would change his grades. When Bryce grows up, he wants to be a teacher and a jet pilot.

Napa

Meet Pix

Petaluma

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For Swim Parents; “The Big Deal About SwimSuits” by John Leonard, Executive Director, American Swimming Coaches Association Over the past 18 months, the swimming world has been a frenzy of controversy over the emergence of technology in swimsuits. At the recent World Championships in Rome, the constant and overwhelming refrain about suits, echoed the volume and intensity of the last time we were in Rome for a World Championships, when the topic was doping....drugs distorting our sport...in 1994. Fifteen years later, the emotional topic was the new high tech suits that have swept through the sport from the World Championship level down to the local park district championships in the summer league. The parallels were impossible to miss. FINA (the international governing body of swimming), in an unprecedented move at its Congress in Rome, banned the use of all “non-textile” materials from suits beginning in 2010, and limited the coverage of the body to “knees to navel for men” and “knees to shoulder straps” for women. 168 nations voted in favor of the restrictions, against a mere 6 in opposition (who apparently did not understand the word “textile”.) This in the face of strong opposition to the move by the sitting President and Executive Director of the FINA organization. Amazing and never seen before. The USA delegation initiated the restrictions and led the opposition. Why such a strong reaction in opposition to the existing plastic and rubber suits? A parent new to the sport, from a middle class background, might well say “hey, why not? Technology marches on! Equipment gets better. Why not let my son/daughter wear one of the fancy new suits and swim faster?” Its a valid question that requires a thoughtful answer. Here it is. The answer revolves around two words, with of course, a considerable amount of “side data” that adds to the intensity of the discussion and the strength of the resolution to end the problem worldwide. Those two words are “Maximizing” and “Enhancing”. Quality lane lines “maximize” the opportunity of the athlete to swim fast, with minimum turbulence in the lane. (you should have seen the waves in the pool back in the 60’s and 70’s.) Good goggles allow the athlete to see the turns, see their competitors, and comfortably compete -- to say nothing of allowing them to train hard for hours which was impossible in the chlorine pool without goggles and in the old days, yardage and performance was a fraction of what it is today. Goggles Maximize the opportunity of the athlete to work hard. Evolution in coaching techniques in training and biomechanics allow the athletes to Maximize their ability to benefit from their time in the sport. Swimsuits, up until approximately the year 2000, and certainly until early 2008, were designed to maximize the opportunity of the athletes to go fast. The manufacturers designed suits to “get out of the way of the water”. Less suit, less friction with the water, less drag, tighter fit, and better materials MAXIMIZED the ability of the athlete to perform to their highest earned level. Beginning in 2008, manufacturers took advantage (and must be applauded for doing so, within the existing rules, which were close to non-existent) of the idea of designing suits to ENHANCE the ability of the athlete to swim faster. A line had been crossed. Designed suits incorporated plastics, rubberized material and new design criteria, to enhance the ability of the athlete to be buoyant in the suits (riding higher makes you faster), wrapped more tightly (compressing the “jiggly parts” makes you MUCH faster) and shed water from the plastics and rubber materials much more effectively, thereby reducing the drag of the suits remarkably. Since February 2008, 158 world records have been set by elite athletes. Their ability to perform has moved from being “maximized” by their swimsuits, to being “enhanced” by their swimsuits. This rate of improvement is absolutely farcical in the historical context of over 100 years of our sport. At the world championships, new world records were receiving polite applause akin to the “golf clap” for a good shot, rather than the historical roars of appreciation that a swimming crowd used to provide when a human barrier went down, as it infrequently did, by great athletes at the peak of their power. How does this translate down to the local pool? Pretty simple. The manufacturers don’t make any money by selling suits to the elite athlete. They give the suits away to them. They count on age group swimmers watching the “big guys” and wanting the same suits and equipment. And lo and behold, the same miraculous benefits accrue to 12 year old Sam and Samantha when they put on the “magic suits” in their local championships. The time drops are miraculous, the smiles are, literally, “priceless” and child, mom and dad are all happy. “Wait a second. That suit just ripped. Wow. How did that happen? How much did it cost? Wow! You paid $500 for a suit that Sam just put his foot through, rendering it a $500 broken garbage bag? Uh-oh., well, honey, get him another one. We can’t have Joe Jones’s son Pete beat him in the 200 free tomorrow.” Teeth Grit. “This is a kids sport? We now have $1000 in suits so far”. And of course, all those magic benefits only last 7-15 swims, so good for maybe 2-3 meets, unless it’s a championship and your child swims 6 events and makes finals in all events, in which case its $500 a meet. “Let’s see, $500 a meet, we go to 2 meets a month, 10 months of the year....Honey, it’s gonna cost us $10,000 Just for Samantha’s suits this year!” Well, the solution is simple....just wear the suits for the championship meet and wear your regular suit the rest of the time. OK. Good. But, Samantha’s 58.5 100 free with the magic suit on, just became a 1:02 100 free with the old suit on. Smiles gone. Gone. From Samantha, from Mom. From Dad. Oh well. And of course, there are some other objections as well. First, the magic suit deal is like paying for your child to have instant improvement. Is that what you want your child to learn from the sport? Or do you want them to learn to persevere, EARN improvement with hard work, attention to detail, paying attention to the coach and, shall we say it again...”Working Hard?” Or do you want them to learn that you can always “pay your way” with cash to what you want? “Earn it, or buy it.” Which do you want to teach? Answer carefully, parents. Second, the suit does not affect everyone the same. The thin, fit swimmer will benefit marginally by it. The overweight swimmer will swim like a young seal in it. Spending the same $500 on two children will yield radically different results. Not a fair competition at all. Is that what anyone wants? Third, and it seems unnecessary to say this, but if you just buy 3 suits a year, that’s $1500 or MORE. (Today, purchasing one of the great European suits online from the US will cost you $900...with no guarantee of fit, durability or return-ability, and about 30% of them RIP on the first attempt to put them on...no refund, folks.) Do we really want age group and high school swimmers to have to spend that kind of money to BUY success rather than work for it? It doesn’t make our sport a middle class sport, it makes it a sport for wealthy families. Are you pooh-poohing that? Wait till your son or daughter gets beat the first time by someone whose mommie or daddie could afford a more expensive piece of plastic and rubber than you can. The bitter taste in your mouth is not fun. Not much in the way of “sport” there. So, in answer to the local official who asked, “Why are “they” [FINA officials] wasting time with worrying about THAT? Don’t they have better things to do?” The answer is “NO.” The suit debacle is the most important thing that any of us can attend to. It preserves the heart and soul of our sport....which is reverence and appreciation for the hard work, attention to detail, courage and teamwork required to be a fine competitive swimmer and to learn to succeed with those life-skills instead of with your Daddy’s wallet. The Congress (not the Ruling Bureau) of FINA took the rules into their own hands after the Bureau had time and again failed to establish the rules necessary to keep our sport vital, credible and important. Bravo for them.

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VJO Shows Their True Colors at the 4th of July Parade

Some Fun in the Sun at our June Pool Party…

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Volunteer Central Opportunities to help out the team!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: At home meets, consider helping Hospitality -keep the volunteer crews happy with good food and lots of it, make and possibly deliver lunches, snacks, beverages, etc. to timers, computer room, stroke and turns, referees, starters, coaches, etc. At away meets, please make sure to sign up to do some timing. We typically need 3 timers at a time and try to get enough parent volunteers to sign up so that no one has to time for more than 2 hours at any meet. Look for a sign up sheet in the VJO “Village”. Just take a look at the picture below to see what a tough job this is…

Welcome (Back) to the Deck New Swimmers

Returning Swimmers

June:

July:

June:

July:

Anders Knutstad Jennifer Trybull Taylor Wilson Kingsley Kamau Sam Lloyd Aaron Brumels Rachel Brumels Jackson Radley Eli Prompradit Niki Tata

Justin Yee Will Walters Guillermo Landaker Juanna Falcon Tim Falcon Chris Diaz Ethan Adel Sebastian Fernandez

Connor Rutledge Amara Jaramillo Vivien Ly Shelly Wilcoxen

Helena Hamed Jacob Bautista JP Tucker

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Life in the Fast Lane The following swimmers achieved new time standards at the following meets: “B” TIMES:

THE “A” TEAM:

JOOOOOOOOO Times:

WCAN Dual Meet (6/6) Evan Augst: 100 Fly John Bayotas: 100 Breast Sarina Chang: 100 I.M. Aaron Chau: 50 Breast Chris Craft: 100 Back Izzy Fouad: 50 Breast Frankie Liang: 100 Free Jose Martin: 100 Back Izzy Paragas: 50 Breast Chris Rodinsky: 200 I.M. Rebecca Sabio: 50 Breast Alexander Viray: 50 Breast Sabrina Yee: 50 Breast

WCAN Dual Meet (6/6) Evan Augst: 100 Back Mirelle Augst: 50 Fly Alex Chan: 50 Breast Izzy Fouad: 50 Free Regina Horder: 50 Free Brandon Miguel: 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Free, 200 I.M. Alexander Viray: 50 Fly

WCAN Dual Meet (6/6) Dylan Powell: 100 Fly, 200 I.M. Patricia Welton: 100 Back

Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Evan Augst: 100 Back, 100 Fly Mirelle Augst: 50 Fly John Bayotas: 100 Back Cyril Carlos: 50 Free Mel Chaewsky: 200 I.M. Chris Craft: 100 Breast Kim Goyena: 100 Breast, 200 Breast Arnold Imperial: 100 Back Amalia Keilholtz: 50 Back, 50 Free Frankie Liang: 100 Fly Ronick Putong: 100 Breast Chris Rodinsky: 50 Free Alex Yee: 50 Free Braeden Yee: 50 Breast Sabrina Yee: 50 Free, 50 Breast Westside LC (July 11-12) Jalen Aquino: 50 Fly Sarina Chang: 50 Free Jose Martin: 50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Breast

Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Mel Chaewsky: 100 Free Alex Chan: 50 Back Chris Craft: 50 Free, 200 Free Regina Horder: 50 Free, 200 I.M. Ricki Liang: 100 Back Brandon Miguel: 200 Free Laurie Tucker: 100 Back Colin VanDervoort: 100 Breast, 200 Breast Summer Sanders LC Invitational (June 19-21) Milton Lau: 100 Free Will Rodinsky: 200 I.M. Westside LC (July 11-12) Evan Augst: 100 Back , 400 Free Sarina Chang: 50 Back Kelley Henderson: 100 Fly Arnold Imperial: 50 Free Tim Man: 50 Back, 50 Free Ashley Sotelo: 50 Free Alex Yee: 50 Free

Far “Out” Western Times… WCAN Dual Meet (6/6) Ares Elmore: 100 Free

PRT Times… Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Alyssa Powell: 200 I.M. Westside LC (July 11-12) Alyssa Powell: 50 Back LC Junior Olympics (July 16-19) Andrew Butler: 100 Free Alyssa Powell: 50 Breast, 50 Free, 100 Back LC Far Westerns (July 29-Aug 2) Ares Elmore: 50 Free

Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Evan Augst: 800 Free Alex Chan: 50 Free Dylan Powell: 200 Breast, 400 I.M. Summer Sanders LC Invitational (June 19-21) Milton Lau: 100 Breast Westside LC (July 11-12) Ares Elmore: 100 Free Alyssa Powell: 200 Free LC Junior Olympics (July 16-19) Evan Augst: 400 Free, 1500 Free Ares Elmore: 200 Free Kelley Henderson: 50 Free, 200 Free Dylan Powell: 100 Fly Max Tiuseco: 200 I.M. Marble Welton: 800 Free

NEW TEAM RECORDS! Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Alyssa Powell: 9-10 Girls 100 Fly, LCM -- 1:20.03 [set at Napa Valley LC C/B/A+] LC Far Westerns (July 29-Aug 2) Ares Elmore: 13-14 Boys 50 Free, LCM -- 26.59

Napa Valley LC (6/19-21) Alyssa Powell: 50 Back, 100 Back, 100 Free

LC Junior Olympics (July 16-19) 13-14 Boys 400 Free Relay, LCM -4:18.52 - Evan Augst, Ares Elmore, Brandon Miguel, Dylan Powell

Woodland "Last Chance JO Qualifier" LC (July 11-12) Alexander Viray: 50 Free

13-14 Boys 800 Free Relay, LCM -9:21.40 - Evan Augst, Ares Elmore, Brandon Miguel, Dylan Powell

LC Junior Olympics (July 16-19) Alyssa Powell: 100 Breast 13-14 Boys 200 Free Relay: Evan Augst, Ares Elmore, Brandon Miguel, Dylan Powell 15-18 Girls 200 Free Relay & 400 Free Relay: Camille Miguel, Tori Singley, Laurie Tucker, Patricia Welton LC Far Westerns (July 29-Aug 2) Ares Elmore: 100 Free

15-18 Girls 400 Medley Relay, LCM -5:16.73 - Camille Miguel, Tori Singley, Laurie Tucker, Patricia Welton 15-18 Girls 800 Free Relay, LCM -10:02.64 - Camille Miguel, Tori Singley, Laurie Tucker, Patricia Welton