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Greetings!

Farewell 2009! This is the last edition of News from the Deck in its current format. Look for STREAMLINES for Coaches to kick off the New Year.

We love all the feedback we are getting from you, our hard-working coaches, and are excited to bring you several regular features in each issue next year, including:
  • More training and technique articles from experienced coaches. Many of you have asked for assistance in the way of innovative drills and practice sets to help you help your swimmers.
  • A monthly rule review with Kathy Casey, Chair of the Rules Committee. Each month, Casey will highlight a rule from the USMS Rulebook. Her experience in this field has been critical to helping our members understand the rules governing swimming, officiating, running meets, etc. We will also be working with the newly developed Long Distance Committee to bring you rules and information applicable to long distance and open water events.
As always, we welcome your suggestions and comments as we continue to improve our monthly e-newsletter communications.

Swimming for Life!
Your Friends at U.S. Masters Swimming

National Qualifying Times Explained                      
by Jeff Roddin, Championship Committee
We have received several email questions about how national qualifying times (NQTs) are determined for national championship meets. Jeff Roddin, Potomac Valley registrar and member of the Championship Committee, explains the process:

National qualifying times for Spring Nationals (short course yards) are based on a formula using the average 10th place times from the previous three years of USMS Top 10 times.
 
Read more...
Free USMS Marketing Materials 
Caps, Brochures, Stickers, Banners
USMS promotional items are a great way to show your USMS pride. Check out the Marketing Resource Order Form for information on how to obtain caps, brochures, and stickers.

For USMS banners and co-branded vinyl banners (your team logo and USMS logo), View the USMS Banner page on our website.

Marketing and promotional materials are free to USMS programs, but you will be asked to pay for shipping. Questions? Email our account executive, Kyle Deery.

co-branded banner
Online Coaches Needed 
Chris Colburn; Chair, Coaches Committee
The Coaches Committee is accepting applications for coaches to post online workouts for 2010. Experienced coaches should read the Online Application Information and respond by Sunday, December 20th, to [email protected]. There is an annual stipend for those coaches who are selected to provide this valuable service to members. These workouts are only available to USMS members and are a big help the many of our members who train on their own or without access to a coach.
Teaching Masters
to Master the Butterfly:
West Side Fly Progression

(Part I of II)

by Coach Nate McBride, West Side Masters Swim Club
Several years ago I was desperate to find a way to teach butterfly to adult swimmers ... from scratch. I had a lot of adults who, ovNate McBrideer the years, had lost ankle flexibility, core strength and rhythm. There wasn't much I could do about the first two except for dryland work whenever I could fit it in and ankle flexibility exercises. And rhythm ... you either have it or you don't. If you don't, it's a constant struggle to do fly well but you can get there. These swimmers had been hounding me to teach them, and I was getting more and more frustrated by the fact that I could not give them fly sets in workout.

I kept coming back to the possibility that I could teach them the same way I had taught my age groupers, but then always rejected the idea because of the silliness/simplicity of those drills. Eventually though, desperation gave way to having no other choice. The results astounded me.

I took them through a nine-step fly progression, which worked 100 percent and took less than six workouts. By the end, I had seven new butterfliers. This progression had developed when I was an age group coach more because it was fun and the kids thought they were getting a chance to goof around - a win for everyone in the age group world. Here it was again, with adults, and they loved it.

Read more...
Online Registration
by the Professionals at swim shop 
Happy Holidays USMS Coaches!

The New Year is nearly upon us and if you haven't already, now is the time to review your swim competition calendar for 2010. Every coach should host at least one meet or open water swim. The most important step for having a successful event is getting the information to the swimmers. Most LMSCs have deadlines for publishing event registration URLs, which are far in advance of the event. Even before you have the information finalized, we can help you set up online event registration and provide you with links. We have already help set up over 15 events for the short course yards season.

This is also the year to consider adding a new swim meet or open water swim. USMS has achieved a record number of member registrations, which means more swimmers available to attend events. An important element of sustaining this growth is making sure everyone has an opportunity to participate. If you need help setting up an event, we can aid you through every step of the process from sanctioning through marketing to results.

We would like to thank you coaches for your suggestions for many of the Club Assistant Online Event Registration developments of 2009:
  • We launched USMS verification during online event registration.
  • We set up an Admin Entry mode for easy entry of paper registrations into the Club Assistant database of entries and accounting.
  • We put a quick link to USMS individual results beside each event time entry box.
  • We enhanced the shopping cart so that event directors can easily sell any merchandise such as T-shirts and tickets to socials.
  • We created FINA and Masters Swimming Canada paths to event registrations so that international Masters swimmers could also register online for USMS-sanctioned events.
Club Assistant programmers and staff are swimmers and coaches too, so we know you will love our latest developments for 2010 event registrations. Here are just a few:
  • Swimmers can update their times until the day event registration closes.
  • Swimmers can declare availability for relays during individual swim meet entry. Reports of all swimmer relay availability are displayed on the Team Roster.
  • Event directors may select USMS logo merchandise to include in their shopping cart.
  • Coaches may view all of their swimmers' event selections.
Club Assistant is looking forward to working with meet and event organizers for USMS meets and open water swims in 2010, with opportunities to put all of our great new event registration features to use!

Call the friendly and knowledgeable Club Assistant staff at 800-SWIM-638 for help.
USMS Adds Club Development Coordinators 
In addition to 11% membership growth in 2009, U.S. Masters Swimming has experienced a 7% growth in the number of registered USMS clubs. To support our growing membership, USMS has added three additional development coordinators to better serve current Masters programs as well as incubate new USMS programs.

With over 75 years of coaching experience between them, longtime coaches Susan Ingraham, Jim Halstead and Lisa Dahl join the USMS team. Each of the three brings unique insight into the importance of the coach-athlete relationship, as well as a fundamental understanding of the foundation and support structure necessary to create a successful Masters program.

Ingraham, Halstead and Dahl will be working closely with Club and Coach Services Coordinator Mel Goldstein.

Read more...
Coaching Opportunities
 
Are you a coach looking for a team? A team looking for a coach? USMS maintains a discussion forum on usms.org to match up coaches and teams. The Coaching Forum has several current threads posted; check back for frequently for updates. And remember, if you are hired in a position or you hire a coach, please update your posting to save time for others who follow you to this helpful forum.
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Reminder: Add the USMS Join/Renew Button to Your Website and Link Up!

new join renew buttonEncourage your swimmers to become U.S. Masters Swimming members by copying and pasting the Join/Renew button to your club website. Link the graphic to http://www.usms.org/reg/ so that your swimmers can register with one easy click.


Open Water: Winter Workouts for Summer Success

About U.S. Masters Swimming

U.S. Masters Swimming, founded in 1971, is a membership-operated national governing body that promotes adult health, fitness and wellness through aquatics.  It does so by partnering with more than 1,000 adult swim clubs across the country that offer swim/fitness programs, promoting information via a bimonthly member magazine and usms.org, and sanctioning and promoting pool, open water and virtual competitions.  Nearly 50,000 adults are registered members of U.S. Masters Swimming.


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