Tuckahoe Families,

This week we finished off the preseason by upping the ante in the water. The coaching staff has significantly kicked up the intensity in training, while leaving no room for leniency when it comes to the key details involved in a competitive start, turn and finishes. I enjoyed getting in the water the last two days to do some very hands on teaching with our younger swimmers. In my various coaching roles, I have not found myself actually in the water while working on fundamental stroke mechanics with 10-under swimmers in probably a decade. The ability to help some of our little ones begin to grasp the more difficult skills our sport requires in a very direct, hands on way for things like breaststroke, flip turns, the propulsive phase of the stroke, and maintaining proper body position further reminded me what it was like when I first fell in love with coaching swimming many years ago. The ability to meet the people you work with at their level can be so humbling yet productive and I look forward to using my improved perspective to set our direction for this team heading into competition.

With competition comes more frequent usage of words like faster/fastest, strongest, score, first place, points, and of course, win! We are a competitive summer swim team and one of our many goals as a team is to develop strong and fast swimmers that can score points in competitive meets to help the team win. Our central focus is to introduce kids to competitive team swimming while teaching them the fundamentals of the four main strokes in a fun and meaningful setting. As Vince Lombardi said best, "winning isn't everything - but wanting to win is."

With 330 kids involved in our program, not everyone will contribute to the team result at our competitive Saturday meets by scoring points, but everyone, regardless of whether they are in the line up, contributes to the team result by their level of commitment and dedication to this team. The willingness to come to practice regularly and work hard, attend team events, support all of your teammates, young or old, in and out of the pool, and be impactful without being asked to, tends to make a greater difference in this sport than just getting first place at a meet. I say all of this to set up the reality that the coaching staff will have many difficult decisions to make when crafting our line ups on a weekly basis. Nonetheless, we want everyone to know they are needed for Tuckahoe to be successful, and the value of the countless contributions made by those not swimming on Saturdays is not lost on this coaching staff. Even if swimming is not your greatest strength, it means more than you know to countless others to come out and try your best at every competitive opportunity. 

I am working hard with the coaches and senior swimmers to make sure this team is rich with tradition (both old and new), and has opportunities to be involved and have fun in and out of the pool. Make no mistake - we are training a top rate team with the intention of winning a Division 1 championship; however, winning teams know how to focus when its needed and have fun when its appropriate. 

Tomorrow we will have the starters out for the 8-unders so things should look, feel, and sound like summer swimming. I cannot wait to see what this team is ready to do next week at Black and Gold - get ready for a Black and 'Goldies' themed meet with lots of your favorite hits and looks from back in the day! This is your official heads up to dig through your closet, or your parents/grandparents depending on how old you are, and find some fun 50s and 60s outfits. We are going to throw it back to help us move forward and it should be a fun twist.

*Swim + Little Tiger Coaches' schedules are filling up quickly - if you are interested in private lessons you should reach out now before they do not have availability*

Thank you for helping us get to here - it gets better and better every day! Signing off from the Tuckahoe Zoo 

Torey