Thoughts From the Turn End

Columbus Aquatic Club • September 11, 2025

In honor of our first meet of the season, we are bringing the "Thoughts from the Turn End" series to our team blog. These are our collected observations on swim life from the side of the pool during our meets. Here's a few as you kick off the season!

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The first meet of the season can be nerve-wracking for kids. Lean in to the fun! This is low-stakes -- swim careers are not made or broken in the first meet of the season (or even in the last meet of the season, but that's a whole other blog topic!) This is the beauty of swimming at this level - kids have so many opportunities to race. If one race, one meet, one moment is not what they want, it's OK. Take the learning opportunity, shake it off and try again next month! While many other sports categorize a competition as a "win" or a "loss," that really isn't the nature of swimming for the vast majority of our kids and meets. Kids are swimming for themselves - they see what they can do in the water and then see if they can do something different next time. Sure, sometimes there's awards or points for certain meets, but the core remains - kids working hard to do their best and race to their new personal best times.

As we head into our first meet, I expect that there will be some first time swimmers that are nervous. There will also be experienced swimmers that are nervous. There will probably be some DQs from new and experienced swimmers alike as we kick off the dust on racing skills and begin learning/applying new techniques this year. There will also probably be some missed swims, wrong lanes, lost caps and goggles. It happens and it's all part of the learning process. Those things are hard and disappointing. The good news is, there is still plenty to celebrate from this meet. There will be "first swims" to cheer (who cares if it isn't quite legal? It's still pretty awesome to race it for the first time!). There will be new "best times" (Who cares if its your first time? It's now your personal best!). There will be tons of bravery as they step up to the start end for the first time this season. There will also be lots of cheers and smiles from teammates, coaches and parents for completing the race and lots of "next time I want to ....." lessons learned. There will be laughs between races with pals, and sharing snacks.

Plan for fun and making memories.  For younger swimmers, pack a few things for them to entertain themselves with on the pool deck (cards, books, fidget toys, small games...but remember that everything you send can and will get wet!) Young swimmers also appreciate a small snack or two. For the younger and newer swimmers during these short meets, choose something simple, healthy and easy to eat. Older swimmers may haul piles of food for their athletic performance needs (and there's TONS of info out there when you reach that point!),  but there's no need for younger and newer swimmers to have quite that much on the pool deck yet.  Small, simple and tidy is the way to fuel at this stage. Some of our favorites include apple slices, orange slices, a banana, string cheese, fruit snacks, dried fruit, or a granola bar.  Always bring a water bottle too - stick to water or clear electrolyte style beverages. Sugary, sticky stuff doesn't help athletic performance! 


Whatever you pack - please remind your swimmer to clean up after themselves and keep your devoted pool staff, volunteers and coaches in mind, as they are the ones that will be scrubbing the melted chocolate, crushed chips and smashed PBJs out of the grooves on the pool deck and dealing with stains from the colored beverages after the meet. 


Have fun and we will see you on deck this weekend!

Welcome Back!

By Columbus Aquatic Club • August 29, 2025
Hello Hurricane families, and welcome to a new swim season! We are so glad to have so many new and returning families join the Hurricane family this year! If I haven't met you yet, my name is Jen Ladson, and I am happy to serve the team as the President of the Board for the next two years. As a member-owned team, the Board of Directors is parent-elected and handles all "dry-side" related team activities, so everything from team registration to team social events (and many things in between!) Our team of coaches supervise the "wet side" of the program, so anything related to the direction of the season, season planning, training, athlete development, meets, swimmer progression, etc., is under coach purview. We will hold our annual team meeting via Zoom on Sunday, September 7 at 4 p.m. This is your opportunity to hear a little more about our team, our vision and values, and the upcoming season from both the board and our coaches. While you are marking your calendars, please take note of these upcoming dates: Monday, September 1: NO PRACTICE, CAC closed for Labor Day Sunday, September 7: Annual team meeting via Zoom, 4p Saturday, September 13: September Sprint home meet! Register your attendance on Captyn Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21: OST Fall Invite (contact your coach if you are unsure if you should attend) Our regular practice schedule and meet calendars are located on the program page - Hurricanes Year Round Team. Last-minute changes to practice schedules due to weather or pool closures will be communicated as quickly as possible and via text when possible; otherwise, please check Captyn for swim schedules. A few reminders from our host pool: Swimmer Pick-up/Drop Off : Swimmers 10 and under (Usually Cat 1-3) should be WALKED IN to their COACH no more than 15 minutes early; they should not be left at the facility alone when a coach is not present. Parents should pick them up inside the facility no more than 15 minutes after practice. They should not be dropped at the curb to walk in alone or wait alone before or after practice. If they have older siblings, the siblings may walk them to their coach. Swimmers 11-14 in Cat 1-3 may walk in alone but should not be at the facility more than 15 minutes before or after practice. This is plenty of time for them to get their gear ready before practice and put gear away/dry off/shower after practice. Parents should ensure their swimmer has a way to contact them if you are dropping off at the curb. High school swimmers and Cat 4, 5, and Senior Group may arrive earlier, if carpool and school release times require this. Coaches expect they will be on deck 10-15 minutes early to prepare gear. We believe that these experienced swimmers can be trusted to arrive earlier when needed, behave respectfully in the facility, and use their time to chat with teammates, do schoolwork or prep for practice. After practice, we expect them to depart within a reasonable amount of time. The emergency lane out front is for emergencies , there is no parking and no staying for long durations, it is allowed for swift pick up and drop off only. Vehicles should always have a driver inside for emergencies. As per USA Swim and pool rules , parents are asked to sit upstairs or on the concourse during practice. If you have a younger swimmer who needs assistance gathering equipment at the end of practice, you may come on deck after the conclusion of practice to help. I look forward to meeting and working with you all this season! See you at the pool soon! Jen

Back to Pool Season - New Swimmer Evals!

By Columbus Aquatic Club • August 1, 2025
Practice Starts Aug 11, New Swimmer Evals Aug 6 & 9

Goal Setting and Embracing the Process

By Brian Smith • November 18, 2024
When setting your goals it is important to start with the end in mind. Think about your big goals – these are long-term goals you want to achieve in swimming over a few years or more. Consider how swimming fits with your other big goals and write all these goals down so you have an end in mind. Once you have defined your big goals you can begin to create a plan to work toward them Everyone has their own motivations, aspirations and hopes for their swimming experience. Your personal goals are YOUR goals, and I am here to give you feedback and help you structure a plan that helps your pursuit. No matter what your big goals are, you must try to define the process it would take to achieve these goals by establishing some -medium-term goals (let’s say 6 months-2 year) and short-term goals (inclusive of meets and everything within your current season) that will be measuring sticks to evaluate your progress. Each of these goals will then include a structure of daily, weekly and monthly task expectations of yourself. These tasks are a defined part of your personal process for your personal development as you strive to reach your swimming and life goals. They are your personal checks and balance to keep yourself accountable and on track to reach your goals. This system is empowering and helps you build confidence as you either complete tasks you have set to improve yourself or you are able to identify when you haven’t finished assigned tasks and work on ways to improve those outcomes. It is rewarding to know when you have done your best in completing tasks each day or week or month to try to achieve your goals and when you feel like you should have done better you always get another chance the next day, week or month to improve yourself. No one is ever perfect, you will not always achieve your goals, but you are able to learn from the process, give yourself feedback on your progress and you are able to reassess your goals and approach moving forward. This promotes personal growth. Once you have written down your big goals and as you start mapping out your short-term and medium-term goals, make sure you are realistic. Consider your past improvements, perhaps over the last year, and understand that as you achieve at a higher level and get older you may not be able to duplicate the same level of improvements over the same period. Still be specific and write down what you hope to achieve in certain events, but these are just markers and measurements and not the nuts and bolts of your goal process. You now need to spell out the important tasks that will be the foundation for your development to achieve all the goals. Here are a few example of the task measurements that you will be able to define and measure and can consider adding to your list; the number of practices you attend in a week, the number of kicks you are taking of a wall, are you stretching regularly, making a specific interval in practice, improving your times on practice test sets, achieving the appropriate race pace times in practice, starting practice on time every day, improving on dryland training (some will be measurable (reps/weights) some not), regularly holding a streamline, etc. There may be some tasks that may not be as easy to define but could be important focus points such as paying attention to your stroke technique, practicing racing skills, paying attention to specific cues you have been given by your coaches or maybe lifestyle habits like your sleep and nutritional habits. Other important habits you could include, making the practice environment better, by making sure you always know the practice details and by improving the practice atmosphere (i.e. -maybe you make the commitment to encourage at least one teammate at least once a practice). This helps you and everyone else perform better daily. I certainly haven’t mentioned everything that could potentially be a part of a plan or included in your plan. I have detailed some examples, and I have given you some information to sort through on your own so you can get ideas on how others structure their personal goals. I am including another link with another discussion on goal setting and now you must do a little research, and I will give you a work sheet that I want you to work on. Your resources for considering your goals and task-oriented goals are unlimited and only limited by your imagination. You could ask friends who are successful in other sports, read about the journey of other athletes, talk to a parent or relative how they consider their goals whether they were an athlete or have goals set in their career, etc. You are planning for yourself, and these will be your guidelines in your journey. My role will only be to give you feedback on whether your task expectations match up with your desired outcomes.' Links: Goal Setting Tool Kit Goal Setting Form