We will be having our makeup meeting, from the one that got rained out, this Wednesday. We will have one meeting at 5:15 and another one at 7:00, please try to make them and bring any questions you might have about swim team or this summer with you.

                I leave this weekly update with a wonderful tip from USA swimming about staying hydrated as a swimmer:

                Staying Hydrated

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week comes from Charlene Boudreau, former director of USA Swimming’s Performance research and Nutrition Programs. Boudreau offers some advice on staying hydrated while training and competing.

No matter your age or the length of your workout, all swimmers need fluids during practice to stay hydrated. A couple of sips of water every 15 to 20 minutes should do the trick, but a workout longer than 90 minutes requires an additional fuel source like a sports drink, which provides electrolytes.

Drinks that are too concentrated can inhibit fluid absorption and lead to stomach cramping, Boudreau says. Drinks that are 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate by weight, such as Gatorade and Powerade, are recommended. Boudreau warns swimmers to stay away from energy drinks, such as Red Bull, Sobe and others.

After a workout, drink at least one cup of water. Competitive swimmers also need slightly more than 1 gram of carbohydrate for every kilogram of body weight each hour after a workout, beginning immediately within the first hour after a workout.

Below are some simple points to remember in staying hydrated:

• During practice, keep a full water bottle by the side of the pool and sip between repeats and sets.
• For workouts 90 minutes or longer, choose sports drinks like Gatorade that stimulate fluid absorption, maintain proper fluid balance and provide energy to working muscles. Avoid carbonated drinks, which can cause stomach bloating and may reduce fluid intake.
• Outside of the workout, stay hydrated with water, 100 percent fruit juices and soups. Limit sports drinks to practice only, and limit sodas and coffee to special occasions.
• Check the color of your urine occasionally. Dark-colored urine may be an indication that you are dehydrated and need fluids.
• Don’t “overdrink” water at meets. It is important to pair water with electrolytes like sodium and potassium to keep the body’s fluid balance in check. If the meet is in a hot environment, stay hydrated with a combination of water, sports drink and juice.

Coach Jason

www.texasterrapins.com

HCTTST@hotmail.com

February 11th

B and under champs meet is over and after thinking about how the meet went I can only hope that the bb & up meet goes just as well. This meet was absolutely amazing, lots of best times set, amazing swims, and a lot of fun.

                I want to remind everyone that today will be the other day for our parents and coach Q&A. We will have one meeting at 5:15 PM and another one at 7:00 PM at the pool. If you have any questions regarding summer league or the Long Course season with the Terrapins please come and I will answer your questions. I want to make sure everyone is well prepared for this summer.

                Attached to this email is the wishful entries for the BB&up champs meet Feb. 22^nd as a reminder that I will be taking the list down from the pool today and sending off my final entries tomorrow morning. If you would like to swim please make sure you let me know either by circling your swimmer at the pool or emailing me at HCTTST@hotmail.com .

                The FAC is undergoing some changes and policies for the pool area and will need our help to keep the pool area neat. So after practices are done parents please make sure you put chairs back where you got them and swimmers will be asked to pick up their trash and gear to put away in the proper spots. I will be organizing the lost and found that we have collected thus far and will begin putting it out at the start of practice.

                Also, here is a letter from the new Chairman of the TTST board of directors, Brian Gambrell:

                Hi TTST Parents,

My name is Brian Gambrell and I am the new TTST Chairman of the board.  I currently have one son swimming but hopefully my other son will start after summer league.  I swam for Fleet for 3 years and all four year of high school.

I am very interested in your thoughts, comments and complaints.  I want to help TTST be the best it can be.  My contact information is attached and I will be happy to talk to you about anything TTST related.

We have two open positions on the board.  We need a treasurer and we have a newly created position that will be in charge of helping TTST become an incorporated nonprofit organization. 
Home Phone 281-373-0877

Personal E-mail – Brian_Gambrell@hotmail.com

Best Regards,

Brian

Coach Jason

www.texasterrapins.com

HCTTST@hotmail.com

February 4th

We had a great meet this weekend! Toni Gonzales did very well at her first swim meet, Derek Miller set some best times this weekend, including 2 A times (200 IM and 100 free) and dropped 17 seconds in his 500 Free (11 from high school times). Natalie Hill Improved on all of her swims from last year for her first swim meet back, Kamryn and Shaley Schneider both have been out of the water for quite some time due to being sick and both of them had a very great meet. Kendall Hickman had a great meet and set some best times as well as swam some great first events. Over all I was very happy with how our Terrapins did this weekend not only time wise but technique wise as well.

                This week I want to start off with a reminder about Wednesday’s Q&A. At 5:15 and 7:00 this Wednesday I will be leaving the deck to coach Meagan and Ethan while I meet with parents and answer any questions they have. With short course ending and long course (and summer league) coming up very quickly I am sure there are a lot of questions that will need to be answered, so please come at one of those times and I will answer as many of them as I can, this will also happen again next Monday

                Attached are the BB& up wishful entries list for Katy on February 22-24^th. I will have a print out at the pool bulletin board that you can use to circle your swimmers name to confirm you would like to attend. Also make sure to send all conformation emails to HCTTST@hotmail.com labeled as KATY BB&UP.  I will be sending out the entries for this meet next Tuesday which means Monday night I will take home the wishful sheet from the bulletin board. This will be the final meet of the short course season, which means our technique days will increase from 1-2 to 3-4 days a week again. Also attached is the February calendar and I would like to point out February 11^th, NO MORE DRAG FOR JUNIORS!!!! Rejoice I know, we will be preparing for the final meet on the 22^nd.

Coach Jason

www.texasterrapins.com

HCTTST@hotmail.com

January 28th

I want to start this weekly update off with a reminder that the PACK entries will be taken down tonight and sent off first thing tomorrow. So if you want to get into that meet tonight is the night. Make sure you either circle your name up at the pool or you send an email to HCTTST@hotmail.com.

                Attached is an article about the art of swimming and recovery. As the season comes down to a close I want to make sure our swimmers understand why the things we do at practice and meets are so important to their training. Not only is the information important for them it is also very helpful for the parents to understand this as well. There is also a thirst article you can read as well. All this information will help better your swimmers at practice and meets.

                Next Wednesday (Feb. 6^th) and the following Monday (Feb. 11^th) I will be holding a Q&A for parents on the team. We will have all 3 coaches at practices on those days so that I can hold a Q&A during practice for parents that need questions to be answered with the upcoming change from short course to long course. I will hold these Q&A’s twice during practice, once at 5:15 and once at 7:15. Any question you have about swimming or swim team I will answer and hopefully clear up any confusion.

Thirst Mechanism

The Art of Recovery

January 21st

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend off. I will be taking down the wishful entries for the MAC open meet today and finalizing the meet entries and sending them out tomorrow. Tonight is your last night to get in for the meet Feb. 1^st. I will be posting the wishful entries for the PACK meet on Tuesday. We are working on creating a meet entry form to make entering meets a little more streamline and simple to do. We are also going to start preparing for the up and coming long course season of swim. I will be setting up a date that we will have during practice with all 3 coaches on deck so I can get away and have meetings with all the parents to answer questions and explain how things work and what the changes for short course to long course are. I will have dates and times to be sent out on these meetings for the next weekly update.In an everlasting attempt to improve communications

I have made a new email address that will be more reliable and not go down. This new email is HCTTST@hotmail.com , it is already up and running it is just taking longer than expected for me to transfer all my contacts over. Next weekly update will be from that email address and any emails you have now may be sent there. We are also working very hard on getting the team phone up and running, as soon as it is the phone number will be up on the website and in my signature for my emails.
Drag time is coming to an end very soon, Juniors rejoice! Feb. 13^th is the last day of drag for the short course season, we will be getting ready for the spring champs at Katy, attached to this email is a very helpful article about a swimmers diet.  After that meet is done we will be rebuilding again with lots of technique practices. With the summer approaching quickly all the coaches will be working hard to make sure the swimmers are legal in all 4 strokes.

Coach Jason

January 15th

We had a great weekend at Katy. The kids did awesome and most importantly their technique looked amazing! I am so proud of all the swimmers that took part in the meet this weekend. We will be pushing the blue and teal group hard to get their butterfly and breaststroke to be legal.

                The entries for the MAC open meet will be done by next Tuesday, which means I need to know by Monday. The wishful entries list that I put on the bulletin board can be used to confirm your child for the meet, just circle your child’s name and next Monday I will take that list down and enter all names that are circled. I am hoping for a lot of people to sign up for this meet as it is a meet that all age groups will be able to go to. With enough entries this meet should be very fun for the younger and older swimmers.

                Next Monday is a student holiday and we will be swimming at normal times. February marks the end of our short course season with the close of the spring champs meets. We are going to use our time to prepare for the final meets then after that we will be breaking strokes down and rebuilding them again to prepare for long course/ summer league. It will be time to break any bad habits that arose this short course season. We are also planning to have a fun family night to celebrate the end of our season and to prepare for the start of the long course season.

Thanks,

Coach Jason

January 7th

Today is the start of our first full week of practices, which means practice times are back to normal. It is time to get back into the flow of things and get it started up again. Reminder green/aqua/junior needs to start bringing drag suits with them to practice every day. Drag suits can be bought at D&J sports or they can be basketball shorts or even old worn out swim suits that you used to wear. Juniors will use drag every day where as green/aqua not every day, but make sure you have it.

                I talked with Sally and she wanted me to remind everyone that monthly tuitions are due. There will be no late fees this week due to the holidays so be sure to get your checks into the black box before the end of this week.

                There is a swim meet this weekend at Katy, the timeline and warm-up schedule has not been posted as of yet but as soon as it is I will get it out to you. For now I will provide you with the link to the meet invitation and the final entries attached to the email. I will also be printing out final entries and hanging them up at the pool on the bulletin board.

http://gulfswimming.org/meet_information/sc0708/katy/m2_112/invitation.pdf

                Also, for reason still yet undetermined my email address is still unable to receive. I created a new email account that cannot send but can receive, Dartok@igg.net, so for all emails coming to me for now please use the dartok@igg.net email and you will get a response from my normal email. As soon as my email provider can figure out what is going on it will be fixed. Thanks for your understanding.

Thanks,

Coach Jason

January 3rd

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and new years, It is time to get back to swimming! Remember to dress warm for the cold weather, which means bring shoes and jackets swimmers. Also, drag begins this week, make sure you bring a drag suit (basketball shorts) for swim practice. We have two swim meets this weekend, here are the timelines:

TWST 8& under sprint meet:

http://gulfswimming.org/meet_information/sc0708/twst/m2_14/timeline.pdf

DIRECTIONS: Exit I-45 at Woodlands Parkway, then exit Woodlands Parkway at Grogan’s Mill Road. Turn

left onto Grogan’s Mill Road, at the third light turn right onto South Millbend. Travel 2 blocks and turn right

onto Winterberry Place. The Athletic Center is on the left. Swimmer drop-off is allowed through the traffic

circle in front of the Athletic Center. All vehicles must be parked in designated areas only.

A&M 11&up open meet:

http://gulfswimming.org/meet_information/sc0708/ags/m2_14/timeline.pdf

http://gulfswimming.org/meet_information/sc0708/ags/m2_14/warmup.pdf We will have third warm-ups on Saturday and first warm-ups on Sunday. Both days we will be in lane 8 on the scoreboard end, so find me and I will be able to show you.

Directions: Take 290 West to Tx 6 Exit towards College Station/Bryan. Stay on Tx-6 Until you get to University Drive take that exit. Go down on University Drive until you reach Wellborn Rd you will take a left. Go all the way down to George Bush DrW. and take a right. Then take a right at Olsen Blvd and you can park in the baseball field parking lot or the pool parking lot.

Practice times are normal today and tomorrow:

Junior-3:30-5:30

Aqua- 4:00-5:30

Blue-5:30-6:15

Teal-5:30-6:30 or 6:15-7:15

Green- 6:15-7:45

Friday Junior-3:30-5:30  Aqua/Green 4:00-5:30 Teal 5:15-6:15 Blue 5:30-6:15

Thanks,

Coach Jason

December 17th

With the Christmas party over and done with we have one more week of practice till vacation time starts. Attached is the December calendar  and the Ags 11&up open meet. I highly recommend that if you can make this meet you do as it is a very fun and different swim meet. It will be at the A&M college station pool, Olympic size, and since its short course it will be a split pool! Off of the top of my head I cannot think of a more fun meet to attend than this one. I will be bringing a printed version of the wishful entry list to staple to the board at the entry of the pool.

We are still in search of board members! If you would like any information on which positions we still have open please email me and I will answer any questions you have.

The cold weather is here to stay it looks like so make sure your children are dressed warm wearing shoes and a jacket that can cover their heads up. It is very important to keep them bundled up after they get out of the pool!

                As a warning to all, last week Coach Ethan left his wallet in the life guard room and at about 5:45 when he went in there to get something out he noticed his wallet had been messed with. When he picked it up he found out that $30 had been stolen from his wallet. This is the first time something has been stolen during practice but not the first time at that pool so please make sure if your child has anything of value that he/she puts it away in their bag in view of the coaches.

                My email issues continue, I am able to send out emails from this address but not able to receive. I have set up a dummy email account so that I can receive emails until I fix the problem with this one. Please send all emails regarding swimming to Dartok@igg.net and I will respond through my normal email as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

Coach Jason

December 10th

What a great winter champs meet this weekend! Danny Thorne got his first A time in the 50 free style, Derek Miller broke 1 min in the 100 free swimming it in 58 seconds!!!! Delany Crowder swam a legal butterfly and an almost legal breast stroke for her first time ever. Everyone put up some great times and had their best swims ever this weekend. I am so proud of everyone that went this weekend and I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

                I want to start off by letting everyone know that this Wednesday from 5:20 till about 6:50 D&J sports will be at our pool with parkas for fittings and orders. If you would like one please make sure you are there, these parkas are absolutely amazing for keeping swimmers warm and dry.

                Christmas party is this Thursday so there will be no practice. The party starts at 6 PM and is going to be at the  High star Christmas tree farm.

                Junior group will want to be at practice a tad bit early today, you can thank Danny today as well. Also, Juniors will need to get prepared for drag! Starting in January the Junior group will be swimming with drag, we are doing this to help build their strength in the water as well as help push their endurance to the next level. I would also like the Green and Aqua group to have some sort of drag swim suit that they can wear here and there as I would like for them to try this out as well. They will not get as heavy intensive into as the Junior group but they will be wearing it every now and then.

Coach Jason

November 20th

I want to start off this weekly update by letting you know that I have fixed the problem with the program for my wishful entries!! Attached above are the correct entries and everyone should be in the proper age group and events now. Please let me know if anything is wrong!

                This is Thanksgiving week which means combined practice on Wednesday (all practices end at 6:15 check calendar for exact times) and no practice on Thursday or Friday. Bowling for Friday is going to be either pushed back to a different date or canceled all together, we are in discussion about it and I will let you know exactly what we are going to do with our family/friend bowling night.

                Today at practice will be a technique day again due to the short week! I am going to plan on more flip turns again as we still need a bit more time to perfect those and hopefully time for breaststroke. Wednesday we are going to plan on having a fun day at the end of practice, it has been a while since we had a fun practice and since it is Thanksgiving let’s have a ball!

Thanks,

Coach Jason

November 12th

What a weekend!!! We had a blast this weekend at the 10 & under Lonestar swim meet. All the kids did amazing!! Shaley Schneider got a TAGS time this weekend in her 50 backstroke!!!! We had the only 6 year old, Beth McNeese, out of the entire meet to swim the 100 butterfly!! There were a lot of new swimmers that put up a lot of B times their first swims in USA swimming ever and a lot that were very close to BB times. We had such a huge turnout that our team cheer in the morning was super loud, the kids had fun , the coaches had fun, and everyone did an amazing job! I could not have asked for a better swim meet. After seeing the progress this swim meet from last week (butterfly/breast on Thursday and flip turns/starts on Friday) we are going to continue this week with technique days. This Thursday we will be doing backstroke and flip turns, on Friday we will do butterfly technique.

                November 23^rd (the day after thanksgiving) is scheduled to be a no swim day so in lieu of swimming we are going to try and get a family fun night bring a friend at the bowling alley. The price is going to be 15$per person but that 15 $will include… 4 hours of bowling, shoe rental, 2 slices of pizza and a drink. They are going to reserve up to 15 lanes, that will allow for 75 people to bowl. If this is something that you would be interested in doing please let me know by email by Thursday. We would like to have a minimum of 10 people for this to get going and that can include the bring a friends!

                It is coming up to that time of the year again for the Christmas party to happen, but we are a little confounded with which day to hold it on and would like to get the team’s opinion. If you could please reply back to this email with the subject line of Christmas party and let me know if Dec. 13^th, 27^th, or Jan. 3^rd would be a better day for your family to do this party, it would really help us out a lot. We want to try and have it on a date that we know most of our families can show up so we can have a great time like we did last year.

                 I am working on the PACK winter champs swim meet entries but this is a longer meet to enter. I will have my wishful entries out by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. These entries will not be due until Nov. 27^th so there will be plenty of time to get a response back to me. This meet is a split session meet which means  Friday will be all ages together, Saturday will be 10 & under in the morning and 11& up at noon or later depending on how the morning session goes, that goes for Sunday as well. Here is a link to this meets invitation:

 http://gulfswimming.org/meet_information/sc0708/pack/m3_12-7/invitation.pdf

 The board is still looking for more people to volunteer. We have a couple of positions that need to be filled so if you are interested please let me know via email.
Thanks,

Coach Jason

November 5th

Going to start this weekly update off with Swim-A-Thon update. With the heater fixed we are running out of time for make ups so this week I am going to have 1 lane reserved during all practice times (3:30 -7:45) for Swim-A-Thon make ups. You must provide your own counter and will receive the 2 hours just like everyone else. It has to be done this week as Swim-A-Thon packets are due November 14^th, which means they have to be in my hands at practice on that day. Please remember do not put Swim-A-thon packets in the black box they will go to me.

                I would like to paste a statement that is being released by the board about the heater problems that we had in the previous weeks:

                TTST Parents,

The TTST Board has agreed to grant a credit to all the swimmers that were not allowed to swim due to the heater malfunction.  This credit will appear on a special  November statement that will be emailed to families by Tuesday Nov 6.  Please note that the credit has been applied to any outstanding balances and then November dues, thus the balance that appears at the bottom of the statement is the amount that you need to pay for November. All checks in the black box through November 3^rd have been processed, contact Sally Johnson if you are showing a credit.  For all returning swimmers that still need to pay USA fees - please ADD this to your balance as this does not appear on your bill. Going forward, Coach Jason will have running and other dry land activities planned should this situation arise in the future.  We appreciate your extreme patience on this matter.  Please contact me or Jack Bruno if you have any questions or comments.   Additionally, please keep in mind that all Swim-A-Thon monies are due to Michelle Weyand by Nov 14 and that these monies are not reflected in statements.

Kind regards,

Andrew Bouffard

281-794-1822

                This Thursday and Friday all groups will be taking 2 days to go over technique for fly and breast as well as getting our flip turns and starts down. We have had quite a few swimmers join the team after our technique weeks ended where all we did was technique and I feel that it is necessary to go back and start taking some time to make sure all of our swimmers have it down. This means Monday – Wednesday will be normal practices in which we are building endurance and strength for our swimmers to be able to handle the longer distance swims. This will continue until we are satisfied with the technique that we are seeing at practice.

 Coach Jason

October 29th

This weekend went great at the AQUASTAR meet. Graham Hovorka swam in is first USA swim meet and did amazing. He swam 50 backstroke in under a minute!!! The kids all did great and improved their times and looked wonderful while they were swimming. As a reminder I will be sending out the final entries for the lonestar meet tomorrow, so if you have not checked them yet please look and see if you can go and if what I have your kid(s) in will be fine.

                This Wednesday is Halloween, we will be having a fun practice with some interesting game + I will bring some candy to give to the swimmers as a trick or treat. Thursday, Nov. 1^st,  is when the Swim-A-Thon packets are due. If you have not already gotten them to me please be sure to bring them by this week. We are discussing the heater issue with Swim-A-Thon make ups with the board and when a decision has been made I will pass that information onto you.

                As a reminder team shirts are on the way but we have the silicon caps now. We sell them for 10$apiece, basically what we pay for them, just let me know at practice if you would like to purchase one.

So last week we had a heater problem which caused all the later practice to be combined and no younger kids got to practice. The FAC and myself are working diligently to fix the problem but aren’t having the results we are hoping for. The company that owns the heater has acknowledged that the pool heater isn’t working right but have not pin pointed the exact problem yet. I just got off  the phone with coach Ethan and the pool temp is still very low. We will be having a combined practice again today unfortunately, so older kids bring shoes for extra dry land, no blue or teal and green/aqua come at 4:00.  

Coach Jason

October 23rd

What a week we had last week. We had a storm come a day early so the Swim-A-Thon could go on without any problems. I was very surprised with our turn out! I knew there would be a lot of swimmers but that pool was packed! All the swimmers did a wonderful job as well, returning swimmers swam more this year than they did last year, and new swimmers swam a lot of laps for the first Swim-A-Thon.

                After this week we will be swimming much more and getting rid of dry land. Now is the time in the season where we will begin to hit swimming head on with full force. Endurance and strength in the pool will go up and swimmers will become faster! Yesterday was a good example of what it will be like for the swimmers when the temperatures start to drop, so make sure your child comes to practice with cloths, jacket, shoes, and something to cover their heads with. We want to keep our swimmers nice and toasty after they are done swimming.

                 Parent volunteers are still needed for the board positions. Email Michelle Weyand @ Organize2play-TTST@yahoo.com if you are interested, the dead line is Nov. 5^th. Also, we need more parent volunteers at swim meets. We have a lot of new parents this year and a lot of timing spots that will need to be filled at swim meets. The parents that have been here for some time now will always be able to answer any questions you have at meets, as well as myself. I have noticed at the last couple of meets we have had the same parents timing all day on both days of the meets. Lets make sure that we are spreading the timing assignments out.

                T-shirts are on the way! They should be here within next week as I have been told. When they arrive I will have them at the pool and will be writing names in them and handing them out to swimmers. Also, we have a new batch of the green silicone TTST swim caps for sale for 10$. You won’t find a better cap for cheaper!

Thanks,

Coach Jason

October 15th

What a great meet this weekend!!  Shaley Schneider put up a lot of A times this weekend, and other returning swimmers put up some of their best times yet. I was very proud of all our new swimmers this weekend as well, I saw great swims and they looked like they were having a lot of fun. Keep up the good work!!!!