Sunday, November 7, 2010



For all those Beaber lovers out this, you might not find this that funny...but for everyone else ahve a good laugh!

We have had one Winter meet so far. Kira and Jenna Stacey and Gabe Lowe competed in the Nanaimo Spring Invitational two weekends ago. All came out with best times. Well done you three!

Halloween Howl was a Howel.

Thanks to all parents that donated their time and made the meet fun and successful...and thanks to Michael Phelps for the surprise visit.

Please find under the links section of this blog information and application for the Junior Coaching Program.

Water Laps against my skin
Each stroke I take, I take to win
Money’s not my driving force
The love of sport defines my course
With blessing of the waters grin
I’ve conquered thee, I’m Marilyn

Marilyn Bell was the first woman, at sixteen, to swim accross lake Ontarion.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I dont actually have to know anything about coaching....I just have to use alot of big,confusing words!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Swim Swim Swim!!

Here are our swim videos from the past week. Have a look. They are in order of days that they were filmed.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Season


Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to another season. I hope everyone enjoyed their break from swimming and is charged up for another great season! Welcome all our new members.

Please check this blog, and more specifically the calendar of events to the right hand side of the page for information on all upcoming events and acivities.

This is a picture from my break at the end of the summer.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Provincials 2010 Day 1



Congratulations to our Girls "O" Cat 2 Medley Relay team for winning the silver medal!
Jenna Stacey - backstroke
Kira Stacey - Breaststroke
Ashley Bingham - Fly
Rachel Campbell - Free
233.14

Other results for the day:
200 IM
Kira Stacey - 16th "O" 2

100 IM
Jenna Stacey - 6th "O" 1

50 Free
Jenna Stacey - 6th "O" 1
Gabe Lowe - 11th "O" 2
Sean Hunter - 15th Div 7
Rachel Campbell - 14th "O" 2

Provincials Day 2

100 Fly

Ashley Bingham - 14th
Sean Hunter - 15th
Josh Macdonald - 6th

50 Bk

Jenna Stacey - 6th

100 Bk

Erica Campbell - 13th
Kira Stacey - 11th
Sean Hunter - 9th

Regionals

Congratulations to all 16 Royals that participated in the 2010 BCSSA Vancouver Island Regional Championships August 6th and 7th. From those 16 that competed, 9 qualified to compete in the 2010 BCSSA Provincial Championships in Kamloops August 20-22.
Congratulations to:
Vivienne Nguyen
Erica Campbell
Rachel Campbell
Jenna Stacey
Kira Stacey
Josh Macdonal
Ashley Bingham
Gabe Lowe
Sean Hunter
Michelle Park

Live results will be posted on the blog daily... so stayed tuned to read about all the ROYAL success!!

MMMMMM JELLO!!!

Also during the Senior Summer Training camp...
Royals demonstrate that if it is a sport in water...THEY ROCK! This was a team building activity during the 2010 Senior Royals summer training camp.

Thursday, July 15, 2010


Splish Splash!! What a great summer Season so far! Far too many highlights from the past few meets to list...but a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to all Royals who have come out and swam at the meets.

Some Special Notes

Josh Macdonald has qualified to compete in the BC Summer Games next weekend in Langley. He will join the other 3300 athletes of various sports from the Province. Good Luck Josh!!

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!ROYALS!!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Making Waves!!

We have had a great winter season and a great start to the summer season!!

Congratulations

The Jets had an awesome showing at the Vancouver Island Long Course Regional Championships last weekend in Victoria.

Ashley Bingham competed in her first meet as a Senior female (15 and older). She faired very well against the stiff competition setting a best time in her 100 Fr.

Kira Stacy set best times in her 100 and 200 Backstroke and placed 10th in her 100 Br.

We rounded the Jet's winter season off with an awards and recognition night. Congratulations to all Jets swimmers for a great season of training, racing and just being good people. Special Congratulations go out to this years awards recipients:

Samantha Gialet - Most Improved Junior
Gabe Lowe - Junior Jet of the Year
Kira Stacey - Most Improved Senior of the Year
Erica Campbell - Team Spirit award
Rachel Campbell - Team Leader award

We had four Royals compete in the first summer meet of the year June 5,6 in Duncan.
Congratulations to Sean Hunter, Erica and Rachel Campbell, Ashley Bingham, Jenna and Kira Stacey. You all "set the bar" for the rest of the summer.

Good luck to ALL THIRTEEN Royals competing this weekend at Commonwealth.

Note from Coach T

I would like to take a moment to stress the importance of personal goals. Goals are very maliable. I think we often lose sight of what forms our goal can take. We are constantly bombarded with pace times, A, B, and C time standards, and even crunching away at our own personal best TIMES! Goals equally as important as bettering those times can be in the form of our subjective feelings at meets and in practices, or how we organize ourselves before events or plane and simply...ARE WE HAVING FUN!!?? It is very important to analyse these goals as well and recognize that goals can change daily, weekly or seasonally. We need to always assess what we are puting into our training and what is a realistic expectation of the outcomes. Dont be afraid to forget about times for a little while and focus on yourself.

Coach T

Monday, May 3, 2010

Welcome to the Summer Season!!






Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all as excited as I am about the summer season! There will be lots of fun activities in the next few months....and oh yeah, some swimming too!

Here are some of the things that have been going on over the last month:

Awesome Albernie Meet!

We had six Jets swimmers compete extremely well at the Port Albernie Meet April 11.
Here are the highlights:
Erica Campbell - ONE HUNDRED PERCENT BEST TIMES and 4th in her 50 Breastroke
Kira Stacey - Gold in the 100 Breastroke
Ashley Bingham - AA time in her 100 Breastroke and a close Silver to Kira
Josh MacDonald - Gold in his 50 Backstroke AND 50 Fly
Rachel Campbell - Bronze in her 50 Breastroke
Jenna Stacey - 15th in a stong field of the 50 Free

Well Done all Jets!!!


Busy Weekend of Running and Swimming

Congrats to all those who participated in the Times Colonist 10 Km which had over 13000 participants.

We also had 4 Jets swimmers compete in the Wave Maker Meet at Commonwealth.
A special congrats to Alex and Melanie Bouchard. The meet was there very first and they did amazingly well!
Alex made finals and placed 7th in her 100 Breastroke
Melanie was 9th in her 100 Breastroke
Gabe Lowe palced 5th in his 200 Breastroke
Ashley Bingham placed 7th in her 100 Breastoke

Well Done Everyone!!

Note from Coach T
I will be away next week May 8 - 16. I am coaching, for my fifth straight year, at an Ironman training camp in Penticton. I will be connected to the internet, so you can e-mail me if you have any questions or concerns while I am away.

Coach T

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Run GVAS, RUN!!



27 Days and counting...

I hope that everyone's training is going well. I hope that the above video has inspired us a little. I have been watching Kenenisa Bekele run for years and he has the most beautiful, flawless technique I have ever seen. This week's focus is on improving our running / walking form to alleviate unwanted tension on our muscles and save energy.

Here are you training tips for the week:

Runners:
Proper posture will allow you to run more proficiently. Here are some tips to think about in your two runs (10 min longer than normal) this week.
Head - Refer to the video and think of looking about thirty feet in front of you when you run. You want to think of having your head over your shoulders and in line with you pelvis. In other words, keep your posture tall.

Arms - Again, refer to the video and think of swinging a relaxed fist to your hip and then swing your elbow back to your hip. A relaxed full arm swing will add momentum to your strides.

Torso - ....watch the video. All movements when you run should be directed forward. As you run this week, monitor for any side-to-side movements and try to control them.

Run / Walkers:
Your workouts this week are two forty-five minute run walks consisting of 3 min walking and 2 min of running. Complete this nine times.

Walkers:
Complete two forty-five minute walks. Think of the posture points for running, as they are applicable to walking posture as well.

KIDS!!
More running around, but start trying to add additional activities. Try skipping, jumping, running backwards and in zig zags. Again, your focus is just getting out and running around. Enjoy running. Enjoy the freedom!

Coach T

Monday, March 22, 2010

March Madness!!

Hi Everyone,

Little to report this post other than some awesome training in the water and an anticipation of a successful summer season of swimming.

Welcome Maryanne!

Maryanne will be helping us out with practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She was a Royals swimmer for many years and has been a swimming instructor at Juan de Fuca for the past many years as well. She will be an asset to the coaching staff as she will bring her passion for swimming to each practice.

Note from coach T - Times Colonist 10 km Tips

We have twenty people signed up as part of the GVAS Jets / Royals Team for the 2010 Times Colonist 10 km April 25.

We have four weeks to prepare ourselves for the event. I will be posting weekly training guidelines for the different ages and abilities that will be participating as part of the team.

The first thing we must do is dertermine what our goals for the race are: Do you intend on running the whole thing, part of it, or walking it? Be sure to set realistic and attainable goals based on your current run / walk fitness - Ten kilometers can be a long hard way if you are striving for unrealistic goals.

I will break the weekly training into four categories:
1) Runners - I reccommend this category ONLY for those that have been runing over 30 min at least once per week for the last 6 weeks.
2) Run / Walkers - For those that have not been running in the past 6 weeks but are kean to do a little as part ofthe event.
3) Walkers
4) Kids! Those that are under the age of 10 and do not participate in activities involving running

After we have set some realistic goals and you have determined which category you fall into, here are some training guidlines for this week:

Runners - start incorporating a breathing rhythm into your run. A smooth, full breathing pattern can help you control your effort, pace and concentration throughout a running event. In your runs this week (that are 5 min longer than your usual run duration) time your breathing to your footsteps. See how many foot strikes you can get in a full exhalation and a full inhalation. You should be able to time your breathing (one inhalation or one exhalation) to a minimum of three footstrikes. If you can not achieve this, your breathing is too shallow and will cost you precious energy in you race.

Run / Walkers - Your biggest step this week will be determining how long you will be running and how long you will be walking during the event. My reccommendation is to start with two fourty minute run / walks this week that consist of 4 min of walking and one minute of running. Do this eight times and see how it feels.

Walkers - Try to complete two fourty minute walks this week. Try to think about your rhythm as well. Try to maintain your posture and footspeed regardless of undualtion and varried terrain.

Kids! Get Running! Engage in games at school and after that simply get you moving. Run every chance you get; to the car, in from lunch, out to the playground or around your backyard afterschool.

More tips next week - have a great week!

Coach T

















Sunday, February 28, 2010

FANTASTIC FEBRUARY!!

Hi everyone,

It has been an exciting month for the GVAS club. Here is everything that has been going on...

Success at Campbell River Eliminator Meet!

Six swimmers represented the Jets club at the Regional Meet in Campbell River with victory last weekend. We came away from the meet with eighty percent best times which is an outstanding performance. Some of the highlights of the meet are listed below:

Gabe Lowe achieved best times in all the events he swam. He placed 4th in his 200 Br, 5th in his 400 Fr, and 6th in his 100 Br.

Rachel Campbell, competing in her first winter club meet, placed 11th in her 200 Bk, 12th in her 100 bk and 12th in her 200 Fr.

Erica Campbell, in her first competition with the Jets, placed 12th in her 200 Br, 16th in her 100 Br and 25th in a fiercely competitive 100 Fr.

Kira Stacey placed 2nd in her 200 Br, 3rd in her 100 Br, and 6th in her 100 Bk.

Ashley Bingham placed 3rd in her 100 Fr, 4th in her 400 Fr and 6th in her 200 Br.

Jenna Stacey placed 13th in her 200 Fr, achieving her A qualifying time, 15th in her 400 Fr, and 17th in her 100 Fr

NICE WORK and CONGRATULATIONS to all the Jets swimmers!

83rd Annual Elementary / Middle School Championship Meet Monday March 1

GVAS has three swimmers, from John Stubs school, that have qualified to compete in the school championship meet on Monday. Nicole Smythe, Julianna Macdonald, and Gabe Lowe will be heating up the lanes. Best of luck to the three of you.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Tuesday March 2
Team Meeting 4:30 -5 pm at Juan de Fuca (on deck) followed by an all-inclusive swim (minis inlcuded) from 5- 6pm. This practice will include team building, and peer coaching activities.

Summer Swimming Registration is just around the corner. Spending a season with the GVAS Royals is fun and rewarding. The meets are a blast! If you have any questions about the practice or meet schedule throughout the summer, please speak to Coach Travis or Sharon on deck.

Note from Coach T - "The intricacies of our finely oiled machines"

If we view of our body, our mind and our spirit as three synergistic parts of an efficient and productive machine, than it is important that we keep all three parts active and attenuated to all the time.

Very often one of these parts will lose momentum, slow down, or stop running all together because we have started to overwork another. We may not notice the effect this has on the other parts of our system until service is beyond repair.

Success will result from proper balance of these things. As swimmers, we can often lose sight of the non-physical parts of our system. Swim practices and meets are only a small gear in a multi-component machine. It is crucial that we keep in sight the importance of school, friendship, emotional well being, health and personal identity in order to maximize our success in the sport or swimming.

- Coach T -














Wednesday, January 27, 2010

What a great January!!

Lots has been going on this month. We have had test sets, where all the kids completed a series of test swim sets that measured improvements in endurance, speed, and efficiency. I am happy with the results!

Congratulations!!

Three of our Jets competed in the Vancouver Island Regional Championships in Duncan. Josh Macdonald, Kira Stacey, and Ashley Bingham deployed themselves as fantastic ambassadors of our club. All of them came away with 2 or more best times.

Highlights:

Josh - 8th in his 100 Bk, and 7th in his 200 Fr
Kira - 17th in her 100 Br and 21st in her 100 Bk
Ashley - 22nd in her 10 Fly and her 400 Fr

Nice work Jets!!

Reminders:

Campbell River meet (Jets) Feb 20-21
Nanaimo meet (Jets) Feb 7

Please let Travis or Sharon know your intent of competing at these meets.

Tuesday Feb 2 will be our Team Meeting from 4:30 - 5 pm and an all-inclusive (with minis) practice including peer coaching, fun and games from 5-6 pm.

Note from Coach T

Lean muscle tissue contains about 75% water by weight. Blood contains almost 70% water, body fat contains 10% water and bone has 22% water. Skin also contains much water. The human body is about 60% water in adult males and 55% in adult females.

That's a lot of water!!

At EVERY swim practice, it is ESSENTIAL that we have a water bottle on deck to allow us to have the most productive swim workout possible.

What can happen without enough water in the body when we exercise?

One consequence is a decline in workout effectiveness. The fluid lost through sweat originates in blood plasma. Plasma is the means of transportation for red blood cells. They hold the oxygen that is essential for muscle performance.

Another consequence is a need for more effort by the heart. If our body begins to become dehydrated then our blood begins to thicken. The heart has to pump harder and faster in order to get all the blood that our working muscles require.

Bottom line guys is you should be making sure to drink during the day so that you come to practice hydrated and have a water bottle on the deck to make sure you STAY hydrated.

Coach T

Sources:
http://www.solveyourproblem.com/senior-fitness/avoid_dehydration_while_exercising.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_water

Sunday, January 3, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year Everyone!! I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and were able to relax and enjoy the down time. Read below for updates on club activities.


Christmas Camp 2009:

12 GVAS swimmers participated in the three - day Christmas training camp. The camp was a blast! Participants Swam at the Commonwealth, Crystal, Juan de Fuca and Naden Pools. They hiked to the summit of Mount Work and all the way to Beachy Head at East Sooke Park. They had a tour of the new Pacific Institute of Sport Excellence and were introduced to some great new core strength exercises. The extra curricular activities such as skating at Pearks, movie at Silver City and capture the flag at Royal Roads made the hard work of the camp worthwhile.

Thanks to all the participants for representing the club with maturity and integrity. Looking forward to next year's...Here is a video of some of the highlights of the camp...enjoy!

Congratulations:

We had six swimmers compete in the Pacific Coast Swimming Christmas Cracker Meet. Our swimmers excelled among the 600 swimmers from across the country. Congratulations to Jessa, Jenna, Kira, Ashley, Gabe and Josh. Everyone left the meet with best times.


Josh and Kira also set AA times. Josh in his 100m backstroke and Kira in her 100 and 200m Breaststroke. Josh and Kira will be representing the club in two weeks at the Vancouver Island Regional Championships in Duncan.


Nice Work Everyone!!

I am looking forward to a great 2010 Season!!

See you at the pool,


Coach T