Attendance Recognition & Tracking
Alto Swimmers and Families,
Every month, our coaching staff will send out and post group attendance recognition. Attendance will be posted at each pool (JLS and Greene) and a PDF of our attendance recognition will also be sent by email.
Attendance will also be included on our monthly “Performance Report,” which can be found in the Alto Team section of our Alto Website (Password: greatertogether).
Below I have included some information about our attendance recognition and attendance tracking, including the key role that consistent practice attendance plays in skill development, enjoyment of the sport and competitive success!
Attendance Recognition Stickers: Each month, the swimmers who have achieved an 80% attendance average or above will receive an Alto sticker in recognition of their excellent attendance record. Great work!
As we post our first monthly Attendance Report, I want to reinforce the importance of daily attendance for swim practice. The bottom line is very simple: The more practices a swimmer attends the more successful they will be in developing a strong skill set in swimming. Each athlete will get out of the sport as much as they put into it, and we cannot expect success without consistent training. Swimming is like any other skill set, the more frequent and the more focused we are in practice, the higher our ceiling is for short term and long term improvements.
Alto offers a developmentally appropriate amount of practice time for each of our age groups. You can see by looking at the practice schedule that practice frequency and total time commitment increases progressively by age and training level. The number of practices offered each week is exactly the number of workouts that we want swimmers at that age to attend.
We want all of our athletes to attend each practice in order to maximize their daily opportunities to learn and grow as well as create the best possible path to long term success in swimming.
Our learning and training in practice are both cumulative. Technique lessons learned and practiced one day are built upon in subsequent workouts. Proficiency in one drill or focus point is necessary to learn the next step as we strive to build the most effective stroke technique possible.
The same goes for strength and endurance, progress is made by stressing the body with added speed, distance, or training density. This should build over time, and a successful practice one day is partially dependent on the foundation that was built over the previous days or weeks. The body adapts to new stressors and comes back stronger and more prepared for the next challenge.
Our Age Group program balances all of these components, and missing practices means missing critical pieces in that developmental progression.
Of course we also understand that we are working with Age Groupers, and swimmers may get sick, have an occasional conflict, etc. Please work with your swimmer to strengthen the following habits:
Review the schedule in advance for practices and meets
Attend practice regularly
Communicate any / all conflicts with as much notice as possible
In-person communication with the coach (from the swimmer, not the parent) is always best
Parents can always follow up with a brief reminder email
Thank you for all that you do to support your swimmer’s growth in this sport. We know that parent support plays a very critical role.
Go Alto!
Coach Richie