Potomac Valley Swimming
Spring Competition Committee Meeting
Lee Graham Community Pool
7319 Lee Highway
Falls Church, VA 22042
May 16, 2012
· Attendance – Manga Dalizu-PVS, Bill Marlin-PVS, Mark Murray-FBST, Tom Ugast-CUBU, Carrie Tupper-UMD, Brian Pawlowicz-PVS, Peter Karl – SDS, Steve Menard – AAC, Emily Menard – PVS, Bruce Andersen – HAC, Matt Pelletier – FISH, Tony Murray-FAST, Bob Walker-ASA, Aaron Dean-OCCS, Riley Eaton-PVS, Jim Garner-PVS, Paris Jacobs-PVS, Tim Kelly-CUBU, Mark Faherty-CUBU, Brad Bowser-MACH, Eric Adams-SNOW, Heather Coulson Haddock-MAKO, Evan Stiles-AAC, Kent Williams-RMSC, Lynne Gerlach-MSSC, Chris Huott-MSSC, John Ertter-PVS, Shelley Geskar-YORK, Greg York-PVS, Scott Bryant-PVS, Dan Jacobs-MACH and Mike Kraeuter-BWST.
· Call to order – Meeting was called to order at 7:10 by Age Group Chair, Manga Dalizu
· Approval of Winter Competition Committee Meeting Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the January Competition Committee Meeting, seconded and approved.
· Safe Sport/Athlete Protection – Greg York is a member of the USA Swimming Safe Sport Committee and just returned from the USA-S Safe Sport Conference in Tampa, Florida.
o Praesidium, is the independent company that USA Swimming has partnered with to educate and support the Athlete Protection and Safe Sport programs within USA Swimming. Each club should have Praesidium’s contact information and should post it on their website. All clubs should be aware of all of the information currently being presented by Praesidium and USA Swimming; be aware of the potential problems and be proactive in preventing any abuse.
o All PVS Clubs need to be aware that sexual abuse issues are for real and happening.
o At the 2012 USA Swimming Convention, legislation will go to the House of Delegates to add a Safe Sport Chair to each LSC’s Board of Directors as a voting member. Assuming this legislation passes, each Safe Sport Chair will receive specific training from Praesidium and USA-S and will first point of contact for any misconduct reports.
o Greg York, suggests that each team also have an Athlete Protection person for each club, who can also be trained and will report to the LSC Safe Sport Chair, who will then send the report on to USA Swimming.
o PVS is very unique with so many Club owned teams. If you and your club have not yet covered your bases by having the Safe Sport information, providing by USA Swimming posted, you could be setting yourselves up for a lawsuit. It is recommended for all coach-owned clubs, that you don’t already have an attorney hire one so you can be prepared in case you or one of your staff members are accused of some sort of abuse against an athlete or other member of USA Swimming. Be sure to read through, become familiar with and follow the guidelines presented by USA Swimming. You don’t have to recreate the wheel it is all on the website: USA Swimming-Safe Sport.
o As everyone is aware there is now the Athlete Protection Training that all coaches, officials and chaperones must complete. A Parent Track will soon be offered free of charge to all parents. All Clubs should encourage their parents to watch the video. The projected post date is June 1. We will be sure to let all clubs know when it is available.
o Deck changing is going to become illegal in USA Swimming for all swimming including those on the National Level. We in PVS already have this in our rules.
o Keeping our athletes safe is the number one priority for USA Swimming and should be a number one priority for PVS and all member clubs.
· Nomination Committee
o Currently all incumbents are planning to rerun for their positions. There is one additional nomination for the AG Chair and one nomination (no incumbent) for Strategic Planning. We will be asking for nominations from the floor at the HOD meeting on Wednesday May 23.
o For Board of Review we still need several interested individuals who are interested in being on the ballot for the BoR.
· Information from the Official’s Vice-Chair and Tech Committee Chair – Tim Husson was asked to give a short presentation on any topics he feels are important to share with the Competition Committee regarding; rules, meet information, etc.
o There has been one change made to the Junior and Senior Champ Meet Announcement. It is now permissible to allow your swimmers to enter more than 7 events and then scratch down to 7 total events, including Time Trials. This will give coaches the flexibility to pick and choose events. As a reminder coaches will need to be proactive and make sure they report to the Admin Ref what events they plan to scratch, otherwise Admin Ref will be making that decision.
o Breaststroke rule with the butterfly kick – FINA came out with a new interpretation in of the Breaststroke pull out rule, and then USA Swimming followed FINA’s interpretation.
§ The initial interpretation was: the initiation of the first pull begins with any lateral or downward movement of the hands.
§ It has changed to “with the separation of the hands”. If the hands start together, then it is fairly easy to see; however if the hands start out slightly apart, then it is an “additional separation”. The interpretation no longer includes a “downward movement”, as this was very difficult to see, especially when watching multiple lanes.
o Declared False Start (Rule 101.13F) – Tim Husson as meet referee he is often asked for clarification of the Declared False Start (DFS) rule. For most of our meets (all non-championship meets), a DFS is not required, because there is no penalty for not showing for an event. However, if the meet announcement indicates there is a penalty for “no showing” for events, then coaches can declare a false start prior to the start of that event. The only exception is under the National Championship Meet Rules which says that a DFS cannot be used for finals in a prelims/finals event.
o There are new email lists being formed for various PVS groups. All groups are by request only. All coaches should review the lists being offered; see the link on the home page of the website. These email lists will aid in better communication between the PVS BoD and the coaches. For example there is a coach’s only list which will be a convenient way to effectively communicate with the PVS Coaches Representatives.
· Zones
o 2012 SC recap –
§ The 2012 PVS Short Course Zone Team did well. They were third place this year behind Mid Atlantic and Metro. It was a good meet over all with little to no behavior problems. Our biggest weakness was the 15-18’s; we only had three 15-18 girls and 5 boys competing for PVS.
o 2012 LC Team – Head Coach: Steve Menard, Assistant Head Coach: Scott Bryant
§ Ballots were handed out for the 2012 LC Zone Team assistant coaches. The following coaches were elected as assistant coaches.
· Derek Young-AAC, Matt Pelletier-FISH, Denise Adams-ASA, Emily Menard-HAC, Tony Murray-FAST, Becca Brofft-RMSC, Miriam Lynch-CUBU.
· All names will be submitted to the PVS Board of Directors for final approval.
· Reports
o Senior Chair
§ 2013 and 2015 Summer LC Nationals will take place before July 1 because the World Championship entries will be due in early July. The US Open and Junior Nationals will remain in August those years.
§ USA Swimming has the goal of reducing the size of US Nationals to about 1000 athletes and about 1200 athletes for Junior Nationals. In both cases this will result in significant tightening of the Qualifying Times.
§ Club Excellence Program – It was announced that for the new Quad, all Gold Level Teams will have to renew each year, instead of their Gold Standard being good for the entire Quad.
§ There will be a USA Swimming National Team reunion this summer at Olympic Trials. If you are in touch with any former swimmers who were on the National Team, please let them know.
§ AG Development Committee – Senior Chair Bill Marlin is a member of the USA Swimming Age Group Development Committee. The Committee met in Chicago last week. Below is a report from the meeting.
· They reviewed the Club development quad plan –
· USA Swimming and other National governing bodies are making efforts to make a shift in their programming by putting their athletes first by taking the pressure off of the young athletes and making the focus on developing well rounded athletes, technique, proper development and having fun.
· USA Swimming is moving and shifting towards a total athlete movement model. The research is showing that programs where athletes are really good at a young age and then sticking with the sport, all have a good aerobic base, good technique and an IM base.
· Much of the information that was presented in the Foundation coaching manual is still valid. USA S AG Committee is looking at updating this info then plan to rerelease it. Bill will keep everyone posted.
· The AG Development Committee is also looking at alternative meet formats. Bill told them about the PVS Distance meets. The committee members in attendance were shocked and want to use PVS as a model for Distance swimming.
· IMX – there is currently one year of funding left, so there will be a 2013 IMX meet. Not sure about 2014. However because the Eastern Zone is so successful, it is possible that it will still offered in the EZ only no support will be given from USA Swimming.
· There is a renewed interest in starting a National Age Group Championship for athletes ages 9-14. In the past some coaches have been really interested and some are very against it.
o It was suggested to keep in line with the development of well rounded young athletes that instead of just having qualifying times for this meet all athletes who qualify also have to have an IMX score. This way it is assured that all participants have swum all strokes. This idea turned a lot of head and several of the doubters are now getting on board with the idea. The concept will continue to be discussed.
· IMX hosts are allowed to add age groups. For the Eastern Zone we will allow 9-10 but in separate sessions.
· USA Swimming is looking for interesting/different/alternative meet formats. If you have run a meet that is different and have information (meet back up, meet announcement templates, etc) send your ideas to USA S Age Group Development.
· It was announced that at the upcoming USA S HOD there will be a piece of legislation (presented by the swim suit companies) to allow the male suits to extend up past the shoulders again. The AG Committee doesn’t agree with the legislation and plans to vote against it.
· At the recent EZ meeting, it was proposed that the Open Water event be scored and included with the overall team score for the EZ Meet.
o Per a straw poll, most felt it should be scored, but as a separate event and the totals not be added to the pool competition. However if the scores were to be added together, then the Open Water portion of the meet should take place prior to the pool competition.
o Age Group Chair
§ Recap of the 2012 SC 14 & U JO’s
· Overall the meet ran very well. There were later start times for the 13-14’s, more breaks between sessions, which was easier on the Officials, and the Finals sessions were slightly shorter. All were goals proposed by the JO committee.
· The downside of the combined 11-12 & 10 & U sessions was that the facility was unable to comfortably hand the increased number of spectators, which caused severe overcrowding of the spectator area, especially during the Sunday session.
· Due to previous pool contracts the 2012 LC AG Champs will be at Fairland again.
§ 2013 SC 14 & U JOs
· University of Maryland has been secured for the 2013 SC meet. Since neither spectator space nor athlete space will be an issue. Do we want to leave the cuts as they are? Or make changes?
· Currently our numbers in PVS are over 10,000 athletes and if we follow the same post Olympic growth trend then we will most likely be over 11,000 athletes for next season.
· Per the discussion, the goal will be to maintain a 4800-5000 splash count, which should yield roughly a 3.5 hour timeline per prelim session. We can feel confident that if some of the cuts are too light that we have some wiggle room, but the cuts and swim times should be monitored aiming for the desired number of splashes and timeline.
o Coaches
§ Nothing new to report, there is a Coaches report online for HOD
o Report from Eastern Zone Meeting
§ As of January 1, 2013, First Aid will no longer be a separate certification; it will now be part of Safety Training. So only two certifications will be necessary.
§ Olympic Trials will be using a 10 lane pool and dive-overs. There are currently 1800 entries and they are expecting the number to still increase some.
· No sponsorship logos are allowed on the suits. All suit manufactures are aware of this rule. Additionally no club logos are allowed either.
§ Make a Splash was sold to the USA Swimming Foundation and all information can be found under the Foundations tab on the home page of the USA Swimming’s web site.
· Proposed 2013 PVS LC Schedule:
o AG/SR 1 – June 9 (June 16, accepted)
o LC Distance – June 15-16 (June 22-23 accepted)
o AG/SR2 – June 23 (June 30 accepted)
o LC JR & SR Champs – July 11-14 (July 18-21 accepted)
o LC Age Group Champs – July 18-21 (July 11-14 accepted)
§ There was a brief discussion as to whether or not it was in our best interest to move PVS Senior Champs earlier due US Senior Nationals being moved to early July. However the body felt that a majority of PVS athletes will not qualify for Nationals that the meet should remain as previously schedule later in July.
o What about giving the Senior Champ athletes one more week to train and one less week between Champs and Junior Nationals?
o Motion accept the June portion of the calendar (as stated above), seconded
§ Amendment to move the 2013 June LC schedule one week later than for all meets then what is proposed, second and approved.
o LC Champ meets
§ Motion to flip AG Champs with JR/SR Champs as proposed, seconded and approved (Age Group Champs-July 11-14 and Jr/Sr Champ-July 18-21. This decision is pending the approval of the USA Swimming Jr, Open schedule. We will revisit this in Sept/Oct.
· The Northern Spring Sectional meet will be Long Course, it is a closed meet.
· Meet Bids
o Last chance for September 1-December 31, 2012
§ Oct 6 – PEAK All Free Meet – PGS&LC
§ Oct 6-7 – MSSC All Free Meet – Fairland
§ Oct 6-7 – MACH Senior Invite – Madeira
§ Oct 12-14 – SNOW Pumpkin Invite – Claude Moore
§ Oct 12-14 – RMSC Kick Off Invite – GISC
§ Oct 20-21 – YORK Halloween Mini Meet – Maderia
§ Oct 27-28 – MSSC Fall Senior Meet – Fairland
§ Oct 27-28 – PEAK Fall Senior Circuit #1 – PGS&LC
§ Oct 27-28 – SDS Monster Mash Invite – South Run
§ Nov 3-4 – RMSC NAG Challenge – GISC
§ Nov 3-4 – DCPR November Distance – Takoma
§ Nov 11 – YORK Friendship Mini #1 – Maderia
§ Nov 16-17 – RMSC November Invite – MLK
§ Nov 16-18 – SDS Swim & Rock – Oak Marr
§ Nov 18 – SDS Go the Distance – Oak Marr
§ Nov30-Dec 2 – MSSC Christmas Champs – Fairland
§ Nov 30-Dec 2 – MACH Turkey Claus -
§ Dec 1-2 – YORK Reindeer Mini – Providence
§ Dec 15 – CUBU Candy Cane Meet – Manassas Park
· Motion to accept the club meet bids for September 1- December 31, 2012 , seconded and approved.
o First chance for January 1-March 31, 2013
§ Jan 6 – RMSC Frosty Pentathlon – GISC
§ Jan 12-13 – MSSC Winter Senior Meet – Fairland
§ Jan 12-13 – SDS Polar Bear Invite – South Run
§ Jan 19-20 – PM Snow Dude Mini Meet – Mt. Vernon
§ Jan 26-27 – CUBU Invite – Georgetown Prep
§ Jan 26-27 – MAKO Winter Invite – GMU
§ Jan 27 – CUBU Polar Pentathlon – Claude Moore
§ Feb 2-3 – RMSC Gender Blender Mini – KSAC
§ Feb 2 – SNOW February Qualifier – Claude Moore
§ Feb 2-3 – FISH Super FISH Bowl – Spring Hill
§ Feb 2-3 – MACH Green & Orange Bowl – Madeira
§ Feb 9-10 – CUBU Feb Qualifier – WARF
§ Feb 9-10 – PM 14 & U JO Qualifier – Cub Run
§ Feb 10 – YORK Friendship Mini Meet #2 – Madeira
§ Feb 15-17 – DCPR Black History – Takoma (approved meet)
§ Feb 16-17 – MACH JO Qualifier – Madeira
§ Feb 22-24 – RMSC Feb Qualifier – MLK
§ Mar 9-10 – RMSC Mini Champs – Olney
§ Mar 22-24 – RMSC Spring Finale – GISC
§ Mar 22-24 – MSSC Spring Champs - Fairland
· Motion to accept the club meet bids for January 1-March 31, 2013 as stated above, seconded and approved. (With the one change as noted below)
§ Motion to take out the PVS Champs meet that is currently scheduled for 3/29-3/31, seconded and approved.
· PVS Open Meets – reformatting the Oct Open and Nov Open meets
o Motion to change the format of the October and November Open from a two session format to a three session format; 9-10, 11-12 and 13 & O. All Friday distance sessions will remain the same, seconded and approved.
o Motion to add the 400 IM to the 18 & U Champs, seconded and approved.
· Age Group Coach of the Year – Nomination closed May 15 and will be announced at HOD. This will be the trend for future.
· PVS Camps – The PVS BoD has voted to add two camps to the PVS Schedule later. They will most likely be level 1 and 2 as per the USA Swimming camp program, more information will be released as it planned.
· Swimposium – The PVS BoD has approved to host a Swimposium in the fall of 2012. USA Swimming assists in the funding once every 3 years. The last Swimposium host by PVS was in 2009. The proposed date September 30. Additional information will be made as soon as the date and facility is confirmed. [September 30, 2012 has been confirmed and the Swimposium will take place at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA].
· Old Business – At the previous meeting it was discussed that PVS Open meet discontinue the use of touch pads and use only buttons; however the body felt that it was important to continue to use touch pads at all PVS meet. Clubs, however, have the ability to run their meets in whatever manner they see fit. It is common practice for mini meets to use only buttons.
o Motion that if a meet is not going to use touch pads it be noted in all meet announcement (including mini meets), seconded and approved.
· New Business – Early in the day on May 16, 2012 several motions were proposed by a coach member regarding the structuring of the PVS Championship meets. The Executive Competition Committee members felt that there was not enough notice given to the rest of the committee to vote on all motions; therefore only Motions #2 will be voted on this evening, the rest of the motions will be tabled until the fall meeting when everyone on the committee has time to read and then properly discuss the merits of the motions.
o Motion (#2) to add a 15 minute break prior to the start of the 1000 yd free/1650 yd free during the Sunday Session of Short Course Senior Champs, seconded and approved.
o A straw poll was taken on Motion #1: To provide a 10-15 minute break prior to the start of the 800/1500M free on Sunday of LC Sr Champs and open the competition pool during this time; a majority of those in attendance confirmed that they agreed with this motion. The Meet Director and Meet Referee will be given the discretion to provide a break and open the pool if they feel timelines will allow for the break.
o Recommendation (Motion #3) to change the order of the 500/400 Free and 400 IM in both the SC and LC Sr Champs to compete the fastest 4 heats of girls (slow to fast with circle seeded top three heats), then the fastest 4 heats of boys in the same manner and then alternate the remainder of heats between girls and boys fastest to slowest). There was no formal motion, but the body seemed to like this idea.
o Motion to table Motions #1 and #3-#8 until the Fall CCM, seconded and approved.
· Next meeting: Saturday September 22 , 10-2, approved [changed to Sunday September 23 at 10:00 am due to scheduling conflict]
· Motion to adjourn