July 28, 2010  Summer Zone Hotel now available for booking  - Parents of summer zone swimmers, please contact the team hotel ASAP to secure your booking.  The hotel this year is the Marriott Courtyard Gaithersburg Washingtonian Center, 204 Boardwalk Place, Gaithersburg, MD, 20878, (301) 527-9000.  Further information can be found on the Zone Team page.  Information on the MA Zone Team Practice on August 8th is here

Due to circumstances beyond our control this year's summer zone equipment will not be ready for distribution at JOs. The equipment will be distributed at a practice to be held on Sunday, August 8th from 9:30-11am at Emmaus Community Park/ Pool. The address of this pool is 1401 Shimerville Road Emmaus, PA 18049. At this time, swimmers will meet their zone coach, practice with their fellow zone team mates, and receive their equipment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Zone Team Manager- Kate Scheuer at email@udac.us.
 

July 06, 2010  The first release of the Middle Atlantic Long Course Top 10 is here.  The meets included are from September 1, 2009 and the swimmers ages are calculated as of the date of the meet swum, therefore several swimmers may appear in two different age groups. We have moved to the USA Swimming Single Age Groups for all age groups over 10. We have also included the Senior age group which will include many of our college athletes.  The USA Swimming National Top 10 may be viewed here. 

June 23, 2010  On Monday, June 14th, the Middle Atlantic House of Delegates met at the Upper Main Line YMCA. An informative presentation by USA Swimming Program & Services Director Sue Anderson opened the meeting. Included in the night’s business was the election of officers to serve on the Middle Atlantic Board of Directors
 

General Chair	Matt Sprang (GPAC)
Admin Vice Chair	Mike Seip (EMAC)
Senior Co-Chairs	Glenn Neufeld (UMLY) & Brad Bowser (JW)
Finance Vice Chair	George Breen (JW)
Secretary	Stephanie Rozick (UN)
Athlete reps	Ian Clark (SSC) & Kelsi Worrell (STRM)
At-large	John Carroll (JW)

Middle Atlantic would like to acknowledge several Board members for their recent service to the organization. Mike Seip has served as the General Chair for the last four years. This is his second round in the position. Under Mike’s leadership, Middle Atlantic has moved forward in a manner consistent with our mission of supporting diversity, innovation, education and a commitment to excellence. Mike has always been willing to make the tough decisions and has been a proponent of change for the betterment of our sport. He was the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Service Award. Mike will serve as the Administrative Vice-Chair for the next two years. He is replacing Fred Frank who will be leaving the Board. Fred Frank was responsible for reinvigorating and organizing the program for the annual House of Delegates meetings. Fred Killian has been the Secretary for MA for the last few years. Fred stepped up to fill the position when no one was willing to commit and has done an excellent job. Fred will continue to serve on the Board as the Operations Vice-Chair. Stephanie Rozick is the out-going Senior Vice-Chair. Stephanie has been instrumental in returning short course MIDS to the Middle Atlantic schedule and in making certain that the meets we host for our swimmers provide the best possible competitive opportunities for our athletes. She is responsible for organizing a Senior “training day” in hopes that this will expand into a training trip. Stephanie will assume the duties of Secretary in July. And last, but certainly not least, we would like to recognize Burt German, former Finance Vice-Chair, not only for his last 4 years in that position, but also for his commitment to Middle Atlantic Swimming for the last 40+ years (even he may not know exactly how many!) Burt has kept us financially sound and fiscally responsible during his tenure in the Finance seat. His work is usually behind the scenes, but many of you would recognize him as one of the guys on deck in the white shirts. Burt has served the organization, not only in the finance arena, but also as an official, General Chair (several times), Senior chair and a member and chair of the Board of Review. He will continue his duties as the Rules and Regulations Chair.

THANK YOU to Mike, Fred, Fred, Stephanie and Burt for a job well done!
 

June 23, 2010 The Middle Atlantic Swimming Records have been updated as of 6/11/10.  New records established during the 2009-2010 Short Course Season are here.

Please review the definitions below so that you may better understand what each designation means. Corrections or questions should be e-mailed to our Records Chairman. If you believe that a faster time has been achieved in a particular event, please include a link to the meet results for that time.  The USA Swimming database (SWIMS) includes a feature that allows Middle Atlantic to keep track of our District and Resident records within the SWIMS system. Thanks to our Records chair, Bob Platt, for spending many hours updating and correcting the information in SWIMS so that, going forward, our records will be accurate and timely. The records report is generated directly from the SWIMS database; it is similar in looks to the previous format for MA records, but the data is named and arranged a bit differently. We are working with USA Swimming to improve the format, but for now this is what we have.

LSC Record = MA Resident Record Page 1-4 MA Long Course Resident Records / Page 5-8 MA Short Course Resident Records

LSC Open Record = MA District Record Page 9-12 MA Long Course District Records / Page 10-13 MA Short Course District Records

District Records (LSC Open Records) are achieved by any registered swimmer at a USA Swimming-recognized competition within MA geographic boundaries.

Resident Records (LSC Record) are achieved by registered MA swimmers in a USA Swimming-recognized competition in the United States or abroad.

June 15, 2010  The Middle Atlantic House of Delegates approved a new travel assistance program at the annual June meeting on Monday night. Middle Atlantic will provide up to $600 in funding to clubs who send qualified coaches and athletes to the national meets in Irvine, California this summer. Clubs must have achieved Level One in the USA Swimming Club Recognition Program to be considered for travel support money. The application for Club Travel Assistance can be found here and details about program requirements can be accessed here.   What level is YOUR Club? Search here

June 10, 2010  Fran Crippen (GAAC) and Joe Kinderwater (WSY) recently earned spots on the 2010 World Championship Team that will be competing in Roberval, Québec, Canada for the 6th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, July 15-23.   Swimmers for this team were selected based on finishes at 2010 USA Swimming Open Water National Championships. The top two finishers in the men’s and women’s 10K races automatically qualified for the World Championship team, while the rest of the roster was filled out by other top finishers.   Andrew Gemmell (DST) of Middle Atlantic was selected for the World Championship team, but declined the honor in order to participate as a member of the Pan Pac team in early August.  Arthur Frayler (GAAC), and Taylor O'Brien (PAAC)  were selected for the Junior Pan Pac team.  Arthur and Taylor will compete in Maui at the end of August.  

West Shore YMCA’s Mike Gobrecht will serve as the head coach for the World Open Water Swimming Championships.  This is Mike’s second stint as a head coach for an International Open Water team, having served as the head coach of the 2009 FINA Open Water 10K World Cup in Roberval, Quebec, Canada.  Mike also served as an assistant coach for the 2007 Junior Pan Pac team in Maui, and the 2006 FINA World Youth Swimming Championships in Brazil and is the former Co-Senior Chairperson of the Middle Atlantic Board of Directors.  Full story here.

June 1, 2010  Along with Delaware Governor Jack Markell and Senator Margret Henry, Middle Atlantic’s own Cecil Gordon was recently recognized by the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League for his outstanding commitment and contribution to the community. Dr. Gordon received the James H Gilliam, Jr. Humanitarian Award in recognition of his “significant contribution of both time and resources in support of the community.” Congratulations, Cecil

May 14, 2010  In an on-going effort to better serve our swimming community, Middle Atlantic Swimming is compiling a list of individuals who are certified as instructors for one of the many safety  courses required for coach membership in MA/USA Swimming.  [ A complete list of the courses can be found here.]  This list of instructors will be published on our website so that clubs and individual coaches will be able to more easily fulfill the MA/USA Swimming requirements.  Middle Atlantic plans to offer certification courses several times each year utilizing instructors from this list.

If you have someone in your club or if you utilize the services of a local provider, please have those individuals who would like to be on our list contact the Middle Atlantic office with the following information:

Name, Courses the instructor is certified to teach, E-mail or phone contact information (whichever the individual prefers), Geographic area served (city / county, etc)

Information submitted by July 30,2010 will be published for the 2010-11 season.

May 13, 2010  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming announced today the immediate implementation of a 7-Point Action Plan to address the issue of child protection in the sport. The plan outlines seven action steps to make certain the best possible safeguards are in place for the organization’s 300,000 members. More….

May 5, 2010  Make use of your USA Swimming team members and coaches to spread the word about

swimming to prospective members by hosting a Splash Bash! You will be provided with all the tools to make the viewing party great with a party host kit! It’ll be the perfect platform to tell their friends/team members about how to get involved in USA Swimming and encourage swim team sign ups!

Hosting a Splash Bash party will help you use the excitement of the Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships to assist you in your recruiting efforts. The events will be broadcast on NBC. USA Swimming will provide party kits that will help you host the ultimate watch party!

Kits will include games, prizes, giveaways and decorations. There will be a fully dedicated website for hosts and a sweepstakes micro site for your attendees! All materials will be developed to enhance the event and to assist in your recruiting efforts.

If you are interested in hosting a party for your club. Click here to sign up! splashbash2010.com

April 30, 2010  USA Swimming today announced that a team of eight U.S. swimmers will travel to Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games, August 14-26. The swimming competition will run August 15-20.

"We are excited to see these eight swimmers will represent the U.S. in Singapore at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games," said Mark Schubert, USA Swimming's National Team Head Coach and General Manager. "The development of young swimmers is extremely important to the future success of USA Swimming and an international meet like the Youth Olympic Games will provide a great learning experience for these talented young athletes."

Middle Atlantic Swimmers Allie Roberts, coaches by Eric Posegay at Parkland Aquatic Club and Kaitlyn Jones coached by Bruce Gemmell at Delaware Swim Team have been selected as two of the 8 members competing in Singapore.  The Youth Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event, held in conjunction with the International Olympic Committee that will be held every four years consistent with the current format of the Olympic Games. The sport program will encompass all 26 sports that will be featured at the 2012 Olympic Games.

April 30, 2010  The fifth release of the Middle Atlantic Short Course Top 10 is here.  The meets included are from September 1, 2009 and the swimmers ages are calculated as of the date of the meet swum, therefore several swimmers may appear in two different age groups. We have moved to the USA Swimming Single Age Groups for all age groups over 10. We have also included the Senior age group which will include many of our college athletes.  The USA Swimming National Top 10 may be viewed here. 

April 17, 2010  Additional clinics may be scheduled. MA Clubs that host meets are reminded that they are expected to have officials within their club to support the meets. If your Club would like to host a clinic, please contact Fred Killian at FK42@aol.com
 

February 23, 2010  Congratulations to the Middle Atlantic teams who have earned Silver and Bronze status in the 2009-10 USA Swimming Club Recognition Program. Way to go!

 

Delaware Swim Team 17,471
Germantown Academy Aquatic Club 10,257
Hershey Aquatic 9,602
Jersey Wahoos Swim Club 6,926

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Parkland Aquatic Club 6,136
Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club 5,177
 

January 28, 2010  Attention Coaches and Team Administrators/Registrars: You can now access your team roster 24/7 using your USA Swimming Club Portal. This roster can be printed and used for proof of registration at swim meets; it can also help you to be sure that each member of your team is properly registered and affiliated with your club. A list of affiliated non-athlete members (coaches, officials and “others”) is available, along with statistical reports about membership retention specific to your team. Each club member of USA Swimming has a club portal. Click here for details on how to access yours.

May 3, 2010  With the exception of the office staff, Middle Atlantic is served entirely by volunteers who give very generously of their time in the service of our athletes.

The MA Officials’ committee is one of the most active in the arena of volunteers. Clinic notices are posted on the MA website and the dates and times are announced at the BOD meetings and at swim meets. Meet host clubs are encouraged to develop a core group of officials and experienced volunteers are involved in mentoring new members.

The Age Group and Senior committees request volunteer assistance directly from involved coaches and interested parents. This usually produces a group of people who are willing to help with specific tasks at the Age Group and Senior levels, including running meets and assistance with the Age Group All-Star team. Our meet directors, officials, and committee chairs often express their appreciation to the volunteers through “thank you’s” in the form of notes, e-mails and web postings. In addition, as an organization, Middle Atlantic provides some assistance to key personnel (mileage, hotel rooms, meals, gift certificates) as a token of appreciation for the time and effort involved in a job well done.

The newly created Diversity Committee recently posted an appeal for volunteers on the MA website which netted 8 great volunteers to help with diversity initiatives in our LSC.

Our permanent office serves as a general clearing house for volunteers. Interested parties are put in direct contact with the appropriate committee chair or Board member.

May 3, 2010  Just as Middle Atlantic is your local governing body, USA is the national governing body for our sport. Click on the link here to learn more about what USA Swimming does and how the business side of swimming is conducted. From this page, links to the USA Swimming Board of Directors, the USA Swimming Committee Chairs and the USA Swimming By-laws will give you an abundance of information.

November 16, 2009  There may be some misunderstanding and confusion regarding the finish requirements for the Backstroke. The backstroke finish rule (101.4.4) states that ‘…the swimmer must touch the wall while on the back.’ The stroke rules (101.4.2) include the statement ‘Some part of the swimmer must break the surface of the water throughout the race, except it is permissible for the swimmer to be completely submerged during the turn, at the finish and for a distance of not more than 15 meters after the start and after each turn.’ The question becomes 'when is the finish?' and 'may the swimmer be submerged before the finish touch?'

USA Swimming has addressed this question here and the response is here

USA Swimming defines the 'finish' as the touch at the completion of the race. Under the stroke rule for backstroke, the swimmer may not be completely submerged except during the initial 15 meters after the start and each turn; submergence prior to the finish touch is cause for disqualification.

Please contact me at officials@maswim.org if you have any questions about this issue.

Fred Killian, MA Officials Chair

November 16, 2009  USA Swimming is in the process of compiling a list of Age Group All-Time Top 100 times. The list is now complete through the top 25. To see the complete list, go to our All-Time Top 100 Times section.

October 8, 2009  The MA Officials Committee will hold several clinics for new Stroke & Turn officials. Anyone interested in becoming an official is welcome to attend the clinics – advance registration is not necessary. However, please drop a note to officials@maswim.org  to insure that we will have enough material at the clinic.
 

Contact the committee if you need directions or more information.

Clubs that will be hosting MA meets this season are expected to have officials within their club to support the meets. If your club would like to host a clinic, please contact Fred Killian at FK42@aol.com

Fred Killian, MA Officials Chair

September 24, 2009  The IMX Challenge is a motivational program whereby swimmers will be scored and ranked nationally [USA National Database] on their performance in a combination of five or six events. The purpose of the program is to promote versatility in age group swimming while advocating greater participation and development across a range of events that are integral to long term success in swimming.  The MA Rankings are here

February 26, 2010  The USA Swimming all-time Top 100 times list, a ranking of the fastest times by age group, event, course and gender, has been completed. See how you stack up among the best athletes in USA Swimming. Read more....
 

 

February 23, 2010  The search is on for USA Swimming’s next big idea. Over the coming month we will be conducting a public discussion about the future of the sport and in the process be seeking to identify new ideas and projects to implement to help our sport and USA Swimming continue to grow and prosper. We will be using our swimnetwork.com website as the discussion and feedback forum and we encourage you to participate; and ideally you will check the website every few days to follow the discussion and provide your own input.
 

May 13, 2009   Effective May 1, 2009, USA Swimming’s Board of Directors modified the racing start rule, 103.2.2, to further clarify that racing starts should only be taught under the direct supervision of a USA Swimming member coach, and to expand the definition of teaching racing starts to make clear that no swimmer who has not been certified as proficient by his or her coach should be performing racing starts into less than six feet of water.

Please keep in mind that the only change to this USAS rule is that there is now a requirement for a coach to document, by means of a checklist, the fact that in their professional judgment a swimmer has been taught how to properly execute a racing start. The requirement to teach swimmers to properly execute racing starts has been in place in our rules for a long time, with or without a checklist. The procedures that should take place at a meet are no different now than they were before the checklist was implemented. Coaches should be doing whatever they were doing in the past with respect to swimmers who had not yet been taught to properly execute a racing start. The checklist does not change a thing except to require a coach to document the process and there is no need to add any additional procedures at a swim meet as a result of this.

The following documents will help explain this rule change: Amendment to Article 103.2.2 of the USAS Rules Racing Start Certification Checklist USA Swimming Safety Notice to Member Clubs and Coaches USA Swimming Safety Notice to Parents Frequently Asked Questions

April 22, 2009  Here are some answers to your questions regarding your USA Swimming Coaches Membership.  If your Lifeguarding has expired, you must take the 25 question test here PLUS have an up to date Lifeguarding (or safety training for swim coaches).  You only need to take the 25 question test after your current Lifeguarding has expired.  The Middle Atlantic swimming office will NOT issue new coach credentials until all certifications and tests have been completed.  Here are some other forms that may help all Middle Atlantic Coaches:

Coaches Safety Curriculum for 2008-2009

Approved Courses for 2008-2009

New Coach Packet for 2008-2009

 

USA Swimming ESPN Olympic News USA Today

Real Time Results

NBC Video