Columbia Swim Club
CSC Hotline: 443-4CSC (443-4272)
www.csctigersharks.org
Handbook for Swimmers, Parents,
and Members
(September 2006 edition)
Is CSC a "competitive" swimming program?
CSC’s Organization [rev. 8/06]
The "Seasons" of Competitive Swimming
What are Time Standards? [8/06]
The Relationship Between CSC and High School Swimming [rev. 8/05]
Club Communications [rev.8/06]
Attendance at Practices and Meets
Practice Cancellations: The "Whys" and "What Happens"
CSC-Hosted Swim Meets [rev. 8/06]
Swim Meets: Fees & Entry Packets
Becoming Involved as a USA Swimming Official [new 10/04]
Team Suits, Caps, and Apparel [rev. 8/06]
Standards for Parental Conduct
Parents, Swimmer, Coaches: A Triangular Relationship
List of Other Documents and Handouts [rev. 8/03]
This Handbook (which is also posted on our Website) is designed to provide a general overview of the Columbia Swim Club for all current and new swimmers and their parents (or guardians).
If you are new to the sport of competitive swimming, we welcome you!
From the beginning, you should be aware that a child’s involvement in competitive swimming will involve a significant amount of time for both the swimmer and the parent. But compared to the benefits of a child’s participation in swimming, the amount of this investment will seem small in the long run.
USA Swimming offers swimmers and their families many opportunities. As a swimming parent, you will gain the opportunity to watch your child participate and grow in a competitive situation, applaud and praise their achievements, and have the opportunity along the way to deal with disappointment in ways that help them learn and grow. You will also have the opportunity to meet and make friends with people all over the state. There are many examples of parents who enjoyed this experience so much that they stayed involved in swimming in some official capacity, even after their children "retired" or "graduated."
As a swimming parent, you also have responsibilities. Some of these are to you child, and some are to the Club. Because CSC is a not-for-profit, parent-run organization, it is very important that every family help the Club build upon its quality. After all, we are all doing this for the benefit of our children, not for us.
The primary goal of CSC is set forth in the our "mission statement," which is one of the first sentences in our "Articles of Organization." Our mission is:
"to provide an opportunity for each swimmer to strive for excellence in competitive swimming and to reach his/her maximum individual growth through a quality swimming program."
Striving to fulfill this mission means helping our children accomplish the ideals in the following "nine points":
1. To have fun.
2. To develop a spirit of cooperation.
3. To develop a sense of achievement leading to positive self-esteem.
4. To develop sportsmanship and a respect of competitors.
5. To develop a healthy attitude toward competition.
6. To develop confidence and independence through interdependent activities.
7. To develop determination and initiative.
8. To develop motor skills and fundamentals of sport leading to a lifetime participation in sport.
9. To develop leadership skills.
Yes, but the complete answer is more complicated than that. CSC does not see the first place person as the only winner. We prefer to see who behaves and acts like a winner. Sports are not an end in itself, but a vehicle we use to teach children life skills and how to reach their potential. We use sports as organized play to demonstrate and measure one’s abilities. Seen in that light, winning without learning is not CSC’s desired intention. In competition, the important measure is not who collected the most medals, or even who improved the most seconds. The critical measure is who learned the most from the competitive experience.
Swimmers quickly forget the medals, records, and other material benefits. They will, however, remember the development of interpersonal skills, discipline, listening skills, time management, goal setting, and enhanced self-image. These are the things that make the swimmer a more successful person with a better chance of living a life closer to their peak potential and contributing to the world in which they live.
The USA Swimming age group swimming program is America’s largest program of guided fitness activity for children. Age group swimming builds a strong foundation for a lifetime of good health, by teaching healthy fitness habits.
Physical Development: Swimming is considered the ideal activity for developing muscular and skeletal growth by many physicians and pediatricians. Why do doctors like it so much?
Swimming develops high quality aerobic endurance, the most important key to physical fitness. In other sports an hour of practice may yield as little as ten minutes of meaningful exercise. Age group swimming teams use every precious minute of practice time developing fitness and teaching skills.
Swimming does a better job in proportional muscular development by using all the body’s major muscle groups. No other sport does this as well.
Swimming enhances children’s natural flexibility (at a time when they ordinarily begin to lose it) by exercising all of their major joints through a full range of motion.
Swimming helps develop superior coordination because it requires combinations of complex movements of all parts of the body, enhancing harmonious muscle function, grace, and fluidity of movement.
Swimming is the most injury-free of all children’s sports.
Swimming is a sport that will bring kids fitness and enjoyment for life. Participants in Master’s Swimming programs are still training and racing well into their 80s.
Intellectual Competence: In addition to physical development, children can develop greater intellectual competence by participating in a guided program of physical activity. Learning and using swimming skills engages the thinking processes. As they learn new techniques, children must develop and plan movement sequences. They improve by exploring new ideas. They learn that greater progress results from using their creative talents. Self-expression can be just as much physical as intellectual. Finally their accomplishments in learning and using new skills contribute to a stronger self-image.
CSC is a parent-run organization and is a registered club with USA Swimming. USA Swimming is the national governing body for amateur competitive swimming; it was created in 1978 with the enactment by Congress of the Amateur Sports Act, which specifies that all Olympic sports are administered independently. USA Swimming’s national headquarters is in Colorado Springs, Colorado. USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports information, and selects the athletes to represent the United States in international competition. For more information on USA Swimming, go to www.usaswimming.org , to which you can also link from the CSC Website.
Missouri Valley Swimming ("MVS") is the Local Swimming Committee ("LSC") which administers the USA swimming program in the western half of Missouri and all of Kansas. Missouri Valley Swimming handles registration for USA Swimming of all swimmers and officials, sanctions all meets so that times achieved can be used for other entry purposes in other USA Swimming sanctioned meetings, holds championship meets in the Winter, Spring, and Summer, and assists local clubs in their operation. MVS is headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas. For more information, go to the Missouri Valley Website at www.missourivalleyswimming.com , which you can also link from the CSC Website.
CSC is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Missouri. We are also an agent of Columbia Parks and Recreation; we depend on Parks & Rec for pool space, and we further the goals of Parks & Rec by offering our program to interested children in Columbia.
Pursuant to our Articles of Incorporation, we are governed by an Executive Committee (or Board of Directors), which is elected by the membership at our annual meeting held at the conclusion of the short course season every April. The Board consists of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Chair, Meet Director, and Associate Meet Director, Fundraising Director, and At-large Member. Other key positions in CSC are the Newsletter Director, Meet Entry Director, Webmaster, and Social Chair. The Board meets once a month (the second Tuesday of each month). These meetings are held at the Parks & Rec ARC at 1701 Ash. Board meetings are open to any parent or swimmer. The last agenda item at each meeting is a time for "public comment" by a club member on any matter involving the club. If you wish to attend a meeting, it is suggested that you first contact a member of the Board to confirm the time and location of the meeting.
CSC employs four coaches, each of whom is compensated by the club. CSC also pays monthly fees for pool usage to Columbia Parks and Recreation and MizzouRec. Like any organization of this sort, we have other expenses (such as the cost of the CSC telephone hotline, sending coaches to training clinics to improve their coaching skills, etc.). These expenses determine the rate of our membership fees. We also own some equipment (such as lane lines, for example) which we must maintain and, from time to time, replace. As a not-for-profit corporation, we do not try to make money; but we must also not lose money in order to maintain our existence. Essentially, we strive to charge the lowest fees possible to cover our expenses and maintain an appropriate reserve for capital expenses.
More information about CSC’s structure can be found in the Bylaws.
CSC is basically organized around two competitive seasons. The short-course season involves events in a 25-yard pool (such as the north-south lanes at the pool at Hickman), and runs from approximately mid-September to mid-March. The long-course season involves events in a 50-meter pool (such as the outdoor pool at Oakland park), and begins in early April and continues through mid-August. Many, though not all, of the long-course season events are held in outdoor pools. We train for both seasons.
USA Swimming is the National Governing Body for amateur competitive swimming in the United States. At its headquarters office, located at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA Swimming staff interact with 59 Local Swimming Committees (LSC’s), athletes, coaches and volunteers at all levels to provide a variety of services to 220,000 registered athletes, 20,000 non-athletes and 2,500 swim clubs. CSC is a registered club with USA Swimming. In essence, USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships and Olympic trials, disseminates safety and sports information, and selects the athletes to represent the United States in international competition, such as the Olympic games. As a registered swimmer with CSC, your child is eligible to participate in the competitions that ultimately lead to the selection of the U.S. Olympic team.
USA Swimming was conceived in 1978 with the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Amateur Sports Act, which decreed that all Olympic sports would be administered independently. Prior to this Act, USA Swimming was the Competitive Swimming Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
Today, with its headquarters at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA Swimming is a Group A member of the United States Olympic Committee. Independent and a model for all amateur sport national governing bodies, USA Swimming is in the vanguard of the Olympic movement around the world.
USA Swimming hosts three major swimming meets each year: the Phillips 66/USA Swimming Spring National Championships, the Phillips 66/USA Swimming Summer National Championships, and the US Open (which is sponsored by Speedo America). Additionally, USA Swimming sponsors the Speedo Championship Series, a series of sectional championships during both the short course (25-yard) and long course (50-meter) seasons.
USA Swimming is the ruling body of sanctioned swimming meets in the United States. USA Swimming rules are designed to protect the swimmer, provide fair and equitable conditions of competition, and promote uniformity in the sport so that no swimmer shall obtain an unfair advantage over another.
Obviously, the "wet" side of the sport receives a tremendous amount of money and attention, but the "dry" side of the sport receives considerable attention as well. Coach and athlete education plays an important role in USA Swimming. Programs such as the Coaches College present the most current coaching and scientific literature, and assist coaches in their efforts to provide optimal training conditions for their athletes. Once a year USA Swimming publishes an updated version of the USA Swimming Rules and Regulations, the final word in technical swimming rules. Splash is a bi-monthly publication providing current and timely information of interest to all USA Swimming members. Lanelines, the USA Swimming coaches newsletter, is also included in Splash. Beginning in 2001, Splash TV will bring USA Swimming programs to weekly television nationally.
There are seven different age group classifications recognized by USA Swimming (the governing body of the sport): 8-Under, 10-Under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18, and Senior. The Senior (or Open) classification includes any age registered swimmer who has achieved the prescribed qualifying time for the event. Not all age group classifications are offered at every swim meet. The swimmer's age on the first day of a meet will govern the swimmer's age for the entire meet.
Within each age group there are different nationally recognized levels of achievement based on times, called the "Motivational Standards". All swimmers begin as "C" swimmers. As they improve, they advance from "C", to "BB", "B", "A", "AA", "AAA", and ultimately "AAAA". In some cases, a swimmer may be in a different class in each stroke. An example: a "C" breaststroke time, a "B" freestyle time, and a "AA" backstroke time. These standards are published by USA Swimming every four years.
Championship meets and some other meets set "qualification" standards. In order to compete, a swimmer must have achieved the qualifying time for a particular event. Championship qualification time requirements as well as Motivational Standards can be found on CSC's Time Standards page.
The USA swimming program is separate and distinct from the various high school sports associations in the different states, including Missouri. It is, of course, not essential that a high school swimmer belong to a USA swim club, but many do because USA Swimming provides an opportunity for year-round training and competition. By the same token, USA swimmers are not required to swim in high school programs, but CSC encourages its high school swimmers to participate in their high school programs if they wish to do so.
Club information is provided to members in a variety of ways:
Website: One of the best places to get up-to-date information on the club, swim meets, practice schedules, and other items archival information is the CSC Website, which can be accessed at www.csctigersharks.org
E-mail Distribution List. CSC also has an e-mail distribution list, which is used for communication of special announcements about the club, special notices, etc.
Coaches. Our coaches are always available for concerns and questions. However, please make arrangements to talk to the coaches after practice, and not during a training session.
Board Members. Board meetings are open to all members, and your attendance is welcome. Also, please feel free to contact a board member if you have any questions or concerns about the club.
Newsletter. A newsletter is prepared each month (except that the August-September newsletter is sometimes combined into one). This newsletter contains meet information, news from the monthly board meetings, practice schedules, and other important club information. At the end of each month, the most recent newsletter is posted on the Web. If you are on a CSC committee and want to insert information in the newsletter, please send your information to the newsletter editor on or before the third Monday of the month.
Hickman Bulletin Board: CSC has a bulletin board in the Hickman pool foyer that posts recent news items (e.g., practice schedules, monthly newsletters, etc.). A white announcement board is located at the locker room entrance with announcements such as schedule changes and reminders. Beneath the white board are some bins in which one kind find back issues of the Newsletter and some other information.
Hotline. The club’s telephone number is 443-4CSC. The message on this phone line will give current information about pool closures and canceled practices.
For the current schedule of swimming fees, see the current handout titled "Columbia Swim Club Swimming Fees."
Because CSC is a not-for-profit corporation, every attempt is made by the Executive Committee (the "Board") to keep dues and expenses to the minimum level needed to cover our expenses. Each year the Board spends a great deal of time and concern analyzing, projecting, and conserving in order to keep all our dues at the lowest level possible. In order to accomplish this, it is essential that dues be paid in a timely and conscientious manner. Swimmers who are not current with dues are not allowed to participate in practices or meets.
If you have any questions or problems with this financial commitment, please contact the club Membership Chair. In some circumstances, financial assistance may be requested. We are happy to work with you on an individual basis.
In addition to being current with quarterly dues, each swimmer must be registered with Missouri Valley and USA Swimming. This is a requirement of the insurance policies of USA Swimming.
Our monthly fees, by themselves, do not provide a sufficient sum of money to run the club. Fund-raising is an important part of our Club’s activities.
CSC raises funds beyond monthly fees in three important ways: Hosting our Winter Invitational and Elite meets, Swim-a-thon, and Corporate Gifts.
CSC hosts a yearly Winter Invitational swim meet in January. This meet is open to all swimmers at CSC and requires volunteer work from the membership in management, timing, hospitality, concessions, and various other tasks. At irregular intervals, CSC also hosts elite meets such as the Speedo Championship Series Region VIII meet first held at the MU Pool in July, 2006. This kind of meet requires a tremendous effort by the membership as well. Regardless of whether their individual CSC swimmers qualify for the meets CSC hosts, all families are expected to participate as volunteers. This is how CSC as a whole is able to provide programming and lane space for our swimmers at all levels.
Another important way a CSC family helps with fund-raising is through the annual Swim-a-thon. Beginning in 2006-07, Swim-a-Thon will be conducted in the spring. Swim-a-Thon is a fundraiser in which participants earn money for their teams by swimming lengths of the pool. Swimmers have a two-hour period in which to swim a maximum of 200 lengths. Participants get pledges from businesses, family, neighbors, etc. prior to swimming. Following the Swim-a-Thon, they collect their pledges and return the money to their team. Swim-a-Thon is the only pledge for length swimming program recognized by USA Swimming. Under the Swim-a-Thon rules, CSC retains 95 percent of the funds raised, and the remaining 5 percent is returned to USA Swimming to support Swim-a-Thon and other age group swim programs.
Finally, an important source of revenue for CSC is through individual and corporate gifts. If you or your business is interested in supporting CSC and the sport of USA swimming, please see a member of the Board for more details. CSC recognizes these gifts in various ways through advertising at CSC-hosted meets and on the CSC website.
Attendance at practice is strongly encouraged, but is not required. Attendance will play a factor in the selection of relays to represent CSC at swim meets. Of course, those swimmers who make a serious commitment to the sport of swimming in the senior levels will want to attend almost all practices.
Attendance at meets is entirely optional, but it is greatly encouraged, as participation in swim meets is one of the significant benefits and fun aspects of competitive swimming.
Sometimes circumstances beyond the coaches’ control requires the cancellation of a practice – even one that is in progress. This does not happen often, but when it does, the usual problem is weather. It is rare that a mechanical problem at the pool causes a cancellation, but this has happened also. As an agent of the Columbia Parks & Rec department, we are also required to share the pool with other city-sponsored and school-sponsored activities, and we sometimes yield our time (e.g., to support Parks & Rec lifeguard training or to enable Hickman High School to host a swim meet), but we cooperate with these activities, recognizing that this cooperation is often given in return to us (e.g., to enable us to host a swim meet and have exclusive use of the pool for an entire weekend).
CSC will not practice when weather conditions are severe or when there are other unusual circumstances. When you are unsure if practice is being held, call the CSC hot line: 443-4CSC. There will be a cancellation message on the recorder if practice has been canceled. We will try to use an e-mail distribution to facilitate these kinds of announcements, but the hotline will remain our primary communications method. Finally, coaches will try to post a notice on the exterior door (to the dressing rooms) of the Hickman pool if a cancellation is of the "last minute" variety. Please understand that weather conditions can arise suddenly, and cancellations will occur at the last moment from time to time. This is unavoidable; the coaches will do their best to give notice as quickly as possible.
During the summer season when practices are being held outside, the coaches will try to put a message on the hot line by 6:00 a.m. if practice is being canceled.
Parents usually wonder why severe weather outside sometimes cancels indoor practices at the Hickman pool. Outside the Hickman building is a wading pool. There is a metal conduit that runs from the wading pool to the indoor pool at Hickman. It is the policy of Columbia Parks & Recreation that due to the risk of transmission of lightning from the wading pool to the indoor pool, the indoor pool cannot be used when lightning is in the vicinity.
CSC-Hosted Swim Meets [8/06]
CSC hosts a number of swim meets throughout the year. They fall into the following categories:
Intrasquad/Time Trial/Dual - A fairly informal single-session meet. These meets are an opportunity to race at a low cost without going out of town. If CSC is able to have the meet sanctioned, it will be "official" and times will count for championship qualifications and records. There may be 4 or 5 of these per year held in Columbia at Hickman, the MU Pool, or even Oakland. CSC Parents are asked to help with timing and bull pen operations.
Winter Invitational - Our annual meet held in late January. Hosting this swim meet involves an entire weekend, and requires all members to help in some capacity. We must provide timers, concession workers, setup and cleanup help, scoring, and many other duties. When everyone helps, it is a fun weekend that provides revenue for our club.
Elite Meet - With the addition of the MU Pool in Columbia, CSC has irregular opportunities to host elite meets - perhaps once each year or year-and-a-half. The first was the Speedo Champions Series Region VIII Sectional held in July, 2006, which was a great success! These meets last 4 full days and require all members to help with timing, hospitality, scoring, etc. These meets are high-profile, exciting meets, with many National-qualifies swimmers competing. CSC's hosting of these meets not only provides revenue for the club, but is indirectly the key to CSC's ability to provide adequate practice lane space at both Hickman and MU for our growing swim program. All members are expected to work these meets.
Meet information will be posted on the CSC Website and distributed to swimmers at practice and made available for pick-up in the bins at the Hickman pool as soon as we receive the information from the host team. It is the swimmer's responsibility to get the meet information to his or her parents. It is the responsibility of the swimmer and/or the swimmer's parents to make sure that the swimmer's entry is turned into either the Coach or the Meet Entries Director by the stated deadline in the information. Although all reasonable efforts will be made to get any swimmer into a meet in which he or she wants to swim, any entries not received by the deadline will not be included in the CSC entry for that meet, and that means there is no guarantee that the swimmer will be able to participate in the meet.
No swimmer will be entered in a meet, regardless of whether or not their entry was returned on time, if meet fees for that meet were not returned with the entry. Also, no swimmer will be entered in a meet if the swimmer’s dues payments are not current. It is CSC policy that a swimmer cannot swim as a CSC team member at a meet if he or she is "on leave" – i.e., not paying the dues for the month in which the meet occurs.
If you are new to swim meets, please visit with the coaching staff about the appropriate events for your swimmer to enter. Also, the coaching staff can give advice about whether a meet is appropriate for the skill level of a particular swimmer; this is rarely an issue, but a few meets we attend are more competitive and "fast," and therefore might be a bit more than some swimmers want to tackle in their first months in the sport.
Swimmer's parents are responsible for lodging, transportation, and chaperoning for their own child unless other arrangements have been made with another parent. The total cost for a weekend will vary according to the length of time away, type of lodging, distance traveled, and personal preferences for food, etc.
At meets, swimmers are responsible for themselves. Each swimmer will be responsible for checking themselves in with the coach prior to warm-ups. If a swimmer needs assistance (which is often true with our younger and newer swimmers), the coaches will be available to help. It is important that the swimmers be ready to get in the pool as soon as warm-ups are scheduled to begin. This not only assures adequate warm-ups but prevents interruption of the team warm-ups. Although parents are available, each individual swimmer is expected to accept responsibility for their behavior, belongings, and money.
Swimmers are expected to pay for their own food and entertainment. Attempts can be made to keep costs at a minimum. Many parents take breakfast food with them for their swimmers (juice, sweet rolls, etc.). They may also want to take snacks (a cooler full of juice and healthy food) to bring to the meet; most meets allow personal items of this sort to be brought into the meet. Most meets will have concession stands available. Patches, T-shirts, pins, and other swimming related items are also frequently for sale at the meets. Programs with a schedule of meet events and swimmers' names (called "heat sheets") are also for sale at the meets.
The days of swim meets may get long and most swimmers bring sleeping bags and pillows, sweat suits to wear between events, as well as cards, games, books, etc. A lock for pool lockers is a good idea (not all facilities have lockers). Also bring the usual: team suits, caps, several towels, goggles, and last, but most certainly most importantly, your desire to HAVE FUN and SWIM FAST!
The officials you see at swim meets in the blue shorts and white shirts are all volunteers from the various teams. Without them in their capacities as referee, starter, and stroke-and-turn judges, there could be no officially sanctioned meet. CSC has some parents certified as officials as well. If you are interested in becoming an official, please see one of them for more information. Basically, to become a stroke-and-turn judge, you must attend a training session and take an open book test online. Once you pass the test, submit your registration application to the CSC Treasurer and CSC will submit your registration and pay your registration fee.
Team suits and team apparel can be ordered online through Action Accents. Please see your coach if you wish to purchase a cap. Caps are ordered periodically throughout the year and it is strongly encouraged that swimmers wear a team suit and cap at all competitions.
1. No swimmer will be permitted to practice until the USA registration fee has been paid.
2. All swimmers are encouraged to attend scheduled practices.
3. Information will often be distributed to swimmers at practices (such as meet entry information and information about swimming practice schedules). It is the swimmers’ responsibility to get this information to their parents.
4. All swimmers are expected to arrive on time to all scheduled practices.
5. Foul and abusive language will not be tolerated in practice or any team function.
6. Abusive or negative actions towards teammates will not be tolerated.
7. All swimmers must report on time for all team warm-ups prior to all swimming competitions.
8. It is recommended that all swimmers discuss with their coach race strategy for every event and then report to their coach for comments immediately following each event.
9. It is encouraged that all swimmers compete in a team suit and cap at all sessions of a swim meet.
10. No swimmer will be permitted to swim in any meet if his/her entry fees have not been paid and/or team dues paid as scheduled.
1. Parents (a term used generically here as also including any guardian for the child) are encouraged to observe the practices whenever they wish but in such a way as to not disturb the practice.
2. Parents are not permitted to change a swimmer's events in any meet without discussing it with the coach.
3. Parents should make their attendances at practices and swim meets positive experiences for their children.
4. Parents must pick their swimmer up from practice promptly or have alternate arrangements. This is important to the security of our swimmers. It is also courteous to our coaches or other parents, who will be required to wait after practice for late parents to pick up their children.
5. Parents are the primary support group for coaches and swimmers. Without the parents' interest and assistance, CSC would not be able to attend or hold meets, to have regular practice sessions with paid coaching or even exist as a team. Since CSC is a non-profit organization in which only the coaching staff receive compensation, it is essential for the existence of the club that contributions of time and money be made by the parents. Below is a partial list of some functions for which parents are needed to help assure continued successful seasons for CSC:
(a) Committee Work: Many of the functions that keep the club going are performed by committees that are designed for particular responsibilities. Like the Board, these positions are filled by parents who volunteer in response to a specific need or request. VOLUNTEER - your interest, support and cooperation will make a successful club and therefore, a successful swimming team for your children and their teammates.
(b) Swim Meets: CSC normally hosts one or two (and sometimes more) USA sanctioned meets in Columbia each year. The entry fees and concession stand profits of these meets provide a much needed source of income for our club. Swim meets, an important part of age-group swimming, require a corps of qualified officials. A full complement of timers, judges, scorers and other specialists may total as many as 50 individuals at a major meet. Parents are needed to fill these positions.
(c) Fund-Raising Participation: As a part of your membership in CSC, every family is asked to participate in the various fund-raising efforts of the club each year. We hope you will be willing to actively support all of CSC's fund-raising projects and also help us brainstorm for more creative ideas to raise money.
Parents, Swimmers, Coaches: A Triangular Relationship
To have a successful program there must be understanding and cooperation among parents, swimmers, and coaches. The progress your youngster makes depends to a great extent on this triangular relationship. It is with this in mind that we ask you to consider this section as you join the CSC and reacquaint yourself with this section if you are a returning CSC parent.
You have done a great deal to raise your child. You create the environment in which they are growing up. Your child is a product of your values, the structure you have provided, and the model you have been. Human nature, however, is such that a parent loses some of his/her ability to remain detached and objective in matters concerning his/hers children’s athletics. The following guidelines will help you keep your child’s development in the proper perspective and help your child reach his/her full potential as an athlete.
The coach is the Coach! We want your swimmer to relate to his or her coach as soon as possible concerning swimming matters. This relationship between coach and swimmer produces best results. When parents interfere with opinions as to how the swimmer should swim or train, it causes considerable, and oftentimes insurmountable, confusion as to whom the swimmer should listen to. If you have a problem, concern, or complaint, please contact the coach.
Best kind of parent: The coach’s job is to motivate and constructively criticize the swimmer’s performance. It is the parent’s job to supply the love, recognition, and encouragement necessary to make the child work harder in practice, which in turn gives him/her the confidence to perform well in competition.
Ten and Unders: Ten and Unders are the most inconsistent swimmers and this can be frustrating for parents, coaches, and the swimmer alike! Parents and coaches must be patient and permit these youngsters to learn to love the sport. When a young swimmer first joins CSC, there may be a brief period in which he/she appears to slow down. This is a result of the added concentration on stroke technique, but this will soon lead to much faster swims for the individual.
Even the very best swimmer will have meets where they do not do their best times. These "plateaus" are a normal part of swimming. Over the course of a season times should improve. Please be supportive of these "poor" meets. The older swimmers may have only two or three meets a year for which they will be rested and tapered.
A portion of each swimmer’s USA Swimming fee, paid at registration, helps pay for two insurance programs. (This description is NOT a statement of the coverage. Please contact one of the members of the Board or USA Swimming for more details.)
One is a program of "excess accident medical insurance." This plan, which is excess to other primary insurance in place through the member’s employment, school, or family, provides some reimbursement for some medical or dental expenses which are a direct result of an accident-related injury suffered in USA Swimming sponsored, sanctioned or approved competitions, meets, or events, or participation in CSC-organized practice sessions, or organized, supervised travel to and from sponosred and sanctioned events or organized, supervised practice sessions.
The second is a program of liability insurance for any USA swimming members, member clubs, or volunteers involve in USA Swimming sanctioned or approved swim meets or competitions, swimming practices, and other CSC- or USA Swimming-approved activities.
Both of these programs have exclusions and limitations. The programs also have conditions. For example, CSC must enforce restrictions on non-members swimming with the Club; otherwise, the coverage of the insurance programs would be jeopardized as to all CSC members. For questions, see a member of the Board or contact Missouri Valley or USA Swimming.
There are other documents and handouts which are important to CSC. Updated copies of all of these documents are available on the CSC Website. If you need a replacement hard copy, please contact one of the Board members, and arrangements will be made to get a copy to you.
Some of the other documents and handouts include:
Articles of Organization of Columbia Swim Club
Columbia Swim Club Swimming Fees (updated annually)
CSC Coaches and Board of Directors (updated annually)
Ten Principles for Parents of Athletic Children
Swim Meets: Some Information for First-Timers (and Others)