From the Coaches - End of November Updates

FUNdamentals 2 & 3:

The fundamentals squad has been doing great work so far this season! Recently the group

had mastered reading sets off the board and practicing using the pace clocks during sets

instead of relying on the coaches to start them. We are also proud of the swimmers

encouraging each other during practice, it being great moral to the squad. All the swimmers

have been doing amazing in and out of the pool! We would like to recognize the following

swimmers who have done a great job exemplifying the core values we hold as a team:

respect, leadership, pride, and excellence.

Standout Swimmers:

Mila is part of our FUNdamentals2 group. Recently we have welcomed two new swimmers

to the squad, and she has naturally taken a leadership role by helping out our new

swimmers. 

Emma is part of our FUNdamentals2 group as well. She comes to every practice ready to

take on new challenges. During activation and land, she always puts the same effort into the

exercises the coaches give. 

Rowan & Ellie C are part of our FUNdamentals3 group. During practice they are always

attentive and apply feedback from the coaches to their stroke. They also encourage their

team mates to strive for their best on a regular basis. 

~Coach Christina and Coach Karley

Blue:

Blue swimmers have been doing an awesome job working on their skills for the 200 FR and

200 IM in practice! This meant a couple of weeks where swimmers had long practices

chalked full of swimming. Earlier this month, a few of our swimmers decided that they

wanted to do some baking for the group, and we had a spontaneous, after practice, baking

exchange!

At the first NovaTech meet Clara, Chloe, and Aurora graduated Level 2 and moved up to

Age Group Competition! We also had Nia and Kornii graduate Level 1 and will now be

swimming the 200 FR and 200 IM at NovaTech competitions!

The Age Group swimmers continued practicing their sprints at the Dal meet in early

November and tried their hand at the 200 BK and 200 BR at Acadia! It was a great

opportunity to try some new events and work on the 200s skills we had been developing in

practice!

Up next is the NovaTech 2 competition on December 2, and the Candy Cane (age group)

meet December 8-10 – our first chance at a prelims and finals meet!

Standout Swimmer:

This month I wanted to highlight Kyrie! Kyrie is incredibly focused on his technique and

takes in feedback from any coaches who provide it. Kyrie’s focus and dedication are showing

in the way he has raced this month!

~Coach Victoria

Gold:

Over the weekend at Acadia Gold swimmers showed great focus and use of the skills we

have been working on in practice. This resulted in some awesome swims and some great

reflection to take back into practice as we build into the Candy Cane meet! Both Leila and I

are very proud of everyone’s effort and attitude throughout the weekend, we love to see

the excellent support and cheering on your teammates! Sunday morning saw Avery lead the

12U warm up group to be the loudest Crusader team cheer from some of our smallest

Crusaders. Golds focus and effort resulted in some great progress and some new time

achievements in both AAA times achieved and a club record broken!

Julia achieved the 12U women’s 200IM time at Acadia to add to her previously achieved

200FR time qualifying her as a AAA swimmer.

Ainsley achieved the 200BK and 200BR 12U women’s AAA times, moving her closer to that

AAA qualification.

Noa achieved the 200BK, 200BR, 200IM and 1500FR AAA times for 12U men to add to his list

of AAA qualified times.

Hayden achieved the 200BK and 200BR AAA times for 12U men, some solid progress

towards a AAA qualification.

Lily achieved the 200BR, 1500FR and 200IM AAA times for 12U women to add to her AAA

qualified times list and is now a Crusaders club record holder in the 10U women’s 100FR

with a speedy time of 1:10.68! The previous record was set in 1998 at 1:10.90.

We are excited to build towards Truro’s Candy Cane meet! Make sure you pull out all your

festive accessories ready for the meet!

Gold swimmers have been building our meters in practice, with awesome effort on our long

Monday night 100s free sets! A lot of technique corrections have been made, with the help

of our handy orange headset circles and the speaker that we enjoy using!! We are excited to

see Gold bring on this technique, stamina, and speed in Truro. 

Standout Swimmer:

We wanted to highlight El Dorey, who is only on their second season of Crusaders. El has

grown so much as a swimmer and brings a positive energy to the group by being there for

their teammates, being respectful in the lanes, and having a good attitude towards self-

reflection and challenges. El is unfortunately leaving the club this month - but their growth

as a swimmer and person, and contribution to the team will be remembered! Thank you to

all the swimmers that signed a Crusaders shirt as a parting gift. El - you’ll be missed but we

all wish you good luck with your move and transition to the Yarmouth Whitecaps! See you

on deck at meets! 

~Coach Leila and Coach Lauren

Junior:

Junior squad continues to build their fitness base and expand their race experiences.  With

use of measured training sets to help identify individual pace times we will be transitioning

toward training sets in which swimmers will have individual target times to achieve.  The

squad completed their first 2km set of 20 x 100 on Saturday with great effort and positive

attitude.  Thanks are extended to all the parents who were able to join us on deck and

record all the times for the coach.

~Coach Michelle

Senior:

Senior has continued to see tremendous progress in our training, specifically with aerobic

endurance work. This has culminated in some spectacular 1500 Fr races that took place at

Acadia. Each Senior swimmer had their own goal pace times and many were able to follow

race plans to achieve these times. We will continue to work on the small details and good

habits including turns, underwater, and breakouts. We have started to individualize

workouts for the athletes to target goals and key races. Swimmers that attended practices

on Nov. 12th and Nov. 28th received individualized workouts that were performed very

well. As we look towards January we are increasing our speed work in our long course

practices.

Stand-out Swimmers:

I would like to highlight all the Senior swimmers that swam a 1500Fr at Acadia. The start of

the session was not ideal, and everyone took that in stride; Alex, Idan, Luke, Leon, Dominic,

Niara, Emma, Sophia Croft, and Rosalyn.

Special shout out to Sam who swam all three events plus a relay on Saturday afternoon and

Sophia Deane who PB’d in both 50Bk and 200Bk.

- Coach Mikayla