Spfld Newsletter/Practice Schedule June 20-27, 2022
Academy Bullets Springfield - Stronger Together!
Practice Schedule – June 20-27
The single most important factor for continued improvement is consistent practice attendance!
Monday – June 20
Bee Bees – No practice
IncrediBullets – No Practice
Bronze – 5:15-6:15 pm at Nelson Center
Silver I -5:15-6:45 pm at Nelson Center
Silver II – 5:15-7:15 pm at Nelson Center
Gold – 5:00-7:15 pm at Nelson Center
Tuesday – June 21
Bee Bees - 5-5:40 pm at Eisenhower
IncrediBullets – 5:00-5:45 pm at Eisenhower
Bronze – 5:00-6:00 pm at Eisenhower
Silver I - 5:30-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:30 pm, Swim 5:45 pm)
Silver II- 7:45-8:45 am at Nelson AND 5:00-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:00 pm, Swim 5:30 pm)
Gold - 7:45-8:45 am at Nelson AND 5:00-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:00 pm, Swim 5:30 pm)
Wednesday – June 22
Bee Bees – No Practice
IncrediBullets – 5:15-6:15 pm at Nelson Center
Bronze - 5:15-6:00 pm at Nelson Center
Silver I – 5:15-6:45 pm at Nelson Center
Silver II - 5:15-7:15 pm at Nelson Center
Gold - 5:00-7:15 pm at Nelson Center
Thursday – June 23
Bee Bees – 5:00-5:40 pm at Eisenhower
IncrediBullets – 5:00-5:45 pm at Eisenhower
Bronze – 5:00-5:45 pm at Eisenhower
Silver I - 5:30-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:30 pm, Swim 5:45 pm)
Silver II- 7:45-8:45 am at Nelson AND 5:00-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:00 pm, Swim 5:30 pm)
Gold - 7:45-8:45 am at Nelson AND 5:00-7:15 pm at Eisenhower (Dryland 5:00 pm, Swim 5:30 pm)
Friday – June 24 - Water Slide Friday
Bee Bees – No practice
IncrediBullets – No Practice
Bronze - 5:15-6:15 pm at Nelson
Silver I – 5:15-6:45 pm at Nelson
Silver II - 5:15-7:15 pm at Nelson
Gold - 5:00-7:15 pm at Nelson
Saturday – June 25
Bee Bees – 9:15-10:00 am at Eisenhower
IncrediBullets – 9:15-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice
Bronze – 9:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 45 minutes of practice
Silver I – 8:45-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 45 minutes of practice
Silver II - 8:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 30 minutes of practice
Gold - 8:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 30 minutes of practice
Sunday – June 26
Bee Bees – No practice
IncrediBullets – No Practice
Bronze – No Practice
Silver I – No Practice
Silver II - No Practice
Gold - No Practice
Monday – June 27
Bee Bees – No practice
IncrediBullets – No Practice
Bronze – 5:15-6:00 pm
Silver I – 5:15-6:45 pm at Nelson
Silver II - 5:15-7:15 pm at Nelson
Gold - 5:00-7:15 at Nelson
Practice Changes/Updates Moving Forward
Starting this week we are making the following changes to the practice schedule. We are adding one more day of practice for the Bronze group and adding dryland practices for the Silver I, Silver II and Gold groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Bronze - Practice added on Wednesdays - 5:00-5:45 pm at Nelson Center
Silver I - Tuesday and Thursdays - practices will now be from 5:30-7:15 at Eisenhower. We will do approx 15 minutes of dryland followed by in water practice.
Silver II - Tuesday and Thursdays - practices will now be from 5:00-7:00 pm at Eisenhower. We will do approx 30 minutes of dryland followed by in water practice.
Gold - Tuesday and Thursdays - practices will continue to be from 5:00-7:15 at Eisenhower but we will do approx 30 minutes of dryland followed by in water practice.
Paint the Street Event - Saturday, June 25
The Springfield Art Association is hosting their annual Paint the Street event this Saturday, June 25 in downtown Springfield. We thought it would be fun to purchase two squares that our Springfield Bullets’ swimmers can help paint with a Bullets Swimming theme so that is what we are doing. This should be a fun, team building event for our swimmers and an opportunity for us to get our team name out to the public. No art talent is required just a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to have fun. Please see details below:
Time: We will be on-site for painting from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Swimmers can show up at any time to add paint and their name to our squares
Location: Washington Street, Downtown Springfield
Cost: Free to all our swimmers
What to Bring: The team will bring all the supplies. Swimmers should dress for the weather and in clothes they don’t mind getting paint on.
Notes: The team will supply treats for all our swimmers that attend.
Swim Meets Added to the Schedule
We are adding the following meets to our schedule. These meets will provide all of our Springfield Bullets’ swimmers additional opportunities to swim in low pressure meets in Springfield (intrasquad meets) and in Decatur (Turbo Turtle meet August 15). We encourage all of our Springfield Bullets’ to swim in as many of these meets as they can. Additional information will be posted on our Bullets website soon,
July 5 - Intrasquad Meet at Eisenhower Pool Warmups 5:00 pm Meet Starts at 5:30 pm
July 12 - Intrasquad Meet at Eisenhower Pool Warmups 5:00 pm Meet Starts at 5:30 pm
July 26 - Intrasquad Meet at Eisenhower Pool Warmups 5:00 pm Meet Starts at 5:30 pm
August 14 - Turbo Turtles End of Summer Meet at Decatur Country Club Warm-ups 8:00 am Meet Starts at 9:10 am
Fina World Swimming Championships
The 19th FINA World Swimming Championships are running now (June 18-July 3) in Budapest Hungary. This meet is held every two years and is widely considered the second most prestigious meet in the world (second only to the Olympic Games).
Team USA promises to be very strong once again this time around with several Olympic medalists representing the red, white and blue. USA Swimming’s roster for the meet (with details) can be found HERE
Below are some links to websites that will help you follow along…
SwimSwam Meet Central webpage with great coverage and articles on the meet
The next few weeks should be very exciting for our sport, and I hope our swimmers and families enjoy following how the best in the world perform.
Water Slide Practice - Friday, June 24
On Friday, June 17 we will have a special water slide practice at Nelson Center. Swimmers will be allowed to use the water slide the last 15 minutes of their scheduled practice time. Be sure to attend practice on Friday - This was a huge hit when we did this a couple weeks ago,
Special Starts and Turns Practice - Saturday, June 25 at Eisenhower Pool
We are running a special starts and turns practice on Saturday, June 25 at Eisenhower Pool. We hope our swimmers will take advantage of this great opportunity, The schedule is as follows:
IncrediBullets – 9:15-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice
Bronze – 9:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 45 minutes of practice
Silver I – 8:45-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 45 minutes of practice
Silver II - 8:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 30 minutes of practice
Gold - 8:00-10:00 am at Eisenhower - Starts and Turns practice last 30 minutes of practice
REMINDER - Stay Hydrated - Bring Water Bottles to Practice
It is always important for our swimmers to stay hydrated but I want to remind everyone of the urgent importance during the heat we are currently experiencing. All swimmers should be bringing water bottles to practice each day filled with cold water. Please put your name on the water bottle so it is easily identified by your swimmer. Also, no sharing of water between swimmers as we don’t want to share any potential sicknesses.
Reminder - Safe Sport Training Through USA Swimming – Online Courses
THANK YOU to those of you who spent a few minutes and took the Safe Sport Program classes for parents & athletes. We greatly appreciate your support in helping us educate and protect our members.
WE NEED MORE HELP FROM EVERYONE
If you have yet to take the below courses, please take a few minutes and do so now. We need to have a minimum of 10% of both to even be in consideration for membership in the Safe Sport Recognition Program. Currently, we are about 20 parents and 20 swimmers SHORT of achieving this goal. We can't do this without your help and support.
PLEASE follow the instructions below. I know some of you have taken similar courses before - officials and athletes 18 and older that have taken Safe Sport or APT (Athlete Protection Training). This is something different and those courses do not transfer over for this recognition program.
1. If you are an athlete member - GO HERE. The course is called "Safe Sport for Minor Athletes Online Course".
2. If you are a parent - GO HERE. The course you will want to take is called "Parent's Guide to Misconduct in Sports".
2. If you are a current registered member, there is a link for you. For those not members, you will need to CREATE AN ACCOUNT on the
USA Swimming Learn platform.
3. Please fill in all of the required personal information and be sure to select “ILLINOIS SWIMMING” as your LSC and "Academy Bullets
Swim Club" for your club.
4. Select “Courses” on the top taskbar.
5. Click the “Parent’s Guide to Misconduct in Sport” or “Safe Sport for Athletes” box and follow the directions until completion.
6. If you are a current member of USA swimming, whether a parent or an athletes, please use your login information and navigate to
the Safe Sport Training Area for these exercises.
Thank you to everyone for your help with this matter! It is extremely important and we hope that everyone will take the time to make the Academy Bullets Swim Club a safe place for all. Please let me know if you have any questions. Go Bullets!
New Swimmers Always Welcome - Invite Your Family and Friends to Join Our Team
Know anyone that might be interested in joining our Bullets’ family? We accept new swimmers throughout the year and right now is a great time to join. Please pass our information on to family and friends and have them fill out our new interested swimmer form HERE . They can also get information from our new swimmer information sheet HERE We always accept new swimmers.
We also are hosting new member tryouts/placements every Thursday at 6:00 pm at Eisenhower Pool. If they cannot come on Thursday, please have them contact me by email at j.skeels@academybullets.com to arrange for another day/time.