Gator Gazette

Job Sign-up for our 2024 Summer Splash is now available! We need all hands on deck for this swim meet! To select a job position, Click Here. For more information regarding the meet, check the Meet Landing Page.

We are officially in the Olympic year with the 2024 Olympic Trials less than a month away! Don't miss your chance to see the nation's fastest athletes compete in an NFL stadium as part of the largest swim meet ever. Purchase single-day tickets (June 15-23, 2024) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN at: https://am.ticketmaster.com/indianasportscorp/buy

We are hosting our annual Splash for Cash fundraising event on June 22 at Recreation Pool. Stay tuned for more details!

Congratulations to all our Alligators taking the next step in the educational careers! Shoutout to Dom and Morgan for the continuation of their athletic careers at the collegiate level. We are all super proud of you! We wish you luck in your future endeavors!

Colin Kelly - University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Dom Perkowski - Ball State University

Danny Tonkovic - Iowa State University

Morgan Vis - Lewis University

Benjamin Walczak - Arizona State University

Hot up in the stands? Want a front row seat to your athlete's events? Free food & drinks? Now's the time to become an Illinois Swimming Official! New and advancing Officials training has moved online, so there is no better time to get started! View open trainings by Clicking Here. Becoming an official not only supports your athlete, but also supports Alligator Aquatics helping us staff our swim meets and allowing us to lend a helping hand to other host clubs. Consider becoming an Official today!

This past month, Alligator Aquatics coaches attended the Central States Coaching Clinic in Chicago. The clinic featured speakers such as Bob Bowman (Coach of Michael Phelps and Former Olympic Head Coach), Anthony Nesty (Former Head Olympic Coach), and many other Olympic athletes and sports medicine professionals. Here are a few highlights noted by our coaching staff!

Coach Stacy

1. The importance of dryland exercises (especially for injury prevention)

2. The importance of team culture and how it effects a swimmer's mindset.

Coach Adam

The emphasis on underwaters - Bob Bowman going so far as to say, if an athlete doesn't have strong underwaters, he wont even bother looking at them AND he'd prefer a swimmer breathe into a turn (which is also a problem, just not as big) than breathe while coming out of a turn.

Coach Kelly

1. The importance of having a pre-race routine/ritual. A couple physical things swimmers can do behind the block before EVERY race i.e certain stretches, clapping, singing a certain song in their head. This helps calm pre-race jitters and is a vehicle to help swimmers stay in their body and not in their thoughts. " Staying in the right now".

2. Shifting our focus from "outcome" based thinking and the mind/body performance connection. "The more you focus on the time you want the further away it goes". Instead focus on measurable goals and achievements - things we can control; not times or rankings.

Coach Jenny

Setbacks and Challenges are the road to success! **Find out why you made the mistakes learn from them AND NEVER do it again**

Building Confidence:

- Swim meets and new events will build confidence

- Practice builds confidence

- Make sure swimmers have goals at practice because GOALS along the way builds confidence!

**Believe you CAN SUCCEED**

**Hang out with POSITIVE people!!**