Anti-Doping

Every athlete in the SNC is technically responsible to ensure that they are compliant with WADA and are aware of doping and banned substances. The purpose of this post is to educate inexperienced parents and swimmers with the protocols involved with anti-doping.

1. What is doping: Doping the general term for an athlete using a banned substance to artificially enhance their performance. Certain substances are banned because they can be used to enhance alertness, muscle growth, recovery, hormone levels and other things to give that individual an unfair advantage. Banned substances also include recreational and illegal drugs - many athletes have tested positive for these in the past and have been punished as a result.
2. Can I get in trouble for taking a banned substance even if it is not to enhance my performance?: Yes. Many household substances and over-the-counter medications are banned substances including asthma inhalers and cold medications. 
3. What do I do?: First of all, understand that drug testing is not likely to occur in athletes that are under the age of 16 and hardly ever happens for athletes that are not competing at a National or International level, so don't get stressed out about it. Having said that, it is your responsibility to make sure that you understand that you are responsible for what goes into your body and to always be aware of it. 

Before taking any medication, you can always check Global DRO. Global DRO is a search page that will allow you to search all medications against WADA's list of banned substances. The GREAT thing about this website is that it allows you to search for specific sports (banned substances for archery are different than for swimming) and you can search for BRAND NAME and chemical name. Once you get your search results, you can click on the "status" link and it will show you everything you need to know, including if it is okay to take.

If you are taking something on the banned substance list for medical purposes, you should seek out a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). A great website to help with this is the Medical Exemption Wizard. This site will walk you through what you need to do to get a doctor's permission to use this medication in training and competition. Having a TUE and declaring that you are taking medication prior to a test is an important step in fair play and compliance to WADA and SNC guidelines. 

Some athletes and parents get freaked out about the possibility of drug testing. For those who are unfamiliar with the testing process, you should visit sites like Canadian Centre For Ethics In Sport (CCES) and see SNC's testing policy, which can be found in all SNC National meet packages. 

Although the vast majority of athletes will never have to worry about being tested or even taking any banned substances, I feel that fair play is extremely important and educating athletes & parents about anti-doping and their role in it is equally important. If anyone has more questions or concerns about this topic, please feel free to contact me. I want everyone to have access to the right information to avoid a potentially career-ending and life-altering miscommunication.

What Goes Into a Swimming Program?

Most of my coaching career I have spent trying to educate people through as many avenues as possible - be it video, audio or written. From my experience, there is no better way to communicate and to educate than from a Head Coaching role. I always feel that the information must flow from the Head Coach (the developer of the program) to the members (the consumers of the program).

Through the sport of swimming, I have always found a diverse mix of participants - from the very experienced to the hockey converts and all the way to the learn to swim areas. The biggest confusion that I find always comes up is what ends up being paid for: where does the cost come from. Usually, in swimming, pool fees are quite high due to the basic safety & liability of water (electrical hazard, insurance, life guards, cleanliness of water, water quality, etc). Running a pool can be extremely expensive and the costs get passed on to the user groups.

But lets not get confused; Swimmers are not the user group here, the Club is. If every individual had to cover the cost of their own pool time, this sport would be uncontrollably expensive. There are many things that swim club members pay for. These include:

• Pool time, relationship
• Certification & affiliation to keep pool time affordable. 
• Registration fees
• Employee fees
• Office fees and expenses
• General operations & Social function
• Some meet fees

All these things together make a "program". The Head Coach will develop how the club is structured and will operate (this coach is usually also responsible for a primary group; but is also responsible for all groups in the club). Group coaches will use the resources available and, using the Head Coach's philosophy, will develop an appropriate training plan which will include training days, camps (if applicable), meets & planned days off (holidays & days where pools are unavailable).

When is it necessary to make up for missed training days?

Short answer to this question is almost never. Programs are well planned out. Knowing that a group may be missing a practice in 8 months can be planned for. Time leading up to that day off can be ramped up so that the missed day can be used as rest. Therefore, replacement pool time is rarely needed and is really just a luxury. If our coaches were strictly reactionary, we would be unprepared and unfit to deal with a change in routine. 

Time missed for meets is also worth noting, as there are several different types of meets. Some meets can be used for training purposes: learning how to swim a 200 in a stressful environment after practicing it over and over. Swimmers may miss a session or 2 due to a meet, but that does not mean that the time must be made up; it means that the time was better used at the meet.

The few times that I would say it is warranted is when pool time is unexpectedly cancelled (water quality, power out, snow storm) and even then, it would only be if an adjustment to the planning could not be made. 

I would argue that for anyone with more than 4 sessions/week and more than 50 sessions/season, "make-up" pool time is unnecessary because the planning is done with these things in mind. It is not accurate to think of the services of a swim club in terms of price/practice because what is delivered is so much more complex than just pool time and meters swum.

Welcome To The ROW Parents Blog

Hi Everyone. Welcome to the ROW parents Blog. I will use this space to communicate important notes as well as address topics that may interest ROW parents.

Today, I will post a couple of documents for the Senior Group

Goal Setting Form
Goal Setting Video
Parent Meeting Handout

Check back regularly for updates. Enjoy!

Mike Thompson
Head Coach
ROW/WLU