Kingfish strokes into another season

***image1******image2***The Kaiserslautern Kingfish Swim Team gave more than 130 swimmers a chance to experience competitive swimming this summer.

The Kingfish hosted 55 new swimmers at their summer Swim Camp Aug. 16 to 20 at the Landstuhl Allwetterbad. The swimmers learned basic stroke techniques and learned about training for competition. For 43 of the campers this was the first experience with competitive swimming.

The program, run by Kingfish coaches and parent volunteers, was so successful that many of the campers will be joining the Kingfish Swim Team for their 2004/2005 swim season.

The Kingfish hosted more than 75 swimmers at their first-ever swim clinic Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 at the Baumholder base swimming pool.

The clinic, a project developed by new Kingfish head coach Bob Clinton, was designed to prepare new swimmers and returning Kingfish swimmers for the upcoming swim season. The turnout for the clinic was overwhelming.

The Kingfish provided a bus from Ramstein to their home pool at Baumholder for the clinic. Every seat on the bus sold out in the first few minutes of registration. Kingfish parents quickly organized carpools for their swimmers, and the registration continued.
The pool was a little crowded, but the Kingfish coaching staff put together a program that gave new swimmers a chance to try competitive swimming, and returning swimmers some preseason training.

There were many sore muscles after the first days. In the water, swimmers worked on perfecting their swim strokes, breathing and flip-turns.

On the deck, the Kingfish coaches put the swimmers through a rigorous dry-land training including more swim stroke exercises, strength and flexibility drills.

The clinic ended with a mini-swim meet in which swimmers formed two teams to compete against each other.

Team registration last week saw many new families and skilled swimmers join the Kingfish. Despite the loss of many swimmers to graduation and PCS, the Kingfish are expecting another successful swim season with their many new swimmers joining their returning Kingfish.