Petawawa Predators Swim Club
58 Festubert Blvd k8h 1k7 Petawawa, ON, Canada

On Saturday, our competitive-level swimmers were given their first opportunity to lay down actual times in the pool at our Cabin Fever 2021 swim meet! This meet was only for our club’s athletes, and was conducted in accordance with our Return to Racing plan, as approved by both Garrison Petawawa and Swim Ontario. This event was only the second sanctioned swim meet in all of Ontario since the holiday lockdown was declared in December!... For our little club to put together such a well-run event, in the face of so many challenges and obstacles, is testament to the commitment of our volunteers, of which there are too many to thank individually. The smiles and bright eyes on the faces of our athletes was all the thanks we needed. These are just a couple of photos of the deck during the course of the meet. A premium on sufficient physical distancing, mask use, and surface sanitization helped ensure that all participants were safe and could still compete against the clock. Do you have a child who loves the water, and is looking for a different challenge? Contact us today! We’d love to hear from you! With Chéla Inc. #swimming #petawawa #ourchampions

On March 27, our club will be running our first competitive swimming event since the pandemic was declared in early 2020! This will be an exciting, in-house event for our Novice, Junior and Senior Competitive-level swimmers. The club has worked very hard to get planned out, and sanctioned by Swim Ontario. As an indication of just how incredible this accomplishment is, our meet on the 27th will be only the second sanctioned swim meet event in all of Ontario in 2021! For our l...ittle club to be able to be leading the charge back into competition, in a safe manner after the holiday lockdown is incredible. We are so happy for these kids. They deserve this so much after all of their discipline and hard work over these last several months! We have developed a 'Return to Racing' COVID safety plan that has been accepted by both the DDH facility and Swim Ontario, which itemizes how we will go about running this event safely and in compliance with all requirements. This means that the meet will be very different from we are used to, but it gives our swimmers their first chance to put some official times up for this swimming season, and to support each other as they work towards their own goals! Good luck to each and every one of our amazing athletes! (photo: Sandra Manville, Chantal Van Landeghem and Taylor Ruck celebrate after Penny Oleksiak anchored Canada's 4x100m relay team to a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics (AP PHOTO/LEE JIN-MAN))

Hard to believe that nearly one year ago, our swim families were instructed to gather their children and their belongings, leave the bleachers and the pool deck as soon as possible, and go home... Since that day, our whole world changed dramatically, but like any good team, we gathered ourselves together. We started to work harder than ever before, and smarter. We rose to the challenges and overcame the obstacles in our path. As a team - together. We are proud to have been ab...le to safely navigate the pandemic so far, and to have helped our incredible young athletes maintain a level of physical and mental well-being by providing a healthy, 'normal' outlet during these awful times, as much as we possibly could. All the credit goes to the kids. Their resiliency, drive and passion in the face of such unimaginable change in their day-to-day lives is what inspires us to push onward, and to keep pushing. We can all sense that the last turn of this year-long race is coming, and we are all getting ready to leave it all in the pool, and sprint hard to the wall. Let's get there safely, and together, with the same energy and kind hearts that have brought us this far. Consider joining our club as we all start to navigate the path back to normal. Connect with us today!

Our club would not be nearly as vibrant and successful as it is without the dedicated involvement of so many wonderfully talented women! Thank you so much to With Chéla Inc. and her team of coaches (including our amazing Head Coach Janice Breckon) who work so hard to help our young athletes achieve their goals! It's truly a privilege to have such great women role models for our young athletes! And a HUGE thanks to all the incredible swim moms out there, volunteering their ti...me to help the club and making sure our kids make it to the pool safely every time. Happy International Women's Day!

Good morning everyone, I'm sure you have all read the news pertaining to the upcoming province-wide lockdown, slated to begin on Boxing Day. For Renfrew County, the lockdown is currently projected to be in force until Saturday, January 23, 2021. https://www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-provincewide-shutdown... Although there has not yet been any explicit direction to PSP from their chain of command, we have been informed by PSP that currently, we can expect that PPSC access to the DDH Aquatic Centre will be restricted until Monday, January 25, 2021. Hopefully by that point, we will be able to resume normal weekly training schedules. Obviously, this means that we will be delaying our in-house swim meet (originally scheduled for Saturday, January 16). The Leadership Team will be holding our routine monthly meeting on January 6, 2021, where we will discuss a potential new date, as well as make a decision on how best to manage the loss of three weeks of our Fall 2020 session. I feel that our Registrar said it best earlier this week: "We are adaptive". We will figure this out, and we will keep you advised with any updates as they come, and of course we are always available to answer any questions you may have. I am so proud of how everyone has managed the pandemic so far - the coaches, the parents, the executive, and maybe most of all, the swimmers. We commit to continue to adapt, to improve, and to be safe at all times, while doing everything we can to offer some normalcy this winter with continued programming for our amazing athletes. On behalf of the entire Leadership Team here with PPSC, I wish you all a very safe and Merry Christmas, the happiest of holidays, and all the best for the New Year. Take care, be safe, and be kind, and we will see you soon. Jamie MacDonald President Petawawa Predators Swim Club

ATTENTION PPSC FAMILIES - Don't forget to attend the General Meeting TONIGHT at 7 pm (via Zoom)! Check your email for the meeting link. We'll be providing an update on all aspects of the club's operations, and closing out 2020 with some big news on what we hope will be our first competition in early 2021!... Email us at [email protected] if you have not received the link!

Well, today’s session marks the final day of training of what was undoubtedly one of the most challenging calendar years in our history. Merry Christmas, best of the Holiday Season and a VERY Happy New Year to all of our friends out there!!

Here is our final post highlighting many of the skills that our team promotes in our Predators every time they dive into the pool! Consider these three personal skills we promote in our young athletes, related to WORKING TO ACHIEVE: DETERMINATION: The resolve to compete, to train, and to dedicate yourself to your sport helps to do the same in school and in other aspects of life.... MOTIVATION: Making your 5:30 am wake up call? Staying motivated to achieve can be tough! Incorporating a motivated attitude early in life helps to make for self-driven teens and adults. SETTING GOALS: Understanding what you want and putting the plan in place to achieve it a failure to plan is a plan to fail! Keep your eye on your goals in sports, and you will have a similar way of approaching life. Our swimmers will be working hard to achieve their goals all season long! Today's photo: Canada’s Annamay Pierse showing the level of determination and motivation needed to set world records. Did you know that she held the world record for the 200m breaststroke for THREE YEARS, after swimming her FINA World Championship in 2:20.12 in 2009 in Rome! Now that is setting and achieving goals!

ATTENTION PPSC FAMILIES - Don't forget to attend the General Meeting this Sunday evening at 7 pm (via Zoom)! Check your email for the meeting link. We'll be providing an update on all aspects of the club's operations, and closing out 2020 with some big news on what we hope will be our first competition in early 2021! Email us at [email protected] if you have not received the link!

We're continuing to highlight the life skills that our team fosters in our Predators every time they dive into the pool. Here are three more specific personal skills we promote in young athletes, related to SELF-REGULATION: PRESSURE TOLERANCE: Pressure comes at us all from different areas of our lives learning to deal with pressure in sport translates into helping us deal with other day-to-day pressures.... COMMITMENT: Dedication to the team, to your coaches, and to your sport equips young athletes with the skill to commit in other aspects of life. Knowing that you can be counted on to do your best is key! EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT: Athletes run through many emotions every time they compete, be it pre-game anxiousness, the intense rush of competition, and the joy or disappointment that follows. Learning how to manage these highs and lows helps how we deal with our emotions in other aspects of our lives. Photo: We’ll never forget the look of pure joy on the face of Penny Oleksiak when she looked up to the scoreboard and realized she had swam her way to the top of the podium in the 100m Freestyle in Rio in 2016! Both Penny and her competitor - American swimmer Simone Manuel - swam a blistering 52.70 seconds to tie for the Gold Medal. The shared elation of the moment was incredible, and an excellent example of the inherent friendships we make with our competitors at any given moment in sports!

Youth sports helps our kids in developing so many life skills that they need to become well-rounded, successful people. Here are another three specific personal skills the Predators Swimming Club promotes in our young athletes, related to OVERCOMING CHALLENGES: CONCENTRATION: Sport helps athletes to develop the ability to focus, and to block out distractions when the time comes to perform, a skill that certainly helps elsewhere in life.... RESILIENCE: A resilient person can take a hit and keep on going. Whether those hits are athletic or otherwise, we need to learn to get up off the figurative mat after getting knocked down! TENACITY: Our athletes learn that working hard, in a focused and resilient way will inevitably lead to improvement. Every journey begins with a single step (or stroke) and when you stick to the path you will arrive at your destination! Today's photo: Nicholas-Guy Turbide in full concentration before entering the pool during the 2019 Para Swimming World Championships. His resiliency in the face of his visual impairment, and his tenacious approach to his training regimen carried him through to a Silver Medal in the 100m S13 Backstroke his first world championship podium finish!