Hey All! Sorry for the delay??? We had a meeting on Thursday night and we mentioned important stuff for the coming races. - Gainesville Winter Series ??? SPRINT ??? in Waldo on March 9th. If you want to do the race (SPRINT ONLY will be reimbursed), please e-mail Craig by Monday to let him know about it. - The Great Clermont ??? Olympic Distance ??? in Clermont on April 6th. Each person who e-mailed Craig or signed up on the list we had at the meeting, will get a number from the Clermont organization team to sign up online because we are getting a nice group discount. We will let you know what you should do as soon as we have heard back from the Clermont organization team. Make sure that you have a sport club waiver and a swim test turned in, if you want to race. It is MANDATORY! You can get one on the UF RecSport Website: http://www.recsports.ufl.edu/sc_resources.aspx. Also we have our TriGators??? SuperSprint coming up on March 30th, and we are looking for volunteers??? it is required if you are going to Collegiate Nationals. We will keep you updated but it will be awesome if you could help out for a few hours :) Thanks again to the people who volunteered some of their time on a swim meet. Kevin Collington has worked pretty hard on our Website update??? it is pretty amazing I shall say :) Check it out: www.trigator.com Finally we had a great guest speaker, Keith Biggs, a licensed athletic trainer, exercise physiologist and ART provider. ART (Active Release Techniques) ???is a patented, state of the art soft tissue system/movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves. Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are just a few of the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with ART. These conditions all have one important thing in common: they are often a result of overused muscles. How do overuse conditions occur? Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways: ??? acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc), ??? accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma) ??? not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia). Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness. What is an ART treatment like? Every ART session is actually a combination of examination and treatment. The ART provider uses his or her hands to evaluate the texture, tightness and movement of muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Abnormal tissues are treated by combining precisely directed tension with very specific patient movements. These treatment protocols - over 500 specific moves - are unique to ART. They allow providers to identify and correct the specific problems that are affecting each individual patient. ART is not a cookie-cutter approach.??? (http://www.advancedmassage.net/) Flo and David, thanks for being the brave volunteers :) To join Keith: (352) 665-0434, or abiggs4152@aol.com. His office is located at ???Advanced Massage Professionals??? ??? 4001 Newberry Rd, Building D Suite 3 ??? Gainesville, Fl. He sometimes comes on the track on Mondays too. I hope you all have a great weekend, good luck for those of you who are racing and see you at practices! Take care, Jen