Emily’s Head Shaved

Emily raised over $1200 in the Valentines Day Hair Massacure.

Here’s before,

then with pink hair, which suits her surprisingly well,

then shaved! She has a nice round head.

I’m very proud of her.

Thanks so much to our many friends and family who generously donated. It goes to two great causes.

St. Valentines Day Hair Massacure

My daughter Emily will be participating in the 2008 St. Valentines Day Hair Massacure, in support of the Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Make A Wish Foundation. She will be having some of her hair died pink and her head shaved to raise money to support sick kids in Alberta. The un-dyed hair she gets shaved off will be donated to make wigs for kids who lose their hair in medical procedures.

Emily has thought about this a lot, and wants to support the Stollery, which is what we did when my dad passed away last year, and she wants to help kids who are suffering with cancer. Any support you can offer would be appreciated. To sponsor Emily’s hair “massacure” please go to her donation page. Her goal is $500, but I’d like to see her exceed that.

Thanks everyone. Bald-headed-Emily pictures will ensue after the shave.

First Wii Injury

We got a Wii for Christmas. It has been going pretty much non-stop since the 24th when the kids opened it. Today Mack and I were playing Wii Sports bowling. I wound up and started to “throw” the ball, when I clipped the end of the couch with the Wiimote. It slipped out of my hand, swung up on the lanyard, and pegged me right in the cheekbone below my right eye. I am now sporting my first WiiShiner. I expected to get it in boxing, not bowling.

Some Bad News

Today I found out that Allen Williams, the father of my friend Reagan, passed away over the weekend. He was flying a small plane near Golden, B. C. with another man I didn’t know, Steve Sutton, who worked for AD Williams Engineering, and Al’s three year old grand-daughter, Reagan’s niece. I don’t know many details yet, but apparently they had some kind of weather trouble and crashed in inaccessible terrain in a creek while trying to return to Golden. Mr Willams and Mr Sutton died at the crash scene, but the little girl was rescued by SAR technicians by being lifted out by cable from a helicopter. She was listed in critical condition yesterday in the hospital in Golden. Apparently she is in stable condition today with some head injuries, and some of the articles I’ve read have indicated that she probably survived because she was strapped into a child safety seat.

I’ve known Reagan’s family since I was ten years old. Mr Williams was the first engineer I knew personally and gave me my first exposure to the business of consulting engineering. That was a big influence on my choice of academic pursuits and my career. He also gave me my first real job while I was an engineering student, working summers in the materials lab of his consulting company.

I remember him dancing the night away at our wedding, getting a kick out of life. I also remember how proud of his grandchildren he was when I saw him last year at Reagan’s halloween party. The big smile he had while he was surrounded by all these little toddlers really reminded me of my dad with my kids.

Having lost my own dad this year, I know what Reagan, Sheldon and Sabrina and their extended family must be going through today. It hits hard for me and I know it’s going to be extremely hard for all of them. I only hope that they can take solace in knowing how much their dad loved life and his kids, and I also hope that his grand-daugther, Sheldon’s little girl, makes a full recovery. I also would like to offer Mr Sutton’s family my condolences.

Jenn is having a hard time with this today too. It feels awfully close on the heels of my dad’s passing, and then our friend Barb’s dad last month, and now this. Sometimes mortality looms very large in life.

Summer Swimming Update

The kids have been having a good season in summer swimming again this year. It’s their fourth year swimming, and both of them are becoming old veterans of the swimming scene. Emily takes it a bit more seriously than Mack at this point, being a bit more focussed on what she wants to achieve. Mack, despite having a shorter attention span than his sister, still manages to work hard every practice. He’s not motivated by any grand goals or anything, he just wants to finish everything first.

This year Mack has a strong competitor in our region for the first time. A little guy from Drayton Valley has been giving Mack some good races through the season, and has handed Mack his hat a couple of times in the IM. Hopefully this will help Mack be a bit more focussed. He works hard in practice, but he doesn’t always put a lot of thought into his technique and such. It helps that his coach is very good at working with him on technique. Thanks to her help he’s become more of a breast-stroke swimmer than I ever was, although admittedly that’s not a particularly impressive feat.

Emily has been dominating her age group in our region all season. She qualified for year-round-swimming’s summer provincials in the very first meet of the year this year, instead of at the last possible meet like last year. At year-round provincials, she won 50 free, got 3rd in 50 fly and 4th in 100 free. She was seventh in 50 back and the ASSA all stars got a bronze medal on the 4×50 free relay. Emily also broke two ASSA all star records, which are basically summer swimming’s long-course records. She broke the 100 free and 50 fly records. She was pretty proud of herself, and so were we. Mack was even impressed watching.

One of the most fun parts of the meet for me was getting Emily to meet my coach from the ’80s at Keyano, Dave Johnson. Dave was the National Team coach for several years, and has returned to his roots (and what he does best, I think) coaching at the club head coach level at Calgary Cascade Swim Club. I also introduced Emily to another coach that I’ve known for many years, Tom Ponting. Tom was a three time Olympian for Canada, and was the best butterfly swimmer in Canada for many years. I don’t know if Emily was impressed or not. At the end of the meet, Dave offered one of his typical backhanded compliments for Emily. He said to me “I watched your daughter swim. She could be good. You just have to get her to kick.” Typical Dave.

Good News at the Wrong Time

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that two drugs used to treat bone loss in old folks can both kill and short-circuit the “sex life” of antibiotic-resistant bacteria blamed for nearly 100,000 hospital deaths across the country each year. (Read article)

It’s very hard for me to read that two months after my dad died from an infection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria resulting from a gall bladder problem. I’m hopeful for future sufferers of this type of illness, but for us it’s just too late.

Swimming in Alberta and LTAD

There are two types of competitive swimming programs in Canada, summer swimming and year-round swimming. Before I start expounding my opinions, let me just say that I am a product of both programs, but primarily of the year-round program, and I swam competitively from age 7 until I graduated from university at age 24. I also have two kids who are swimmers (among other sports) so I have perspective on these issues from both directions. I’m also about to make some sweeping generalizations, so don’t be offended if your organization has a different philosophy from what is discussed below.

Year-round swimming is a unified program nationally in terms of having an over-arching organization (Swimming / Natation Canada), and a common set of rules. The season starts in September and carries on until the following summer. Nationals and high-level international competitions take place over summer, so for elite swimmers, the season pretty much lasts all year. Swimmers in all parts of Canada participate in meets together including twice-yearly Provincials, age-group Club Nationals and open-age National Championships. National team members also come from the year-round program. Training for many swimmers is every day, with Sunday off, and some do workouts morning and night, before and after school. It can be a major commitment, but that’s how the programs produce internationally successful swimmers.

Summer swimming varies by province. There is no national organization. In Alberta, summer swimming is managed by the Alberta Summer Swimming Association, supported by the Swim Alberta. The season goes from May to August. Kids participate in meets between clubs in the various regions in Alberta, and then each region hosts a regionals. Top swimmers from each regionals go to Summer Swimming Provincials in August. Swimmers generally train about five times per week through the season. It’s a lot more focussed on fun and enjoyment of swimming rather than the performance-oriented focus of year-round swimming. It is also a great sport for developing athletes, because it allows the participation in multiple sports throughout the year.

In Alberta, year-round swimming hosts an age-group Provincials competition. This is the only competition where summer swimmers have the opportunity to race against their age-counterparts in year-round swimming. If summer swimmers achieve year-round-swimming “A” time standards, they qualify for the Alberta Summer Swimming All-stars, which is a multi-club team that goes to Alberta year-round swimming summer Provincials. It’s a fun experience for the summer swimmers, firstly because the summer swimmers get some new kids to race against, and secondly because it’s the only time in summer swimming that kids get to race in a 50m pool. The rest of the summer swimming season is done in 25m pools.

I think that the other great benefit of the All Stars is that it shows the value of the summer swimming program in comparison to the year-round programs (not the value of summer swimming above year-round swimming, just in comparison to it). Summer swimmers who come and compete at year-round swimmers see that their programs are not inferior, and that they can compete directly with kids who train in swimming all year. Year-round swimming proponents (some of whom stupidly look down on summer swimming as a joke) get incontrovertible proof that summer swimming produces competitive athletes, especially at the younger ages, without unnecessary early specialization in swimming. Unfortunately, the All-Stars team also engenders the equally stupid fear held by many summer swimming organizations that year-round swimming is out to steal athletes from summer swimming, and that having athletes move to year-round swimming somehow harms summer swimming. The pathological dismissal of summer swimming programs by year-round swimming organizations, and the paranoia held about year-round swimming organizations held by summer clubs is a problem that benefits nobody.

Presently, Sport Canada is pushing to adopt a new philosophy, called the Long Term Athlete Development model (LTAD). The LTAD model is a non-sport-specific model for athlete development from early childhood, through youth, to nationally and internationally competitive athletes, to post-competitive active adults. The LTAD considers a lot of scientifically supported information regarding child and adolescent development, as well as athlete development, and long-term health and wellness.

The point of this article is that in terms of Sport Canada’s push to adopt the Long Term Athlete Development model, the existing summer swimming program in Alberta is more appropriate and compatible with the LTAD than the existing year-round swimming program, for the LTAD’s first three stages. Those are: FUNdamentals, Learning to Train and Training to Train. The first three stages encompass young athletes up to ages of about 15 for girls and 16 for boys. The LTAD recommends no sport specialization for the FUNdamentals stage, focusing on at least three sports in the Learning to Train stage, and on two primary sports in the Training to Train stage. Year-round swimming, with it’s intensive training programs and long season, discourages generalization during the Learning to Train stage, and essentially requires one-sport specialization in the Training to Train stage. The LTAD recognizes early specialization as a contributing factor to a lack of basic motor skills, over-training injuries, early burnout and early departure from competitive sport. A requirement for early specialization may also eliminate potential future star swimmers from swimming entirely, because many young athletes are interested in participating in multiple sports, and if participating in one sport precludes other sports, the exclusive sport might be dropped in favour of the others.

The summer swimming program in Alberta, in contrast, fits nicely into the LTAD model for the first three stages. The season is brief, allowing ample time throughout the year for kids to participate in multiple organized sport programs. The attitude of summer swimming is very fun-oriented and light, and most clubs in Alberta even encourage and facilitate participation in other summer sports, like soccer. The program obviously works for the young ages, judging by a direct comparison of 12-and under swimmers at year-round swimming provincials. Athletes who have successful summer swimming careers, and then move onto year-round swimming towards the end of the LTAD Training to Train stage, often have tremendous success and tremendous career longevity in year-round swimming. The Swimming/Natation Canada national team bios contain several stories of national team members who didn’t specialize in year-round swimming until the middle teen years.

As a former participant and beneficiary of both programs, and now as a parent of a couple of budding (no Flowers pun intended) young aquatic talents, I would like the summer swimming program to get rid of its paranoia and start encouraging kids who have outgrown the summer swimming program to consider moving on to year-round swimming. I would also like year-round swimming programs to start recognizing summer swimming programs as valuable sources of developing athletes, and as appropriate programs for multi-sport athletes, and being more supportive and inclusive of summer swimming. Changing attitudes on both sides will benefit both, and more importantly, will benefit the athletes most of all.

Thanks

This is going to appear in the local paper in the next day or so but for anyone of our friends or family who don’t see it, here it is here.

Ronald Flowers

The Flowers family wishes to thank their friends and relatives for sympathy and kindness extended to them on the passing of their beloved husband, father and grandfather.

Thank you for those who attended the funeral, sent cards, floral tributes and food to our house. Many thanks for the donations to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. Your care and sympathy gave us much comfort.

Sharie, Scott & Jennifer, Paige & Joe, Emily, Mackenzie & Morgan

Back to Work, Kids Back to Swimming

Wednesday was my first day back at work after my dad passed away April 23. It has been hard to get the brain back into work mode, and accept that life just carries on. Summer swimming has started up this week for the kids, and our short six-week period with no kids’ sporting activities is now over. We’re back into go-go-go mode. It seems wrong to be at swim practice and not see my dad in the bleachers. He was always there when I swam, and he’s been always there when the kids swam for the past three seasons. A lot of things like that will take a lot of getting used to.

In Loving Memory, Ron Flowers, 1936 - 2007

This morning, my dad passed away after a long battle with gall bladder disease, pancreatitiis, and the complications that arose from both. He was well cared for in the hospital, first for about a month in the Sturgeon and then for another month in the Royal Alexandra. The staff at both hospitals were professional and compassionate, and treated our father with the utmost respect, and my family is most grateful.

I need to write an obituary, but I’m struggling to keep it as an obituary and not a eulogy. I’m somewhat long-winded and there’s a lot that could be said about my dad. There’s a lot about his honesty, trustiness, steadiness, his hard work for the RCMP for 40 years, and his friends who all call each other by their surnames, a habit picked up in the force. There’s also the bum steer he got with his health, and the hard work he put in every day in staying fit and trim in order to keep himself alive. If it hadn’t been for his discipline, he would have died ten years ago, and never known any of his grandchildren.

The most compelling thing for me is that he was the kind of father that I aspire to be for my kids. When my kids have grown, if they think they had nearly as good a dad as I had, I will consider my life successful indeed. His highest priorities at all times were his family, my mother, my sister and me, and then later his grandchildren. He loved my kids so much, it was a delight to see him with them. Recently at Mack’s school, I read a little bit of his journal, that he writes in as an exercise in french writing class. He was asked by his teacher to write his favorite things to do. In addition to the expected “playing gameboy” and “playing waterpolo” it said “spending time with my grandfather”. To me, that says a lot about what’s important about my dad.

My sister is on her way from down east, and arrives tonight. She’s disappointed that she didn’t get to see dad one last time, but over the past weeks when I’ve visited him in the ICU, I often talked to him about all his family who wanted to be there with him. I think the thing that will really hurt later is that her daughter barely knew dad and is too young to remember it later, and her new baby, expected in the fall, will miss out on knowing a wonderful grandpa.

My mom’s sister got here last night, and her brother is on the way. My dad’s niece Terry and his sister-in-law, Aunt Dorlene have told me they’re coming for dad’s memorial.

Dad’s golf buddies were all shocked and saddened, and will miss his company on the fairway this summer. RCMP guys seem to have close ties, and stay lifelong buddies in a way that I can understand because it’s similar to the loose but close competitive swimming family I’ll always be a part of.

If any of our family or friends reads this and are considering sending flowers, we thank you for your kind wishes, but please reconsider, and instead redirect your much-appreciated well-wishes in a donation to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation in memory of Ron Flowers instead. During dad’s many visits to doctors and hospitals in the past few years, he particularly sympathized with he sick children he saw, and was very moved by their suffering and that of their families. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to his love of his family and of children to support the Stollery, which does such important work for kids in our region.