HAPPY 2019

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays, and getting ready to usher in the New Year.  It has been good to see a lot of you make it in to workout over the last week and we hope to see more of you this week before you head back to school.  One of the big things we have been working on over the last week is that crossover turn from back to breast for your IM.  I’ve been ask if you have to use it and the answer to that is YOU need to figure out the turn first  and then decide if it is something that would help YOU.  Our job is to bring these things to you and from that point we can work out a plan

The other day as I walked through the men’s room I ease dropped on a conversation where one of our 12 year old made the comment that workout was not that hard.  One of our seniors was explaining that he was exhausted 💤 and you would be if you did it correctly.  The whole goal of the workout was to get in a lot of fast racing and that meant all out.  Sometimes we listen to the messenger really well, but we fail to listen to the MESSAGE.  Any thoughts let me know!

I just finished reading an article that I would like to share with you that seems appropriate 50 years later. In 1968 Apollo 8 was just finishing an orbit around the 🌙 during this week.   Upon coming out out of the dark side and seeing the “earth rise”, author Robert Kurson gave this account of the astronauts view.

“

To Anders, 🌏 Earth appears as a Christmas tree ornament, hung radiant blue and swirling white in an endless black night. From here, it was no longer to pick our countries or even continents, all a person could see was earth, and it occurred to Anders, in this last week of 1968, this terrible year for America and the world, that once you couldn’t see boundaries, you started to see something different.  You saw how small the planet is, how close all of us are to one another, how the only thing any one of us really has, in an empty universe, is each other.  As Apollo 8  and around the limb of the moon🌙  and readied to reconnect with home, it seemed to Anders so strange—the astronauts had come all this way to discover the moon, and yet here they had discovered earth🌏 .”

APOLLO 8  December 21,1968 to December 27, 1968

Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders 

Happy 2019

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Thank you for all there generosity that you all showed with the gift certificates, cookies, candy and yes the LARGE music box.  The warm cards from some of the kids meant a lot. 
My version of the song

Twelve swimmers kicking
Eleven empty water bottles
Ten bathroom breaks
Nine lane line bruises
Eight sets with Tempo Trainers
Seven Loads of laundry
Six best times
Five HARD SETS.
Four pairs of goggles 
Three sets of kicking
Two hand paddles
One coach on deck




HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!  See you Wednesday

SENIOR PREP GROUP AND THEIR TREE

THE CHRISTMAS TREE SET

Today the senior prep group began their holiday training today by building and decorating a tree.  This was meant to be both a physical and mental challenge as we start off the next phase of our season.  All of you responded to this set with great enthusiasm and got through it.  Thank you for all your 😓, your sacrifices, and yes your sweat and 😭 tears.  All of you have and will grow to be great young adults.   Keep up the good work and remember we are setting are standards high and we know each of you have so much more in yourselves.  You just don’t realize it yet, but we will get you there!

THE WALL

What were we trying to accomplish today?  A lot of work with the legs and a lot of fast kicking off the wall.  You all have improved your walls so much over the last three months but we know and believe that you all have so much more to give, you just don’t know it.  We are here to get that out of you!  That little exercise at the end of practice worked on jumping off the wall with some explosive power, getting into that tight streamline, hitting the bottom and using those fast dolphin 🐬 kicks to drive you back to the surface and getting as high as you could before falling back into the pool.

All of this is to try and help you use those walls as an advantage and not an obstacle.  I leave you with this in a short course pool your going to hit the wall just maybe your be lucky 🍀 and make that right turn and surprise yourself

THE TRUTH

I wanted to share with you all something that I read the other day.  The clock is the toughest critic that any swimmer 🏊‍♀️ will ever encounter throughout their career.  Some people read it as simply one ☝️ winner and seven losers.  I pose this question; Why can we not read it as eight winners.  There are more ways one can be a winner besides getting their fingers on the pad first.  So as you read this keep that in mind!

The clock.  Doesn’t lie to me.  It doesn’t tell me I’m first when I’m not, doesn’t say “ Nice Swim” if it wasn’t.  It doesn’t care if I’m shaved.  Or tapered.  Or if I’m in an outside lane.  It is a worthy opponent day in, and day out.  It never lets me win, won’t go easy on me.  The clock doesn’t let me off the hook.  But I will beat it. I haven’t yet.  But I will. See yo tomorrow clock! 

Just a thought!

SPORT FAIR MEET WRAP UP

With this past weekends Sport Fair Meet now ion our rear view mirror, the first part of our journey comes to a conclusion.  This week we will and have been putting in some different sets which have included games and relays.  It is important to understand that we do need to take this time to re-charge both physically and mentally as we enter into the second part of our journey which will take us through the championship meets in March and April.

 

This past weekend we arrived at the pool Thursday afternoon with a lot of energy.  The meet started that evening with our distance swimmers who swam some outstanding swims all posting best times to set the tone for the rest of the team entering Fridays events.  First off let us say that everyone did an outstanding job during warmups, arriving on time, getting our lanes, and going through your meet warmups with no help from your coaches.  This went a long ways in preparing you all to swim as fast as you did.  It kept you relaxed as you went through our plan without us getting on you and (which helps no one) allowing you to take OWNERSHIP of your swimming.

  

Although we had a few DQ’s we ended up protesting a couple, but non the whole I think we had one or two.  A funny story is that I found out a swimmer was DQ from another team which affected one of our swimmers results during final.  I asked that coach this week what happened and I was told it was a false start.  Apparently he tried to protest it by stating another swimmer moved or as in football made an encroachment causing his swimmer to flinch.  Not football! And there is no replay.  That would be a disaster !

 

Your individual races were tremendous, and it was exciting to watch how far you have come since September.  We had a lot of Mako swimmers, returning to finals for that all exciting 2nd race of the day.  A big SHOUT OUT goes out to our 12 and under swimmers who had a very quick turn around before finals.  They were a very tired group, but what we were so proud of was that not once did they complain and they were on their feet supporting all their teammates all through finals

 

Sunday we saw that you were tired but we had that little talk about finding that energy from wherever, not feeling sorry for yourself and to finish the meet with a lot of energy. The result was that all of you responded and found that energy and had some great races.  Throughout the weekend it seemed like a JO or Nasa cut was made overtime we turned around.  Our relays did an excellent job and I believe that all our lead off swimmers who were given the privilege of lead off for an official time responded to the challenge with one even getting a NASA cut.

“Ke Nako”

This past weekend we saw a lot of outstanding races from our Senior prep, Junior Gold and Junior Blue groups.  Some qualifying times were made for the Junior Olympic meet in March.   Medals 🥇 and ribbons 🎀 were won by many swimmers 🏊‍♀️ in the groups, but more importantly a lot of improvements were seen not only in that “ all important time” for that instantaneous feedback but for myself I saw some great turns with improving underwater work off those walls.  We saw a lot of you try some new events which is a very important part of this process “always leave a door open” and we saw a great mental approach to the way you raced.  Overall you all were awesome👏  and now we have one more weekend to get through for the rest of you before the first stage of our season ends.

“Ke Nako”. 

This is the title of a song from the 2010 World Cup 🏟 and the translation to English is simply, “IT’s TIME”. You might want to look it up and maybe listen to it before this weekend.  Time for what; I guess if you need to ask we may be in a little trouble right now.  On September 10 you all began by jumping in the pool and starting your journey down what at times seems like an endless journey down a black line on the bottom of the pool, with the never ending smell of chlorine everywhere, body, hair,  clothes, towels just about anything you touch and through it all you have persevered and made great strides.

It’s time for the fun part about this sport, and simply put “it’s time to race”.  Pretty simple!  You have put in a lot of hard over the last 14 weeks, awesome test sets, some great walls and underwater work, a lot of improvements in our stroke work and racing techniques.  All of this in preparation if you may for our mid term exam to see where we are at as we march towards championship season in March.

As you enter this weekends meet understand this little thing that we your coaches know as fact; You are tougher and stronger, both physically and mentally than YOU think you are.  Believe in all the hard work that you have put into this and don’t let that little thing between your ears 👂 get in the way.  Instead of 🤔 thinking about all the negatives and about things that might go wrong, focus on the positives.  Picture that perfect race that is just sitting there waiting to be grabby, be the one who takes it.  Think thoughts that will put you in a position to be successful.  Let’s not do things that will make us slower and that includes thinking about your competition because chances are they are not wasting energy on you.  There may be things that happen over the weekend that will try and derail you, it happens to everyone not just you, but it’s about how you react at that moment that will dictate your overall success, and remember you are tougher mentally than you think.  One piece of advice if you find yourself a little anxious 😟 or stress, take a breather.  Get up and take a walk around the facility, get some fresh air and clear your mind.

Above all enjoy the moment, have fun and do what you do best, RACE!!!

MAKO CHRISTMAS MEET

We had a great meet two weeks ago at Swim and Rock and have spent the past two weeks correcting the areas that we had trouble with. We only had a couple of disqualifications due to technical things and have gone through them all. We know this is a quick turn around for most of you with the thanksgiving holiday squeeze in the middle.  But guess what this is where we find ourselves in “the process” , so take ownership of your races this weekend and you will come out the other end a better person and swimmer.

Be aggressive in and out of the turns.  Don’t forget our fish/dolphin kicks off those walls are to carry your speed off the walls not to get more.  So when you feel like you’re slowing down it’s time to get up and race.  Do not sacrifice speed for distance.  Speed into walls means the finish also.  What’s the point in swimming fast only to slow 10 meters out.  Finish the race

The only bad swim 🏊‍♀️ is the one you don’t show up for.  

Have fun!!!

SWIM AND ROCK WRAP

This past weekend we had an outstanding effort from the senior prep, gold and blue groups.  You all showed up to not only to swim but also to race and that’s what it’s all about.  From the moment the first one of you jumped in for warmups on Friday morning until the last one got out on Sunday evening our efforts were outstanding.  

For the most part you ran through your warmups and cool downs with with focus and got it ✅.  There were a lot of you who learned how to swim a preliminary and final meet.  What do I mean?  When seeded high in the event you understood that it was not so important to swim fast in the morning, only fast enough to get a good seed coming back at night.  Some of us had to put out our best effort in the preliminaries just to get back to finals, and that’s 👌.  It’s part of this long process and you do what you have to!  The results really showed and I am guessing here but I believe MAKOS was better represented at final than any other team, and oh by the way you came to race turning in an abundance of personal bests.

Remember our talks about the process and how important it is.  We know that you are looking for instant results with every swim and that would be great, but honestly it’s not goin to happen as you age.  The sooner that we can get you to grasp that concept the easier the process becomes.  While we do care about your times, there are so many other things on our checklist that we are concerned with.  The most important item we like to check off is this; Are you getting better at the things we are working on in practice?  Items range from our walls, our fish 🐟 kicks, our stroke mechanics, our race strategy, our breathing, and yes our attitudes.  Our job is to teach ou how to swim, train and race so that you are ready for that next level.  That’s the level (H.S.) is where you really get to have fun and see some of your best swimming.  It’s all about the process. 

MY OWN TAKEAWAYS FROM THE MEET

*   I wish I could get $1.00 for every cap that I put on

*   The almost ♥️ attack I had on Saturday night during the girls 13-14 free to see 6 swimmers in the pool and Kendyl and Jackie standing on the blocks 👀 at each other. First thought was they do what they do best “socializing “

*. During the 9-10 session during the 50 fly.  A boy forgot his heat and lane, proceeded to dive in the warmup pool swim fly to where I was, get out asked his heat and lane.  After straightening it out he dove back in and swam a fast fly to the other end.  First thought this race may not go well!

*. Graham asking me to count for him in his 500 free. No problem but it will cost you$1.00 for every number.  He was 😯 shocked but I did say he might get it cheaper by asking Peter.  All he got was a 😂 laugh with that.  

*. Saturday was green!  And no Rebecca it was not Shrek!

* Helping Cally count for big brother George.

*  How is it that where ever I hide for some quite there is a group that can always find me!

THANKSGIVING MESSAGE

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the athletes for the hard work and dedication that they have put into the season up to this point.  We understand and appreciate all the sacrifices that you have made over the last three months and believe that at the end you will look back, not with regret but with a sense of accomplishment.  Thank you for the simple thing of showing up and being yourself.

Thank you to all the parents who have made sacrifices as well, from getting them to where they are suppose to be and also for raising a great group of kids.  Thank you for entrusting us with the most important thing in your lives.  Kids don’t take it for granted because it’s the hardest job that they will ever do.

HAPPY 😃 THANKSGIVING 

ARE WARM UPS IMPORTANT

How serious to you approach your warm ups at practice or meets?  Is it really that important? As with almost all issues in society everyone has an opinion. The first thing that you need to understand is that contrary to beliefs it is not just “MINDLESSLY SWIMMING “ in the 🏊‍♀️.  It should and will set the tone for the practice or meet that you are going to ask of your bodies and put you in a mindset to be successful.  It amazes me to sloppy swimming during this time at practice and that is because habits (good or bad) can be developed during this time.  It is up to you to CHOOSE whether they will be good or bad.   

We do not just put a garbage warmup on the board for you to do.  Each of our warmups have a direct impact and is designed to prepare you for what we are trying to accomplish on any given day, thus our warmups are never the same.  You may ask, But the meet warmup is always the same. Good observation you rascals!  Yes it is and it is designed to get you ready to swim fast.  It is also designed to keep your stress levels down and hopefully keep you relax.  You all do not need traffic 👮‍♀️ standing at your lanes barking directions at you.  I never felt relaxed 😎 when any of my coaches did that regardless of the sport. You all know what you need to do and so accept the responsibility and get it done, and that includes that second warmup and the warm down.

Another thing I have observed is that after your last event some of you figure the day is over and I can just leave.  BIG MISTAKE!  That warm down is very important!  The worse thing you can do for your body is to just walk out, get in a 🚘 and go 🏡.  Your bodies and muscles 💪 will tighten and become very stiff which will produce a feeling or tiredness and soreness.  The next day it will take that much longer to work out all that stiffness which is never a good thing.  You’ve been given these bodies so let’s be nice to them and take care of them.

And above all, Be aware of what you are doing during warmups and pick one ☝️ little thing to improve on and get ready for what is to follow.

SWIM AND ROCK OH 👦 

MEET WARM UP

Just a quick reminder for your meet warmups this weekend

200 smooth and relax swim

4x50 descend swim@50

200 kick on back

3x50 descend kick @1:00

100 stroke swim drills

8x50 choice @1:00 (25easy 25 fast) @1:00

2x25 fast from dive

Let’s come in focus and put in a great effort as we prepare to go in strong 💪 for the swim and rock meet.  

We have spent a lot of time in the past few weeks with our work on the walls and our underwater.  Important to remember not to sacrifice speed for distance off those walls.  

This is a great meet to try something new and step outside of your comfort zones as you prepare for the mid season championship meets.

Some people say good luck but you don’t need luck. You all have worked hard so just swim 🏊‍♀️ your race and have fun racing.

SPORTSMANSHIP

Okay you all know that I am a Cowboy fan so today is a little gloomy 😞 as I stood in line to vote this morning, and no it’s not the ☔️ or the impending doom and gloom that will be reported from the media on this voting day.  It’s something that happened early in that football 🏈 game last night, that is a reflection on all athletes.  After the Titans intercepted a pass in the end zone and immediately ran to the middle of the field where the cowboy star ⭐️ is and began celebrating,  ow I know all you Redskin fans were on the floor laughing 😂 and giving ✋ to anyone in your vicinity.  Enjoy the moment but than tank a look at what these professional athletes are teaching our younger athletes, and that is SPORTSMANSHIP.    Now don’t get me wrong I am all for a little 🎉 celebration in the end zone with your teammates,  but to go to the middle of the field and make it about you and to disrespect your fellow athletes goes to far.  Have your little celebration but come on man your a professional and it’s your job and act like you’ve been their before and keep your ego in check.  

Now on the other side of the field I was expecting an all out brawl that should still be going on in the middle of the field with the riot squad being called in to restore peace and order, but know a lone Dallas Cowboy 🤠 showed up and gave the criminal what a would call a gentle shove.  What no teammate for support!   Shoot i wanted to jump into that television take the ball and bounce the 🏈 off this lost souls head.What that told me right than and there was this game is over Dallas will lose so off to bed 🛌 I went.  There was no passion, energy excitement, sense of urgency or whatever you want to call it, but whatever game over.  Pack up and go 🏡, thanks for coming.

Today I look at it from a different angle, and I am reaching here so bare with me.   Just maybe the ENTIRE Dallas team was embarrassed 😳 by what transpired and realized that the reason that TITAN was standing on their ⭐️ was their fault, and if they didn’t like it than stop 🛑 them on the next series and prevent it from happening again.  Never happened as I realized last night and found out to no surprise when I saw the final score.

How does this relate to us in swimming?  Two things, the first being that the first step to success in any sport is some passion, effort, and positive energy and emotions when participating.  If you don’t have it, GAME OVER.  

The second is that I’ve been around for a while and I have seen a range of emotions from athletes and coaches after both victories and defeats.  Some good, some bad.  Always remember this sport is bigger than you, and that you are know more special than any other swimmer, maybe faster, maybe more victories, but  it more special.  Those other swimmers are there  also to improve, friends, practice, and just the fact they enjoy the sport.  So next time you show frustration, throw the goggles in a fit of rage remember everyone sees and judges.  React with excitement but with the realization that this is what you have trained for and expected of yourself.

I would have still thrown the 🏈 at him.  

THE SALESMAN AND EFFORT

MARLIN INVITATIONAL 

Friday Warm up 4:00-4:50. Meet starts at 5pm

For Friday events please have a timer and lane counters for your events. You also must positive check in your events. I will check you in as long as you let me know before Friday.

Saturday and Sunday Warm up 7:00-7:50. Meet starts at 8:00 am

They will be using 2 pools for Saturday and Sunday sessions. One pool will be 13 and over girls and 12 and under boys.  The other pool will be 13 and over boys and 12 and under girls.

On Sunday the 12 and under boys 200 free will move to the other pool to help with the time line.

WE ARE NOT SUITING UP FOR THIS MEET!!

Our groups finished off last week with a great EFFORT at practice on Friday and Saturday.  We spent a lot of time bringing the whole week together with a lot of IM work with great transitions and wall work.  Our underwater work is looking fantastic 👍 and now let’s see if we can carry it into our races the next two weekends. Yes it will tax you both physically and mentally but if you are prepared to step out of your comfort zones and give it a shot, you may be pleasantly 😲.  The best part is that you will learn that though it may hurt you did survive and will live to 🏊‍♀️ another day.

EFFORT

There always is a lot of talking about lack of effort, or lack of so called effort.  Effort involves more than races and the stop watch, it involves so much more and can be all encompassing.  Remember at the beginning of the year when we talked about time management and how you spend so much time away from the pool. Are we putting in the extra effort with school, nutrition, and your sleep 💤 patterns, it all affects the bottom line at practice and on race day.

All athletes want to get better and sometimes we look for shortcuts to that goal.  Do you reach for that energy drink, or it may be the wearing of that TECH SUIT.  Athletes tend to grab anything to make them better than they were yesterday.  Salesman’s pitch is always to say what you want to 👂 and not necessarily what you need to know.  Instead of looking for gimmicks look 👀 into our mirror, and ask that person if they are giving a “good effort” at practice or am I just showing up.  The world is full of people who just show up!  Which one are you?

Putting in a good effort is not only limited to 🏊‍♀️ fast. It is how you swim, it begins by knowing the focus of the warmup.  Are you working your walls and a good technique or is it just sloppy swimming?  During the sets are you focused in on th purpose of the set or just trying to survive?  There are always days when you aren’t feeling it, we all have been their even your coaches.  Those are the days you need to dig deep check your “gut”  and put in a great effort.  When you can go through a day like that and walk away from a great 👍 effort, you walk away feeling proud, and that says a lot about your character 

Let’s have a good week

Halloween

Hope everyone in the Gold and Blue groups enjoy your day away from 🏊‍♀️ and you have your costumes ready for the evening.  You have probably heard this from Mom and Dad but stay with your group and be safe.  Please do your bodies a favor and watch that sugar intake over the next few days.  We all know it tastes good but the hours that follow a big increase in your sugar levels will not be kind, just ask Jackie.

The next two weeks will be a busy time for all of us as we prepare for the Marlin Meet, and the all exciting Swim and Rock the following weekend.  As we get ready for this I thought I would spend a little time going over what we have been doing.  This serves as both a quick reminder to each of you and gives your parents some input so they know what you have been doing.

One of the big things I have noticed in the first two weeks is our lack of aggressiveness with our walls.   We are always 👨🏻‍🏫👩🏻‍🏫talking to you and reminding you just how important your under water dolphin🐬 kicks are and how this is really the fifth stroke.  We went back and reviewed our early plan and decided that we need to insert a set to address this for all the groups.  We will continue this for the next few weeks with some variations to it and also by including something into the sets.  You all have been awesome because we have definitely seen the improvement and are excited about seeing each of you include this element into your races over the next few weeks.  Above all it’s not a quick fix, and it takes time but we see the improvement, so keep up the great work!

In all three groups we have spent a lot of time over the last few weeeks on our fly and you all have responded very well to what we were trying to accomplish.  One of the big thing we have stressed in setting up your breathing pattern.  We talked about how you can get away without breathing too much in the 50, but as that distance increases your 💪 need that oxygenated blood to perform efficiently, so remember our saying “breathe, breathe, don’t breathe”.  For our swimmers in the blue group it is important to get adequate air in your 50’s but please not every stroke.  For everyone we should never be breathing on those first strokes off ANY wall no matter what stroke.  Wait a minute “my bad” you can breathe in back.😁

The Blue group has spent a couple of weeks working on counting our strokes in back and how a proper turn is done.  This will always be a work in progress for this group as they are growing and they refine their strokes.  Just so the parents understand as  I look at the program i will stay with a particular item long enough to foster a muscle memory for your swimmer.  This way we hope they are able to draw on that in a race.  Thus the need for pool time and consistency.Keep up the good work!

The Senior Prep group in addition to working on a lot of fly have started using their tempo trainers during practice and have responded very well as we work on getting their optimum stroke rates.

The always exciting Gold group has been doing a lot of the same things, and we have paid a lot of attention to our transitions at the walls.  Parents note we did not use the term turn because it’s not, all they are doing is changing directions and we are trying to keep the head in line as we throw our hips into the wall.

For all the groups we will be putting a lot of speed work in the next few weeks as we get ready for the meets.

Thanks Parents

HAVE A GREAT NIGHT🎃🎃🎃

🎃HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

It’s the season of ghosts, goblins, witches, and all kinds of other scary things.  In swimming have you ever thought about what scares you before a race?  Is it the possibility of failing, or is it the fear of pain (the good kind), maybe the thought of letting a coach or parent down.  Whatever it is everyone has come face to face with this fear from time to time.

This may push some buttons with some, but I truly believe that society has become soft when dealing with failure especially when it comes to athletes and our youth.  Failure is inevitable, every athlete has to face coming up short of their goals sometime during their time in the sport.  You will miss that net in soccer, you will strike out, you will miss the basket, you will drop the ball and yes you will fall on the ice, and though you may not like it, I want you to understand that it is 👌.  It’s part of the journey through life and the ☀️ will rise the next day and everything in your world will be okay.

If you do not come up short from time to time than I believe that you are not doing more to get to your goal.  We have talked before about staying in your comfort zone and not taking that first step out of that zone to see what the possibilities are.  If you notice I took out the word failure in this paragraph because maybe the word itself is what causes all the stress and fear.  Maybe the first step to overcoming fear is to remove the word from our vocabulary.  

Getting hung on the fear of failure, the final time distracts swimmers from learning opportunities that occur after the race.  I say this because as coaches we try to offer suggestions for each swimmer to take back to practice to better prepare them for the next race.  However, what we see and hear a lot of time is disappointment in that final time, and all they hear is noise out of our 👄.

After experiencing a bad race, a swimmer has two choices.  They can either feel bad about themselves and the outcome from the event, or they can take the positive road and learn from what happened and come back smarter and stronger for the next race.  Taking the second option will build your confidence and resilience in the sport.  Confidence cannot be built in the presence of fear.  When you step out of the comfort zone and conquer a race,you don’t fear it any longer.

I submit to you that an athlete who is over protected comes to believe that success should always be quick and easy, and all that does is lead to greater frustration when it doesn’t. In swimming 🏊‍♀️ this situation is instant with that posting of a swimmers final time.  A lot of the process is lost such as, are the streamlines better, are the turns a little faster, are the strokes a little better, and did we swim the race a little smarter than before.  Another big outcome that is overlooked is the place that is posted.

Long term success in this or any other sport is more important than the short term results.  A temporary defeat is not the end of the 🌎, think of it as feedback and part of the process to make you stronger and smarter the next time you dive into that 🏊‍♀️.

RACE WARM UP AND COOL DOWN

🏊As we start to get near our busy fall schedule of meets, we thought it useful to review your 📋warm ups and cool downs.  Remember that if you know what to do and are in control without coaches talking 🧟‍♂️“loudly” every time your at a wall it will go a long way to put you in a stress free situation.  

The most important thing is to arrive on time.  It is unfair to your teammates and coaches to arrive late when we are in the middle of a planned warmup, and now you think I’ll just jump in, I don’t think so!

Another item that came up this past weekend is the fact that we had “senior level swimmers”🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♀️ who did not know what they were swimming.  This makes it hard to do a positive check in not to mention that mentally you are not prepared to race and swim fast.  Again it comes back to the person in the mirror, so check it and take ownership.

 MEET WARM UP: SENIOR PREP

400 swim (free and back)

4x50 free descending speed

200 kick

3x50 kick descending speed

6x50 stroke free

8x25 easy fast

2 dives fast

100 warm down

MEET WARMUPS GOLD GROUP

200 swim (free back)

4x50 free descend to fast

150 kick

3x50 kick descend to fast

100 IM drill

5x50 stroke free

6x25 easy fast

2 dives

100 warm down

Not it’s time to do some stretching and get warm.  I still see a lot of you walking around with no shirts, sweatshirts.  Now think about it we have just spent a lot of time warming up and now you neglect all of that work by walking around letting your 💪 get cold and tight.  All this means is that it will take that long to warm them up all over again.  Stop jeopardizing your races by doing things to make you swim slower.  Though you believe the fact that you are warm, your muscles 💪 are screaming for help🙆🏻‍♂️🙆🏻‍♀️ to keep them warm so they may perform for what you are about to ask of them and that is to RACE.

The other part of warmup is that second one.  You should do this so that you allow from 10-12 minutes from the time you get out of the pool until you step on the blocks.  The purpose of this is to wake you up, get the blood flowing and the heart ❤️ rate elevated a bit.  Keep it simple. A couple of 50’s with some of our all out 25’s where we kick 12.5 all out and swim 12.5 all out without slowing the kick down.  Rest 40-50 seconds and repeat 4 times, get warm go to the blocks and RACE

After your race go immediately to warm down.  I see a lot of you waiting ten or more minutes,  it guess what you missed that window of opportunity.  See the coaches after you cool down, and get a good warm down after your last event.  This is your alone time to relax and maybe go though your race “”good or bad” and just maybe unplug from the environment.

LET’S FINISH THE WEEK STRONG

RAISE YOUR STANDARDS

I got to thinking after this weekends meet after hearing all the feedback given to swimmers after their races and started wondering how many of those swimmers go back to their training sessions and try to focus on that feedback.  A lot of the feed back I hear is on breakouts,breathing,turns, underwater dolphins, finishes, and being more aggressive.  With that said I would guess that coaches wonder if the athletes listened and truly heard what we were saying, because I venture to say the same mistakes are being made at the next practice.

We all know what we should do as athletes to become better swimmers, but most of the time those only happen when it is convenient, when it’s comfortable or when it is going your way.  I would like to challenge all of the blue, gold and senior prep groups to turn those things we should do, into things that we MUST do and raise our standard as swimmers.

When you go back to the pool raise your standards at every turn.  Yes you should have fast turns and long fast underwater’s but until you go from the should to the must your standards remain the same, the needle does not move.

If you want to move that needle change your standards.  If you do 5x200 backstroke as we did last week and all your walls are short weak with little or no dolphins, that is who you become in your races, (YOUR STANDARD).  When you go up against faster swimmers you raise your standards or else they own you.

If you want to raise your standards you need and MUST USE THOSE TOOLS all the time not just when it is convenient or fits into your schedule.

LET’s HAVE A GREAT WEEK

PACKING THE BAG

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Whose job is it to be packing your swim bags 💼for practice and meets.  Mom’s, Dad’s brother or sisters, I don’t like to answer with a question but the simple answer is “Who is doing the swimming?”  Again it is the person in the mirror and 😮 IT’s you.  Funny how it’s always you in the mirror!  Why even bring this subject up, simple we had some set backs this weekend at the meet ( no names will be mentioned).  Items to always have in your bag, 2 swim suits, 2 or more caps, ( they rip) 2 pairs of goggles (they break)2 shirts (they get wet) sweat shirt and paints (to stay warm)and a water bottle.  The old man ( not me ) said if it can go wrong it will so be prepared and it will avoid extra stress during the course of the meet.  Has to do with that thing called time management we have talked about.

It’s your race nobody else’s and one of the first key to success is to take responsibility and own it, and it begins with being prepared to take the plunge, so pack those backpacks and dive in

The 400 IM swim

We have worked for a couple of weeks now to prepare for this race, so what are we looking for?  The first thing is to relax and don’t stress over it and remember the ☀️ will rise from the east in the morning. REALLY it will! Let’s break it up into 4 races shall we!

🏊

The first leg is the fly and the big positive during this leg is that we start from a dive so we really won’t be doing a 100 fly.  The first thing We want you all to remember is to set that breathing patten immediately.  BREATHE-BREATHE-DON’T BEATHE !  It is very important to keep that flow of oxygen to your arms and especially your legs.  It’s a marathon in a way not a sprint.  The other key thing is We want to see your booty out of the water every time your arms enter forward and you press your chest, otherwise you are just dragging yourself through the water. That strong kick in fly takes the pressure off the shoulders saving them for the other legs in the race.

🏊🏻‍♂️🏊🏻‍♂️

The second leg is the backstroke and this is not the time to relax and get lazy.  Its actually time to shift our focus from the legs to the arms trying to maintain a good tempo with good rotation.  Don’t spin the arms, but it should not look lazy, keep the head back in the 💦 and let your shoulders roll.  The legs are not that important throughout this leg, let the arms work for you especially you non breaststrokers.

🏊🏊🏊

What we are looking for during this leg is a long stroke, holding that streamline out front until you snap the legs together.  It is during this leg that a lot of breast stroke swimmers make their move, but what we don’t want to see is for them to take the second leg completely off.  If breast is not your strong stroke, this is not the time to panic, stay within yourself and swim your race, keep it long.

🏊🏊🏊

Here we go the last leg, let’s get excited we are 75% finish with the race.  Coming out of the third leg we want you to be aggressive with a fast tempo of the arms and keep it long.  Hold off on that strong kick until that last 50 and then let’s crush it.  You remember all that air we got in fly, this is the leg where your body reaps those awards.  If you followed the plan your arms and legs should not lock up.  During this leg try to match the fly split.

All of you are pretty intelligent and should have noticed a pattern; legs,arms,legs,arms.   Get your air in the fly, keep the hips up with a good kick, backstroke focus on the arms and rotation.  During the breast leg keep it long, finish that kick before your hands move, and during the free keep the arm tempo fast and crush the kick on the last 50.

HAVE FUN WITH IT GUYS

HAPPY WEDNESDAY

MEETS THIS WEEKEND

OCTOBER OPEN HAS BEEN MOVED TO LEE DISTRICT POOL

Friday night all the swimmers must have their own timers.

Friday night all 400 IM and 200 Fly must positive check in by 6:00. If you are planning to arrive late and would like us to check you in PLEASE send Coach Wendy or myself a text by 12:00 noon and we will take care of it.  Also if you are going to scratch on Friday let us know so we are not looking for you.

What happens to your mindset as you enter the 🏊🏻‍♂️water for practice and you come head to head with that cold chlorinated water, and that dreaded black tile line on the bottom of the pool that will guide you for the next 60-90 minutes of your life.  Do you stress🙀 on whether this training session will get you to your goals?  Are you stressed 😩with homework, what others think, or the weekend?  There are no guarantees that what you do today will take you to the place you want to be tomorrow, all we can do is to put you in the best position to get to that place.  

What you have to accept is that merely wanting something really bad doesn’t make it happen.  It takes a certain mindset 💡also to get there. All thethings mentioned above will always lead back to the same person that we have talked about before and that’s the little man 🧜🏼‍♂️living between your ears dictating your mind set.  Good or bad he/she will affect your performance at practice and meets.  Even though most of us know what we have to do in order to get to our final goal, we hesitate to pull that trigger or expend that energy and effort to improve what’s happening behind those goggles.  Ok how do we fix your mindset, it starts with the person in the mirror!  Example we had to repeat those 200 backstrokes yesterday three times because we could not do it right, and even though we it finally clicked, it threw the rest of the workout off and we had to shorten our kick set which affects the rest of the week, and long term hurts YOU ALL!  

If you have notice everything we do in practice has a purpose and leads to the next thing.  Let’s use yesterday Senior Prep workout as an example.  Towards the end of practice we were getting fatigued and all of a sudden the last set was an ALL OUT kick set without boards.  Some of you looked puzzled but the truth of the matter is that you are fatigued 😩at the end of your races and that is when you need those legs to get you to the finish line!🏁

As we said yesterday each of our sets has one or two key words in it to focus on, and if you choose to ignore those than you are just swimming laps and while you may get faster, in the long run taking those shortcuts will catch up to you.  We all learned this from the time we were infants, it started with crawling,walking, running, eating, talking and for an athlete it is no different.  It all comes down to muscle memory be it speed, turns stroke or breathing.

Pay attention to what you are doing in practice and what the sets are designed to accomplish

THE JOURNEY

 

THE JOURNEY

Now that we have been in the water for four weeks it’s time to take a step back and see if we are on the same road for this journey.  We spent the first four weeks working on drills and techniques in all aspects of our swimming and as we move into the next part of our season, the training will increase for our Senior Prep group, and will increase slightly for the Gold and Blue groups.  The drills and technique work will continue but will be included more into the training sets.  Our performance at the first meet last weekend was outstanding, and I believe that we accomplished a lot of good things that we can build on throughout this journey.  As we talked about prior to the meet I wanted our focus to be not on our times but on the things that we had been working on in practice such as streamlines, our dolphin kicks off the walls, breathing patterns, and the way we executed our races especially in our longer events.  As we talked about in the weeks leading up to the meet our focus was to be on execution and not times, a hard thing to do in this sport for sure but still a very important part of the sport that YOU have to learn.  Don’t forget about our talk on the stopwatch and the fact that as you improve and your times get closer to the 00.00.00 the less improvement you will see and this is the hardest part of any athlete’s journey especially those who’s results rely on the watch! The times will be there during our championship run during this journey.  

 

As we continue on this journey there will be bumps in the road as there are in the course of ones life, but how you respond to those bumps often determine your success in life.  In swimming the journey is littered with all kinds of speed bumps such as, but not limited to missing a workout, skipping a set, not drinking plenty of water, not eating properly, poor time management, falling behind in school, and one of the big ones which is not approaching practice in the right frame of mind.  

 

Let’s take that last one and look further.  Are you the swimmer who shows up with a purpose, or the one who shows up with a lot of outside distractions?  We are going to pick on the Saturday Morning group for a little bit here.  Instead of arriving and throwing your bags on the ground and laying down with your phones (a material thing that will be there at the conclusion of practice), maybe a better use of time would be to get ready and do some light stretching on the mats.  The next thing any athlete needs to ask is “Am I doing things CORRECTLY, or just doing them?”  As a swimmer think about it, during a set are you being aggressive on all your walls or just doing a turn.  Are you breathing in and off the walls because to do it correctly takes more effort and is harder? Are you swimming breast stroke without shooting forward with your head and upper body because it’s just takes to much effort and just too hard (Jamie)?  A lot of times athletes will make excuses or blame anyone for a poor performance when all the time THE ANSWER IS RIGHT THERE STARING AT THEM IN THE MIRROR!  Not a sermon, just a thought.

 

As for time management, as we discussed I often hear that swimming takes up too much of my time, but it really doesn’t and as I pointed out on DAY 1, the week has 168 hours in it and (using the Senior Prep as the test case, Gold and /Blue groups are less) you spend a TOTAL OF 7.5 HOURS at the pool during a normal week of training.  That leaves 160.5 hours of a week, which includes about 45 hours for all school work, and 63 hours for sleep (average 9). For you math wizards that a total of 115.5 hours that are accounted for leaving a whopping 52.5 (more than a work week) of free time for you to manage in a productive way.  Learn to do it now as it will set you up perfectly later in life, and remember this fact ALL ATHLETES make sacrifices early in life but all the sacrifices and the lessons learned as an athlete help later in life.  ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

 

 

2018 TYR ELITE CLASSIC

 

The group of 27 Mako swimmers have just finished a week of great swimming down in Saint Petersburg and should all be on their way home now.  I spent the day down here going through results and notes and will follow up this week.   The highlights of the meet were warming up and watching the sun rise over the bay each day with the wind blowing.  Saturday was the coldest morning out of the four and there was a little hesitation on getting in until I found a hose and turned it on.  Needless to say they moved like rabbits as I am sure the water from the hose was not heated as was the pool.   This group of kids and parents made the team proud with thier sportmanship and support for each other over a grueling four day meet.   BLAKE MADSEN WAON THE HIGH POINT FOR TEN YEAR OLDS AT THE MEET! Saturday night we finished the week off with a pizza party on the beach behind the pool.  The kids played volleyball and just hung out and tried to relax before heading back and getting ready to finish out the school year Thank you parents for all the help and support, and thank you swimmers for representing MAKO so well 

JO WRAP UP

The Mako 🏊🏽swimmers have just completed another very successful Junior Olympics championship meet at UMD this past week.  Our swimmers had many great swims during the meet producing countless personnal bests.  Did we have 100%? NO, but WE all raced and performed well so hold your heads up high and be proud for going through the process.  One of the big highlights of the weekend was Blake Madsen who won the HIGH POINT award for the 10 and under age group.  I read an article recently explaining this equation “E+R+O”  which represents the basic way of how life works.  “Events happen.  You choose how to respond and an outcome is produced.  The only thing you, I, or anyone has control over in that equation—in life—is how to respond”.  It is called the R factor, and separates the good swimmer from the great ones.

 

It is easy to respond after a successful swim, but it’s how you respond to those difficult swims where you display your true character.  Two swimmers who I was extremely proud of were Jackie Dobrydney and Katherine Helms.  Jackie swam the 500 on Thursday night and had been looking forward to this event.  While standing behind the block with her heat up next, SNAP there goes her goggles.  She ran back grabbed a pair and was back in the nick of time.  Up she steps and BEEP there she went, but we had a malfunction as the goggles were not working.  Jackie had to stop on the first two walls to adjust the goggles (they were good open turns), which took about 4-6 seconds on the walls.  After that she settled in , but had to stop again for a few seconds at the 400 to adjust once more.  She did finish that race, and upon reaching me stated “THAT DIDN’T☹️ GO WELL” but with a little smile.  She knew she would live to race another day, and at that moment I knew this 12 year old girl gets it, and will be okay throughout life.

 

Katherine Helms was in the midst of an up and down weekend with some good swims here and there, but she also had some swims that were off.  How did she respond to the weekend?  In her last swim at finals (100 FREE) on Sunday night she swam a personal best of 52.02 😀winning her heat which would have placed her 3rd overall.  After warm down I stated that this weekend was humbling wasn’t it, just trying to gauge how she felt.  What came out of this 13 year old’s mouth next was astounding and made me very proud of her.  She said she was going to write everything that happened all weekend down, and she learned that at this level it is very hard to get aq best time in every race!  Katherine held herself together the entire meet and she too gets the process which is hard to teach and learn.

 

It was great to have Coach Damien out there especially on Sunday Night.  I had made the decision that I would get him to get the 4 older swimmers ready for finals and I would work with the younger ones.  All of them rose to the occasion and had some really good races, with Graham Evers 1650 standing out (Yes he used his legs).

 

Sophia Cloutier had a swim off on Sunday in the 100 back for 16th place.  She already had the 100 fly for that evening, but I had already made the decision that she would do the swim off and regardless of the outcome we would than scratch out it (the officials got a good laugh when Heather scratched her after the race).  The madness of this was two fold; 1. HEAD TO HEAD or my girls would say ME and YOU let’s go and 2. Let’s she how she responds.  Sophia lowered her time again by 2 seconds, and gained experience in doing so.

 

On Sunday our 9-10 girls pulled off something that I have never seen before in their relay.  Our first swimmer went off without a hitch, and as she neared the finish, our second swimmer stepped down from the blocks because her goggles snapped.  After the three of them stood around for what seemed like minutes discussing😕 the situation, Charlotte took charge, stepped up and went.  I don’t know to this day how the other two decided who would go next.  Bottom Line is that these 10 and under’s figured it out on their own and 🏁finished the race.

 

The bottom line Swimming like life takes a lot of hard work and all that hard work pays off; we just don’t know exactly when. The key is to maintain your focus and discipline in the things that YOU can control.  ?The greatest power you have in life is the power to choose, and with this power comes great responsibility.  Only YOU are accountable for who you are. You make the choice of who your looking at in the mirror.

 

To all the swimmers swimming this weekend at the Mako Championship meet. Stay focus in your races and don’t be afraid to step out of you comfort zone and race.

 

Coach Mike

THE FINISH

We are in the home stretch now. How are you going to finish?  We clawed our way through the middle part of the race, and now it’s time for that last turn.  “WIN, LOSE, OR DRAW”,  it’s “GO TIME”! Might go well, might go bad, but you do have to race to find out.  

 

Come off that last turn with the determination to decimate any competition that comes off that wall with you.  It’s time to engage those legs now just like we have in practice for the last two weeks. Push that last 12.5 yards into that wall with a “BIG GIRL/BOY finish.  Don’t forget bring those legs with you on that last 25!

 

OUR CUE WORDS: HAPPY LAND, BREATHE, EXPLODE, EASY SPEED, EXPLODE INTO THAT FIRST TURN, CLAW, GO TIME, SMASH THE MIDDLE, BIG LAST TURN, ENGAGE THE LEGS, DECIMATE, PUSH AND FINISH!

 

In closing I would wish you luck, but you don’t need it, and I don’t believe in it.  You all have made the sacrifices, put in the hard work and now all you have to do is look in the mirror and believe in that person who you see.  I DO!

 

See all of you at UMD!  Don’t forget to pick up your dog tags for best times this weekend.

THE RACE

You’ve made it to the blocks, found that easy speed into that first turns.  We explode into and off of that first wall and are now going to build off that good feeling and speed into the middle part of your race.  In your mind you know the race is on and it’s go time, start setting up the race, claw if you must , but you need to go now!

 

Pain is inevitable, but the way you choose to suffer is optional, so push yourself towards that great finish!  SMASH this part of your race!

 

Tomorrow topic “THE FINISH"

 

 

IT's TIME

Some of you have talked to me about feeling a little stress, and nervous about this weekend.  So lets start with waking upthe morning of the race.   Let' s start the day with a good breakfast and being on time for warmup.  Start your warm up and stay under control, we are not trying to swim to fatigue.  Get some of our stretches in as a group, as this will go a long way to settle those nerves.   As your event nears try to remove yourself from all the distractions that are around you, go that happy place in your mind.   This would be a good time to go get that second warmup done, as this will also help settle those nerves and prepare your body for the race.  Get a little fluid in you and stay warm right until your ready to get on the blocks.   As you stand behind the blocks don't forget to breathe, and visualize yourself exploding off those blocks into that easy SPEED into that first turn, and now it's on!   Enjoy the moment, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy being with your teammates.  This is a race you have done a lot of times, stay in the moment and don't make it bigger than it is.   Wednesday. Topic "WE'VE MADE OUR FIRST TURN. WHAT'S NEXT"

RACE DAY

🏊🏽On race day the number one rule is “don’t do anything different.  No new energy drink, no massage if it has not been part of your training, no new foods.  Stick to the plan!  It all boils down to your checklist that  if followed will set you up for a great meet!  Let’s go through your checklist;

 

• Pack your bags 🛍(the night before)
• 2 pairs of goggles 
• 2 or more MAKO caps
• Sweats and shirts 👕for on the deck
• 2 towels 
• Water 💧
• Snacks (pasta, cereal bars, unsalted nuts, dry cereal (without the word frosted) bananas, apples prepared vegetables such as cucumbers, and celery

Try to eat something small right after warm down.  It is important to keep your tanks at least 3/4 full.  If you let it get down near empty it takes longer to recover and this would not be good if it happens on the first day, could set up along weekend.

 

Race day presents other challenges because swimmers will have to warm up and down multiple times, the start of the session and before each event. You need to gauge your warm-up.  The intensity should be high enough to warm the body and get the blood flowing, but not so hard to allow fatigue to set in.  Conditions are rarely perfect at meets, things will happen. Some times it may seem that you are in a fish bowl with parents, teammates, coaches and most of all your competition watching you.  Don’t get lost in what is happening around you, STAY IN THE PRESENT as you step up on the blocks and STICK TO YOUR PLAN📝. 

 

In Water🏊🏼‍♀️ Warm up

What are we trying to do during the warm up session?  We are trying to wake up your body, raise your heart rate a little, warm your body and basically getting your body ready for what you are going to ask it to do which is to RACE!

• Start with Moderate 200-400 swim (10 and under 200/ 11-12 300/ 13-14 400)
• Several high intensity interval swims 4x50 free descend @50-1:00
• Some kicking 200-300 followed by 3x50 kick descend
• Some drill 50’s 8-12 50”s (drill swim)
• Some fast 25’s (stroke build fast free)
• Couple of starts followed by low intensity cool down (100-150)

The main warm up should be done about 30 minutes prior to start of meet.  Yes if your not the first event you will need a second warm up which should be shorter and done early enough to allow you about 10-15 minutes before you step onto the blocks.  This warm up should look like this;

• 2-3 50’s to get the blood flowing
• 4-6 fast 25’s free with about 30 seconds in between to get your ♥️ rate up and than get warm and go to the blocks

 

The 10 and unders probably will not need the second warm up because their turn around will be very quick, but it is important to warm down after your race and stay warm.

At the end of the day your warm down is VERY IMPORTANT.  It will help start the recovery process immediately and the longer the meet goes on the more you need, especially on that last day.  I know you don’t like it but  do not jeopardize yourself and skip it.  FOLLOW THE PLAN!

 

Next up reviewing the races and cue words.

 

MIKE

CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

It’s that time of the year when all your hard training is in the rear view mirror.  All the miles have been logged , dryland done, and sacrifices made by all.  Championship season is on the horizon, the time of the year when you can really enjoy what this sport has to offer.  Try and enjoy the shorter fast pace workouts, the races, hanging out with your teammates and the overall atmosphere of the season.

 

A look at what you should start to feel over the next two weeks.

• Increase energy as yardage goes down.
• Feeling more powerful
• Stroke feels longer
• Feel faster
• Mentally feel better

 What can you do over the next couple of weeks to help?  

• Make sure you are eating properly!
• Stay on top of your school work!  Get ahead if possible!  Finish those projects!
• Get some extra sleep if possible! (Even 10 minutes help)
• Have a plan for race day!  Write your races down! Have cue words! (Don’t wait until race day to come up with a plan)

 

During this period you may catch yourself over analyzing what you are doing.  Word to the wise “Catch Yourself” before doing this.  You may worry that your not practicing enough or hard enough, but what I can offer you is “Trust the Process”.  You’ve already put in the hard work, done everything right.  Fight through the doubt, the wild speculation over whether this thing works.  Embrace all of this as an opportunity to “let your hair down”, go wild, and swim out of your mind!

 

Later this week “RACE DAY"

 

Coach Mike

TAKING CONTROL

Talking to you all over the  last few months I have realized that a lot of you get very nervous at meets, and after a comment that was made last night I understand that the bigger the meet the higher the anxiety and stress you may feel.  The comment I heard was " after all the work I 've done all year I get nervous this time of year."  If it makes you feel any better I feel it also. A lot of this stress and anxiety comes from overthinking leading up to your event, and again the bigger the race the more you think. The result of all this overthinking is increase stress levels which results in weighing you down.  Think of it like a giant vacuum that just sucks the energy and fun out of you, at a time in the year that should produces the best memories and results.  A lot of times at meets like this I watch how you carry yourself as a clue to how I am going to talk to you.  One way I can tell that your stress levels are up is the way you are sitting and walking around the deck.  Are your shoulders slump over? Are you standing tall? Are you engaged with your teammates?  All tell signs.  What are we fgoing to do now? When you experience that stress/anxiety the first instinct is to rush.  Let's just get through it as fast as we can and this is a normal and natural reaction.  We move from a state of working the problem and trusting the process, to a state of panic over what is either going on, or what could go wrong. We have talked about this throughout the course of this season and the first step is to slow down.  Remember our motto, " Right foot, Left foot, Breathe. Swim meet can be both funand stressful.  People in the stands, crowded decks, teammates and coaches cheering on the deck, competition on the right, to the left, out in front and in the rear.  Warm up, warm downs in crowded lanes and lets not forget we need to have time to get that suit on, and than there is the wait for your event.  If you slow down and have your plan in place than all of the things mentioned above are things that are out of your control, but if you let them control you they become that fun sucker. When we are rushed our focus is directed at the results and outcome and not the process.  All kinds of things go through your mind, What if I don't swim fast?  What if I lose? What if it hurts? What if I swim fast but not as fast as I wanted?  By the way EVERY SWIMMER can always go faster until we find the one that can start and finish with all zeros on the watch.  Ponder that for a second. Slowing e erything down a bit, will help you focus, keep you in the moment so that you control what you can.  Slowing down helps your focus on preparation, technique, which will put you in the position to be successful.   Remember "Right foot, Left foot, Breathe" and trust the process and work all of you have put in.

 

"WHY DO WE DO IT"

 During practice on Monday I was asked why we were doing open turns.  For the past couple of weeks we have work through sets that involved some open turns while doing 75's (50 free/ 25 back and 50 free/ 24 breast or fly). Why do we do them?  I have notice during the last few meets that some of us are losing momentum at the walls on our exchanges.  We our not getting our hips and legs into the walls fast enough which hurts our speed coming off of them.  I wanted to come up with something that would help our speed  into the walls with the hope of helping you all get your hips and legs into the walls.   I decided that if we swim in free which is faster and perform open turns the result might be faster exchanges for the breast and fly, and also for the IM events.   Think about it there are seven turns in swimming and two of them are flips (free and back) which we do all the time.  The other five turns involve the IM, breast and fly Oh,and by the way are open turns.  Alot of time when we do these exchanges in practice, they are done at slower speeds.   The other two things are the 10 minute kick (00-40 easy and 40- 00 SUPER FAST BIL FREE KICK), and the 10-10-5 burst and stop kicks.  Why?  Watching the races I see two things at the walls, first we relax going into the turns and at the finish we just swim to the wall.  WE DON't FINISH the race, again with our legs.  That last 25 its come down to HEART!  That finish has to be set up coming off that last turn and build all the way to the wall.  A lot of this comes from those legs and by the way that 25 should take less than 20 seconds.  Do you see where I am going with those two kick sets?  If we expect to do it in our races WE need to first do it at every practice and not just when you want to to.

The Junior gold on the easy cycle of the 10 minute kick.

The 20 second fast cycle.   Stay healthy!   Mike

HOW TO TAKE OWNERSHIP

The very first step in this process you actually learned from your parents at a very young age and that is honesty.  Make no mistake about it everything begins with truth and that includes your swimming.  When you are ready to be honest with yourself it will require one very critical thing that swimmers often overlook, and that is “What do ?I really want?"

 

Over the years I have seen many swimmers just “Dive In” and start swimming without really understanding the process or why they are doing it.  Without understanding the process they have no roadmap to their final destination.  They develop habits that will carry them throughout their swimming years.  Some of these habits are GOOD, but some tend to be bad also.  Often swimmers will get sucked into just swimming laps and will forget to focus on the little things coaches are teaching within the set.  For instance the other day all three of our groups did a set that looked like this; 12 or 8 x75 (50 free-25 back) or 8x50 (25 free-25back) depending on the group.  The two main things to focus on for the set was “get to the 10" meter mark off the walls and the second was open turns off ever wall keeping are head in line and getting our hips turned into the wall quickly.  Now last I checked we all speak English but watching the set I started to wonder if we were having a communication lapse because some of us were all over the place.

 

The point I am getting to is this, sometimes we take the time to do the work but we come up short when trying to focus on the little things in the sport that will make us happy and successful.  I was told once that I was hard on swimmers when watching races.  I can accept that to an extent.  I am always happy for a best time because the time is an instant gratification which is the world we live in, BUT in the long run I get more excited when the swimmer executes what we have worked on in practice, which relates back to the process.

I understand that most if not all swimmers will have more failures than successes as they go through their swimming years, but if you go through the process correctly and trust it you will have a best time at those important meets, most of the time.

 

Simply showing up for practice/meets is only the first step.  The process involves being on time with the proper mind set.  Just this past weekend a swimmer said to me “I’m just not feeling it today”, (this will put your coach in a bad mood) about a half hour before the race.  I had to bite my tongue because I wanted to be brutally honest with my reply.  The next thing is proper warm ups and warm downs.  I have watched many swimmers leave a meet with no warm down and than wonder why they are sore later on.  Yes parents even your little ones should warm down, even if its a 50.  Its correct that they may not need one, but again my job is to teach them about the sport and how to be successful as a senior level swimmer.  Again the “PROCESS."

 

As for practice I believe I have demonstrated that the focus of the set should be doing things correctly not just some of the time, but all of the time.  During your sets think of it this way; Am I practicing just for a time, ore am I practicing for success and the chance for a Personal Best?  Remember those three kids in my pool at the gym, I could have just timed them no practice needed.  Just a thought!

 

Hey if you all have topic for me let me know

 

See you this week. Mike

OWWNERSHIP and JO EVENTS

I have been asked a lot of questions about choosing Your JO events, and that is awesome that some of you are thinking about them.  First off JO’s is where our plan and all your hard work come together, and the time of the year you should be at your best both physically and mentally.  Use the next feel weeks to fine tune all the small details in your events, catch up and get ahead in your school work, get the proper rest and nutrition and above all stay healthy, so you place yourself in the best possible situation to swim fast.  For our 14 year olds this will b e your last JO’meet so enjoy it!

 

CHOOSING YOUR EVENTS

 

This is a 4 day trials and finals meet.  The first step is break the meet into 4 days and write ALL the events for the day in your age group on a piece of paper in the order they fell including relays.  Step two place an asterisk next to all there events that you have qualified for.  Step three place a second asterisk next to your very best events.  We would really like to get this list down to two events a day.  Take into consideration where events fall in the meet and what heat you may be in.  For the 10 and under session it is a very quick turn around so PLEASE remember that.  Take into account that there are also relays that we will enter into the meet and you Will be expected to swim if asked.  We WILL NOT do the 800 free relay on Friday so cross that off your list.  There are no relays for 10 and under’s on Friday.  Understand that relays are at the beginning and at the end of the meet.  I have already had several requests for lead off spots and will consider all of them but the final decision will be the coaches and will be made at the meet.  NO promises will be made by ANYONE before as things can and will change leading up to the meet and as we work our way through the weekend.

 

After you have done all of the above and your comfortable with it, I will be more than happy to sit down and go over your plan with you.

 

“TAKING OWNERSHIP OF YOUR SWIMMING"

 

All athletes need to understand that whatever sports they participate whether you succeed or fail ultimately comes down to the person staring back at you in the mirror.  Your parents, friends, teammates are there to offer support in the good times as well as there bad times.  The coaches are also there to offer not only their support but also to help guide you and to put you into a position to succeed.

 

At some point all athletes/swimmers will face failure and disappointment with results.  Get use to it because it is called life, just ask your parents.  Swimmers struggle with these disappointments all through their careers, as do all athletes from the PEE WEE leagues through high school into college and yes, even at the professional level.  Ask the Patriots and KEVIN (Had to put that in).  They will spend all this wasted energy struggling with all kinds of excuses to justify or reason with the results.  I’ve heard them all through the years, although the best one was years ago when a swimmer had forgotten their googles.  The excuse was my mother used therm last night in the kitchen when she was peeling onions.   For the first time I had no come back for that one!

 

These excuses cover the gambit from “I’m so tired”, “water too cold”, coach didn’t prepare me, practices were not hard enough, not enough rest between events.  Why do we make excuses?  They help us deal with and justify the result in our minds at race time.  

 

Years ago I observed two different ways some of our swimmers handled adversity. The first took place 7 or 8 years ago Heather’s daughter LOGAN and Peter’s daughter RACHEL.  I feel so bless to always be coaching kids from other coaches, anyway both girls made finals so we stopped for lunch and knowing the two of them I in formed them to be careful of what they ate.  My first mistake was I did not follow them around.  Anyway we are back at the pool for finals and I told them to warm up and get ready, I still do not know if they got in. However I notice the two of them sitting behind the blocks propped up against the wall and Rachel is just sobbing on Logans shoulder in her practice suit.  Her race is minutes away and she is a mess.  Her biggest worry her dad was going to see her on TV in a practice suit at finals (which he did and I heard about minutes later by text, oh and that is why I no longer carry my phone at meets) and that she was going to get sick.  I still don’t know how Rachel and I did it but she gained her composure and swam her event and yes in the practice suit.  I asked Logan what was the problem and she took me back to lunch where they had gone next door and had this great  big piece of “cheese cake”.  All she could say was “It was so good….”.  Wonderful I hope you both get sick

Point was they knew it was wrong but they took ownership of what happened and performed well anyway.

 

The next example happened about 3 or 4 years ago again in Florida at finals, but involved LEXI.  I got her to the pool late for her first event one evening.  The way I understood that it went down was that as I was parking the van Lexi walked through the doors and over to the block (I think she ran). You have to understand that her heat was just getting into the pool (backstroke event) as she arrived to the block.  Lexi dropped her bag, removed her warm ups and hopped in the pool with her practice suit.  She went her best time as she won the event.  Again an example of no excuse just get to work and whatever happens, happens.

 

A lot of times we will make all kinds of excuses, because we only want to take OWNERSHIP of our success, but on the other hand blame the world for our failures.  I see it all the time where swimmers dive into the pool thinking they are owed a best time.  It is so much easier to sit back and expect success and not have to work for it, or take ownership of the process.  When you don’t take ownership of the process bad things tend to happen and then you may find yourself on that slippery slope that will result in more failures than success.  We become less detail oriented which creates an environment where mediocrity grows like a weed and it’s ugly.

 

“If it’s success you want in the pool or life then you need to wrap your head around the fact that  it’s completely on YOU."

It’s not your coach, friends, or parents, It’s YOU. They are your support group. Take ownership and be honest when you talk to the person in the mirror!

 

Next week How to take ownership!   Mike