We would like to congratulate our 14 and under Elite Showcase Team traveling down to Saint Petersburg for  competition April 13-16.

James Anderson

Claire Anderson

Sadie Buckley

Hannah Carroll

Maddie Carroll

Patrick Cleary

Call Codding

Jackie Colwill

Lucy Compton

Lyla Devlin

Carleigh Devlin

Molly Donnelly

Kate Fischer

Leonardo Garcia Rivera

Caitlin Goff

Nick Harris

Tyler Harris

Anna Helms

Owen Hill

Jacob Lee

Charlotte Lim

Paige Lundquist

Dude Moy-Jacobs

Rebecca Prunty

Anna Rizzardi

Olivia Roca

Anna Roth

Laura Roth

Sara Small

Shannon Stegmaier

Alex Stephens

Addison van Baars

Tony van de Graaff

Lillian Wahl

Aiden Wang

Skyler Willie

We are looking forward to having a fun-filled time with some fast racing at the same time.  For planning purposes Nicole (from Fish) and I have worked out warmups for our kids.  On Wednesday and Friday we will warmup from 6:00-6:40 am.  We will hold these lanes for the Fish kids to have after us.  On Friday and Saturday we will warm up from 6:40-7:20 am after the fish kids, they will hold the lanes for us.  It is important that we are on time for our warmups so that we are able to get lanes.

Next we have Spring Break Next week for most of you and we hope the you enjoy yourself wherever your destination will be.  That being said it is important for those of you swimming in Florida to get into a pool a few times over the break, a minimum of 2 times with 3-4 being GREAT.  If you fail to do this your going to spend the first 2 days of the meet having that sluggish feeling when you dive in.  We don't want any slugs out there, do we?

For those of you who remain in the area next week we will have a practice from 9:30-10:45 am on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Saint James pool.  For the rest of you here are a few practices that you can work from on your travels.

WORKOUT #1 (free pace)

warm up (8-10 MINUTES) 300 mix (50 fr/50 back) 200 kick (50 board/50 no board) 100 IM drill (600 YARDS)

pre-set (12 MINUTES) 4 rounds 3x25 IMO @30 (good tight streamlines fast long underwater BLUE. 1X50 FREE@1:30 RED (500 YARDS/1100)

MAIN SET- 4 ROUNDS (32-33 MINUTES (54 MINUTES)

3x100 free @1:20/1:30

2x50 free @50/1:00 (1 BLUE/1RED)

1X25 FREE @20 (CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO 0 OR 1 BREATH)

1X50 BACK GREEN @1:30

(1900 YARDS/ 3000 YARDS) 

SWIM DOWN 200 TOTAL 3200 YARDS MAIN SET IS GOOD FAST SWIMMING)

WORKOUT #2 (fast speed at start)

warm up (18 MINUTES) 1000 yards 

 (2 rounds)=200 swim 200 pull 100 kick

main set(36-40 minutes)1700 yards

10x100 (PREP10. GOLD 8) @2:20 prep. 2:40 gold. (done as 75 RED as fast as possible /25 Green recover)

work on deep arm off turn with no breath

200 easy kick boards

10x50 (PREP10. GOLD 8) @1:10 prep. 1:30 gold. ALL RED FIND THAT CLOSING SPEED NOW

set fins on (9 MINUTES 400 YARDS)

4x25 1 RED/3 GREEN @30

REST :15

4X25 2 RED/ 2 GREEN @30

REST:15

4X25 3 RED/1 GREEN @30

REST :15

4X25 ALL RED @30 

swim down 200.  total around 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 min. (3300 yards)

WORKOUT #3 MIX OF IM

warm up (10minutes or less)

300 swim/200 kick 100 IM

pre set 31-34 minutes (1500) 2100

3 rounds

4x50 kick @1:00/1:10

4x25 IMO @30/35 fast 3 stroke break outs

4x50  free @50/1:00 done as #1and 2   25 FAST RED TO TURN. #3 fast RED 37.5 #4 all fast RED

rest:15

main set

5 rounds 17-19 minutes  (1000/3100 yards)

3x50 IMO @1:00/1:10 (work your transitions)

2x25 RED kick @30

rest 15 seconds

SWIM DOWN 200  1HOUR 10MINUTES (3300 YARDS)

DID WE LEARN ANYTHING

 As some of you know I spent a few days down in Saint Petersburg at a coaches clinic, yes even coaches go to school. I did get 3 days to swim in the pool that those of you who will be racing in in a couple of weeks and I can tell you the temperature is perfect, the water crystal clear and it feels really fast so it will be ready for you all.

The hardest part over the 4 days was getting out of the pool and forcing myself back inside for more talks, the sacrifices we all make. There were many take aways from a coaches view ranging from what propels a body through the water, women in sports, games and gimmicks, training methods (yardage versus aerobic work with quick sprints), drylands, shoulder issues, emotional and mental training and Underwater Kicking.

Over the next few days we will dive into some of these topics and how they directly relate to your swimming.  The first one is something we talk about all the time in our workouts and that is our

underwater kicking.  We headed to the pool on Sunday morning with swimmers demonstrating underwater kicking with timed 25's and 50's and then allowing the computer to analyze the results.  If we are completely honest with ourselves the following is true most of us are very weak in this area and don't work that hard at it.  Why?  Because it's hard and uncomfortable and we don't like being uncomfortable, do we?  Here is one common theme and conclusion stated bey the swimmers and coaches, "The underwater kicking is as essential as having a good dive, solid flip turn, and good swimming technique.  If you are weak in this one area the flaw will quickly be noticeable in short course yards and meters."  This is where 99.9% if not 100% of your races take place.  Another takeaway is that if you start working on your underwater kicking TODAY it can off set some other weakness that you have because you can cover so much of your distance underwater.

How do swimmers move so fast underwater kicking?  It starts with having a Great Streamline.  Yes that's right, if your not in a tight hand over hand tight streamline the underwater kicking becomes less efficient and it takes more energy to move your body through the water.  Big Dolphin/ Small Dolphin kick?  If the kick is to big and outside your body frame you start creating to much resistance.  On the other hand if it's to small you may not be able to grab enough water.  YOU have to find the correct balance that allows you to maintain your speed off the walls and through the water.

So what can you do outside the pool to improve your UNDERWATER KICK?  The two biggest things you can work on are ankle flexibility and leg strength.  Here is a short video to help with your ankle flexibility.

As for strengthening  your legs, why do it?  first off your need the leg power for your push off the wall so you can get into that streamline and into your underwater kick.  Some simple exercises are

wall sits
body weight squats
lunges (each leg)
bridges
squat jumps
calf raises
box jumps.

Let's all sit down after spring break and set up a program that is easy for yo to follow and that you can continue through the summer.  If your swimming in Florida at the meet, please do not add anything new to your routines, it takes time to adjust to new things which is not good for upcoming competition.

THE LAST THREE WEEKS

Let’s all take a breath for a moment as we come out of the last 3 weeks of championship meets. You all, the Mako swimmers were awesome racing in whatever meet you found yourself.  

Everyone arrived on time each day and went through the warmups without missing a beat.   The energy that you brought to the pool was incredible and a treat to witness.  You all supported each other during all the races and picked each other up whenever it was needed.

I would love to recognize each of you on personal bests throughout the meet but honestly there were so many I would inevitably miss someone so I will leave it at that.

I would like to give a shout out to 4 swimmers from JO’s , one from each age group who really stood out.  Tyler Harris (9-10 boy) came back to finals on Sunday night after a really brief rest and won the 50 free from lane 2.  Maddie Carroll (9-10) gained a lot of experience after qualifying for finals in all her events.  I’m not sure Maddie knew that she could recover so quickly and swim so many races.  The joys of being young and not knowing any better.

Leo Garcia Rivera, Laura Roth and Jackie Cowell all qualified for finals in the 200 breast on Sunday night after great prelims swims. Olivia Roca qualified on Friday night after a good showing during prelims in the 200 IM.  I do like the fact we had swimmers final in the 100-200 and 400 IM as we do a lot of our training for that IM the decathlon of swimming.  We definitely have to shout out to Cally Codding for her 100 fly at finals on Sunday night.  I really know what to expect from Cally at night after dropping a lot of time in prelims.  Most the time Cally likes to walk right up to the edge of the cliff mentally with all the reasons she is not going to do well, almost to the point I have to become almost like a hostage negotiator trying to get her off the edge.  Whatever she heard must have worked as she had a great swim.

Dominating the 11 and 12 girls was Sadie Buckley who qualified for finals in all of her events.  After some good swims during prelims she returned each evening and showcased her talents with some incredible races.

Lyla Devlin (13-14) had a great  400 IM Friday morning and then may have gotten a little knot in her stomach as she learned she would do it again in the evening.  Tyler Philips had great races all weekend and returned Friday night to swim that 100 fly again along with Caitlin Goff who would swim qualify for finals each night.  Sara Small also had some good swims qualifying for finals on both Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday Ken White (200 breast) and Rece Page (100 back) both 14 year olds qualified for finals later that evening.  After a good showing in the morning Ken had a incredible 200 breaststroke later in the evening dropping another 2 seconds.

Now that we swam theses meets it might be a odd time to revisit some of our goals from the start of the season. Which ones have you grabbed?  Do they need to be tweaked?  Writing your goals down and keeping a journal is a way that you hold yourself accountable for your swimming.

I want to share a picture with you of what a swimmer from the Gold group handed to me right after JO’s . After a great meet you might say to yourself time for a break, but not this swimmer who immediately went to work on ways to ensure they would have a chance to be bette next time out.  I think this has a lot of insight about a swimmer who takes ownership of his swimming and holds themselves accountable.  You may think these are small but this is a young swimmer in the Gold group and these will evolve over time.

FINAL NOTES FOR JO’s

 

Here are some final thoughts for you as we prepare to race tomorrow morning.  All of you have had a great season filled with ups and downs but through it all each of you have continued to work hard and improve every bit of the way.  Many of you have stepped out of your comfort zone trying new events and new distances and gaining tons of confidence along the way.  You have all begun to understand that you can't win or get a best time in every race, but you know that when you step out of the pool and know that you have done everything you can in that moment then you are a winner.  

That is the great part of swimming there is always that next race so as you work through this weekend enjoy the moment your in and when its over for better or worse start moving and preparing for the next.  Don't dwell too long on results.  Stay humble no matter what the scoreboard says.

So let's go out there this weekend, enjoy your races, and give it everything you can, remember to execute those kicks, and have clean turns.  You've got this.

Regardless of times the coaches love to watch each of you swim and race, it's truly a beautiful thing.

WARMUPS

In order to prevent something like the photo on the right we have come up with two warmup groups for the 11-14. We have 80 minutes in our lane with another small team. We are going to have 2 30 minute sessions with 20 minutes at the end for spillover.  

1ST WARMUP 7:00-7:30

2ND WARMUP 7:35-8:05

MEET STARTS AT 8:30

GROUP A (13 swimmers) Friday and Sunday 1st warmup. Saturday 2nd warmup

James Anderson,  Ryan Casteleyn,  Caitlin Goff,  Charlotte Lim,  Reece Page,  Tyler Phillip,  Ken White,  Lyla Devlin,  Ryan Brady,  Sara Small,  Anna Helms,  Jacob Lee,  Addison van Barrs

GROUP B (12 SWIMMERS) Friday and Sunday 2nd warmup,  Saturday 1st warmup

Anna Roth,  Laura Roth,  Leo Garcia Riveria,  Sadie Buckley,  Cally Codding,   Kate Fisher,  Nick Harris,  Olivia Roca,  Kylie Winslow,  Shannon Stegmaier,  Dude Moy-Jacobs,  Anna Rizzardi

All 10 and under warmups are from 12:40-1:20. Meet starts at 1:30

Finals warmup are 4:30-5:20. Meet starts at 5:30.

Please be on time for your warmups and let's get in on time and remember always FEET FIRST.

THE MOMENT

 

So last Saturday one of you came up to me to talk about your upcoming races and immediately I could sense the uncertainty in the tone.  To be honest my first thought was 'wow" where is this coming from.  Before I could open my mouth I was hearing some of this. "I hope to go this time at JO but I want to be faster in Florida" and as I stated to walk her back from the edge of this cliff she had talked herself out onto, I thought maybe it's something a few of you need to hear also.

My first thought is, Don't make the moment bigger than it actually is.  What do I mean?  Simply a lot of times athletes get wrapped up in "The Name" of an event such as Super Bowl, National Championship, Title game, All Stars or for our purposes JO's.

First off let's stay in the moment because if we have learned anything in the last two years it is that there are no guaranteed future races so again let's control the race that you are getting up on the block for.  Let's begin with the meet sheet.  When writing a story your opening paragraph contains your thesis which is basically a statement which is to be proved later.  The meet program is saying that you belong in this meet.  You have earned the right to race.  A lot of swimmers look to see where they are seeded and really,  Who cares? The heat and lane that you are assigned to are based on past performances and as we have always said we are focused on the NOW.  The lane you are in just gives you a piece of the pool that you own from the time you step onto the block until your hand touches the pad.  You don't like the lane swim faster and touch the pad sooner.  

So your on the meet sheet, you have a heat and a lane and now it's time for you to take ownership of your race.  What will you do with it?

 

Back to this swimmer, She said I want STOP, I just STOP, I really STOP.  As she started each sentence I quickly stopped her and ask her to change one adjective/adverb before she spoke again.  It took a few times but she got there on her own and left with a smile.  Moral to all of this is, be careful how you talk to your self, by changing one word to a positive can change whole mood and put things in a new perspective.

Here's to "FAST TIMES and FUN TIMES"

-TAKE OWNERSHIP

Before we get started on this week we want you to take a few deep slow breaths, relax and know that you have done the work and You are ready for this. 

What can those of you who are swimming this weekend do to prepare to be successful.  First physically, we know you tend to get anxious with this meet but this is not the time to worry and panic.  This process started way back in September and if you have followed our plan and done the work You are going to be okay.  This is not the time to panic and start adding new things to your daily routine, this is the time where you start backing off just a little to the point where your a little on edge. Being a little edgy means YOUR ready to have a great meet.  Here are some things you can do in your preparation ;

This might be the time to clean and air out those smelly chlorinated swim bags.  

Do you even know what in the bottom of those bags. Maybe it's time to find o.ut, maybe something you lost and thought was gone forever will be found.  after all that its time pack the bag like a champion;

• extra goggles
• extra caps
• a coupe of t shirts
• a sweat shirts maybe sweatpants 
• couple old towels (why old if you lose them it won't matter)
• some small snacks (dry cereal protein bars)
• water

Now that your backpack is packed and ready to go, it's time to pack up mentally.  We spend so much time working on the physical side of being a swimmer wether it be our drylands routines or our workouts in the pool that we forget about the mental preparation. We don't have a lot of time to work on this aspect of your swimming  during practices thus the reason for the blog.

You know that you have made sacrifices and worked hard during practice for this opportunity to have a successful fun filled meet, but you probably also realize that if your a little unfocused or have a bad attitude that it could all come crashing down on race day.

First off realize your not alone.  Secondly TRUST and BELIEVE in yourself and the preparation that you have put in.  Everything from practice, meets, warmups and warm downs have prepared you for this moment.  With that it's important that you realize that your coaches have put you in the best position to be successful and now it's time for you to take ownership of the meet and your races.  

Having big goals are good but also bring large moments of anxiety.  Being nervous and excited are not only good but preferred as it will keep your focus in check and will enhance your blood flow to muscle groups and will put you in race mode.  Too much anxiety and excitement can also be detrimental to your racing, so its best to have some "go to" things to help keep it all in check.  Maybe it's certain music or a song, maybe it's a book, maybe it's some deep breathing exercises off on your own.  Anything that works for you.

As you work through this week spend a few minutes visualizing your GREAT race. How you feel stepping on the block and diving into the water and how you feel in the water.  Focus on yourself and what you do.  Focusing on your competition does little to improve your mindset or performance.  Focus only on what YOU can control, you can't control how other swim so take OWNERSHIP of YOUR race not everyone else's.

Here is something to plan on for the weekend.  IT's that time of year so we will lose an hour on Saturday night which means Sunday morning will arrive an hour early.

CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

 

Championship season has arrived for all our Mako swimmers and for the first time in two years it will have a somewhat familiar look to it.  The competition will start this weekend with Junior/Senior Champs at UMD with 14 and under Championships (JO's) the following weekend also at UMD.  The next weekend we will host our Mako Spring Fling at the STJ.  To finish off our Championship[ season Mako will have a large number of swimmers Seniors (end of March) and 14 and under's (middle of April traveling to Saint Petersburg Florida for a national swim meet.

Make no mistake about it, whatever meet you are participating in is YOUR Championship Meet and it is important to you and your coaches.  Since September 1 you have been working really hard, making sacrifices throughout the year all so you can have your "one shining moment" in these last races of the season.  It's a cumulation of everything you have put into this season and sport.

The upcoming competition is the time for you to reap the rewards of your hard work.  Those early morning workouts, the afternoon workouts after school, the time when it will all come together in the RACE.  

With your races lasting anywhere from 25 seconds to maybe 3 minutes and the sessions lasting long over a three day period how does one stay motivated, and make no mistake about it being motivated and staying motivated will play a huge factor in your success or failure.  

First off do not procrastinate with your school work.  Get caught up and get it done before the meet starts.  Take that burden off your shoulders.  A day or two before the meet set aside 10 to 20 minutes to visualize your races.  Find a quite spot, lay on your back, turn your phones off, close your eyes and visualize all the steps you will be going through the moment you step onto that block.  Visualize the success that is coming  your way because not all athletic competition is physical.  Being mentally prepared can help a lesser talented athlete smash a more talented one who has doubts and is not mentally prepared.

Listen to music that gets your heart thumping, watch a race or movie that inspires you. Get excited for this!  This is what you have been waiting for and preparing for.  Don't dread your races or this opportunity to shine and show off your hard work. Embrace this time of year, relish in it, now get out there and race fast!