So, today is Election Day and although you may still be to young to cast a ballot, I’m sure you will enjoy your day off from school and welcome Wednesday morning will bring an end to all the news surrounding the election.
“WIN”. What’s Important Now
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
ELECTION DAY
Monday, November 4, 2024
TALKING BACKSTROKE
Over the last couple of weeks we have spent a lot of time working on our backstroke. We have covered a wide range of topics with this long axis stroke starting of course with our STREAMLINES and UNDERWATER DOLPHIN KICKS, to the breakout, the catch, the rotation and finally the kick.
THE CATCH and PULL: We begin the pull with your hand exiting the water thumb-first keeping your arm straight and slowly rotating the body setting up the catch with the pinky entering first. We talked about the clock and how we wasn't to make the catch at the 11 and 1 on the clock. We don't want to enter at the 12. notice the picture on the right. The pull feels similar to a high-elbow freestyle pull.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
MOST IMPORTANT WORD FOR SWIMMERS
What is it? Can you guess before reading any further?
If you guessed STREAMLINES you’re right if you guessed something else your not wrong it just might not be as important as those STREAMLINES.
How important is the STREAMLINE to swimmers of all ages at every level in swimming from the novice to the Olympian, simply put it's gigantic and for short course races it's enormous.
First off, every lap in your race begins with a streamline whether you are starting or coming off your turn and the longer your race the more streamlines you have during the race. The streamline starts with your fingertips and runs all the way through your body to your toes. It's also important in developing that 5th stroke: UNDERWATER STREAMLINE DOLPHIN KICK.
The two biggest enemies of every swimmer is drag and resistance and there is a lot of both that is created around the walls as you go in and out of your turns. While you may not pick up speed off the walls you certainly don't want to lose speed. The one and only thought you should have going into your turn and coming out of your turn is this: I WANT TO MAINTAIN MY SPEED. If you can do this that breakout stroke into the next 25 gets easier and more powerful.
Here is a thought for you to ponder before your next training session.Let’s say we do our routine Wednesday warmup for our gold group.
400 mixer (100 free-200 back-100 free) How many chances did you just have to work on improving your streamlines? The answer is 16.
Put another way, thats 16 investments that you and only you are making in your swimming. That investment will just compound and become larger and better over time and something that you can draw upon on RACE DAY! This is something that YOU can control and that's a good thing. The choice is yours!
Here is a 1 minute video for your enjoyment
The four biggest mistakes that coaches see swimmers during races are:
- Pushing off the wall and begin swimming immediately.
- Pushing off the wall with arms apart in "position 11" or the "Superman" position.
- Head Up looking forward.
- Not being firm and having a "jello" bodyline.
Just like making your brushing your teeth, performing a streamline should be the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night before bed." Okay not exactly but yo get the idea. Right!
The sentence that uses every letter of the English alphabet is, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Check it out if you have doubts.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
ANOTHER STEP ON YOUR JOURNEY
One of the first steps in your swimming journey this season is GOAL SETTING. It is important for you to write these down in a journal as a way to hold yourself accountable to yourself. When you write them down and look at them throughout the season you stand a better chance of attaining them.
- I know my turns are weak and slow.
- My underwater's are weak
- I am not aggressive in and out of the walls.
- I shy away from pushing myself past my comfort zone.
- I know I'm a butterfly, but backstroke is so much easier Chen given a choice.
Monday, September 9, 2024
EARN YOUR SUNSET
It was nice seeing all of our swimmers and parents this past Saturday. We hope that we were able to answer any questions that you might have as we get ready for our first day at the pools. We know that the first few weeks will look a little different as we are waiting on Mason to finish up their construction, but as we always say just focus on what you can control and give it your all and we will be okay.
As you start to think and put some goals together let’s understand that perfectionism is not a destination because if it is you just may have a hard time getting there. Perfectionism can be both an asset in your swimming….but on the other side of the coin it can also be a liability.
Why, number one and I believe this " If you look for perfection in this sport you will never be content", you will never be happy with your races no matter how well you do. Perfectionist are always afraid of making a mistake or failing in their own eyes, they have a hard time of really swimming with freedom, letting everything go and really enjoying themselves when they race.
Some examples of why perfectionism might hold you back;
- the added pressure that you put on yourself. It causes you to tighten up and doesn't allow you to relax.
- you start to believe you will Neve be good enough.
- it causes you not set unrealistic expectations. It doesn't allow you to feel good about the little wins.
All of the above will rob you of the enjoyment for swimming which you have come to love.
"You're never chasing perfection. You're learning how to form great habits." Swim Cash
As you Jump into the pool this week for your first workout lets learn to practice with a purpose and not just swim aimlessly down the pool practice after practice, make every set count, every streamline, every turn count. This week is your sunrise 🌅 for the season. Now let's earn that beautiful 🌅 for the end of the season. Everything in between is the process, start enjoying it for this is where memories are created to last a lifetime.
NEXT POST WE WILL JUMP INTO THE YOUR GOALS.
Saturday, August 31, 2024
SETTING THE TONE
We hope that your first couple weeks of school went well and you’ve settled into a routine. In another week we will be starting our workouts/training for the 2024-25 short course season. The coaches are ready and eager to welcome back our returning swimmers, and look forward to meeting and getting to know our new swimmers to MAKOS.
We look forward to an exciting and successful season ahead.
As we start our new competitive swim season it is important for all swimmers to be prepared both physically and mentally from day 1. Set yourself up to be successful this year from that first workout.
WAYS TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START.
- GOOD ATTITUDE - 😃 Everyone will have the blues once in a while. It's human nature. On those days leave all the outside noise and distractions at the door, don't bring them onto the pool deck. It will set a bad tone for you, the group and the coach. Let the feel of the water encompasses your own body and get to work.
- STUDENT/ATHLETE- It's a privilege to be able to swim which can be gone in a instant. Your school work always comes first, so do yourself a favor and stay on top of all your assignments. It's called time management. The week has 168 hours in it. You sleep 56 hours a week(based on 8 hours a night). You are in school for 30 hours a week (based on a 6 hour day). You have 12.5 hours of home work a week (based on 2.5 a night m-f). You have 6 hours of swimming a week (based on 1.5 4 times a week). That leaves 63.5 hours a week for whatever. In other words swimming does not take up all your time so don't use it as an excuse. Manage your time wisely.
- SLEEP-😴 Your body needs to rest so it is ready for the next day. Get use to having an internal clock that tells you each day when you need to go to bed. Set a time and stick to it no matter what. If you miss 4 hours one night, you can't make it up. Those hours are gone forever. Your feel better and you will avoid illness if you maintain that regular schedule.
- HYDRATE--The one thing you can control is your water intake. Bring your water bottles with you everywhere that you are allowed and constantly drink from it. Especially during workout or any other physical activity. You need more water at those times. Just like sleep I f you become de-hydrated it's very hard to catch up and you start to feel the effects very quickly. So drink.
- NUTRITION-- Garbage in = Garbage out. Treat your body as the fine tune machine that it is. You have all these dreams and goals in this sport so don't sabotage them by feeding the machine with garbage. If your parents used bad fuel in the family car it would start to perform badly. You need a variety of food groups to fuel your performances, including carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, vegetables 🥒 (yes the green things), fruits and of course your fluids.
- BE ON TIME-- When you get to the pool deck start preparing your body for what you are about to ask it to go through. Set up a 5-10 minute routine for some dynamic stretching that will actually help you. Stop just plopping yourself on the ground. Being on time means getting into the pool with the WHOLE GROUP and not on your schedule.
- ORGANIZATION-- Have all your equipment on the deck in front of your lane. We do not want to waste time getting out to get it.
- LISTENING-- Be prepared to listen to what we are focusing on and trying to get accomplished in the sets.
- GETTING BETTER-- Every workout, every warm up, every set, every repeat, every streamline, every turn, every underwater, every breath, and every finish is an opportunity for you to grow and get better. Don't waste even one of those opportunity, it just may be the one that costs you that .01 you need later in the season.
- SHOW UP-- You can't accomplish your goal if you don't show up. A workout missed is a workout lost forever. Stay on your schedules.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
TAKE AWAYS FROM 2024 OLYMPIC SWIMMING
My take away from the Olympic swim meet is that from we got to see a lot of great racing from some extraordinary athletes. If it was world records or Olympic records that you were looking for you might have been a little disappointed. There were 17 Olympic records and 4 World records broken during the Paris games. You would have to go back to the 1996 Atlanta games to see so few world records broken. That year there were also fewer Olympic records (13 ) set. I was fortunate enough to witness those 96 games and person and saw some outstanding races during the week.
How does that translate to swimming at our level. Having said this before and I’ll say it again now and that is this; we put so much emphasis on that final result (the time) both leading up to the race and when we come crashing into the wall at the finish that we are so tight we forget to just race and have fun with our sport.
Let’s spend a little time over the next few days and start preparing for our school year coming up. Let’s not wait until Sunday night to start thinking about. Enjoy that first day and don’t’ forget that means you’re one day closer to the summer of 25.
ELECTION DAY
So, today is Election Day and although you may still be to young to cast a ballot, I’m sure you will enjoy your day off from school and we...
-
"If you don't practice you don't deserve to win." ANDRE AGASSI So you come to practice on a consistent basis hardly ever...
-
My take away from the Olympic swim meet is that from we got to see a lot of great racing from some extraordinary athletes. If it was worl...
-
"Talk doesn't cook rice." Chinese Proverb It's easy to say things especially in today's world the real work start...