OUR JOURNEY HAS BEGUN

 Welcome back swimmers and families to our 2025-26 season with Mako swimming.  We are looking forward to an exciting swimming season ahead filled with great workouts, fast times and a chance for your swimmers to create those magical memories that are associated with athletics.

We've been in the water for a little over a week now and the workouts have been good.  Things that we have been working on over the first few practices;

1.  TIGHT STREAMLINES
2. STRONG UW KICKS
3. FAST FEET TO WALLS
4. FIRST STROKE BREAKOUT WITHOUT THAT BREATH

These 4 little things (really big things in competition become a big advantage for those swimmers who really want to improve during our short course season.

FALL RESULTS

We’ve completed our first tour stop this past weekend and our groups had some amazing swims.  We were overwhelmed with how the little things that we have been working on showed up in your races.  Something that we want to point out centers around times.  As your times get faster it becomes harder to have those big time drops that you became accustomed to especially as you get older.  Don’t get us wrong they are still there, lurking around the corner they just may happen at fewer intervals.  This is especially true if you got those best times at the end of last season when you were in great shape, suited up and swimming in a championship environment.

As we stated before the early meets in our season are designated as training meets where we are getting used to racing working on our technical part of our races.  We are also using this opportunity to swim some different events and distances, challenge yourself.

Some things we need to do a better job with is our warm downs after our swims and our warmups before our next swim if there is a lot of time in between.  Staying warm while sitting around.  We get it you feel warm but your muscles are cooling down every second, the same muscles that you are expecting to be ready to go for your next race.  Help them out and put some clothes on they will thank you.

WEEKLY THOUGHT

“You’re never chasing perfection.  You’re learning how to form great habits.”

FAVORITE SET Total 88x25 (2200)

• 4 rounds of 22x25 @30 
• 1x25 fly/1x25 back/1x25 breast/1x25 free

• 2x25 fly/1 x25 back/1x25 breast/1x25 free
• 3x25 fly/1x25 back/1x25 breast/1x25 free
• 4x25 fly/1x25 back/1x25 breast/1x25 free

RULES each round 1-4 rotates to next stroke and are all build to a fast 4th one   Breakouts off each wall  no breath first stroke free and fly

THE FIVE P’s of A SWIMMER

PRESENCE- Show up and be there both physically and mentally.  Over the years the one thing that we understand is that this is the one thing that holds young swimmers back and they don’t realize it.  Put the devices away as you arrive on deck and understand you’re there to go to work.  Get in the right mindset.  

PATIENT- As we have stated swimming is a journey not a destination with many stops along the way.  These stops will inevitably produce different results, some with big drops, others with smaller drops and some with no improvements at all.  What ever results that you are left with you will need to have the patience to accept them keep working on improving and not get discouraged.

PURPOSE- This is your why.  What are you trying to get out of workout and how do you go about it.  Don’t tell us it’s to get faster.  There is more to it, the nuts and bolts to get you ready for your races.  Everything we do has a purpose.

PRACTICE   Show up for practice willing to win the workout and become better than you were when you walked in.  Understand your weaknesses and be willing to do what ever is necessary to improve in that one area.  This doesn’t happen if you’re not there and trying to do things the right way.  The way you practice has a lot to do with your overall success now and down the road in this sport.

PAUSE- Sometimes it becomes necessary to hit the pause button and give yourself a time out.  Re-examine how you are eating, how you approach school and your workouts.  Examine your goals, go through one section in your tour book, readjust and prepare to move forward with gusto.

See you all at the pool!

HUMP DAY and SELF TALK #2

 Hump day heading into meet #5.  

WARM UP (600) 200 smooth free/ 4x50 free descend @50/ 8x25 kick choice/free @40

TEMPO SET 4x3x25 tempo+50 

3x25 tempo drill @40

Free head up but steady

Back spin drill

Breast and fly with free kick

50 (25 of stroke from tempo but fast swim 25 smooth free @1:20

STARTS 

BOTH POOLS ALL 11 lanes  fast to 15 meter easy to walk around  6x  

4x to a fast turn

DOUGHNUT  SET

4x4x50

• 1 fast 3 smooth major race stroke @1:00 
• 15seconds rest
• 2 fast 2smooth all major @1:00
• 15 seconds rest
• 3 fast 1 smooth (25 major 25 free)@1:00
• 15 seconds rest
• 4 fast all free @1:00

SELF TALK #2. "I CAN DO ANYTHING"

Too many times swimmers spend more time thinking they can't do something.  They will spend countless hours coming up with reasons why they can't do something.  The only limitations that you as a swimmer have, are those limitations that you place on yourself.  It's not about waiting for your ship to come in, sometimes you may need to swim out to the ship.  Don't sit around waiting for opportunities to arise, go ahed and create your own opportunities.  we all have doubts, we all have fears but you can't let those hurdles stop you.  Take action to clear those hurdles and overtime you say "I can" you are one step closer to your goals and dreams.  

Be consistent in your belief and yard by yard you will move forward.  Remove "I can't" from your vocabulary and replace it with action, an inner confidence that YOU can do anything.

POSITIVE THINGS THINGS TO SAY EACH DAY #1

 As we have learned that past few weeks is that to REALLY move forward with your swimming, you need to make some positive changes in the way you approach the process.

When you step onto the blocks for a race, are you really ready to dive in and be the best that you can be at that moment in time?  You can say all the right things but as I explained to the kids this morning that when they do this one cheer that begins with I believe, they need to really believe it.  It all just a lot of words and noise if they don’t, really believe down deep in there belly’s. 

All of this ties in with making changes in your mindset and these are things you need to say to yourself every day.

The very first thing you need to say to yourself is, “I am the best.”  This is not cockiness, it’s a belief in yourself that you have trained hard for this race.  You trust yourself and the work you have put in, you don’t shy away from any part of the race, you fear nothing and you doubt nothing.

You walk with an air of confidence and determination, you stop letting others tell you what you can and can’t do because you are the best.  The best is not necessarily being better than everyone else, it’s about being the best version of YOU.  When you believe in yourself positives outcomes will soon follow.  Start working on this today

MONDAY MADNESS  THIS WAS FOR 13 and overs  all others was built off this general plan

TO THE FINISH LINE WEEK 

WARM UP 600 (200 swim nice pace/ 4x50 kick/swim/ 8x25 (odds choice no free evens free ) good breakouts) 

SET 3 rounds (450)

75 (25 kick NB/ 50 choice  free)

50 (25 MAJOR/25 free min breaths)

25 ALL OUT FREE 1-2 breaths STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE)

Set 4 rounds (600) with fins

50 kick 1:00/55/50/45  by rounds

50 major/worse 1:00 same intervals 

 2x25 free ALL OUT @30/1:00

CLOSING OUT THE WORKOUT (400)

16x25 (4 rounds of 4 @30 rest 15 between rounds

Round 1-3 no free stay with same stroke for each round may switch between rounds) round 4 all free

1/3.  2/2. 3/1.  All 4 fast

POSITIVE CHANGES episode #5 plus THURSDAY FOLLIES

 

Just got to keep getting after it, we will get there together.  For the last month we have looked at ways that you can make both in the pool and away from the pool that could produce positive results in your races.  

This is one we are using where the swimmers write the changes they want to make in a place that is visible and that they see often.  Each week we have them write one positive affirmation on there water bottle that has a specific meaning to them.  In doing this they are learning how to hold themselves accountable and learning the lesson of discipline.  The following are some of the ones I see around the pool;

Just a race.

Heart rate up (I liked that one a lot).

My lane/my race.

They have to beat me.

Beast mode.

Racing is fun

Handle defeat

No failure if effort is there

Pick up teammates 

If you have any leave a comment, would love to use them on our board

Our practice theme Thursday was “THURSDAY FOLLIES “ and this was for the 9-12 year olds in both pools.  Remember there are 2 groups in both pools doing the same general thing at a different pace.

So we had the green squad in our yard pool yesterday and that group was made up of mostly Saturday swimmers and this is what it looked like.

WARM UP

200 smooth free work our breathing 2-3-2 or every 3 and swim like your 6 feet tall.

2x100 (50 swim /50 kick boards breast free)

4x50 (25 free 2/3 breaths and 25 kick on back) get your air on 2nd 25

SET 16x25 (4 sets of 4) rest 30 and hydrate after each round EVERYTHING IS RACE PACE 

1st set breast kick to cone finish free no breath

2nd set free kick (position 11) to cone breast swim to wall

3rd set breast to cone finish free

4th set free 2/3 breaths 

SET 12x25 (3 sets of 4) rest 30 and hydrate after each round fins on

1st set fly to cone then two hard breast pulls with fly kick to get to wall (no gliding work the breast pull hard

2nd set same but we move the cone further from wall

3rd set breast stroke with fly kick all the way holding stroke counts

SET 8x25 (2 sets of 4) rest 30 and hydrate after each round fins off

1st round 25 breast with double pullouts off wall (you better get in the neighborhood where I’m standing and don’t run into me STROKE COUNT SHOULD BE LOWER

2nd round same but with normal pull outs. HOLD YOUR NORMAL STROKE COUNTS

SET 4x25 IMO ALL FAST

LETS FINISH THIS OUT 

FROM A START 

Fast free to where I’m standing no breath walk back along bottom

Fast free same I’m a little further walk back

Fast free to where I’m standing and stay

BEAST MODE FINISH

TURN FACE YOUR FEAR RACE A PARTNER TO THE WALL WITHOUT A BREATH (15 meters out)

UNDERWATER DOLPHINS TUESDAY

 

Today we spent a lot of time discussing our walls and the underwater dolphin kicks off the wall and into the breakout in the race.  We did this with all of our 9and overs just on a different scale for each group.

We had our seniors talk to them about how important the kicks are in a race and how you are more efficient if you can master the technique.  We explained that it is not about the distance as much as it is more about how fast you can cover that distance.   They needed to figure out the exact moment when they needed to go into their breakouts.

We explained how the hardest thing they needed to do was becoming comfortable being un comfortable u dear water.  With supervision we had them partner up and while one partner placed a hand lightly on the head the other partner would sit on the bottom and relax while exhaling through their noses. 

We also explained that young swimmers think the underwater’s originate at the knees and they don’t

realize they need to engage the core.  We used the baby pool for that and had them doing leg lifts while engaging their core muscles.  After a few minutes we turned on the mushroom to see if they could remain calm.  (Probably a mistake)  even with goggles on they had trouble focusing on core muscles.

Next we placed a cone in each lane had them put on their fins and they had 5 kicks to get to the cone while being timed.  We recorded times on whiteboards.  RULE WAS THEY COULD NOT TAKE MORE THAN 5 kicks.  Added up times for each lane and the lowest score got ice cream from snack bar.

This is what our 9-12 age group did with the blue squad in the big pool and the green squad in the trap pool (24 yards).

WARM UP

• 200 (50 free/50 back)
• 2x100 free (build off each turn) we are picking up the tempo
• 4x50 (25 free swim/25 back kick

5 minute kick with partners. Start out easy choice. ON WHISTLE FAST FREE KICK. NEXT WHISTLE back to easy. KEEP REPEATING.  LETS WAKE UP OUR SLEEPY LEGS.

SET

Work the underwater using cones and stopwatch. 

Finishing up we worked on underwater’s and free and fly breakout.   In fly they were not allowed to go for air on first stroke.  In free we had our older kids tell them how many breaths they took in free.  We started with our 10 and under’s taking 3 and 11-12 taking 2 on first 25. We placed cones on bottom to spots we thought they could use for getting air.   First 25 lots of them went with no breath.  I explained thats great for a 25  it at your age that won’t work for a 50.  We are trying to figure out where to get your air in the pool. 

After that they did a pretty good job.

MONDAY SIZZLER

 

Waking up to temperatures in the 90’s and will be getting hotter.   Make sure you all stay well hydrated especially tonight at your meets.

Remember you’re not fully acclimated to the heat and it will take a toll at race time.  If you want to swim fast stay out of the heat during the day and hydrate frequently.  

You need to take care of yourself.

Mondays workout for seniors with the water cannons running.

WARM UP 8 rounds

50 swim free to back @1:00

25 choice kick @40 

TOO HOT TO HANDLE 4 rounds

8x25 fast kick with fins @25. Hop out go to the other pool 10x streamline jumps and 10 dips on the wall 

WIDTH UNDERWATER DOLPHINS

4 ROUNDS

6x25 followed by tread water for 1 minute followed by 30 seconds vertical kicking

MEET READY THURSDAY

 

Since we eat and play as a team on Fridays, our theme every Thursday is “MEET READY THURSDAY”.   This is where we do everything fast from starts, turns and finishes.  No slow pace drill just thinking about quality speed.

Here is what we did in our yard pool with our green squad for 9-10 while the blue squad worked in the meter pool.

Don’t forget our color code  red=smooth 60-70%   BLUE= build to your race speed 80-90%  PURPLE is our GO SPEED  race here no slackers

• 4x50 free/back
• 4x25 IMO
• 4x50 free/back
• 4x25 IMO
• 4x50 free/back
• 4x25 IMO
• 4x50 free/back
• 4x25 IMO

100 buddy kick (find out something new about your buddy). 

5 ROUNDS ALL IS FAST AND EACH GROUP LEAVES ON WHISTLE. NO LOOKING REACT TO THE SOUND.   STAY IN MIDDLE OF LANE.  All choice but do not change until next start.

Fast start to 2nd cone  in pool

Fast turn back to first cone

Fast finish to wall (get your fingers to the wall.  Do not grab up top on white stone.

CHALLENGE SET TO END PRACTICE FROM A START.  ALL FREE

1xFAST START WITH NO BREATH TO WHERE IM STANDING IN POOL walk back

2x same thing but I’m moving back a little

3x same thing but I’m moving back a little more.

4x let’s finish today with a challenge to go all the way.

GREAT JOB THIS WEEK WE ARE RACE READY. WE ARE DOLPHIN READY.

Good luck to all the mako swimmers this weekend.  Don’t forget it’s great to swim a best time but your role as a good teammate is to race and score points for your team.  Beat someone/ANYONE.  DO YOUR JOB HAVE FUN AND RACE