WEEK AHEAD:  All of our practices this week are on normal schedule, check back about Saturday because I believe that the private schools are holding their region meet at George Mason which may affect us.

MEET THIS WEEKEND:  The meet is at Cub Run Rec in Chantilly.  The warm up times are 6:30-7:20 Meet starts at 7:30 both days.  ALL EVENTS ARE POSITIVE CHECK IN, AND WILL CLOSE FOR ALL EVEMTS 30 MINUTES AFTER WARM UP HAS ENDED.  IF YOU KNOW YOU ARE ARRIVING LATE YOU NEED TO LET COACH HEATHER KNOW BY E-MAIL, OR LET ME KNOW AT PRACTICE SO WE CAN TAKE CARE OF IT.  IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS AND DO NOT GET CHECKED IN I MAKE NO PROMISES.  I WILL NOT RUN AROUND ONCE THE MEET STARTS TO TRY AND DO THIS, IT IS WAY TOO CROWDED AND BUSY.  THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

SNOW MEET WRAP UP:  This past week end we had a lot of our swimmers from all 3 groups swim some great races  and achieving JO and NASA meet cuts.  The thing I was looking at a lot was our work around the flags and in and out of the walls.  We spent a lot of time in this area leading up to this meet and from talking to most of you, the confidence that you say you have in this area is great and will be a tremendous advantage moving forward.  The other area I looked at was how you race.

We talked a lot about stepping outside of your comfort zone, and not holding back as much in the first part of your race in the fear of hurting as you finished.  In this area I also saw great improvement and I think a lot of you discovered something new and great about yourselves.
That being said there is still work to be done in and around our walls.  We had 2 DQ's at the meet and they both involved the walls.  The first was for a backstroke finish and this swimmer actually knew

she glided a little into her finish but was not aware of the rule.  I have followed this post with a link land small video that may help you with the finish.  Please talk to me if you are still confused!
The other DQ involved a turn in the 200 backstroke, turn 1 good, turn 2 good, turn 3 good, turn 4 hesitation, result DQ.  Even as I watch some of the backstroke turns I get a lump in my throat because in all honesty they could be called either way.  The way officiating works is like this; a meet like this past weekend 1 official may have the responsibility of watching 4 lanes and will miss things once in a while (it's called human nature).  Now at a championship meet most of the time you will have 1
official assigned per lane so they will NOT MISS A THING.  Now back to the DQ and the turn, I truly believe that a lot of you pretend you are 16 and doing your student driving where you come into the wall and you see a giant YIELD sign and so you hesitate for that split second and this is when we find ourselves in trouble. " ACCELERATE INTO THE WALL"  The faster you swim into the more wall, the more energy you have available to convert into a fast spin.  And the faster you spin, the easier it will be to blast off the wall.  Power through those last couple of yards with a strong kick
and you may be surprised at how quickly your feet land on the wall.  ACCELERATE INTO THE 

WALL!   On the free turn I have notice some of you are breathing into the turn.  When you do this it
tends to send our feet off to the side instead of straight over and the result is a slow turn.  NO BREATH last 2 strokes which will create more forward energy you are carrying into the turn and will help you THROW THE LEGS INTO THE WALL.

DISTANCE MEET:  On Sunday several of us went out to the University of Md. to swim a 1000 free.  All 6 swimmers from our groups did well.  Katie Pontzer was the first to swim lowering her best time by over 33 seconds.  I must say this was one of the better freestyle swims of the season for Katie.  She went out in a 34.49  and averaged 39 for the 50's. (13:01:71).  The next two swimmers to hit the pool were Andrew Hale (11:53:79) and Joey Dobrydney (12:02:33).  Andrew went out in a 30:02 averaging 35.7 for each 50 and lowering his time by 24 seconds.  Joey went out in a 31:44 and
averaged a 36.1 for his 50's, and took off 6 seconds from his best time.  Our last 3 swimmers would be doing the 1000 for the first time, and first in was Audrey Hunter (12:26:35) who went out in a 33:12 and averaged 37.35 for each 50.  The last 2 were Kenta Deegen (13:03:92) and our own littl
10 year old IRON MAN Kevin Carchia (13:30:32).  Kenta went out in a 31:71 and averaged 39.2
while Kevin would go out in a 34:56 and averaged a 40:6  for each 50.  Why is this important , it is to help us as we go forward and you understand going out fast, pacing, and finishing hard for your 200's and the 500 free.   NICE JOB TO ALL OF YOU!

GETTING UP ONE MORE TIME:   Any athlete no matter what sport they participate in,  is going to fail at some point and a lot of times more often than not, it's a part of sports. Think back to when you were little and you began to walk you fell a lot but even back then you were learning to WIN, because you always got back up.  You know how I know you are notcrawling today!   Between my 3 sports I fell down and failed so often that I once told my dad "I felt like a doormat".  Each time you fall Mike get up as fast as you can, because the longer you stay down the harder it becomes.  And so  I had the choice of getting up or laying there and letting people stomp on me including my younger brother in swimming (How dare Him), and its hard at times, but if you
don't keep getting up than the last thing you do as an athlete is quit.  I know a lot of you set  goals and some times even though you have performed well in your event you don't reach the goal you feel you deserve.   Now it most definitely is okay to be disappointed and maybe even a little mad but don't let it consume you to the point you are not having fun.  If you do you will find yourself out of that sport and that would be ashamed.  The best part of sports and the fun I had was the process that I went through to get to my goals, not the event itself.

Being that we are coming up on President's Day and my favorite President was Lincoln here is a littl
 history lesson (no homework), but I want you to keep getting up!
YEAR            SETBACK/FAILURE
1816                      Family forced from home.  He had to work to support them.  He was 7

1818                      His mother died  he was 9
1831                      Failed in business                   
1832                      Lost job and Defeated for state legislature
1833                      Failed in business
1835                      Sweetheart died  Was engaged to be married
1836                      Had nervous breakdown
1838                      Defeated for Illinois house speaker
1843                      Defeated for nomination for Congress
1848                      Lost renomination
1849                      Rejected for land officer
1854                      Defeated for U.S. Senate
1856                      Defeated for nomination for Vice President

1858                      Defeated for U.S. Senate again
1860                      ELECTED PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES

What if on any one of these failures when he got knocked down Lincoln had decided not to get up.  Historians say and I happen to agree that the Civil War would have been delayed but fought sooner or later and maybe under another president.  I just happen to think that it's a good thing that it was fought under his presidency.

Good thing he got up that last time.

JO CAPS  I am in the process of doing the art work for the caps.  What I need from you all is the cap color.  Your Choices are 1.) BLACK, 2.)WHITE, 3.) YELLOW 4.) GOLD.  Someone said blue but that is a no because there are too many teams with blue.   Please Respond and we will use the democratic process to determine the color..