The final push

SATURDAY JANUARY 31

The start of championship season has now arrived and will continue through the Showcase Classic in Tampa in mid April. We have seven high school swimmers in our senior prep group who started their district championship season this weekend. Friday night was the prelims with finals this evening. I tried to track them down last night after their swims. The results were a lot of best times and most of them will return for finals tonight with some high seeds.

Championship season is a special time of the year for all our swimmers. Our kids have the first two weeks in February to grab a few more cuts and than its on. The month of March (Championship month) will have meets every weekend and you will find yourself at one of these meets, some of you may have more than one. This is your time To shine, race, and swim fast. We are into the final push towards those meets so let's stay focus, pay attention to the little things, have good nutrition, keep up with your school work, and stay healthy. Make good decisions as you work through the next few weeks. Remember there are no guarantees, and all we can do is put you in a position to be successful. Review your goals or set new ones for the next six weeks, write them down and put them where you can see them once a day, like a mirror, or your bedroom door. Don't forget these are YOUR GOALS not your parents or mine. The only goal I have is to put all of you in a position to get to the next level and to have a chance to meet your goals. We are into that final push so remember FINISH STRONG.

 

Posted with Blogsy

SUNDAY. JANUARY 25

I would like to take a moment and thank all the parents for allowing me to work with your children this season.   I am aware that this is a critical time of our season that is approaching, but I wanted to let you know that I will be leaving this Saturday January 31 and will return on February 17.  For years I have tried to plan a trip with a parent of  one of my Lee Graham  family.   His trips have always taken place in September or March and these times have never worked out with the start of the season in the fall or with championships in March   This year he got a tour at the start of February and the swim team at Lee Graham has decided to send me.

The senior prep group will be coached by Matt Salerno who coached for Makos for four years and who I helped during his four years at Fairfax High School.  The gold group will also have Matt on Monday and Courtney on Wednesday and Friday .  The blue group will have Shannon and Kristi.  All the coaches will have my plan book while I am gone and although I have planned a practice for the groups they understand that they may change it.

There are certain things that we do on Thursday and Friday but for those two weeks we will adapt the practices a little because of the two meets and to give the kids that little extra advantage to make some championship cuts.   As a parent you need to understand for the older ones that we can not rest a lot because we are still four weeks out from championship season and if we rest too much now it puts US at a big disadvantage.  All the coaches covering the workouts are aware of the time of year and how things get a little crazy.  My advice to you and your swimmers Take a deep breath and count to 10, and relax.

Thank you again and I will post more for your swimmers this week, and should be able to do a couple while I am gone.

MEETS:

There may be some confusion on our upcoming meets.  Any events that you have qualified for in the championship meets should NOT be entered in the two meets in February.  If you have all your events for JO's  you should not be swimming at all in the qualifier meet at Cub Run on February 14.  Use the snow meet to swim your off events.  For those of you still trying to get cuts use the snow meet to focus in on three events that you are near and have a chance on getting.  You can use the PM meet as a back up and enter those events again if you need to, or you can use it for a couple of others.  If you make the cuts in the snow meet, please do not do them again the following week.

JANUARY OPEN WRAP:

This past weekend we had about 100 swimmers who had a good weekend of swimming.  When I plan out the season for our groups I look at this meet as being very important.  You may ask Why? The short answer if that it is really the first meet coming off the December championship meets, and after the holidays where our training for some (not all) has been very sporadic.  It's that time of year where a lot of swimmers are feeling worn out and lack a lot of energy, and where it is important to get some races in and take stock as we turn the corner for that final push into February and the CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON in March.

I do not worry about times as much as the process that each of you go through for the races.  Four major issues coming out of that meet are

1. STAY WARM:  I notice that a lot of you sit around without warm up on including your feet.  Now it may not seem like a big thing for you because you don't feel cold, but your muscles are.   We spend all the time in warm up and warm downs and than you don't cover up.  You want to put yourself in the best position to do well. SO COVER UP.
2. FINISH YOUR RACES: I notice a lot of breathing from flags in on your finishes.   Be aggressive when finishing a race it could be that .20 your trying to get for a cut.
3. TURNS:  A lot of turns are being taken for granted.  Be aggressive at the walls and get in and out of those turns.  We do not want to spend a lot of time in the water between the flags and the wall.  This is very slow water, get back into the fast water.
4. RELAX, STOP THINKING, AND RACE:  A lot of you think to much on race day.  Thinking was for practice, Race day is for racing, just go out and DO IT !

WEEKLY TOPIC:  What's a Great Athlete

One of the biggest obstacles that any athlete deals with is that big bad monster that lurks around every corner and than he rears his ugly head and now you need to confront him..This is the moment that can break or make you, and make no mistake about it EVERY athlete as will Every Person in life will get smacked in the face and knocked down by this monster.  The big question is what will you do?  Do you let it keep you down or  Will you get right back up and fight again?  Will you let him drag you into that dark closet?  

Now I did not see any football this past weekend but I have read and saw hi-lights of the games so lets Use the Seahawks and their quarterback Wilson as an analogy.  For the first half he had a quarterback ranking of 0.0 which has never happened before, and he also threw 4 interceptions in that game. After that first half and each interception he had to pick himself up, let it go, and push on to hat next play looking for a better outcome which would arrive in overtime with a victory.  (Yeah I know the Packers lost it as much as the Seahawks won it, but who threw the wining touchdown).

The point is how do YOU deal with a bad swim?  It's okay to be disappointed, if you weren't than I would question if you even cared.  This disappointment should be put in the rear view mirror as quick as you can so that you can look back out the windshield to focus on what is approaching you now.  Too much focus looking out the rear view mirror and before long you"ll be crashing into the monster again.  If you spend too much time and energy on a bad outcome it will just keep dragging you deeper in to that dark closet and it will be hard to find your way out, and the great athlete has to let bad outcomes go quickly because the next event is right around the corner and you want to be in the best position for a good outcome.

Unfortunately a good race in our sports is more about that "STOPWATCH" than anything else, but I am going to point out a couple of swimmers who had some great races although not their best times.  The first swimmer was Noah Carpenter in his 200 fly event.  Coach Peter had said earlier in the day that he still swims like an 8 and under at times, and after coaching Noah for so long when he was little only had one response for him which was "Yes but he will not quit on you".  The 200 fly found Noah in lane 9 and this other swimmer who i guess decided he was going for it (we'll come back to that") in lane 10.  This swimmer is ahead of the field at the 50 mark by half a pool and at the 100 mark had Noah by over 3/4 of the pool.  But as Peter said he's going to lock up.  Now at the 100 mark Noah must have smelled blood because it was as if he could sense the fact that lane 10 was locking up.  Noah without panicking kept his kick soft and his walls long and began to chip away at the lead.  On that last turn the swimmer could barely get himself off the wall and the two of them were now in a race for the last 25 yards with Noah out touching him..Talking to Noah afterwards his response was I wish it could have been a best time but regardless "I hate to Lose".  Even though this did not result in a best time it was a GREAT RACE.

The next swimmer was Audrey Hunter in her 500 swim.  Audrey an I had talked about what it means to get out strong on Saturday and than how to build on it throughout the race.  Although not the time she wanted (2-3 seconds off her best) It is one of the best swims I have seen from Audrey .  Her Splits were very well put together and she did not back off at all.  A very gusty swim and a good lesson learned, and take that into Districts with you.

I find it funny when some swimmers come back after a swim that resulted in a slower time and immediately asks, What did I do Wrong?  The first thing is that you need to get past a bad swim quickly and stop thinking you did something wrong.  Learn from it, is their anything I could have done better any technique I might want to work on back in practice, store it in your notepad and move on to the next event..  You do what you have to do!

UPCOMNG  MEETS

We have two meets that are coming up in February and last night I talked to the kids about how to approach these when signing up.  At this time of our season they should pick two or three events that they are close to qualifying for at JO's and theses are the events they should enter.   They should enter these events at the snow meet and again at the qualifier meet as a back up plan.  

SUITS  Those of you who are trying to make cuts may wear your good suits at these meets, but be smart  about it.  Do not warm up wearing it change into it after warm up and when your done change back and than warm down.  Please follow OUR plan it put's you in the best position.

DISTANCE. MEET UPDATE

Today went very well. Philip, Will, Richard, and Graham all swam their first 1650 (1mile), and did very well.  They held a very nice pace throughout the swim and for the most part had very strong walls and built that last 200  for a fast finish. 

For the 1000 on Sunday those of you swimming later say 12:30 and later should give yourself an extra 30 minutes.  Talking to the meet manager they had a lot of scratches today which caused it to move a little faster.  Mike