WARM UP WARM DOWN

How important is the warm up and warm down time during a swim meet?  There are probably a million opinions out there and I believe that sometimes the swimmer athlete tends to listen to the one that offers the easiest path as opposed to the one that leads to healthy success.  Why do we bring this up you may wonder?  At  the IMX meet this past weekend I had a lot of spare time on my hands so I had time to observe a lot of different characteristics.  I was amazed to see the number of swimmers who got out after their last race, grab their bags and head out.

As coaches we hear a lot of things from our athletes such as I'm tight, tired or sore, and I just wonder how much of that could be prevented.  

Battle the stiffness and muscle fatigue by ensuring your muscles are warm pre-race and then take the time to cool down post-racing.  If you don't warm up, you risk pulling muscles or just feeling like a stiff board.  If you skip  cool down you will likely feel your muscles start to tighten and become sore.  It also does not help if you don't keep those muscles covered up before your events.  You are going to ask them to do a lot for you during the race, be nice to them and put them in a position to respond for you when you call 

A good example of this was when I was at the national championship game.  A Clemson player had just made a long run for a touchdown after an interception.  You would think a celebration was coming, but no this player headed straight to the bike and started peddling and did so until he went back on the field.  Why? Because he knew he had to be in a position to be successful.

FEED BUBBA not Matt!  Set yourself up for success and do the right things!

IMX MEET WRAP UP

This past weekend we had 18 of our swimmers competed in the IMX meet at UMD over a three day period. It was a fun meet where the kids got to gain meet and racing experience as we head into the March championships.  This meet provided the opportunity for the kids to swim a meet without all of the 50’s.  It also provided an opportunity to gain a lot of confidence by swimming the longer events over a three day period and opened their eyes to the possibilities that are out their.  It also allowed them to swim kids from all over the northeast to give them a fresh outlook heading into March.

The meet started on Friday afternoon with all of the 11 and overs 🏊‍♀️ swimming the 500 free.  Following the plan that was set up for them the mako swimmers would produce 16 best times (a lot of them shattering their personal best) and quite a few of who got the bell 🔔 lap to win their heats.

Saturday started early with the 13&14 year olds competing in the 200 fly, 200IM and the 200 breast.  The mako senior prep group swam out of their minds on their way to 17 best times and winning several of their heats.  Even the few 🏊‍♀️ who missed best times were within a second of their best efforts, and this is a great place to be at this time of year.

In the afternoon our 9-12 year olds would come in to give it their best in the 100 fly, 100 breast and for Tony our 10 year old the 200 free.  Again the kids worked on their plans and the results were an abundance of best times.

Sunday the kids would return to finish the their events with the 13&14 year olds swimming the 200 back and the 400 IM. The 12 and unders had the 100 back and the 200 IM to finish off their lists.  The kids again took to the pool with a fire 🔥 in their eyes and agthe results produce many best times. 

Some positive lessons to take away from this meet;

1. Underwater (our fifth stroke).  From practice we have been working on how far can we get underwater and how fast can we get there in 4-5 seconds.  We were able to time your underwater off most of your walls so that you had a visual to see and compare to what you hear all the time.  Most of our walls started at 5 seconds off the start and dropped to 2.5-3.0 and on the last turns dropped to 2.0 or lower.  As we showed you when, adding all of them up showed you that you spend at least 35 yards or more underwater (the fastest water in the pool).  This is a great place to be at this time of the season and will help a lot when you get to those best events for championships.  You have responded well in this area keep up the great work and talk to your teammates about the importance of this area.  It means more when they hear it from you and know that it helps.
2. RACE PLANS.  Last week we worked out some strategies for swimming these events and you went to work at the meet and executed the plan, and believed in yourself.  Two great examples is the 500 free where we broke it into 3 races, the first being finding that easy speed for the first 200,  building that second 200 to a negative split or the same and not falling off and the third is pushing that last 100 as hard as you could to that finish.  The second was in the 400 and 200 IM where we really emphasized an easy fly speed and then really building the back half of the other strokes so that we could engage our other muscles and we would feel good going into that transition to the next stroke.
3. TEAMWORK.  The way you supported and encouraged each other throughout the meet was fun to watch.
4. FINISHES.    A lot of great finishes.  We still have to do some mental work so that we set those finishes up out at the 10m mark and get to that wall with a great tempo, strong kick, and a lunge into the pad.  This means that for fly and free we are not breathing after that 10 m mark.  You want air, pick up tempo and go faster. 

This meet provided an opportunity to swim all four strokes at the longer events, some that they may not or enjoy.  They were not allowed to pick favorites as each swimmer was required to swim the entire list of events to claim the title of “I M EXTREME “ and our mako extreme swimmers are Tony, Ben, Adrian, Will, Chaz, Matt, Blake, Sophia, Riley, Charlotte Prunty, Charlotte LIm, Emerson, 🐱 Kitty, Parker, Jackie, Ava, Kendall Vess, and Caroline.  Awesome 😎 job over the weekend by all of our EXTREME 🏊‍♀️.  Way to go sticking to our plan and the great support you gave each other throughout the meet.

Great meet guys!

IMX PLAN

Hope everyone is having a fun filled day off from school.  This weekend we will travel to the University of Maryland for the IMX meet and we would like to set up some kind of plan so that you are somewhat relaxed as you go through the weekend.  The first thing we want you to do is to approach the weekend with an open mind and approach each event separately.  One thing that we have worked on in practice is to stay in the moment.  Work through each event as they come up, and what we mean by this is don’t get wrapped up with Sunday’s events on Friday, you are only wasting energy and becoming mentally fatigued over something that is 2 days off.

Five general things that you should focus on for the events this weekend are

• TIGHT STREAMLINES- let your body flow through the water off the block and every wall
• INCREASE THE TEMPO- as you work through your race don’t forget to find that easy speed on the first 50 because you are already moving fast off the blocks so control it.  As you work through the back half of the race increase that tempo.
• KICK INTO THOSE WALLS-  one thing that I notice is that around the walls we tend to relax and become less aggressive and the result are loss of momentum and slow turns.  Especially in free and back use those legs from flags in and hold that momentum
• UNDERWATER- don’t forget 4-5 second of underwater dolphins off the walls.  The air will be there when you surface.  We promise!
• EMBRACE THE PAIN- stick to your plan and at some point it will not be easy, so embrace the pain, and get after it, and show everyone!

SWIM EVENTS COMPARED WITH SCHOOL

We’ve been back in the pool now for two weeks since the holidays and are working hard towards the February qualifiers as we get ready for that final push into the Spring championship season.  This past week Mother Nature threw us one of her curve balls with last weekends snow storm closing the pools on Monday.  It was great to see so many of you making up that lost time later in the week.  The first week back we spent time on our aerobic base with some long swimming and kicking sets, followed by a lot of IM stroke drills and IM racing leading into our IMX meet this next weekend.

 

Tuesday we spent a lot of time on drills for all the strokes in the IM, mixing in our 25’s 50’s and 75’s.  We built that next workout off of that with 25’s fast fly, 50’s back to breast and 75’s back breast free.  On Friday we through in the broken 100 and the straight 100’s

 

We  talked about the swimming equation and how everything we were working on related to this equation.

ST=(RT+UT+TT)+(CC xSR)

Swim Time = How long it takes to swim a race.

Reaction Time = How long it takes to get off the blocks

Underwater Time = Total amount of time spent underwater

Turn Time = Total amount of time spent turning

Cycle Count = Total number of stroke cycles taken  (Cycle = 1 complete stroke)

Stroke Rate = How fast the strokes are taken

 

What does it all mean? (RT+UT+TT)= Transition time which is the time that you spend on, off or around the walls.  Bottom line is that if we are not working hard on this part of your race during your training sessions, your Swim Time will suffer.  (CC+SR)= surface swimming time

 

This past week we spent a lot of time working our underwater (UT) dolphins and instead of worrying about how many kicks your taking, we had you try to adjust to the concept of ; How far can I go and how fast in 4-5 seconds, with the whole purpose of maintaining your momentum off the wall and into your breakout.  The other area we focused on was our cycle count (CC) and trying to hold those stroke counts during our 25’s and 50’s.

 

It is important that you all understand what we are accomplishing during any given set and real focus on the purpose of the set and not just trying to breeze through it.

 

The Senior Prep group had their first Freedom Thursday this past week and the card chosen was Kitty’s. (300 pull and 20x25 backstroke@30 ) working on good underwater and maintaining the same tempo throughout the set.  We went a step further and started from both sides so that we had more room and could work on the finishes.    INCREDIBLE EFFORT FOR KITTY!

 

Found this in my readings; Swim Events Compared to School!

400 IM. Taking a Math test, than a Science test, then a History test, and lastly an English test.  All as fast as you can

1650 Free. The 800 math problem for homework

50 Free. 1 math problem as fast as you can

200 backstroke  Writing an 8 page essay, but upside down

400 Free Relay. You do 10 problems, I’ll do 10 problems, he’ll do 10 problems, then he’ll do the last 10 problems.

 

Let’s have a good week heading into the IMX meet!

 

 

How to do the Crossover Turn with Olympian Chloe Sutton

Hey guys this is the best demonstration of the cross over turn that I could find.  As we progress we will spend time each day with it.  We have started to put some sets into the workout where you can start incorporating the turn in.

(Temporary Backup) THE “L” WORD

Over the years I have watched many swimmers walk away from big races with one of two thoughts dancing in their minds.  One is “I won”, the sense of accomplishment, or two “I lost”, the sense of failure.  A better way of viewing the results is, either you won the race or you learned from the race and as soon as you can wrap your head around that concept you will be in a better place to make some incredible strides during this process.  

So maybe you didn’t hit your goal time, but is it because you had an off day or are there aspects of your race that need some work.  The approach one needs to take is, not that I lost but what can I learn from this race.  

One big area that I like to watch at meet is what you are doing before you step up on the block.  Are you dressed warmly or just standing there letting your muscles get cold and tight, are watching the scoreboard and the races prior to yours, in other words are you tuned into the meet and prepared to race.  What’s the big deal?  The fastest part of your race is about to happen, and the question is, Are you ready to explode off that block with a quick reaction. 

WELCOME BACK

Happy Monday!  We hope all of you had a great break the last few weeks, a chance to refresh  both physically and mentally from a long four months academically and swimming 🏊‍♀️ environment.  It was great 👍 to see so many of you make that sacrifice during the holidays and find time to put in some training sessions in the pool. We put in some good work in the pool with some long aerobic sets and some sprint training sessions mixed in.  We had some great sessions working on our underwater dolphins off the walls, and we spent a lot of time learning the crossover turn in the IM.  Although we still have a lot of work to do with them, the strides that we have made in this short time have been amazing 😉 

A lot of you have asked should you use it in a meet, and the honest answer is that it’s an individual choice, but with that being said by no means should you use it during an important meet.  We’re to ready yet, but it is okay to try it for the meet this weekend.  I see both advantages and disadvantages to using this turn at this stage of your developmento.  The biggest advantage is that if you can really master this turn now it will be something extra to put in your tanks and take with you to the next level in your swimming and something you will have throughout your high school years.

Another advantage is maintaining your speed into the wall. As you know this is easy to do with your flip turns but the open turns are entirely a different beast.  As soon as you touch that wall your forward progress STOPS.  With this turn there is no grabbing the wall. Don’t forget the steps; hand to the wall, push the wall, chin to knees, feet to wall and push.  

The disadvantage that I see is one, will your pullout in breaststroke suffer and two, it’s risky and not something our stroke and turn judges see a lot.  I truly believe that for the 100 and 200 IM it’s a great thing to have in your tank to use.  As for the 400 IM not sure if the need for oxygen is more important than advantage of any speed that is gained.  Still reading about it and I want to get Damien thoughts on it.  As with anything this will be a work in progress.

This week we will put a lot of work into our stroke counts and maintaining them as we work on some easy speed sets as we gear up for the IMX meet at the end of the month and the qualifiers in February.  Let’s keep up with the school work as you wind down the semester, stay ahead of it.  Stay hydrated with lots of 🚿 , wash those hands and let’s try and stay healthy.