“WIN”. What’s Important Now

We have now entered the final phase of our season, it is now CHAMPIONSHIP TIME.  A lot of athletes across many sports are preparing for that time of year know as championship time.  This includes all level of sports as  the basketball players are gearing up for tournaments across the country.  Our track athletes, wrestlers, and gymnasts are all preparing for their big tournaments in the next few weeks.  Swimmers are no different, our High School swimmers have just come off of a grueling three week stretch starting with their district meets and ending with the State championships.  The college swimmers are either coming off their conference meets or are in the middle of it. For the Mako swimmers, all the qualifying meets are in the books and times have been established.  EVERY MAKO SWIMMER now has their end of the season championship meet.   Every Mako swimmer either  either has the JUNIOR/SENIOR champ meet March 7-10, the 14 and under JUNIOR OLYMPICS champ meet March 14-17 (bo

The other day I mentioned to a coach that sometimes it’s frustrating when you give feedback to a swimmer 🏊‍♀️ at a meet only to see that swimmer show up at the next practice and continue to make the same technical mistakes that we talked about, with little effort or thought to correcting them.  These mistakes are very minor and easily correctable with a little focus and passion, which was a topic last week. Another coach told me that one of their swimmers response at a meet was that he/she has been swimming that way since they were 8 and they were not going to change.  This coach says that they will take that into consideration as they move forward, and I will say this is not coming from our club, so let’s be clear I’m not throwing anyone under the 🚌.  I don’t roll like that.  More to the point and unfortunately maybe in your minds I don’t give up that easily, and although you may get tired 😴 of hearing the same things over and over, realize this I’m pretty stubborn, and when that d

All swimmers set out to achieve a best time and win a race.  We live in a world 🌎 where there is a lot of I want, i want, and I want.  But sometimes swimmers forget about the process that it takes to get there.  What they forget is that it doesn’t just happen and fall into their laps, it takes work but then so does life.  True happiness is the process in swimming, when you feel good after a hard workout 🏋️‍♀️ or being with teammates.  Sometimes we forget to enjoy 😉 that part of the sport. Passion, exactly what does that mean and how can we relate it to our individual swimming.  What gets you up in the morning, and I don’t mean the ⏰ alarm clock or mom and dad.  They may wake you up,  ut what really gets you out of bed and get to practice or a meet. In order to be successful in swimming you need a degree a PASSION,   where you derive that energy that feeds your excitement.  The more passionate you are about your swimming the more positive energy you give off and your confidence will

WORKOUT NOTES.  TODAY TAKE THE TIME AND LOOK TO THE RIGHT AND TO THE LEFT AND SAY HELLO, ITS NOT THE SAME WITHOUT THE HARD WORK OF YOUR TEAMMATE.  AFTER YOU HAVE SWAM YOUR LAST WORKOUT AND RACED THAT LAST TIME, IT’s NOT THE AWARDS OR WINS AND LOSSES THAT WILL BE REMEMBERED!  IT’S THE MEMORIES OF THEM ARE THE ONES THAT WILL LAST A LIFE TIME!  Have a great VALENTINES DAY workout!!!

This was the first year that we have attended meet and it would be helpful if you share comments and thoughts with the mako administrators for planning purposes next year. We understand that sessions may have been long especially on Saturday but from a coaches perspective this meet put the swimmers in a better position to attain some of their goals, such as JO cuts.  In years past we attended the snow qualifier meet (one day), but the kids were swimming too many events with little rest and deck space and viewing were hard. As long as the kids understand the purpose of meets at this time of year and had a plan (and stuck to that plan) entering the meet, this provided a great opportunity to do some fast racing. A lot of our swimmers achieved a bunch of JO time cuts and we even had one achieve a TYR classic cut.  Along with that we had a lot of swimmers who had the opportunity to experience what it is like to come back to finals on Saturday night and swim again and maybe even go a little

We don’t communicate well.  We say fast kick. You hear social kick. Can’t talk with head in 💧. Also your body is in a better swimming position.

 How can the Wizard of Oz relate to swimming?  What lessons can we learn from the scarecrow, the tin man, the cowardly lion and of course Dorothy herself?  Let’s look at it shall we. What about the yellow brick road and how does it parallel your journey down the black tile road in  the pool.  Both of these roads represent the process that one must go through in order to reach an ultimate goal they have.  In Dorothy case the ultimate goal is to find a way back home to Kansas, for us the goals come in all types such as; Obtaining a JO cut Obtaining a NASA cut Making are high school team A record A best time Making it on to that relay at our summer pool Making friends Staying in shape As you see each of your goals could be very similar, but on the other hand they could differ individually.  Ironically all the characters in the movies had different goals but they all found themselves on that same yellow brick road that they followed to attain their goals.  The road in sw

How important is that fifth stroke in swimming?  Did you even know that there is a fifth stroke in swimming?  Well guys as we have talked there is a fifth stroke and in a short course pool it provides a big advantage since there are a lot of turns in your events, and as we have emphasized in your training the fastest time you are moving in your race is when you come off those walls.  What we have been doing especially over the last month or so is maintaining that speed off the walls as long as you can.  Yes there are those of you who can go a long way, but Are you maintaining your speed. Or are you one of the ones with a great long streamline of the wall but no speed. What we have been attempting to do during practice is move from how many kicks we take, and think more in terms of a tight streamline with dolphins for 4-5 seconds.  How far can you get in that 4-5 seconds while maintaining your speed.  Over the last few weeks a lot of you have really bought into this philosophy and hav