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Showing posts from February, 2020

LISTENING

When you all listen to your coaches and teachers, do you listen with the “intent” of understanding.  There is a big difference.   There are times when we have specific instructions for what our sets are designed to accomplish, but as you leave the wall down that black line Logan and I often wonder if we were speaking your language.   When giving feedback after a race I hear a lot of coaches including myself touching on the same specifics of a swimmers race that they need to go back to practice and focus on.  Some of the things that I hear are what I call meet specifics that are used very well by the fastest in a meet.  These meet specifics are streamlines that are critical in trying to reduce drag and get up to race speed.  Underwater dolphins 🐬 or fish kick off your streamlines.  It is important that you understand being under isn’t fast in itself and it is something that takes a long time to develop.  Body position which could be your head, core or hips,  and your kick power

THE FINAL PUSH

PRESIDENTS MEET WRAP UP This past weekend the Mako swimmers attended this 3 day meet at the Freedom Center.  Although this meet was long it ran very smoothly and provided a great atmosphere for some great swims from the participating Mako swimmers.   Most of you had a specific plan with goals for this meet.  We had an abundance of best times turned in by our Mako swimmers with many qualifying for Junior/Senior champs, JO’s and the NASA meet in April. Makos had a large contingent of swimmers come back for finals on Saturday.  A large number of whom were going to experience finals for the very first time and gained valuable experience as they challenged themselves with not only another race but also how to warmup in that type of environment.  Although our Mako swimmers would be swimming late at night(7:40 and beyond) they all showed up and swam really well resulting in many personal best and grabbing more qualifying times for the big.  We would be remiss if we did not send out a

A DAY OFF

A question that always comes up is, Should I skip practice the day before a meet?  You would think that the answer is easy from a coaches view, but when you mix in the opinions of both swimmers and parents the answer to the question becomes very blurred. The first thing to remember is that preparing for a meet whether it’s a training meet, qualifying meet or a championship meet you want to keep things as normal as you can.  Nothing new, nothing less, just small tweaks.  You and your body are on a schedule, stick to it.  Think 🤔 of this scenario, you’ve missed a day or two of school, now that first day back always brings with it the problems of getting back to a routine.  You and your body always feel a little off and sluggish as you try to get back to a normal routine, not a good place to be on race day. First off is that if the day before a meet is a normal day for training then that is where you should and need to be. The benefits of sticking to a normal schedule are many some o

PUTTING IT OUT THERE

This Sunday the last of our two qualifying meets of the year will be held at the Claude Moore pool.   Warmup times for the 12 and under’s are at 8:00am.  The 13 and overs will warmup at 12:30 .  Please be on time.   The 13 and over session will have positive check in for events so please plan accordingly.  This is your responsibility not the coaches. I have been asked about suits for this meet.  Simple answer is if you are near your cuts and going for them you should suit up.   If you happen to be swimming events that you have already for or off events you should just wear a good tight suit period.  Let’s be smart about this meet and understand your reasons for swimming certain events.   I hear a lot of talk at meets about your seeds and I truly believe that too much attention is placed on this and you may not be totally honest with yourself when you say it doesn’t affect you, but it definitely affects your mindset.  Your thoughts are all over the map and you’re lost when the on

Trying to Understand

Sitting here outside on this gorgeous day thinking of something to write, actually not really thinking just waiting for that thought to come and find me and it just did. Things I hear from you the swimmers that I just don’t understand. Things I don’t understand; I forgot to do my flip turn.  How can we help you get to where you want to go if you just are not focus or trying. Things I don’t understand; skipping repeats during a hard set.  Do you just stop when your race gets tough. Come on man! Things I don’t understand; having little effort with your turns during practice.  Short course races are all about the walls and turns.  Stop looking at the walls as an excuse to slow down and relax. If you lose all of your excuses just maybe you will find better results. Things I don’t understand; breathing from the flags in when finishing. Of course I get that it’s easier with the breath but just maybe your opponents are focusing on the finish and not getting air. Just maybe! Thi