Now that we have been in the water for a few weeks it’s time that we take stock and see how we are all doing.  We also want to give a glimpse of what is happening for your parents also being that it has been so long since they have seen you all in the pool.

I want to thank the coaches who took good care of all of you for those first two weeks while I was wrapping things up at the pool.  For those two weeks  I asked them to just focus on getting the procedures down and to just get you in the water and allow you to do some comfort swimming.  Everyone apparently did a great job because this past week as I started everyone knew their places, where to go and it could not have been smoother.

I have notice that we do have some issues that I need to address to help you all as you go through the workout.  The first thing that I knew was going to be an issue was the fact that the Senior Prep and Senior Blue group are very different groups.  Although we will probably be doing the same workouts they will be  different.  We will have different intervals for the groups which may also involve a difference in yardage, with the focus of the workout remaining the same for all.  This same scenario repeats itself on Monday where we have a combined Senior Prep and High School Group and so the same situation will probably play itself out.

The second issue is water 🚰🚰 for the swimmers out at the 10 m mark.  We will build in water breaks into the workouts along with a switch of positions so that the swimmer at the 10 meter mark has the opportunity to use the wall.  With that being said please remember to bring your water and drink it during practice.  You should not wait until you become thirsty, take sips as you go through the workout instead of waiting.  This will avoid stopping and siting on the wall.

The next issue I see for all of the groups is the communication of what we are doing, and yes I recognize this and knew that it was going to be an issue in the environment that we find ourselves.  While I do have my headsets I realize that the older kids do not enjoy using them that much.  Time to time is okay if I read you all correctly if not please let me know, I am open for suggestions.  

I know the first couple of weeks the coaches may have printed a workout for each of you which is fine but for the coaches that is 16 or 24 copies every day and there absolutely has to be a better way. For that reason after I organize the plan for the week and finalize the workouts I will

email them the senior blue and prep group as a whole.  You will have the workouts in advance and may print them out and put them at the end of the lane for reference.  I will still try to write on the board as much as I can.   The problem  with that is I spend more time running around writing which is of no value to you all the swimmers and quite frankly it drives me nuts.  With that said please understand that we will be flexible with the workout as sometimes things aren’t going well and when we arrive at that point adjustments need to be made to get back on track.

Last week we spent Monday with a long day of free work and followed it by a lot of IM work thru the rest of the week finishing it up with a sprint workout on Friday.  The purpose of the Friday set was to get a lot of fast swimming of your choice with ample rest so that could hold your time within a second on everyone of the repeats.  The set was not designed for you to just go back and forth.  The challenge was to hold the same time on all of them so you needed to stay focus.

A big advantage that I see in this new environment is the fact that all of our streamlines underwater’s and finishes should really improve.  With only 3 and 4 in a lane there is no excuse not to be doing it correctly every time and not only when you feel like it.  Take ownership of your swimming.   What’s this mean?  

1. Free no breath breakouts. No breath finish. Fingertips to wall
2. Back aggressive first stroke off breakouts. Head to 10meter mark off underwater.  Dive into finish.
3. Breaststroke good aggressive pullouts. Dive into turns and finishes.  That means being long into walls
4. Fly no breath breakouts. 1 up 2 down regardless long into turns and finishes

This week we want to spend time with our crossover turns. Refer to the post from July 7 and look over the video. Monday will be spent on step one setting the turn up and from there we will move to step two on Tuesday or Wednesday with the hope of putting it all together later in the week.  Two problems we were having during the summer were going past the 90 as we touch and not not bringing our chin to the knees on the transition.  Check it out. 

LET’s HAVE A GOOD WEEK WITH YOUR SCHOOL WORK AND YOUR SWIMMING TIME!