A HALLOWEEN MESSAGE

 

We hope that this Halloween brings each of you Happy haunting.  This Halloween coincides with a full moon which should make for a nice crisp night to be outside with family or even maybe a few close friends.  The last time we had a full moon on Halloween was 2001 and all you swimmers had not even been born.

Let's take a moment away from the pool and take a look at October 31, which started out being know as "All Hallow's Eve" or what you have come to know as Halloween.  

This very special day began centuries ago at what was know at the time as the Celtic festival.  It was a time that coincided with the end of their harvest season along with the end of summer and goodbye to the long warm sunny day and the preparation for the dark cold days that lay ahead.  It was believed to be a good time to communicate with the deadened divine (having supernatural or magical insight) future.

Now that we have an understanding of this day, let's look at some of the traditions of the holiday starting with, Why do we dress up in costumes?  Sure it's a night where you can be who e ver you want to be, but it began long ago with the superstitions of people who would dress up and go outdoors trying to fool the spirits into thinking that they were one of them.  Apparently they could not fool everyone as Casper became know as the "friendly ghost."👻  

Another tradition that has been passed down through the generations is the one that involved the apple, yes you're correct "BOBBING FOR APPLES",  but when did it start, and why?  During the Celtic times another tribe was know as the Romans and as with all tribes traditions were different.  After the Romans conquered the Celts they had different views on how to celebrate this holiday.  The one thin g that remained the same was the date and it was a festival to celebrate the end of harvest time.  When the Romans invaded Britain they brought with them the apple tree which to the Romans represents the "Goddess of Plenty".  The Romans believed that the first person to catch an apple, would be the first to marry in the new year.  As a young swimmer this may be a good time to be second and not first!  Or Not!

Do you know when the carving of pumpkins started, or even why?  Imagine living centuries ago and on "All Hallow EVE" you would find yourself carving out turnips or potatoes as a way to frighten off the spirits of the time.  When the Irish came to America they found that pumpkins were abundant and would be a great substitute for the turnip and potato and because of it's shape they found the pumpkin easier to carve out.  You may wonder why we carve a face into the pumpkin and place a candle in it, again it was a way for people from a long time ago to ward off all the evil spirits of the time.

One last tradition that we cannot overlook is the candy. 

Everyone has their own favorite candy of the season which always involves the time honored tradition of trading candy with brothers, sisters and friends.  Some of my favorites from my trick or treating days were; good and plenty, candy necklaces, Pez, bottle caps, pop rocks, lemon heads  and milk duds.  This time of year brings out all those red and blue maps but let's take a step back and do a map that tells us the favorite candy from each state.

Which state would you have to trick or treat in to find your favorite candy?  Leave a comment with your favorite candy and the state and I"ll tally it up.    Enjoy the night and scare off those spirits.

MONDAY PRACTICE

Good Monday workout from all the groups. The Junior Gold group worked really hard on getting our head position corrected in free and back while at the same time trying to work on extending our strokes so that we were able to swim “tall” and thus more efficient and faster.  You guys were great with your focus on what we were trying to get you to do.  We also reminded you of our “5 second” rule off the turns and when you all applied it to your swimming, your walls improved tremendously.   Great effort!

Why the 5 seconds?  Do we expect that in you races?  At your level and age at the moment 5 seconds is a lot to ask for, we agree, but if we can commit to 5 seconds in practice we believe that would translate to 2 seconds, maybe more when we are racing which would be a very good thing to strive for.  The more time we can be under water the better off we are as long as we are doing it efficiently.  So keep at it because it takes time to develop and become comfortable doing.

The Senior Prep and High School group worked on our 200 races.  The first thing to consider is how you look at the 200 free, it’s not a sprint, but it is not a distance event either.  So what in the world is it?  It falls somewhere in between but I believe it is closer to a sprint than many of you want to admit to yourselves.  So where do we go now?  You are always telling us how smart you are so let’s step up to the chalkboard and do a little math problem. Yesterday we were trying to get you to look a

at the  200  as 4 races within itself.  Here is a formula we found learns ago that goes a long way in understanding when looking at the 200.  It goes something like this,  X + (x+1.7) + (x+1.6) + (x+1.5) = time.  Let’s break it down so that our fellow teammates will understand.  What is the x ?  Simply this is that first 50 from a dive.  As you get into that second 50 there is just a little drop off, not much and is usually from the fact that we lose the dive.  A  big mistake a lot of swimmers make here is that they back off too much and can’t recover.  You have to find that easy comfortable speed in that first 100 which hopefully will only be 3-4 second off your best 100 time and set you up for a great second 100.   As you  can see that 3rd 50 is faster than your second.  This 50 is really when a lot of swimmers slow down, but it’s also the time where you can take over the race be it another swimmer or the clock.  This is where you have to decide to race.  It’s a mental thing now.  You either want to be average today or great.  You decide at that moment.  It’s your decision.   On to that last 50 now and this is where you have to really believe in yourself and the training that you have been doing.  If you have been honest with your training that 4th 50 will be there and you will get your hand to that wall in record time.  In order to get the results that you are looking for you have to put in the work.  Notice I did not say putting in the time anyone can do that, what you do with that time at practice is the true answer to all your swimming problems.

Class dismissed 

More than You Think

We had a really good week of practice cumulating with our challenge sets on Thursday and Friday.  As Tony said on Friday "I don't like when you bring that clock out." Hold on for a second that clock is your coach for the day and is a tool to motivate each and every one of you.

Sunday started with a lot of good work on trying to lengthen our strokes.  For the time being we are going to use the long course format on Sunday to really focus in on our strokes so that when we get to our races we can just go.  Yes it can be harder, and requires more stamina but it does help you become a better swimmer.  Age groupers will find that if you have weak spots in your stroke, they surface very quickly in a long course pool.  In a short course pool flaws can be hidden especially if you have strong walls and underwater dolphin kicks.

Think about that for a second.  If you are swimming in our groups on Sunday you have the best of both worlds.  A long course pool where you can really work on the flaws in your strokes, but only if you embrace that thought and really focus.  In the short course pool it becomes vital to perform all of  your turns and underwater dolphins as if you are racing.  Why?, because  most if not all age groupers are still developing their stroke and therefore flaws do exist.  Your walls are a way to overcome some of those flaws.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we got some good stroke and IM work in with a couple of good kick sets.  yes everyone may have that favorite stroke they enjoy doing but the coaches really feel that it is vital to have a good IM in your tool box, therefore lets really get some outstanding efforts in the future as we work through our season.

We finished off our week with our challenge sets on Thursday and Friday.  This set built off of our previous sets and what we were asking you all to do was simple, CHALLENGE YOURSELF on every repeat.  Again we are trying to help you learn how to race.  Sure it is always easy to drift in and drift out of a set, go fast when I feel like it, go easy on some and catch my breath.  This does not work in a race and that is what we are trying to teach you.  We are looking for consistency with the set, in short the same time on every repeat.  We believe with this type of set we are starting to realize that we have more in the tank than we thought.  

Sometimes we think too much about racing and how fast to go and what we are trying to teach is to get out faster at the front of your race.  You all are pretty smart and mentally your brain will not allow you to go out too fast so lets not worry about holding back, it may very well backfire.  And when you have a chance to race, Ask yourself "Why Not Me?" and for for it wether be it a meet or practice.  

Be the BEST version of YOURSELF

MEET FEEDBACK

We hope that all of you enjoyed yourselves yesterday with the opportunity to get back to what sports is all about, being able to compete.  Remember to send a little thank you to Coach Heather and also Mrs. Lim for all the hard work that they put in to afford all of you with the opportunity to get back to some racing.  We would also like to thank all of our parents for helping us with the meet.  It was much appreciated.

We were so proud of each and every one of you for following all the safety precautions that were in place to allow us this opportunity.  You all took care of your warmups flawlessly with no issues and most of this was done on your own, and guess what no missed swims.

THE MEET

First observation was that within our groups we had no DQ's and this was with a lot of you executing your crossover turns in the IM.  Apparently a few of you still feel a little uncomfortable with the turn and that's okay as we will continue to work on it to help you get there.

The personal best times that were posted yesterday was great to see and even those that were not best times fell right near your lifetime best.  The feedback that I got from you after your races was mostly positive and ran the gamut.  The majority of you were happy and we were excited to see those expressions.  Some although happy mentioned that their expectations were higher which we completely understand.  I would say this to all of you, take a step back and think about how far you have come and the work that was put in to get you back to this point.  

An area of your race that can always use improvement are the walls and by that we mean being aggressive in and out of those turns.  That's not real fast water around the walls in the first place especially when 8 swimmers are churning it up causing all that turbulence around the walls.  To be able to beat that you need to get in, get out as fast as you can in a tight streamline working the fast deep water.

Another area is how aggressively you approach the race.  I read an article this morning that reinforces what we have been teaching you for years.  When you set expectations that may be high you need together out fast enough to give yourself a chance to meet those expectations.  With that, you need to be smart about that first part of your race.  This article stated what we have been teaching you for what seems like forever and that is "almost every one slows down on the 3rd 50 of the 200 or 3rd 25 of a 100."  Now if you are that one oddball who decides to rock that boat you just might b e in a better position than the rest of the field as you head for home.

SENIOR PREP PRACTICE THURSDAY

What were we trying to accomplish with our test set from last Thursday?  It was all about challenging yourself on every repeat and learning out how to race.  The coaches are trying to get you to be a little more  aggressive during the front part of your races and building as the race evolves. Our GREEN clock was your stop watch as you went through the set and the objective was to swim all out and have consistent times throughout the set.  Now if your times were bouncing all over it became obvious that we were either holding back or having a mental block, be it thinking you were tired and you were building in your own rest  period.  During a race you do get tired and we need to help you get through that both mentally and physically.  We will attempt a similar set in a couple of week.

First Meet Back

 

Yes it may be the season of witches, ghosts and goblins but this is no trick, we will be allowed to hold our first meet in over 7 months this coming weekend.

As we prepare for this meet we would like to impress upon everyone in our groups how important it is to follow the guidelines that have been set up for everyones health and safety.  

It is important to remember that while not swimming we are not going to be able to sit around in little groups socializing.  we need to keep are masks on and keep that distance between ourselves.

Yes its is a small sacrifice that will keep us safe and hopefully will allow all of us to stay in the water and participate in future meets.

Not knowing what the future holds we hope everyone has entered their best events for this meet.  Yes, you heard correctly lets swim our best events and have fun with this meet.  We would like to see you suit up for the meet and take the mental approach of a "mini" championship meet.  Prepare yourself mentally and physically to swim back, don't take this meet for granted.  If you have learned anything during the last 7 months it is that you cannot take your races for granted.  Tomorrow is never a given and this sport can be snatched away in a moment so approach every race as it could be your last and enjoy that moment of  the water engulfing  your body as you move through it like a fish.  Relish that felling and have fun.

With all of that and the new precautions being taken warmups may look and feel a little different.  Our groups  know the basic meet warmup which we do every Wednesday at practice.  Stay mentally focused and do the best you can to warmup and stay warm during the meet.

Some typical mistakes made by age group swimmers involve both physical and nutrition, the first being hydration and keeping your body hydrated through the meet.  It is important to drink and keep drinking before your thirsty.  Stay away from the sodas, fried food and all sugars.  

Warmups, it is important to understand you may need a second shorter warmup before your race if you have sat around a lot.  Along those lines the warm down post race is very important and the timing is critical.  If you put it off to talk to your friends or watch your friends swim the window for success throughout the meet begins closing, so do it immediately to start preparing for that next race, and do it properly.

Bottom line the WARMUP and WARM DOWN are useless if they are not done properly and that involves the timing of when they are done.

Doing Things Correctly

A lot of times this sport requires more than just showing up depending on the level your at in the sport/program. We know that we have touched on this subject before, but sometimes it is important to keep putting the message out until we get it.  After todays Junior Gold/Blue workout Coach Wendy and I thought this would be a good time to repeat the message.

We only have only so much time in each workout session and so many things to work on that at times it can overwhelm not only the swimmers but coaches 😕 too as the time runs on.

This morning and without calling anyone out things that we observed during practice were lazy turns, with lazy streamlines and underwater kicking.  Many of you were pulling with shallow arms off the turns with a breath.  While working through our backstroke sets there was a lot of shallow pulling with straight arms, and not a lot underwater kicking happening.  

When you started this sport most of your time was spent practicing dills for the strokes along with a lot of time spent on turns and underwater work.  As you get older and more proficient  in your skills we can start to increase your training intensity during the workouts.  Often as swimmers move up I hear a lot of coaches say "they work really hard" and yes that is a good habit to have, but while you're working hard you have to work smart or you may never reach your true potential. At the younger age it boils down to working smarter and for an example we will use our streamlines off the wall today.   We observed a lot of lazy walls today with swimmers not getting their heads to the flags on the underwater dolphins.  Some of us were taking multiple strokes before we got to the flags and at one point we saw people pushing off on there stomachs.  All this amounts to is lack of discipline which will always hold you back not only in life but definitely in this sport.  You have to be able to find that discipline to want to do it correctly each and every time and not only when it’s convenient.  Most of your good swimmers will not only do things correctly when someone is watching, they will also be doing things correctly when no one is around and watching. 

 During a race everything boils down to having a strategy worked out and then being able to react when the race starts.  Being able to react to the race begins at practice with paying attention to the little things with starts, strokes, turns and finishes.  The only way to become proficient in these areas is through repeating the movement over and over until it becomes second nature.  The next step in the process is to increase the intensity of the workout with more training while at the same time being able to stay proficient as the work load increases.  Only at that time will your full potential be realized

BACK TO RACING

 

Fall has arrived and with it comes the annual show put on by Mother Nature.  I hope this year with our free weekends you all find time to venture outside, maybe even a trip to the mountains or my favorite a kayak trip down the Shenandoah River. If nothing else even a walk around the neighborhood to take in the show

FALL MEET

"The whistle blows

I take my spot on the block

I look down through the water

An old friend The "T"

It beckons me to dive in

Cap on ✅

Goggles set ✅

Muscles relaxed ✅

Ready

Thoughts race through my mind

Win the heat

Win the event

Beat my seed time

Just race

A familiar command "Take Your Mark"

Thoughts stop, as I fly off The blocks

It's all coming back to me now

Wall, flip, streamline kick 

Get up and go

Stop breathing one last stroke

Fingers on the wall

Place, time doesn't matter this time

All that mattered is I raced

I'm home"

Now that the events for our fall meet have been posted a lot of you have asked what events you should swim.  I have given it a lot of thought and I know we normally put together a strategy when picking an event, but as we all know this is not a normal time.  Other than some summer races that you may have been lucky to have the majority of us have not had a true race since February so let’s have some fun with this meet.

The one  event that I would like to see all of our 12 and under enter is the 100 IM.  Why, first it allows us to see you put all your strokes together and will give us the perfect opportunity to use that crossover turn.  

If your 13 and over then we are looking for that 200 IM.  “What if I get DQ.?  We have more faith in all of you and believe that you are ready to give it a go in competition.  You may even surprise your self.  This is exactly what early meets are designed for, new events new techniques.  At some point you have to step out  of that comfort zone and try out new events or race strategies.

With all of that being said the other 2 events we would like you to select the ones you enjoy like maybe the 50 free and then a distance event other than that IM.  Be careful that you have at least 1 event in between to have enough recovery time.  This meet is mixed gender so please take that into account.

WHY DO THE CROSS OVER

Today the Gold group @7:00 took their shot at our wheel.  Happy 😃 to report that no one from this group had a time out issued to them, OUTSTANDING.

Your results 

4x100 @ 1:51

4x100 @ 2:00

4x100 @ 1:53

4x100 @1:48

3x100 @ 1:50

So why are we going to work on the crossover turn, simply said because we can and it’s a perfect time to do it.   What seems so long ago was the discussion we had about your tool box and what should be in it.  Well this is just something to add to it.   Quite frankly I get tired of watching swimmers do what they think is the turn and in reality it’s just something you think is 😎 cool, and other than that you really don’t have a “legitimate” reason for do it.  

As I see it there are two advantages if done with precision, one being that it allows you reach further and get there sooner which is what all swimmers are trying to do.  

The second involves the law of inertia, which simply means your body wants to keep moving in the same direction and this turn allows you to do that without stopping to change direction.

Do you have to use it ?  No but it may be something that over time you can master and Gain an advantage in your races.

HAVE FUN WITH IT!

 

JUNIOR GOLD CROSSOVER

Hey JUNIOR GOLD SWIMMERS WATCH THIS VIDEO AS WE PREPARE TO WORK ON THE CROSSOVER AND CARRY IT THROUGH OUR HOLIDAY TRAINING.

Okay guys here is the crossover turn for back to breast.  There are many variations that people use but this is the correct one and Chloe Sutton breaks it down very nicely for you all.  Watch this and on Friday we will start work on the first part of this turn and that is touching the wall over your head with your shoulder up.  Next week we will move to the next step if we can master this without getting DQ 👎 and I am the stroke and turn judge.