“WIN”. What’s Important Now

To kick off our first practice of 2021 on Saturday the senior prep can suit up.  We will bring in the new year with challenging sprints.  It’s time to challenge yourself, have a little fun, go a little crazy and just maybe swim really fast. Have a good news years eve.

  Participating in sports can be one of the greatest experiences in your life. Sports not only provide a healthy way to stay active and in shape they also help shape you as a individual.  Sometimes with all the distractions and stress that come along with the competition we lose sight of the true meaning of being an athlete.  This year each of you have been faced with many challenges not only in swimming but also at school and at home.  So as we go through this holiday season here are some things that you the athlete can reflect on as we enter the new year. First off , Do you have to be the best?  No one said that you had to be, except maybe the person in the mirror, and that’s okay to strive for, but let’s face it there is only one person in the entire world that is the best.  As long as you always focus on being the best version of you, and are doing the best that you can do, you’re always be a winner.  Always focus on improving and at the end of the day be satisfied with being a bet

So let’s have a little fun with this exercise shall we.  Today we as in the senior prep swimmers were having a little trouble with the clock, seems we were still having a snow day, especially Caitlyn.  Now in her defense she reported that she got confused with too much math.  It’s at this point where I have to ask everyone else, Why is everyone just looking at each other asking, should we go  This was not rocket science interval.  Just pretty simple stuff like 4 rounds of 4x50 stroke@55 and 1x100 recovery @2:30. No extra rest between rounds as it is built into the set So here are 4 simple pace clock equations  X = first send off. X-5 = second send off. X-10 = third send off.  X-15= fourth send off. X-20 = our 100 free recovery @2:30 First things first, what is X.  Coach Paul and Mike gave you X when they said leave on the top which for our purposes was 00. QUESTION 1:  when do we leave for our second 50?  Think Caitlyn QUESTION 2:  when does our third 50 begin?  Sara QUESTION 3:  when

  Okay really I’m sure your as happy as Pooh Bear that you don’t get to do our Wednesday workout 🏋️ that you already saw on line.  What do you think, maybe move it to tomorrow?  Not even enough snow for a distance snow fight, but a good day to take the truck out to the mountains. Enjoy your day off, see you all tomorrow.

 This past weekend our groups had great success at the meet, with a lot of personal best times recorded.  We want to thank all of you for such a great effort at the meet and all the months of hard work leading up to this past weekend.  All of you should be proud of the way you have handled all of the new challenges that have been placed in front of us this past year. One of the areas that we need to keep working on is our crossover turns if we are going to use them in competition.  An official brought to my attention that we had some disqualifications on Saturday and as explained to me the problem is that we may be over rotating the body past 90 degrees before the hand actually hits the wall.   A BIG NO NO.   Apparently after talking with the referee all the DQ’s were pulled with the benefit going to you, the swimmer.  It’s something that we want you to be aware of as we continue to move forward and this may be a good time to just review the video and really pay attention to that first

  For all of you who will be trying out for your high school teams this week, everyone from the group will be cheering you on.  Swim fast, have fun and above all stay safe.  Don’t forget you will be adding people to your bubble so keep the masks on and stay apart.  We know it’s hard but we all want to stay in the water until this gets better. With that in mind for your planning purposes this week, on the days you actually are swimming I think it would be alright to skip our practice that day.   You’ve been going hard since June so I think it’s okay to take that little break.   Talk to your high school coaches so that they are aware of your practice schedule.  It will look a little different this year.

All of you have been going strong since June and this weekend will allow you to reap the rewards from those tough training sessions in the pool.  Getting yourself mentally prepared during the next 24 hours is just as important as all the physical preparation you’ve worked so hard on in the past months. Everything that you have done during those months could be undone if you’re head isn’t in the right place as you walk out to the starting blocks. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” It’s human nature to have doubts, worries, and nerves leading up to races, but what is important is that you try and cleanse your mind of these pitfalls before you allow them to overwhelm you mentally and physically.   Each swimmer has there own routines that allow them to manage these pitfalls.  Make sure that you fully understand your goals. And that they are specific, achievable, and realistic heading into the weekend. Visualize your race as you see it unfolding beginning with a great start

As we enter our last meet of the year it might be a good time to revisit your swimming goals to get a picture of where you stand.  We want you to think of this meet as a championship meet, the first since last winter.  We hope that the holiday season combined with this great opportunity that you have been given that you are able to have a little more bounce in your step, that you come prepared to swim fast.  Just Do You! Speaking of preparation the meet sheets should be out by Friday, so our suggestion is to figure out your events, heat and lane assignments before you arrive at the meet.  This will relieve that stress from your day.  Write it on your hand, piece of paper or take a picture of it with your phone. Do something to prepare.  Pick out someone to beat. This may also be the best time to revisit an old story, you may remember it as, Good.....Better.....Best....a old Mother Goose nursery rhyme that easily relates to your swimming.  What it means is “Never rest until your good is

  So, both the Senior Prep/Blue and the Gold groups just finished a week of practice that cumulated with our 50's test set.  So your parents have an idea of what we are doing during this set, let us take a moment...... the first thing that the kids notice as  they walk onto the deck is our "special pace clock with green numbers".  The purpose of this is to change the atmosphere and to let the kids know we are going to race.....and race all day. This set started back in September and repeats about every 3rd week  hopefully having it fall one week out from our upcoming meets.  The Senior Prep/Blue group set consists of 50x50 while the Gold groups set consists of 40x50.  The interval for the groups were set the first time we went through this and have been getting faster by a few seconds each time we repeat the set. You may wonder why use a different clock, but in addition to changing the atmosphere it can be set to reset to 0 after each swim  and allows each swimmer to pick