“WIN”. What’s Important Now

 So spring break has finally arrived for most of you. The past year has brought many changes to your lives both in swimming and your personal comings and going.  With the arrival of this annual ritual it might be a good time to reflect on this past year. Swimming is a unique sport, one which seems to never end.  There is always the next workout, the next meet always something.  You spent the last year swimming about 624,000 yards.  That a about 380 miles or swimming the English Channel 18 times back and forth.  Now of course we did not swim the whole way as we spent 20 % of the time kicking across, and other than free we spent  most of our other time swimming IM, back and than choice as we made are way back and forth. Most swimmers enter a race trying to win and better their times and a chance at qualifying for that next level meet.  Even at the high school level you race your dual meets with that chance at qualifying for districts and a chance to advance to regions and states, but wha

So today the senior prep group had a little challenge set to accomplish after warming up.  First off yesterday they all picked a song which was put into a playlist that was played during the set.  The set consisted of 20x200 IM/Free @ 3:00.  The challenge for each of the swimmers was to come in under their best 200 IM time.  We had some tremendous efforts during the hour with some heavy arms and legs, but you all really crushed it.  BE PROUD OF YOUR EFFORT as you go into yourspring break The twist of the set was that if their song was playing as they were on the wall waiting for the next repeat they were allowed to skip that 200 if they chose to.  Some of you were pretty funny all bright eyed gasping for air, as Catherine exclaimed where is my darn song!   Nice job with this set.

  Now that we have arrived at the conclusion of our short course meet schedule some of you may be wondering, What do we do now?  I am sure one of the big things on all of your minds is Spring Break especially if you are lucky to be traveling this year by 🚘, 🚂, or ✈️.  If you are one of those lucky ones be safe and have a great time.  For the rest of us enjoy the time away from the pool, let your body rest and get outside and do some type of activity. Everyone who participated in the Mako Spring Fling meet did a great job with many personal best times to finish off this part of our competition.  We had a lot of you who took the chance and went outside of your comfort zones looking for new adventures with the 500 free and the 400IM coming to mind.  It's amazing when talking to all you that what I hear a lot is this, "That was fun. or I liked that, or It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be."  Sometimes when you go outside of your comfort zone you discover a whole n

Did anyone see any leprechauns in their travels today.  Are you wearing any green as you left the house today. I thought it would be interesting and fun for each of you to do your own limerick in honor of Saint Patricks  day.   What is a limerick?  A limerick functions as poetic form that is specifically structured in terms of rhyme, rhythm, and meter.  It’s intention is to provide humor, levity, and entertainment.  It’s a form of literary and creative expression. Here is a template for you to print out and fill out.  Can yo relate it to swimming, school or some othe important part of your life.  After your done bring it in and receive a prize.

  First off let’s thank Heather, our Mako parents and all of the officials who helped in providing such a great end of the year meet that all the swimmers worked hard for and deserved.  We would also like to thank Disco Dave for providing all of the great music at all the final sessions.  After getting him to understand to lower the volume we finally had some great music and as we discussed earlier had some great background music playing during all of the races. As for you the swimmers what can we say as coaches other than you really came ready to put on a incredible show with some great races.  The coaches were awestruck with your ability to come in and race over a four day meet, a new experience for most of you.  Some of you ended up swimming over 13 events or more over the 4 days, a new experience for sure. When Heather and I got together back in December we were determined to have  a championship meet that included prelims and finals. Working within the capacity of swimmers and the

  Let’s not forget to set our clocks ahead an hour before your head hits the pillow tonight.  You all have it so easy in today’s world because with all the technology this is all done for you. It was not too long ago that this was a big thing in many households as everyone had to run around to every single clock and manually move the hands ahead an hour. In the US it was first introduced in 1916 only to be repealed 7 months later.  It was reintroduced in 1942 as “War Time”, with the eastern war time, mountain war time, central war time and pacific war time.  Af the end of the war it became known as peace time.  In 1966 with the signing of the uniform time act the country now had a uniform schedule with DST starting the last Sunday of April and ending the last Sunday of October.  It has been tinkered with ever since like in 1973 with the oil embargo and than with the energy policy of 2005.  It has remained unchanged since 2007, before some of you were born. The biggest proponents of DST

So it’s hard to believe that our championship season is on the horizon, yes a time when you walk around maybe with your chest pumped out, your shoulders held back a little more than normal and with a little more crispness in your stride.  It’s hard to believe that it has been 2 years until this time, but here it is. Since stepping back in the pool back on June 1st, you all have shown up everyday and put in some incredible work to come full circle and arrive stronger, faster and mentally ready to have incredible swims at whatever meet you are in.  If you had one shot, one opportunity to win everything you ever wanted, in one moment would you capture it or just let it slip away.  Challenge yourself in your swims and take each one as they come, don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve made the sacrifices, put in the hard work and now it’s your moment to shine. When you feel Like you can’t swim Any faster Kick any further  You must keep going Greatness is only milliseconds away But you have to

 You’ve had a good start, a fast breakout into that first leg of your race and executed some awesome turns and now it’s time for that awesome finish so as to leave no doubt. For a swimmer it’s not as easy, as running under a sign, through a tape or the sound of a final whistle as time winds down to 00:00.  For you the swimmer it’s all about getting your hand to the pad.   Different events require different finishes at he wall, for instance all your fly and breaststroke events require two hands on the wall simultaneously. The backstroke event requires you to stay on your back and not being fully submerged as you touch.  The freestyle events require any part of your body hitting that wall. Regardless of the event you are swimming they all have a few things in common, the first involves accelerating as you near that pad.  The last thing you want to do is to relax at the flags and coast into the wall, this could mean the difference of achieving your goal and also leave you off that podium.

Have you guys ever wonder what other's think about your sport.  Maybe you have friends that make comments and just don't understand what you do and just how hard it really is.   This was sent to me by a former swimmer and it made me think of you all, and thought I would share it with you.  It's about 11 minutes long so grab your popcorn or a little snack and enjoy. You should be really proud of yourself going into championship month regardless of what meet you find your self.

  Today’s stop on our trip will be the open turn  which encompasses both your breaststroke and fly, along with the exchanges in your individual medley events to an extent. We will begin with your approach into the turn.  Sometimes it looks as if   your confused as your approaching your turns, should I speed up or should I slow down.  Coach Paul says “maintain your speed and try to touch long, that is, when your arms are reached out in full extension and FULL EXTENSION your body is in a streamline position”.  Yes that phrase again!  The only light you should be seeing is green.   Otherwise you are slowing your momentum which affects how fast you will be able to make that transition.  You are correct there is no flip involved here, and yes, you need to touch with 🙌.   But then what?  First off the touch is more like a push with the hands.  Don't get caught holding onto the wall. NOTICE THE ELBOW PAST HIP AND THE HEAD POSITION WITH THE TOP ARM COMING DIRECTLY OVER TTHE TOP Obviously

 Our next stop on our road map is the flip turn for free.  What are you looking for here?  Simple answer is a clean efficient transition into the next leg of your race, a transition that will sustain your momentum with the least amount of energy.  In other words hold your speed off the wall so that you don’t have to go to your reserves to bring that speed back up. THE FLIP TURN- - - -   Do you use your arms/hands to help you propel yourself into that flip turn?  It might feel good and the right thing to do, but it actually slows your rotation at the wall and causes you to pause before you push off in order to get your arms back in your streamline to maximize your speed.  Think of your abs/core as you go into your flip turns that is your power source for fast rotations. Coach Paul would tell you that foremost you need to maintain your speed into the wall, this is definitely not the time to go into a slow down.  If you decrease your speed into that turn the results could be disastrous, a