What happened this week during practice?  Let’s take a look back with a quiz?  How focused were you?  Take a piece of paper and write out your answers and bring them in Monday and Tuesday.

• What is the difference for the need of air In a 50-100-200-500.
• What are some breathing patterns you can use?
• What is the purpose of our underwater dolphin kick?
• When do you know it's time to breakout?
• What is your pacing strategy for a 200 free?  Is it the same for all 200's?

We spent a lot of time this week on our underwater kicking going to the 10m mark, then the 12.5m, then to the 15m mark and finally trying to go for it.  The majority of you were very focused and stepped  outside of your comfort zone during this drill. Some of of us not so much.  We know it's challenging and it's human nature to go as far as what you are comfortable doing, but in athletics that will not help you down the road especially for age groupers.

What was the purpose of those short kick swim sets from the flags at the end of practice?  Do you really understand what we were trying to do during that set? We were trying to get used to getting to your fastest speed possible from the flags without the blocks or the walls, a feeling that will aid you in your races.  Make no mistake its about getting used to swimming really fast as quickly as possible.

Most age groupers equate best times as a measure of getting better.  The conversation that you have in your head goes like this, I had the best time in this event, so I am getting better.  What is coach talking about when he says things about my stroke, my underwater kicks, my walls or my pacing.  Let's start with a personal best time.  It's always a great feeling to touch the wall, look up and see your best time, a feeling of total accomplishment overcomes you as it should, but as we discussed last week sometimes you need to slow your roll. 

What age groupers fail to grasp is that the time does not tell you the whole story.  Sure it gives you the event, the heat, your lane, your time, and your place, a lot of information.  What it misses is the start, the underwater, the breakouts, the stroke, the pace, the finish and finally maybe the most important factor in the overall race YOUR EFFORT and YOUR HEART.  Age group swimmers bodies are for the most part are always growing, changing, and getting stronger and as a result best times come in bunches, but if you don't put the work in at practice and pay attention to the "little things" it will all change drastically as you get older.  Personal Best's are already hard to come by at the senior level, but it will make it that much tougher if you don't perfect all the little things today.

SATURDAY WORKOUT AT ST.JAMES

If nothing changes, nothing changes.  The feed back your coaches give you after your races are things to be aware of that you can take back to practice and work on as you go through your workouts.

The majority of age group coaches understand how important that time is in the moment, but the best coaches are looking down the road in order to help you be successful in your high school swimming when it really becomes more team and more fun.  

print a copy.  can you swim your way to the gold!