YOUR ON YOUR OWN

 

This week is our “mid terms” culminating with a championship meet this weekend with our 11 and overs and next week’s meet for our 10 and unders.

As we enter the next two meets let stay a little more focused on why your at the pool in the first place.  While we want you to have fun and enjoy yourself, we also want you to remember why your their, to RACE.  Many swimmers swim badly because they allow themselves to become wrapped up in everything and racing because secondary on their agenda.  They forget to go through proper warmups and warm downs especially the warm down.  If your not in the warm down pool right after your swim you’ve missed your window.  I see kids running to talk with friends check their phones pretty much anything other than what they should be doing, warming down.  On the flip side they don’t warmup for that next event and think their bodies are going to be able to do what they are about to ask. 

Your mental state also goes a long way in determining how you will preform.  You start to worry about the names and reputations around you, the logo on their caps, past accomplishments, your seed, all things that are totally out of your control.  Last time I checked you race in your own lane, your own little space and I have yet to see anyone jump over a lane line  grab you or take a whack at your arms.  You swim in your own lane and perform at a pace that you decide is necessary to win, uninterrupted by any external forces.

Your race is just that, YOURS.  Make your competition faceless.  It really doesn’t matter who they are because your going to swim an event, and your job is to swim that event to the best of your abilities using the strategies that we have worked on.  All you can do is give it your all and who your swimming against shouldn’t change that.

Thanksgiving Wishes

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all the swimmers from the Senior Prep, Junior Gold and Junior Blue groups.  Thank you all for showing up and doing what is needed to make us all better. You are all wonderful and we hope you enjoy your day off and if you become a little bit fidgety during the day go outside for some fresh air and exercise.

Most of all this Thanksgiving instead of counting your laps, just look around the table as you sit down and count your blessings.

If your out of town and get that itch to get wet and can find a pool here are a couple of workouts.

WORKOUT #1 

Warm up 800

200 free (first in the 11) @3:00/3:15

200 IM/free @ 3:15/3:30. Focus on good tight open transitions

200 free (25 kick in 11 25 swim) @3:15/3:30

200 IM (25 kick/25 swim

UNDERWATER DOLPHIN KICKS FINS 500

20x25 dolphin kick @40 (odds on stomach evens on back. Must all be fast). Make it all the way if you come up finish fly

FREE IM WITH STROKE FOCUS 1800

2x200 @3:15 first and fourth 25 fly

2x200 @3:15 first and fourth 25 back

2x200 @3:15 first and fourth 25 breast

1x200 @5:00 IM ALL OUT ON BACK HALF OF EACH 25 + 100 easy free

2x100 @3:00 IM ALL OUT +50 easy back

SOME RACING TO FINISH 600

2x

3x50 fast free @45

1x50 smooth recovery back @1:30

3x25 fast back @30 focus on fast tempo good body position spin the arms but pull water

1x25 smooth back @1:30

Swim down 300 

100 kick 100 swim 100 kick total 4000 yards

Workout #2

Warm up 1200 yards

8x

100 free @1:40/2:00

50 kick @1:10 odds boards evens no boards

KICK SET (550 yards/ 1750

2x

1x75 fast kick +1x50 easy swim  @2:30

1x50 fast kick +1x25 easy swim @1:45

1x75 fast kick all out @2:30 interval includes recovery time

IM SET (2000 yards/3750)

4x

3x100 IM @2:00 (25 fly 50 back 25 breast)

4x50 @50 free descend each one to all out

Rest 1:00

SWIM DOWN 

100 kick/100 swim/100 kick

TOTAL 4050 yards

BAD RACE

 

So, you had a bad race this past weekend.  End of the world, not likely.  Your a bad swimmer, not likely.  Not working hard enough, only you can answer that one but I doubt it.  Just wasn't your day, more likely.  Anyway the positive is that you got to race, something you love to do and you finished unlike these pour souls who never touched the pad.

Here is something to put in in perspective, You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.  Think about it for a second.

Bad swims can bring about many emotions ranging moping loss of confidence or maybe even thinking your a bad swimmer.  Sound familiar?  First step in dealing with it is to spend some alone time with yourself and mentally evaluate the swim.  A good place for this is in the warm down pool.

No one likes the experience of having a bad result and it's human nature to be upset about it. Don't spend a lot of time being frustrated and by all means don't cause a scene. Take the alone time to get to a better place.  When your ready talk to your coach.  

Every race your in something goes well.  It could have been the start, the turn, the pace or just the way you felt, whatever it was find that one thing and build around that feeling.  The sooner that you realize that a bad result does not mean the swim was bad, there are always positives that you can take away from the event and be proud of.  This past weekend I had a senior prep swimmer come over after her race where she dropped a lot of time and I could see she was not happy, only to find out that she had not reached her expectations.  Don't forget to accept the little victories in your swimming as well as the big ones because as you develop and grow they become fewer and fewer.

In conclusion I would say this to each of you after a bad swim; "Put it away and move on to the next race."

That's the best thing about being a swimmer, there is always the next race.

SWIM and Rock Thoughts

 

The wrap up from the swim and rock meet this past weekend.  After missing this meet last year it was a great experience.  You all showed up, raced and should be very happy about your performances over the weekend.  A big THANKS to all our parents who volunteered to help out during the meet, we could not have done it without your support.

While I watched swimmers race this weekend, ones who have put in the work during the last year and especially during the past 2 months I may have had a tear or two (okay maybe it was the bad air)  thinking back how far you all have come during a very challenging time.  Some conquered new events over the weekend, ones that they would have never dreamed of racing a mere two months ago.  Some of you got to experience coming back and swimming at finals with the "BIG KIDS" in the evening, and yes Petra you can race a 200 fly twice in one day, just ask Coach Peter it was his favorite event.

It's always fun to watch our 12 and under's race and see how they perfect their flip turns, or do their first Big Girl/Boy finish in backstroke or maybe how they go a little faster and longer underwater and then as they touch a little smile appears on their face as they realized they just went a little faster than before.

As we move forward let's take a look back when we talk about swimming in our comfort zone,  This past weekend one of our senior swimmers swimmers walked by me and said "once a year Coach Mike".  It brought a tear to my eye to realize that this swimmer who came through the system with Coach Beth in the mini program through Junior Gold and Senior Prep and now with Coach Peter hung onto that one concept  that we talked about many years ago "swimming out of the comfort zone. " Katherine Helms will be the first one to shout it from the mountain top that 200 fly is not an event for her, but non the rest here she was swimming it at swim and rock.  Why? You would have to ask her but I venture to guess because it's  there and it will help her down the road in her good events.  

The comfort zone can involve many aspects in your swimming and not just events and distances.  It can be simply deciding to push a little harder during a kick set or the main set.  It could be getting your feet over the to a little faster on the turns or something as simple as not taking that first breath off your walls every repeat and not just when you want to.  Maybe its working that underwater kick a little faster and longer.  All I do know is that "Great Things never come from the "Comfort Zone."

Tomorrow - What if I had a Bad Race?

 We have a busy week on the horizon as we return to the annual Swim and Rock meet at Oak Marr on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  This meet will be he a prelims and final meet for the 11 and overs on Friday and Saturday. Let's review the procedures for this type of meet.

FINALS- On Friday and Saturday the top 8 11-12 year olds and the top 16 13 -14 and 15 and overs will return in the evening to swim in the championship finals session.  If you make finals you must show up to swim.  If you fail to show up you will be scratched from the remainder of the meet.  If your intention is to scratch you must do it within 30 minutes after your event ends.  You must talk to a coach before scratching.  Swimmers from the Junior Gold and Senior prep groups will NOT be scratching and if you need to you better make a good argument.

POSITIVE CHECK IN-  Be aware of the events that you need to check in for, normally 200 and above events. This is normally done before you get in for warm ups and needs to be completed prior to the start of the meet.  THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.  If you are arriving late you can get someone who is there to check you in, but understand this is not the coaches responsibility. Another note on positive check in and this is important if you check in and fail to show you will be scratched from your next event.

WHAT SUIT SHOULD I WEAR-  for the Junior Gold and Senior Prep groups it's time to dust off your good suits and put them to use this weekend.

TID-BITS FOR UPCOMING WEEK.    

• SLEEP
• DIET
• SCHOOL
• POSITIVE SELF TALK

WORKING TOGETHER

 

Here we are in November and we are off to a good start with our first few practices with our prep, gold and blue groups.  We hope those of you who were out of school enjoyed the time off and got some extra rest as you head into the next quarter.   

In swimming we also are headed into a new phase in our were especially with the gold and prep groups where we will increase our intensity as we head into the next few meets some of which will have a championship format.  Think of these as your midterms as we move closer to our championship season that will be here sooner than you think.

We have preached to you all a lot about putting yourself in a position to be successful, and as coaches that is what we try to do during practice especially when we have sets that involve race strategy.  We spent a lot of times working on learning our pacing for your 100's and 200's in the attempt to ease your stress and allow you to swim those events with a lot of confidence.  

Some take aways from the workouts.  first and foremost channel your  energy at the meet, during the warmups, and during your warm downs, then go out and swim YOUR race.  What do we mean by this?  Simply put we want you to channel that energy into your race and stop wasting energy both mentally and physically on factors that are out of your control, such as times, competition, and what your doing after the race. Like your parents in their work, you are there to do a job and that is to race thats it, so put your best mental and physical effort into it.

As for the events, for those long events we worked on finding that easy speed off the start using those legs softly and saving them for that last sprint to the finish.  We also worked on the differences between the different strokes and how you want to approach them so if your still unsure, let's talk.

Bottom line find an excuse to win instead of looking for excuses to fail.  Look around and say to yourself, "this is going to be tough, but it's not going to last and if I fail let me fail greatly."

For those of you who normally practice on Saturday, if your not in the meet that day we will be having practice at normal time at St. James. 9:00-10:30.