“WIN”. What’s Important Now

 As we get closer to that first day of workouts I thought it might be wise to reacquaint ourselves with one of the best tools that each of you have to help you reach your goals and to swim faster than you ever have.  That tool is the “PACE CLOCK” and it might have either a digital or analog face.  It could be any color.  Regardless of the pace clock you use it will give all of you the same valuable information so that you can take your swimming to a new level. The pace clock also helps your coach run through an efficient practice while allowing corrections individually during the workout.  It allows the coach to “coach” instead of being a traffic 👮‍♀️.  How does the pace clock help each of you, let’s take a look;  Helps you learn your time Allows you to set some practice goals. Gives you a better sense of awareness in the water Allows you to work on different strokes within the workout Let’s grab a piece of paper or make a copy of this and bring it to that first practice and I’ll take

  Hope the first week of school went really well for all of you.  Hope you have some awesome 😎 classes and teachers that will challenge you during the school year. Now with a little down time over the next couple of days it may be a good time to dust off your equipment bag and head out for a tune up swim to lessen that feeling of swimming like a out of shape whale in about 12 days. You certainly would like to avoid that feeling, I would think.  Remember how we talked last time about the importance of our kicking early in. the season, here is a set to try out over the weekend if your up for a challenge. This whole set should take 55 minutes or less. So here we go. WARM UP see if you can go for a 5 minute swim mixer    MONSTER KICK SET. (I am just going to throw out 2 intervals for the 100's and you can adjust so you get about 20-30 seconds rest in between. 4x100 kick @2:20/2:30 last 25 all out 4x25 kick on back all out @45 keep the hips up REST 1:00 3x100 kick @2:20/2:30  negative

HELLO SWIMMERS.  We hope your first couple of days back in the classroom went well.  Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is always exciting.  We are excited and looking for the same experience at our first workout  in 15 days.  Use the next couple of weeks wisely and settle into your academics before we add swimming to the mix.  Remember you are a STUDENT/ATHLETE. Last we we talked about getting mentally prepared for our upcoming season and the importance of setting some good habits from day one.  Another way to mentally prepare yourself for the upcoming season is to sit down and ponder on what you would like to accomplish as you work through the season ahead, and it starts with setting some goals.  Goals don’t always have to be about your time.  They can involve many different areas of your swimming, but they will usually all affect your times in the end.  I came across this list the other day and immediately thought of you all and how it could help you start thinking outside of t

Today let's turn our focus to the pool side of your upcoming year.  Before you even dive into the water ask yourself these two questions; What can I do to to reach my GOALS and DREAMS for this season?  When should I start?  First off you should have started  the day after your last practice.   If you have goals and dreams for your short course season you NEED to start chasing them now and not wait until the time is convenient for you.  Funny thing about dreams and goals the longer you wait the further they run away from you until it becomes impossible to catch regardless of your efforts.  First goal I would like all of you to make is, I won't be that swimmer. So how do we prepare mentally to get ready for our upcoming season.  The first thing is to take a honest look back at the previous season.  What worked?  What didn't work?  Did you focus on your fundamentals with consistency or only when an important meet was coming up?  Did you meet your goals?  I venture to guess tha

SUMMER FADE I hope you are enjoying the last few days of the summer.   It seems like the summer has melted away as fast as a popsicle but unlike a swimmer who can stop a clock with a touch to the pad we can’t really stop the clock of life. As the Senior Prep, Junior Gold, and Junior Blue groups begin preparing for the upcoming season it’s time to come up with a theme for the season.  I have always encouraged you all to take ownership of your swimming because the person that it is most important to is “U”.  Therefore for the last week I have been working on putting together our first few weeks of workouts and our theme for the year will be, There is a “U” in success.  Say that to yourself right now.  Now write it down on an index card.  Now post it in your room where you can see it every day.  If you say it enough, you see it daily,  you will start to believe in it and yourself. What can you do to start off the new academic school year and our short course swimming season in a strong po