“WIN”. What’s Important Now

 This past weekend 11 of our Mako swimmers went out to the university of Maryland to compete in the IMX extreme swim meet.  Each of the swimmers raced the same list of events.  The 11-12 year olds list started on Friday afternoon with the 500 free.  On Saturday they came in and raced the 100 fly and 100 breast.  They finished up their list on Sunday afternoon with the 100 back and the 200 IM. Our two 10 under girls Serena Howard and Hannah Carroll had the same list of events except their list started Saturday with the 200 free instead of the 500 free.   This was an opportunity to swim all of their 100 events and a distance free event within the same weekend.  It was not a meet for the faint of heart swimmer looking for that sprint 50 event nor was it for the swimmer not wanting to swim that 100 of a stroke they do not like On Friday afternoon our 11-12 year olds did a great job with the 500 free showing extreme toughness with all of them achieving personal best times.   Overall the gro

  There is a change to the 12 and under sessions on Saturday and Sunday.  Warm up will start at 11:50 am and the meet will start at 1:00 pm.  This should get us out about 40 minutes earlier.  The time line posted may be wrong so please go by this.  Warmup for us will start at 11:50 am

  So we start off this meet Friday afternoon with the 500 free.  Do you have a plan, a course of action or are we just going to wing it.  Hope for the best and that we don’t crash and burn.   First off come in suited and ready to get after it.  You should arrive about 90 minutes before your event ( plan for traffic).  Get in get comfortable and go through your warmups.  Don’t forget all we are doing on this day is the 500 so get in some pace work during warmups, use the clock.  Now for the race itself.  I am sure the question all of you have is, How should I swim this?  First off I have all the confidence in the world that with a good attitude and mindset all of you will shine like rock stars. Get ready to become a little uncomfortable.  We are going outside of your comfort zone for this one.  It’s the only race of the day, no reason to save your energy now, so let’s get to it.  Okay! Think of that first 100 like this;  I’m going to get out strong (Not a true sprint). From this point w

 The letter V in the swimmers alphabet refers to visualization and no we are not talking about staring at your devices 24 hours a day.  We are talking about the ability to see your race unfold before your eyes, from the moment you walk onto the pool deck and that familiar smell of chlorine hits your senses and you know it's time to go to work. When you were little (maybe some of  you still are) did you ever have those days where you filled your heads with imagination. It could have been a day were you thought you were a super hero and you had the powers to save the world or maybe something as simple as looking up at a plane in the sky believing you were being whisked away to some place exciting.  Believe it or not you were already starting to develop your power of visualization and now we can use that in your swimming. Just as you are trying to create muscle memory physically in your swimming workouts going through all of your stroke drills, turns and race scenarios, you are trying

  We had a good weekend for our traveling Mako swimmers.  Swimming at a new venue is always exciting and fun and the Greensboro Aquatic Complex did not disappoint.  The coaches will get together and review the meet but moving forward my recommendation would be to add this meet to our schedule and drop the IMX meet in the future.  This meet is set up as a training meet coming off our holidays where we try different events and with that we can do some of our 200's, and the 400 IM.  That being said there will be no reason to add that long weekend of swimming at the end of January.   One of the great things to come out of a travel meet is the team bonding that takes place.  It could take place both on the pool deck during the meet but also in the hotel lobby hanging and eating together.  As we were sitting around the lobby in the evening it was evident that swimmers were getting along and getting to know swimmers from other groups.  On the deck we saw Mako swimmers swimmers supporting

  We will be attending 2 meets this weekend.  Friday and Saturday will be the annual Mako Polar Plunge meet that will take place at the St.James pool. Saturday 13 and over warm up time 7:30-7:55                10 and under 10:10-10:30                11-12. 1:50-2:10 Sunday  11 and 12.  8:30-8:50               10 and under 10:45-11:05               13 and over 1:25-1:45 Please be on time for warm up.  When you are late you are disruptive to your teammates.   POSITIVE CHECK IN -- This is required for the 500 free, 400 IM and all the 200's.  Take care of this before you get in for warmup.  This is your responsibility not the coachers.  Take ownership. Senior Prep, Junior Gold and Junior Blue swimmers please see a coach after your swims for feed back as I will be in NC attending that meet.   Pick something we have been working on during practice and try to focus on that area during your races.  We have been working our streamlines and UWK off parts and all walls and I expect to hear

  The "X" factor in swimming.  What is it?  Do you have it?  Can you obtain it?  Does the "X" involve a great start, an aggressive turn, great stroke technique, proper nutrition, good sleep habits, or is it something else.  While all the previous things are important when trying to be successful in the pool on race day there is one thing that many of you overlook and that is the mental or emotional X factor.   You all spend so much time, energy and sacrifices chasing your dreams and goals that sometimes you forget about the mental and emotional energy that is also required during the chase.  Although I truly believe that you understand that side of athletics I also believe it's vastly underutilized, misunderstood and thus not properly channeled to better your results both at practice and at meets. Why do I say that?  Let's use a couple of practice examples.  First we all know how important it is to hydrate so it amazes me when you don't have a water bott