SETTING THE TONE

 

We hope that your first couple weeks of school went well and you’ve settled into a routine.  In another week we will be starting our workouts/training for the 2024-25 short course season.  The coaches are ready and eager to welcome back our returning swimmers, and look forward to meeting and getting to know our new swimmers to MAKOS.

We look forward to an exciting and successful season ahead.

As we start our new competitive swim season it is important for all swimmers to be prepared both physically and mentally from day 1.  Set yourself up to be successful this year from that first workout.

WAYS TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START.

1. GOOD ATTITUDE - 😃 Everyone will have the blues once in a while.  It's human nature.  On those days leave all the outside noise and distractions at the door, don't bring them onto the pool deck.  It will set a bad tone for you, the group and the coach.  Let the feel of the water encompasses your own body and get to work.
2. STUDENT/ATHLETE- It's a privilege to be able to swim which can be gone in a instant.  Your school work always comes first, so do yourself a favor and stay on top of all your assignments.  It's called time management. The week has 168 hours in it.  You sleep 56 hours a week(based on 8 hours a night).  You are in school for 30 hours a week (based on a 6 hour day).  You have 12.5 hours of home work a week (based on 2.5 a night m-f).  You have 6 hours of swimming a week (based on 1.5 4 times a week).  That leaves 63.5 hours a week for whatever.  In other words swimming does not take up all your time so don't use it as an excuse.  Manage your time wisely.
3. SLEEP-😴 Your body needs to rest so it is ready for the next day.  Get use to having an internal clock that tells you each day when you need to go to bed.  Set a time and stick to it no matter what.  If you miss 4 hours one night, you can't make it up.  Those hours are gone forever.  Your feel better and you will avoid illness if you maintain that regular schedule.
4. HYDRATE--The one thing you can control is your water intake.  Bring your water bottles with you everywhere that you are allowed and constantly drink from it.  Especially during workout or any other physical activity.  You need more water at those times.  Just like sleep I f you become de-hydrated it's very hard to catch up and you start to feel the effects very quickly.  So drink.
5. NUTRITION-- Garbage in = Garbage out.  Treat your body as the fine tune machine that it is.  You have all these dreams and goals in this sport so don't sabotage them by feeding the machine with garbage.  If your parents used bad fuel in the family car it would start to perform badly.  You need a variety of food groups to fuel your performances, including carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, vegetables 🥒 (yes the green things), fruits and of course your fluids.
6. BE ON TIME-- When you get to the pool deck start preparing your body for what you are about to ask it to go through.  Set up a 5-10 minute routine for some dynamic stretching that will actually help you.  Stop just plopping yourself on the ground.  Being on time means getting into the pool with the WHOLE GROUP and not on your schedule.
7. ORGANIZATION-- Have all your equipment on the deck in front of your lane.  We do not want to waste time getting out to get it.
8. LISTENING--  Be prepared to listen to what we are focusing on and trying to get accomplished in the sets.
9. GETTING BETTER-- Every workout, every warm up, every set, every repeat, every streamline, every turn, every underwater, every breath, and every finish is an opportunity for you to grow and get better.  Don't waste even one of those opportunity, it just may be the one that costs you that .01 you need later in the season.
10. SHOW UP--  You can't accomplish your goal if you don't show up.  A workout missed is a workout lost forever.  Stay on your schedules.

TAKE AWAYS FROM 2024 OLYMPIC SWIMMING

 

My take away from the Olympic swim meet is that from we got to see a lot of great racing from some extraordinary athletes.  If it was world records or Olympic records that you were looking for you might have been a little disappointed.  There were 17 Olympic records and 4 World records broken during the Paris games.  You would have to go back to the 1996 Atlanta games  to see so few world records broken. That year there were also fewer Olympic records (13 ) set.   I was fortunate enough to witness those 96 games and person and  saw some outstanding races during the week.

You may wonder which Olympics saw the most world records broken.  You would only have to go back to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in which the world saw 25 World records fall and an another 65 Olympic records fall.  

That year the Speedo sponsored swimmers wore what they referred to as the LZR racer suit made of polyethylene and neoprene material appropriately nicknamed the “shark skin suit” which was developed jointly with an Italian company, the Australian Institute of sport and yes NASA.  In 2010 the suits were banned ant the athletes had to go back to suits made solely of textiles.  Is that the reason we don’t see the records falling as much, 

Instead of seeing the records fall you got to witness some exciting races where anyone who could find a way to get back to the final eight, had a chance to get to the podium regardless of the lane you were in.  Races that swimmers led from start to finish and other races were if you could find that next gear coming out of the last turn you just might have found yourself on the podium maybe even on the top.  

How does that translate to swimming at our level.  Having said this before and I’ll say it again now and that is this; we put so much emphasis on that final result (the time)  both leading up to the race and when we come crashing into the wall at the finish that we are so tight we forget to just race and have fun with our sport.  

Let’s talk about the things you can take away that will help each of you in your swim competitions.  The first is that I hope when Rowdy Gaines kept pointing out the underwater off those starts and turns that you took notice and have a better understanding of how important they are especially off those last turn when every muscle in your body says NO.  The next thing that he kept pointing out is that you need to stay in your lane and swim your race.  The last thing that I would like to point out is how he kept talking about finishing the race with an explosive kick and a crashing into the wall.

These are all things that we can all get better with but you need to buy into it and commit yourself during every workout.  

If you listened to any of these swimmers especially the veterans who may have taken some time off in the last four years the key message I took away is this; remember why you got into this sport, and have fun with it and enjoy the moment.  Swimming is a part of your life don’t let it become bigger than you are and remember enjoy the process and have fun with it.

Let’s spend a little time over the next few days and start preparing for our school year coming up.  Let’s not wait until Sunday night to start thinking about.  Enjoy that first day and don’t’ forget that means you’re one day closer to the summer of 25. 

We will see you next week.