TUESDAY DECEMBER 2

PRACTICES :  All will be held as normal except Saturday morning which is cancelled due to the meet.

MAKO INVITATIONAL:

WARM- UP TIMES SATURDAY 11-12 (7:00-7:35) 10 AND UNDER (11:25-11:55) 13 AND OVER (2:55-3:35)    SUNDAY 11-12 (7:00-7:35)  10 AND UNDERS (10:45-11:15)  13 AND OVERS (2:40- 3:10)

POSITIVE CHECK IN SATURDAY 200 FREE/200 BREAST/ 200 FLY   SUNDAY 200 IM/ 200 BREAST

ATTIRE:  Only Mako caps are to be worn during the meet!!  You have no choice except not to swim.  I am getting tired of seeing other caps, and by the way I don't have one is a excuse and they are easy to come up with  PACKING A BAG FOR A SWIM MEET SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING

• TEAM SUIT: always bring a spare, this may be the meet where it rips
• TEAM CAP:  again bring extras they rip
• TEAM UNIFORM:  wear your team tee on deck and show your spirit, bring a sweatshirt also to stay warm on the pool deck
• GOGGLES: again bring extras.  I have seen many break right before a race.
• FLIP FLOPS/ SHOES: keep feet comfortable and warm
• TOWELS:  bring a couple they get wet
• WATER:  you need to stay hydrated and stay away from sodas and juices 
• FOOD:  bring plenty of nutritious snacks.  Ritz bits with peanut butter or cheese, goldfish, fruit, power bars, dry cereal.  Stay away from the snack bar.

Pack your own swim bags so you know what is in it, this should not be your parents responsibility.  Remember PLAN to swim fast and the meet starts with packing your bags.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK:  We have a few swimmers in our group who will be celebrating birthdays this week, so take a moment and wish them a happy one; ADAM DEMBICKI  today, CARTER KIM AND KATIE PONTZER Wednesday, ISABELLA MANZIONE Thursday, DAVID RUDO and CAITLIN BIRKHOLZ Sunday.  Have a great day!

TODAY'S TOPIC "An Athletes Fear"
As a swimmer/athlete what are your fears?  You have none GREAT! the other side is the fear that comes from maybe a physical injury, but I believe that the biggest fear comes from the fact that sports are an important part of our social development.  In all sports an athletes performance is visible to everyone present, and with our sport it becomes so much more visible because we have that instant result that is attached to our names and that is the time on the stop watch.  As soon as that time is posted comparisons to our "seed" times begin immediately by ourselves, coaches, parents, friends and so the list goes.......

A swimmer who allows that ugly monster "FEAR" show his ugly head at meets tends to be afraid of losing a race, losing to a teammate or sibling, negative social views, embarrassment, letting others down, putting in the effort with no results, and making a mistake.  The fear is evident in the comments you make such as I am seeded first (which to me says your done), or I have to swim so and so.  Your like a deer in headlights and I can tell how much confidence you have in yourself by your body language.   How many times have you come back and the first thing out of your mouth when we meet is "I could have gone faster!"  Well I don't know what you are waiting for, but I believe that the fear of failing is holding you back from having an outstanding race, and it's just easier and safer to have a average race. 

Change is very critical to each of you not only as a swimmer, but as a person.  Embrace the risk to let go of the fear, "swimming without the fear means swimming FEARLESS."  This change will start back at practice, and instead of using "excuse words" such as tried, sore, sick goggles broke, put this word in, WIN.  I will win the warm-up, I will win this set, I will win this repeat right now, I will win this day.  WIN the travel day! Win whatever day it is!

Standing on the block fear must vanish, put the result out of the mix, free your body so that it may swim as you have taught it to.  If you plan on being the best you must have the strategy to put fear aside.  Fear comes from uncertainty, work diligently day in and day out to obliterate uncertainty and fear will evaporate.

"because they fear failure many athletes never reach their true potential and there by rob themselves of opportunities to be successful." John Wooten

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND A GREAT RACING WEEKEND      MIKE

NOVEMBER 28

Hope all of you had a wonderful thanksgiving with your families.  I am sure you enjoyed getting away from the pool, and the smell of chlorine for a day.  It is now time to get back in the pool and have that last push for our meets in December.

SWIM AND ROCK MEET WRAP UP

Although it was a very long weekend, our Senior Prep and Junior Gold and Junior Blue groups had an outstanding weekend of swimming. Both Friday and Saturday we had 40 swimmers who made finals later in the evening.  We had some Pa. cuts achieved and a lot of JO cuts attained and a lot of personal best throughout the weekend.   Over the weekend I had many swimmers come to me after their races and I ask, "So how was that?" and the answers ranged from "Good", "Not So Good", "Bad" or "Terrible".  My first thought is to ask them if they are talking about the time or the race. 

Don't get me wrong as a coach I know how important that time is to the athlete especially in today's society where instant gratifications seems to be so important.  That being said it never ceases to amaze me the misunderstanding that the swimmer has between the result and the execution of the race.  On the one hand you may have dropped 2 seconds in a race with sloppy turns and finishes.  On the other hand you may have done your same time but with perfect turns and a great finish and a lot of effort.  Looking through my eyes who will I be happier with as a coach.

As an athlete gets bigger and stronger they will always get faster, but one day that will stop and when that day arises that athlete with great technique will rise to the top.

Bottom line is that if you swam fast usually the time is representative of where you are in your training cycle and how you approached  the race both physically and mentally.  If you swam slowly the time is similarly representative of how you applied yourself during your training and how you approached the race physically and mentally.   Don't fool yourself with other excuses.  RESULTS COME FROM HARD WORK , and HARD WORK COMES FROM PERFECT PRACTICE, not just practice.

TOPIC:  TIMES

 We have posted many times now from the fall meet schedule and these times mean many things and are also affected by many things.  What do these posted times mean;  how much stronger we are getting, how much fitter we are becoming, all those important things.  What affects them;  the meet, the pool, water and air conditions, where we are in  the training cycle.
However there are other important things taking place and those are more significant.  That list includes: confidence, skill set, understanding race strategies, keeping stroke together when fatigue sets in, managing failures and its twin impostor success.  This list gets stronger from PERFECT PRACTICE.  

Leading up to meets especially important ones there are things that you can do to put yourself in a better position to succeed.  I no particular order are hydration, nutrition, proper sleep, staying up with your school work, visualize success, practice days in and day out the things that will make you go faster,not slower.

Try to leave the things that can hurt you in a box locked up.  This list includes; worrying about the outcome, focus on times that you want to swim, get caught up in meet hype, looking at psych sheets too much and getting caught up in where you are seeded.  WE TALKED ABOUT THIS BEFORE IT DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING, IT TELLS US WHERE OUR TIMES PUT US IN THE PAST, IT WILL CHANGE AND WHAT DO YOU WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE AT THE END OF THE CURRENT MEET.   

What I will do for each of you is work the process when putting together your training program, and during this process give you each some little things to help you in the process.  What I want each of you to do is keep your heads up always, uncringe your jaw, relax your tongues, take a deep breath and work the process every day you walk on the deck for practice.

ENJOY THE LEFT OVERS AND GIRLS STAY AWAY FROM THE MALLS.   MIKE 

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THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13

I need to start with some housekeeping items from last week. First off I missed some of our high school students that are trying out for their high school teams this week. I guess they grow up so fast that it's hard to think of them as starting high school, but I do want to mention that Andrew H. Emma L. And Gillian G. Have also been trying out this week.

Also in our Saturday meet a couple of weeks ago Graham Evers swam his first 400 IM.

SWIM AND ROCK MEET : This is a prelim and finals meet Friday and Saturday which means the top 16 (13 and overs) and the top 8 (11-12) will swim again in the evening. You need to check before leaving in the morning to see if you made finals. If you do not scratch ( coaches approval) and fail to show up you will be scratched from the rest of the meet. To fail to show up is bad sportsmanship and reflects badly on you, your coach, and Makos.

Positive Check IN: THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AND NOT THE COACHES. WE TRY OUR BEST BUT ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. In the past we try to check people in but then if you do not show, the rule says that you WILL BE SCRATCHED from your next event. When the meet information arrives I will update over the weekend. Please understand.this procedure. 
MEET ATTIRE: Part of swimming fast is looking like you know what you are doing. I am always amazed how athletes always have an excuse for not wearing team gear, guess what there are no excuses and I don't want to hear it. "TAKE RESPONSIBILITY". Everybody better be wearing MAKO TEAM GEAR.

WEEKLY TOPIC: SWIMMING OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE

From a coaches view I am always amazed and frustrated when I watch a swimmer swim a "good" race" and as we talk about it a few things are pointed out that may help take that good race and turn it into a "GREAT SWIM". The problem is that the swimmer takes the information back to practice and either refuses to correct the issues or doesn't know how too. They hope that great swim will be the result of hard work ( that is a big part) but so are the little things that you need to do. 

Think of that "Great Swim" as a puzzle that you are trying to put together. If you don't have all the pieces than the chances of completing that puzzle go down drastically.

Parts of your puzzle may include some of the following:

CONSISTENCY: this isn't just about showing up. The question becomes what do you do when you are there. The goal should be consistency in the process which involves turns, breakout speeds, breathing, finishing hard into the walls, pacing speeds.

COMMITMENT: are you committed to your swimming or just interested. Being interested mean you only do things necessary when it is convenient. Commitment means no excuses--only results. Are you easily distracted ? Tough decisions are when the truly committed rise above.

FOCUS: as soon as your head goes in focus on what you are doing during that session to get better. On each set focus on what you are doing to get better, from a turn, push off breakout, breathing, or speed. Don't just "lap swim".

STROKE TECHNIQUE : learn to do correctly, improve at it, and than learn to do it at race speeds!

SKILLS: easy to do good things early in practice, but the challenge is to do the skills correctly in the middle of a hard set when you are mentally and physically fatigue. Also during warm ups and warm downs do you allow for lazy habits to happen. If you do it goes back to commitment. You should be striving to Improve your skills 100% of the time if you want to swim that "GREAT RACE"

TRAINING LEVELS: Expect more from yourself ! If you think you've given everything you can, your only fooling yourself. There is always something else that you can do. Trying is not enough, find a way to challenge yourself. Find a way to go beyond your SELF IMPOSED limits.

REST: are you getting enough (at least 8 hours). If not it becomes extremely hard to accomplish all of the above

NUTRITION : a car will not run on empty and will be sluggish with poor quality fuel. Maybe in this day and age a better example is each of your phones, they do not perform without getting fuel. Your bodies are a machine and you need to fuel and rest it (includes hydration) if you want it to operate at a high level.

Bottom line is that in order to finish your puzzle and get closer to that "GREAT RACE" you need to step outside your comfort zone. If you stay in it and refuse to change anything how can you honestly expect anything to change in your races. Yes you may drop a little time but an average swimmer does that. Be better than average, strive to be great and step outside of that comfort zone.  

I leave you with this poem which has been passed down over the years and has changed a little

The Comfort Zone

I used to have a comfort zone, where I knew I couldn't fail
But the routine and familiar walls were really like a jail
I longed so much to do the things I'd never done before
But I stayed inside my comfort zone and swam the same old race

I said it didn't bother me that I wasn't doing much
I said I didn't care for things like self-esteem and such
I claimed to be contented with things inside my zone
But deep inside, I longed for that special race of my own.

I couldn't let my life go by just watching others win
So I held my breath, and stepped outside, to let the change begin
I took that step with inner strength I'd never felt before
I kissed my comfort zone "Goodbye", and closed then locked the door.

If you are in a comfort zone, afraid to venture out
Remember, every swimmer was once consumed with doubt
So don't hold back--just take that step and seek those pastures new
Embrace your races with a smile, the Great Race is there for YOU.


Next race  strategies    See you at the pool

happy birthday Sophia Rice on Sunday

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We are now into our 9th week of the season and with 3 meets behind us we are now getting ready for our mid-terms which are the next 3 big meets. Here is a look at what is coming up:

SWIM AND ROCK MEET: NOVEMBER 21-22-23 @OAK MARR 
This is a trails and finals meet on Saturday and Sunday and what that means is that the 11 and overs will swim prelims in the morning and the fastest 16 (13 and overs) and the fastest 8 (11-12 year olds) will return in the evening.  IF YOU MAKE THE FINALS YOU HAVE TO SHOW UP OR YOU NEED TO SCRATCH (COACHES APPROVAL) THE EVENT BEFORE LEAVING IN THE MORNING.  IF YOU DO NOT SCRATCH AND FAIL TO SHOW YOU WILL BE SCRATCHED FROM THE REMAINDER OF THE MEET.

I am aware that we have a lot of swimmers trying to get cuts for Lancaster so we are treating this as a championship meet.  This means that you may dust off those fast suits and get them ready,  shave if you need to although I know that you will swim fast because you wear that MAKO cap and Heather Shannon and I have prepared you, and now the spotlight is on you.   That being said if you have 3 events or more at Lancaster we should not be shaving or wearing that suit.  You should also not be swimming the events you are doing in Lancaster.   If you make finals we will than talk about which suit to wear.  Just make sure that the suit you wear is tight.

MAKO HOLIDAY MEET: DECEMBER 6 AND 7 @ GEORGE MASON
This is our championship meet for the first half of our season and if you are not going to Lancaster this is the meet that you should be entering.

DIPLOMAT HOLIDAY CLASSIC DECEMBER 12-13-14
All qualified swimmers should plan to attend this meet.

HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING :  We have several swimmers in our senior prep group who will be trying out for their respected High School teams next week.  All of us want to wish good luck to Helen Geddes, Audrey Hunter,  Peter Jones, Katie Karlinchak, Katie Krouse, Katie Pontzer, Caylan Roy.  Have fun and swim fast!

MEET WRAP UPS:  All of you have done an outstanding job in the last few meets.  We had a lot of you try some new events and longer events which will open more doors and hopefully give you more confidence when swimming the shorter events.  We had a lot of our Junior Gold swimmers Kai, Catherine L., Jessica B., Matthew H., open that door to the 400 IM and swim very well.  Also swimming their first 200 fly were Jessica B., Justin S., Peter M., Kent C., Kevin B., P.J., Joey D.,  all of who had great swims. Natalie F from the Gold group and Aaron W from the Blue group also swam their  first 1000 free this past Sunday and had some great splits.  Also swimming the 1000 this past week Joey D. and Jackson K. from the Prep group swam the 1000 and dropped over 50 seconds in the event.

I can see our confidence building as we progress though this season and I also see it translating into you events and races at the meet and this is fun to watch.  The result may not always be a best time, but at your stage of development I am looking at so many other things in your races that will help you down the road.

TODAY'S TOPIC  "MENTAL TOUGHNESS"

This is the time of year where your parents may take you in for your annual flu shots and as I was looking back at some of my notes over the weekend I decided that all of you also need a shot of mental toughness in your arms.  No worry NO NEEDLES just some light reading!

Athlete's coaches, peers, maybe sometimes parents refer to mental toughness as an explanation of why certain people fail under immense pressures, whereas others seem to excel during competition.  It's been said that competition is 10% physical and 90% mental.  The following is a quote from Vince Lombardi, " Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain.  It's qualities are sacrifice and self denial.  Also, most importantly it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in.  It's a state of mind you could call it character in action. "  A mental tough athlete will have complete trust in their ability, no matter how much stress they encounter, and they believe they will be SUCCESSFUL.  At the same time the mentally tough athlete will also understand that there will be those times when they will fail, and the question becomes how they handle that failure and move past it.
The following are some coping strategies to help you become a mentally tough athlete.

MENTAL IMAGERY:  How many times do you just show up at a meet, warm-up, sit down and just talk with friends, and then when it's time to swim head over, get on the blocks swim and come back.   What are you thinking as you stand behind the blocks?  Try to imagine stepping up having a great start and break out.  Feel your body and water unite as slide into that first turn and bounce off with all this speed.  Feel yourself as you increase your arm speed and drive those legs to the finish.  Imagine a great race

EFFORT EXPENDITURE:  When swimming you have to commit to your race, you can't just go through the motions.  Whatever is going on outside the pool, leave it at the door when you come in.  Regardless of your competition or the way you feel OWN YOUR SWIM and  SWIM WITH SOME HEART.

THOUGHT CONTROL:  Don't dwell on the negatives like I'm going to lose or I have to get a certain time or that swimmer is too fast.  These negatives act like extra baggage and only weigh you down both physically and mentally.  This is your race and to own it you need to focus on what you can control and that's this race and swimming fast.

RELAXATION:  Try to find time to relax during the meet, and re-energize your batteries.  Part of this is doing your proper warm-ups and warm-downs, stretching and staying hydrated.
This does not involve running around and being on your phones, and in fact if that is what you are doing your not there to swim fast.

ANALYSIS:  Analyze your performance.  Ask yourself; What were my weakness? strengths? Take that information back to practice and work on those areas so you move from a GOOD SWIM to a GREAT SWIM!

NEXT TOPIC COMFORT ZONE!     MIKE

WELCOME BACK

As we are now into our 6th week of practice and with one meet in our rear view mirror I thought it might be time to get this blog started for the season.

All athletes especially older ones will gather a certain amount of rust in the off season, and will have to spend the first part of the season working that rust off.  If your a baseball fan than you may notice that the pitchers always warm up to start the inning as they prepare to face the batters.  A swimmer too after sitting a while may have to do a 2nd or 3rd warm-up during the meet.   Yes it takes a little effort but it's often the little things that you may or may not do that will have the biggest impact on your races. 

After reviewing last seasons body of work, I have decided that one of my big themes for this year will be the little things, and one of the biggest is being prepared and not wasting a single minute.  We can never get that minute back so we are going to use every one of them.

All of you have been doing an outstanding job in this young season.  Your attention to the details has been outstanding, and we have come a long way in a short time.  Next week I will spend a little more time on the first 7 weeks but i wanted to get information out for the October Open this weekend at Lee District Pool.

FRIDAY  WARM UP-4:30-5:20  EVENTS START AT 5:20 WITH 200 BACK
500'S WILL BEGIN @5:40 SWIMMING FASTEST TO SLOWEST AND ALTERNATING GIRL HEAT/ BOY HEAT.
 
I am estimating that the n.t. swimmers will start their heats at around 7:10 so for those swimmers it is okay to arrive around 6:30 and we should be good.  for the rest of you it is possible to estimate your heat by checking the PVS site.  don't forget it goes from fast to slow, alternating girl/boy, using 10 lanes.

SATURDAY WARM UP 13 AND OVER 6:55-7:20 (2ND)
12 AND UNDER 11:55- 12:20 (2ND)

SUNDAY 13 AND OVER 6:30- 6:55 (1ST) 12 AND UNDER 11:30-11:55

There will be a few lanes to warm up in during the meet.

WEEKLY NOTE;

For the Junior Gold Group we spent Wednesday swimming all 500's for the day since alot of you are swimming the event for the first time. Some keys
AIR very important to start your breathing pattern off the start in order to stay fresh as long as possible. don't forget it takes 30 seconds for a breath of air to work its way to the muscles.
KICK- hard off all turns but keep it soft until that last 75 and than go for it!
TURNS- keep them tight and long and do not breathe on that first pull
STRATEGY- Think of it as 3 races in one. 2x200 and 1x100 First 200 a strong A-3 80-85%. Second 200 A-4 90% should be faster than first 200. last 100 is build to a sprint in that last 75. If you feel good go early.

Have fun with the event and see you at the pool!

Saturday and Day 4

Saturday would give some of us a little more time to sleep as we sent Coach Peter. And the two 400 IM swimmers over early for warm ups, while the rest of us would arrive at 7:45 to start ours. Elena started the last day off by dropping over 11 seconds in her 400 IM, Fletcher had a great race only to come up a little short. Justin was our next swimmer dropping over 9 seconds in his 100 fly. The 50 fly saw some amazing swims with best times posted by Lexi, Anthony, Ian, Lauren, and Marcelo
The 100 breast stroke saw great races by Faith, Anthony, and Kyle who all posted best times. Allison turned in a great 75 breast and fell a little short in that last 25 but we will keep working on that. Maggie was 2 seconds off her time but did enough to gain a spot in finals later in the day. Our little makos Justin and Katherine both posted best times in their 50 free. The last event of the day was the 200 free where Ellie, Lexi, Julia, Elena, all posted best times and Marcelo went under 1:50:00 for the first time. Faith after realizing that I really didn't care what she wanted and that she WAS going to swim the 200 free had a best time by over 7 seconds. Lauren and Gabby swam a great 200 free but came up a little short.

We would only have 2 relays (both 13-14) with Lauren Gabby Elena and Julia all swimming some good 100 free legs. After we found the boys (Ian Fletcher Marcelo Kyle ) we saw some great splits in their relay.


It would be a short turn around for finals (starting an hour early) on this last day, but it did not seem to affect us much as all 5 of our swimmers would post lifetime bests. It started with Lexi swimming to a second place in the 50 fly only getting out touched by .06. Immediately after that Anthony would step up and also swim to a second in the fly being out touched by .03, a pretty good start to the evening.


Not to be out done Maggie seeded 6th in the 100 breast also swam to a second place finish. Kyle would swim the 100 breast next and had a great race except for the little look. When asked about it he had a classic line "I wanted to see how far Michael Andrew was ahead of me." Our last swimmer for the meet was Katherine Helms in her 50 free and going under a 30 for the first time. A very good way to end the meet after some exciting races over 4 days.
Now it was time for Anthony to pull out his peeps to share with anyone who would have one. We now headed to the beach for a nigh to good pizza, ice cream, and most of all teammates, friendships and memories.


I will follow up when I return..

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FRIDAY DAY 3

FRIDAY and DAY 3


Today we all were up having breakfast early and than piled into the van and arrived for warm ups at 7:30. Today we found three lanes and had a pretty good warm up period. The younger kids would start their meet with the 100 IM and all three Mako swimmers Faith, Ellie , and Peter had best times. They would follow that with some incredible 100 backstroke swims with Lexi , Anthony , Peter , all posting best times. Lexi would be our only 100 fly in this group swimming a little off her time but setting her self up nicely for finals later in the evening. This group ended the day with the 100 free with Peter, Anthony, having two great swims.
The 13-14 year olds began their day with the 100 back with Lauren, Maggie , Ian, all posting best times for the year. In the most exciting race between Mako swimmers Fletcher (2:22:46) would just out touch Kyle (2:22:49) in the 200 breast and making finals leaving Kyle 11th and on the outside looking in. The swimming gods must have been smiling as Kyle was scratched into finals later in the day. Maggie would also swim again in finals after her morning swim. The next event was the 100 fly with Marcelo, and Elena posting about their same times. The 100 free would also be the last event for this group with Julia, Lauren, Ian, Marcelo, all having some great swims.
Again our 3 relays. Made it to finals and would be swim mining the evening.
Friday finals saw Lexi swimming best times in the 100 fly and the 100 back stroke. Not to be out done Peter also had 2 events in finals swimming best times in the 100 IM and proving me wrong by swimming a52.56 in the 100 free. Another swimmer with 2 events in finals was Anthony swimming lifetime best in the 100 free and back. Single events swimmers in finals were Ian in the 100 free (same best time from morning), Maggie in the 200 breast, and the rematch of Kyle and Fletcher in the 200 breast stroke with Kyle posting another best time and winning. The relays again had some great swims with the lead offs swimming lifetime bests.

 

Now it was back to the hotel to prepare for our last day of swimming.

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