NASA CLEARWATER SWIMMERS

WE want to congratulate all 26 swimmers who qualified for the National meet in Clearwater Florida. This is a TEAM TRAVEL MEET which will require a few things from you the swimmer. First off everyone is to wear MAKO TEAM ATTIRE traveling to and from meet, and while on deck. I will try to wear a gold shirt so that you can spot me on deck easier. EVERYONE travels to the meet for warmups regardless of what time your event is. After you swim in the morning you are free to leave with your parents but you must be back at the hotel to travel to finals. Don't forget this is a four day meet so you need to rest as the meet progresses and if your legs are tired it will be tough.

 

We are coming off a great JO MEET and now the challenge will be to see if we can keep that needle moving forward. Our sucess or lack of is in our hands everyday through the choices we make. As a student/athlete alot of choices made away from the classroom and pool will will likel;y determine our success in those venues. I know we have spring break this coming week, but it would be wise to spend a little time each day catching up on reading assignments and other work so the following week you might have a little less stress. As for swimming I am posting a couple of workouts below that you should do. They should take about 45 minutes and there is some aerobic work to hold onto your conditioning and some speed work. Do one skip a day and than do the other. Be accountable and you will be in a better position to move forward, but if you look for or make excuses you may be a victim of circumstances beyond yourt control. THE STOP WATCH NEVER LIES!

 

WORKOUT #1 WARM-UP MEET WARM UP (200 free/ 4x50 descend) (200 kick/ 3x50 descend) (200 IM 25 drill/ 25 swim)

9x75 (25kick/25 stroke/25free) rest 15

16x25 very fast free @30

warmdown

 

WORKOUT#2 WARM-UP (200 FREE/ 200KICK/ 200 IM/FREE)

6X50 3FREE/ 2 STROKE/FREE 1 STROKE (3 ROUNDS) Rest 15-20 between each 50

4x25 very fast stroke (15 seconds rest) 100 free easy and smooth (3 rounds)

 

approach these workouts with a purpose of getting Better and holding onto your speed. do not just swim up and down the pool.

 

HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK AND DON'T FORGET MAKE CHOICES THAT WILL HELP YOU IN THE FUTURE! MIKE

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THURSDAY NIGHT JO RECAP

Tonight we started off the 2016 JO meet at University of Maryland with some great swims in the distance events. First in the water swimming the 1000 free was Jackson K. After we got Coach Peter's last minute text with some pointers he was off to set the trend for some fast swimming from the team. Holding a great pace he shaved off 14 seconds from his entry time.

Next up were our 3 11-12 year olds swimming a 500 free. Graham wasthe first to attack the pool and shaved off over 5 seconds. Next in was Kevin C. who we are still a liittle con fused as to his final time. We know he shaved at least 5 seconds off and maybe even 8 but /i could have been wrong. something with the scoreboard. It was now time to head down to the other pool for Katherine H. and her 500. After setting afast pace on her first 50 she settled ino the exact pace we set, but of corse she went from a 34 to a 31 on the last 50. A little left at the end I would say.

A GREAT START TO THE WEEKEND GUYS AND GIRL!!!

 

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All JO swimmers the time has come to put away any doubts you may have and let that big dog out over the next 4 days. We are looking forward to seeing how our plans and your hard work over the last 7 months come together out at the University Maryland.

 

Don't forget that a four day meet is long and you need to be able to sustain your energy level over the entire weekend. This will involve showing up on time for warmups, and doing that warmup with a purpose of swimming fast. This is not the meet to show up an hour before you swim because your on your own in lanes where anything can happen. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE! Next thing is keep your muscles warm in between swims. Just because you may not be cold YOUR MUSCLES are screaming to stay warm so they will be able to do what you ask during the races. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE! make sure you do your warm-down immediately after your race, and if needed do your second warm-ups! MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE! Stay hydrated, drink water! If that little man in your head says not thristy drink anyway. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES! Eat! Eat! Eat! and no junk food. Your body is a machine and it needs fuel, I have yet to see a car run well on junk gas and they don't go far on an empty tank. NEITHER WILL YOUR BODIES! MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES

 

TOPIC- "DOUBTS"

Doubts can creep into a swimmer mind at any time when they start thinking in the negative! It can be as simple as thinking or even saying I'M TIRED, or I DON'T WANT TO SWIM THAT, or I DON'T FEEL GOOD. Once you open that door to doubt your probably already in trouble. You start to question everything, Am I going to make a mistake and get DQ, or am I going to die in that last 25? The natural thing to do than is to play it safe and stay in your comfort zone, but this will also cause you and your muscles to tense up and not be relaxed, and all of this could spiral into a poor performance. Also do not spend a lot of time or energy on where you are seeded, remember all those times are history and they only are good for two things. They got you into this meet and they gave you a lane to swim in. Turn his thinking around as you are behind the blocks and as you step up say to yourself "WHY NOT ME TODAY?" and than go m out and win the heat and good times will follow.

DARE TO SWIM GREAT EACH AND EVERY RACE! HAVE FUN MIKE

 

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Workouts for Friday March 4th / Saturday March 6th

Hey guys a couple of you have asked about this blog. I have been trying to get in but with all these passwords and email addresses I get confused.   With some help I will get it figured out.

Anyway here are some workouts to do either Friday or Saturday, pick one.  Should not take any longer than an hour.  

Don't forget you need to make smart choices to give you a chance at swimming fast.  OWN YOUR RACE

WORKOUT 🏊 warm up 200 free.  4x50 free descend@50/. 200 kick  3x50 descend@ 1:05. 200 IM drill swim/ 12x25@35. Odds stroke 12.5 fast 12.5 smooth  evens free fast. Work your breakouts!

Set🏊16x50 odds stroke/free swim
Evens kick 25 fast 25 easy.  Rest 15-20

SET🏊750
2x100 free@1:30/ 1x50 kick @ 1:15
2x100 free@ 1:20/1x50 kick @1:15
2x100 free @1:15/ 1x50 kick @1:15
All swims fast
Warm down 200

WORKOUT #2
Warmup. 400 free rest 10/ 300 pull rest 10/ kick 200 rest 10/ 100 IM rest 10
4x50 free@45

SET🏊 4x100 (3 rounds)
1 and 2 free @. 1:20/1:30
3. IM@ 1:30/1:40
4 kick@. 2:15

SPEED SET 🏊
16x25. @35
Odds stroke 12.5 fast/ 12.5 smooth
Evens free fast
Work. Breakouts

200 warm down

Have a good time.  Mike

GREAT FIRST WEEK

It was awesome seeing all of you again this past week, and I hope that those of you who are new to Makos this season enjoyed the week as much as I did and made some new friends along the way. Matt and I enjoyed woking with such a talented group that we had on Saturday morning. Watching practices and seeing how all of you handled the workouts we are very excited with the possibilities that are possible this season.

Matt, Emma and I talked this week as to our planning of practice. We are trying to make sure that we are on the same page to accomodate those of you who may be combining am/pm workouts. Although intervals and yardage may vary a little the general outline will be the same.

 

WEEK IN REVIEW: The Gold Group and the Senior Prep group spent most of this past week working on the aerobic side of training. Why you ask? All of you have been out of the water for 6 or more weeks so we are no where near the same shape that you were in back in August or April. Oh by the way water polo, sharks and minnows, Marco/Polo, duck-duck-goose, and laying out don't count as being in the pool.

 

A lot of the work involved our long axis strokes (free and back) as this is the best and quickest way to get back to a level where we can really start to train. As you noticed the early part of the season will also involve a lot of kicking as that will be vital to finish your races during the year. As we go through our kicking sets try to channel your energy to the hips and legs and don't forget to tighten up those core muscles as your working.

 

No I didn't forget you Blue monsters, but your workouts were a little different for the first week. The first day we spent a lot of time talking and going over everyting from entering meets, equipment needed, and goal sheets. When we got into the water we went through all the strokes to make sure we were ALL legal and you guys were awesome. We did some technique work in free trying to focus on swimming TALL. We also spent alot of time on our ready position and leaving the walls correctly EVERY time and not just when you feel like it. Leaving the wall is the foundation for 5 out of the 7 turns in your swimming events.

 

THIS WEEK: All practices are normal this week as we prepare for our first meet of the season this weekend. For the Gold group the anwser is no we don't skip FRIDAY to rest for the meet. The training especially this time of year is vital for our success that we are going to have come Championship time. Sometimes it is important to swim meets when your tired so that when we do rest a little you will be fresh and full of energy and feel like anything is possible. As you work your way through the meet this weekend stay with in yourself, and don't make the meet bigger than it is. If you don't stay relax your muscles tighten and there will be a domino of bad things that come your way. Try and learn to carry your energy level through the entire meet and some of that will depend on how well you stay hydrated and how you fuel yourself during the meet. The other side of the coin is don't let what you may think is a bad swim affect the rest of the races. Remember it's early get feed back and than move on and we will deal with it at practice next week. A BAD TIME DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAAL A BAD SWIM. This is a oppurtunity to learn and get better.

 

LET'S HAVE A GREAT WEEK OF PRACTICE AND ENJOY YOURSELVES NEXT WEEKEND AS YOU GET BACK TO THE FUN PART OF SWIMMING RACING

 

MIKE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OWN YOUR RACE! DOLPHINS RULE! THE COACHES

WELCOME BACK

Welcome back to all of our returning Senior Prep, Junior Gold, and Junior Blue swimmers. I would also like to extend a great big WELCOME to all the new swimmers in these groups. I am looking forward to seeing all of you this week, and also to getting started on our new journey that will take us to championship season in March.

This is the time of year when we have a chance for new beginnings as a student, swimmer,and for myself as your coach. We remember our success from the past, but it is time to store them in our memory chip and to start anew.

As a student you have now had a week in school to get adjusted to new classes, new teacher, a new work load, and of course the new time schedule. Your teachers have planned your year and have gone over what is expected of you, and you have now had some time to soak it in and figure out what you need to do in order to be successful as a student. Some words of wisdom, keep up with all the assignments and projects that you have. Please do not put it off until the last moment as this will increase your stress level and there will be a domino effect in other areas of your life, including your swimming.

Don't forget you are a STUDENT ATHLETE not a athlete/student (notice which noun is first).

As a swimmer your journey towards the March championship season starts today. I made a note last year in February to remind everyone that you can't wait until December or January to make the decision to start working hard to get your cuts. If you do you are only leaving it to chance.

This is both a mentally and physically demanding sport, but also one in which you can derive a huge sense of accomplishment and fun from if you embrace the process and enjoy the journey. Let's turn our thinking around some this year and find a way to be better in the pool each day and not just at meets. As you go through practice think of winning the warmup, then each set, and then each repeat in that set.

 

Make the right choices -

WINNING THE DAY. LOSING THE DAY

DON'T MISS. MISSING PRACTICE

BE ON TIME. BEING LATE

HAVING WATER. NO WATER

ALWAYS STREAMLINE. SKIPPING STREAMLINES

COREECT TURNS ALWAYS. IMPROPER TURNS

NO BREATH OFF WALLS. BREATHING OFF WALLLS

UNDERWATER FLY KICKS. NO KICKS OFF WALLS

Focus on BEING YOUR BEST TODAY!

This week we will spend some time going over goal sheets and after talking about your goals I would like each of you to take about a week to think about them and get them back to us.

Mike

OWN YOUR RACE! MAKOS RULE! THE COACHES