HOW TO TAKE OWNERSHIP

The very first step in this process you actually learned from your parents at a very young age and that is honesty.  Make no mistake about it everything begins with truth and that includes your swimming.  When you are ready to be honest with yourself it will require one very critical thing that swimmers often overlook, and that is “What do ?I really want?"

 

Over the years I have seen many swimmers just “Dive In” and start swimming without really understanding the process or why they are doing it.  Without understanding the process they have no roadmap to their final destination.  They develop habits that will carry them throughout their swimming years.  Some of these habits are GOOD, but some tend to be bad also.  Often swimmers will get sucked into just swimming laps and will forget to focus on the little things coaches are teaching within the set.  For instance the other day all three of our groups did a set that looked like this; 12 or 8 x75 (50 free-25 back) or 8x50 (25 free-25back) depending on the group.  The two main things to focus on for the set was “get to the 10" meter mark off the walls and the second was open turns off ever wall keeping are head in line and getting our hips turned into the wall quickly.  Now last I checked we all speak English but watching the set I started to wonder if we were having a communication lapse because some of us were all over the place.

 

The point I am getting to is this, sometimes we take the time to do the work but we come up short when trying to focus on the little things in the sport that will make us happy and successful.  I was told once that I was hard on swimmers when watching races.  I can accept that to an extent.  I am always happy for a best time because the time is an instant gratification which is the world we live in, BUT in the long run I get more excited when the swimmer executes what we have worked on in practice, which relates back to the process.

I understand that most if not all swimmers will have more failures than successes as they go through their swimming years, but if you go through the process correctly and trust it you will have a best time at those important meets, most of the time.

 

Simply showing up for practice/meets is only the first step.  The process involves being on time with the proper mind set.  Just this past weekend a swimmer said to me “I’m just not feeling it today”, (this will put your coach in a bad mood) about a half hour before the race.  I had to bite my tongue because I wanted to be brutally honest with my reply.  The next thing is proper warm ups and warm downs.  I have watched many swimmers leave a meet with no warm down and than wonder why they are sore later on.  Yes parents even your little ones should warm down, even if its a 50.  Its correct that they may not need one, but again my job is to teach them about the sport and how to be successful as a senior level swimmer.  Again the “PROCESS."

 

As for practice I believe I have demonstrated that the focus of the set should be doing things correctly not just some of the time, but all of the time.  During your sets think of it this way; Am I practicing just for a time, ore am I practicing for success and the chance for a Personal Best?  Remember those three kids in my pool at the gym, I could have just timed them no practice needed.  Just a thought!

 

Hey if you all have topic for me let me know

 

See you this week. Mike

OWWNERSHIP and JO EVENTS

I have been asked a lot of questions about choosing Your JO events, and that is awesome that some of you are thinking about them.  First off JO’s is where our plan and all your hard work come together, and the time of the year you should be at your best both physically and mentally.  Use the next feel weeks to fine tune all the small details in your events, catch up and get ahead in your school work, get the proper rest and nutrition and above all stay healthy, so you place yourself in the best possible situation to swim fast.  For our 14 year olds this will b e your last JO’meet so enjoy it!

 

CHOOSING YOUR EVENTS

 

This is a 4 day trials and finals meet.  The first step is break the meet into 4 days and write ALL the events for the day in your age group on a piece of paper in the order they fell including relays.  Step two place an asterisk next to all there events that you have qualified for.  Step three place a second asterisk next to your very best events.  We would really like to get this list down to two events a day.  Take into consideration where events fall in the meet and what heat you may be in.  For the 10 and under session it is a very quick turn around so PLEASE remember that.  Take into account that there are also relays that we will enter into the meet and you Will be expected to swim if asked.  We WILL NOT do the 800 free relay on Friday so cross that off your list.  There are no relays for 10 and under’s on Friday.  Understand that relays are at the beginning and at the end of the meet.  I have already had several requests for lead off spots and will consider all of them but the final decision will be the coaches and will be made at the meet.  NO promises will be made by ANYONE before as things can and will change leading up to the meet and as we work our way through the weekend.

 

After you have done all of the above and your comfortable with it, I will be more than happy to sit down and go over your plan with you.

 

“TAKING OWNERSHIP OF YOUR SWIMMING"

 

All athletes need to understand that whatever sports they participate whether you succeed or fail ultimately comes down to the person staring back at you in the mirror.  Your parents, friends, teammates are there to offer support in the good times as well as there bad times.  The coaches are also there to offer not only their support but also to help guide you and to put you into a position to succeed.

 

At some point all athletes/swimmers will face failure and disappointment with results.  Get use to it because it is called life, just ask your parents.  Swimmers struggle with these disappointments all through their careers, as do all athletes from the PEE WEE leagues through high school into college and yes, even at the professional level.  Ask the Patriots and KEVIN (Had to put that in).  They will spend all this wasted energy struggling with all kinds of excuses to justify or reason with the results.  I’ve heard them all through the years, although the best one was years ago when a swimmer had forgotten their googles.  The excuse was my mother used therm last night in the kitchen when she was peeling onions.   For the first time I had no come back for that one!

 

These excuses cover the gambit from “I’m so tired”, “water too cold”, coach didn’t prepare me, practices were not hard enough, not enough rest between events.  Why do we make excuses?  They help us deal with and justify the result in our minds at race time.  

 

Years ago I observed two different ways some of our swimmers handled adversity. The first took place 7 or 8 years ago Heather’s daughter LOGAN and Peter’s daughter RACHEL.  I feel so bless to always be coaching kids from other coaches, anyway both girls made finals so we stopped for lunch and knowing the two of them I in formed them to be careful of what they ate.  My first mistake was I did not follow them around.  Anyway we are back at the pool for finals and I told them to warm up and get ready, I still do not know if they got in. However I notice the two of them sitting behind the blocks propped up against the wall and Rachel is just sobbing on Logans shoulder in her practice suit.  Her race is minutes away and she is a mess.  Her biggest worry her dad was going to see her on TV in a practice suit at finals (which he did and I heard about minutes later by text, oh and that is why I no longer carry my phone at meets) and that she was going to get sick.  I still don’t know how Rachel and I did it but she gained her composure and swam her event and yes in the practice suit.  I asked Logan what was the problem and she took me back to lunch where they had gone next door and had this great  big piece of “cheese cake”.  All she could say was “It was so good….”.  Wonderful I hope you both get sick

Point was they knew it was wrong but they took ownership of what happened and performed well anyway.

 

The next example happened about 3 or 4 years ago again in Florida at finals, but involved LEXI.  I got her to the pool late for her first event one evening.  The way I understood that it went down was that as I was parking the van Lexi walked through the doors and over to the block (I think she ran). You have to understand that her heat was just getting into the pool (backstroke event) as she arrived to the block.  Lexi dropped her bag, removed her warm ups and hopped in the pool with her practice suit.  She went her best time as she won the event.  Again an example of no excuse just get to work and whatever happens, happens.

 

A lot of times we will make all kinds of excuses, because we only want to take OWNERSHIP of our success, but on the other hand blame the world for our failures.  I see it all the time where swimmers dive into the pool thinking they are owed a best time.  It is so much easier to sit back and expect success and not have to work for it, or take ownership of the process.  When you don’t take ownership of the process bad things tend to happen and then you may find yourself on that slippery slope that will result in more failures than success.  We become less detail oriented which creates an environment where mediocrity grows like a weed and it’s ugly.

 

“If it’s success you want in the pool or life then you need to wrap your head around the fact that  it’s completely on YOU."

It’s not your coach, friends, or parents, It’s YOU. They are your support group. Take ownership and be honest when you talk to the person in the mirror!

 

Next week How to take ownership!   Mike

 

 

IMX MEET WRAP UP

On Monday Coach Heather asked if this meet was one that we should do in the future.  I told her to give me a few days to think about it because there are advantages and disadvantages.   I know the parking was an issue but on Friday the university thought we were starting at four so they were prepared and on Sunday they had a basketball game so we had to park a distance.  In fact it took me over an hour to find my car Sunday night and when I did it had a ticket on it, I guess I had the wrong lot. Sunday morning it was dark and raining so I just wanted to be on time.  Oh by the way you can bet I am passing that ticket off to Coach Heather one way or another. Disadvantages that I took from this meet were that it was a long day for some coaches who spent 12 hours at the pool all three days, but then again it was not much different then any other meet if you attended all three sessions, just an extra day.  I know for the parents the events were long ones to watch and I really appreciate the support you gave your swimmers and myself. Several coaches said that we should positive check in the 500 free on Friday because we could have saved 9 heats and been finished over an hour early.  I pointed out that though that would have been great for coaches, the swimmers would suffer because they may have to be on deck longer not knowing when their heat would swim. As for the meet itself I think it offers the swimmers a chance to challenge themselves in a unique environment where all swimmers swim the entire program and not just events or strokes they like.  It gives the coaches a real chance to see how they swim the strokes and how they execute the race.  It allows more one on one time between coach and swimmer to talk over technique also.   As we worked through the meet our Mako swimmers did very well.  If my calculations are correct we improved our times in all the races except for four events and three of them were right on their best times.  We had a lot of our swimmers winning their heats.  It was also exciting to see how they could carry that energy into the third day and still drop time.  Now of course some of our 12 and under girls were only swimming their entry times in the first event Sunday (100 back). But after going over and letting them know that the boys were making them look silly they picked it up and dropped time in all of their last events which was the 200 IM. I think that in the end we get more from a meet like this during this time of the season then we get from a January Open meet.   The kids who swam this meet had to swim 6 long events over a three day period and in the end, I believed they gained an enormous amount of confidence going into championship season. Hopefully in the future more swimmers from Makos will take advantage of this unique swimming event! 

IMX ACTION

Our 12 and under's at the IMX meet after warm ups getting ready for the first of their three events

Saturday done the 200 fly and the 200 IM.  Looks like theyare excited for the 200 breast.    

Bad Swim

Just had to share this with you today.  After practice this morning I went to the gym and after a short workout headed to the pool planning to get a long 2500 yard stretch out swim after this past weekend.  The swimstarted out great but suddenly half way in it started to go down hill. This being a day off from school these two ladies decided that they were going to bring their 3 kids from the day care room to the pool to play.   😂Excuse me ladies this is for lap swimming only.  Now you all know I have nothing against kids but this was after a weekend of only seeing kids and having Sara and Claire following me around the deck. I needed a break .  But no these three were determined to undermine my swim one way or another.  First their noodle floated into my lane and then of course, not one but all three of them had to come over to get it. Next it was let's throw a ball back and forth across the pool (4 lanes so it's possible), but not for these kids.  I don't think they could do it even if I gave them a dollar.   

I finally came to the conclusion that this was going to be a problem. I could let this problem get to me and stress me out, or I could work the problem.  After getting permission from the moms I told the three to go get the kickboards in the corner and we were going to play a game.  

Excited they retrieved the boards and I spent 10 minutes showing them different things they could do with them. At the end I told them that now we are going to race and that the winner gets to sit out while the others had to race.  After the first race one down, two left.  After two races two gone one left.  Now the last one had to race me and of course I lost so the three of them were out of the pool. 

At first they thought they were getting back in, but I explained to them that they always wanted to wait for 10 minutes before they were ready to race again.  The mothers gave them a snack I got another 700 yards in during intermission.   PROBLEM SOLVED

How do you look at an unexpected problem during your day?

Going through IMX Thoughts now more later.  Mike

IMX MEET

Everyone swimming this weekend should have gotten notice about the 500 for Friday afternoon/evening.  I did the best to figure out your heats and time for the event.  This could change a little after positive check in is completed, but should should not be by a lot as I don't feel there will be  too many scratches.

I will check in all our swimmers when I get there at noon unless I hear differently.  After the meet begins as always I will not have my phone with me as I will devote my attention to you all.  As you get there get settled and go through your warmup, which is as follows for this event;

SENIOR PREP
200 swim. 200 kick. 200 drill swim. For drill do stop-stop-switch and stay long
5x50 free build 1-2 seconds faster each 50
100 swim kick swim kick
2x 4x25 easy fast
100 warm down
Get out and stay warm

Junior Gold
150 swim 150 kick 150 swim drill use stop-stop-switch
4x50 free build. 1-2 seconds faster each 50
100 swim kick swim kick
2x 4x25 easy fast
100 warm down
Get out and get warm

DO NOT HESITATE TO GET BACK IN FOR A QUICK WARM UP PRIOR TO RACE.
100 stretch out and 4-6 all out 25's. After this your event should start 10-15 minutes

SWIMMING THE RACE
Find that easy speed for that first 100( starting to SLOW will hamper the swim). Try and negative split that first 100 so you can get into your pace for the middle and then negative split that last 100 for a great finish.  YOU HAVE 19 turns so be aggressive on all of them. Move that first breath to the second arm movement off the walls.  YOU'VE DONE IT IN PRACTICE.  TRUST YOUR TRAINING.

We may ask some of you too count for some of your teammates if possible.  After you swim get out of there and get some rest.

Looking forward to some great races!   Mike

IMX MEET

The Gold Group and I sat down on Wednesday to go over the meet schedule for the next two months. The Senior Prep group and I will be going over the meet schedule this afternoon.  I have a preliminary list of the swimmers signed up for the IMX meet coming up at the end of this month and there seems to be some confusion with this meet.  This is not a typical meet where we pick and choose which events OR days we are swimming.

PURPOSE OF MEET:

The IMX meet is a motivational program whereby swimmers will be scored and ranked nationally on their performance in a combination of five or six events.  The purpose of the program is to promote versatility in age group swimming while advocating greater participation and development across a range of events that are integral to long term success in swimming.  The events are as follows; 10 and under’s 200IM, 200 FREE, 100 BACK, 100 BREAST, 100 FLY.  11 AND 12 YEAR OLDS; 500 FREE, 200 IM, 100 BACK, 100 BREAST, 100 FLY.  13 AND OVERS 200 IM, 400 IM, 500 FREE, 200 BACK, 200 BREAST, 200 FLY.  This is the program for each age group.  After swimming the events in your program your score is totaled and you are able to see where you rank on your team, in the region and across the country.

This meet will be fun but grueling and one of the few meets where each swimmer swims every event.  If for some reason you are not planning to commit to all three days and all the events, YOU SHOULD NOT ENTER THIS MEET!  As I stated before this is not a meet to just pick and choose events because unless you swim all of the events in your program your score will not be totaled.

If you are just swimming a particular event for time, you should be entering the January Open or one of the qualifier meets in the next month.

Any questions Please ask me.  Mike