ARE WARM UPS IMPORTANT

How serious to you approach your warm ups at practice or meets?  Is it really that important? As with almost all issues in society everyone has an opinion. The first thing that you need to understand is that contrary to beliefs it is not just “MINDLESSLY SWIMMING “ in the 🏊‍♀️.  It should and will set the tone for the practice or meet that you are going to ask of your bodies and put you in a mindset to be successful.  It amazes me to sloppy swimming during this time at practice and that is because habits (good or bad) can be developed during this time.  It is up to you to CHOOSE whether they will be good or bad.   

We do not just put a garbage warmup on the board for you to do.  Each of our warmups have a direct impact and is designed to prepare you for what we are trying to accomplish on any given day, thus our warmups are never the same.  You may ask, But the meet warmup is always the same. Good observation you rascals!  Yes it is and it is designed to get you ready to swim fast.  It is also designed to keep your stress levels down and hopefully keep you relax.  You all do not need traffic 👮‍♀️ standing at your lanes barking directions at you.  I never felt relaxed 😎 when any of my coaches did that regardless of the sport. You all know what you need to do and so accept the responsibility and get it done, and that includes that second warmup and the warm down.

Another thing I have observed is that after your last event some of you figure the day is over and I can just leave.  BIG MISTAKE!  That warm down is very important!  The worse thing you can do for your body is to just walk out, get in a 🚘 and go 🏡.  Your bodies and muscles 💪 will tighten and become very stiff which will produce a feeling or tiredness and soreness.  The next day it will take that much longer to work out all that stiffness which is never a good thing.  You’ve been given these bodies so let’s be nice to them and take care of them.

And above all, Be aware of what you are doing during warmups and pick one ☝️ little thing to improve on and get ready for what is to follow.

SWIM AND ROCK OH 👦 

MEET WARM UP

Just a quick reminder for your meet warmups this weekend

200 smooth and relax swim

4x50 descend swim@50

200 kick on back

3x50 descend kick @1:00

100 stroke swim drills

8x50 choice @1:00 (25easy 25 fast) @1:00

2x25 fast from dive

Let’s come in focus and put in a great effort as we prepare to go in strong 💪 for the swim and rock meet.  

We have spent a lot of time in the past few weeks with our work on the walls and our underwater.  Important to remember not to sacrifice speed for distance off those walls.  

This is a great meet to try something new and step outside of your comfort zones as you prepare for the mid season championship meets.

Some people say good luck but you don’t need luck. You all have worked hard so just swim 🏊‍♀️ your race and have fun racing.

SPORTSMANSHIP

Okay you all know that I am a Cowboy fan so today is a little gloomy 😞 as I stood in line to vote this morning, and no it’s not the ☔️ or the impending doom and gloom that will be reported from the media on this voting day.  It’s something that happened early in that football 🏈 game last night, that is a reflection on all athletes.  After the Titans intercepted a pass in the end zone and immediately ran to the middle of the field where the cowboy star ⭐️ is and began celebrating,  ow I know all you Redskin fans were on the floor laughing 😂 and giving ✋ to anyone in your vicinity.  Enjoy the moment but than tank a look at what these professional athletes are teaching our younger athletes, and that is SPORTSMANSHIP.    Now don’t get me wrong I am all for a little 🎉 celebration in the end zone with your teammates,  but to go to the middle of the field and make it about you and to disrespect your fellow athletes goes to far.  Have your little celebration but come on man your a professional and it’s your job and act like you’ve been their before and keep your ego in check.  

Now on the other side of the field I was expecting an all out brawl that should still be going on in the middle of the field with the riot squad being called in to restore peace and order, but know a lone Dallas Cowboy 🤠 showed up and gave the criminal what a would call a gentle shove.  What no teammate for support!   Shoot i wanted to jump into that television take the ball and bounce the 🏈 off this lost souls head.What that told me right than and there was this game is over Dallas will lose so off to bed 🛌 I went.  There was no passion, energy excitement, sense of urgency or whatever you want to call it, but whatever game over.  Pack up and go 🏡, thanks for coming.

Today I look at it from a different angle, and I am reaching here so bare with me.   Just maybe the ENTIRE Dallas team was embarrassed 😳 by what transpired and realized that the reason that TITAN was standing on their ⭐️ was their fault, and if they didn’t like it than stop 🛑 them on the next series and prevent it from happening again.  Never happened as I realized last night and found out to no surprise when I saw the final score.

How does this relate to us in swimming?  Two things, the first being that the first step to success in any sport is some passion, effort, and positive energy and emotions when participating.  If you don’t have it, GAME OVER.  

The second is that I’ve been around for a while and I have seen a range of emotions from athletes and coaches after both victories and defeats.  Some good, some bad.  Always remember this sport is bigger than you, and that you are know more special than any other swimmer, maybe faster, maybe more victories, but  it more special.  Those other swimmers are there  also to improve, friends, practice, and just the fact they enjoy the sport.  So next time you show frustration, throw the goggles in a fit of rage remember everyone sees and judges.  React with excitement but with the realization that this is what you have trained for and expected of yourself.

I would have still thrown the 🏈 at him.  

THE SALESMAN AND EFFORT

MARLIN INVITATIONAL 

Friday Warm up 4:00-4:50. Meet starts at 5pm

For Friday events please have a timer and lane counters for your events. You also must positive check in your events. I will check you in as long as you let me know before Friday.

Saturday and Sunday Warm up 7:00-7:50. Meet starts at 8:00 am

They will be using 2 pools for Saturday and Sunday sessions. One pool will be 13 and over girls and 12 and under boys.  The other pool will be 13 and over boys and 12 and under girls.

On Sunday the 12 and under boys 200 free will move to the other pool to help with the time line.

WE ARE NOT SUITING UP FOR THIS MEET!!

Our groups finished off last week with a great EFFORT at practice on Friday and Saturday.  We spent a lot of time bringing the whole week together with a lot of IM work with great transitions and wall work.  Our underwater work is looking fantastic 👍 and now let’s see if we can carry it into our races the next two weekends. Yes it will tax you both physically and mentally but if you are prepared to step out of your comfort zones and give it a shot, you may be pleasantly 😲.  The best part is that you will learn that though it may hurt you did survive and will live to 🏊‍♀️ another day.

EFFORT

There always is a lot of talking about lack of effort, or lack of so called effort.  Effort involves more than races and the stop watch, it involves so much more and can be all encompassing.  Remember at the beginning of the year when we talked about time management and how you spend so much time away from the pool. Are we putting in the extra effort with school, nutrition, and your sleep 💤 patterns, it all affects the bottom line at practice and on race day.

All athletes want to get better and sometimes we look for shortcuts to that goal.  Do you reach for that energy drink, or it may be the wearing of that TECH SUIT.  Athletes tend to grab anything to make them better than they were yesterday.  Salesman’s pitch is always to say what you want to 👂 and not necessarily what you need to know.  Instead of looking for gimmicks look 👀 into our mirror, and ask that person if they are giving a “good effort” at practice or am I just showing up.  The world is full of people who just show up!  Which one are you?

Putting in a good effort is not only limited to 🏊‍♀️ fast. It is how you swim, it begins by knowing the focus of the warmup.  Are you working your walls and a good technique or is it just sloppy swimming?  During the sets are you focused in on th purpose of the set or just trying to survive?  There are always days when you aren’t feeling it, we all have been their even your coaches.  Those are the days you need to dig deep check your “gut”  and put in a great effort.  When you can go through a day like that and walk away from a great 👍 effort, you walk away feeling proud, and that says a lot about your character 

Let’s have a good week

Halloween

Hope everyone in the Gold and Blue groups enjoy your day away from 🏊‍♀️ and you have your costumes ready for the evening.  You have probably heard this from Mom and Dad but stay with your group and be safe.  Please do your bodies a favor and watch that sugar intake over the next few days.  We all know it tastes good but the hours that follow a big increase in your sugar levels will not be kind, just ask Jackie.

The next two weeks will be a busy time for all of us as we prepare for the Marlin Meet, and the all exciting Swim and Rock the following weekend.  As we get ready for this I thought I would spend a little time going over what we have been doing.  This serves as both a quick reminder to each of you and gives your parents some input so they know what you have been doing.

One of the big things I have noticed in the first two weeks is our lack of aggressiveness with our walls.   We are always 👨🏻‍🏫👩🏻‍🏫talking to you and reminding you just how important your under water dolphin🐬 kicks are and how this is really the fifth stroke.  We went back and reviewed our early plan and decided that we need to insert a set to address this for all the groups.  We will continue this for the next few weeks with some variations to it and also by including something into the sets.  You all have been awesome because we have definitely seen the improvement and are excited about seeing each of you include this element into your races over the next few weeks.  Above all it’s not a quick fix, and it takes time but we see the improvement, so keep up the great work!

In all three groups we have spent a lot of time over the last few weeeks on our fly and you all have responded very well to what we were trying to accomplish.  One of the big thing we have stressed in setting up your breathing pattern.  We talked about how you can get away without breathing too much in the 50, but as that distance increases your 💪 need that oxygenated blood to perform efficiently, so remember our saying “breathe, breathe, don’t breathe”.  For our swimmers in the blue group it is important to get adequate air in your 50’s but please not every stroke.  For everyone we should never be breathing on those first strokes off ANY wall no matter what stroke.  Wait a minute “my bad” you can breathe in back.😁

The Blue group has spent a couple of weeks working on counting our strokes in back and how a proper turn is done.  This will always be a work in progress for this group as they are growing and they refine their strokes.  Just so the parents understand as  I look at the program i will stay with a particular item long enough to foster a muscle memory for your swimmer.  This way we hope they are able to draw on that in a race.  Thus the need for pool time and consistency.Keep up the good work!

The Senior Prep group in addition to working on a lot of fly have started using their tempo trainers during practice and have responded very well as we work on getting their optimum stroke rates.

The always exciting Gold group has been doing a lot of the same things, and we have paid a lot of attention to our transitions at the walls.  Parents note we did not use the term turn because it’s not, all they are doing is changing directions and we are trying to keep the head in line as we throw our hips into the wall.

For all the groups we will be putting a lot of speed work in the next few weeks as we get ready for the meets.

Thanks Parents

HAVE A GREAT NIGHT🎃🎃🎃

🎃HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

It’s the season of ghosts, goblins, witches, and all kinds of other scary things.  In swimming have you ever thought about what scares you before a race?  Is it the possibility of failing, or is it the fear of pain (the good kind), maybe the thought of letting a coach or parent down.  Whatever it is everyone has come face to face with this fear from time to time.

This may push some buttons with some, but I truly believe that society has become soft when dealing with failure especially when it comes to athletes and our youth.  Failure is inevitable, every athlete has to face coming up short of their goals sometime during their time in the sport.  You will miss that net in soccer, you will strike out, you will miss the basket, you will drop the ball and yes you will fall on the ice, and though you may not like it, I want you to understand that it is 👌.  It’s part of the journey through life and the ☀️ will rise the next day and everything in your world will be okay.

If you do not come up short from time to time than I believe that you are not doing more to get to your goal.  We have talked before about staying in your comfort zone and not taking that first step out of that zone to see what the possibilities are.  If you notice I took out the word failure in this paragraph because maybe the word itself is what causes all the stress and fear.  Maybe the first step to overcoming fear is to remove the word from our vocabulary.  

Getting hung on the fear of failure, the final time distracts swimmers from learning opportunities that occur after the race.  I say this because as coaches we try to offer suggestions for each swimmer to take back to practice to better prepare them for the next race.  However, what we see and hear a lot of time is disappointment in that final time, and all they hear is noise out of our 👄.

After experiencing a bad race, a swimmer has two choices.  They can either feel bad about themselves and the outcome from the event, or they can take the positive road and learn from what happened and come back smarter and stronger for the next race.  Taking the second option will build your confidence and resilience in the sport.  Confidence cannot be built in the presence of fear.  When you step out of the comfort zone and conquer a race,you don’t fear it any longer.

I submit to you that an athlete who is over protected comes to believe that success should always be quick and easy, and all that does is lead to greater frustration when it doesn’t. In swimming 🏊‍♀️ this situation is instant with that posting of a swimmers final time.  A lot of the process is lost such as, are the streamlines better, are the turns a little faster, are the strokes a little better, and did we swim the race a little smarter than before.  Another big outcome that is overlooked is the place that is posted.

Long term success in this or any other sport is more important than the short term results.  A temporary defeat is not the end of the 🌎, think of it as feedback and part of the process to make you stronger and smarter the next time you dive into that 🏊‍♀️.

RACE WARM UP AND COOL DOWN

🏊As we start to get near our busy fall schedule of meets, we thought it useful to review your 📋warm ups and cool downs.  Remember that if you know what to do and are in control without coaches talking 🧟‍♂️“loudly” every time your at a wall it will go a long way to put you in a stress free situation.  

The most important thing is to arrive on time.  It is unfair to your teammates and coaches to arrive late when we are in the middle of a planned warmup, and now you think I’ll just jump in, I don’t think so!

Another item that came up this past weekend is the fact that we had “senior level swimmers”🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♀️ who did not know what they were swimming.  This makes it hard to do a positive check in not to mention that mentally you are not prepared to race and swim fast.  Again it comes back to the person in the mirror, so check it and take ownership.

 MEET WARM UP: SENIOR PREP

400 swim (free and back)

4x50 free descending speed

200 kick

3x50 kick descending speed

6x50 stroke free

8x25 easy fast

2 dives fast

100 warm down

MEET WARMUPS GOLD GROUP

200 swim (free back)

4x50 free descend to fast

150 kick

3x50 kick descend to fast

100 IM drill

5x50 stroke free

6x25 easy fast

2 dives

100 warm down

Not it’s time to do some stretching and get warm.  I still see a lot of you walking around with no shirts, sweatshirts.  Now think about it we have just spent a lot of time warming up and now you neglect all of that work by walking around letting your 💪 get cold and tight.  All this means is that it will take that long to warm them up all over again.  Stop jeopardizing your races by doing things to make you swim slower.  Though you believe the fact that you are warm, your muscles 💪 are screaming for help🙆🏻‍♂️🙆🏻‍♀️ to keep them warm so they may perform for what you are about to ask of them and that is to RACE.

The other part of warmup is that second one.  You should do this so that you allow from 10-12 minutes from the time you get out of the pool until you step on the blocks.  The purpose of this is to wake you up, get the blood flowing and the heart ❤️ rate elevated a bit.  Keep it simple. A couple of 50’s with some of our all out 25’s where we kick 12.5 all out and swim 12.5 all out without slowing the kick down.  Rest 40-50 seconds and repeat 4 times, get warm go to the blocks and RACE

After your race go immediately to warm down.  I see a lot of you waiting ten or more minutes,  it guess what you missed that window of opportunity.  See the coaches after you cool down, and get a good warm down after your last event.  This is your alone time to relax and maybe go though your race “”good or bad” and just maybe unplug from the environment.

LET’S FINISH THE WEEK STRONG