NEW BEGINNINGS

 

Welcome to 2026 a new year with new opportunities including personal, academic and of course in your swimming.

First off I would like to thank all of you for your thoughts, cards and gifts during the holiday season.  I hope each and every one of you enjoyed the time with your families and friends, the moments away from the pool and took the time to reflect on your swimming through the first part of the season.

A big THANK YOU and shout out to all the Senior Prep and Junior Gold swimmers who made the effort to attend workouts over the holidays and thank you to your parents for getting you to the pool.

Your little books have provided some good reading material over the break and of course there was a mixture of thought put into them but nevertheless pretty entertaining while reading and picturing you putting your thoughts into your workouts.

A lot of people start the new year off making all kinds of resolutions only to see them fall off the cliff with each days.   As swimmers I like to think instead of making that all for nothing resolution let’s just look back and see how we have done at our mid-point of the season.

As you arrive to the pool on Friday for those first workouts of the year, be ready to look forward to accepting the new challenges that 2026 will throw your way in all aspects of your life.  Although you set some goals back in September as we started this journey the break gives you a chance to catch your breath and revisit those goals and do any tweaking that is necessary as we head into the heart of our season.

What worked well for you during the first part of the season, what areas do you really need to buckle down and focus on during the next few months to give yourself a chance to be successful.  Be truly honest with your self and make a note to yourself that states the following, “I’m going to make you so proud.”  Put it where you can read it often.

We are looking forward to getting off to a great start with some fast swimming over the next few months.  It 

DEAR SANTA LETTER 2025

How would a swimmers letter might look like this year.

Dear Santa 🧑‍🎄 

 

I had a pretty good year with my swimming.  I made most of my practices throughout the year and I felt I had a good mindset when the year  began.  I am starting to learn that this sport can be brutal with all the peaks and valleys that a swimmer experiences.  I tried really hard to control my emotions in the valleys as well as on the peaks.

Santa if you could as you come through my neighborhood sprinkle some of that North Pole dust over me so that I can continue to work on strengthening my mindset so that I will treat a bad swim as a learning experience that I can learn from and be better the next time out.  

I would also ask for tighter streamlines, stronger underwater’s and more aggressive turns. 

Most of all bring me and my teammates the enjoyment of working towards our goals together.  Help us enjoy the process and bring us the opportunity for some fast swimming.

Enjoy the cookies 🍪 and 🥛 

THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE

 

"The power of perseverance is the ability to keep going towards your goals despite challenges, failures and setbacks that you encounter along the way."  

In previous posts we have discussed "the process" that is involved in swimming and how as you work through that process you will encounter road blocks that you need to work through.

Logan and I are working hard on having a plan on getting you to your goals both physically and mentally.  We see a swimmers who spend a lot of time in the pool just meandering up and down the pool without attention to the little things that affect you on the day of your races.  While it is true that there is no substitute for "HARD WORK",  it is important that you work hard in a smart way.  

When you develop the discipline in the way you swim you create the resilience, confidence, and character that create growth opportunities that will help you through those rough patches.

Put yourself in the illustration on the left where you swim into many different obstacles and you need to find the mindset, resilience, the grit and the persistence to get to the finish line.

MINDSET:  The ability to accept a challenge and viewing those challenges as opportunities to step up and get after it.  The mindset not to fear that challenge as a threat.

RESILIENCE:  When you hit a setback, you have the discipline to use it as a learning experience and bounce back next time out.  This bounce back may take several meets, over a number of weeks or months.  You will bounce back.

GRIT:  The ability to develop the stamina and passion to work towards your goals when things get hard and not back away.

PERSISTENCE:  Despite the difficulties and and obstacles that are hurled at you, there is that mindset that allows you to keep going.

WORK OUT OF THE WEEK

Warm up

400 free

4x100 @1:30 (25IMO+75 free)  #4 is all IM

4x50 kick@1:00 boards (E-F/ F-E/  E/  ALL FAST)

HUMP DAY WEDNESDAY

5x100 free @1:25

4x75 IMO @1:15 (fast walls)

1 x50 kick fast 1:10

RESET

4X100 FREE @1:25

4X75 IMO @1:15 (fast walls)

2x50 kick fast @1:10

RESET

3x100 free @1:25

4x75 @1:15 IMO (fast walls)

3x50 kick fast @1:10

RESET

2x100 free @1:25

4x75 IMO @1:15

4x50 kick fast @1:10

RESET

1x100 free fast with fins (2 seconds under your best)

JINGLE BELL RELAYS

WHICH DAY DO YOU LIKE?

 

Do you feel better during workouts?  Just something to take your mind off the next couple of weeks.  Those of you who showed up over the holiday weekend did a great job and thank you for showing up and putting in the effort.   We had a big IM workout on Friday morning that looked like this; 

4 rounds of the following

• 4x25 fly
• 2x75 back
• 4x50 breast to free
• 100 free fast

We followed that with a HIT workout on Saturday where you all were awesome.

GET READY FOR THIS WEEK AHEAD

LEARNING

 As part of the learning process in this sport it is important to reflect on this past weekend and all of your races, the good, the bad and the ugly.  This is where a journal would be good.  A place to reflect on what went well, what did not go the way you had hoped and what you can take back to the pool and work on for the next time out.

Some thoughts that might be included are your physical feelings.  How did your body feel during warmups and the races.  How was your energy level.

How did you feel emotionally?  How did you deal with your nerves?  What was your mindset behind the blocks?  Acknowledge all your feelings good or bad so that you are in a better position next time out.

Did you execute your plan which includes warmups and warm downs, what you had to eat and drink.  It all matters. 

Write down any coaches feedback that you received.  This is important as we hear coaches give feedback after a race only to see the same swimmer Monday repeating the very same thing we discussed incorrectly.

Always finish by writing down what you did well, did not do well during the meet and the steps your going to take to fix it before the next time out.

SWIM and ROCK WRAP

We had a good weekend.  The areas that we have been working on in workouts is starting to manifest itself in your races and all of you should be very proud.   Everyone should have talked to a coach over the weekend.  Take those things with you and target them and focus on getting better in those areas.

Trust the process.  The plan is working and coming together like a puzzle.  Let’s keep putting the pieces together.

The end of every swim brings with it the opportunity to take a look at yourself and evaluate yourself, and where you are at this point of the season.  Competition is not only a chance to see where you are in your current training but also a chance to look to the future and make adjustments and tweak areas that will allow you down that road to success.

Determine what you need to tweak and work on so that you are able to move forward and improve future performances.  

SPLITS -  Why do coaches take them?  Why are they important?  First off we give them to you as a tool for your tool box.  A tool that will help you set up race strategies and pacing.  You’re looking for how you took the race out, how you paced the middle and how you finished the race.  You are not going to win many races off the start BUT you can definitely lose the race at the start.  Something to remember.

TURNS- a great area that regardless of your talent level you can make up speed to help your result.  On the other hand it’s an area where swimmers often take for granted, they slow down into the wall which slows your speed off the wall.  The result is a lot of stop and go which require you to use extra energy to get back up to speed.   How to correct it?  Take every wall in workout as if it’s the one that will get you to the result you’re looking for.  Hard? For sure.  That’s where your focus and discipline will start working for you.

OVERALL TIME-  Every little thing that you work on and can improve on like starts, breakouts, streamlines, underwater kicks, breathing patterns, pacing and finishes gives you a chance to improve your overall time.  They add up throughout your race.  

CLIMBING the MOUNTAIN

 Question.  Is it a goal or a habit?  Is one more important than the other?  

GOAL- a goal is something that you set before you set out, before you take that first step.  For you it may look like this;

• I’m going to go a P.B. at the next meet.
• I will make a 14 and under champ cut this year.
• I will make a ISCA cut this year.
• I will get into the mixed age relay.

HABIT- a habit is something that you work on and create overtime.  It’s something that can become monotonous and takes a lot of repetition.  In your swimming they may look like this;

• I will be on time for practice
• I will be present and prepared for a great effort
• I’m going to hit all my underwater’s strong off every wall, today, tomorrow, next week, next month.
• I will push my tempo on all my race sets.
• I will take responsibility and not make excuses.
• Most athletes regardless of their sport only focuses on the big goal.  It feels good, it’s fulfilling, it like getting to the mountaintop where you perceive some type of greatness only to realize that there will always be another mountain to climb.  It’s the climb to the mountain top that in itself is fragile with rocks, cliffs, holes, anything to throw you to fall off the mountain and suffer setbacks.  Challenges that you face as you climb your mountain are;
• a missed practice.
• a bad practice
• a bad set, a bad repeat
• a underachieving race or meet
• a competitor who beats you and you know they shouldn’t 

The habits that you create during practice will help you as you climb the mountain.  They give you the

confidence to get up when you fall, the confidence to move on to the next race and keep working the process.   Don’t forget this simple thought, “failure is what happens when you decide you failed.”  Until then, you’re always looking for ways to improve and get to where you want to be.  Success and failure are 100% mental.  

SETS FROM LAST WEEK

IM SET FOCUS WAS OUR STREAMLINES AND BREAK OUTS TO FAST SWIMMING

10 rounds

25 fly@30

25 back @30

25 breast @30

75 free @1:45 (25 build to fast turn 25 fast to touch 25 easy kick on back

RACE SET WITH FINS (fast/easy) with fins focus was to work our speed getting out than holding it off turns and finally finishing with strong kick.

4x50 @1:00 (15/35)

Rest 15

3x50 @1:00 (35/15)

Rest 15

2x50 @1:00 (all fast)

WINNING OUT OF THE POOL

 

In honor of Veterans Day we will be doing our 11-11-11 practice.  For you swimmers who don’t know what those numbers signify we will have to go back in history.

In 1918 an armistice was arranged to take place to end hostilities in WW1  at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month and later to become official with the Treaty of Versailles. 

President Wilson declared November 11 a national holiday to honor veterans.  My father who served in the navy and was stationed in the pacific during WWII and in Korea during that war.  So for him and all the veterans we will be doing the following workout.

VETERANS DAY WORKOUT 2025

Warm up

• 400 swim open turns no flips ( focus on tight streamline and underwater off walls)

11 rounds (odd rounds IMO  even rounds RIMO)

• 4x25 IMO (focus on UWD  AND BREAKOUTS)  

11–11–11 set

11th hour with fins

11x100 @1:30 (25 fly-25 back-50 free

11th Day

• 11x75 kick @1:30 (25 fast with boards—25 soldier kick—25 kick)

11th month (11 50’s)

3 rounds 

• 50 back@50 be aggressive with underwater’s 
• 50 back to breast @55 strong double pullouts
• 50 free @50 deep arm no breath turns

2x50 kick with boards @1:00

swim down the usual

WINNING OUT SIDE THE POOL

You put all that time in the water swimming through all your workouts but what else can you do that translates to success in your races

Start off by building a strong foundation which starts with a strong character with good personal values.  Building a strong character can be challenging but it starts with practicing positive traits such as discipline, honesty (with yourself and others), and making choices that are right even if difficult at times.  All choices have consequences that may occur instantly but will eventually catch up to you.  

Hold yourself accountable for your actions, and if you make a mistake learn from it.  I was once told by a  football coach from high school (Coach Herb) “a mistake is only a mistake if you repeat it.”

Be compassionate with others you come in contact with even when it’s difficult.  Give your best each and every day and make no excuses.

To wrap it up start implementing these 4 things in your daily lives

1. Give your best no matter what.  You know when you’re slacking either with school assignments or in practice.
2. Be careful who you surround yourself with.   It’s easier to make the right choices when those that you associate with are doing the same.
3. Stop making excuses.  Excuses are where laziness starts to breed
4. Prioritize honestly.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to be honest with yourself.  You know when your holding back and not doing what your suppose to be doing,