FAST FORWARD to BARBADOS

So last we checked in on the girls they had just experienced their first swimming trip at the ripe old age of 3 months. Almost  4 years to the day they would return to the Caribbean only this time they wanted to swim and race.  The only roadblock to that was this time around the meet was going to be a long course meet, so without explaining that to them I gave in and agreed to it.  we will get back to that in a moment.

Before that could happen the girls had to start in our swim school under the guidance of coaches Joe Adams andHeather Tomasek who took them under their wing and guided them into who they are today.  Upon wall;king onto the deck here is this 70 year old retired postman standing at there side of the pool and in his hand was this 10 foot bamboo stick and fasten to the end was your normal 🎾.  Yes people thats how we rolled back in the day. Joe produced some of the most talented young swimmers in  the Falls Church and Arlington communities.  First day they saw Coach Joe and his bamboo stick and ball and they immediately came over where I was coaching and asked "Is he going to hit me?"  If  you do the things correctly, you won't get hit.  Well on the way home it was pointed out that I had not been totally honest, because they said they got hit on the head when they did it right.  Apparently girls their was something not quite right with your stroke and he wanted to stop you and point it out.

Now after a few months of practice it was now time to enter a mini meet so the girls would join my group as we headed to Fort Belvoir for the meet.  Their first event the 25 back pretty much went off  with out too much fanfare, but it was the 25 free that would cause a problem.  Yes that is them standing on the blocks next to each

other the only problem is that all the swimmers on the other blocks all left and are now at the other end of the pool.  Of course Bob York started to rag on me and asked, are they going but I had nothing except let's see if they go with the next heat.  Nope not a chance so I went over and moved them to different blocks wrongly assuming that they did not want to be next to each other.  So now 3 heats have gone and they are still standing there so I had to ask, what's the problem?  Come to find out that they did not want to race each because that would mean one wins and one loses.  Girls thats how this works.  So we separated them and they finally swam.  Longest event of my life.

Before long January came around and it was time to head back to the Caribbean for their first of many "International Swim Meet" with the different islands, really it was just a name but these kids ate it up.  In those days I was only coaching and developing our 10 and under's and on this particular trip we had 3 swimmers from that group yes the twins and their  friend Kim from the group but a 6 year old.

Now to set up the scene the girls and I did not have mom with us on this trip so we were on our own.  While growing up the girls had these animals that they went everywhere with Courtney with a pink bear (stinky) and Lauren with a stuff white cow (puffy). One night after putting them down to bed (I told them), the coaches dragged me down to the casino and not 10 minutes passed that we heard an announcement paging me to the door.

Now mind you are room was a few doors down from the casino.  Upon arriving at the doors here are the girls nightgowns and all sucking on there animals looking for me.  Though it was apparent that they were going to be very independent they let me know at the time they were not happy. I really think they slept with one eye open.

As for their first meet in a long course pool the only issue was when they asked, What if I can’t make it the whole way?  Greg York being the wise guy informed them that they had to because he can’t swim and doesn’t get into a pool.  I took more of a calm approach explaining that it’s just like Lee Graham but only 2 of them so it’s good.  But you probably should swim until you reach the other end because it’s all 12 feet or deeper.  For this meet they would be swimming the 100 free and the 100 backstroke.

As you can see it did not take long for them to get over our issue from that first mini meet about not wanting to beat each other. In fact now the opposite was true so as they progressed one would gravitate towards free, breast and IM while the other went the route of back, fly and IM.  

For this meet all the 5 and under swimmers received 1st place awards in both events which caused an issue in its own.  I don’t remember which of the twins had actually won but she was not happy that everyone got first, so they did learn about racing very early.

ALL’s GOOD

DRYLAND APRIL27

Here is your routine for this week. Your challenge is Day 1 preform 3 rounds, Day 2 try 4 rounds and on the third Day challenge yourself to preform 5 rounds.  Rest 2 minutes between rounds.  The warm up is only done at the beginning

WARM UP

1)Arm swings 30 seconds forward/ 30 seconds backwards

2) Two arm swing with pull buoy 30 seconds

3). World’s greatest stretch 8 each side

4). 30 second butt kicks

WORKOUT ROUTINE

.  1) BURPEE WITH PUSH UP X10. 2) 30 SECOND MOUNTAIN CLIMBER. 3). RUSSIAN TWISTS WITH PULL BUOYS X10. 3) 30 SECOND BICYCLE CRUNCHES. 4) SQUATS HOLDING A BALL OR PULL BUOY.  5). 30 second shadow boxing ( don’t get hit by your shadow.)  REST 2 MINUTES AND REPEAT.

Here is a extra treat for you to watch, my Daughter sent this to me over the weekend.  She informed me that you don't need a pool to practice your swimming.  

EXPLORING the WHY

When last we talked I had asked each of you to write down the why,  and either plac e them in your buckets or swimming box, and to send me some of them as a group.  Someone from our group sent this, I just have a true passion for being in the water and working hard, very honest and well thought out.  This individual worries on occasion that there is not a good balance with the passion. After a little prying we got this response, “When swimming is going well my life outside of swimming is great, but when swimming is going bad it will affect my personal life, and the opposite is often the case also.”

There is nothing wrong with having passion for anything you do, but there needs to be balance between the two and you need to be able to control that balance.  It is important that the passion that you have doesn’t become your identity as a person. I would say that when the results of your races become all consuming to the point that it starts to affect you emotionally which then carries on into your personal life you need to take a second look.  In the above situation when all your emotions are tied to the results you start forgetting about the reasons you swim, and you stop enjoying the process that is involved in getting to that race.

Another comment that I received was, “ I want to win awards.”  While this a great thing to strive for, I would caution a swimmer to broaden their outlook.  Simply put, it is extremely hard to win awards in athletics regardless of the sport, and swimming is no different.  If awards, ribbons, trophies and medals are the end all at every meet eventually I believe frustration would set in and again it would start filtering into your personal life.  Eventually just participating in the sport is no longer important and you become one of the athletes that is looking in from the outside.

It is important to derive enjoyment in the activity just through participation and that joy is not tied to results and awards.  When you are able to accomplish that in athletics I believe you become a balanced athlete and better still, a balanced person in society.

I would still like to see more of your why’s. Please send them.

Sunday we will continue the twins journey and have a new dryland routine for you.

THAT FIRST YEAR

It was nice to see the senior prep swimmers yesterday and to hear what you have been up to.  We are trying to set something up for the gold group now.  For the next few weeks I thought I would share the story of my girls introduction into swimming both club and summer as a distraction from everything going on.  This is through my eyes with some help from the girls.

THE TWINS

It was an early day in June at the summer pool and the twin girls were a little over 6 months old.  Now you would think that their parents would know were they were but those were different times.  We come to find out that the baby pool was full to capacity but when we glanced over they seemed to be all of my older kids from the team playing.  Upon a closer look we were amazed to see the twins 👯‍♂️ in the middle of the pool floating on their backs.  After questioning some of the more “ responsible” girls we soon found out that they were attempting to teach the girls breath control, hence   Mom and dad realized that they just had their first swim lessons, the love of the water taught and they were destined to become dolphins on the swim team.  Their true introduction to swimming had come 3 months earlier in the Caribbean islands.

Bring the bambino’s with us exclaimed our travel agent at our first York Caribbean trip in March of 1988.  My first thought was Mari is not going for that idea after all those bambino’s would only be 3 months old when the plane would touch down in St. Croix.  Now of course Bob York first remark was “ yea man it will be great” and of course he would bring his daughter who was born 3 days after those bambino’s and had already bonded with them.  And so this was to be my girls introduction into the world of swimming, a trip to the Caribbean with its blazing sun on their baby skin ( more on that later) and a 1 day long course meet with the local team.

Two coaches who will remain nameless came into the suite one day to announce that they would babysit the girls for the afternoon so that Mari and I could have a free afternoon, what could go wrong they were responsible right.  Knowing that the girls were in the capable hands of Joe Viola and Scot Brown ( whoops that was a slip) we headed out for launch and to explore the beautiful island of St. Croix.  Hours passed and as we walked through the door their is Joe or Scott holding one of the girls over the sink with the other one spraying her down with the hose in the sink.  Startled 😱 as I took a closer look here is a baby in the arms of one of our coaches looking like a cooked 🦞 lobster.  Mari blurts out what happened?  Falling on his sword all I could hear was Joe exclaiming we took them down to the beach bar, and well I guess they may not have been completely shaded.  You think Joe I responded.

Thus was the girls introduction to international swimming that would take them to Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Barbados, Curacao among others through the years.  They would not return on a team trip until the age of 4.

LET’s CHANGE IT UP

Our Mako swimmer of the week last week had to be Tony who either was so committed to getting his bike ride in or maybe just didn’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.  Either way he was being safe with his helmet securely fasten to his head.

With that grin you’d think he was biking up Mount Everest

With all of you headed back to virtual schooling on Tuesday, let’s settle in to a routine as if you were also going to swim practice, oh boy.  The gold group should to dryland on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.   The blue group on Monday and Wednesday.  The senior pep group should be doing their workout on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  These are your normal practice days and should help you settle into a nice routine with your school work.  Remember it’s your choice is you want to come out of this a better YOU.

With the routines we are going to put in some weight bearing exercises but do not go crazy with it.  Boys and you know who I am talking about, I know you are enamored with your “guns” on the arms, but these routines are more about the movement.  If you have light dumbbells you may use them if not use your imagination.  Two water bottles will work, your kick board, pull buoy, light bands, pieces of wood anything to help with the movement.

This week we will do the same routine each of your practice days as a guide to how your feeling next Sunday.  

ROUTINE FOR APRIL 13-APRIL18

WARM UP (1 round of warm ups)

Arm circles
Small 20 seconds each direction
Large 20 seconds each direction
Big 20 seconds each direction

Arm Swings
Small 20 seconds each direction
Large 20 seconds each direction 
Big 20 seconds each direction

LEGS
High knees 30 seconds
Butt kicks 30 seconds

MAIN CIRCUIT TRAINING  (3 rounds of this)

10 curls into overhead press lower slowly (use water bottles, kick board anything) 

10 slow squats with same equipment

10 push ups

1:00 🧗‍♂️ mountain climbers (cardio each round faster)

30 seconds leg lifts

30 seconds flutter kick

10 sit-ups/get-ups

1:00 bicycles (cardio each round faster)

10 Frankenstein walk/kicks

10 good mornings 

Rest for 3:00 and move to round 2 rest 2:00 and move to round 3 

JUST FOR FUN

Since your starting school again let’s have a little word scramble this week.  Who can get the most swimming words out of the following phrase.  “Always be mindful of the voice inside your head and the voices from outside, reinforce the positive and filter out the negatives”

You can use letters from any word to make your word but can only use that letter once.  After you have your words frame it into your own phrase. You need to have a plan!   Take a picture of your results and send it to me.

FINAL DAY OF COMPETITION

So this morning the Mako swimmers rose from their deep slumber for one more day of competition at there North shore Aquatic Pool in Saint Petersburg.  As in previous years Saturdays event began with the 400 IM which always takes over an hour on both courses.  Because of that a lot of teams arrived later for warm up but for us taking a page out of coach Peter's book let's stick to our schedule and get a good warmup followed by some stretching. This year we also had Makos very own Emerson Wilson swimming the 400 Im. We got to spread out and use 4 lanes for our general warmup which was quite nice.  I always enjoy Saturday and not because it's the last day but it provides the swimmers and coaches extra time to just hang with each other.

Last years group

As was mentioned the meet started with the IM events and our first 2 swimmers were Sadie in the 200 and Emerson in the 400.  Both girls had great swims Sadie attacking the back half of each 50 with a strong backstroke and freestyle leg finishing 3rd in her heat and securing a spot in finals.  Not to be outdone by a 10 year old Emerson took to the pool and put together 4 great legs.  Her fly looked strong and smooth, a good sign in the 400, and she followed that by even splitting the backstroke which set her up for, yes the breaststroke.  With good fly and back legs behind her she was now able to stay calm in the breast legs and just race and finish with a strong free to win her heat just missing a spot at finals.

With the conclusion of the IM events it was now time for the fly sprinters to head to the blocks.  Mako swimmers included Lyla, Anna r girls all the way through the race and with a great finish touching the wall at 30.06 a PB and winning the heat.  Also posting best times in the event were Anna 32.5, Rebecca 29.99 and winning her heat, and Blake posting his same time while qualifying for finals.  At finals Blake wound up in 3rd place posting his best time of 26.24.

It seems odd to say but it was now time for the 13&14 year olds to swim a rare 50 fly, so rare that is always hard to tell if they had best times due too the fact that the last time they swam this event they were a meek 12 year old.  For them this event is all about having fun, and racing to see who can get their hand to the wall first.  Qualifying for finals were Sophia, Sophie, Adrian, and Ben with all of the swimmers in their heats finishing within 1  second of each other, really great swims.  Skylar and Charlotte ended up winning their respective heats and Ashley finished 3rd in her closely fought race.

The next event , the 100 breast saw two Mako swimmers qualify for finals posting their same entry times.  Both Blake and Emerson would have great races at finals placing in the top 6 with best times of 1:06:48 and 1:07:56 respectively.

Sadie and Lexi would now close out their meets with the always exciting 50 free. Winning her heat in an exciting race and qualifying for finals with a PB of 30.89.  Also qualifying for finals and winning the event was Sadie posting her PB of 26.99

Finishing off the individual events of the meet was the 11 and over 200 freestyle and up first was Claire who qualified for finals placing 9th with a 2:04.91. Also swimming the 200 free were Charlotte  Dixon, Kitty, Jackie and Adrian all qualifying for finals and posting PB ion the evening of 1:57.96, 1:54.89, 1:56.21 and 1:54.52.  Winning both their heat were Sophia Cloutier posting a 2:05.10 and
Riley Miller with a 2:06.87.

As with our tradition we decided to swim all our relays in there morning to give the kids more time on the beach in the evening.  The 400 free relay saw are 11&12 and 13&14 B girls finishing 2nd in their heat while the 13&14 A girls won their heat finishing 4th overall just missing the p[odium.

All and all the Mako swimmers had a great meet at least in the eyes of this observer.

START SETTING GOALS AND MAKING PLANS FOR NEXT SEASON.   FOR THOSE 14 year olds  remember their is a meet here for you all 2 weeks before the little guys so all is not lost but you need to start today.

DAY 3

MAKOS HOTEL

Here we go into day 3, with clear skies and a little cooler for the start of warmups.  The kids stayed in a little longer this morning to really help them get those legs stretched out and because the meet was going to start with the 1650.  Speaking of the 1650 Kitty got some good news she moved up from 13 to 10th in the event which means she is not swimming this morning, but will be first up at finals.  because of this we decided that she would scratch the 100 free and get out of here earlier to rest for tonight.

Our first event this morning was the 100 back for everyone and we had a lot of swimmers, and first into the pool was Sadie and Cally.  Cally would win her heat with a PB while Sadie came in third in her heat with her same time but would win the event later at finals with a PB.  Sadie is starting to understand the sport and that it's ok to be a little slow in the morning as long as you make finals, and return to take care of business.

Anna, Jacob and Rebecca were the next ones to the blocks and all the work Coach Logan and I have done with both the Gold and Senior Prep groups seem to have taken hold.  They kept their kick soft on the first 50, started to build on the third and really let them loose on that last 25 to finish strong.  All 3 had PB.

Our 13 &14 were about to take to the blocks after the coaches reminded them to control and build those legs into a big finish.  Sophia, Charlotte Dixon bout had ok races and returned to finals finishing   in the top 6 with PB by over 1 second.  Erin, Charlotte Prunty Riley, and Kitty all had great swims finishing with PB and Riley and Erin winning the heat.

As we were finishing up with the backstroke event Blake, Meghan and Emerson were going through their warmups as they prepared for the 200 breaststroke.  It was fun to see how each of them would set up  their races so that their legs would be there for them on that last 50.  The three of them set out strong and controlled the middle and brought home that  last 50 with a  vengeance.  Meghan dropped a little time for a PB while Blake and Emerson were a few tenths slower, however both would return for finals and swim to PB.

The next event would be the 100 fly with Rebecca Prunty, Sophie Scadron, and Rebecca Prunty all winning their heats.  Emerson just off of her 200 breast would drop a tenth, and Ben posted a best time in winning  his heat.

Prunty Girls at meet in 2018

It was now time to watch the 100 free swimmers and 10 and under girls did not disappoint with Sadie, Cally, and Lexi all having great races posting best times.  Our 11&12 group followed that with a performance that was out of this world.  Anna winning her heat posting a 1:00 and change.  Claire would follow that posting a 57.79 and would follow that with another little drop at finals in the evening.  Blake and Jacob also would post PB with Blake returning in the evening.

After going through their warmups the older kids headed to the blocks.  Adrian and Charlotte Dixon both swam respectively to earn a spot in finals and finished the evening with PB of 50.99 and 53.19.
Erin, Sklar and Riley all locked down their races finishing with best times.

To finish off the day we had our 11&12 200 free relay finishing 3rd in their heat.  Both 13&14 girls relays were seeded in the top 10 and would swim at finals with the A relay finishing 3rd.

Oh and not to forget about Kitty and her 1650.  Kitty started out strong setting up a nice pace working each wall aggressively.  With a 200 left it was obvious that she was going to have something to finish with and she came in at 19:09 a PB.