SPRING BREAK

 So spring break has finally arrived for most of you. The past year has brought many changes to your lives both in swimming and your personal comings and going.  With the arrival of this annual ritual it might be a good time to reflect on this past year.

Swimming is a unique sport, one which seems to never end.  There is always the next workout, the next meet always something.  You spent the last year swimming about 624,000 yards.  That a about 380 miles or swimming the English Channel

18 times back and forth.  Now of course we did not swim the whole way as we spent 20 % of the time kicking across, and other than free we spent  most of our other time swimming IM, back and than choice as we made are way back and forth.

Most swimmers enter a race trying to win and better their times and a chance at qualifying for that next level meet.  Even at the high school level you race your dual meets with that chance at qualifying for districts and a chance to advance to regions and states, but what happens when that last meet of the season is finished.  What should you do next?

First off this is a perfect time to take a break, yes a break is okay.  I know some of you believe a break is a bad thing, but it all depends on your roadmap for the season, and we have reached our destination for the short course season.  Keep in mind that a break doesn't mean becoming a couch potato,

you can hike take walks, ride a bike all of which will engage all the muscles in your body.  

 The break away from the pool provides you with opportunities to refocus on your next roadmap, rest and refuel your body and maybe most importantly allows you to reflect on your accomplishments of the past year.  The break will also allow the body and mind to come back stronger than before as you head into long course and your summer meets.

As you reflect on everything that you have done in and out of the pool over the pas year always keep this at the top of your lists, Being proud of your accomplishments is the first step to being proud of yourself.  We are proud of your accomplishments and just so you know my number 1 objective for all of you, strange as it sounds is not to win a race or even get a best time.  No what I want you to do is get your hand to the pad and at that moment know that you have given everything you had and you held nothing back,  Then my friends we are all winners.

This is how the Senior Prep/ Senior Blue and Junior Gold group kicked their way into spring break.

CRUSHED IT

So today the senior prep group had a little challenge set to accomplish after warming up.  First off yesterday they all picked a song which was put into a playlist that was played during the set.  The set consisted of 20x200 IM/Free @ 3:00.  The challenge for each of the swimmers was to come in under their best 200 IM time.  We had some tremendous efforts during the hour with some heavy arms and legs, but you all really crushed it.  BE PROUD OF YOUR EFFORT as you go into yourspring break

The twist of the set was that if their song was playing as they were on the wall waiting for the next repeat they were allowed to skip that 200 if they chose to.  Some of you were pretty funny all bright eyed gasping for air, as Catherine exclaimed where is my darn song!  

Nice job with this set.

WHERE DO WE GO NOW

 

Now that we have arrived at the conclusion of our short course meet schedule some of you may be wondering, What do we do now?  I am sure one of the big things on all of your minds is Spring Break especially if you are lucky to be traveling this year by 🚘, 🚂, or ✈️.  If you are one of those lucky ones be safe and have a great time.  For the rest of us enjoy the time away from the pool, let your body rest and get outside and do some type of activity.

Everyone who participated in the Mako Spring Fling meet did a great job with many personal best times to finish off this part of our competition.  We had a lot of you who took the chance and went outside of your comfort zones looking for new adventures with the 500 free and the 400IM coming to mind.  It's amazing when talking to all you that what I hear a lot is this, "That was fun. or I liked that, or It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be."  Sometimes when you go outside of your comfort zone you discover a whole new world that has some fun things in it. Something to remember in the future is that when you take some risks often the rewards will be higher.

We cannot forget our 9-10 year old swimmers who traveled out to the Freedom 

Center for their Championship Meet.  You little guys were absolutely amazing swimming a lot of races in about an hour all four days, and posting a lot of new best times that you can be proud of.

As mentioned in our last post, we have been going hard between those lane lines since June 1st and over the next couple weeks, take the time to reflect on all of your hard work and your accomplishments.  It is also a good time to look at any shortcomings that you think you may have had.  

Where did I put those notes with my goals for the season?  Yes your roadmap to success.  Opps no roadmap.  Maybe that is a shortcoming.  Its hard to get somewhere without a roadmap.  Write down how you felt after not only your good swims but those swims that you think were bad.  Remember there is no such thing as a bad swim, in fact the only bad swim is the one that you learn nothing from and keep repeating it.  Keeping that swimming journal will always provide you with information that can help you in the future.  This is all part of taking ownership of your swimming.

Often times after your swims we can sense your disappointment with your times even though you swam a great race and in some cases even dropped some time. Other times when talking to some of you after a swim I get a lot of, "I'm tired or I didn't feel that good."  Guess what people it happens to everyone so

instead of going to that EXCUSE WHEEL every time something doesn't go exactly right figure out a way of not letting it happen again.  Guess what it probably will. Sometimes in todays world there is a lot of attention on winning every time there is a competition, which is not a bad thing, but it is also not the end all.  After all you are still kids who are constantly growing, changing and learning.  

Always remember that you have to embrace the entire process if you are truly going to enjoy the sport and that means taking the good with the bad and there is always more good if you open your 👀 

JOB WELL 

HAPPY ST. PADDY’s DAY

Did anyone see any leprechauns in their travels today.  Are you wearing any green as you left the house today.

I thought it would be interesting and fun for each of you to do your own limerick in honor of Saint Patricks  day.  

What is a limerick?  A limerick functions as poetic form that is specifically structured in terms of rhyme, rhythm, and meter.  It’s intention is to provide humor, levity, and entertainment.  It’s a form of literary and creative expression.

Here is a template for you to print out and fill out.  Can yo relate it to swimming, school or some othe important part of your life.  After your done bring it in and receive a prize.

MAKO SHOWCASE NOTES

 

First off let’s thank Heather, our Mako parents and all of the officials who helped in providing such a great end of the year meet that all the swimmers worked hard for and deserved.  We would also like to thank Disco Dave for providing all of the great music at all the final sessions.  After getting him to understand to lower the volume we finally had some great music and as we discussed earlier had some great background music playing during all of the races.

As for you the swimmers what can we say as coaches other than you really came ready to put on a incredible show with some great races.  The coaches were awestruck with your ability to come in and race over a four day meet, a new experience for most of you.  Some of you ended up swimming over 13 events or more over the 4 days, a new experience for sure.

When Heather and I got together back in December we were determined to have  a championship meet that included prelims and finals. Working within the capacity of swimmers and the number of swimmers we could have finals became our challenge, but with some tinkering we came up with the format.  

All of this was going to make it somewhat tougher for all the 🏊 participating to make their way to the podium. The end result was that it made for some great swimming during all of the prelims session and each age group.  It was also nice to bring the girls and boys who train together and get them at finals at the same time.   

During prelims it wasn’t just about getting back to finals it became, I

had to be top 3 or in the case of 13-14 top 4 in order to win a medal.

Throughout the meet our warmup periods were shorter and we made adjustments which you all handled brilliantly and the end result was that you were still able to swim faster, a fact not lost on myself as a coach. Was it luck, no I don’t believe in luck, more that all of you did the hard work, warmed up down correctly and were ready to swim fast no matter what and that’s what it comes down to.

To watch you all work and support each other as a group under our restrictions was fun to watch, although coach Heather would keep telling me about our social distancing.

I would take the time to list all of are swimmers that made finals, but honestly I’m afraid 😱 I would miss someone and you all would never let me forget.

We do have to recognize 3 of our Mako teammates who won high point awards; 13-14 boy was Adrian Coray, 13-14 girl Riley Miller and 11-12 girl Claire Dobrydney.  Congratulations 

Again awesome job by all of the Mako swimmers, you came and swam like monsters.

SPRING FORWARD

 

Let’s not forget to set our clocks ahead an hour before your head hits the pillow tonight.  You all have it so easy in today’s world because with all the technology this is all done for you.

It was not too long ago that this was a big thing in many households as everyone had to run around to every single clock and manually move the hands ahead an hour.

In the US it was first introduced in 1916 only to be repealed 7 months later.  It was reintroduced in 1942 as “War Time”, with the eastern war time, mountain war time, central war time and pacific war time.  Af the end of the war it became known as peace time.  In 1966 with the signing of the uniform time act the country now had a uniform schedule with DST starting the last Sunday of April and ending the last Sunday of October.  It has been tinkered with ever since like in 1973 with the oil embargo and than with the energy policy of 2005.  It has remained unchanged since 2007, before some of you were born.

The biggest proponents of DST are that with more sunlight in the evenings more people are motivated to get out of the house.  There is more time for outdoor recreational activities leading to a fitter country.  With the extra daylight it is argued that we conserve more energy.

With the modern society with its technological advances such as computer screens, A/C units and TV screens it is widely believed that the savings from DST is negligible.  Some even believe that the time switch has a direct effect on are physiological well being not to mention the disruption to our sleep patterns twice a year and therefore want to stop moving the clocks all together.

WHICH CAMP ARE YOU IN?

As for myself, the extra sunlight is nice in the warmer months.

So it’s hard to believe that our championship season is on the horizon, yes a time when you walk around maybe with your chest pumped out, your shoulders held back a little more than normal and with a little more crispness in your stride.  It’s hard to believe that it has been 2 years until this time, but here it is.

Since stepping back in the pool back on June 1st, you all have shown up everyday and put in some incredible work to come full circle and arrive stronger, faster and mentally ready to have incredible swims at whatever meet you are in.  If you had one shot, one opportunity to win everything you ever wanted, in one moment would you capture it or just let it slip away.  Challenge yourself in your swims and take each one as they come, don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve made the sacrifices, put in the hard work and now it’s your moment to shine.

When you feel

Like you can’t swim

Any faster

Kick any further 

You must keep going

Greatness is only milliseconds away

But you have to give 100%

You can’t slack off halfway 

Through the race because 

You think negativity, you must

Maintain a 100% effort for the

Entire race.