VACATION TIME

 

Now that swimming and diving all stars ⭐️ is over it’s time to get away from the pools for a while.  You’ve worked hard and now it’s time to give those bodies a chance to recover. 

It’s time to recharge both physically and mentally so that we return to the pools refresh and ready to go.

If you get a little anxious during this time how about some strength training especially your cores.  Something that will benefit you when you get back in the pool.

Wherever you are headed have fun and be safe.

We will see you in a few weeks.

COACH MIKE

WRAPPING IT UP

 With a weekend of fast swimming at all the Long Course and summer league championships it is time to put this season in the books.  Take a needed break away from the pool and spend some time having fun being a kid with nothing to do.   Before you blink it will be time to refocus and turn our attention to a new journey with new goals and aspirations.  

Before we do that take the time to write in your journals about your journey this past season.  Share with yourself the goals you had, with both your successes and failure.  Both are important and vital for your growth in the sport.

CHAMP WEEK SET ( MEET WARM UP EACH DAY)

TUESDAY 

12x50 (4 25 MRS/ 25 free) (4 MRS) (4 25 kick 25 free)@1:00

WEDNESDAY 

9x50 (3 25 MRS/25 free) ( 3 MRS) (3 25 kick 25 free) @1:15

THURSDAY 

6x50 ( 2 25 MRS/25 free) ( 2 MRS) (2 25 kick 25 free) @1:30

FRIDAY

BRING IT ALL TO GETHER 

STARTS TURNS BREAKOUTS FINISHES 

SATURDAY 

OWN YOUR RACE!  NO OUTSIDE NOISES!!  CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL!!

This will be the last post until we near the season sometime in mid August.

NO IDLING

 

The ability to accomplish your goals first comes down to how discipline and committed you are, and saying you are without the actions is like an empty promise.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s school, swimming or life the bridge 🌉 between wishing and accomplishing is discipline.  The discipline to know what you need to do, how to do it right and executing your plan consistently.

You just idle around in your lane doing things inconsistently like getting In late weak warmup, bad turns and the beat goes on if you get my drift……

The three essential things that any athlete needs to succeed in sports are,

1. A hunger and passion to succeed
2. The mindset to handle pressure.
3. The self-discipline to do the hard stuff….The stuff others won’t do.

Without that hunger and passion, the mental toughness when things go wrong or get hard  and the discipline to do the hard stuff, your journey becomes longer and the climb steeper.

The consistent swimmers are the ones who understand that to reach their goals takes a high level of commitment and self discipline.  It doesn’t come from doing easy or average work.  If you do average work I dare say you should not expect anything but average results.

“You can either suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret—-the choice is yours.”   Discipline is not a punishment either, it is what’s needed to achieve success.

Excuses make today easy, but tomorrow hard.  Discipline makes today hard, but tomorrow easy.

SWIM SET FOR THE WEEK

3 ROUNDS (2nd round kick)

1x100 Cruise 25 MRS 25 free

2x50 @1:00  (25 fast MRS /25 cruise free)

4x25 @1:00 MRS BUILDING SPEED ON EACH 25. WORK ON BREAKOUT AND FINISH (10 seconds apart ). 

CONCENTRATION

 

Concentration.  What is it? How can it affect your race or your workouts?  One of your greatest strengths as a swimmer is your ability to eliminate distractions and be focused and present in the moment, but it takes as much practice as your time in the pool.  However it is often overlooked by many swimmers in today’s world.

I believe that we agree that as swimmers we are often distracted by both

internal and external things both in practice as well as competition.  These are things that take away our focus and our ability to stay on task and remain in the present.

What you focus on will determine how calm and loose you are, the level of confidence you have going into your race and how quickly you are able to rebound from set backs.  Without the ability to focus on the the now your vulnerable to falling into mental traps.

Concentration is the ability of going into a race and finding what is important and letting go of everything else.  Some of these distractions are external such as the pool, the officials,your teammates and sometimes it's the noise in your head that you need to learn how to let go of.

When an athlete goes into a competition athletes tend to be all over the place, they are thinking about the out come, making a mistake, who's watching basically too many things to focus on and not letting go of it all and finding what is important now.

Try this exercise to test your  concentration.  Take 10 different color markers and throw them in the air and see how many you can catch.  Now put a blue one in the middle of the markers and throw them in the air.  Catch only the BLUE one.  Now you have let go of all the other distractions and what is important is catching the BLUE MARKER.  How did you do?

Focus in the NOW.  Not the Past (past races). Not in the FUTURE (the outcome).  Practice focusing in the moment (the now).  You can't be in the past or the future, you can only think about it.  

Stay in the NOW and keep you focus on the right thing, Your JOB which is to race.  When you get distracted you need to be able to catch yourself and c one back to the NOW.  I know in most of my competitions if I felt myself drifting and getting distracted I always used this phrase when I felt like I was being distracted and losing focus, (THE PROCESS).  It always brought me back to the now and it worked it school also.

Find a trigger word that will help you concentrate and as I say you need to practice this as much as you do swimming.

FIREWORK WORKOUT JULY 4th

13 and over triathlon 

RUN 1 mile come thru emergency gate read time off clock coaches will record quickly transitioning move into COMPETITION POOL 

KICK WITH BOARD 300. Read running time coaches record transition to the other pool 

SWIM 500 

When finish cheer your teammates to finish line

9-12 year olds do a biathlon after stretching

Kick 150/ swim 300

Best part is that they cheered for everyone until they crossed the finish line

BRINGING GOALS INTO YOUR RACE

 

Before we get into this I want to make it clear that I believe that having goals and setting them is very important for athletes.  However goals should never be brought into a competition.  Competition takes place in the present and goals are futuristic and should remain in the future.

In other words you take the wrong goals into the race.  For swimmers, I would say the two biggest goals that you you take up to the start is one, winning and two a best time.  Those two goals are by-products of doing everything right in your race.  

If those are your two goals as you step up on the blocks you might be setting yourself up for failure.  Goals and expectations are tools for your tool box.  They help motivate you during training and provide a blueprint for you to work with during practice.  When you take those goals and expectations into competition you get tight, your anxiety levels rise and you end up creating a sense of urgency.  That sense of urgency creates a certain head set, "I have to",  "I've got to", "I need to", "What happens if I don't",  your focus is on the outcome and not the competition.  You start trying too hard and you intuitively start making mistakes. Your reaction on the start may be slow, Your turn is off, your breathing more, your stroke gets short, any number of things might happen.

Your goals and expectations are the things you work toward during practice.  Practice is where you program your computer so that when you step up onto the blocks, all you have to do is hit print and go.  The outcome is in the future and out of your control.  Stay in the present and work the process.

8&under PRACTICE FROM LAST WEEK

WARM UP 300 mix

2x50 (25 breast kick with 3 second dolphin glide 

4x25 (12.5 IMO/12.5 free 1 breath)

2x50 (25 streamline back kick 25 backstroke. STROKE COUNTS)

MINI DOLPHIN READY SET beat the clock with fins

6x25 fast free @1:30. (Clock resets to00 every 90 seconds.  Try to beat your time

TODAYS WORK WORK YOUR DIVES  8 minutes in each lane with a coach

LANE 2 back.  Swim back in 1 same stroke to finish

LANE 4 breast swim back in 3 same stroke to finish 

LANE 6 fly swim back in 5 same stroke finish

RING THE BELL FINISH

1x25 free no breath (can you beat last weeks spot) Go all the way and ring the bell

BODY LANGUAGE

Body language speaks volume and will say a lot about a swimmer.  For a swimmer, a good body language and the way you carry yourself are important tools to have.  Your head (your mind) and your body are connected and the way you think goes a long way in how you feel and race.  The way you carry yourself goes a long way to in either  raising your energy and confidence, or it can also lower it.

The real test for your body language comes when you face adversity which swimmers know all too well and it can be lurking in any race.  We also know that when things are going well its very easy to manage our body language and thoughts.

A swimmer with good body language:

• Looks determined and focused
• Keeps their head up and shoulders back
• Radiates a great energy
• Displays a humble confidence 
• Walks with purpose 

On those days when you feel a little down, practicing positive body language can raise your self-esteem and make you feel better about yourself.  We've talked before about CONTROLLABLE and UN-CONTROLLABLE aspects of your swimming and your BODY LANGUAGE is a controllable.  These are habits that will make you or break you and they need as much attention as the habits you work on in the pool.

Maintain the power over your BODY LANGUAGE.

TRY THIS TREAT TO BEAT THE SUMMER HEAT

UNICORN SMOOTHIES (can be ready in 5 minutes)

INGREDIENTS;

1 oz chocolate (melted).   

1 cup fresh mango chunks

2 ripe bananas 🍌 

1/2 cup rasberries

1/2 cup milk (divided)

1/2 cup frozen blackberries

1 marshmallow

2 ice cream sugar cones

1/2 cup whipped cream

2 tsp pink our blue decorating sugar

STEPS:

1. Place the melted chocolate in a sandwich-size bag.  With kitchen shears, snip small holes in one corner of the bag.  On two glasses, draw eyes and a smile with melted chocolate.  Refrigerate glasses until chocolate sets.
2. In a blender, puree the mango chunks and 1 banana until smooth.  Transfer to a measuring cup or small pitcher.  Rinse out the blender.
3. I break or cut pallyn same blender, puree the raspberries, 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 of remaining banana until smooth.  Transfer to another measuring cup or small blender.  Rinse out the blender.
4. In same blender, puree the blackberries, 1/4 cup milk and remaining 1/2 banana until smooth.  With kitchen shears, snipe the marshmallow into 4 small pieces.  Carefullwhipped creamy break or cut pointy ends off the cones.
5. Divide the mango, raspberry, and blackberry smoothies between the two glasses, layering carefully. Top each with 1/4 cup whipped cream.  Stick cones into to form horns.. Stick marshmallows into whipped cream to form ears.  Top with the decorating sugar.

 

Our Thursday meet ready set

WARM UP (2x2x2) THE USUAL

200 mixer free back x25 (work no breath on free and underwater’s on all walls). WE WORKED ON THIS ALL WEEK.  GET IT DONE

2x100 (50 kick/50 free/back) rest 10 between

2x50 @1:00 (1 build 1 fast)

HEART RATES UP SET

3x

4x25 (fast /smooth) 20 seconds rest between rounds

MEET PREP SET WITH STARTER (5 heats of 6)

After each 50 go to other pool active recovery no playing.  Wait until your heat is called

After each segment strong to finish

4x50 (#1 breakout and explode to 12.5.  #2 breakout explode and get to your turn.  #3 breakout explode get to wall and explode to 12.5.  #4 ALL OUT PERFECT RACE

THE RIGHT STUFF

 

Do you bring the “right stuff” with you to every workout and every competition ?   When I say stuff I am not talking about thoughts about what you’re going to be doing later, or what should I follow on your phone , we are talking about showing up with the “right attitude” a winning attitude. 

In swimming as in life one of the most important choices that that you can make is the attitude you choose.  When you have the right attitude and the right perspective anything you do goes from impossible to possible.

It’s hard to show up everyday for workout, but life is hard too.  It’s hard to perform a perfect streamline off every start and turn, but life is hard too.   It’s hard to go all out on one more repeat, but life is hard also. 

If you don’t show up with the right stuff, the right attitude, the right mindset you’re always going to come up short in the end.  There are three characteristics that all athletes have; “ your ability, your motivation, and your attitude.” Your ability is what you are capable of doing in every workout and every competition.  Your motivation will determine what you do with your abilities.   Your attitude determines how well you do it.

When you bring the right stuff with the right attitude;

• You bring your best effort 
• You keep a good focus 🧘‍♂️ 
• You don’t make excuses
• You take accountability 
• You stay optimistic 
• You look for solutions 
• You bring a good energy
• You are grateful for everything .

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference.   The little difference is attitude.  The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”  W.Clement Stone 

Do you have the “right stuff?”

WORKOUT OF THE WEEK

WARM UP USUAL

200 mixer free back

2x100 (50 kick 50 free to back) 10 sec rest between 100’s

2x50 free @1:00 (1 build 1 fast)

Let’s go deep end 

WIDTHS 

10 minutes streamline and fast UW WALL TO WALL

2 ROUNDS 

4x25 IMO @40 (all underwater’s past flags)

3x50 @1:00 (fly free/. Back free/. Breast free)

1x75 kick ( 50 12.5 fast 12.5 smooth. 25 fast)

Rest hydrate for 2 minutes

Sprint set use both sides no breath to cone no breath cones in “gold meadow sprints”

? X25’s from both side @1:00 drop 2 seconds each time