There are two types of athletes in the world. Which type are you?

There are the types of athletes who do the right thing when the coach is watching, and only when the coach is watching. Generally this type of athlete feels like most pratices are "too hard" -- and often wonders why the coach asks so much.

There are the types of athletes who do the right thing when the coach isn't watching. Normally this type of athlete leaves practice after not doing so well, and they cannot wait for the next practice opportunity.

Which one are you?

Think about it, and honestly come up with a conclusion. Are you striving for some degree of mediocrity, or are you going to turn into the best athlete you can be?

Most athletes start as the first type -- while a few seem to be born with an innate idea of the second. My view is that we have quite a few people who are starting to function as the second type of athlete. It's not like everyone is the second type right now, but we're doing better each week at T2 Aquatics -- and moving as a group in the right direction. If you are leading the charge, keep going. You will be successful as an athlete, and later in life as a parent and a professional.

Which type would you like to see developed in yourself?

T2 Seniors:

Check out my new post on "Developing the Champion Within" -- another blog I've got going.

www.developingthechampionwithin.blogspot.com

Another Level

What must an athlete do to “Take it to Another Level” ?
I often find myself in conversation discussing this subject. It’s discussed in the office, on the pool deck, over the phone with friends, coaches, parents – and on the deck with swimmers. It’s occurred to me that different people have their own ideas of what “Another Level” actually is, and differing opinions how we go about getting there.

I have a problem accepting the idea that “Another Level” is an actual place or circumstance. To me, “Another Level” can happen anywhere, based on an individual’s mind-state – particularly in regards to swimming training and performance.

I’ve heard collegiate swimming referred to as “The Next Level”, in comparison to USS club swimming. Also, I’ve heard club swimming referred to as “The Next Level” when compared to High School swimming. I understand the idea behind these statements, but consider them to be large generalizations – generalizations which are believed by athletes, and in my opinion do them an injustice. “The Next Level” is not a fixed state, circumstance, or place – is a readily accessible mind-state, to which we have constant and ever-expanding access.

The “Next Level” is whatever we make it. The “Next Level” is OUR CREATION. Without interaction with the “Next Level” – and I mean exciting, personal interaction – the “Next Level” only exists as a fictional place in a fictional time.

We are at the Next Level as soon as we wake up and create it in the pool, on the track, on the deck, or in the office each day. As soon as we raise our standards, we are THERE – looking the next level directly in the eye. Once we are seeing that next level in daily training, we must begin to search for the next NEXT LEVEL. There is always another level! The next level is not found as you move from High School swimming to Club swimming, although the amount of practice time may increase and your coaching may change. Similarly, the next level is not reached because you take yourself from a Club swimming situation (as a High School Student) to a Collegiate swimming situation (as a College Student). The next level is reached by changing your mind – changing the way you think, changing your standards of what it means to be successful, changing your ability to think bigger than your currently are, changing your sense of creativity and what you consider possible, changing your resolve to experience physical discomfort, changing your determination to put off overloading social ‘responsibilities’, changing your ability to not only ignore – but dismiss detractors of your goal from your mind.

It takes practice and confidence to feel this way, and create your next level. You have think about it a little bit, and decide that you are the creator of your life.
Out-training and out-working your “Old Self” is one way to create your “New Self” – and once you do it, THAT’S the next level.

The thing about excellence is that it’s always moving forward!

We've had some really nice stuff at practice over the last few days.

A few of our main sets:

Our distace group pulled a 200-400-600-800 on Monday AM

We had a FAST set of 50s with fins and paddles on Monday AM as well.

On Monday afternoon we did a "speed limit" threshold set geared toward swimming well and fairly fast, with a low Heart Rate. Some did 3x400 (450), then 6x200 -- 3 on (225) and 3 on (220).....others did 4x200, 4x150, 4x150 free.....and others did 3x200, 4x150, 5x100 (125). We didn't look for great times here, just solid swimming. I actually put a speed limit on the swims, so we couldn't go faster than what I considered to be our Aerobic/Anaerobic threshold paces.

Tuesday was a meet day for most athletes, and an active rest set for some. The active rest set was:

PreSet (3x)

25 (30) mix
50 (45) free*
75 (115) 25 dps, 25 back, 25 drill
100 (120) free ** descend
4x25 (30) easy

Then the Main Set (which was the preset, doubled):

50 (40) free
100 (120) free*
150 (220) 50 dps, 50 back, 50 drill
200 (230) free *** descend
4x50 (50) mixed easy

On Wednesday (today) we had two groups:

One group went 18x100 (120)or (130)...or 12x100 (2) -- one swim, one kick fast.

The other group went an AWESOME mid distance stroke set:

15x200

Free (230)
FreeIM (240)
Stroke (250)*descend 1-5

(Stroke was either back or breast)

*****************************************************************************

Here is just a snapshot of some results:

Ridge pushed two 22s and a 21+ 50 free with fins and paddles
Haley went an 823.1 800 pull, after a 406 last Friday
Erika even split a 151.8 200 free after going 155,154 earlier in the set
Ridge went a 148.9 at the end of the 200s set, after a 156, 154
Nata went a 159 -- same set, after a 2:00 and a 2:02
Haley went a 157.4 -- same set, after a 1:59 and a 2:02
Bun went a lifetime best 100 back in the HS meet (107+)
Aidan went a lifetime best 100 free (48+)
(missing some HS results here I know)
Rachel kicked a 112 at the end of her set today
Sara kicked a 118 at the end of her 100s kick set today
Katie K kicked a 120 -- same set
Lincoln and Sammie did a few sub 130s today, big kicks for them
Max was sub 130 for the first time
Hayley went a 110 100 back best time after a set of 18x100 (130) evens fast
BT went a 201 200 back at the end of 15x200 (after swimming up Hayley's back for 6 strokes on the final 50) -- which is a PR by ??
Haley went 235 breast 200 after a 239 and a 240 - and did so with BT on her back for at least 6 strokes -- PR is 230.9
Rice Rice baby went a 209 back at the end of the 15x200 -- PR is 206
Maddie was 219 back -- same set -- PR is 218
Marchello was 238 -- PR is 235 -- and he probably had less than 20 seconds rest after each of the 15 200s today, sometimes getting only 5 or so. Tough.
Katie was 213 after the 15th one, with a strong set holding free and freeim tough.

....And if the stupid lighning didn't interrupt us, we would have had more unreal stats to talk about. All of these things happened in the first three days of the week....are we getting there??!?!!

I think we are.

I have a few practices to post on this blog, but that's going to come at another time -- it's been a long day, and I've got to get to bed. I do have one very important point I'd like to bring up though:

If you are swimming Florida HS, and you have meets every week (sometimes two per week) please understand what you are doing. You will not get season best times each week. You will not always do "what you think you are supposed to do" at the meets. Of course we want to be consistently good, but just like in every facet of life -- sometimes we do well, and sometimes we don't do as well as we'd like.

DO NOT EXPEND MORE EMOTIONAL ENERGY AT THESE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER HS MEETS THEN YOU DO AT PRACTICE EVERYDAY.

Now, please don't misunderstand. I think it's appropriate to expend more emotional energy at our major meets, like Florida HS States, Senior Champs, Nationals, Junior Nationals, Sectionals and meets that we are real focused on. You've got to up it, and have that emotional "MEET ENERGY" -- Energy that you don't really tap into everyday.

But you just don't need to tap into that all the time at HS Dual meets. That's a hard thing to get when you've got "in town" rivalries, etc.

Honestly, I'd prefer we expend a bit more emotional energy on our practice swims! I know someone's about to have a breakthrough when they can't live with there poor practice and come back the next day ready to break through a wall. That sort of emotional energy, spent everyday, comes back at you when you rest for your major meets!

Here's the deal: if you do well at a HS meet in September or October, compare it to your practice. Was it a fast swim? If it was, great. Doesn't that tell you that you can really train fast at this point in the season? Of course it does.

If you don't do as well, think about it: would the time you did be a good practice time? In many cases we think our meet times are no good -- but if we did those very times in practice, we'd be PUMPED. SO....understand that the only difference beteween meets and practice is that you are going from a dive in a meet -- but you are really in the middle of hard training. You are training to go really fast in November, period. If your best time in a 200 free is 147 and you go a 148 in practice, then that is GOOD. REALLY GOOD. So why do we get upset at meets if we are a little bit off our best times? If we had practice today, and you did that time at the end of a set -- wouldn't you be psyched?

Another thing to understand: you've got to warmup well at these meets. In most cases people hang out and BS the whole meet, then go up to the blocks and swim when it's time. It's like summer league in that sense. How many people are warmdown for a 600, then warmup 20-30 minutes prior to your event, do a few builds, get out and dry off, put on some clothes...then go swim you event? Then warmdown another 600. I'm not sure we're doing that. We WILL do that at USS meets, so you may as well practice it at HS meets. I probably haven't gone over that enough with you guys, so we'll discuss this at practice -- and I'll teach you the proper protocol if you are not doing it.

Hey look -- we just found another way to get better! THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!!

We had 16 people at our Sunday practice today -- which is our most well-attended Sunday practice yet. Of the people who were not here, they are either getting in later today or I've been in communication with them about either getting a little more rest or doing something else worthwhile (these swimmers have been here consistently for the last 3-4 weeks on Sundays).

I know the Sunday stuff is new to everyone, so here are a few reasons I like these Sunday workouts.

1- The time from Saturday morning to Monday morning is the longest amount of time between practices we have every week. After 48 hours, our neuromuscular system has to re-aquaint itself with the water (and different medium than the earth on which we walk each day) -- and that re-introduction oftentimes takes up much of our otherwise useful energy. Staying "one" with the water throughout the week allows us to "train" more consistently, instead of having to waste a practice (Monday morning)just getting used to the water again.

For those who do not train on Monday morning, this Sunday practice is even more important. Going from Saturday to Monday afternoon is over 50 hours out of the water!

2- It's a recovery-type practice. I design the workout so our bodies are moving for 30 minutes "straight" -- interval swimming, and not too hard, but we're moving consistently. It's a great way to help the body recover from a hard week of training, while at the same time loosening it up to swim well on Monday.

3- We tend to take our time and work on skills on Sundays. We've been doing a great job with our single-arm free and it's starting to transfer to better technique during the week.

4- It's fun. We chill out. Music is generally playing. There are breakfast groups going out to eat afterwards. It's just great for team bonding -- with really no pressure to do certain times or make certain intervals. There have to be days like this in the week, and since we train hard often -- that day is Sunday!

Great to see everyone this morning -- keep convincing your friends to come too!

Check out the YMCA Norris Aquatic Center from up top!

Photo Credit: Davidson Engineering (Thank You!)

The next major USA National Team trip is for the Pan Am Games in Guadalahara, Mexico।

Whether you have a legitimate shot to make this team or not, we are going to create the type of atmosphere in our T2 Senior Performance group where medaling at this meet is possible। Each of us is going to take pride in the fact that our positive attitude is aiding the top end of our group meet our team and personal goals; and further, we will understand that behaving in a way that is worthy of a "National Team Training Environment" is where we are going -- and it's what is expected of T2 Senior Performance Swimmers।

September 17th Friday
Skill work today, followed by some pulling. Many of the following pull sets were our best of the season!

We had a few people go 5x400 Pull (5,455,450,445,440) descend 1-5
Haley went 422,419,415,413,406; Maddie went 427,427,426,428,421

Most of the group went 8x200: 4 on 235, 4 on 225; others on 245, 235
Ridge was holding 203s, then 159,156,152.7 on the end
Erika was holding 203s, then 159,157.5, 156.1, 154.2
Max was hold 201-159 the whole way with the exception of 1 or 2 203s
Marchello was doing his usual 205-201 performance
Andrew was around 203-201s, then went 155.5 on the end
Catie held a few more sub 210 200s, making it about a dozen pull or swim in the last 10 days.
Rachel held tough with a few sub 210s, including a 205 on the end
The list goes on, lots of women in the 207-209 range, which is good for now….but we need to think sub 2Min for women and sub 150 for men.

There is no reason we can’t have a troop of guys doing this sort of set like this for the last 4:
156, 154, 152, 149; and later in the season going 153,151,149,147.

And there’s no reason we can’t have a bunch of women going 205,203,201,158; then later in the season 159, 157,156, 154 like Erika did today. And of course Erika will keep moving those times down too. Once women are just rolling through 152s-148s in practice they get to the point where they are eliminating all kinds of women throughout the US and the world!

We need to have these types of times – swimming or pulling – to get into that range of racing 149-151 200s, and 447-455 for women, and 141-145, and 433-439 for men. These times are our next step!!

Saturday’s Practice (9/18/10)
Today we had our distance group go an 8100 yard workout in about 2 hours – our best yardage/time practice of the season. BT, Haley, and Maddie did the work – nice job guys. We’re getting to the point with our distance group where it’s no messing around. It’s kind of like getting dropped off in a boat 4 miles from shore, with a hurricane coming in. You gotta go, and you gotta go long – and you gotta go fast. Anybody else want to do this work? Don’t worry, I’ll be inviting guest stars into the group. Many of you can not only handle it, but thrive in it -- you just don't know it.

The best athletes ALWAYS ask for more at some point during the season।

The distance set:
3x400 Free (445) *descend
8x50 mix (50) + (20)
3x300 Free (330) *descend
8x50 mix (50) + (20)
3x200 Free (220) *descend
8x50 mix (50) + (20)
3x100 Free (110) *descend
8x50 mix (50) + (20)

I asked BT, on his second day back from illness, not to crush the set।
He went 406,405,401; 303,302,301; 155,156,157; 54.2, 56.1, 55.7
Haley went 423,418,414; 315,312,310; 206,206,204; 100.9,101.3,59.8
Maddie went 429,431,434; 321,323,323; 208,210,211; 102.0,102.9,102.4

Our Mid-Distance Active Rest Set was very good as well. Lots of great swimming. Here’s the set and some of the top times:

4x:
100 Free (110) + 50 ez (1)
4x:
75 Free (55) + 50 ez (105)
6x:
50 Free (40) + 50 ez (110)

Erika (free) 56.3,56.9,55.4,54.5; 42,40.5,39.6,39.0,26m,25.h,24.5,24.3,24.4,24.5
Max (free) 56-58s on the 100s, 41s on the 75s, 25s on the 50s
Ridge (fly) 27-26s on the 50s
Rachel (free) 59-100s on the 100s, 43s on the 75s, 25-26 on the 50s
Avery (free) 58,57,57,56; 42, 41, 40.9 last 3 75s; 26.+, 26.5 last 2 50s
Andrew (back) 104-102 on the final 100s, 47-45 on the 75s; 30-28 on the 50s
Sara (fly) did some 30s, then a 29 on the end with her fly
Katie K (free) all over 28.5-28.0 50s after quality 100s (down to 103) and 75 (got to 45 or 46)
Titus (free) had one of her top sets of the year, with a nice set all around, finishing with 28s and a 27.

Some of these results were lost in translation, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got em right or close। Let me know if you went faster than I’ve got you – I want to know and would rather be wrong and know the facts than ignorant to the reality of what happened this morning। As always, YOU should be the first person to know your splits and/or times। I had 23 of you this morning, and that’s quite a bit

Additionally, if you’d like to nominate a teammate for “notice” on this blog, let me know 1)who it is you’d like to nominate, and 2)why. I more than likely will agree, and give props where props are due. There is nothing better as a coach then to have teammates supporting each other, and showing that support in any way.

And on that note, it was great to see such a big group at practice this morning। Our practice attendance this week was probably our best week of the season। You have GOT to keep coming, even when you are tired – and I know some of you were fighting that “tired” this morning when you got up। It happens। When your classmates are sleeping, you are getting up and getting to work….there’s something just so cool about that when you think about it.

Don’t waste your life sleeping and being lazy on the weekends – challenge yourself by training, and getting ahead on your schoolwork! It’s the best way to live because it’s the only way to develop true self – confidence. Nothing about sleeping in and not working out helps develop the part of you that you use to get ahead, in any area of your life!

Sometimes, in Naples, the rainbows go all the way around!

Sometimes you gotta look behind the cloud to find the rainbow:

Thursday September 16th -- Due to a bunch of HS meets today, we had a small group training this afternoon. Here are the two sets we did:

Erika and Ridge took care of some 150s

4x150 (210) desc 1-4 Backstroke for Ridge, Back-Breast-Free IM for Erika
8x50 (55) plus an extra 10
3x150 (2) desc 1-3
8x50 (55) plus an extra 20
2x150 (150) desc 1-2
8x50 (55) plus an extra 20
1x150 (150) fastest
8x50 (55) swim down

Erika put up some great training times:
140-137 for the pair on (150)
then 135.1 on the last one 30.4/35.9/28.8

Ridge put some good ones as well, with a big improvement on the last one: 128.9
So 128.9 ....hmmmm. The best 200 backstroke time I can find for Ridge is 207.0. Last year at some meet in January he went 208+...I gotta feel like the dude might be a little faster than that right now.

You just have to practice swimming fast. How is Ridge going to go into a meet and NOT have confidence he's going to DESTROY his best time in the 200 back?

And what happens when he goes a 124.5 in a 150, which is completely do-able? Just throwing that out there....

Ok, so the other set we did went well also:

150 Free (150)
4x200 FreeIM (245)*
300 Free (340)
3x200 FreeIM (240)**
450 Free (540)
2x200 FreeIM (235)***
600 Free (720)
1x200 FreeIM (230)****

For those that don't know, FreeIM is Fr-Ba-Brst-Fr. We do regular IM at times, and we will be doing more regular IM as we go through the fall...but since the fastest male and fastest female 400 IM swimmers in American history train over half their IMs FreeIM, we are going to do it too -- often.

The challenging part of this set was interval related. The intervals were tougher than we've done (but NOT as tough as we WILL do :) ). The swimmers had to do their 3x200 FreeIM on 240, then swim a 450 free on 540....then a pair of 200s on 235, then a 600 on 720.

Katie and Haley were going low 220s (222-224s) for most of the set...holding about 107-108 pace on the freestyles. On the end they both went 214 -- their best 200 FreeIMs of the season at the end of this 3500 yard set.

Avery was going just under 230s the whole way and got to a 224 on the end with about 10 seconds after the 600.

WE WERN'T DONE YET.

Finishing up with no breath fast stuff may be more fun for the coach than the athletes, but it's very effective training.

Katie, Avery, and Haley did 18x50 with every 6th fast. A little extra rest before the fast ones, which were done 25 fast, 25 fast no breath.

On the end Katie was 26.2, Avery was 27.0, and Haley was 28.2

Erika and Ridge did the same type of thing: 20x50 with every 5th fast, no breath second 25.

Ridge was going fly, so we let him breathe....but on the end he dove a 50 with the second 25 no breath kick underwater -- and went 25.3 on it. Ridge can go a lot faster than that but he's saving it for next week when we do it again;)

Erika went a few 25+ 50s, then finished with a push 24.8 (back in 12.2 no breath)....and then a dive on the end: 23.8 (back in 12.00 no breath on final 25).

It was good to see many of our HS meet swimmers get to the pool and put in a 3000+ warmup before their meet. A great team atmosphere today, which has become the norm at Norris.

This afternoon we tried a new type of set for most people – a speed set centered around Negative Splitting. I thought the set went very well. Everyone was focused on what they were doing, and I feel like we got what we wanted from the work.

Most athletes in our group had never really done a set like this before -- one that was centered around some fast negative splits. It's a much different set than a set of 100s simply attempting to go fast. Generally, if we just blast 100s we end up splitting them like postive (29.5-31.0 = 100.5) instead of negative (30.5-30.0 = 100.5). Splitting the 30.0 instead of 31.0 on the final 50, in this example, is a more productive way to train speed over this distance. We do / will do plenty of front end speed training, and we get plenty of that when we dive 50s, do fast 25s, or compete in 50s at meets.

The Set went like this:

5 rounds through:
100 Stroke (130) *Descend 1-5 with Negative Splits
2x75 Free (1)
3x50 Free-Back (1)
4x25 Drills (30)
extra 10 seconds

For the freestylers and backstrokers, the Negative Split aspect of the set was of primary importance. The 2nd 50 of the 100 was the part of the set we wanted exceptionally fast, not the total time of the swim. We can see fast 100s (all-out), but that’s really racing (testing) – not training to race faster than ever before.

For the Breaststrokers and Flyers, we didn’t focus too much on the negative split aspect, but we did focus on attempting to bring the swims back progressively faster. Breaststrokers and Flyers need to time themselves differently when looking for splits – due to the fact that their turns are timed from a hand touch (on the turn) to the hand touch (on the finish), not from the foot touch (on the turn) to the hand touch (on the finish). It’s about a second difference.

Here are the results of the fastest 100s everyone put up today. In the most cases, these swims were the final two swims of the day.

Freestylers:
Erika 28.0-27.3 –55.3; 27.4-26.5 –53.9
Rachel 28.9-28.0 –56.9; 28.7-27.1 –55.8
Haley 29.0-29.4 –58.4; 29.3-29.4 –58.7
Avery 27.9-28.1 – 56.0; 28.3-28.1 –56.4
Max 28.9-26.4 –55.3; 28.0-26.6 –54.6
Jack 27.0-25.8 –52.8; 25.3-25.5 –50.8
Aidan 29.5-27.3 –56.8; 29.7-27.8 –57.5
Marchello 28.7-28.5 –57.2; 29.5-28.3 –57.8
Bun 31.1-31.4 –102.5; 30.9-32.7 – 103.6
Titus 30.9-31.9 –102.8; 30.4-31.7 –102.1
Maca 31.2-33.2 –104.4; 30.3-32.4 –102.7
Sammie 31.1-31.3 –102.4; 29.8-31.3 –101.1
Katie K 30.8-30.1 –100.9; 29.3-29.4 –58.7
Catie 29.3-30.7 –100.0; 28.2-29.6 –57.8
Sara 30.9-30.8 –101.7; 30.2-31.0 –101.2

Backstrokers
Andrew 31.4-31.3 –102.7; 30.4-30.2 –100.6
Connor 32.6-34.0 –106.5; 30.8-33.0 –103.8
Katie A 31.0-30.4 –101.4; 30.0-30.6 –100.6
Maddie 32.4-35.3 –107.4; 32.5-34.9 –107.8
Hayley 36.9-36.2 –113.1; 36.0-36.2 –112.4

Flyers
Nata 31.6-35.3 –106.9; 30.8-35.3 –106.1
Lincoln 33.22-34.2 –107.4; 32.6-33.3 – 105.9

Breaststroker
Ridge 32.3-33.3 –105.6; 31.6-32.8 –104.4

I know that I love what I do because while I sit watching football I am in a serious state of anticipation for this week's practices. Monday and Tuesday are already planned -- and they are going to be good ones. T2 swimmers need to get to the pool with great attitudes and performance-oriented thinking. Our Monday "threshold" practice will continue as usual, and with just a bit of energy coming into practice we're going to have some solid training. Our Tuesday practice will be an active rest practice, perhaps a "stroke" practice for many of our stroke swimmers.

Let's get ready to roll.

Erika and Avery did an "active rest" practice today. Here's the set:

4x (125 Free* (125) + 100 easy (135) ) (each round on (3))
4x (100 Free** (110) + 100 easy (150) ) (each round on (3))
3x (75 Free *** (55) + 100 easy (205) ) (each round on (3))

Both Erika and Avery had great results -- moving forward from earlier this week and earlier in the season prior to this week.

Erika got held 1:15s for her first 3 125s, then went 113 on the last one.
Her 100s were:

57.5 (27.9/29.5)
55.8 (27.5/28.1)
54.7 (27.0/27.7)
53.7 (26.6/26.9)

Her 75s were:

39.5 (back in 26.5)
38.8 (back in 26.2)
39.0 (back in 26.2)

Then we did 12x50 with fins on (50), every 3rd fast to finish even faster.
Erika's final 3 were 24.6, 24.2, 23.5

This was after doing a great kick set yesterday. Check this out:
6x200 Free Kick, one on each interval: 310,305,3, 255, 250, 245.
Erika went 246, 243, 240, 239, 237, 230

Afterwards she did a set of 6x50 easy followed by a 50 fast for three rounds.
Each of the 50s fast was 25 dive swim, 25 underwater kick.
One those 50s she went 27.1, 26.3, 25.9 -- all with the final 25 underwater kick.

Avery's set today was her best free set of the season. Here's the way it went:

Avery held 117s on the 125s, with a 116.1 to finish

Then the 100s:

100.9 (30.0/29.9)
59.6 (29.2/30.4)
58.4 (28.8/29.4)
57.8 (28.6/29.1)

And the 75s

43.5 (back in 29.6)
42.8 (back in 28.8)
42.5 (back in 28.4)

The Fin 50s at the end

27.0
26.3
25.5

The splits are important because they show the true story of the set.

The good news with both Erika and Avery is that the splits descended all the way through the set (you can see them drop all the way down the page on this blog). The thing everyone (today we saw it with Erika and Avery) needs to improve on is working the back half of their speed training -- not just going for great overall times, but great back end splits. Back end splits that are faster than the front end splits show that an athlete is ACCELERATING through the swim.

I KNOW that most (almost all) athletes practice DECELERATING every day during training, all over the world. Let's be different by practicing ACCELERATING through all of our splits. The total time of the swim may not be as fast, and we may not SEE that unless we can see our basic splits on the clock (easier for the distance guys to do, not as easy for the sprinters) -- or we get the splits from the coach on deck.

Over the next few weeks we will do some more focused speed work -- see if you can focus on the final half of the swims -- understanding that if you are not accelerating through the swims, then you are decelerating.

We've had a great week of swimming. Let's make sure we're not complacent. Get your schoolwork done over the weekend and recharge yourself for Monday morning, when we get back to work.

Saturday September 11 2010 – HS Prep Notes -- "T2 Takes it To Another Level"

Lots happening today at Norris! We had the Shark Relay Extravaganza, which I know will be fun and fast for our T2 athletes. Many of our Senior group came in at 7 to get a swim in before the meet – big UP to those that showed up and got the workout in. Is this a normal thing for you, to get up and do a workout before a meet? I don’t know but I do know we’re going to do this my way….the workout was geared toward getting you ready to race, as opposed to kicking your butt so you were too tired to race – and I believe that as this was an early September “Relay” meet, or practice was appropriate.

We will NOT sell-out, and get ready for every little HS meet like it’s our big meet of the year. There are just too many of them. This is why we were training today.

Think about it:

Let’s say you have 6 HS dual meets, 1 relay meet, 1 intra-squad meet, and 1 invitational…plus a district, regional and state meet – that means you’ve got 12 HS meets between September 1st and November 15th, with only the final 3 meets really meaning much in terms of your progression into the State Championship HS meet. It’s roughly an 85 day season if you compete in Florida HS States – 73 of which are “training” days and 12 of which are “race” days.

IF you were to prep for each of those meets by taking an easy day the day before the meet, let’s consider for the sake of argument that those days are “prep” days, not “training” days. The meet days are just that: meet days – “race” days, not training days. IF you were to take it easy during practice the day before every meet, and then swim the meet the following day, then you are essentially taking those 73 training days you are supposed to have and turning it into 61 training days (73 training days minus the 12 days you’ve “mini-tapered” for the (in most cases) meaningless HS dual meet).

SO, if I’m doing the math right, here’s an ideal HS season, given the fact that I’ll give you a 10-21 day taper at the end of it – which counts as “training” if you are taper with me at T2:
HS season = 85 days
HS season training = 73 days
HS racing = 12 days

Here’s what it looks like if you go real easy the day before each meet (not training but going through the motions):
HS season = 85 days
HS season training = 61 days
HS season meet prep easy days = 12
HS racing = 12

And here’s what it looks like if you go easy the day before every meet, AND you take every Sunday off during HS season (This is what most HS teams in SW do):
HS season = 85 days
HS season training = 51-53 days
HS season meet prep easy days = 12
HS racing = 12
Sundays Off = 10-12

My point with this is: you’ve got to make every practice count, especially if you are swimming HS meets. You simply do not have the time to mess around and think that you’re going to make great gains during the HS season. Hopefully much of the gain you make is through consistent training year-round – that way your HS season isn’t 85 days, it’s 365 days or something close to that. When we train the day of the meet, or we work it hard the day before the meet, it’s because at T2 we want to have something to taper off of when we get ready to swim our fastest in November and early December. It’s also because even though I realize the importance of HS States for many of our T2 athletes, High School States is NOT THE END OF THE SEASON. 85 days is not a long season, it is very short. If you think the end of HS season is all you're going to have this year, you will sell yourself short -- and sell yourself out.

We will continue to get faster through early December, then come back and be at our best in late February at the USS Florida Senior Champs. Then we will continue to get faster through the summer where I anticipate members of T2 to go very fast in the LCM pool just like the SCY pool -- some will move on to college and be way faster going into their freshman year because of it, and some will step up and start making Olympic Trial Cuts at some point soon. Those OT cuts are ONLY going to be made in a Long Course pool.

I urge you to keep swimming fast in HS meets, but please just keep swimming fast everyday -- no matter what! There is more out there for you if you look hard enough and have the courage to gaze a bit outside of what is normal for HS swimmers in Florida.

Thursday September 9th 2010

Today's practice goal was geared toward extending our basic freestyle swimming threshold. I define "threshold" as the pace an athlete can hold, on a particular interval -- using oxygen as their primary energy source. When we swim super-fast with a lot of rest, we tap into sugars we've got stored in our body and we use those sugars as fuel. If we can swim at race pace (in a race) without tapping too much into our sugar supply, we can last at that given race pace for longer. Our supply of glycogen (sugars) is not an endless supply -- and once we are out of that energy source there's nothing we're going to do in the middle of the race to produce more. If we can get reasonably far along into a race while still using oxygen as our main energy source we will bring our races home with the glycogen (energy) we've saved.

Our Mid-distance/Distance Set:

5x100 (125)hold 101 or 106
rest 10
10x100 (120)hold 59 or 104
rest 1:00
10x100 (115)hold 57 or 102-104

BT was doing a good job on the left side paces, and BT's harem was at or under the paces on the right. Many athletes looked like they were doing the paces with quite a bit of control. I know there was work involved but for the most part we were just floating along. Quite a few of the women working on the right side were at pace or just under easier than I've seen all year.

Our Mid-distance/Speed Set:

5x100 (130) hold 102/106/109
rest 30
5x100 (125) hold 100/104/107
rest 45
5x50 (50) hold 29/31/32
rest 30
5x50 (45) hold 28/30/31

Lots of easy ability to hold pace. I felt like I was slowing everyone down! One this type of set, the paces should be held right on the pace with the lowest possible effort -- a nice switch from the goals we often have which entail taking the "time" to the next level.

We finished with 36x25 (30) every 4th fast Fly or Free.

Here's a "Speed" Lesson:

I asked Max to swim fast on the 25s, but to "Max" out at 90-95%. The reason this type of sprinting is important: If you thrash your arms, hands, feet, core etc with a lot of jolting movements and you basically TRY to go nuts you actually end up hurting your ability to gain and hold speed. The water, as a medium, is extremely maliable -- and will change to whatever consistency you'd like it to change into. The type of consistency we'd like to have with the water we're swimming through is non-turbulent and still। When we move our limbs too fast and don't take the time to hold the water, we are essentially just pushing the water around the pool. We don't want to push the water around the pool because pushing the water around the pool has nothing to do with swimming through the water! We want to sneak up on the water, and catch the water by suprise -- not disturbing it as we put our hands, forearms, and feet upon it. We want to make relatively slow movements with our hands as we begin the propulsive phase of each stroke, and then accelerate our hand speed ONCE WE'VE TAKEN HOLD OF THE WATER.

It's kind of cool when a team starts to gel. Right now at T2, our Senior Performance group is starting to make practice (and soon, meets) an experience that goes deeper than times and performance stats: it's starting to become a TEAM.

Over the last week I have felt it. I know many of us have felt it. It's awesome to look forward to seeing each other at the pool, and knowing that we can all simply be who we are and be celebrated for it.

We have many different personalities on the team: people who go to different schools, have different interests (other than swimming fast), and who carry themselves in different ways. Also, we have many different needs in terms of training -- and a very big group. We have some real speedsters who do very well with one type of work in the pool, and some definite distance swimmers who do well with an entirely different type of training -- AND we have an equal amount of athletes who are right in between and have done/will be doing a mix of a few types of training.

As a coach, to put you all in a position where you can train yourselves to success, I have to treat you all like individuals as much as I can. I have to put you guys into two groups, sometimes three groups at practice -- creating a literal division in the team. It's a potentially dangerous situation I'm creating here, but one which I can see we've all started to grasp and thrive in.

Today we had some real breakthroughs in practice. There's no way I can list all the kick time improvements, but here are a few: (Some of these are HUGE drops!)

Aidan: kicked a 33 with a board (previous best was 37)
Jack: kicked a 34 with a board (I don't know your best Jack but that's gotta be up there).
Katie K: kicked a 34 with a board (I've never seen her under 38 or 39).
Brandon: 27.9 on his back fly kick (get ready for 25+)
Ridge: 28.0 on his back (after a 12.9 this morning underwater)

If I'm missing some standouts (I know there's a few), let me know so I can put'em up and give the recognition deserved...there's so many of you and the times are coming down in groups -- not just one person here and there. That's something I've figured out about you guys, you have each other's back. As soon as there's a new person in the group they are immediately accepted and supported as a member of our group. What a great place to be.

Signing off for now!

LET'S GO FASTER!!

Our Tuesday September 7th practice was one of our best practices to date as a team. We had an awesome speed practice and a great mid distance practice. Both centered around “active rest.”

Our speed practice:
4x (75 stroke (1) + 50 ez (50) )
6x (50 stroke (40) + 50 ez (1) )
8x (25 stroke (20) + 50 ez (110) )

Rachel, Max, and Aidan led the way. Aidan had a great warmup, working on his ability to take the final breath outside of the flags and FINISH – an invaluable skill for a sprinter. Rachel, Max, and Aidan started the set free for the 75s and 50s (going 45s-43s…then 28-26s) – and finished with Fly for the 25s. The times were very good 11+-12.9, but the great part of the set, which everyone did pretty well – was the breakouts and finishes. The times are secondary on a set like that – your ability to accelerate through the swims, and finish with will-timed strokes is HUGE.

Our Mid Distance Practice:
600 (8) FreeIM 200x3
300 (4) Stroke*
600 (820) FreeIMs
250 (320) Stroke **
600 (840) FreeIMs
200 (240) Stroke ***
600 (9) FreeIMs
150 (2) Stroke ****

Erika led the way, going freestyle: 307, 234, 156.6 (58.3/58.3), 123.4 (27.0/28.5/27.9)…not bad for week 2!
Avery (Fr) 311, 238, 202.9, 129.6
BT (Fly) 320, 238.9, 207.9, 128.0 (out in 56.7….next time I’m thinking 125+!)
Maddie (Fr) 317, 246, 207.2, 132.6
Katie (Ba) 325, 246, 207.7, 132.7
Andrew (Ba) 327, 246, 209.4, 133.2
Nata (Fly) 339, 251, 221, 142.2
Hayley (Ba) 354, 304, 227.8, 146.6

I’m pretty sure Hayley was right on her 200 back PR, then went a lot faster on the 150. Erika and Katie both had their highest level practice performances of the year IMO. Andrew had his best practice for the year as well IMO. Lots of spirit and good energy from the team. I know I had a lot of fun at this practice!!

Saturday September 4th

On Saturday we had two sets going on. First, the Speedster Set:
15x50 (50) every 5th * Stroke
12x50 (55) every 4th* Stroke
9x50 (1) every 3rd * Stroke

This set was designed to get everyone ready for the famous “Grant Hackett” 200 Set, which is usually done LCM – but we will more than likely do it SCY when we do it for the first time. The set is similar: you go 16x50 every 4th fast, 12x50 every 3rd faset, 8x50 every other fast, and 4x50 all fast. The rest intervals move up 5 seconds each time you change the variable of the set (the ratio of fast/easy).

The leaders of the set were Max, Erika, and Rachel.
Max started off at 26+, quickly moved to 25s, then went 24.9, 24.2, 24.4, 23.8, 23.4 on his final 5.
Erika started off at 26+, held it for a while, then finished with 26.1, 25.7, 25.6, 25.5, 25.5, 24.6, 24.4
Rachel was all over 27.0-26mid to start, and finished with 26.1, 26.4, 25.8, 25.8, 26.1, 25.7, 25.0

Many other athletes did a great job.
Ridge was going 30.3s for his breaststroke with a 29.9 at the end.
Katie Kramer can now go 29s all day, and went about 3 28s to finish.

Lots of faster training for individuals, literally too many to report. Great kick set at the end to finish it off.

Our Mid distance/Distance crew went 8x300 (4) – odds free cruise, evens FreeIM fast descend.

BT led the way going 327, 314, 311, 310; hold sub 320 the whole way on the free. Not bad for a guy whose 400 IM best is 421 or something like that. BT, let’s break 305 as soon as possible!

Haley F, Nata, and Maddie were all hovering in the low 330 range – Haley squeaking under with a 329.9 on the last one. Girls, if we’re not thinking 320 asap we are underestimating our ability!! Think about 2 weeks ago when we did our 6x400 FreeIM --you guys were going 455 city for the most part on that set, with you fastest just a bit under 450. Improvement can be rapid if you envision great things happening.

इन थे Beginning

The “Fall” is underway – if you can call it Fall in South Florida. We’ve made some good progress in the last few weeks, and are well on our way to swimming faster than ever before.

The purpose of this blog is to record some practice performances, set new goals, and motivate for better performances in the future. I’ve been thinking about starting this blog for a while now – so here goes!