Meet Recap & Next Meet

Our Norris Foundation meet was a success on many levels.  We saw Erika and Matt get OT cuts -- congrats to them!  And Michelle set an American Record twice in the 200M free (a non-paralympic event for her S9 class, so she had to get it last weekend)!

If you go back to our meet last year, we were a bit better with many events/athletes this year.  Some athletes were slower -- and some athletes wore a different racing suit, which makes a difference.

We've had a lot of sicknesses, commitments, and really all kinds of problems over the last few weeks.  I'd like to see our group get heathy, and really get into some high-level training that is consistent over the course of June-July.


Our next few weeks will be challenging, and I anticipate lots of forward movement -- which is normal for us at this time of year.  School is ending, and Summer is upon us.   Let's make every day count!

Practice Update: Friday Kick Set & Saturday

We had our Friday practice at the YMCA.

The set was simple and fast:

4x rounds:
2x50 Kick (50)
1x50 Swim (1)
1x50 Kick (50)
2x50 Swim (1)

The Kicking was FAST.  The last two rounds were very good, with 8 athletes kicking under 30 seconds.  Rip and BT were both 27s, Elise and Karen were 28s to lead the way.  We were missing a few guys and are certainly ready to be a team with 10-12 athletes kicking sub :30 if you include a few athletes from the Senior Performance training group.

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Saturday was a LCM pace day.  At 6am, we went 16x100 (140), with every 4th Fast Freestyle…followed by 20x50 (1) every 5th Fast Freestyle.  Overall the results were awesome.  Our fastest guys are going 1:00s-1:03s on average, and our fastest girls are going 103-104s.

If you are not hitting paces during a single workout, first off -- examine the rest of your week.  Was this just a poor practice?  If so, throw it out.  Who cares.  Not a big deal.

But, if you've had more stinkers than great practices during any period of time, you've got to be able to right the ship.  As an older athlete, it's mostly going to be up to YOU!

You, the athlete, has to be the one that creates change.  Don't depend on anyone to create change for you.

If you want to make a breakthrough, here are few things to consider:At the 8am practice, we did some fast 50s.  We had some great swimming at this practice, with Matt and Wyatt hitting anywhere from 32.9 to 34.7s.  Kayla hit a few 31s for Fly, and our post grads were all right on (and under) their paces.

1- figure out roughly what you need to be doing in the SCY pool during pace training, kicking training, as well as threshold training and get to work this week on hitting fast paces in practice.    Focus on it!

2- pick an aspect of your swimming, and work on it HARD during warmup.  Getting into freestyle turns with one stroke of no breathing, FAST -- during the warmup -- is a good place to start.  It comes down to holding yourself to it.

3- get to more AM practices and be as consistent as you can be during the week.  Training consistently well is super important for continued improvement with your best events.


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We've got a week of training coming up, and then we are racing in our Norris meet.  Let's have a great week!

Blogging

So….blogging is hard work and can be time-consuming.  My schedule has been a little bit crazy and I haven't been able to spend time on updating this blog.  I will be getting back to it through, so please check in periodically.  The end of this week and this weekend will prove to be the time I need to post some more updates.

As for today's practice, you can expect a combined practice…with a set that looks like either this:

4x200 plus 1x600
4x150 plus 1x450
4x100 plus 1x300
4x50 plus 1x150

or it's little cousin:

3x200 plus 3x100
3x150 plus 3x100
3x100 plus 3x100
3x50 plus 3x50

It will be awesome.  See you there!  If you haven't heard, Derek can't make it today - so be there at 3:45.

All Time T2 -- Sub 1:00 Men 100 Breast Short Course

as of 5/16:

1 Matt Limbacher 56.4
2 Wyatt Kellett 57.0
3 Ridge Altman 57.9
4 Chris Yacobacci 58.0
5 Jack Melnick 58.0
6 David Duque 58.1
7 Nick Lewis 58.7
8 Kevin Erndl 58.7
9 Rip Lyster 58.8
10 Mitch Mandigo 59.6
11 Jack Gillen 59.8

We have at least 2 guys returning next year that have been 1:00 +

We have a chance to get 15 guys under 1:00 by this time next year.  Stay tough in practice and tough in with the strength training.  You have almost zero chance to improve significantly in breaststroke if you neglect the strength aspect of training!  Think of it like we think of kicking -- you have to improve the out of the water work.

Wednesday's 100 Freestyle Set

Here's the workout from yesterday.  It was a little bit different and I thought we got a lot out of it.  We had eight athletes achieve the "goal times" you see on the sheet.

We had some outstanding swims from some of the athletes who did not put up 4 within the goal times listed and I thought a great effort from every athlete that did the set.

The eight people who were within their goal time ranges were: Jacob, Jack, Davis, Paolo, Shawn, Matt, Wyatt, and Bella.

Shawn led the way with 51s for 4 in a row.  The rest of our guys were in the 51 high to 53 low range.  Bella was rocking some 55s.

When figuring out the chart, take your best time and add a certain amount to it (the amount you see to the right of the time ranges).  So an athlete with a 48 adds 4 seconds to get a 52.  That athlete has to go 52 4 times to finish the set, or else they simply do the set 6 times.  There's some incentive there to get after it!

Specifically for the parents:  you may notice that the set of 100s I am referring to is on the right side of the practice sheet.  There is a set of 200s (with scribbled-in goal times) is on the left.  Instead of splitting the group, and having some athletes do the 200s and others do the 100s, I decided to have everyone do the same thing & attempt to achieve a lot of energy within the group.  

photo credit to Jennah Haney, May 11 2016

Tuesday May 10, 2016 Practice Review

Tuesday's practice was geared toward 100 pace (I was thinking specifically about back-end 100 pace).

The set:
4x: 100 Free (130) + 50 Breast or Fly (1)
4x: 100 Free (140) + 50 Breast or Fly (1)
4x: 100 Free (150) + 50 Breast or Fly (1)

Some of the top swims:
Aaron (fly) 25 high/26 low
Bt (fly) 25 high/26 low
Shawn (fly) 28-26
Aidan (fly) 28-27-29
Jack (breast) 32-31s
Rip (breast) 32-31s
Alex (breast) 35-32s, 31
Jacob (breast) 33-31s
Wyatt (breast) 29-28s
Matt (breast) 28-27s
Emma (fly) 30s-29 last 1
Karen (breast) 34-33s

I know I'm missing a few people here.  It was a good set all-around.  Most people finished with 5x300 with the FINS, Free IM -- Jack was 2:55 on the end; Paolo was 3:00.0; Karen was 3:02.  Good tough way to finish the workout.  A few others finished with a set of 9x100, FINS and Paddles, every 3rd going for it.

Once the times for the 50s start getting in the ranges I've listed above, or faster,  I put the times up to my SCY/LCM conversion chart seen below.  There comes a time when I start thinking about LCM times and athletes getting second swims at these meets.

RE the times you see on the chart:  on the left are SCY times; the times on the right are LCM times.

The times on the left are meant to be done from either a hand touch to a hand touch (as in, open turn to a finish or another open turn), or from a foot touch to a foot touch (from one flip turn to another flip turn).  So, if you push off the wall like we normally do in training, and then finish with a hand touch like we normally do in training, you have to adjust the pace chart by adding one second.

So, what I do is simple.  I take the athlete's 50 time (in practice), and I add one second.  I add one second to the time the athlete does, because the athlete finishes with a hand touch, not a foot touch -- and the chart is based off of "feet off the wall to feet on the wall".  I adjust and add a second, then put it on the chart.

So, let's take Aaron.  Aaron did some 26.0 50s at the end of the set, give or take a few tenths.  I add one second to 26.0 and get 27.0…then I put 27.0 on my SCY to LCM conversion chart.  You can see on the chart that 27.0 correlates to 1:00.7 LCM 100 Pace.  Aaron's best time in the event is 1:00.6

This begin said, generally, for this type of work, I cut the 1:00.7 in half to get LCM 50 speed, which in this case is 30.35.

So, Aaron is training to go 30.35 on his second 50 of his 100 Fly -- which would take him well under 1:00.

Athletes- you can figure this out each time you train.  I'll post the chart so you can use it more before, during, or after practices.

____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____

More on our Pace Chart:

You may ask, "how does the math work?".  It's based off of the fact that 225 yards is the same as 200 meters.  So, I convert everything to 225 yards and work from there.

So, a 15 second 25 would be converted to LCM pace in this way:  15.0 x 9 = 2:15.  So, 15.0 is 2:15 LCM pace (or 107.5 pace for a LCM 100, or 33.75 for a LCM 50).

I like to see Breaststrokers get to 16.75 in the SCY pool.  If I don't have a chart, I do this in my head: 16.75, 33.50, 1:07.0, 2:14.0, 2:30.75.  The 2:30.75 is 1:15.3 or 37.6 pace -- which is World Class IM pace for women, and for men it's a pace that is needed for an Olympic Trial cut or a sub 4:30 swim.

I made this chart and have been using it since 2005-2006.  I made it because my athletes at the time did not train a lot of LCM but our goals were based off LCM performance.

In 2004 Katie Hoff trained less than 20 times in the LCM pool, in 10 months of training, before making the US Olympic Team.  Lots of SCY, all year.  I like to do 2-3 times per week if possible, so we would have done more if we could in 2004; but the pool we used 90% of the time was a 6 lane 25 yard pool, built in a 40x40 yard building and we just couldn't make it happen unless we travelled to another facility.  So we figured out what we already knew -- that SCY training can produce LCM International success, as long as the athlete and coach are committed to being great every day.

In 2004 prior to Olympic Trials, Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps' coach), Eddie Reese (Univ of Texas coach), and Dave Salo (USC coach, at the time coach of Irvine Novaquatics) each made requests to USA Swimming to add a SCY warmup/warmdown pool to the two LCM pools they had planned to build for the Olympic Trials.  And USA obliged -- and why not when the coaches of Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hanson, Ian Crocker, Amanda Beard, etc were all making the request?

The thing is -- one has to avoid being rigid with expectations for training environments, training plans, and really anything that can be planned.  Because anything that can be planned for can be messed up by forces out of your control.  So, for instance -- at the Olympics or the World Championships, you won't see a SCY warmup pool unless you find a hotel that has one!  So, all of those people in 2004 were warming up LCM in Athens!

Why does this even matter?!

It's simple.  An athlete's stroke and body posture break down earlier and more drastically when "tired" in a LCM pool, compared to "tired" in a SCY pool.  Certainly, there's the concept that all athletes simply must FACE IT and get better at training and racing LCM.   But velocity is higher and maintained to a higher degree in the SCY pool vs the LCM pool.

It's tough to train with perfect strokes 20 hours out of the week and still get the necessary cardio and muscular endurance work in that create the total athlete!  So we like the SCY/LCM balance that we have here at T2 -- we do enough SCY to create an awesome training effect, and enough LCM to keep us in-tune with the racing course.  Additionally, when we do train LCM we are only broken down to a degree, so we can attack it and have success during the LCM practices.

That's enough for now.  Enjoy the day!

Athletes - you all know what is coming this afternoon;)

Monday's Practice & Some Training Thoughts

We had a lot going on at today’s practice (Monday May 9).  In the interest of brevity, here are a few items:

1. We had a group of athletes do a 1000-2000-3000.  Jacob led the way with 1027/2043/3112.  The last time we did the 3000, Jacob went 32:56.  We are going to use the times for training paces over the next few weeks.  Good times from pretty much everyone.  Paolo did it all backstroke and didn’t go over 108 the entire 6000!

2. Another group of athletes did 10x200 on either (220), (230), or (240).  The goal with this type of set is for the athlete’s best effort to get them 20-25 seconds rest.  Sometimes, particularly for athletes on (240), the rest will be closer to 30 seconds.  But generally, if the athlete is getting much more than 20 seconds, a faster interval should be considered.

3. It was a challenge getting the practice ready for today.  My goal was to offer each athlete the closest thing to a highly effective plan – which means different sets for different people.  I considered going together and basically doing the same set with everyone but opted to do what we did and give out different sets.

4. I am constantly reminded that the athlete is the one that makes the plan happen and makes the training great.  It’s the athlete that must train well in order to be successful.  Think about: among others, athletes are racing “their best self”—and the best self of T2 Aquatics athletes is an outstanding self.  Athletes, think about the things you have done in training to get the results you’ve gotten.  Are you ready to move past your best training performances? 

5. Best training performances don’t have to happen in every aspect of training.  But there must be some aspects of training that are getting better during a season for an athlete to reasonably expect to improve.  Pick something: kicking, pulling, drilling, speed sets, distance sets.  It’s gotta be something!

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I'm challenging everyone to have a great week of training this week!

What are you waiting for?

It’s more fun to train fast!

Who wants to swim slow for 2 hours!

Everyone in the National Group has lots of great training under their belt.

Upperclassmen, if you tap into what you’ve built over the years, you will see that you are more ready now than ever to swim FAST. 

Upperclassmen, you more than anyone have endurance and speed in combination; years ago you may only have had one of those things!

Everyone needs to commit to great attendance, and get to morning practices – if for no other reason than to give that dedication to the GROUP.  We need to have everyone totally on board and firing.  We can’t have some people coming to mornings and others sleeping in every time.  It’s a simple choice that we can each make!

"Six Things" …...'Coach Talk' from Colorado Springs

There are at least 6 different aspects of preparation each athlete can improve within their own training.  You've got to raise all of your levels!  You don't have to be perfect, but you must have the intention to improve!

What are those aspects?  How does the understanding of your own training -- what's good or not-so-good within your preparation -- play into your personal psychology of becoming great?

This is a motivational talk I gave at the USA Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in October 2014 to athletes who attended USA Swimming's "National Select Camp".  Parents, you may not have heard this type of talk before; and athletes -- you may have heard this from me, but sometimes watching on a video helps solidify the message.

Weekend of May 6, 2016 & attendance thoughts

We have had a GREAT weekend of swimming for those in attendance, congrats to all athletes.  Let's keep it going this week.

Saturday's 6am set of FreeIMs went awesome, with many athletes repeating strong mid 230s on the 9x200.  Cole and Rip led the set with 2:24s on the end of the set.

Thinking back to Friday….we had a set of 100s Kicking, going 3x100 on (120) to finish the set.  Not everyone made the whole thing, but we had a good effort from all.  Cole led the way with 3 108s with a Kickboard.  Awesome job Cole!

We finished the practice with some fast 50s from a Dive….some standouts here were Matt 27 mid 50 Breast.  Kayla and Bean went 27s for Fly.  Jack is knocking on the door of 23 with a Dive 50 Free - and Davis is knocking on the 22 second door….guys, improve your skills off the wall just a little bit and you'll be there soon.  Keep in mind that if your 50s times are different than they used to be, that's ON YOU and it probably indicates that you need to train more regularly.

This morning (Monday) we had some good swimming/kicking/pulling…but we were missing quite a few people.  We only had 10 out of 19 at practice -- so our "National" group was missing 9 people!!  WOW.  Cmon guys!

Keep in mind, we won't truly be a GREAT TEAM while we are missing half of our group in Ams!  We can be GOOD, but not GREAT with this type of attendance.    We are a BRONZE medal team, and we are doing GREAT if we want to maintain BRONZE medal status.

It's up to YOU GUYS (not your coaches) if you really want to be great!!  You can be so GREAT.  We can REALLY DO IT here in Naples FL.  We can be a GOLD medal team, but it takes MORE athletes with Summer JR National times to get to GOLD status.

You gotta get to practice!

Don't let you competition outwork you, and don't let your friends or others in your life convince you that the easy way works.  Only hard work works!   The hard part is that hard work is relative….you have to measure yourself against those who train 9-10 times per week.

If you only go 6-7 times per week, you are not working hard compared to others outside of our small town of Naples!

Thursday May 5

Thursday's practice will NOT be a re-try of Wednesday's practice, just to clear that one up.  We are back to a normal Thursday, which will be focused on IM on this particular Thursday.  We have a combined group starting at 4:30.  See you there!

Wednesday May 4, 2016

YES, practice is still ON for today!

Dryland has been postponed.  I'm trying to save people the drive.  Athletes can stick around after and get the dryland completed weather permitting.

See you all at 3:50pm.

Monday April 3, 2016

On Monday afternoon, we split into two groups:

Lanes 9-10 (10 athletes) did a 1000 yard kicking set, a short paddles “speed play” set, and a 1500 yard freestyle set.   I came up with a pace chart, which was an accurate prediction for the 100s….and too easy for the 200s.  Most people were well under the goal paces for the 200s and 150s.  We finished with 40x25, every 4^th one fast…good job to all who did this workout.

Lanes 5-6-7-8 (10 athletes) did a set of 800s.

The set:          3x: {1x800 (10)* desc 1-3 + 8x50 (50) drill-swim}

Great job everyone.  Here are some of the times:

Jack 756 (357+359) / 749.5 (353+356) / 741.1 (350.1+351.0)

Jacob 811 (406+405) / 802 (358+404) / 755.8 (356+359)

Aaron 831.1 (415+416) / 826 (410+416) / 829.6 (418+411)

Karen 833.0 (---    -----) / 826 (415+411) / 819.6 (412+407)

Bella 839 (----  ----) / 836.6 (417+419) / 832.7 (----   ----)

Bean 857, 849, 852

Paolo did this Backstroke…starting to build a solid backstroke training base!

He did 848, 844, 838.  So that’s an 800 Backstroke at the end at sub 1:05 per 100.

Rip and Cole took some interest in doing Fly…so they did the first one Fly-Free x25, the second one Fly-Free x50, and third one all Fly. 

Rip 856, 855, 913

Cole 854, 856, 933