Wednesday Free IMs and Stroke Count 25s

Here's Wednesday's workout.  Let's do a great job on some shorter-rest Free IMs.

We will start the practice with some 25s Stroke Count.  We must get better at this skill (see comments from yesterday)!  There's no time like the present to make this happen.

25s are pretty easy to do (compared to 50s), so I expect we are going to be firing on all cylinders to get this done with precision today!  Let's get better!!

Tuesday February 9, 2016

Today's practice was focused on pacing for a 1650 yard or a 100M swim.  Overall we had a great day in the chilly water!  

Our strength as a group: we finished the set very well.  The last 4 rounds, for most athletes, were the best 4 rounds of the set.  And the times at the end, for many people, were very good.  

Our second strength as a group: we generally have had a good practice attitude going at practice recently.  I think we have a few people who are getting more comfortable talking during practice…and when I say "talking" I mean talking about getting after it and keeping the energy level up in the lanes.  

  You have to take hold of the practice and work each other through it a bit.  Have fun with each other, and you will naturally work each other through a practice.  Allow the verbal instruction and coaching I offer you to be just one of the things you hear and respond to at practice, not the only thing your hear and respond to.

Our weakness as a group: getting started.  I felt like today there was too much holding back at the beginning of the set, and as well some holding back during warmup that wasn't necessary.  See below comments for recommendations and ideas about how to improve this as a Team!

Here are two recommendations for getting some improvement on this type of set, which poses a great challenge due to its demands for a high volume of fast swimming:

*Let it flow on numbers 1 through 3 out of 10.  Swim with great walls and crisp strokes.  Split it emphatically -- either get out fast and cruise a little bit at the end, or build it and swim a fast back third.  Have a goal to be within 1.5-2.5 seconds of your fastest swim on a 75, and within 2-3 on a 150.   

*Warmup better. The warmup is meant to get your heart rate up and get your strokes ready to use during the set.  Today, we could have used the 25s better.  Next time, I'll put the 25s on the watch and we will focus better, as a group, on proper stroke counts proper paces.

Our top performers on the 150s side were Shawn and Jack.  My only gripe with the way the set unfolded was that the start of the set was too slow, and there wasn't really a gear change on number two.  Jack maybe the first 3 or 4.  Think about your best 1650s or 1500s -- our team's best milers have done well when attacking the swim to some extent.  Good stroke, great walls, proper body position, longer underwater than the middle of the swim possibly, just cruising but moving well, en route to a strong first 300.

Our top performer on the 75s was Erika.  She had maybe one 42 to start, but was right between 41.7 and 41.2 through the first half of the set.  She got a few 40+ before a 39.9 on the end.   

During the spring, we will swim a set of 75s where we expect to get 3 fast 75s -- not 10.  Let's see if we can get the following at a practice this spring:

75 Fly: 5 girls 44 or better, with 3 girls 43.5 or better 

75 Breast: 6 guys 45 or better, with 3 guys 43.9 or better 

75 Free: 4 guys 37 or better; 3 girls 39 or better

75 Back: first male 39 in T2 history (pretty sure this would be a first for T2 guys!)

This is a chart we were looking at today:

1650 100 P     150 Pace        1650 goal
56.0                1:24.0             15:24             

58.0                1:27.0             15:57

1:00.0             1:30.0             16:30

1:02.0             1:33.0             17:06

1:04.0             1:36.0             17:39

75P                 (200M)           Pace per 50    Ideal 100 splits (2nd 50 pacing) 

38.0                1:54.0             :28.50             27.00 + 28.50 = 55.50

39.0                1:57.0             :29.25             27.75 + 29.25 = 57.00        

40.0                2:00.0             :30.00             28.50 + 30.00 = 58.50

41.0                2:03.0             :30.75             29.25 + 30.75 = 1:00.00

42.0                2:06.0             :31.50             30.00 + 31.50 = 1:01.50

43.0                2:09.0             :32.25             30.75 + 32.25 = 1:03.00

44.0                2:12.0             :33.00             31.50 + 33.00 = 1:04.50

45.0                2:15.0             :33.75             32.25 + 33.75 = 1:06.00

46.0                2:18.0             :34.50             33.00 + 34.50 = 1:07.50

{The 200M is in parenthesis because I do not mean to show that the 75s are an indicator of one's 200M readiness.  The 200M time is simply a note for me as I did the math on this…and I've left it there so you can see how I get the paces.  The math is: three 75s is 225 yards, which is the same distance as 200 meters…so I multiply the 75 by 3, and divide twice to get the 50M pace}

{The Breast and Fly splits are going to be a little bit further apart than this due to the fact that the first 50 is done to the hand touch and the second 50 is done from the hand touch (as opposed to: to the foot touch and from the foot push).

Monday Afternoon -- Review

After a short break (blogger shut this blog down, I appealed, and they put it back up)….we are back in action.  I'm looking forward to posting more about our practices this week!

Here's Monday afternoon.  Basic conditioning training, which will be done with the best and most consistent stroke technique possible.

Check out my commentary below:

I thought the workout went very well today.  I decided to change the "B" interval set a bit…I made the intervals a little harder (115, 230, and 5:00).  I felt that it was important to keep the "A" interval as quick as it was, but the original "B" interval was too easy to get what we wanted out of the set.

I thought we had a business-like attitude and we got something out of each part of the workout.

So, what do we want on this type of main set?  

1. A stronger effort, progressively throughout the set.

2.  Athlete's heart rate to be around 150 BPM to start the set, and finish around 162-174.  We don't check out heart rates very often, and we didn't as a group yesterday.  

3. Great stroke technique, all the way through.  As the HR increases, we want the athlete to maintain form.  

This is a fitness day, and a muscle endurance day!

On the "A" interval,  we had a few guys that were training on the faster side of our top "time range" (Jack was holding 357-352 on the 400s; Rip and Jacob were both right on the 4:00 or right under 4:00).   

Lots of great swimming on the "B" interval.   A few of our athletes are going to shift to more on "A" interval in the near future, and some of the athletes we had on the "A" interval will shift to the "B". 

Stay tuned, I hope to post the National practice for Tuesday around 2:45.

Review of Friday, and preview of Saturday Feb 6, 2016

Grant Hackett IM Set for tomorrow at 6am! (See below)

8am people will do something off the blocks.  Probably some dive 50s and possibly some broken swim 100s.

Good job today on the Kick Set.  We had lots of strong times and good efforts all around.  It was one of those sets and one of those practices where I felt like we didn't miss anyone (that means everyone had a good or very good set -- no stinkers!).

Aaron and Bean ended up going 12x150 (odds Free, evens Fly) and it worked out well for both.

We changed our final set around a little bit and had some FAST 50s going 25 Swim + 25 underwater kick with FINS.  

Shout out to Kaitlyn -- who had one of her best practices of the last few weeks today!  She did some sub 1:20 kicks and went 24 on the last 50 with FINS -- with a quick 25 underwater to finish the 50.

Get to bed asap if you are reading this on Friday night.  A good attitude with decent sleep and good nutrition will set you up for a great morning tomorrow.  

How do you want to feel after practice?  If you want to feel great about your effort, you've got to be ready to come in and kick butt.

Friday -- Best Average Kick Day

Thursday February 4, 2016

Updated: We are back to some basic Aerobic Training today.  Let's balance out all the high-intensity swimming we've been doing with a strong, descending set of IMs!

 More details are below the picture.

We started the day with a group discussion.  The goal of the discussion was to offer the athletes a few key tips to staying healthy and getting the most out of their athletic, personal, and Family life.

I felt like the discussion, which was 45 minutes long, was important and effective.

We talked about THREE things we should do in the quest to stay healthy:

Health Tip #1: Get more sleep.  We discussed things that sometimes get in the way of getting a good night's sleep (schoolwork we've waited too long to do, social media, etc).

Health Tip #2:  Eat healthy.  Limit processed, fried, and fast foods.  Eat veggies and fruits everyday along with the basic four food groups.

Health Tip #3: Control Stress and limit stressors.  Stress can come from any area of life, at any time.  Swimming shouldn't be an "everyday" stressful thing.  There may be some stress, at times, but when one thinks about swimming and considers their place in the sport, their first thought should be about excitement and accomplishment -- and possibly thoughts about the Team as a whole that are positive.

Tip #3 continued:  I need athletes to understand that my words and my coaching are meant to help them 100%.  There should be no question about my motives -- to create a team of fast, tough, hard-nosed athletes who do not back down from anyone or any challenge.  I am working on my presentation as its received by the athletes, and I expect the athletes to work on their reactions and their thought process when getting coached as well.  We are all in this together!

When athletes do not feel as if they are in a good place in the eyes of their coach, their parents, or their teachers at school, they become more and more stressed as the situation remains continually unresolved in their minds.  With this said, part of our discussion about Tip #3 (Limit Stress) had to do with feeling comfortable with our coaches and our evolving (and hopefully continually improving) method of communication.

  As far the practice went yesterday, although we got in the water later than usual, we managed to complete the main set for the most part (we made a slight change to the set on the left side).  As we got closer to the start of practice, I heard more about people getting sick and feeling ill, so I was a bit on the fence about going through with the written workout.  We have had a rough month of sicknesses and I think our immune systems are in defense mode right now….so in other words, I decided that going 5000 yards instead of 7000+ was ok for today.  And we could use the talk about handling sleep, nutrition, and stress!

Between Thursday and Friday of this week, we are going to have two days in a row of lower volume training (we will do the usual Friday today, which is normally 5000-5800 yards).  My hope is that our immune systems go to work and we can get healthy this weekend!

Wednesday February 3, 2016

We went for 4x200 from a Dive today.  Check out the results below.  The time goals for this type of set differ for different athletes.  Generally, athletes should look to be 6-9 seconds over their best competition time, on the average of 4 200s.  Sometimes an athlete will do their best time on the first or second 200….and not as quick on the end of the set.  It's ok to have this happen on this type of set -- you don't want to go less than 100% physical and mental effort each time.

Oftentimes, athletes who have a bit less experience will be closer to their best times during a set like this.  

We finished with 10x100 Free on (130) ALL OUT best average.  This set is typical for us to finish a Dive 200s set.  The 100s hurt a bunch and get the athletes used to dealing with pain.  They are also learning how to swim after their muscles have broken-down to some extent.  Jacob and Shawn averaged about 55 on the final 7-8 100s….some 54s in the there.  Shawn was 52 in the end.  Rip averaged 56, got down to 54 or 55 on number 9, and then went 51.9 on the end!

Good job particularly to the athletes who were challenged (by myself, Jennah, or a teammate) today.  Many people stepped up after being challenged by a coach in some way!  

Athletes, our job is not just to teach you proper technique & give you what we consider to be smart training sets and well-planned weeks, months, or seasons.  We strive to make you tougher athletes and tougher people.  

There is nothing better, as a coach, than watching athletes do things they didn't think were possible.  We look for opportunities for athletes to do these things in practice.  

There is no doubt we all leave some effort on the table everyday.  Let's find the little areas within which we can improve.  We may improve our actual practice, or we may improve our preparation for practice, or strength training, or our ability to recover after practice!

Remember, at the highest levels, breakthroughs in practice and in hidden training often precede breakthroughs in competition!