Plantation Meet Review Part 1

We tried something different at the meet yesterday.  Before and during the afternoon session, I asked each athlete to tell me what they thought their time would be on their next event.  There were 1-2 times when I felt that I needed to help an athlete adjust their goal time, but for the most part the athletes came up with their goal on their own.

I came away with a few thoughts:

1- Stating a goal before the event seemed to help with the athlete's focus on the actual event.
2- Stating a goal before the event forced the athlete to consider the splits that were needed to achieve the goal time.
3- Stating a goal before the event opened up the line of communication between myself and the athletes, and helped us establish appropriate communication during the competition -- which should always be centered around increasingly higher levels of performance.
4- Stating a goal before the event helped the athletes to focus more on their warmup and warm down procedures.

I will be publishing a "Meet Review Part 2" soon!

Friday Practice

Saturday Relays

Here are the Relays, as of Friday 1:30pm, for Saturday's meet.  They are Mixed Relays!

200 Medley A: Wyatt, Matt, Erika, Abby
200 Medley B: Paolo, Rip, Kayla, Kaitlyn
200 Medley C: Karen, Jack, Bean, Davis
Alternates could be anyone based off where we need someone.

200 Free Relay A: Davis, Rip, Kayla, Abby
200 Free Relay B: Shawn, Matt, Bean, Kaitlyn
200 Free Relay C: Jacob, Alex, Emma, Karen
Guys alternates: Wyatt
Girls alternates: no one! We must have everyone to do 3 relays.

The relays are a big part of this meet for us, let's get fired up to put some good splits up there and compete for the top places in our heats!

Thursday at the YMCA

Make sure you see the reviews from yesterday.  Here's a link: Wednesday Review Part 2

Today's set, focused on the 20x100 Free (120)

Jacob, Paolo, Jack, and Shawn led the lanes for this set.  We saw a lot of 57-58s through the first 7 or 8.  Jack broke through at the end for some 56-55-54s.  Matt went 56 average to lead the second heat of swimmers.  Overall we had a lot of good swimming with this set.

The 25s were fun to do after yesterday's stroke count work.  Each lane had a representative that was supposed to set a good example of how to do well with the Fly 25s.  Aaron, Cole, Matt, and Rip were the nominees in their lanes.  Aaron and Rip were looking to go 6 strokes per length, and Matt and Cole were looking to go 7 strokes per length.  I asked them to basically add one stroke to their top 25 stroke count, and do two in a row.

We decided that if we had success with these four guys, we would take the set from a total of 40 to a total of 28…and we did.  Good job everyone!

Wednesday Practice Review Part 2

If you didn't see Part 1 for my Wednesday practice review, here it is: Wednesday Part 1

Our main focus of the day was a set of 15x200 or 12x200 Free IM.

The results were very good across the board.  Like Monday, we didn't have too many people who were not on it  -- I'd prefer to have everyone but when we are getting an 85% success rate I'd say the opportunity is there for 100%!

Jack led the way on the A interval.  We went 5 Free IM 200s on 230, then 225, then after 40 extra seconds 5 on 220.  Jack went from 2:10-2:04 throughout the set.  The final set on 2:20 was an average of 205-206 with a 204 on the end.  We had 7 other guys going between 2:10 and 2:15 for the duration of the set.  Good work on fairly short rest.  Jack, I'm think you are ready for this set doing regular IM, and/or a set of 30x200 Free IM going 10 on 225, 10 on 220, and 10 on 215.  Not on the same day.

The B interval was 240, 235, and 230.  We have almost everyone in the training group going 225 or better on this interval, with most people going between 2:10 and 2:20 on the average throughout the set.

One thing I've noticed with our training group: we tend to do very well on simple aerobic sets that have tough intervals.  In fact, the reason I chose this set was because I predicted we would do well on it as a group.  Do you know that every day, that's my process?  I consider the athletes who are going to be doing the practice -- and then about the practice -- not the other way around.  Generally I am going to plan for the leaders in the lanes (can't do that the other way around either!), and my feeling is that those who are going 2nd-3rd-4th in the lane should try to move up in the lane, generally speaking, and basically imitate and/or challenge those who are leading the way.

I'll see you all at the YMCA today.  We will begin strength training at the the usual 3:30, and we will get into the water at 4:30.

Wednesday Review and Video Clip

We had a nice practice yesterday.  I'd like to expand on it further, but I'll wait for a separate post.  This post will be to briefly detail this video.  If you'd like, fast forward to the 1:51 part of the video where, for the next 1:15 we will follow Cole as he gets better at his Butterfly stroke count.  You can see toward the 3:00 mark, when Cole finishes the length, that he "times the wall" perfectly.  He has zero glide, but he also reached full extension.  This point of full body extension is the fastest part of the stroke and so an athlete must finish in this position (otherwise, if they are short and they finish on a bent arm they are not reaching their final stroke's full speed, and if they are long they hit their highest velocity and then decelerate into the finishing touch).

The stroke count ensures that the athlete is constantly working on their finishes, which come into play on not only every finish, but every turn.  The athlete must also count kicks to go along with strokes; it makes no sense to know you are doing 6 strokes, but not sure if it's 6 kicks or 11 kicks….which will make a big difference in the amount of strokes taken down the pool.

T2 Practice Clip -- look at 1:50-3:00 for detailed part

Cole is working toward a stroke count of 6, and a time of 12.0 seconds.  There is plenty of value to training at 7 strokes in 13-14 seconds as well.  12.0 is a high-velocity swim and there is plenty of high value to training anywhere within 10% of 12.0, which would be between 12.0 and 13.2, and some good value as well for Cole to swim between 13.2 and 14.9s….there's not much value to Cole swimming a 16.7 25 fly, ever, in practice for a single 25.  I'd prefer the drilling that you will see in the video be at a 15-16 second per 25 speed for 25s, 50s, and anywhere up to 100.

It's clear to me that working on stroke count 25s forces athletes to get better each of these things: Streamlining

Kicking in a streamline 

Stroke efficiency

Stroke efficiency at pace

Wall anticipation

Turn and finish confidence (ability to attack the wall). 

You have to work on these things to get better at stroke count swims, and the getting better at this stuff can only help one swim really fast!  Let's do better with it!  We function at a C or D level without verbal, on the spot coaching -- and I think this is one thing we can do more of without being told to work on it.   We are probably at a B+ level when we are focused on it, but we can't take one step forward and then two steps back the next day!

Athletes should be able to drill fast, and as they get older (and presumably taller, stronger, and more efficient in the water) they should be able to decrease their stroke count per 25, while increasing their speed at both drilling and swimming.  Drilling slow should be a small percentage of your weekly drilling.  

Drilling fast doesn't mean drilling sloppy.  I find that when a young athlete drills fast, and has a time goal, their technique with the drill improves.  This is what I am going for.

I'd love to see the group do this {50 Fly drill plus 25 Swim} set in a week, and go :30-:32 for the drills (2.2.3 or 2.2.2) and 12 in 6, 13 in 6, and 14 in 7 for the 25s, with 90% of the group.  25s pretty much take nothing out of an athlete when done 1 or 2 at a time….so we should be all over this as a group of individuals!

Josh Davis Visit

Josh Davis was at practice today and it was awesome.

Josh won 3 Gold Medals representing the USA in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  He add two Silvers in 2000 in Sydney.  He has competed in and won at every major meet (World Champs, Pan Pacs, Pan Ams).

I had heard from a friend of Josh's a few weeks back and he had mentioned that Josh would be in town to, aside from visiting his friend in sunny Florida, be talking with a professional group in town -- and maybe it would be cool if he spoke with our Team….   

So Josh's friend and I connected briefly, but nothing came of it, until today.  I walked into the pool area today and there's this dude swimming, and he's pretty big, and he's definitely fast, and he's got a good stroke.  "Hey, that's Josh Davis".

After finishing his 30x50 (1:00) Josh spoke with the group for about 20+ minutes.

I posted this on the T2 Aquatic Facebook page to day, summarizing the visit:

"An impromptu visit from Josh Davis made for an extra awesome day at practice today! Thanks to Josh for speaking with members of our Team after his training set! Josh showed our Team the Gold Medals he won in the 1996 Olympics as part of three different USA Relay teams, and he explained why he feels particularly proud of the Silver Medal he won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Josh also went into detail about how to get the most out of yourself in terms of preparation prior to competition, during competition, and between competitions. Amazing & Inspiring! Go USA!! "

See more about Josh on his excellent website: JoshDavis.com

More on today's practice will be coming soon!