T2 Practice Grading System

T2 Practice Grading System – Grading 1 through 5

Graded Items Are:

*Speed/Stamina combo, relative to the goal of the practice

*Technique during the practice, including starts & turns

*Attitude & ability to handle pressure (toughness & creativity are valued). 

A good attitude on T2 Aquatics’ team means that an athlete is focused on the daily pursuit of athletic success.  We want T2 Aquatics athletes to feel like it’s important to have a good week of practices, strung together to make a great season.  How committed are you to finding a way to improve in at least one area every day?  And how committed are you to give an honest effort at a time drop in at least one event every season? 

Also considered within the grading system:

*Consistency is valued, as it relates to Speed, Technique, and Attitude.

*Leadership.  If your practice is "out of the ordinary" for our Team, grades are shaded up.  

*Place (order) in lane.  If you are "out of order" (based off your personal performance times), grades may be shaded down.  

 Basic grading guidelines:

1- 0 of 3 on graded items

2- 1 of 3 on graded items

3- 2 of 3 on graded items

4- 3 of 3 on graded items

5- 3 of 3 on graded items, and achieved at or near a “personal best” for a certain set or a practice swim.

All grades are relative to one's self and one's own personal achievements to date.  

Some of the practices last week were graded retro-actively.   You can see the post here:  http://t2national.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-last-few-weeks.html

I've only given a few 5s, and only two 5s have been given for swimming sets (and 2 for kicking sets, which incorporate less of a technical focus I'll admit…but that's the way it goes…kicking is kicking, and it's great to kick well, but it's not swimming).  The two 5s were given for a guy who went sub 30 minutes in a 3000 and a girl who put 100s at a higher level than ever, all sub minute, while also kicking out 7.5 yards on every wall during the set.  It's gotta be a personal breakthrough and technically great!

Friday January 22 (edit with results)

Friday 1/22

Major Kick Set Day

(edited with results)

The Goal for today: A.) Lower body & general endurance development, B) Give the athlete a physical and mental break from typical training (Swimming) sets, C) develop Team Unity and enhance competitiveness by training the same set for everyone in the National/Senior Performance groups.

National Group Absences: Davis, Bean, Kaitlyn
Welcome Back Cole

Top Performers on the set were Karen (4), Cole (4), and Alex (4), and quite a few not far behind.  The overall grade for the group was a 3.5.   More on the "Grading Scale" is coming to you soon, before 5pm today!

Congratulations Shawn on getting some FINS (finally).

Thursday January 22, 2016

Today's Goal: increase aerobic capacity/train general muscular endurance/train freestyle-specific muscular endurance/increase ankle flexibility (fin kick).

Our general plan on Thursday afternoons will be to hold a "combined" practice (National and Senior Performance).  Most of the "explanation"  We do two interval groups and work on our basic swimming endurance on most Thursdays.  Everyone did a similar set:

3x400 Free on 435 or 5 minutes, followed by 4x200 on 2:15 or 2:30, followed by 30 seconds extra rest built into the set, and then 10x100 on 1:05 or 1:15.

Each athlete had a time range they attempted to fit into, staying within the range as the set progressed and the distances changed (see the practice sheet, times are in bold at the bottom).

The athletes who did a 3000 Freestyle (about a dozen athletes) last week had their time plugged into a program I use to calculate an athlete's "Threshold" speed.  More on that program at another time.  The part of our group who did not do the 3000 last week used a "level" they felt like they could do a good job on (on this type of set, it's more important to stay within the time frames with great stroke technique and improved streamlining/turning than it is to go on a faster interval or go faster times, but with less effective stroke technique).  

We had a strong set from many people today.  Many of the athletes who did the easier of the two intervals will most likely be on the tougher interval next time (which will be more of the norm for us).

Here's an area to improve, for many athletes in our National and Senior Performance groups: let's clean up the technical issues in and out of turns.  I want to see more athletes who swim this sort of set with one stroke of non-breathing going into every wall….which is not just a technical thing people need to "pay attention to", but it's a fitness thing: if you are not fit enough, you will need that breath before the flip more often than not!

Fit athletes don't need to take that extra breath (and thus an extra stroke) at the end of the first or second 25 of a 400, 200, or 100, and fit athletes don't need to take a breath into any wall on a 200M or 100M race.

Specifically, I want to see our athletes with the fastest 200-500-1650 times holding 57-58 on the 100s at the end of the set, while also maintaining 3 dolphin kicks off every wall and never breathing into turns.  We are going the 57-58s, but our group's steamlines tend to go to the flags (not past them), and we breathe into the turns too often.

To be clear, I anticipate that athletes WILL breathe into their turns on any distance 400-500 and up during competition, and during other types of training sets.  I think the oxygen is too important to give up during a distance race.  However, on this type of set, particularly on the 400s and 200s, the paces are not very difficult to hold -- and so an athlete should be relaxed, swimming through the set without needing to struggle for air on the first and second turns of the practice swim.

I allow the breath into turns often enough during the week, but this is just too perfect of an opportunity to work on this skill!

I am not going to give out any individual "scores" for today's practice.  Excellent job overall, probably a 3.5 out of 5 for the whole team.  That's a good score.  To get a 4, the walls have to be better, and to get a 5 the walls have to be better for the majority of the group.  We are getting there though -- we will be over a 4 on this set sometime soon.

The sick people from yesterday's practice are still sick, so we will continue to say "Get Well Soon" -- Let's get back to it!

Kick set coming up today (Friday)!

Wednesday January 20, 2016

Wednesday's practice went very well.  We had two separate groups within the National group on this day.

Wednesday's goal: swim progressively stronger on Free IM and Freestyle repeats throughout the "Active Rest" set.  Everything leading into the Active Rest set is placed so that the athletes can warm up appropriately while also having the opportunity for skill development.  In today's case, we had some 25s and 50s of some Free and some non-Free happening before the main set.

Lane Leaders: Kaitlyn, Abby / Wyatt, Jack, Rip, Shawn.

Top Performers: Abby (5), Shawn (4), Rip (3.5) -- more on my (number grades) in a future post.

Top Improvers: Maura, Alex.

Absent: Davis, Cole ….."GBS"….(that means "Get better soon" guys).

The "Top Improvers" warrant explanation in this case.  Maura got an "TI"  because she had a great "pre-set" and pretty good "main set" after a ho-hum morning practice.  Her ability to pick herself up and improve throughout the day was great to see, and one of the things that I look for in an athlete.  We can't always control having great practices, but we can control getting back up and fighting for our goals.  Alex gets a "TI" because his set was excellent, and was a huge improvement over the Free IM set he did last week.  I enjoy seeing athletes make this improvement from week to week; athletes who can show this resilience through athletics will also show this resilience through the rest of their lives.

Paddle Push Drill #2

Check out the group doing the Paddle Push drill, with Tennis Balls.  One tennis ball goes where the Pull Buoy usually goes, and the other tennis ball goes slightly below the knees.  The paddle must stay on the head during the swim, including during the breath!  It's a challenging drill that teaches the athletes proper head position, while forcing the athletes to maintain a streamline all the way through the toes (keep in mind when viewing that the athletes cannot kick -- they have to squeeze their legs together to hold the 2 tennis balls between their legs).

Click below to see a few National group members doing the drill:
Paddle Push Drill

Paddle Push Drill 1

Check out Paolo doing the Paddle Push drill.  This video is from a few weeks back when we were just learning the skill.  Great drill that our kids are perfecting!

Fist Fly

It was a beautiful but brisk day today.  Perfect for some "Fist" butterfly.