The Value of Swim Meets

Going to a swim meet never fails to remind us of the value that the focus of a competitive situation gives all of our team – swimmers and coaches alike!

We have just finished the holiday training period…some refer to it as training camp. Others call it “hell week” while others refer to it as vacation time. It really doesn’t matter what name you use. It is now January and here in Northern California as well as most places it is time to ramp things up. Club teams are either getting back into the swing of things or are coming off a period of intense training. College teams had a short break for Christmas and then brought teams back to begin prepping for the conference meet in February and the NCAA Championship meet in March. No matter how you look at it, the season is here for gearing things up.

Even our Masters team swam its first race of the season this last weekend. Holidays are behind us and the New Year is beckoning. Many of our group participates in the summer in open water events ranging from Alcatraz swims, Golden Gate crossings, Tahoe relays – you name it…Masters have all kinds of swims on the upcoming calendar with plenty of pool events in the mix. And of course, it will soon be triathlon season.

So, what does this mean to us, here in mid-January?

If you are just getting back into the swing of things, the first meet gives you an indication of where you are and what needs to be done to get back to where you want to be. For those who have been training off and on it tells you where you are on the spectrum of fitness and competitive readiness. For those who have invested a lot of energy and time into winter prep training the first meet tells you what you need to focus on in coming weeks. Maybe you are very strong but have not so much speed…or perhaps you feel comfortable in the water but don’t really have your pacing where you know it needs to be. It doesn’t really matter what the “problems” are, it is more important that you have an awareness of what exactly needs your focus.

We took our Senior 1 group to a “low key” Invitational on Saturday. It was long course meters with four events swum in two 75 minute sessions with a 2 hour break for breakfast burritos and a guest speaker. Many thanks to Andy Grant for an awesome job! He spoke about college swimming, how it fits into a high schooler’s scheme of development and his own personal growth path. Anyone who thinks that all championship swimmers follow one path is sadly mistaken!

What we learned from the “meet” was that we have an awesome level of fitness from the holiday training, not much speed – no surprises there – and some swimmers who will compete no matter how they feel (not at all rested on Saturday) while others cannot overcome the feelings of soreness and therefore back away from the opportunity.

One of the things our club program aims at is developing swimmers for the college experience. In college, swimmers need to compete regardless of how they feel. A meet like this last Saturday give all of us, swimmers and coaches alike, a chance to see how we are doing on this part of the game.

One final note, if you took a break over the holidays, get to a meet as soon as you can. Don’t worry about being unprepared. Go to the meet and do your best. It will jump start your preparation for the coming season. It never fails.

Things We Learn When Watching and Listening

Often coaches want to know the “secret” to success; what sets deliver the most impact; what drills teach the best form; how best to handle over-zealous parents; the list is endless. We admit every now and then to asking ourselves, “If only we could...” - you fill in the blank.

And yet the clues, answers and revelations we seek are readily at hand on a daily basis. All we need do is listen to our colleagues – you chat at meets with your fellow coaches, yes? - and watch our swimmers as they go through their workouts. Here is a sample of things we have learned and the origin of the revelation.

We have been a little frustrated with our dry land program for the last year or so. We have the usual challenges - no real indoor facility so when it rains we are pretty much toast, and essentially a patch work of equipment - a couple of pull up bars, some fire hoses, a few benches nearby to step up and jump up on, that kind of thing. Craig Carson (Brentwood Sea Wolves) shared at a recent meet that he has had a lot of success with his program by handing it off to a local gym owner who is a former pro football player. His team goes over there 2-3 times a week and the trainer leads them through the paces. Craig says two important things happen; the first is that the kids feel stronger and so their personal confidence is up and secondly they respond better to a different voice (he simply helps out and observes).

We began last week at The Cave (www.inthecave.com) and early indications are very positive. The Cave is run by professionals with gymnastic as well as athletic backgrounds. They teach Cross fit and Parkour as well as other types of classes to adults and kids. We met with them prior to our first session and are impressed with their “technique first” approach. We anticipate no reckless injuries - one of our major concerns in everything we do. We are there Tuesday and Friday 5:30-6:30 before school. We also are doing Pilates on Wednesday. Swimmers who cannot or will not get off the pillow will be able to do a “Dry land 101” on their own at home. Check back with us in 3 months and we will let you know how it goes. Thanks Craig!

We do a fair amount of jump rope work. The other day we noticed Cameron running while he was jump roping. We admit that we are often not that bright and hadn’t even thought of doing the two together. Now we do. Thanks Cameron!

We use simple chain from the hardware store to make a yoke between lane lines so we can attach bungee cords in each lane. We hook them directly to the starting blocks on one end but need the 8 foot chains on the other end so we can have 16 stations going simultaneously. The other day for no real reason other than the idea popped up, we gave one of the chains to Brigitte to wrap around her waist. We asked her to swim a lap of breaststroke and see if she could keep her hips up. The extra weight added awareness which actually made it easier for her to identify the muscles needed to lift herself up in the water. We then tried a dive and the extra weight increased her awareness of her angle of entry and body position during the pull through. We now use chains at least once a week with the breaststrokers and the flyers are next. Thanks Brigitte!

We were registering for the Pacific Swim Coaches Clinic yesterday and stopped in to listen to John Leonard (ASCA Executive Director) who was conducting a Leadership Session. He put two quotes on the screen we especially liked. The first is from John Wooden, “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” Talk about a powerful thought. Albert Einstein said, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Even his choice of words reflects the sentiment!

Thanks John!

If you aren’t a member of ASCA you are missing some serious intellectual stimulation at the very least. Give yourself the gift of membership today. You will be supporting yourself and your profession and each of those are worthy goals for 2013.

May 2013 be our collective best year ever! See you at a pool soon.

Prepping for Success – or Holding Athletes Accountable – or The One Thing All of Us Have in Common

We don’t know about your team but ours is a constant work in progress. It is so dynamic that it can border on maddening at times. In many ways this very characteristic – the work in progress – is the most stimulating part of any development process.

Make no mistake about it either; club swimming is a work in progress. It is not the end game that often describes college or post-grad swimming.

We have just recently made a shift in our approach to how we treat swimmers and the “next big meet”. We like to think we are better prepared for success as a result of this shift. We believe that holding athletes (and their parents) accountable for their choices is a very important part of the maturation process. In so doing, we as coaches also hold each other similarly accountable for our leadership role.

The one constant each of our swimmers has in common is the time factor. Each person has 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. Each swimmer has a different level of ability and interest. Each has a distinct parent level of commitment and support. And as much as you can point to differences, they all have 24 hours. And they all choose to use it in some way, shape or form.

Those choices define their payback.

We recently experienced the annual event known as “studying for exams, taking exams, resting from all that brain work, holiday shopping and prepping for holiday merriment, holiday merriment, family travels, sleeping in since I have no school, seeing my friends who I never get to see, being able to be a normal person for once in my life” – have we left anything out?!

We have had double workouts ever since exams finished. We only had one on the 24^th and none on the 25^th. And we had nearly 20 at every workout. The other 10 came sporadically and the other 10 vanished. Some will no doubt reappear for the start of the New Year and they all will gather on the 8^th since school resumes.

And they all will want to know about their big meet in March before the high school season begins. Many will be ready for March and some will be scrambling to get ready and some will be looking at getting ready for the high school season.

We are not allowing those who have cuts and or money to “buy” their way into a big March meet. That meet is earned the old fashion way. Work works.

Make the choice and earn the payoff. Make the other choice and miss this particular payoff. Either way the choice is theirs and what better way to teach how life works?

What Swimmers Can Learn From Cam Newton

The following article, written by Vic Tafur, appeared in Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle. You don’t need to be a fan of football to enjoy it. All you need to be is a fan of improved performance. We underline the last paragraph for emphasis. Everyone one reading this has been on “both sides of the world”.

This is the year of the rookie quarterback, but what's happened to the rookie quarterback of a year ago, Cam Newton?

Superman's been down in the dumps and back, an alarming and confirming follow-up to a year in which the Panthers' quarterback broke the NFL rookie record for passing yards.

Carolina started 2-8, with Newton having more interceptions (10) than passing touchdowns (nine) and openly pouting on the sidelines after an ugly loss to the Giants. Then, on Oct. 21, after a loss to the Cowboys, a depressed Newton said he was going to put out a suggestion box for reporters to help fix the problem.

But just when everyone was ready to write off Newton, he is back.

Smiling big and making plays nobody else can make.

"He's playing with the swagger he had," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said.

The 5-9 Panthers, who host the 4-10 Raiders on Sunday, have won three of their past four and Newton has thrown nine touchdown passes, rushed for three more and hasn't turned the ball over once in those games. The "wow" plays are back. Like in the 30-20 win over Atlanta, when Newton took off for a 72-yard touchdown run, the fifth-longest by a quarterback in the Super Bowl era.

"Some stuff, you can't practice for it," said Raiders linebacker Omar Gaither, who played with Newton last season. "It's like you're playing against Kobe (Bryant), you know what he can do, but somehow he still hangs 40 on you."

In the immortal words of Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy."

Newton had to learn how to lose and how to deal with the disappointment.

"He's never had to go through that," Rivera said. "I think part of it's just the pressure of it. He puts so much on himself. He took a lot of the blame himself.

"I think he understands and has figured out how to cope with it. Not accept it, but cope with it and make things better."

The Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn hasn't thrown an interception in 152 passes, the longest current streak in the NFL.

With 373 yards passing in his last two games, Newton will eclipse Peyton Manning's total of 7,874 yards for the most in NFL history by a quarterback in his first two years. 

"I could not have done it without my offense, and they could not have done it without me," Newton said. "There are a lot of guys going unnoticed behind the scenes that make this work. 

"It is not a one-man team. I think that's what we have learned more as the season has progressed."

Yes, the swagger, the one that prompted AFC players to actually hit him hard in last year's Pro Bowl, is back. But you also have to credit hard work and being more patient. 

"He has really improved, especially with checking it down to the second read or dumping it off to the backs, or with getting the ball out of harm's way and throwing it out of bounds," Panthers offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski said. "Those are the things that quarterbacks can do to keep drives alive.

"We've been good at creating big plays and getting things down the field. He's doing a good job of stringing those together with the check-downs and the short passing game." 

The Panthers also have solidified their offensive line with Garry Williams, the fourth and most effective player at the problematic right guard position. 

Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III have grabbed the limelight this season, but Newton wants it back. He is just not going to live and die over it every day.

"A wise man once said that nothing is as good as it seems when things are going good and nothing is as bad as it seems when things are going bad," Newton said. "You have to stay even keel because today you can be on top of the world and tomorrow the world can be on top of you."

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vtafur@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @Vic Tafur

Happy Holidays from us to you and your team!

"Lost" Workouts

For most of our club Senior 1 training group school is over this Friday the 21^st and resumes on Tuesday January 8^th. Counting Friday’s evening workout through the 8^th’s evening session we have 18 water training sessions in the 2+ weeks.

Every year at this time a certain number of our swimmers “lose” workouts. They go on vacations, or hang at home and find reasons/excuses not to train thoroughly through the December/January holiday period.

We refer to these missed sessions as “lost” since they cannot be regained at a later point in time. The one thing that all swimmers have in common is an equal amount of time. Each person has 24 hours each day and we all make choices about what we are doing with that time. If you are serious about moving your skill set (we often refer to it as your craft) forward, this holiday period is an excellent opportunity to do just that. An athlete can make enormous gains in fitness and skill in 2+ weeks. If you don’t think this is true then try the opposite. Do nothing for 2+ weeks and see where you are. Talk about a reality check!

We will challenge our team during this week’s team meeting (you have one of these each week, right?) to put a list of “priorities” on the board. These will be all sorts of fitness and skill related topics…goals if you will for the 2+ weeks.

Then we will provide them with a sheet – preprinted with the times and dates of the 18 sessions – and ask them to write next to each day a goal for that workout.

And we will encourage those that we don’t see to figure out what they can do while they are travelling or missing while hanging at home not to fall too far behind. But, some of them will and we will do we what we always do – smile.

We are in the development business. We will remind them that when they go to college to swim they will get “fired” if they miss workouts. The idea is to reach some of them now in hopes of turning on a light or two.

The ones that make all 18 will be our favorites. And we will do what all high level coaches do. We will play favorites. After all, that is how the games are played at the top.