Thanks for another great week!
I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.
This week the groups experienced more challenging sets. For some swimmers it was a tough week but I saw a lot of good efforts at practice. We also had some fun at the end of the week with the pumpkin swim.
This week the temperatures are really starting to cool off. The pool is heated but please have the swimmers bring something warm to put on after practice.
This Saturday (November 8th) is our first swim meet! It is at 7 am at our YMCA. Typically these meets are short and usually done by 10 am or earlier. If you are planning on attending the swim meet please turn in the meet form and $10 to me (Coach Alisha) by Thursday November 6th. The meet form can be found on the Aquadawg website, on the top bar of this blog, or here. I look forward to seeing all the swimmers race and show off what they have been working on.
PARENTS, We will need volunteers for timers so come prepared and willing to help.
At swim meets swimmers are always trying to work on beating our personal times. Personal times or personal records (sometimes referred to as PR’s) are the fastest times a swimmer has ever gone in each race. These times should be kept track of somehow. I suggest writing them down in a swimming notebook or posting them up on the fridge. My older swimmers should have these times memorized. This way when I say let do a 50 sprint at practice, swimmers know an approximate goal of how fast they should be going. Written down times should also be accompanied with written down goals. Swimmers’ goals should always be to improve their times or get faster.
For example:
Event
|
Best Time
|
Time Goal
|
Technique Goal
|
50 Butterfly
|
38.67
|
36.99
|
Arms out of the water
Two-hand-touch
Keep feet together
|
50 Backstroke
|
35.23
|
34.00
|
Flip-turn
Tight streamline
Underwater dolphin kicks
|
50 Breaststroke
|
40.20
|
39.99
|
Tempo
Gliding
Two-hand touch
|
50 Freestyle
|
31.03
|
Break 30 seconds (29.99)
|
Good start
Flip-turn
Don’t breathe from flags to wall
|
At swim meets the swimmers in the lanes next to you are there to push you. Beating each other should not mean much unless you beat your personal time. And then you should actually thank the people next to you for pushing you to accomplish this personal goal. By putting the focus on the times and not the place swimming becomes a very individualized sport.
Improved times always are successes no matter what place the swimmer came in.
At most swim meets the times will be posted and/or given to the swimmer. But just in case, it is always good practice for a swimmer to ask the timer after they finish what their time was. After the swimmer receives their time they should write it down and compare to previous meets.
I believe that if swimmers and parents encourage the goal of improving times, swimmers will feel successful and gain a sense of personal pride for their accomplishments. I also believe that this helps strengthen our team because swimmers are working toward personal goals and not beating each other. We are a team and we always should want our teammates to do well.
For more info and inspiration about swimming fast see these previous posts:
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