It's not hard to evaluate yourself because you want to believe that you did everything right, but it is important to review the things you did and the choices that you made. This is actually where having the blog and the wiki are coming in handy. Now I have a way to review myself even more so, as I have document proof of what I have done and the different approaches that I might have taken.
I feel like the Fall was quite a success and I looked over my notebook and reviewed the various practices. I noticed the way I conducted practice during that season, and I think that that will be a great way to conduct my practices in the future. I liked the format I took.
The mini-season, I don't think in the results worked out as well. I think that my swimmers needed the development of the basics, but I don't think that it was enough to get them where they want to go. I will probably from now on approach development through drills and having different focuses rather than stroke instruction breaking down the motions. It was like a swim lesson for a group rather than a Blue Group training practice.
Again I feel like the kids needed the basics, and I think that it will benefit them in the long run, but for the results of the mini-season I don't think I got the full potential of the swimmers during this little season.
Watching today's practice though as I did similar sets and drills we did in early October and they look so much better, and they made the sets much easier. I think I accomplished making swimming easier for these kids, and now will be the time to start challenging them. I can't wait to see what I will be able to get this group to do in the middle of the season when we get to our heaviest training part of the season.
I think that I did the short course season the wrong way though. I emphasized WAG a lot more than I should have, and I didn't de-emphasize JO's, but watching the swimmers, I could tell we weren't as prepared as we were for WAG. I think I may train right through JAG. I may do a little rest two days out, but not a taper. I think the kids will still perform well, but they will also be better prepared for JO's then. I'll push the concept that you don't rest to make a cut for a meet; you make a cut and then rest for the meet to get a second a swim. Again, Thank You Phil for that one. I think I am beginning to understand that concept better now. I always liked the idea of it, but always fell under pressure to rest the kids just to get that cut. Now I kind of see how doing that doesn't really produce the best results at the meet you see as the big one.
In the teaching of the breaststroke I did find a slight flaw in the breaststroke I was trying to teach, and that it worked for the kids who have those awesome breaststroke kicks, but kids who needed to take advantage of the propulsion created from the upper body the method of relying on lift didn't work so well. I will go back to a scoop and squeeze method and go over the fast blades through the water method for other times. I still think that the best breaststroke is a mix of the two ideas, and depending on what you are dominant on dictates what style a swimmer is better with using.
Swimmers are still bad off turns and on dives. I think that now that I have their strokes closer to what I am trying to develop; I'll be spending some more time on these race skills. Definitely will be going to Pat for help on this though. He really did a good job of transforming the dives of the college kids at FPU. Maybe I'll steal some of his videos he took and edited of his swimmers, as they have some good analysis on them. I hope they weren't lost when his laptop got stolen.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Age-Group Practice
CSSC is not setup to do practices by age-group. We run our team more based on ability as there are kids who start swimming at different ages and learn skills at different times as they are growing up. But I thought it would be fun for the kids to be able to swim with their teammates of the same age-group, so we held a Age-Group Practice Today.
8 and unders and 9 - 10 swimmers swam for the first hour. It looked like the kids were having some fun with it. I think some didn't know how to react to it, as we never have practices designed like this. I think as we try to do this more often the kids will get to know each other better and will have more fun with it as it goes.
The other groups were 11-12 and 13 and over (No Senior 1's in the practice though). 13 and over was such a big group, but I think they enjoyed being able to swim with each other. The 11-12 group is what I coached. I really enjoy coaching this age, it is where I started coaching, and I always seemed to like it, and feel very comfortable with this group.
We are going to try this every once in awhile. I think the kids will get to know more of their teammates, and it will help build some team spirit as we move forward. It's exciting to see the kids have team spirit for their club team, as I came from a situation where that was hard to do as the kids had their loyalties to their summer teams and the club team was more to prepare for their summer league. This was a lot of fun, and I think the kids had fun with it also.
8 and unders and 9 - 10 swimmers swam for the first hour. It looked like the kids were having some fun with it. I think some didn't know how to react to it, as we never have practices designed like this. I think as we try to do this more often the kids will get to know each other better and will have more fun with it as it goes.
The other groups were 11-12 and 13 and over (No Senior 1's in the practice though). 13 and over was such a big group, but I think they enjoyed being able to swim with each other. The 11-12 group is what I coached. I really enjoy coaching this age, it is where I started coaching, and I always seemed to like it, and feel very comfortable with this group.
We are going to try this every once in awhile. I think the kids will get to know more of their teammates, and it will help build some team spirit as we move forward. It's exciting to see the kids have team spirit for their club team, as I came from a situation where that was hard to do as the kids had their loyalties to their summer teams and the club team was more to prepare for their summer league. This was a lot of fun, and I think the kids had fun with it also.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Getting Back into it
Kind of had a little break from the blogging. JO's was last weekend, and just drafted for the all-star team today (Go Green!).
JO's went so so. 10 year old girl had a rough meet. I mean a really rough meet. She had an amazing WAG and an ok Rio Mesa Meet, but JO's was pretty rough. I think nerves had a lot to play in it. I did stay up Friday and Saturday night wondering about what I could have done so wrong to have her add so much. The 12 year old boy swam out of his mind though, besides his first event of the meet kicked off with a flip turn back to brst on the 100 IM. We laughed it off, and we talked about having to shake the nerves off (Hey he's only been doing club since last March, so there was some nerves).
The rest of the group looks good. Well, the majority of them look really fast, and then there are a few that I wonder about. This is how it always is though, there's always those few that you just aren't sure that they realize what it takes to get faster. I hope for some teachable moments with these kids at the Coastal Champs.
Never blogged down the results of the last 3000 Free for time. I'm going to have to get to that later, as I don't have my notebook next to me. The kids seem to really enjoy this now. They approach it like it is an event, and look forward to improving. The ones who missed it were asking if they could make it up sometime, but I told them they were going to have to wait for the next time.
JO's went so so. 10 year old girl had a rough meet. I mean a really rough meet. She had an amazing WAG and an ok Rio Mesa Meet, but JO's was pretty rough. I think nerves had a lot to play in it. I did stay up Friday and Saturday night wondering about what I could have done so wrong to have her add so much. The 12 year old boy swam out of his mind though, besides his first event of the meet kicked off with a flip turn back to brst on the 100 IM. We laughed it off, and we talked about having to shake the nerves off (Hey he's only been doing club since last March, so there was some nerves).
The rest of the group looks good. Well, the majority of them look really fast, and then there are a few that I wonder about. This is how it always is though, there's always those few that you just aren't sure that they realize what it takes to get faster. I hope for some teachable moments with these kids at the Coastal Champs.
Never blogged down the results of the last 3000 Free for time. I'm going to have to get to that later, as I don't have my notebook next to me. The kids seem to really enjoy this now. They approach it like it is an event, and look forward to improving. The ones who missed it were asking if they could make it up sometime, but I told them they were going to have to wait for the next time.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
It's Championship Time
My few swimmers going to JO's went through a pretty simple set of workouts. Worked on getting top speed by doing fast 25's, and worked on turns, worked on little things like streamlines and underwaters.
Again I tried to not do too much similar to what worked for WAG. They ended up getting out a little early compared to the rest of the group. It was weird to rest a small group, while the larger portion of the group is resting for Coastal Championships.
I think I did a little more resting for JO's than I did for WAG. I can't wait to see how the swimmers respond to the more rest. I don't believe young swimmers actually do a full taper as they haven't put the yardage in or broken down the body enough to get a lot out of a full taper, but the rest does seem to work.
As a swim coach, we always try different ways. They are all with the same premise in mind, but what age-group swimmers need is so different from senior swimmers, and it really depends a lot on how you ran your season. Some may say I didn't pull back enough, but if the yardage never got that high in the first place; do you really need to back off that much from your yardage trend. I've always liked higher intensity (simulating race speed) with rest and longer intervals. Here they get to take the skills learned in a season and try to put them into full speed.
Had to talk to the swimmers about needing to sprint when I ask for a sprint though. Trust the muscle memory and focus on swimming fast (this is very different from the first phase of training that we do). I talked about the speed you swim at practice now is going to be very telling on how fast they are going to swim at the meet.
There is the anxiety though. You always wonder about if things are going to come together. It will come together for some of them, and then not for others. So who will it come together for? Who will it not? You'll always hope it comes together for them all. Championship Meets in February for age-groupers does present a challenge because of what occurs over the holidays. Some never miss, some miss a little more often than normal because of outside reasons, and then there always is the sicknesses that pop up with the cold season. Inconsistencies leave a wild card. I have had some kids swim out of their minds despite a out of norm practice attendance, while some have responded not so well. Their age-groupers though, inconsistency comes with the territory.
After tonight though, I feel a lot better. The swimmers looked good, and they seemed excited and ready.
Let's get this meet rolling.
Again I tried to not do too much similar to what worked for WAG. They ended up getting out a little early compared to the rest of the group. It was weird to rest a small group, while the larger portion of the group is resting for Coastal Championships.
I think I did a little more resting for JO's than I did for WAG. I can't wait to see how the swimmers respond to the more rest. I don't believe young swimmers actually do a full taper as they haven't put the yardage in or broken down the body enough to get a lot out of a full taper, but the rest does seem to work.
As a swim coach, we always try different ways. They are all with the same premise in mind, but what age-group swimmers need is so different from senior swimmers, and it really depends a lot on how you ran your season. Some may say I didn't pull back enough, but if the yardage never got that high in the first place; do you really need to back off that much from your yardage trend. I've always liked higher intensity (simulating race speed) with rest and longer intervals. Here they get to take the skills learned in a season and try to put them into full speed.
Had to talk to the swimmers about needing to sprint when I ask for a sprint though. Trust the muscle memory and focus on swimming fast (this is very different from the first phase of training that we do). I talked about the speed you swim at practice now is going to be very telling on how fast they are going to swim at the meet.
There is the anxiety though. You always wonder about if things are going to come together. It will come together for some of them, and then not for others. So who will it come together for? Who will it not? You'll always hope it comes together for them all. Championship Meets in February for age-groupers does present a challenge because of what occurs over the holidays. Some never miss, some miss a little more often than normal because of outside reasons, and then there always is the sicknesses that pop up with the cold season. Inconsistencies leave a wild card. I have had some kids swim out of their minds despite a out of norm practice attendance, while some have responded not so well. Their age-groupers though, inconsistency comes with the territory.
After tonight though, I feel a lot better. The swimmers looked good, and they seemed excited and ready.
Let's get this meet rolling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)