Jun 23, 2014
Penguins,
Let me take you back to January 2006, I was at a meet which is much like champs for the local year round teams. The last event of the meet was the 200 Freestyle Relay and Valley Splash was in a position to win the event against the powerhouse Santa Clara Swim Club. I was seeded to anchor the relay and it was turning out to be an extremely close race. Now I’m not one to be too nervous before a race but before this one I was definitely feeling it. Thankfully things went as planned and I swam a good race but we lost by .25 seconds. So why did I choose this race out of all of the races I have swam? Why not a race that I have won? The reason is because every race is a learning experience whether the race was a good one or a bad one. As swimmers we strive to have the perfect race, but much like life there are going to be some mistakes that we make. The key is to learn from those mistakes and improve on them rather than getting discouraged by them. Since we are racing against the clock, one that measures down to a hundredth of a second, there are a lot of things that can go right or wrong during a race. Having only sprinting events in our league means that each right or wrong thing we do in a race has a huge impact on our time. So what did I learn from that race? I learned how I react to pressure in a race, do I seize up or do I use it to fuel me? Another example is a 50 free that I swam in AZ in 2012, I had to look up for the wall for my flipturn because I wasn’t sure after which “T” the wall was after. Granted most pools don’t have 4 T’s right before the wall but the lesson that I learned was to make sure I know to find the spot I need to flip during my warm-ups. Learning to analyze a race for its positives and negatives is a crucial step to becoming a better swimmer. As you begin to analyze your race you can take advantage of the coaches to help you break down certain parts of your race that are good and other parts that could use some extra focus.
Until next week…
Coach Ryan
Jun 20, 2014
Just a few quick reminders:
CHECK IN TOMORROW AT 6:30 AM
We’ve pushed back swimmer check-in time by 15 minutes so we can all get a little extra sleep. All penguins must check in with coaches promptly at 6:30 am for tomorrow’s home meet against Silver Creek. If your child is ill, please call or text Coach Scott: 408-613-5126. Preliminary meet entries have been posted to the Silver Creek meet page of the website. However, there are sometimes last-minute changes, so be sure to check the entries posted at the pool and always check OUT with the coaches before you leave the meet in case you’re needed as a last-minute relay substitute.
HELP WANTED!
We are still in desperate need of more parent volunteers for tomorrow’s meet. We need one more snack bar helper for both first and second shifts, and at least four timers for second shift. If you can help out with any of these jobs, please contact Julie Waldron (jnewcomb65@yahoo.com) ASAP. And when you check in tomorrow morning, be sure to sign up for a job at the upcoming Montevideo meet as well. (Note that updated volunteer assignments have been posted to the Silver Creek page of the website.)
LAST HOME MEET
Tomorrow will be our last home meet of the season, which means it’s your last chance to enjoy the league-renowned LPAC breakfast burritos and tri-tip sandwiches. Remember that all snack bar proceeds benefit our team, so eat hearty!
IMPROVEMENT COUNTS!
Just a reminder that in this league, improvement points count for half of the overall team score. So every individual swim really does make a difference. In fact, quite often the team who wins in improvement points ends up winning the meet. Encourage your kids to know their entry (seed) times, and to check with timers afterwards to see if they improved.
BEACH TRIP FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS
Any swimmers who have completed their first year of high school are invited to attend the Beach and Bonfire trip tomorrow (Saturday, 6/21). The cost is $8 per person. We still need more parent drivers for this trip; swimmers are not allowed to drive themselves. Younger siblings may attend if their parents are driving. Please RSVP to Sandi Bolton (sandi.bolton@gmail.com). Plan to meet at the pool at 4:30 pm. Check the Beach Trip page of the website for a map and additional information.
See you all in the morning…GO PENGUINS!
Jun 16, 2014
We had another great meet on Saturday. Although LPAC scored more place points, Belwood edged us in improvement points, and the Dolphins won the meet by a final score of 120.90 to 117.48. We are still very proud of all our penguins and look forward to taking on the Silver Creek Sharks this Saturday!
We’re entering the busiest part of the season, and there are lots of events and forms to keep track of, so please read this entire email carefully so you don’t miss out on any of the fun. For your convenience, we’re attaching several forms to this email, but you can also download them from the website at any time.
MORE RECORDS FALL
Nicole Richards shaved a bit more time off her week-old 15-18 Girls’ 50Y Butterfly record, posting a new time of 29.44. And Daniela Fasan set a new 11-12 Girls’ 100Y Individual Medley, with a great swim of 1:09.57 (beating Leah Thompson’s record from 2012). Congratulations!
THIS WEEK AT PRACTICE
Today kicks off the two-week “doughnut blitz” attendance challenge. Swimmers who miss no more than one practice over the next two weeks will earn themselves a delicious doughnut. Nothing tastes sweeter than a hard-earned reward, so come on out to practice every day!
NEW COACHES TAB ON WEBSITE
We’re slowly building out a new “COACHING” tab on our website, which will be a resource area with stroke technique tips and other information direct from our awesome LPAC coaches. We’ve created a new “Stroke Technique” section. If you click on the Butterfly page, you’ll find general tips, official rules, and an explanation of the different drills we do during practice. We encourage both swimmers and parents to read this information, as it can help you better understand and reinforce what the coaches are teaching. We plan to expand this section with additional strokes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
We’ve also posted Coach Ryan’s “Penguin Briefs” from last year. Penguin Brief #3, which talks about how “Every Race Counts” in this league, is especially relevant given the close scores in our last two meets. We’ll let you know when new articles are posted here as well.
SATURDAY’S MEET: SILVER CREEK @ LPAC
This Saturday will be our last home meet of the season, against the Silver Creek Sharks. If you have to miss any part of the meet, please email the coaches NOW: coaches@swimlpac.org.
This year Silver Creek has a smaller team, so we’re hoping the meet won’t last quite as long. Check-in time will be 6:30 am, so everyone can get an extra 15 minutes of rest Saturday morning. Please be sure to check in on time, though. Swimmers have done a great job these last two weeks, and we want to keep up the good work!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR SATURDAY
Volunteer Assignments for this Saturday’s meet have been posted to the website. We do have a number of families who will be out of town this weekend, so there are still several open jobs that we need to fill:
- 1st shift: 2 timers, 1 alternate, 1 snack bar
- 2nd shift: 1 timer, 2 alternates, Runner, 1 snack bar, 1 outdoor clean up, 1 women’s bathroom & trash
Wendy Marley is out of town, so please contact Julie Waldron (jnewcomb65@yahoo.com) if you can help fill any of these positions, or if you are currently assigned to a position and will not be at the meet Saturday. Thank you!
PICTURE DAY ON WEDNESDAY (6/18)
Picture day will be this Wednesday, June 18. Please note that there will be no practices on this day. Individual photos start at8:00 am, and the team photo will be taken at 9:00 am. All swimmers should wear either the new black-and-white LPAC team suit or a plain black suit.
Your registration fee includes one individual photo, team photo, and a photo button. You can also order additional prints and/or buddy photos for an additional charge. Please bring a checkbook on Wednesday if you plan to order additional photos. See the Picture Day page of the website for more information.
BEACH TRIP FOR HIGH SCHOOL GROUP ON SATURDAY (6/21)
The annual beach-and-bonfire trip for the high school age group will be this Saturday, June 21. If you plan to go, please RSVP to Sandi Bolton (sandi.bolton@gmail.com or 408-202-9670). The cost is $8 per person, which includes hot dogs, chips, sodas, and s’mores. You can bring the money with you that day.
We need lots of parent drivers for this event, as swimmers are not allowed to drive themselves. Plan to meet at the Los Paseos Pool at 4:30 pm. See the Beach Trip page of the website for more information, including a map to Twin Lakes State Beach and a list of things to bring.
RAFT TRIP (7/5)
The river is running! Parents and penguins are invited to join in the annual team rafting trip on Saturday, July 5. Forms and payment are due by Saturday, June 28 in the “RAFT TRIP” file folder. For more information, see the Raft Trip page of the website.
CHAMPS MEALS AND CHAMPS ADS
It’s hard to believe, but Champs is only 5 weeks away, which means it’s time to get your orders in for meals and program ads.
Champs is a long, all-day meet that usually lasts until at least 4:00 pm, so you will definitely need to plan on feeding your family. There is a full snack bar, but only a limited number of meals are prepared. Place a pre-order to be sure you don’t miss out! You can order breakfast and lunch items from the BBQ snack bar or from Panera; download and print the Champs Meal Order Forms to see all your choices. Make checks payable to “LPAC” and turn in forms and payment to the “CHAMPS MEALS” file folder no later than Saturday, June 28 (at the Montevideo meet). Proceeds benefit the Valley Cabana Swim League to help offset the cost of Champs.
A great way to show support for your swimmers (and help raise some extra funds for the team) is to place an ad in the Champs program. Please see the attached Champs Ad Form, which is also due by Saturday, June 28. You can either design your own ad, or Kris Fuss can help create one for you.
COLLECT SWIM-A-THON PLEDGES!
Don’t forget…the Swim-a-Thon is coming up next Tuesday (6/24). Be sure to collect pledges from friends and family. See theSwim-a-Thon page on the website for more information.
OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS IN SANTA CLARA
You can see Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, and other top swimming stars competing this week at the USA Swimming Arena Grand Prix meet, June 19-22 at the International Swim Center in Santa Clara. It’s an amazing chance to see Olympians in person! Find out more at usaswimming.org.
Jun 15, 2014
Penguins,
This is one of my favorite swimming topics. For many of you that watch swimming during the Olympics, you may catch yourself saying “wow they make it look so easy”. Sure they swim countless hours of the day and do other types of training, but it is also because professional athletes have “Easy Speed”. What is easy speed? It’s simple, easy speed is simply being efficient in the water. What happens every time you take a stroke? A lot of things actually, but we are going to focus on two things. These two things are, first and foremost you hopefully will move forward in the water when you take a stroke, second you use energy to move your arm through the water. Sadly humans don’t have an infinite amount of energy and every stroke you take you are using up the energy that you have. So it makes sense to use what energy you have wisely, right? Easy speed not only makes your race easier, it also makes you faster!
So lets break it down, each stroke has a catch, pull, and recovery. For this we will focus on freestyle. Just like most strokes the recovery doesn’t push you forward, the recovery is just used to get you back to the beginning of your pull. The two important parts are the catch and the pull, those are what help you move forward in the water. Since we are talking about easy speed and being efficient it I must address a commonly overlooked part of the stroke, the catch. In order to grab the water you have to adjust your hand so it is basically flat against the water so your hand and arm press against as much water as possible. In order to get as much from your pull you have to have a complete pull, meaning that you have to make a half circle from the top of the water (with your palm down) all the way back to your leg (with your palm up). One of the most common things that swimmers do is not finish their stroke, they are then forced to do more strokes to get across the pool. Lets say a swimmer is doing 75% of their pull and is able to get across the pool in 16 strokes. If that same swimmer was doing a full 100% pull they would only have to take 12 strokes! It is easier to take 12 strokes to go 25yds than it is to take 16 strokes. So having easy speed goes back to using your brain while you swim, if you use your brain and tell your muscles to finish your stroke rather than letting your tired muscles take the easy way and do 75% of the stroke, you will be faster and have more energy to use. So I urge my penguins to take long full strokes, but remember that you can take a long full stroke and move your arms at a fast tempo to go full speed.
Until next week…
Coach Ryan
Jun 15, 2014
Penguins,
To start off, I would like to say that to me this is the most important article so far. This week’s topic is based on my coaching philosophy, but it’s not just that, it’s mine and many swimmers philosophy around the world. I’ll give you a little background first, back when I was a 15yr old penguin I used to have an ugly freestyle. It was a water polo freestyle with my arms swinging out and around to the side, almost like a single butterfly arm stroke. My high school coach had videotaped my stroke and that was the first time I ever paid attention to how it looked. I can kind of picture the day that I decided to change my freestyle, I was in the LPAC pool and my brother was the coach and we were supposed to be doing a freestyle drill. My brother (Shawn) came up to me and asked what drill I was doing, I said “the make Ryan Hussey better at freestyle drill”. From that time on I would work on fixing my freestyle one step at a time. First I fixed my arms and did a lot of fingertip drag drill to get my elbows high, then I started rotating more so that I can go farther with each stroke. In the end I am very proud of my current freestyle and the effort that I have and continue to put into it. At that time I have learned the most important thing to becoming a good swimmer, THINK while you swim.
There are so many things to think about while swimming and if a swimmer doesn’t think about them his/her body will do whatever is easier. So what does a swimmer think about? Here are just a few things: their kick, are their arms finishing, are they pulling water, is their head down, how often are they breathing, are they reaching out in front. This is just a short list, a swimmer may also think about what they are doing later that day, they may be singing a song in their head, or just any other random thought that pops into their head. So why is thinking so important? In order to obtain perfect technique a swimmer has to be willing to make some changes to his/her stroke. This is no easy task because that swimmer may have done hundreds if not thousands of laps of that certain stroke, so the body develops a muscle memory and is able to do that stroke without much thought. In order to make a change a swimmer must think about the steps needed to perfect their stroke. First and foremost a swimmer needs to recognize that that there is a problem in their stroke. Then it is important to be persistent in making changes, it works best to work on one problem at a time. Let’s say for example a swimmer throws his arm around for freestyle instead of bending his arm and keeping his elbow high. That swimmer should continue to do drills such as finger tip drag drill, zipper drill, or sharkfin drill (all of which work on high elbows) and continue to work on that drill for multiple practices. The more you think about your stroke the more you will notice any imperfections in it. Scott has a story about Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin, at a meet she got DQ’d because she popped up after the 15m mark and then started swimming, after she said she was happy because she did the same amount of dolphin kicks that she normally does but got farther. The point is that she has thought about her breakout so much that she knows exactly how many dolphin kicks it takes her to get to the 15m mark and since she went past this time with the same amount of kicks she realized that she is moving at a faster/stronger pace. So I encourage all penguins out there to start thinking about all of the little details that go in to the sport of swimming.
Until next week…
Coach Ryan
