In an effort to better communicate with our older swimmers on the
team, I have asked the 4 Team Captains to write an artice to share
with their peers. They were able to write about any topic in
swimming they wanted, and were instructed to share some swimming
knowledge with their teammates, with the end goal of bringing our
team up to the next level of training. As we know, even
though a swimmer hears the same instruction over and over, it can
sometimes be better understood when explained differently by one of
their peers.
Please stay tuned, as I will post all four articles right here
on this page over the week as I collect them.
Also - if you want to submit an article that you believe would
be beneficial to our swimmers, feel free to email it to me @
SCCAheadcoach@yahoo.com.
Thanks!
Coach Meredith
Have Your Best Practice Every Day
By Maureen Wolff
Like many other club team swimmers, you are
dedicated and diligent about coming to practices and meets, and
working hard every day. But what sets you apart from all the other
swimmers affiliated with USA Swimming? If you want to get to the
top and achieve your maximum performance level, it is crucial to be
organized and show respect.
Keeping yourself organized may be more
important than you think. Your academic and athletic pursuits are
closely connected. Procrastinating schoolwork can hamper your
attendance of practice, and going to practice instead of keeping up
with academic work can hurt your grades. An important balance must
be maintained, and time management is a significant factor to this
balance. Do your schoolwork ahead of time, and allocate ample time
for both you school and swimming activities. Plan ahead: stash pre-
and post- swimming snacks in your bag for the week, including
plenty of water. When it comes to your goals and aspirations, your
goal folder can prove to be invaluable. You can store useful
information in this folder to enhance your swimming performance and
keep you on track, from nutrition information and articles to
monthly goals. Use time efficiently, and you will find the results
of organization to be highly rewarding for all aspects of your
life. Being organized can help you focus in practice and keep your
priorities in mind.
Respect is important for life, and
specifically important in swimming. If you respect your teammates
and your coach, they will in turn respect you. This means
respecting swimmers from other groups and from other teams as well.
Respect yourself: don’t be
negative about your performance in practice, and don’t limit
yourself by telling yourself “I can’t…”
Organization and respect are key steps to
achieving your optimal performance in practice and will give you an
edge over your competition.
One Short
Second
By
Christina Gasparich
In swimming the drop of a second is
often all that is needed for a swimmer to acquire her or his goal
time. It can be the difference between
a very happy swimmer and a disappointed swimmer. For short distances it is often even less than one
second. Something that I tend to
forget, and I think other swimmers probably do also, is how short
one second really is. Imagine that if
every day after school, you only had to do one second of
homework. That would be an unimaginably
short period of time, but in a race one second can matter a
lot.
When I swim in a race, especially a medium to
long race about 200 yards or more, it helps me to think about how
much one short second matters. It helps
me not to get distracted, especially in the middle of the race,
like around the third fifty of a 200.
Also, on the third fifty of a 200, I am tired, and it is easy for
me to slow down on my turns or just space out and go into auto
mode. If I remember how much one second
matters, I don’t let my turns or my technique get sloppy in
the middle of a race. In a 500, if a
swimmer makes every turn just a little bit faster than the 500 last
swam, the swimmer will probably drop quite a lot of time, and might
drop enough seconds to get a goal time.
Elizabeth
Sprenkel's :
As a swimmer we swim up to
twenty hours a week, nine times a week, for many of years. We are
swimmers, it’s what we do and we know everything there is to
know about swimming. As a swimmer trying to give another swimmer
advice, there are so many things I can share that help me through
rough times and need of motivation.
As for getting through
hard times there are many tricks that I use. One is when I am
having a bad day and I can’t seem to stop thinking about what
ever is bugging me I channel that anger to make me go faster. It
sounds funny but it works for me and maybe it would work for you
too.
Self motivating yourself
can be hard. So I think about all of the time we spend swimming.
All the long hours, years and sacrifice we make to do the thing we
love. So after spending all this time you might as well work hard.
Stay positive think of all the good things that you are accomplishing.
And when you’re sore and tired just try the best that you can
and know that because you can today you’re going to be that
much faster. Another thing that motivates me is to think of some
one who I admire and ask myself What Would (person you admire) Do.
I think about how they would be swimming the set. Or I pretend they
are swimming with me and I want to keep up with them.
And most of all remember
why you do this sport. Look back and see how it has made you who
you are today.
