The March calendar is on the website.http://www.silvertide.ca/
Please check it carefully as there are a number of changes with swim meets and training before spring break.
Friday, February 27
Monday, February 23
Age Group Trials
First of all a big thank you goes out to the Silver Tide family for running a great meet and spending their weekend at the pool. It was great to see lots of families and swimmers out to help at the meet.
We had a great weekend in the pool as well. Emma Funk stole the show making 7 out of 7 finals, 100% best times, swimming on two relays and achieving her first ever A Times in the 50 and 100 Fly and 50 and 100 Free! Way to go Emma. Also achieving a new A time in her new age group was Josie Poliquin in the 100 Back, she also made a number of finals and 100% best times. Both swimmers will be off to Age Group Champs in a month with the rest of our A swimmers.
Swimmers from both Provincial and Senior Development competed hard all weekend with a number of best times, heat winners and final swims. It was the first time a number of the swimmers had a chance to make finals and they all took advantage of it and learnt how important it is to swim faster at night. In the 11-12 Girls we Haley swam to 100% best times after aging up last week. Lauren swam to 100% Best times, including a first ever 200 Fly bronze medal and a 13 year old QT in the 200 IM. In the 13-14 Girls we had a number of swimmers swim to best times with the girls really stepping it up on the relays. They started off the weekend with a silver in the 200 Free Relay (Mel, Marielle, Alli, Breanne) and finished it off with a gold in the 13-14 girls 200 Medley Relay (Mel, Alli, Sierra, Breanne) and 100 % best times from Piper. Liam and Aaron were our men at the meet. Liam had a fantastic weekend making huge drops in his 100 and 200 butterfly coming so close to making his A time in both races. Aaron is also getting closer to those A times and had a great weekend with a bronze medal in the 200 Breast. Both boys swam to 100 % best times. Both of the boys we should see moving up to the A level very soon.
Now both groups are looking to the future with more A and B times ahead and fast swimming at the provincials in Calgary!
We had a great weekend in the pool as well. Emma Funk stole the show making 7 out of 7 finals, 100% best times, swimming on two relays and achieving her first ever A Times in the 50 and 100 Fly and 50 and 100 Free! Way to go Emma. Also achieving a new A time in her new age group was Josie Poliquin in the 100 Back, she also made a number of finals and 100% best times. Both swimmers will be off to Age Group Champs in a month with the rest of our A swimmers.
Swimmers from both Provincial and Senior Development competed hard all weekend with a number of best times, heat winners and final swims. It was the first time a number of the swimmers had a chance to make finals and they all took advantage of it and learnt how important it is to swim faster at night. In the 11-12 Girls we Haley swam to 100% best times after aging up last week. Lauren swam to 100% Best times, including a first ever 200 Fly bronze medal and a 13 year old QT in the 200 IM. In the 13-14 Girls we had a number of swimmers swim to best times with the girls really stepping it up on the relays. They started off the weekend with a silver in the 200 Free Relay (Mel, Marielle, Alli, Breanne) and finished it off with a gold in the 13-14 girls 200 Medley Relay (Mel, Alli, Sierra, Breanne) and 100 % best times from Piper. Liam and Aaron were our men at the meet. Liam had a fantastic weekend making huge drops in his 100 and 200 butterfly coming so close to making his A time in both races. Aaron is also getting closer to those A times and had a great weekend with a bronze medal in the 200 Breast. Both boys swam to 100 % best times. Both of the boys we should see moving up to the A level very soon.
Now both groups are looking to the future with more A and B times ahead and fast swimming at the provincials in Calgary!
Thursday, February 19
“The Mundanity of Excellence” Excerpted from Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers by Daniel F. Chambliss
The champion athlete does not simply do more of the same drills and sets as other swimmers; he or she also does things better. That’s what counts. Very small differences, consistently practiced, will produce results. In swimming it could be doing all turns legally, or swimming one extra set of repeats after practice every day, or wearing gloves on your hands to keep them warm at a meet. American historian John Morton Blum reportedly has said that to be successful a writer need produce only three pages a day---every single day. Often the trick is doing little things (like good turns) correctly, all the time, every time. Championship training consists of doing more and more of these little things---and they are, finally, innumerable---each one consistently, so that each one produces a result.
The results of such quality training inevitable add up. Swimming is swimming, we can say---in practice, or in meets, it’s all the same. If you swim sloppily 364 days a year, nothing great is going to happen on the day of that one big meet, no matter how excited you get. Nowadays top-level swimmers tend to treat workouts as meets, where every swim counts; they have to win each repeat, always do great starts and turns. Steve Lundquist, for example, decided early in his career to try to win every swim in every practice, and eventually he did that. Many Mission Viejo swimmers took time every day to psych up for workouts, which they treated as intense competitions. It was not uncommon to see swimmers at Mission Viejo swimming within seconds of their lifetime bests in practices, going all out every day. When they eventually got to a meet, there was nothing new to be overcome, and the conclusion was all but foregone: for all the closeness of the times at Nationals, the same people often do win, year after year. When Rowdy Gaines studied the starter in the Olympic Games, that was not a new “trick” he invented that day. He always checked the starter, as do many swimmers, because he knows that sometimes it makes a difference. He wasn’t “cheating” to win that day. He was simply attending to details that other people didn’t, and he had the good luck that the officials didn’t recall the start. Mike Heath and Mark Stockwell and the five other swimmers in that race could have anticipated the gun, too, perhaps with good results, but they didn’t. Gaines did. These little things matter not so much because of their physical impact, but because psychologically they separate the champion from everyone else. Having done the little things, the champion can say “I have done what no one else has done, and I know it; and they know it, too.” The little things, the details, then can be important for their testimonial value, their symbolic value, in setting one apart as someone special or different---someone to be watched and to be paid attention to. “This guy takes this seriously (and we don’t); he really does deserve to win.” “Why should I hurt myself in this race when Christine wants it that bad?” The little things, far from being an aggravation for top-level athletes are the part they most enjoy: the polished points that mark the craftsmen of sport.
One result of this we call “confidence.” Some people believe that confidence is “mental” or is “all in your head,” as if you could just, one day, decide to have it. Or they believe that you get “confidence” when you buy a cassette tape that tells you to relax, think positively, visualize your races, and so on. They believe that confidence is a mental trick, like hypnosis, that can take one to incredible feats. But the confidence of the champion is not some trick learned by listening to an inspiring lecture. Confidence is not the cause of championship; it is the result of setting up difficult tasks and then doing them. As one coach put it, “Mental preparation is something you do in the water everyday.
”Our usual view of champions tells us the opposite. We think they are special people, larger than life: unusually good-looking, successful, happy all the time, patriotic, and self-confident. Failures don’t get much TV coverage. For the sake of drama, reasonably enough, storytellers enhance some part of the story and downplay others. And we think reasonably: My God, this guy is nothing like me, I could never do what he does.But there is no magic that separates Olympians from everyday people, despite the fact that the title suggests Greek gods. No one is born to make the Olympic finals; potential doesn’t win a gold medal. Doing it is the only thing that counts. The truth is simple: Most swimmers choose every day not to do the little things. They choose, in effect, not to win. They say, “I could do this workout if I wanted to,” or “I could have rolled with the start,” or “I would have won if I had been healthy.” In some sense, everyone “could” win in the Olympic Games, but “could” doesn’t count.
The gold medal is reserved for those who do. The doing---this alone makes champions different.
The excitement they feel comes from the raw physical and emotional reality they face every morning as they swim six miles, paying attention to all the details. Certainly the Olympic Games represent a rare opportunity to demonstrate publicly one’s heroic capabilities. But champions do not wait four years to find their heroic opportunities; they create those opportunities, every day.
The results of such quality training inevitable add up. Swimming is swimming, we can say---in practice, or in meets, it’s all the same. If you swim sloppily 364 days a year, nothing great is going to happen on the day of that one big meet, no matter how excited you get. Nowadays top-level swimmers tend to treat workouts as meets, where every swim counts; they have to win each repeat, always do great starts and turns. Steve Lundquist, for example, decided early in his career to try to win every swim in every practice, and eventually he did that. Many Mission Viejo swimmers took time every day to psych up for workouts, which they treated as intense competitions. It was not uncommon to see swimmers at Mission Viejo swimming within seconds of their lifetime bests in practices, going all out every day. When they eventually got to a meet, there was nothing new to be overcome, and the conclusion was all but foregone: for all the closeness of the times at Nationals, the same people often do win, year after year. When Rowdy Gaines studied the starter in the Olympic Games, that was not a new “trick” he invented that day. He always checked the starter, as do many swimmers, because he knows that sometimes it makes a difference. He wasn’t “cheating” to win that day. He was simply attending to details that other people didn’t, and he had the good luck that the officials didn’t recall the start. Mike Heath and Mark Stockwell and the five other swimmers in that race could have anticipated the gun, too, perhaps with good results, but they didn’t. Gaines did. These little things matter not so much because of their physical impact, but because psychologically they separate the champion from everyone else. Having done the little things, the champion can say “I have done what no one else has done, and I know it; and they know it, too.” The little things, the details, then can be important for their testimonial value, their symbolic value, in setting one apart as someone special or different---someone to be watched and to be paid attention to. “This guy takes this seriously (and we don’t); he really does deserve to win.” “Why should I hurt myself in this race when Christine wants it that bad?” The little things, far from being an aggravation for top-level athletes are the part they most enjoy: the polished points that mark the craftsmen of sport.
One result of this we call “confidence.” Some people believe that confidence is “mental” or is “all in your head,” as if you could just, one day, decide to have it. Or they believe that you get “confidence” when you buy a cassette tape that tells you to relax, think positively, visualize your races, and so on. They believe that confidence is a mental trick, like hypnosis, that can take one to incredible feats. But the confidence of the champion is not some trick learned by listening to an inspiring lecture. Confidence is not the cause of championship; it is the result of setting up difficult tasks and then doing them. As one coach put it, “Mental preparation is something you do in the water everyday.
”Our usual view of champions tells us the opposite. We think they are special people, larger than life: unusually good-looking, successful, happy all the time, patriotic, and self-confident. Failures don’t get much TV coverage. For the sake of drama, reasonably enough, storytellers enhance some part of the story and downplay others. And we think reasonably: My God, this guy is nothing like me, I could never do what he does.But there is no magic that separates Olympians from everyday people, despite the fact that the title suggests Greek gods. No one is born to make the Olympic finals; potential doesn’t win a gold medal. Doing it is the only thing that counts. The truth is simple: Most swimmers choose every day not to do the little things. They choose, in effect, not to win. They say, “I could do this workout if I wanted to,” or “I could have rolled with the start,” or “I would have won if I had been healthy.” In some sense, everyone “could” win in the Olympic Games, but “could” doesn’t count.
The gold medal is reserved for those who do. The doing---this alone makes champions different.
The excitement they feel comes from the raw physical and emotional reality they face every morning as they swim six miles, paying attention to all the details. Certainly the Olympic Games represent a rare opportunity to demonstrate publicly one’s heroic capabilities. But champions do not wait four years to find their heroic opportunities; they create those opportunities, every day.
Novice Series
The quick one day event at the U of A was a big success for the group. We came out of the meet with two new B QT's from Piper and Breanne. I saw the group trying to focus on their turns and finishes as well of apply their technique to the shorter races. 5/5 or 4/5 best times came from Brendan, Breanne, Robyn, Piper, and Connor. Its was great to see everyone getting excited for the short 50's and then putting it all together for the 200 IM.
It was a hard week of swimming for the A qualifiers and the B swimmers are looking to have a great meet this weekend at our own pool!
It was a hard week of swimming for the A qualifiers and the B swimmers are looking to have a great meet this weekend at our own pool!
Monday, February 9
Alberta Rankings
Check out where you stand (Top 5 Alberta Rankings by Age)
http://www.swimalberta.ca/coaches/alberta-top-5-age-group-ranking.htm
Power Rankings
https://www.swimming.ca/PowerRankings.aspx
You can check for all of Canada, or just Alberta.
http://www.swimalberta.ca/coaches/alberta-top-5-age-group-ranking.htm
Power Rankings
https://www.swimming.ca/PowerRankings.aspx
You can check for all of Canada, or just Alberta.
Thursday, February 5
February= FOCUS on EVERYTHING
We are approaching the championship meets fast. As a group we are working on always remembering to do the little things properly. Turns, finishes and all of our strokes. I have taken a step back and am in the process of giving a refresher on drills and technique tips for each stroke. Remember every practice is important. Try to plan your time so that you can be at all the practices.
"TO ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS, FIRST SHOW UP EVERY DAY."
"TO ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS, FIRST SHOW UP EVERY DAY."
Wednesday, February 4
Age Group National Update
Swimmers, coaches and parents:
As part of the ongoing effort to improve our National program Swimming Canada introduced pre-qualifying times to the Age Group Nationals last week. This decision, while in accordance with our Long Term Athlete Development Policy and research, was certainly late in being announced and caused disruption with athletes goals and coaches planning. Given your feedback and with discussion with several coaches and Provincial Executive Directors, we have decided to delay the introduction of these standards until September 2009 (please keep this in mind for next year's competition). We truly appreciate your feedback and wish all of you great performances the rest of the year. Many thanks for your thoughts.
Ken Radford, Technical DirectorSwimming Canada
The standards can be found at https://www.swimming.ca/Default.aspx under Events and Age Group Nationals.
As part of the ongoing effort to improve our National program Swimming Canada introduced pre-qualifying times to the Age Group Nationals last week. This decision, while in accordance with our Long Term Athlete Development Policy and research, was certainly late in being announced and caused disruption with athletes goals and coaches planning. Given your feedback and with discussion with several coaches and Provincial Executive Directors, we have decided to delay the introduction of these standards until September 2009 (please keep this in mind for next year's competition). We truly appreciate your feedback and wish all of you great performances the rest of the year. Many thanks for your thoughts.
Ken Radford, Technical DirectorSwimming Canada
The standards can be found at https://www.swimming.ca/Default.aspx under Events and Age Group Nationals.
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