On the road.....

Bulkley Valley Otters Swim Club

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 09:38:44 -0700

It was a beautiful day for a drive, and the driving I’m doing keeps getting better and better. I arrived at the pool at 4:45pm which turned out to be an hour early. Guess I better work on my listening skills. But I’m glad I did because I was able to spend some time with long time Board member Coranne Dohler. Coranne has two kids in the club and she and the Board have been working pretty hard at finding a new coach to replace Head Coach, Will Wang.

Will is finishing off his two years here in Smithers and has done a great job building up the kids’ swimming commitment, their mental toughness, confidence and technique. There is a healthy talent pool developing here in Smithers. They also are reaping the benefit of having a long term assistant coach, Tom Espersen. Tom works for ICBC here in town and has been coaching for at least the last four years. Tom has twin boys in the club and is an avid fly fisherman which is certainly one way to get me back up here. He had me salivating within five minutes of talking about the fishing opportunities here!

This is a great opportunity for a younger or a semi-retired coach. There is great potential to make a living here by combining available lifeguarding duties with a solid coaching experience that will only get better with time. The club is growing, the swimmers are keen and have talent and the Board is supportive. The job is currently posted on the Swim BC web site.

I spent roughly 30 minutes chatting with Will about the program and his future endeavors. He’s moving down to the Lower Mainland in September and is currently looking at offers within coaching and facility management. He’s a knowledgeable coach with a lot of swimming experience and knows how to light a fire in a young swimmers heart. If you are interested in contacting him please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll hook you up.

Will asked me to run the session so I got organized while the team stretched out and swam a 400 easy to . The senior swimmers don’t usually train this evening so it was a special 60 minute session. Here is the practice we did.

400......Easy Choice WU
8x50......Free pull PB on 1:00 Breathing challenge by 25 m – 3-3 or 3-2 or 2-2 or 2-1 or 1-1
6x25......Underwater fly Kick no breathing on :50
We stopped and worked on streamline for a while
200......Free Kick for time – The times are listed below
16x25......Free drills
Four each:
Right Arm Breathe same side
Right Arm Breathe to opposite side
Left Arm Breathe to same side
Left Arm Breathe to opposite side 
4x25......2 right arm – 2 left arm Alternate breathing
8x25......Free
Odd #’s
Right Arm Breathe same side
Right Arm Breathe to opposite side
Left Arm Breathe to same side
Left Arm Breathe to opposite side
Even #’s......Full Stroke – count strokes
1850 m

200 Timed Kick Results
Carlene......3:17
Brett......3:22
Brian......3:50
Jessica......4:03
Gabriel......3:22
Madison......3:29
Tanner......4:30
Nathan......5:03
Adam......5:18
Christian......5:10
Emily......5:17
Baily......4:23
Hillary......4:35

Kitimat Marlins Aquatic Club

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:31:48 -0700

The Kitimat Marlins have been without a pool for over a year now. The club Board and Coach, Nesia Bare, have been struggling to keep the membership training, involved and interested in the future of competitive swimming, as they await the grand re-opening of the pool this coming October.

At this point in the scenario the membership has dropped significantly. Nesia is training the interested swimmers in Terrace whenever she can get pool time. Tonight, she was scheduled in from 8:00-9:00 pm. Perfect for my plan. I finished with Roman and Ara, then had time to watch Detroit clinch the Stanley Cup before heading back to the pool.

Nesia was on deck with Mike Carlyle the former Terrace Coach who is now the pool manager. Mike is a great guy with a serious passion for swimming and was an instrumental player in the development of the Points North Swimming Association. The coming together of the clubs to form Points North helped to bring the small clubs in this isolated Northern Region together. By running camps, traveling and competing at meets together the coaches built many fun opportunities for the swimmers to come together for social interaction. This really motivated the swimmers and ended up building their confidence and expectations when competing at AAA’s. When Points North were at their peak, these swimmers came to win.

I know that Kitimat will be hiring a new Head Coach this September, and I hope that the four clubs can come together again next season and using this proven method, begin to build each club and the collective group back up to their full potential.

Nesia and one parent drove the 45 minutes to Terrace and back for tonight’s session. Rachel Rice will be attending the AA’s in Chiliwack. She did a good job tonight in practice and we worked on her head position in the breathing phase in Freestyle and her pull pattern in her backstroke and fly. Rachel caught on quickly and made all the corrections easily.

Terrace Bluebacks Swim Club

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:25:19 -0700

Day 2 – Terrace
It’s only a short drive to Terrace but the scenery along the Skeena River into Terrace is beautiful. I made pretty good time with only one 20 minute construction delay. I spent a couple of hours catching up on work then headed to the pool to meet Blueback, Head Coach, Roman Ramirez and Assistant Coach (and his wife), Ara.

The club has seen some growing pains since Roman’s arrival but the future looks brighter these days. Roman is heading to Chiliwack in two weeks for the AA’s with two swimmers and then to Richmond for AAAs with one swimmer, Brandon Williams. The club is planning some parent/swimmer swimming races and a soccer game in the near future and will train until early July this season. In the past, the club pretty well shut down in May.

There were four 13&O swimmers in Lane 1 tonight and seven 12&U swimmers in lane 2. The team is leaving tomorrow morning at 4:30 am for the 11 hour drive to Kamloops for the Annual Classic Invitational. A sign of the times: the gas budget for the one vehicle they’re using for this trip is around $400.00!

The swimmers followed a group leader through a series of basic stretching for approximately 10 minutes before the session. They all knew exactly what they were supposed to do and did a very good job executing all the exercises.

Here is there session.
400........Drill
100 Free 50 Catch up 50 single arm
100 Breast 50 Fly K 50 2K 1P
100 Back 50 Dble arm 50 single arm
100 Fly 50 single arm 50 4 K 1 P
4x50.......Free Breathe 3-5-7-9 on 1:00
3x100.......IM on 2:00 count strokes and take 1 lesson each length each 100
5x100.......K Fins on 2:00
10x25.......Choice Fast on :45
4x100.......Pull PB & Paddles on 1:50
4x50.......Best Stroke on n1:00 @ 200 Pace
100.......Easy
2350 m

Prince Rupert Amateur Swim Club

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:23:52 -0700

I flew into Prince Rupert yesterday afternoon in a state of mild panic. After finishing a very busy weekend hosting 20 swimmers at the Open Water Camp, I hadn’t bothered to look over my flight itinerary until Monday morning around 8:00 am. I thought I had a few hours to get some work done - reconcile the budget, write up the report then head to the airport, but…….not so.

Turns out I booked the flight, accidentally, out of Vancouver! So I grabbed everything and booked for the ferry. Next-to-last car on the 9:00am boat, so was indeed going to make my flight.
I spent the ferry ride writing up the Open Water Camp and headed for the airport. I had a free afternoon as the Prince Rupert Rapids took the day off after their Spring Invitational so I got to watch the Penguins keep their series alive (nothing like three OT periods to keep it going!).

I arrived at the Earl Mah Aquatic Centre at 3:00pm and had a look around. I had read up on the club history which I found on the PRASC website before arriving. There is a real swimming history here in Prince Rupert and many of us who have been in the business for a while are connected to this history.

The first pool manager was Ron Gilchrist, of the famous Gilchrist family form Ocean Falls. That was in 1959. Nine years later his really famous brother Sandy was my first-ever swim coach in Beaurepaire, a suburb in the West Island of Montreal. Beaurepaire Swim Club was part of a very successful competitive summer swimming program called ALPS, Association of Lakeshore Pools. Many, many successful swimmers and coaches hail from this summer league.

I talked my way onto the pool deck and introduced myself to Ian, the Age group Coach. Ian has been with the club for 8 years now and is on his third Head Coach.
We chatted about the swimmers he coaches and the structure of the introductory levels of the club.

Ian and Chris Street, Head Coach of the club, have asked a small number of swimmers from the Class 1 level in for an extra session per week, so they are better prepared for a move up to the next group level next season.

I think this is a great idea. I have approached group graduation many different ways and think the simple fact that the staff here are dealing with this issue is a good sign for the long term development of the Club.

Chris arrived a few minutes later and the swimmers started to arrive. Chris and I caught up while the swimmers did a good job on their stretching and activation before we hit the water. The swimmers knew what was expected of them on deck and didn’t need any coaching help while they prepared. The Rapids will be sending 9 swimmers down to the AA’s in June and are hoping to qualify at least 3 more swimmers to their AAA squad which is now 3 swimmers. These swimmers train between 5 and 7 times per week. Here is their workout.

200........Choice
300........IM 25 scull – 25 scull/swim – 25 swim
16x2......Free #1 4 Dol Kicks #2 6 Dol Kicks #3 8 Dol Kicks #4 Swim Fast!
400........Free Pull Breathe 3-5-7-9
8x75......Start in the middle of the pool and focus on turns 4 Free 4 Best Stroke
10x150...100 Pull moderate work on technique – 50 Kick FAST!
3400 m
45 minutes Dryland

Chris had identified a small group of six 11-12 boys to do a little extra work on Wednesday mornings. When I arrived to the pool at 6:00 this morning, the swimmers were all chomping down on some Tim Horton’s donuts. I was witnessing a Head Coach payoff for performances achieved at the meet last weekend. Chris also has a standing rule that if someone makes a new Provincial time then the whole group get a spaghetti dinner at his house - good team builders that seem to be catching on. Here is the morning session.

200...........Easy Choice
6x75.........Free 25 Kayak – 25 Finger drag – 25 swim
16x25......Fly Kick Fins 1 on front 1 on back
2x200.......Free Race Pace on Turns
9x100.......Kick 3 worst stroke on 2:30 3 Best Stroke on 2:20 3 Free on 2:10
10x50.......Free on 1:10 Best Average
200..........Warm down min 3 Dol kicks of every wall.
3050 m

Richmond Rapids

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:22:58 -0800

2008 Okanagan Visit

Friday February 8/2008 – Richmond
My last club visit this trip is in Richmond, home of the Rapids, who placed 3rd in the 2007 TAS LC Provincial Champs last summer. I spent a couple of hours with Head Coach Rob Pettifer Thursday night and caught up on the Club’s progress. Rob’s in his 2nd year as the Team Leader and is slowly putting his personal fingerprint on every aspect of the club’s operations. It’s a big job, as the Club has over 250 swimmers registered, they host Pass meets every month, run a very large and successful I Can Swim program, run ICS mini meets every 6 weeks or so and host 3 large invitational meets every year.

This year the club had a major set back when hosting the annual Fastswim. They Pool’s air-circulation was very poor and the complaints were justifiably high. The Rapid’s executive, led by Rob has been working with he Pool maintenance staff and the City Recreation management to rectify the situation. At this point the equipment that failed at Fastswim has been fixed and the air is fair. I ran 2 full days of the Provincial Stroke Camps Dec 15-16 and the environment was fine. The Rapids are hosting the 2008 TAS LC Provincials.

Rob relies heavily on is long term staff. Age Group Coach Doug Thompson has been with the program since the Racers and Aquanauts joined forces a ways back. Grant Nishi the Watermania Pool programmer administers the I Can Swim program out of the old Minoru facility and has done so for years. !0 & under Coach Dennis Silva is in his 5th season with the club and has recently taken over many of the club’s administrative responsibilities. Dennis was a Richmond Aquanaut swimmer before the Team’s amalgamation. Rob’s sister Alex has also been coaching with the club for the past seasons. Rapids ex Head Coach, Craig McCord served as President last season and his wife Jen is member of the current Board.

This season Rob has added a couple of assistant coaches to maintain a lower swimmer/coach ratio in the age group programs and we spoke in detail about potential structural changes he could make over the next few season to further develop the team. I spent the two sessions moving from group to group and also spent time speaking with some of the parents I met in my 1 year with the club. Here are the Team’s workouts for Friday night and Saturday morning.

Senior – Friday PM - SC
Quote – Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming
Technical Focus – Neg Splitting 6 meter breakouts.....Training – Threshold and controlled speed
1x600.....50 Free Breather 7 – 50 K – 50 Drill choice
8x150.....Fins 15 rest alternate 1 50 Stick build legs – 50 finger drag – 50 swim 2 100 K Board – 50 Fast
12x50.....on 1:05 2 Pull Band 1 swim build
1x600.....Pull desc the 200’s Pull Buoy Paddles
6x100.....1:40 neg split each 100
4x50.....Drill easy maintain distance off wall on breakouts
4x100.....1:40 Neg Split
5x50.....Drill easy maintain distance off wall on breakouts
3x100.....1:40 Neg Split
6x50.....Drill easy maintain distance off wall on breakouts
2x100.....1:40 Neg Split
1x200.....swim/drill
2x50.....200 meter pace
2x(2x100 on 1:40)(2x50 on :45) warm down

AAA - Friday PM
1x800.....100 Free 50 Back 50 Drill choice
1x100.....IM
1x200.....IM must be double the 100 IM time
6x100.....Free Kick on 2:00 1-3 Desc fins on 1:40
1x400.....Fly Drills based on Phelps drills
1x500.....Fly – Free – Fly – Free
2x150.....50 Build – 50 Drill- 50 Race Pace
1x500.....Fly same as above

The Development level age group’s all did similar practices based on preparation for the LMR Champs the next day and/or the upcoming AA Provincials. Doug has organized different practices based on one model and individualized them to the age and level of each small group and assistant coaches Alex Pettifer and Amy Canuel run these sessions. Each coach has two groups of swimmers with two levels in each group. The groups train for 90 minutes in back to back sessions. The basic model they are using in this training cycle is Meet Warm Up followed by a test set or race pace set. Here is one sample

Development - Friday
1x400.....Easy
1x300.....Drill
8x50.....IM order
8x25.....12.5 Fast
1x200.....Easy
1x400.....IM Broken
1x400.....Kick no board
5x20.....20 Rest Warm down

10 & under – Friday Group #1
1x300.....Warm up 200 Free 100 IM
1x400.....Kick Speed Play 75 Free 25 Fly
1x200.....Sculling Pull Buoy
1x5:00.....Vertical Flutter kick
12x25.....Fly alternate 1 single arm 1 3-3-3 drill with fins teaching kicking timing
Relays

10 & under – Friday Group #2
1x200.....Free
1x200.....IM
Relay
8x50.....K on 1:10 25 IM 25 Free
Turns work
24x50.....8 swim 8 Kick 8 swim
20x25.....fins 3 drill 2 swim Technique
Dives

Senior - Saturday AM – LC
Quote – Success is dependent upon the glands……the sweat glands
Technical – Finishing Kick and touch on a full stroke.....Training – Leg Focus and neg splitting
1x600.....3x(50 Breathe 3-5-7 50 drill)
5x100.....Free on 1:40 Neg Split
5x100.....K on 1:50
5x100.....IM on 1:50 desc 1-5
5x100.....#1 stroke on 2:00 neg split
6x200.....Stroke 100 swim 100 K Desc K 1-4
24x50.....IM on 1:00 every 3rd Fast
2x(2x100 on 1:40)(2x50 on :45)

AAA - Saturday
1x400.....Free/Back
5 Block jumps
4x100.....1 Free Drill 1 coupling
5 Block jumps
8x50.....choice 25 under water 25 swim – pull outs/pushups and running start
1x400.....Breathe 3-5-3-7 Pull
8x50.....Pull descend 1-4 on :50
8x50.....Fin paddles desc 1-4 and hold that pace
There was more but I didn’t write it all down.

Development – Saturday
AA Preparation
1x400.....warm up
1x200.....Drill Stroke
6x50.....Stroke
1x100.....K Choice
4x50.....25 Fast 25 easy
4x25.....Sprint Stroke
1x200.....Easy
Work on Jumps, Starts and turn circuit
1x200.....Stroke
8x100.....alternate Back Breast

Haney Seahorses Swim Club

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:15:39 -0800

I was on the road at 8:01 am this morning, right after morning training for the long drive back to the Lower Mainland and it was beautiful. Dry roads, clear sky and making good time I was thinking nice……then about 20 minutes down the Coquihalla it started to snow and man if this wasn’t one of the worst drives I have ever had and I have had a few. Ten-foot high snow banks, snow covered highways and wind. FUN! I think I was going 50 K/h for ½ the drive. And then it was raining in Maple Ridge.

I met Haney Seahorses Swim Club, Head Coach, Reg Shaw and his Age Group Coach, Kevin Loong for a coffee in the mall behind the pool at 3:15. We caught up on the progress the club has made since my last visit and Reg got me organized for my team talk at the club’s monthly team meeting at 5:00 this evening.

On deck I met Nathan Stein who was on the 2007 Pac Coast Provincial Team last season. He anchored our 13-14 Boys 400 Medley Relay and won the event for BC. Nathan’s working well and trying to remain patient through a series of knee surgeries. Here is the 60 minutes swim session before the team meeting.

Senior
3x200 1 swim 1 kick 1 pull
8x50 25 Catch up Fly 25 Fly kick on back with sticks
1x400 3rd 100 Fast
2x200 3rd 50 on each 200 fast
4x100 3rd 100 Fast
1x400 3rd 100 fast
1x200 Warm Down

Age Group
1x200 Swim
1x150 Kick
1x150 Scull
4x(3x50 K)(3x50 25 Drill 25 Swim) IM order

Reg has scheduled the monthly Team meetings since September and he’s really happy with the turnout and the effect it’s had on the team’s moral. Swimmers in his group have the option tonight to sign in to the spin class or swim, and swimmers in the age group program who don’t train these nights all come out for the meeting. Reg takes his time and informs the team of all the activities coming up in the following month, mentions all the successes of the past month, covers swim training articles and hands out prizes and awards during the meeting. He has asked me to speak to the team and highlight the importance of consistency in training and talk about the Provincial Team activities.

I let everyone know the Provincial Team goals, the Training Camps that we have done this season, the competitions we have swam this evening and what is coming up this LC season. I spoke to the group about Swimming Canada’s Junior and Youth Team’s program and how well our swimmers are doing on the International circuit under the guidance of National Coach Deryk Snelling.

Then I told them a story of Nathalie Gingras who made the 1984 Canadian Olympic Team and then went on to place fifth at the games in LA. Nathalie didn’t live close to the pool and it was tough for her and her family to get to workouts. When she didn’t have a lift, it was a long bus ride home, and she was very tired of the training and the transportation halfway through our Olympic Trials preparation. She wanted to speak with me at the beginning of practice about her state of mind and fatigue and I wouldn’t relent. I wouldn’t speak with her until after workout and made her get in and swim the 8 K workout. I knew she needed to train. She made the Team six weeks later, but only by one-tenth of a second and I think that practice was a key moment in her having to be consistent in training to be successful.

After all that I missed the avalanche on the Coquihalla between Hope and Merritt by 24 hours. Good timing!

Willams Lake Bluefins

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:28:29 -0800

Drove down to Williams Lake yesterday and the weather is still challenging. Wet, slushy, slippery and near the end of the drive blinding sunlight, but I made it. The Bluefins are now in their second season back in the water after enduring a pool renovation closure for almost an entire season. Last season when I visited they had just gotten back in the water so this year they were much further ahead.

Head Coach, Marilyn Haines coaches every group level in the club and has organized her pool time and group structure so this works for everyone. This week the Senior swimmers trained Monday night and Tuesday morning and will be back in for practice tomorrow morning. Tonight Marilyn has 2 sessions of Novice swimmers in. The 1st group are entry level and one of the instructors is coaching them while we catch-up and talk about the Team’s progress. We watched the Higgson video and I covered some of the basics I have been talking about on this trip. Pulling more with the band only, throwing out the kick boards except for kick sets, descending interval sets and the Team’s meet schedule.

Marilyn leads the next Novice session which is an hour long. All 6 instructors are in the water with the swimmers with 20 odd swimmers. It’s a busy and fun session. All the instructors are ex Bluefins swimmers and are having as much fun as the swimmers.

Wednesday morning at 6:00 there are 16 swimmers in for training. There is a wide range of age and level in the group. Everyone is on the same program with different intervals. I watched the warm up then got on one lane for stopping and touching the bottom and another you bit for using one arm in the fly in the IM set. His team mates enjoyed that as much as I did. Marilyn asked me to come up with a 1000 meter Pull set which highlighted some of the components we discussed yesterday afternoon. The swimmer did a good job trying hard on new skills and challenges and the pull set was followed up with some high quality swimming so they were pretty tired when they hit the showers at between 7:30 and 8:00 am. Here is the session.

1x20 Warm up
16x50 IM 25 S 25 K
1x200 IM Flag Sprint
1x300 Pull Band 50 Free Breathe ev 3 25 Back
8x25 Band and small Paddles high Stroke Rate on :40 1-2 breaths
6x50 PBLO and Paddles Breathe 2x each 25 meters
8x25 Fins Paddles Race all out on :40 no breathing
4x(4x25 Fast on 1:30 )(200 EZ) Sets 1&3 Free Sets 2&4 stroke
1x20 Warm Down

Prince George Barracudas

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 16:01:21 -0800

Well the driving is getting worse by the day so I’m glad I broke up my drive from Kamloops to PG with an overnight stop on Sunday in the Puddle (aka Williams Lake). The driving may be getting worse but the quality of swimming programs is not. Head Coach Jerzy Partyka of the Prince George Barracudas has been running the show here since 1993. You can really tell when a coach has been in place for the long term. Jerzy has put in the time, settled into the community, raised his family, developed his own coaching staff and taken ownership of Prince George Swimming.

I arrived at the pool at 4:00 pm for the Senior group’s dryland program. Yes it was snowing! The top group swam 5 K this morning but tonight is a 60 minute dryland session, no swimming tonight. You can tell the swimmers have been well taught. They know the program and do the exercises with precision, discipline and effort. Here is the dryland session.

5 minutes general stretching and arm swinging
10 minutes of shoulder and scapula work
30 minutes continuous medicine ball work
15 minutes of stretching

The swimmers all work in partners, while Jerzy calls out a new exercise every minute. Here are the different drills; Jumping chest pass, right side, left side, overhead, right arm, left arm, between legs, lunge chest pass, lying chest pass, lunge overhead pass, bounce pass, crunches chest pass, crunches overhead pass, crunches drop pass, lying strait arm rev pass, push ups pass, burpies pass, v-sit chest, v-sit overhead, and fast.

Age Group Coaches Jason Smith and Magda Partyka began dryland with the Development group of 17 swimmers while Jerzy was working with the Senior group. Jason is running the session tonight and they are focusing mostly on skipping. At the end Magda takes the group for some stretch cord work.

The senior group heads for home and Jerzy coaches the development group tonight. He mentioned to me that he coaches every group in the club once per week. Tonight’s session focuses on Fly. I didn’t log the session but the swimmers had their fins on for a lot of the workout and did dolphin kick drills and sets in every position imaginable including front and back underwater 15 meter breakouts. I worked with Jerzy and the development group on basics and presented my quick Bergen streamline checklist. The swimmers were very capable and cooperative.

At the same time as this was going on, Magda was coaching the Development 2 group and Jason is in the shallow pool coaching the entry level swimmers. Tonight there are 2 sessions with 3 groups in each session. There are 19 swimmers in the 1st session which is 45 minutes long and 25 swimmers in the second which is an hour. Jason was in the water with the swimmers the entire time. The staff have pre-organized and posted the content of the current cycle on the bulletin board just beside the pool so parents who are new to the sport know what their children are working on.

I hit the road and yes it was still snowing. All the morning sessions are LC in Prince George which seems to be a common arrangement in most LC pools I visit. Jerzy says he really loves the morning sessions the best. The facility is quiet, the swimmers are focused and he has lots of room. This morning’s focus was on legs and buckets. There are 10 swimmers in this morning. Two are out sick and one is missing. Kyle McMahon, Provincial Team SWAD swimmer, is in his own lane doing a session Jason made up for him.

2x500.....on 9:45 50 double arm Back Pull/100 Back Catch up opposite arm vertical/150 10 r 10 l/100 25 spin 25 swim
20x50.....Fins 4 easy fly1 fast back/3 easy fly 2 fast back/2 easy fly 3 fast back 1 easy fly 4 fast back
4x(150-200).....Buckets 150 is IM - Bk/Br/Fr; 200 is Kick #1 Stroke; :20 rest
12x50.....Kick #1 stroke 5 rest best average
1x300.....cool down 100 breast on back 200 choice

The buckets are small size and are attached to the waist by a surgical tube. The small size works well, doesn’t ride too deep and the surgical tubing helps keep the swimmers moving, not jerking. It was nice to catch up with Provincial Team swimmers, Katie Mann and Sterling King. I also spoke with Andrew Chrobot who attended the Fall Distance Camp in Victoria and upcoming backstroker Kit Moran

Kamloops Classics Swimming

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 15:50:35 -0800

I headed back to my old stomping grounds yesterday, for a visit to the Kamloops Classics, and Head Coach, Brad Dalke. I met Brad’s new Age Group Coach, Theresa Zunich and the Classics’ Novice Coach Marsha Stewart.

Brad had organized a team practice and pizza night for the club. Kamloops is hosting their Annual Jamboree meet next weekend and it will be the first-ever competition for many of the novice swimmers. Brad met with his Senior group and went over the practice they would be doing with the younger swimmers. The seniors were coaching the others at various stations around the deep end of the pool.

Following that, Brad and his staff gathered the entire team and he spoke to everyone about the Jamboree and the importance of tonight’s workout for the Novice group. Here is the Warm up.

8x25.....Dive 1 Free / 1 Reverse IM – 10 Steam line jumps on the bulkhead and 15 sit-ups at the Dive end after each 25

I gave my Paul Bergen streamline presentation after the warm-up then the team divided into small groups and headed for the seven different stations, organized as follows:
1. Back starts
2. Free starts
3. Breast Starts
4. Breast turns
5. Back Turns
6. Free turns
7. Fly Turns

There were two or three senior swimmers at each station. After this set, Brad met the group briefly, they did a team cheer and the younger swimmers headed for the pizza. I met the Senior group and covered a few topics I had noticed during the circuit.

1. Arm recovery in Breast – keep the arms within the body line when moving the hands up to the face and into the stretch and streamline
2. Higher hips in the Zero position on starts
3. Hips in closer to the wall on the Back starts
4. Practice back starts with hands on the deck level not the back handles to help get the body up and over the water
5. Use more legs in to the turns on Free and Back

I gathered my will power and passed the pizza table to chat with some of the older club members who I worked with back when I coached here and are still involved today. It was really nice to catch up with the Bogetti’s, Rene Leveille and Tom Eustache.

There were ten Seniors in for the LC Saturday morning session. Brad mentioned that attendance and commitment at this level is an ongoing issue he is dealing with this season. Here is their session.

1x1000.....Warm up 400 S 300 K 200 P 100 Swim Choice
10x50.....Kick 1 easy on 1:00 1 Fast on 1:30
2x(200 .....Drill)(4xx200 85% 15 Rest)
1x100 .....Easy
16x50.....Breast Pull
8x50.....1 Dive 95% 1 Easy
10x50.....Warm Down

Theresa starts her group at the other end and I spent the session going back and forth between the practices. Theresa has been using HyTek Team Manager to set up and log all her practices for the past few seasons. She has created a filing system to keep track of the practices so she can compare and review practices from the same cycle in different seasons. She has also been inputting all of Brad’s workouts this season. There were 13 swimmers here today form the two age groups that are her responsibility. We spoke about using the sticks to promote the catch in Free, flat body position in Breaststroke and keeping the arms in a palm down position when stretching into streamline. Here is the Age Group squad’s workout.

1x300.....on 6:00 Choice
1x300.....on 6:00 Free Swim work turns
1x300.....on 6:00 K Choice
8x50.....K choice on 1:15
2x (10x50 Free Fast on 1:00) / (2x20 IM on 4:00)(2x200 on 5:00)
1x400.....Kick 25 Fast 25 Faster
1x400.....EZ

Marsha was in 1 lane LC with 4 swimmers from here best novice group. I didn’t record her workout but recognized a few of the swimmers from last nights session spoke briefly with Marsha about the importance of kicking in the stroke for this level and watched them train briefly

Vernon Kokanee Swim Club

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:53:47 -0800

I was heading up to Vernon yesterday and thinking, “Man this driving is soooo bad, but at least it’s only 40 minutes”, and before I know it, I’m rolling into town. I called Head Coach Marc Tremblay to confirm workout time and then got some work done.

I was at the pool at 4:30 for dryland, hanging out with a few of the Senior group swimmers, talking with them about all the recent coaching changes they had been through and how they were handling it all. All said things were going well. Many of the swimmers who had taken time off last spring are back in the water training regularly and feeling good about swimming. There have also been a few new swimmers moving into town. Marc’s Senior group is strong for a small town club. He had 21 swimmers in three lanes last night.

The coaches arrive about 4:45, they were meeting together at a local coffee shop doing entries and hadn’t noticed the time so I got a chance to give Marc a hard time because I beat him to the pool, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The dryland work is fairly minimal. The swimmers have stretched a bit on their own, done a few cord sets and some push ups and sit ups and it’s time to get in.

I leave Marc to do his workout presentation and catch up with Age Group Coach Bruce Melton. Bruce is the constant in the Kokanee program having served as the Age Group Coach for a long, long time. This year is no different from the other years I’ve watched his program. Both groups are filled with talent. Bruce went over his practice content for the day with me. Here it is.

9x150 .....swim-50 Kick IM
16x25.....1 side dol kick fins / 1 swim
12x25.....fly fins working on the kick timing
12x25.....swim build into the wall and do a turn

During the session we spent time discussing his talent pool and working on specific swimmers that aren’t getting some of the basics he’s been working on. The swimmers I work with are very responsive and capable of making changes. I asked him about the coaching changes as well and he mentioned how well he thought Marc was doing with the swimmers and also with the staff. I also asked him how he thought the swimmers he had moved up last season are making out in the bottom of Marc’s group and he felt that they had made the adjustment easily. A prime example I noticed last night was Joe Byrum, who was on the Provincial Team last season. Joe’s leading out Marc’s second lane and looks strong and efficient in the water.

I make my way over to Marc’s whiteboard while the swimmers are doing the initial warm up and spend a few minutes listening to Marc’s comments about the team in general and some of the progress a few specific swimmers have made. He’s pretty excited about the new job, all the things Vernon has to offer him and his family, and he mentions a resurgence of energy towards coaching. The group only has three lanes tonight because Novice Coach, Renata Terpstra is running a mini-meet for her program.

The Mini-meet looks as though it’s working well as a recruitment tool and a teaching program. I walked over right at the beginning to find about 25 swimmers lined up on the side to watch a demo event being swum by three 9&10-year-olds. They are doing the 100 IM. Renata is walking up and down behind the swimmers giving pointers and behind her are about 35 parents sitting down to watch their future Olympians swim their events.

As for Marc’s workout with his group, here’s the warm-up:
1x800.....400 Free 400 IM continuously
8x(100 Kick Fins)(2x25 swim fins on :20) The 100 K is Fly-Fr-Bk-Fr. The 25’s are 4 Free 4 IM

The next section of the workout is divided up and run similar to a circuit. Marc has been working on getting the swimmers to hold their goal pace and maintain even splitting. In general he has been asking the swimmers to train faster and is giving them more rest.

Distance
2x.....(100 Dive 50 moderate 50 on pace on 1:30)
.........(4x100 push pace foot ouch even split on 1:30)
.........7:30 rest between rounds

Sprinters
3x.....(Dive 50 pace on :50)
.........(3x50 pace on :50)
.........Rest 2:30 between each round

All the swimmers do a filler set either before or after the main set depending on which group they are in.

Filler Set
2x.....(3x100 on 1:30)
.........(9x50 IM changeovers on :55) working on the change over and building the 2nd 25

At the end of the session Marc runs the group through a stretching program.

Congratulations to Anders MacIntyre for his fast swimming in Europe last week. Anders had a couple of great meets as a member of the Canadian Tour Team over there. He said he enjoyed the trip but missed home a little bit. I thought his 100 Free in :52.4 (LC) was a pretty good un-rested in-season performance.