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Coach’s Corner
Head COACH KARLA BLACK
Nutrition Articles
WEEKEND PRACTICE
On Sunday’s you can pick the 2-hour practice slot that you
want to attend. Saturdays are NOT the day you can pick the 2-hour
slot.
Please make every effort to show up when your group is scheduled to
practice on Saturdays. Also, please make every effort to show up on
time. The beginning of practice is called a warm up-this allows the
muscles to get warm before additional stress is put on them. If you
show up late and miss the warm up you are doing a disservice to
yourself and your teammmates. This has been a public service
announcement by the head coach. Thank you.
11/29/06
Congratulations to all swimmers who swam at the Thanksgiving
Classic this past weekend. We had so many notable swims and
substantial drops in time that the PB list is staggering. It is so
exciting to see the PB’s at the beginning of the season which
is all the more encouraging for the end of the season results.
As we head into high school swim season, and winter, remember to
stay hydrated and get plenty of sleep. Many schools have practices
early in the morning or late at night and it is very important to
get in the needed 8 hours of sleep.
We have a large number of swimmers swimming this Saturday at the
BGCN Pentathlon. Remember to wear your check off challenge
T-Shirts. This is a great opportunity for our older swimmers to
check off the 50’s of each stroke and the 100 IM!
Our upcoming intrasquad meet is designed to give our parents the
opportunity to do a dry run of hosting a meet (no pun intended) and
also to announce our team captains and develop some team spirit. So
make sure you clear your calendar for Sunday December 10th!
Karla N. Black
Head Coach
603-886-0971
603-318-6852
Why do we take our heart rate and what does it mean?
Hi everyone,
Lately we have been focusing on heart rate. A swimmer’s heart
rate tells the coaches who is working, and also helps the swimmer
get in tune with their own body.
Heart Rate charts are usually posted in aerobic studios at the YMCA
and other gyms. I have
attached a heart rate chart that will help explain what we are
looking at. We use a 6 second pulse count to give us an accurate
heart rate as opposed to a 10 second heart rate because often times
the heart rate will actually start to slow down as it heads into
recovery mode; we want to capture the information with minimal
distortion.
I have highlighted my own age as a sample to compare against a 15
year old.
You can see that for me, working at 100%, my 6 second pulse would
be 17, as opposed to a 15 year old who would only be working at
around 85 % capacity if he/she had a 17 second pulse count.
At this point in the season, taking the pulse count helps us focus
the swimmers on what they should strive for if we are asking them
for an 80% effort during a set. If we ask a 15 year old to swim at
80% capacity and the swimmer comes in with a pulse count of 12 then
it becomes obvious to swimmer and coach that the swimmer is not
pushing hard enough. Conversely, if we ask for 80% effort and the
swimmer comes in with a slow time and a high heart rate then we, as
coaches, need to be able to tell the swimmer to back off.
If you are wondering about the formula in calculating this, there
is no magic. It is a simple formula of:
220- AGE * 70%/10 this is a formula for a 70%
effort.
The 220 number is a standard in heart rate charts and I honestly
don’t know where that number came from but it shows up in all
the training books.
I hope this helps you understand what we are striving for. I also
attached the Age group 27-60 years in case you are out raking
leaves and wondering how hard you are actually working :-)
Karla N. Black
Head Coach
Special Olympics Program
Would you like to team up with with Coach Karla and volunteer at
the Merrimack YMCA’s Special Olympics program Friday nights
from 6:30-7:30 PM? Interested swimmers please contact Coach Karla. 2006
Great article about Lenny Krazelberg’s backstroke..
http://www.limmatsharks.com/backstroke.html
What Kind of Swimmer Am I?
Am I the first person to get in the water at practice?
Do I offer to help put the lane lines in?
Do I stay in the locker room until warm ups are over?
Do I lead my lane as often as I can?
Do I let others go ahead of me if I’m slowing them down?
Do I push every part of the set?
Do I hold back and only push the last one in the set?
Do I pull on the lane lines?
Do I swim EVERY YARD of the practice I attend?
Do I go to the bathroom when the set gets hard?
Do my goggles have a perpetual leak?
Do I ignore technique instructions because I’m fast
anyway?
Do I encourage my teammates when the sets get hard?
Do I own a pair of goggles or do I just borrow from the coach?
Do I know when I shouldn’t be leading the lane?
Do I understand words like descend?
Do I draft off my teammates instead of leading and then not go
ahead of them when I should?
Do I wait the full five seconds before going after the person ahead
of me?
Do I make room for my teammates to finish on the wall?
Do I let someone who tagged my feet go ahead of me?
Do I stop when everyone else does even though I’ve been
lapped in a set?
Only you can answer these questions honestly and I hope that you
always swim with courtesy of your teammates.
Do’s and Don’ts for Winning - Pre-Meet
Psyching
http://www.competitivedge.com/ppg/ppg02.html
What to Swim at Developmental Meets
Some of you find yourselves swimming the same events at every meet,
but now is the time to try something else. Try to swim events that
are either a challenge to you such as the 500 or a stroke that you
typically don’t like to swim. If you always swim 50 free and
100 free, you should try the fly and backstroke events. You might
even like them after trying them!
As a youngster I swam pretty much every event except backstroke.
While I could swim the stroke, I never went very fast until one
day, I thought, what would happen if I kick really hard and get my
arms going really fast? Well, there you go, I suddenly became a
backstroker! Now, I find that I prefer the stroke since I can
breathe as much as I want without disturbing the efficiency of my
stroke. Had I never given the event a try, I never would have found
how much I enjoy the stroke.
Challenge yourself and you may find that you are stronger than you
think, from a mental as well as physical perspective.
Kicking
In swimming it is the kick that drives the body through the water
and a strong efficient kick assures us strong propulsion. For
sprint events such as the 50 Free and 100 Free, the swimmer should
use a 6 beat kick whereas the distance events such as the 1,650
require the legs for balance and a 2 beat kick provides for
this.
However, a faster kick can wreak havoc with your body balance if
you are unaccustomed to kicking fast, so it is important to kick
hard during kick sets and when possible, kick WITHOUT a board. So,
when it comes to kicking drills, don’t use this time as a
social event, but rather a chance to experiment with your legs and
find what happens when you change the pace of your kick.
This past weekend, I combined a fast kick and only 3 breaths for a
fast 50 Free. Breathing takes away from our streamline position but
provides oxygen for our body to burn fuel. Yes, there are tradeoffs
to everything in life including swimming. However, I felt the
tradeoff was worth the lack of oxygen since it was only for a 50
free and I was in shape enough so that I wouldn’t collapse.
The result was a personal best and I had the rest of the day to
allow my legs to recover. We as swimmers need to work on lung
capacity and the ability to utilize our body’s fuel
efficiently. However, we will only realize our own capacity if we
push ourselves to our limits and beyond. We need to break away from
the comfort zone and go straight into the ZONE.
Here is an article by Marty Hull on how to develop a stronger
kick:
http://www.swiminfo.com/articles/swimmagazine/articles/199507-02swim_art.asp
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->and another site on all
kicks:
http://www.totalimmersion.net/articles/02febissue/kickingsets2.html
Warm-Ups, Warm-Up Etiquette, Circle Swimming and Dryland
Training
Why We Warm-Up at Meets
The purpose of warm-ups at a meet is to get used to the walls,
flags, water and to warm-up your muscles.
Each swimmer should know what events he or she is swimming that
particular day and should concentrate on those strokes during
warm-up. Swimmers should NOT be asking the coach what he or she
should be doing for warm-up, unless the swimmer is new to the sport
or of a very young age. Use common sense when it comes to warm-ups.
For example, if the swimmer is not entered in breaststroke, then he
or she should not incorporate breaststroke into the warm-up.
Additionally, if the swimmer is only swimming backstroke events,
then the swimmer should only do backstroke starts when it comes to
that point in the warm-ups.
Guidelines for Warm-Ups
The 11 and up group should try to get in between 500 and 1000 yards
during warm-ups with a focus on the events he or she will be
swimming that day.
The 10 and unders should try to get in a total of 400 yards to help
loosen up their muscles and get used to the walls and flags.
Etiquette During Warm-Ups
The purpose of warm-up is to warm the body up, not run over the
swimmers from other teams. If someone is going slower than you,
then you should back-off rather than try to pass them or run them
over. If someone is being rude to you or running you over, then you
take the matter to your coach. Do not attempt to resolve this
problem yourself. Also, it is very important that you circle swim
during warm-ups and at practice, however, when you are racing you
should NEVER circle swim.
Etiquette and the FINS
I am very proud to say, that our swimmers behave properly for the
most part. I bring up the issue of etiquette only to make you aware
of how warm-ups should be conducted and what to do when another
team shows poor etiquette.
Circle Swimming
It is imperative that you circle swim during practice and during
warm-ups, however, I saw many of our swimmers circle swimming when
they were racing. When you are racing, you should stay in the
middle of your lane to take advantage of the calm water and to swim
the shortest distance possible. Remember, the shortest distance
between two points (the blocks and the far end) is a straight
line!
Dryland Training
While we don’t have a facility to take advantage of group
dryland training, many of you could benefit from developing your
own routine at home. A simple routine that EVERYONE should be doing
is a series of push-ups (boy’s push-ups) and abdominal work.
Everyone should strive for 50-100 pushups done every other day.
Additionally, everyone should strive for 50-100 abdominal crunches
on a daily basis. Swimming relies heavily on strong abdominal
muscles.
Total Body Dryland Conditioning
Pilates provides a total body workout in a very short length of
time and focuses on abdominal work. Our treasurer, Shirley Chiang,
provided me with a Pilates CD which I have found to be a fabulous
workout and one which I can do in about 45 minutes. I have made it
part of my daily routine and you can do it on your own time in your
own home.
Jewelry
New England Swimming does not prohibit the wearing of jewelry
whereas high school swimming does; however, when swimming for
speed, we want to minimize your drag through the water. Please
leave your watches and jewelry at home rather than risk losing them
in the pool or slowing your body down when trying to race through
the water.
Top of Page
USS Meets
Reminder that only swimmers, coaches and officials are allowed on
deck.
At Dartmouth, Coach Karla is usually found with the swimmers in the
back pool area, where it is relatively quiet. Heat and lane
assignments are always posted to the wall in the back pool area as
well as in the main pool area.
The benefit of the back pool is that it provides an area for
swimmers to warm up before an event and to warm down after an
event. It is especially important to warm down after an event as
this allows the lactic acid that built up in your body while racing
to work its way out of the muscles. Lactic acid that stays in the
muscles tends to allow cramps to happen more easily. Additionally
it is very important to bring lots of water to drink. Staying
hydrated is extremely important and will allow your body to perform
at its best.
Also, I’d like to remind swimmers to stay warm before their
event, remember to keep your head and feet warm. You lose a great
deal of body heat from your head as well as your feet.
Changes
One of the unique things about our team is the focus on technique.
We as coaches understand that when we ask a swimmer to make a
change to their stroke, the initial feedback we get from the
swimmer is that “it feels funny”, or “it makes me
go slower”. Both comments are true initially, but if the
swimmer concentrates on making the change, the end result is that
the swimmer will swim faster than before.
Depending on what this change is, it takes time to embrace a new
style. In this era of instant gratification, the swimmer sometimes
is not patient enough to wait it out or makes the conscious
decision to go back to their old style because it was faster. To
quote Karate Master “If you always do, what you always did,
you’ll always get what you always got”. To the swimmer,
this means, if we ask you to breathe every 3rd stroke and the
swimmer makes the choice to ignore our advice, then chances are the
swimmer will continue to get the same time he/she has always
gotten. BUT, if the swimmer has trust in his/her coach and makes
the conscious choice to change, then ultimately the swimmer will
swim faster, be more balanced in the water and experience less
shoulder injuries. HOWEVER, to embrace the change takes time and
effort for both the coach and the swimmer. Sometimes the change
happens quickly and we see this with the younger less experienced
swimmer. This is due to muscle memory. The longer a person has been
doing something, the longer the action has been ingrained into the
muscle. To overcome a bad habit takes time and we as coaches
understand this and we do not expect the change to happen
overnight. Sometimes, what we ask you to do is not comfortable. We
want to get you OUT of the comfort zone and into THE ZONE.
Sweating the Details on Hydration
Read
Hydration Article
Here is a link to everything you want to know about weight lifting,
and everything else that matter, for swimmers.
http://swimming.about.com/cs/drylandexercise/a/swim_weight.htm
This is a great site to explore at home and features some of the
world’s top swimmers. This site is packed with lots of great
swimming information, try the Skills area or the Academy Player to
find videos and animations that break down each stroke to its basic
elements and show you how to put it together. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/swimming/default.stm
Breaststroke
This SWIM article fairly succinctly breaks down the wave style
breaststroke into all of its important components. The wave style
is more efficient that the flat style. Once you perfect a few key
elements you should start to see your breaststroke times getting
faster.
http://www.breaststroke.info/Santos.htm
http://www.breaststroke.info/santos-part2.htm
New Swimmers and Parents
List of Important Terms Used in Swimming
Want to know
What To Eat Before Swimming?
Links to National Time Standards and other swim related sites
Articles on Nutrition and Swimming
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