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Pre-Senior & Senior Groups:
We are geared up and have been having some super
workouts. With our goals set on getting swimmers to all the
Championship meets this season the swimmers are focused on
getting in shape and learning the important parts of
racing.
Coach
Zell
November News Letter, 2009
Hello Swimmers
I wanted to talk about the importance of “drills” in
workouts. First of all, what is a “drill”? Drill or
Drilling singles out one or more parts of the stroke you are
working on. By singling out and working on one part of the stroke a
swimmer is able to work on developing better technique. Only
with better technique will a swimmer be able to swim faster and
with more endurance.
As many of you know I am a volunteer firefighter, we drill every
Monday night. Firefighter’s have many skills that we use and
we can’t go over all of them every Monday. We drill on the
skills in the areas that we are weak in and need to practice. Every
time we drill, we we strive for perfection. We go over every part
of a skill, over and over until we have it down. Between drills our
officers give us instruction on how to perform better. By listening
and practicing in areas we are weak in not only do we get a better
grasp on skills, but we are able to perform them right under
stress. The bottom line is with enough drilling and practice we are
able to perform our life and death skills right the first time and
with out any hesitation.
Like firefighters, you swimmers drill to work on the areas that
need improvement. Not every swimmer is weak in the same area, but
by everybody working on the same drill those weak in that area
become stronger, and those who are already strong keep working
toward the ultimate goals of speed and endurance through perfect
technique.
Every drill works toward perfect technique. Here are some examples
of the things drills work on:
-The three-two-one breaststroke drill by
kick works on the timing of the kick but also adds power to the
kick.
-The sixes kicks and one pull drill whether doing freestyle or
backstroke works on balance, body rotation, and getting the most
out of each stroke.
-In butterfly four kicks one stroke helps the swimmer time
their kick in accordance with pull and breathing while building up
the muscles used for dolphin kick.
-By swimming freestyle with high elbows your body is forced
swim right, by not dragging your finger tips through the water, it
also forces your legs to kick harder so you can get those elbows
up.
These are just a few of the drills we work on everyday at
practice. Each drill is important for each stroke.
We have a swim meet here at the Woodburn pool later this month,
keep drinking water, doing drills right, and coming to practice and
you will all do fine.-coach Michael
Hi swimmers,
I have
learned several new butterfly drills from Misty Hyman (set 200m
butterfly Olypic record in 2000). She is a very fast swimmer. I
have already learned a lot about butterfly that I did not know
before, and this will help all you butterfly srokes as well. Here
are several things that help Misty swim fast, and they will help
you also.
1. Two dolphin Kicks per one
butterlfly stroke. The first kick comes when the
swimmer starts their pull, the swimmers hands will still be infront
of them. As the swimmers hands pull past their shoulders the down
portion of that first kick will push the swimmers hips toward the
top of the water. On the up portion of the kick, the bottom of the
swimmers feet should come out of the water. This will give the
second kick maxium power. The second kick starts as the swimmers
hands pass their hips. The second kick allows the swimmer’s
hands to recover over the top of water without dragging their hands
or arms though the water. If the kicks are not timed right your
rythme will be off and your butterfly will be slow.
2. Palm up recovery.
When your hands exit the water after the pull portion of the
stroke, the palms of the swimmers hands will be facing the ceiling.
The swimmer needs to keep their palms facing up as long as possible
during the recovery untill they reach streamline. When a swimmers
palms are up it keeps their hands and fingers from dragging through
the water and slowing them down. It also keeps your body in a
natural position, and keeps your arms moving so they dont slow down
or stop.
3. Keep moving foward. The stroke needs to keep
the swimmer moving in a foward direction. While swimming the pull
and kick should not stop at all, it needs to be smooth and
rhythmic. The two kicks will propel the body foward as well as help
the arms recover for the next pull. When swimming the
butterfly the swimmer should focus on getting their arms foward
into the streamline position. This will allow the swimmer to get
more strokes in and will speed their butterfly up. It is better to
swim a perfect 100 yards of butterfly, then swimming 500 yards of
sloppy butterfly.
Here are 2
drills to help work on the principals
above:
-4
kicks, 1 stroke. The swimmer will take 4 dolphin kicks then 1
full butterfly stroke(including the 2 kicks done in normal
butterfly). This will help get the timing of butterfly down.The
swimmer has 4 dolphin kicks to think about working on the perfect
butterfly stroke and the right
timing.
-1
arm butterfly. This will help the swimmer use their whole body
to swim butterfly and work on keeping their palms up for as long as
possible during recovery. This wont help the swimmer if they are
swimming "freestyle" during the drill. This means no bent elbows,
no flutter kicking, no side breathing, and no diving down under the
water. While swimming butterfly the swimmers arms will stay near
the surface of the water, while their head and chest dip below
their arms. This does not mean it is ok to "dive" under the
water.
We will be
doing lot of drills and sprinting to help improve everyones
butterfly, as well as working on the other strokes. I hope to
see you all soon- coach michael.
Hello everyone,
I want all you swimmers to know how impressed I was at the swim
meet in Molalla. Each group did a great job, and I was pleased with
the results. I don’t think there was a swimmer who did not
drop time off of at least one of their personal records. Manny of
the new swimmers did great at their first meet.
All the bronze kids have come so far. I remember when they first
started, barley being able to swim 25yards on their fronts and
backs. Now each swimmer can not only swim 50 and 100 yards, but
have also learned breaststroke and butterfly. I think coach Becca
and Rene are doing a great job and it definitely showed at the
meet. Keep working on you endurance so you can swim the longer
races. Keep learning all about each stroke so that you not only
become faster but you get disqualified less, remembering the goal
is not to be disqualified at all.
Swimmers your hard work is starting to pay off. Remember you guys
are never done working hard; there is always a new goal to work
toward. At the meet you all did well. Here are some things to keep
in mind; when swimming backstroke keep your head still, in a fixed
position. Also your kicking needs to be constant and next to the
surface of the water. If your legs sink so will your hips, and you
will swim slower. There were a lot of good swims at the meet, a lot
of fast freestyle. Kick, kick, and more kick is one way to improve
your speed while swimming freestyle. The other way is to drop time
is to improve your technique. How you swim is a factor in how fast
you swim.
Congratulations to everyone who competed in the mile. You guys did
great. It’s hard to just keep swimming. Setting a pace can be
difficult; your next mile will be a little easier. If this was your
first mile this was a good learning experience. The more experience
the easier it will be.
My goal for the spring is to incorporate more calisthenics to your
swimming workouts. This means that you will the opportunity to
learn and practice pushups, sit ups, crunches, leg lifts, dry
flutter kicks, and bridges. I hope to see you all soon! ~coach
Michael 2/24/09
Hello everyone,
I hope everybody got a chance to
play in the snow and stayed safe during this holiday season. I know
all you swimmers got a break from swimming due to the weather and I
hope you didn’t miss it too much. I hope to be seeing you all
soon.
With 2009 I hope to set some goals for those of you I
coach. I want to see each swimmer become faster at
kicking….. which means we will have to kick a lot more! By increasing your kicking
speed you will be able to swim faster and set new personal records
for yourselves.
When you swimmers are tired you swim different than when
you are not tired. Your strokes become short, you breathe too
often, and you flop around in the water(your head, arms, and
legs).This being said we will work on swimming while you are tired
and do more drilling so that during your race while you are getting
tired you can still swim in an effective manner. This will
also help your raciing performance.
I
hope in 2009 that you all stay safe, have fun, and learn a lot
about swimming and life in general.~coach Michael
John has been
asking me to turn in my article each month since I have been
coaching. I finally got it done. I want to say that I have
enjoyed coaching the barracudas and my lane of swimmers for the
past three months. The weather has changed the way we do
things, but I hope you are all doing some dry land at home to stay
in shape. I heard one time that the difference between
swimming and other sports is that an athlete in other sports gets
into shape to play the game and in swimming as well as running
getting into shape is the sport. So I hope you are staying in
shape playing in the snow and I will see you next week?????
Coach David
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