Week 39 and 40 (May 30 - June 9)

Theme: Sometimes You Just Need Lots of Yardage! 

"The More You Swim the Faster You Get!" What could be more simple. So, these 2 weeks will will give you the great opportunity to get a feel for the water by swimming lots and lots of laps. It will be a Lapapalooza!

Week 38 (May 22 - 26)

Theme: The Whole Shebang of Kicking!

We will work all the elements of kicking this week, including dolphin kick off the wall on starts and turns. So, save your legs all day so you can kick your brains our in the evening at practice, and in the morning as well!

Remember: Mondays resume May 22nd - This Monday!

Week 37 (May 15 - 19)

Theme: Starts and Turns We's Gonna Learn!

Although Starts are only a minor part of a race, getting off to a great start is very important. At our distance meet and the May Flowers Meet, it became apparent we need to work on starts. A start week would not be complete without turns as well. Huzzah! Attendance should be better with this theme!

Remember: No practice Monday evening! Mondays resume May 22nd!

Week 36 (May 8 - 12)

Theme: Distance Free Reflection!

We had our Marlins distance meet extravaganza. What a great time to reflect on what distance freestyle is like and whether or not it may be a good fit for you. Thursday and Friday will be sets that vary, so that you choose the distance that is right for you!

Remember: No practice Monday evening! Mondays resume May 22nd!

Week 35 (May 1 - 5)

Theme: Distance Free is for Me! Lather, Rinse, Repeat! (As it says on a shampoo bottle) Also throw in some 400 IM's!

We have our Marlins distance meet extravaganza coming up. What a great time to practice swimming longer freestyle. So, expect to do 200's, 500's, and even more. All non-stop, with flip turns and great technique!

Remember: No practice Monday evening!

Week 34 (Apr. 24 - 28)

Theme: Distance Free is for Me!

We have our Marlins distance meet extravaganza coming up. What a great time to practice swimming longer freestyle. So, expect to do 200's, 500's, and even more. All non-stop, with flip turns and great technique!

Remember: No practice Monday evening!

Week 33 (Apr. 17 - 21)

Theme: Stroke Drills Give Us Thrills!

The Mighty Marlins have several key stroke drills we do for each stroke. Every couple of months we like to reintroduce them since we have new Marlins. Also, it can't hurt to work the drills for veteran Marlins, and reinforce the fundamentals of good technique while swimming! So, it's Dental week - Drill, Drill, Drill!

Remember: No practice Monday evening!

Week 32 (Apr. 10 - 14)

Theme: Racing is Fun!

Sixty Marlins are swimming in the meet this coming weekend. We want to look awesome, swim legally, and win every close race. So, we will practice those skills this week.

Remember: No practice Monday evening!

Week 31 (Apr. 3 - 7)

Theme: Yardage, Yardage, Yardage!

We assume most of you will come to morning practice, go home, eat, take a nap, and come back to afternoon practice. Since our meet is 2 weeks away we want to get you in as great of shape as possible. So, we will be doing lots of yardage. 100's, 200's, 500's ... you get the idea!

Week 30 (Mar. 27 - Mar. 31)

Theme: Back and Forth (4 - 50's that is!)

At the meet this weekend it became apparent we need to work on our 200's and our backstroke. We have good IM swimmers. But they would be better if they could swim well on their backs. Also, we had a few backstroke turns that left our heels bruised and battered! So, walk into the pool backwards on Monday, and ask your parents to drive you to the pool in reverse.

Theme: Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick ....

KICK hard while you swim (white water), do powerful KICKouts, KICK all your bad habits, KICK your illnesses away, KICK winter into spring and summer. Just KICK, KICK, KICK, KICK ....

, 

Week 28 (Mar. 13 - Mar. 17)

Theme: Modified Perfection Week!

We have several meets coming up including our Marlins Madness Meet, which we expect everyone to swim in! With that in mind, we want to make sure everyone swims their races legally. That means following the rules about touching the wall on turns, and what you do underwater when pushing off a wall. So, we will be challenging swimmeds to do sets totally legally, and we will be repeating things that are done incorrectly until they are done well. Sounds like fun to me!

Week 27 (Mar. 6 - Mar. 10)

Theme: Strong Breakouts are Good in Swimming!

The fastest you are going in a swimming race is when you dive in and when you push off the wall. So, we need to be powerful and explosive off the wall. When you finish a swim practice your upper legs should be fatigued. If you pushed off the wall your hardest every time for a 500 free it is like doing 19 squat jumps, jumping as high as you can! So, treat every wall like a squat jump this week!

Week 26 (Feb. 27 - Mar. 3)

Theme: Fly and Breaststroke are Cousins!

Josh wants to have a breaststroke week. I will only allow that if we invite it's close cousin butterfly, to the party as well. So start walking around your house with your toes pointed out to prepare for the breaststroke kick. Also start walking around your house with pride as you prepare to do lots of butterfly!!

Week 25 (Feb. 20 - Feb. 24)

Theme: A 100 is a sprint, so is a 200, so is a ... You get the point!

Going fast from the start is the only way to start. To force your body to adapt you need to swim harder than you think you can maintain, and maintain it for as long as possible. So, be ready to get out of your Comfort Zone!!

Remember: Monday practice 3:30-5:30 pm at MP. No morning practice.

Week 24 (Feb. 13 - Feb. 17)

Theme: Distance per Stroke is no Joke!

If your pull is efficient you can do fewer strokes per 25, and thus, conserve energy while going faster. It is a win win, and we like to win. So, in an effort to win, we will be doing lots of drills to work on efficient pull. We also will work on swimming 200's fast, and efficiently. By the way that's a win-win!!

Remember: Morning practice at Lake Stevens High: Mon., Wed., and Fri. 5:30-7:00 am!!

Week 23 (Feb. 6 - Feb. 10)

Theme: What's More Fun Than a 500 Free? Nothing!!

Our backstroke was great this week. Now it is time to work on swimming distance races. Although I think the 500 free is a sprint, it is good to have a plan when you dive in to attack the race. So, we will work on a plan for swimming the 500 free this week!!

Remember: Morning practice at Lake Stevens High: Mon., Wed., and Fri. 5:30-7:00 am!!

Week 22 (Jan. 30 - Feb. 3)

Theme: Flags are a Wonderful Thing!

Well, we bragged about how we had no DQ's the first day of the meet until we hit the backstroke. Two days later we had 4 total DQ's with 3 being all about backstroke turns. So, it became apparent we need to work on using the flags, and counting, to do a better job on our backstroke walls. Also, we need work on backstroke in general. So, Backstroke week!!!

Remember: Thursday 2/2: No practice at MP

Week 21 (Jan. 23 - Jan. 27)

Theme: Kick is a Kick!

Swimming is easy when you swim with the correct body position in the water. A proper kick allows you to have a great body position and makes using your arms effectively easier. So, we will do lots of kick this week, so we can do lots of great swimming next week!

Remember: Tuesday 1/24: 6-7 pm at MP

Week 20 (Jan. 16 - Jan. 20)

Theme: Stroke Drills and Endurance!

We spent this weekend at the Washington Open and saw lots of great swimming! When I talked with other coaches, the common thread was that swimmers that had great swims in their 200's swam lots of practice time, and those that faded at the end did not.  Also, Josh wants to do lots of stroke drills since we have lots of new swimmers. So, stroke drills, followed by hard sets of 200's sounds like a plan to me!

Remember: Thursday 6-7 pm at MP

Week 19 (Jan. 9 - Jan. 13)

Theme: Let's Burn on the Turn!

Turns are a chance to get a big advantage if they are done well. So, we will perfect turns this week. Just remember that you get to practice 19 turns during a 500 free!

Remember: Tuesday 6-7 pm at MP

Week 18 (Jan. 2 - Jan. 6)

Theme: Back in the Habit!

Time to get back into a routine. Swim as much as you can can! We still need to continue to build our endurance. Our newer swimmers are starting to swim longer, harder stuff in practice as well! So, hard challenging sets abound, with lots of kick to get our cores in shape!

Remember: Monday 8:30-10 Snohomish, Thursday 6-7 pm at MP

Week 17 (Dec. 26 - Dec. 30)

Theme: Opportunity for Greatness, the Sequel!

I want to again state that this is an opportuniity!  A break from school is the perfect opportunity to get as much swimming as possible in, to improve your endurance. As we watched swimmers at PNS Champs swim amazingly fast times, it became apparent that we need to swim lots of hard sets that get us out of our comfort zones. So, come to practice often, and be ready to push yourself to new levels of effort!

Remember: We are at Snohomish only this week! (Thursday is slide Thursday!)

Week 16 (Dec. 19 - Dec. 23)

Theme: Opportunity for Greatness!

A break from school is the perfect opportunity to get as much swimming as possible in, to improve your endurance. As we watched swimmers at PNS Champs swim amazingly fast times, it became apparent that we need to swim lots of hard sets that get us out of our comfort zones. So, come to practice often, and be ready to push yourself to new levels of effort!

Remember: 

Week 15 (Dec. 12 - Dec. 16) 

Theme: Wonderful Winning Walls!

Turns, turns, turns, and more turns! There are lots of parts to a fast turn. We will work on them all this week, and then some!

Remember: Thursday evening practice is 6-7 pm!

Week 14 (Dec. 5 - Dec. 9) 

Theme: Third 50 Week!

We had lots of great swims this weekend. However, in our 200's we need to swim better on the 3rd 50. So, we will work endurance sets, with lots of 200's focused on sprinting the 3rd 50! 

Remember: Thursday evening practice is 6-7 pm!

Week 13 (Nov. 28 - Dec. 2) 

Theme: Meet Prep!

We have nearly 30 Marlins swimming in our meet at Kamiak this coming weekend. We want to put our best foot forward, and set our swimmers up for success. So, this week we will be doing lots of work on staying legal in races and being efficient on and off the walls!

Week 12 (Nov. 21 - Nov. 25) 

Theme: Build Endurance - By Eating Turkey?

We need to get it all done in three days. Also, Kirby's group is rounding into form. So, this is a week to build endurance by swimming longer sets. Next week we focus on the meet. But, this week we focus on earning that 12 pounds of Turkey you eat over the weekend!

Remember: Thursday there is no practice. Friday there is no practice in the evening!

Week 11 (Nov. 14 - Nov. 18) 

Theme: Perfection Week!

For Josh's group I assume you know what that means. For Kirby's group it means practicing doing all the fundamentals of a good race! We also are preparing for competing at the Divisional Champs Meet that we are hosting Dec. 3-4! We want all Marlins, Old and New, Purple and Blue, to participate in this one. And, to answer your question! Yes! They are ready!

Week 10 (Nov. 7 - Nov. 11) 

Theme: Power! We Want Power!

Still cold and without power? Then lets get power in the water. Power comes from a strong kick and a strong catch and pull with the arms. So, we will do lots of kick, pull, swim stuff. Meets this weekend, so we will do some wall work as well.

Week 9 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 4) 

Theme: More Drills and Pumpkin Thrills!

I only got through 4 of the key Marlin drills last week. So,  Kirby's evening group needs to learn 4 more of the basic key "Marlin Stroke Drills for Success"! So, each night I will be going through those drills so they become cemented in our young swimmers minds! Josh's group needs endurance training, and lots of it!

Week 8 (Oct. 24 - 28) 

Theme: Chills and Drills and Pumpkin Thrills!

Last week was kinda smoked out. So, Josh's group needs some challenging intervals still. Kirby's evening group needs to learn the 8 basic key "Marlin Stroke Drills for Success"! So, each night I will be going through those drills so they become cemented in our young swimmers minds!

 

Week 7 (Oct. 17 - 21) 

Theme: Challenging Intervals!

I love sitting next to Nick (the coach from WEST) at swim meets because I always get fun ideas for ways to improve swimmers. This week we will try one of Nick's ideas, "Challenging Intervals". What are they. You will see, but it is just like it sounds.

Week 6 (Oct. 10 - 14) 

Theme: Perfecting Powerful Pull!

Recently I have seen swimmers taking lots of strokes to get from one end of the pool to the other. This week we will work on getting the most out of every pull. Distance per stroke is a key to successful swimming. So, we will use hand paddles some days, and be counting our strokes as well, in an attempt to maximize our power on every pull.

Remember: Thursday practice is from 6-7 pm.

Week 5 (Oct. 3 - 7) 

Theme: Walls Are Our Friends!

We had meet #2 at Anacortes and it became apparent that we need to get more momentum and speed off our walls with a great dolphin kick. Also, kick in general can be improved, So, we will be doing lots of work on wall push offs, tight streamlines, and dolphin kick off the walls. Also, we will be doing lots of kick sets for kicking while swimming!!

Remember: Tuesday practice is from 6-7 pm.

Week 4 (Sept 26 - 30) 

Theme: Operation: "No DQ Slips!"

We had our first meet of the year at Anacortes this weekend, and I was reminded that we need to reinforce the key rules regarding turns, swimming, and the wall. So, for all swims this week we will expect legally done swims, turns, and finishes. While working hard of course!

Remember: Thursday practice is from 6-7 pm.

Week 3 (Sept 19 - 23) 

Theme: Time to put Work into the word Workout!

We have done lots of drills and stroke work the first 2 weeks. Now it is time to combine those drills with more endurance work. So expect things like 125 yard swims with drill on the first 25. The swims may be a little shorter for our newer swimmers.

Remember: Tuesday practice is from 6-7 pm, and Thursday there is no pm practice, but we have a picnic at Lundeen Park!

Weeks 1&2 (Sept 7 - 16) 

Theme: Let's Get This Party Started!

We saw a lot of positive energy and excitement at the end of last year!  So I know you can't wait to swim really hard sets!  However, we will start with sets to work on making your strokes efficient and effective, so that all our hard work will pay off!

Don't forget to encourage your friends to tryout during Free Trial Week Sept. 12-16. See the information on the "Events" tab. $10.00 Starbucks gift card if you get someone to join.