It is good to see you all back from the holidays where I hope you had a good time. This week has been a bit of fun just getting back in to the swing of things. Next week for Junior and Senior Greens it will be a little more serious for those swimmers thinking of moving up to the next squad as try out will be on.
We are looking at the standards that we propose to use for next year - for juniors greens you will have to complete the following, demonstrating good technique on all strokes, turns and a sound understanding of competitive training.
4x75m
Freestyle @ 2:00
4x50m
Backstroke @ 1:30
4x50m Breaststroke
@ 1:45
4x25m
Butterfly @ 45sec
100m IM
For seniors thinking of moving you up will have to complete the following with the same good standards for your strokes and turns.
4 x 100 FR on 1:50
4 x 50 BR on 1:40
4 x 50 BK on 1:10
4 x 25 FL on :45
1 x 100 IM (good turns)
If you have any concerns about what is required please come and see me. There will also be some input from me and coach Aaron on the final call on who moves up.
Coach Pete
Junior Blue
This week is been just to go back and doing long sets to try to help the swimmers to go back to the level they was before Easter break.
Also practice the freestyle tumble turn in the small pool that gave us the right motion to be able to roll probably and push off the wall with a streamline and go to break out and start swimming.
This week it was butterfly stroke,started it from the kick, both legs move simultaneously, and should be press together, should be kick twice for each stroke of the arms in butterfly and continue with the different drills until they swam 25 meters with a good technique, streamline with underwater arm pull, that when they are taking a stroke, should keep their hands about shoulder width apart and press the chest down.
Senior Green
This week they swan a lots of 200 meters free with a good technique and tumble turns and streamline with a flutter kicks before start swimming free, keep the same time every set and add 25 meters fly sprints with a short rest between each one.
Coach Monica
Easter break is over, we are back and ready to swim hard. This week has been tough for our swimmers, they felt sore, exhausted and unfit. But they did a great job; I could see a big step up - positive energy and really hard work. We've been doing quite a bit of mileage, but we also had to work on their speed and explosive power, because next weekend we have a major swim meet in Dover East campus, so we would like to see a great performance and fast races.
Thanks to coach Aaron, now we have snorkels and nose clips, and we can bring perfection to our stroke and body position. These weren't easy to get used to it, as it's hard to turn, take a breath and keep the head steady :) But nothing is impossible, and everyone did a good job.
Next week we are going to do more race pace, threshold and test sets, but also we will swim with the snorkel and paddles. We will try to speed up the kid for the upcoming swim meet.
I am looking forward to next week.
Coach Alex
Senior Gold have had a week of quite tough of workouts. Though the length of each repeat has not been particularly tough, the intervals and intensity have been. They have needed to be, as most swimmers are training once each day and have tons of time to recover. Coming back following a break has also been tough for some. They have handled this sudden intensity well.
Some of the squad will race this coming weekend - we'll have a tough few days and then back off on Thursday and Friday. We will introduce a new weight training workout this week. We WILL do land on Wednesday and Thursday this week
This Friday coming night we will recognise some of our swimmers at the Annual Sports Awards. I'd like to preface these by saying that the coaches and I see the hard work that so many swimmers put in to their training. We are able to recognise only a few swimmers within given criteria, but please know that every member of the team (from our youngest pre-comp to our very fastest gold squad swimmers) is equally important. You are the present and the future of the team and we have high expectations!
I will head to Australia after the Dragon's Den meet to the ASCTA Conference where the world's best coaches share their knowledge. I will visit with Dennis Cotterell's program at Miami (QLD) where he has produced many world class swimmers including multiple Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder Grant Hackett, Chinese world record holder and Olympic Champion Sun Yang, and current sensation, Cameron McEvoy. Last time I was there, I got to see Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim training during the national team camp.
I'm sure I'll come back with tons of information to share with our coaches. I also see this as an opportunity to compare what we are doing with the different styles of the presenters and see where we can improve.
Please check the camp calendar so you can plan ahead for next year!
Aaron
