Final Days

Well we are in the home stretch at MVN and its been a really good eye opening trip.

Yesterday I had the honor to help Coach Bill with the Olympic group. They did a set 1x1500 @20 + 1x800 @11 x3 dec 1-3
The fastest 1500 guy was 16:03 Girl 16:57; 800 8:25 & 8:57. Pretty impressive to me that is.

We had a meeting with Siga Rose about their 8&under swimmers. Wow that lady is a fire ball. Great energy, great ideas and a great coach.

Today we get to talk about Olympic group, help with their workout today, I expect it to be recovery:) Then we are going to dinner with some staff members, then home to the ATL Saturday.

Then I'll be on the deck Sunday morning. I love my job

MVN Trip

Well the weather was excellent on Tue and it was nice to see the whole team in action.
MVN have the swim groups set up in Divisions, a very interesting concept. They have 8 & under, 10 & under, 11/12 and 13/14 swim together. Each division is broken into 3 groups. They move everyone up at the same time, twice a year depending on the swimmers birthday at the Championship meet for that season.

It works very well if 1. you have the numbers 2. the staff and 3. probably at one location.
The Senior division is based on time standards.

MVN Trip

Well I arrived at LA Orange County airport yesterday and it was pouring. Never seen it rain so hard in CA. I met up with my coach buddy Russ from Swim Mac Carolina and we headed over to Mission Viejo Swim team complex.

On arrival we met the staff and watched the Olympic group train for 2 hours. They did a set of 400's which I observed two girls end the last one under 4:20 LCM.

Russ and I then met with Coach Bryan Dedeaux who is their 10 and under division coach. We had an informative discussion about how they organize and coach their 10 & Unders and other various topics.

Today we are attend their staff meeting.

Three Phases of a Swimming Career

Part One:
I can't remember exactly when, but I heard our USA Swimming National Team Director speak at a conference about the stages swimmers go through during their careers. As I've coached over the years, I found what he said to be quite true.

Phase One: 10 & Unders
The 10 & under swimmers are the ones that swim for Mum & Dad. After a race the first person they want to see is M&D. They want to please them and want them to support their efforts.

This is very important in their development. Parents must be aware that everything you say to them about their performance sticks with them a life time. From my point of view, its interesting asking the Senior level swimmers about their 10 & Under experiences. Most don't talk about winning, etc. they talk about Mum & Dad and what was said to them in the car, or at the dinner table. I'm happy to say it is mostly positive :)

As a Coach the 10 & Unders are probably the most challenging (and most FUN). They often do great things in practice, perfect strokes, perfect turns, but when they get in a competition, that ALL goes! There minds are made up that I'm going to get to the other end of the pool as fast as I can. I don't care what it looks like.

10 & Unders MUST be "taught", coached a little and "not trained". I have often thought that we should call the coach a teacher, because that is their role. We do that in our swim school.

10 & Unders need the basics, a solid foundation of technique in all strokes, turns and starts. They need to have a FUN! learning atmosphere in which to accomplish these goals.

Every year the RAYS staff evaluate and adjust our athlete development plan. During the summer months we will be doing the same and changes will be made to help us stay Georgia's Finest Swim Team.

Trials Review

Well our meet is done. Kind of sad really. With all the exposure our sport has had these last 8 days, it makes you wish we had trials every year. For us we had some good swims & some swims we wish we could do again. But we as a team looked great and our athletes were true champions in my mind. I really enjoyed the experience with them.

Our best finish was obviously Bryan's 50m Fr. 22.13 tied for 7th; I believe that's a team record ;). Watching him prepare for his races was a learning experience. I remember him as an 8 year old summer league swimmer, skinny little thing. But even then he had a drive about him that you new he could do some great things. Its a pity Gary Hall Jnr. was also in the final. I think they showed to much of him and "his cape" (LOL). I will also remember the way Erin & Bean looked when they were paraded out in front of 8-9,000 people. I was very proud of them and I know you all would have been too.

Enough of us. Here are some other things I also observed.

Watching Peter Marshall (Dynamo/Stanford) swim his last race in the 100 Bk. He was 3rd in 2004; but unfortunately he didn't make it out of the Semi-Finals this time. He stood at the pools exit and shook everyone of his competitors hand as they went to warm down. Don't see that in to many other sports.

Hayley McGregor (Texas) - the morning after she got 3rd in the 100 Bk (after she set the World Record the day before) - was at the pool 7am getting ready for her 200 Bk. You couldn't tell that she was disappointed, she was there preparing for the next event. Unfortunately she got 3rd in that one too.

Behind the scenes: When you walked into the building and into the surrounding's behind the main pool. It was like being back stage at a rock concert. There were so many people behind the scenes running this meet. There were at least 80 journalists from around the world doing TV interviews. As soon as the swimmer finished a race they would walk down the exit and right in front of the camera's. You had physiologists taking blood samples from swimmers to determine their lactate values. You had swimmers wearing heart rate monitors while warming down. You had massage and physical therapists working on athletes & coaches. You had an area for the swimmers to relax, although not much relaxing went on there as they had Guitar Hero & a PlayStation also. Computers - everywhere. The warm down pool was an "exact" replica of the competition pool, plus a 6 lane 25m pool attached to it. There was food all day long, water everywhere and volunteers that were so pleasant and helpful. I could go on and mention the aqua zone and seeing all the past Olympians, but I won't.

I can't wait for 2012. I know we will have more swimmers their than this time. Maybe we can put someone on that team. We were only 0.48 of a second away from doing it this time.

Kristine & Erin Reporting From Omaha

Kristine's & Erin's Blog:
WOW! The pool is AMAZING and huge and definitely unforgettable!

When you walk in you have to go through like 10 army guys that check and make sure you have your credentials (which are really big and have your picture on them). In the main pool there is a huge block in the middle that has 6 screens all around it. It is so cool! Like Phillips Arena or something.

In prelims there were so many people; you wouldn't think, because its prelims, that there would be alot of spectators but there were! And finals were crazy!! The atmosphere was so pumped up and intense that you got chills watching people swim, haha. When they gave out awards for the first place finisher, they turned out all the lights and only had neon spotlights going . Behind the winner's stand there was a waterfall that flashed the name of the person who won on it too! Also, when World Records were set, fire shot from the side of the pool! SO COO L :)

Our first race was really exciting! We had to go to the ready room and wait to march out. They had a tv in the ready room so you could see the heats before you race. Afterwards we had to walk down a flight of stairs which was really hard after just racing!! Ha!

This has been such a great experience and definitely way different than any of the meets we've ever been too! And we took lots of pics to show everyone!!! :)

Day 4 At Trials

Day 4 saw Bryan hit the water for his first event. Swimming in the last heat in lane 1 Bryan did not get off to his best start and over swam the first 20 meters with his arms, his tempo was to fast. Bryan did not make it into the semi finals, although his time was only .3 off his best. He told me tonight that he is going to Time Trial the 100 tomorrow and see what he can do.

The swims tonight at finals were good races, although no world records were set. I think we are being spoiled:). Two American records and a US Open were set though. In the Men's 100 Fr Jason Lezak 31 years old, beat his American Record and missed the world record by .08. He is the first American to go under 48 sec for the event.

In the women's 200 Fr final the top 6 make the team. It took a 1:57 to do that. In 2004 it took a 2:00.0. Great race.

In the 200 Fly, Michael Phelps looked strong and won pretty easily, but the fight for second was won by Gil Stoval a UGA swimmer. His time of 1:53 was very impressive. Also his "victory yell" was even more impressive.

In the women's 200 Fly a lot of girls went 2:08 or better, which means an unbelievable final tomorrow night. Our local GA girl Kathleen Hersey is going into finals with the 2nd place time. We are all pulling for her.

The men's 200 BR was a little bit of a let down as Brendon Hanson, clearly held back his last 50. I hope he goes for the world record tomorrow night, he can do it. Also a local guy Eric Shanteau is also 2nd going into the finals.

The best race was the last one. The women's 200IM. Natalie Coughlin went out in a 59 for the first 100. Katie Hoff and Ariana Kukors ran her down on the BR. But Coughlin the great competitor she is fought back to claim 2nd behind Hoff, but lost her American Record to Hoff.

The photo is of the water fall that is behind the winners podium, its pretty cool.