May 21, 2009

This message concerns the number of practices swimmers attend each week. The number of practices offered for each group each week is the recommended number of practices swimmers should attend to have the greatest chance of success. That means a Group 1 or 2 swimmer is recommended to attend up to 4 practices each week; Group 3's recommendation is 5 practices/week; Group 4 & 5's recommendation is 6 practices/week. Dolfins do not have practice requirements and families can decide how many practices they wish their swimmer to attend.

In order to be successful and competitive in swimming as Dolfins get older, they need to attend more practices. This is not a rule; it is a fact of swimming. At this point, Group 4 swimmers average 4 to 6 practices/week. The work they do during a practice session is quite challenging. In order for a swimmer to gain the endurance, strength, and skill level to move from Group 1 to Group 2 to Group 3 by a reasonable age (let's say moving to Group 3 during their 11th year), the swimmer must be able to handle a fairly difficult workout or he/she will not be able to keep up with the other swimmers. Some swimmers are strong enough to be able to handle a Group 3 workout during their 11th year attending fewer than the recommended number of practices/week, but the majority of our swimmers cannot do this.
Eventually, most swimmers will be able to enter Group 4. Most swimmers could enter Group 4 by 8th or 9th grade if they attend the recommended number of weekly practices throughout their swimming career with Dolfins, and some could enter earlier. However, those members who attend practice once or twice each week and miss weeks at a time, may not be strong enough to move to Group 4 until they are much older.

The Dolfin program tries to be as family friendly as possible. Unfortunately, the sport of swimming is not as family-friendly. I know most families are not interested in their swimmer becoming an Olympian, but the sport is driven by the "more is better" philosophy and that actually works. A swimmer may be motivated to become very committed and they will improve quickly. If another swimmer is not interested in making the same commitment, he/she will most likely fall behind but still improve at a slower pace.

The point I'm attempting to make here is that a swimmer may not have the necessary training to easily move from group to group without attending enough practices each week. I'm confident all our swimmers will eventually have the ability to move into Group 4, but it will most likely take longer if they don't attend practice enough.

March 8, 2009

It was great to have Derek Brown at practice Thursday and I'd like to thank the Ginsburg Family for inviting him to talk to our swimmers. It was short notice for Derek and he had family members at home who were under the weather, but he made time in his busy schedule to visit with us. We all watch sports on TV from pro football and baseball to the recent Olympics and I think we don't understand that these athletes are regular people with incredible talent, so it was nice to hear Derek's story from when he was a 6'5" sophomore in high school to the fact that he played more soccer than football in his early years.

We had a bunch of good questions from our Dolfins and two stood out in my mind and I mentioned them to our swimmers later in practice. Belle Hettie asked Derek how he balanced academics and sports. Derek went to Notre Dame and played on their National Championship team so he was attending a very demanding academic school while playing in an arena that was the very top of that sport's elite. His answer was great: you know what you have to do and you just do it. You find a way to balance your life and you can be a great athlete in a demanding program and still manage to handle a challenging academic program. I'm always amazed that our most dedicated swimmers always find time to get outstanding grades and handle all that work while rarely missing practice. Another swimmer asked Derek if he ever considered quitting. I think the swimmer was referring to quitting the sport, but it was as if Derek couldn't understand what she was saying because that thought had never entered his mind. Instead, I think he interpreted the question to mean quit on the playing field, like being so tired or overwhelmed that you just stopped playing hard.

And that led to an even more interesting response. As many of our swimmers know, I received the Michael Phelps book from the Melewski's as a Christmas gift, and throughout the book Michael states that he hates losing. After a while, it was like, OK Michael, we get it! Move on to something else. But when Derek answered Nicole's question with that same comment, "I hate to lose", his emotions came to the surface and I was just blown away thinking that's probably the same way Phelps would have said it! Derek then went on to say how, after a loss, his teammates just couldn't believe they had lost the game and some were so mad and ticked off they were actually crying over it. So, thanks go to Derek and I hope he keeps finding the time to talk to the young athletes in our area.

February 10, 2009

We have a great group of young swimmers on the team and I have had quite a few conversations about expectations and swimmer progression lately. It sounds like families may need a little more direction than I've provided in the last couple of years.

Age group swimming is looked at more as a swimmer's career, rather than viewing our young members in their current state, and we tend to look at them in a developmental way. For example, our 10 and unders are not miniature Michael Phelps' or Katie Hoff's. In fact, when Phelps was a 10 and under, even he was considered a work in progress. Because improvement doesn't happen in a nice, orderly fashion, it's more important to make sure our younger members focus on skill improvement (and remember, they are youngsters and don't always learn skills as quickly as we would like!), gaining a nice work ethic, and making sure they are enjoying the sport, rather than winning or being compared to other swimmers. A USA Swimming survey of why kids swim showed the main reason 10 and unders swim is the social atmosphere and having fun. As they get older, goal setting and reaching standards becomes more important. So, when I look at a young swimmer, I look at what that swimmer will be down the road and don't get too concerned with their current state. Of course we want our young members to improve and set goals, but part of life is failure and they need to understand that happens to everyone and they need to deal with it in a positive way. All athletes have peaks and valleys and that's just something we have to understand.

Two factors have huge impacts on swimmer development that people often overlook. One is growth. First of all, kids don't grow in an orderly way. Sometimes the legs grow and the torso stays the same. Or one swimmer has a huge growth spurt that leads to great improvement while another swimmer can't catch a break and ages up to 11 while still inhabiting a 10 year old body. There's not much you can do except wait to see what happens next. What I do know is that everybody eventually grows. Girls have their growth spurt early and you'll see big improvement in the 11-12 age group while the 11-12 boys have to wait until they are usually 13 to see their growth spurt. This ticks off the boys in the 11-12 age group when the girls are faster than they are, but it ticks off the girls in the 13-14 age group when the boys they used to beat overtake them.

The other factor is commitment. Very often, especially in the 10 & under age group, some swimmers who do not come to practice very often still do well in meets. I can guess it's probably a natural ability and strength that makes the difference. What I do know is that, eventually, swimmers who work hard and come to practice catch up and often come out on top.

When I look back to who the local top swimmers were in the 11-12 age group three years ago, I see an almost entirely different group of swimmers leading the way in the older age groups today. Some of those good 12 year olds are still hanging in there, but many are not as dominant as they once were. Many swimmers who struggled in the 11-12 age group but loved swimming enough to keep trying and working hard are now right up there with the leaders.

November 3, 2008

Congrats to the Ocean Blue parent volunteer staff for a great meet! It
was a real team effort and you pulled it off without a hitch! Also great
job to all our new swimmers! It was pretty crazy on deck but meets only
become easier and more fun after this point. We want interest in meets
to continue with our new members so I will extend entries for the
Pilgrim's Pride meet. New entries for this meet must be dropped off at
BCHS or AA by this Tuesday for me to enter them in time. If you just
drop it off on Wednesday, I will be unable to get to them

September 21, 2008

tThe meet season is about to start! Entries for our first meets are all

due on Monday 9/29. Here is a review of those meets:

*Autumn Breeze at Ravena (10/11)is a developmental meet and the swimmer's
best times must be SLOWER than the cut off times listed on the meet
entry. I would like all returning Group 1 and 2 swimmers to enter this
meet if they qualify. Group 3, 4, and 5 swimmers are also welcomed to
enter this meet. I CANNOT ACCEPT LATE ENTRIES FOR THIS MEET, SO PLAN TO ENTER EARLY OR ON TIME.

*Newburgh Sharks Red, White and Blue Invitational (10/18) is a Metro meet
and I would like only Group 3, 4, 5 swimmers to enter this meet. John
and I will attend this meet. Click here for the meet announcement.

*Kingston Hurricane Invitational is a meet we have attended for years.
Jen will be at this meet if we have enough kids to go. I would encourage
our Group 2 swimmers to enter the longer open events. There are many
younger swimmers who enter open events at this meet, so there will be
plenty of peers in their races.

*We have been attending the North Shore Swim Team Team Invy at MIT for a
few years now. It is an age group meet with pretty good competition.
There are qualifying times but they are not difficult for our better
swimmers. For meet info, go to northshoreswimclub.com and click onto the
link for "2008-09 Short Course Hosted Meets", scroll down to the Dec.
11-14 meet and click onto "info" and the meet announcements will pop up.
Entries will be due 10/27 and I would advise getting a hotel in
advance-talk to Powhida's, O'Donnell's, or Powell's about hotels they
like.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Welcome back, Dolfins! I hope everyone is ready to get started with our
2008-09 Short Course Season! The meet schedule is up on the AD web site,
although no announcements are available at this time. We have added two
new coaches to our current staff (Nicole, Melissa, Teresa, Kate, and
Lauren) and they are the brother and sister duo of Jen and John Keats.
Both are St. Rose grads who swam under coach Keith Murray. Introduce
yourselves to them and help make them feel part of the team! Our staff
is excited about the upcoming season and we are looking forward to seeing
all of you again on deck!

AUGUST 16, 2008

As most of you know, Matt Kav, our asst. coach, has taken a position as
asst. coach with Union College. When I was planning for the 2008-09
short course season, I knew the possibility of Matt finding a full time
job was very good and I was prepared in case this happened. I haven't
finalized what change will be made, but I have a pretty good idea of what
I want to do. We have 3 weeks before we start and I will let all of you
know what will take place well in advance. Most likely I will coach
Groups 3-5 to start out and see what happens. I have a couple of
coaching prospects but will not subject Group 3 to another coaching
change at this time.

Most of our families have only been with Dolfins for two or three years
and have experienced a nice stretch of stability. However, all age group
clubs go through coaching changes on a regular basis. Part of Matt's job
at Union will be as an asst. coach with the Schenectady Sharks, who were
looking for someone and were lucky enough to hook up with Union. Since
I've been coaching Dolfins, Connie Miller was a main asst. coach for us
for a good 4 years. Dave Burns and Erica Sottosanti held those kinds of
positions for about the same length of time. At the beginning of each
season when I attend the first meet, I see many new faces on deck
coaching for the other clubs in Adirondack. Heck, my old team, the Glens
Falls Y Gators, are on their 3rd head coach since I've been with Dolfins!
What's happening to us at this point is far from being the end of the
world and we will work through this change and end up in good shape.
Just enjoy the end of your summer and leave the worrying to me!