On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

...my swim coach gave to me:

Twelve tight streamlines
Eleven lengths of breaststroke
Ten 25's Butterfly
Nine lengths of backstroke
Eight 25's ogopogo
Seven 25's Whip Kick
Six backstroke turns
Five golden 25's
Four calling boards
Three sprint 50's
Two 200 IM's
and One 400 free

Upcoming Practices

Just to let everyone know, our last practice is wednesday, December 19th. Please make sure all presents/snacks that you have for me are wrapped and ready to go by this time. Late gifts are always tacky.

It is also important to note that I might be a little late on monday for dryland. I have an exam monday afternoon and if I know freshwater ecology the way I think I know freshwater ecology I will be taking the full alotted time to write it. Someone will be there to cover however.

Lastly, season 3 of Lost came out on DVD. If you don't mind your jaw dropping on the floor from all the exciting twists and turns I suggest you get it.

It's Time to get 10 and Under Serious

This sunday is the second 10 & under series. Same as last time, I would like to have everyone there by 1:45. If you know you aren't going to be there please let me know asap. This should be a fun day, filled with easy 50's and 25's. Remember your team shirts/jackets/pants and anything else to keep you warm, the pool deck could be chilly.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

...my swim coach gave to me:

Five golden 25's
Four calling boards
Three sprint 50's
Two 200 IM's
and One 400 free

Rewind to Last Weekend

As promised here is the JP Fiset rundown. I thought this was a fantastic meet. Before you get excited you should know it was more due to the fact that I didn't have to be at the pool until 10:15, and they had plenty of Christmas treats. The swimming part was alright too....but if you want to compare a plate full of Hershey Kisses and a 200 breaststroke, the Kisses will win every single time.


One of the hardest things to do is have a really good swim meet and follow it up with another really good swim meet. The results were great at the Poppy meet, and I wasn't sure how things would stack up going into the JP. The work we've been putting in at practice has been geared more towards longer events, so the 50's didn't see much improvement, but everything else was superb.


With all that being said, here are the highlights as I see them...if you have a personal highlight yourself, please feel free to keep it to yourself. My opinion is the only one that matters on this blog.

• By casually dropping over 20 seconds in her 400 free, Halle Elford has joined the ranks of B qualifiers. Foolish me for thinking it would be easier to take 4 seconds off in her 200 IM instead. Congratulations Halle!!!



• Rebecca Schamber threw down best times all over the place. Her 100 free, 100 back, and 200 free will all be within A time range by the 12th day of Christmas. And perhaps for Christmas Santa will bring Rebecca stronger neck muscles. Her's must be getting tired from carrying around medals all day. She managed to score very well as an 8 year old in the 10 and under category, fantastic job.



• Kathleen Doig rocked out a pretty impressive meet. She went under 50 seconds for the first time in 50 free (less then 1 second per meter...you do the math), did a stellar 200 free and breastroke. Kathleen was only racing friday and saturday....Sunday was extremeley quiet...is there a correlation? Hmmmmmm, =)



• Brooklyn Janzen, despite claiming there was several families worth of butterflies in her stomach, did a fantastic 100 fly. Brookie's streamlines also looked great, and has clearly earned her Mental Giant status (if you don't know what that is, ask your kids).



• Megan Wirachowsky...let's see. Lost her goggles in her 50 free, lost her balance in her 100 free, but rocked out her first 200 free. Looks like we'll stick to the longer stuff from here on out. Megan also did all of her backstroke flip turns, with streamlines which was great. Yay!
  


• It may or may not be common knowledge that Sarah Peddie has had her troubles with the 200 IM. I'm not quite sure when the last time I saw Sarah do a 200 IM without getting disqualified was. That all changed on sunday with Sarah tearing her 200 IM into shreds.


• After bouncing back from a turn that took an upwards of 13 seconds in her 50 backstroke on friday, Haley Wirachowsky had some fantastic trime drops. She managed to take off 11 seconds in her 400 free and a staggering 9 seconds in her 100 free. Way to go Haley!


• Emma Funk was a backstroking goddess throughout the entire meet. After mastering her turns and waiting for the right time to unleash them, she managed to take off 12 seconds in her 100 and 3 in her 50. Good turns = good times = Ryan is happy.


• Langley McCaul finished her first 400 free in a great time. And speaking of great times, it looked like she was having one because everytime she would look over during her swim she had a huge smile on her face. I've never seen anyone so happy to be 300 meters into a 400 before.


• Olivia Anderson was like a snowball this weekend. She started off small but kept getting bigger and better. What looked to be a slow start on friday turned into a wrecking ball of best times by sunday. If Olivia had a penny for every second she took off at this meet...she would probably have a couple of quarters. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. The bottom line is Olivia learned the crucial concept of moving your arms faster more often then not means your body will move faster

As we come closer to the holiday season it is still important to ensure we work on our turns and streamlines. Even though we don't specifically practice them in our 12 days of Christmas, it is important to think about these skills.

This meet was really fun, all the kids got to try out a relay which were very exciting and everyone had at least one swim they can be very proud of. Sniff you jerks later.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

...my swim coach gave to me:

Four calling boards
Three sprint 50's
Two 200 IM's
and One 400 Free.

JP Fiset...

....I have a 15 page paper to write. Don't be greedy and selfish. You will get your JP Fiset recap in a few days. If anyone has any suggestions for solutions to small pond eutrophication I'm all ears.

Important JP update!!!!

There has been a change in warm-up time for saturday and sunday. 12 & unders will now have warm-up at 10:30....So if everyone could be there at 10:15 life will be grand. Also important to note is I won't be there for warm-up tomorrow. I have a lab exam to ace, and after that I'll do my best to run to the pool from school without dislocating anything down the path. If I'm not there by 3:15 someone should send a search party.

On the Third Day of Christmas....

...my swim coach gave to me:

Three sprint 50's
Two 200 IM's
and One 400 Free.

The 12 days of Christmas....

...starts on saturday, November 24th. But what does that even mean?

This saturday....

...is the 5km pool championships. I can't wait to see everyone from Elite Development go through 200 laps like a hot knife through butter. This will be all the more impressive considering our practice is only an hour on saturdays. I'm not even sure I'll be able to sleep friday night in anticipation.

Poppy Invitational

To say I am pleased with how the poppy meet went would be an understatement. Everyone in every group had swims they can be extremely proud of. Elite Development had some major time drops very early in the season which should set up well for the JP Fiset and right into the new year. This meet had many first 200 IM and 400 freestyle's and it pleases me to see how well you responded when facing a difficult race.
A HUGE thank you goes out to all the parents and volunteers who allowed this meet to happen. It really makes my life easier when I can pawn your children off on another adult, and you were all very helpful. But seriously, this meet went very well with all the last mnute changes and I sincerely thank Joe and all who helped for running it so smoothly.
While there were too many highlights to count I will list just a few:

• Olivia "O-Town" Anderson hammering out her 400 free B time. Congratulations Olivia!
• Haley and Emma pushing through their first 400 free. It's a tough race but they did it....with only mild complaints. Actually Haley did awesome in her first 200 IM as well and had some terrific backstroke swims. Emma also had a major breakthrough by doing flipturns in all her freestyle events (including the 400!). That's a huge step Emma!
• The fighting Irish, Tim McGarvey rocking the house on his first 50 fly. He even figured he had enough time to stop with 15 meters to go just to check out what's going on around the pool
• Sarah Peddie manhandling her 200 free. I'm pretty sure Sarah just has one gear (even when talking), and that gear is top speed.
• While this next highlight has nothing to do with Elite Development, it is worth noting that Brendan Elford devastated Julie Therrien in the 100 fly. B doesn't let any 17 year old girls stand in his way.
• Keeping with the Elford's, Halle put in what I think is her best meet ever. Her 200 IM showed lots of guts, she even went out a best time in her butterfly by three seconds. Four more seconds to go until she wraps up her B time!!
• I had Harvey's for lunch today
• Langley showed everyone that the best type of training is the kind where you leave to Costa Rica, take two weeks off and then throw down best times. That's a program I'm willing to sign up for.
• Ally had a great saturday with my highlight being her BIG best time (dropping 5 seconds) in the 50 breaststroke. Her time of 55 seconds is one of the fastest in the whole group.
• Megan Wirachowsky, after just getting her arm cast off managed to not only go lots of best times, but she also managed to win the 25 backstroke. If we can keep her off the monkey bars this girl will be dangerous.
• Kathleen Doig, despite all her protests of "I can't do (*insert race here*)" really impressed me this weekend. Not only could she do 100 free, 100 back and 50 fly but she did so with improved streamlines and turns. Confidence Ms. Kathleen, all it takes is confidence.
• Brooklyn Janzen...where do we start. Great 400 free, great 50 fly, great 200 IM...within striking distance of her B times...but can somebody please glue her goggles and glasses to her face...Just kidding Brookie, you swam awesome and those B times will come no problem.
• Last but certainly not least, Rebecca Schamber. Taking the top points scoring in the eight & under girls category, Rebecca flexed her muscle at any 13 year old who dared to look in her direction...I wouldn't want to face her in a dark alley, and neither should you.

My fingers hurt, which means it's about time to wrap this up. Everyone did awesome....but seriously, what does a guy have to do to get a rice krispie square around here.

Halloween

This wednesday is Halloween. This must pose a big problem for many in Elite Development. They are torn between their love for candy, chips & chocolate and their love for streamlines, body position & kick. I myself will still be at the pool for anybody who wants to swim, but for the kids who for some reason would rather pull in pillow cases of candy, feel free to take the night off. Just keep in mind I am partial to Caramilk, Crunch, and Kit Kat bars.

I'm the Boss

Matt and Kellie are out of town. Simply put, I am the acting boss in this club. You guys are probably asking, "Ryan, aren't you basically in charge anyways?". You would be absolutely correct in assuming that, however my work load is significantly less with the other two thinking they are in control. That being said I have all you kids not going to Saskatoon to deal with. I am in the process of writing the most gruelling 2 hour saturday morning workout ever created. The whiteboard pen will melt before I can even write it down it will be so hard. See you punks on saturday, and bring a box of kleenex.

Scratch That

If you had previously seen my post about swimdirect.ca please disregard it (and my sincerest apologies if you signed up). Apparently swimdirect will not be used for some reason or another. Although the results aren't posted yet, www.swimmeet.ca should have canada wide results. If you're like me and are the not so proud owner of a swimdirect account then meet me outside MP on thursday and we'll burn the whole pool down.

Lost & Found

I am currently the owner of a pair of fabulously pink goggles and a small Silver Tide t-shirt. If you think one of these items may belong to you then prepare your best offer for a trade.

10 & Under Series #1

The first meet is done and it delivers some good news and some bad news.

Let's start with the good. There was some fantastic swims from everyone. You guys either threw down some best times or were equal to them. At this stage in the season it is very exciting to see that you can pick up from where you left off last season with only one month of training. I would also like to give a big congratulations to Sarah Peddie, Rebecca Schamber and Josie Poliquin for qualifying for B's in the 400 free. These girls have started the ball rolling and hopefully we will see new qualifiers maybe even as soon as the Poppy meet.

Now on to the bad news. Unfortunately there was no rice krispie squares for the coaches to eat. I love rice krispie squares. Period. This kind of put a damper on the whole day.

As we keep going through the meets until December our main focus will be on executing turns and streamlines to perfection. I would love to see you guys continue to improve on these skills at meets but as far as this round is concerned I think you all did a great job. Next up is our very own meet, the Poppy Invitational. It would be awesome to have the best skills out of every club at our own meet and I look forward to meeting this goal.

This was a great way to start the season and I will see you all at practice!

Very Important

Hey guys. I would like to give everyone a heads up that we have a couple of swimmers who have severe nut allergies. When packing snacks for the swim meets please keep this in mind and everything should go swimmingly....Get it...I said swimmingly....let's see the other coaches top that one. So again, NO nuts for snacks at swim meets!...if you're just dying for some I'm sure you can hold out just a few more hours. Thanks for your cooperation.

B Times, Baby!!

Our main focus in Elite Development is to ensure proper skills and stroke techniques at a young age. By doing high quality 25's each swimmer has a chance to perfect their skills without fatigue which helps instill good habits. The longer distances you swim, the more tired you get and it is when you are tired that you practice your bad habits like not streamlining. Despite the lower volume workouts our program has managed to push many swimmers through to B's.

B provincials (which takes place in Calgary in february) is the first step of progressing through the provincial level, especially for a young developmental swimmer. In order to qualify for B's swim alberta has a rule that you have to make the time in either the 400 free or the 200 IM. This is to ensure each swimmer is coached for distances and every stroke instead of specializing at a young age. By practicing good technique in workouts it is very possible to achieve a 400 free qualifying time even though we don't do 400's in practice.

As we start going to our first meets you might find yourself entered in a 200 IM or a 400 free. I hope you all look at this as an opportunity to strive for a B time instead of punishment. They are long, hard races, but if you finally achieve your goal that makes it even better. Sorry for the lengthy write up, if you have any questions on the qualifying process please contact me.

Qualifying times can be found here http://www.swimalberta.ca/year-round-swimmers/meet-qualifying-times-3.htm

Grande Prairie

Just to let you know we will not be attending the Grande Prairie meet November 3rd and 4th. If you booked a hotel room it would be my recommendation you cancel it asap....that being said perhaps you might want to get away from the hustle and bustle of living in the world's largest hamlet, in which case by all means keep your hotel reservation. Who am I to judge?

Trash Talking

You know who's the worst? Coach Chelby. You may ask why I would dare say such slanderous things but if you will direct yourself to her blog http://silvertide-chelby.blogspot.com/ you will find no posts. A call goes out to any member of the Silver Tide Swim Club to harrass her until she picks it up. That is all.

10 & Under Series #1

This sunday, October 21st is the first swim meet of the year. It's at fountain park pool in St. Albert. If you're not sure where that is please give yourself lots of time to find it. I would like everyone to be there at 1:45 which will give plenty of time to get settled before warm-up. It becomes very stressful for myself and the other coaches if you are late because we are asked to submit scratches by 2:00, so please do your best to make sure you are there with 15 minutes to spare. Thanks a lot!

Upcoming Meets

Our first swim meets of the season are coming up fast and I would like to remind everyone of the swim meet cancellation policy. If you are unfamiliar with the cancellation policy you have to scratch out of the meet before the cacellation deadline by letting the Head Coach know. An email was sent out regarding this, and if you didn't get it just let myself or any of the other coaches know and we will get that information for you.

At this stage in the season our main focus has been on proper body position and streamlines, with not a lot of emphasis on really hard work. At these upcoming meets I feel it is most important to demonstrate these skills rather than worrying about going fast. By doing your proper skills and your best technique your times will get faster regardless, and it is more important right now to make your good skills a habit.

If you have any questions about the meets and our schedule feel free to let me know. Have a great long weekend!

Something worth checking out

I know I have shown this video to some of you before but I think it's worth taking a look at again. This boy with no arms demonstrates the proper body position that you would want when doing the drill Ogopogo. If this body position is learned correctly it will make your butterfly more efficient, easier and faster.



More importantly I wanted an excuse to test out whether or not I could post videos.

NO Swimming Monday

This weekend is Thanksgiving which leads us to a wonderful monday holiday. It gives us a chance to be thankful for all the great things we have....for example I am thankful I don't have to coach the Elite Development punks on the 8th. Have a great time off and remember dryland training starts Wednesday, October 10th at 5:30 behind the hot tub. All you need is shorts, a shirt and a smile.

Dryland and all that fun stuff....

In my first official post on my very own blog I would like to bring attention to our dryland schedule. On monday and friday we swim from 4-5:30, and our dryland will follow immediately afterwards (behind the hot tub) until 6. Our dryland on wednesdays will also be 5:30 until 6 right before practice starts. We'll start off fairly light but by the end of this season I fully expect everyone to be able to wrestle down a bull with their bare hands....

I'm Coach Ryan.

I'm Coach Ryan and I have some things to get off my chest. Look out.