The RECORD BREAKER

TEAMWORK • PRIDE • EXCELLENCE
The RECORD BREAKER
ARE YOU A CARROT, EGG OR
COFFEE BEAN?
A CERTAIN DAUGHTER COMPLAINED TO HER FATHER ABOUT HER LIFE
AND HOW THINGS HAVE BEEN SO HARD FOR HER.
She did not know how she was going to make it and she wanted to give up.
She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that just as one problem was
solved another arose.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen, filled three pots with water and
placed the fire on high. Soon the three pots came to a boil, in one he placed
carrots, in the other he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans.
He let them sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter sucked her teeth
and impatiently wondering what he was tr ying to do. She had problems, and he
was making this strange concoction.
In half an hour he walked over to the range and t urned down the fire. He
pulled the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. Then he pulled the eggs out
and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed the liquid
in the bowl. Turning to her he asked, “Darling what do you see?” Smartly, she
replied “Carrots, Eggs and Coffee.”
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that
they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling
off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the
coffee. Her face frowned from the strength of the coffee. Humbly, she asked,
“What does it mean Father?”
He explained. Each of them faced the same adversit y, 212 degrees of boiling
water. However, each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and
unrelenting. But after going through the boiling water, it softened and became
weak. The Egg was fragile. A thin outer shell protected a liquid center. But after
sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The coffee beans
are unique however. After they were in the boiling water, it became stronger
and richer.
“Which are you?” He asked his daughter. “When adversit y knocks on your
door, how do you respond?”
continued on page 2...
REMINDERS
12/11 Home Swim meet
warmups at 2:30
12/11 Team Social after swim meet
1/14-16 Jenison Tropical
Challenge Swim Meet
SILVER – GOLD GROUP
I WANT TO APPLAUD EVERYONE FOR ANOTHER OUTSTANDING
continued from page 1...
Are you a Carrot, Egg or a Coffee Bean?
Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with
the smallest amount of pain, adversit y or heat
you wilt and become soft with no strength.
Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? A fluid spirit, but after a bad
race, frustrating season, or coaching concerns
you became hardened and stiff. Your shell
looks the same, but you are so bitter and
tough with a stiff spirit and heart, internally.
Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean
does not get its peak flavor and robust until
it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the
water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.
When things are the worst, you get better.
When people talk the most, your praises
increase. When the hour is the darkest and
trials are the greatest, your worship elevates to
another level.
How do you handle adversit y? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?
HOLIDAY BREAK PRACTICE SCHEDULE
12/20-12/23 Normal Schedule all
Groups
12/24 No practice all Groups
12/27-30 No Bronze Intro or
Bronze, Silver Dev 6-7:30 swim no
dryland, Silver - Gold 6-8 Swim no
dryland
12/31 No practice all groups
1/3 Back to Normal Schedule
performance at EGR A just weeks after a great performance at Rockford.
As a group, we did a much better job of warming up in a crowded pool.
We still need to work on cooling down and after our races when we have
that luxur y, and warming up again for races later in the meet. Below is
an article from the USA Swimming Director of Physiology, with some basic guidelines on Post-Race Recover y. This article is mainly geared toward
National level swimmers, but still gives you an idea of what you should be
doing after your races. As a team, we would fall in to the middle distance
group as we have no pure sprinters or distance swimmers. The main
reason to cool down is to get the lactic acid out of our muscles so we can
perform at our best at our next race. A good rule of thumb is to swim
down until your body feels good.
Recommendations for Post-Race Recovery:
1. The duration of post-race recover y (warm-down) should be 25 to 30
minutes for sprinters, 10 to 15 minutes for distance swimmers, and somewhere in bet ween – 15 to 25 minutes – for middle distance swimmers.
2. For sprinters, the post-race swimming intensit y should be an easy pace,
or 50 to 55 percent of the maximal swimming velocit y of the 100m free.
3. For distance swimmers, the post-race swimming intensit y should of
moderate pace, or 60 to 65 percent of the maximal swimming velocit y of
the 100m free.
4. If there is no warm-up pool at the competition, swimmers can do
stretching after the race. The heart rate during stretching should be below anaerobic threshold – 120 to 140 beats per minute, or 20 to 23 beats
for 10 seconds.
5. If there is a ver y short time bet ween races (i.e. 5 minutes), athletes still
need post-race recover y. They will reduce lactate in 5 minutes.
If there are more than 45 minutes bet ween your races, don’t warm up
until almost 15 minutes before your race. The reason we warm up is to
get our bodies adjusted to the water again, raise our heart rates, get blood
to our muscles, and familiarize ourselves with the walls. Remember: warm
muscles and a raised heart rate prepare our body to swim fast because
cold muscles take longer to respond and react.
Another thing we need to work on as a group is our breath control
and not breathing off the walls. I saw many instances were one of our
swimmers approached the wall with the rest of the field, only to break
out of the water behind ever yone else. Part of this is due to the lack of a
tight streamline and strong kick underwater, but a bigger part of it was
because we are breathing on our breakout stroke. This kills all of our
moment um off of the t urn. We need to make sure that we are focusing
on this in practice and not breathing until at least our second stroke
after ever y t urn.
I want to also remind swimmers to bring a water bottle to the pool
because we are cranking our training up as we head into winter break and
the second half of the short course season. You will not be able to get
out of the water to get a drink during sets and need to be drinking small
amounts of water throughout the workout. This is the time of year were
we should be feeling tired after practice, and if you aren’t, either you were
not challenging yourself or you were spending too much time on the wall
or out of the water.
Coach Jason
SILVER
DEVELOPMENT
Our Silver Development swimmers
repeated their 8 x 100 freestyle set in
November, and each swimmer completed the set on an interval that was
at least 5 seconds faster than
in October!
We’ve started doing more IM sets in
practice, with an emphasis on fast IM
transition t urns. Silver Development has
also been working of freest yle pace work
as well as some middle distance freest yle
swimming. The group has had a good 2
weeks, showing more effort and focus ever y day with improved attit udes across the
board. I hope to see these trends continue
thoughout the winter, especially as new
swimmers join the group. I expect our
current group members to take a leadership role in the group as less expereinced
swimmers move up from Bronze 2.
As a reminder, all Silver Development
swimmers need to have a pair of fins and
a water bottle at each practice. Fins can be
purchased through Kast-A-Way swimwear
(linked from our website). Water is especially important, and swimmers should be
drinking at least one full bottle for each
hour they are in the water.
Congrat ulations to Maya Breneman, Jamie
Boerema, and Dana Pfughoeft on moving
to the Silver Group!
Coach Kelly
BRONZE 1
We are now 2.5 months in to the
season, and the Bronze 1 group is
starting to see the results of all of their
hard work.
Each swimmer has improved greatly
since we started, and they are all poised
to continue getting better as the season
progresses. We have continued on work
on streamlines, and some swimmers have
progressed to doing both freestlye and
backstroke streamlines and breakouts.
We’ve emphasised long, stretched out
freestlye arm strokes, and keeping our
heads back and our chins up on backstroke. All of the coaches are excited to
see what the Bronze 1 swimmers do at our
home meet on Sat urday!
Congrat ulations to Amelia Payette on
moving up to Bronze 1 and to Aubrey
Haddix, Camr yn Robertson, and Gavin
Ryba on moving from Bronze 1 to Bronze
2! Keep up the great work!
Coach Kelly
SILVER DEVELOPEMENT KICK TEST SET
8 X 100 FREESTYLE NOVEMBER 22ND
SECONDS DROPPED
Jamie Boerema
Maya Breneman
David Meyer
Dana Pflughoeft
Kami Chung
Finn Husband
Chris Shumate
Emerson Holmes
Kyle Skarshaug
Silas Kornexl
1:50
1:50
1:50
1:50
2:00
2.00
2:00
2:10
2:10
2:30 (6)
-5
-15
-5
-5
-15
-5
-5
-5
NA
2 more 100’s than October
compared to October
Bronze Highlights
EGAR WINTER WASHOUT
MEET RESULTS
Just two weeks after the Rockford Meet (where 29 swimmers
had 62% best times, 8 new JO cuts and 4 new State Cuts,)
we had another great performance last weekend at the
EGRA Winter Washout.
We had 20 swimmers compete over three days, and finished the
meet with 60% best times, 3 new State Cuts, and 5 new JO Cuts.
We had an additional 17 swims that were less than .5 sec from either a best time, a JO or a State Cut. On top of seeing these great
swims, it was fun to see and hear the kids cheering for each other
and to see the parents in the stands erupting in applause after
each performance. To the right are the highlights per group.
SWIMMING TIRED
Herb Huddleston, Coach
One aspect of competitive swimming that many swimmers (and
parents) have a difficult time understanding and/or accepting is
what coaches call “swimming tired”. This mostly applies to senior
level swimmers, but can also affect younger swimmers. To understand fatigue, and its effect on meet performances, it is important
to understand the “training effect”. Improvement in swimming
(or any aerobic sport) is largely a result of the body’s adaptation to
the stress of regular training.
Of course, technique and skills are ver y important for peak
performance, but for our purposes in understanding this element
of swimming, we will address only physical training. The body
adapts in many different ways the muscles become stronger, the
heart pumps blood more effectively, and the cardiovascular system
becomes more efficient in transporting oxygen to the muscles.
These all contribute to faster swimming. Progress at the beginner
or novice level comes quickly and is dramatically evident in large
decreases in swimming times. As a swimmer becomes more accomplished, decreases in swimming times come in smaller increments,
even though the amount of training may increase. When training is increased, fatigue may affect performance at competitions.
However, swimmers may still be able to swim best times, in spite
of being tired. Improved stroke technique, better starts and t urns,
more effective race strategies, and increased conditioning and
strength can offset the fatigue that they have accumulated.
continued on page 5...
Br ynn 3/4 BT dropped 6 sec in her 50 free and
was one of 2 swimmers under the age of 8 in the
50 fly
Silver Development Highlights
Dana 2/3 BT
Kyle 6/8 BT dropped over 13 sec in his
100 back
Silver Highlights
Jenna 2/7 BT
Julia 7/8 BT along with a new State cut in the
50 back and 200 free, dropped 24 sec
in 500 free and broke the minute in the
100 free.
Paige 5/8 BT and State cut in the 100 free
Natalila 4/7 BT along with a JO cut in the 50
Breast and dropped almost 17 sec in her 500
free
Ian 3/7 BT along with a JO cut in the 200 free
dropping almost 6 sec
Brook 3/6 BT and just missed 2 State cuts
Emma 5/8 BT dropping over 7 sec in her 500
free and 100 back
Natalie 6/8 BT with a new JO cut in the 200
IM and 100 breast also dropping over 9 sec in
her 200 IM and 50 fly
Maddie Z 6/6 BT dropping 8 sec in 100 free
and 5.5 in the 50 fly
Gold Development Highlights
Emily H 6/7 BT new JO cut in the 100 back,
dropped 12 sec in the 200 free and swam the
100 fly for the first time
Maegan 2/7 BT dropping 5.5 sec in the 100 fly
and almost 22 sec in the 200 free
Becky 5/5 BT dropping over 10 sec in the 200
free
Gold Highlights
Luke 3/5 BT breaking 25 sec in the 50 free and
just missing a State Cut in the 200 fly
Alaina 2/6 BT dropping over 6 sec in the 500
free and was 1st place in the 100 fly
Emily J 5/6 BT
Jacob 3/7 BT dropping over 3 sec in the
200 fly
Kyle 0/7 just missing 2 BT
continued from page 4...
Coaches always encourage swimmers
to swim at 100% effort and use their
skills to overcome the tiredness. So,
why not reduce the large training
load just before each meet, and allow
the swimmers to be a little rested to
ensure better meet performances? To
optimize the benefits of training, it
is best not to “interrupt” the continuous stress of training at certain
times of the season for the purpose
of swimming faster, for example, at
an early-season meet compared with
the championship meets at the end of
the season. These meets early in the
season can be considered “practice
meets”, where the swimmer gains
valuable race experience and tests
improvements in strokes and skills.
A successful swim performance is not
always just a fast time. Not resting for
early-season meets will result in better
end-of-the-season times.
This strategy can be difficult for the
swimmer and parent to accept and can
be frustrating. Often, other swimmers
who do not train consistently will
swim faster at early-season meets, because they are not as tired. It is important that under these circumstances,
the swimmers keep their ultimate goal
in perspective, and that the parents
empathize and support their children.
The hard training of the early and
middle part of the season will pay off
at the end of the season at the meets
that really count!
SWIMMER
BIRTHDAYS
IN DECEMBER:
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
Dec
9 Camr yn Roberts 10 Bronze 1
10 Emily Huhman 13 Gold Dev
10 Maegan Kornexl 13 Gold Dev
15 Sully Husband 8 Bronze 1
20 Finn Husband 10 Silver Dev
22 Sierra Fraser 13 Gold Dev
27 Baily Noble 10 Bronze Intro
YOU CAN HELP!
Remember, it takes many man/woman hours to run a well functioning, finetuned swim team. If you’re not sure how or where to get involved, call one (or
more!) of the chair people listed below to find out where you can best help:
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