Coral Shores High School

Coral Shores High School

Monday, November 26, 2007

Short Course Champs

This blog is a little late in coming, but things got kinda crazy around Thanksgiving, and this post got pushed back just a bit. We had Short Course Championships about a week ago, and I will say that we had a great showing. We only had 5 swimmers qualify, we were by far the smallest team there, but of those 5 swimmers 3 of them made finals in the events that they swam. Calculated out that is about 60% success rate. For a small team we were well represented, but it only fortified my real dream for us to show up to a championship meet with 20+ kids and have the same success rate. I was still, none the less, impressed with our swimmers performances, and it will be these few who pave the way for many more!

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over we are now officially in our winter season. We have a meet coming up this weekend in Tamiami, and we will be taking about 17 kids. Most of these kids are under the age of 11, and that makes me feel good because these are the future JO, and Championship qualifiers. Check the blog for more updates soon because our practise schedule will change slightly due to college teams coming on training trips. As soon as I know the new schedule, I will post it for everyone.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Pot Luck


Well, we had our pot luck this weekend, and I think that things went great. First the kids on my team got to see the race club guys swim a 100 FAST! And, when I say fast, I mean guys were swimming :43-:44 sec for a hundred freestyle in practice. Also, there were a couple of guys who went :54-:55 in the 100 breaststroke. Those are close to NCAA A cut times. I know for a fact that my team never saw first hand people swim that fast. I will never forget the ooo's and ahhh's from some of them.

After the race 100, my swimmers had a opportunity to work with the swimmers on their strokes in a mini clinic. It was nice to see the Race Club in the water with my club kids. My swimmers got little tips, and pointers from the best in town!

After some stroke work the Race Club guys swam a race 50. Again people were putting up very fast times. Nathan Adrian went 19.89! Even I got super pumped up for that one. The kids also got a chance to see swimmers like Gary Hall Jr. and Sabir Mohamad race. That is a once in a lifetime thing for some of them, and I hope they wont ever forget it.

At the end of the Race 50's Gary and Sabir were picked as team capt's and they split the whole group into two relays. The relay's were a mix of my club team and the world team. I was so happy to see my kids excitement when they saw they would be swimming on the same relay as a Olympian.

In the end, I don't think things could have gone better. My kids were excited by fast swimming, and it motivated them to want to swim fast. As a coach I could ask for nothing more. It opened up their mind, and it was as if someone told them YES you can be this fast one day. It helped reinforce all that I do, and I couldn't have been a happier coach.

After all the swimming we ate, and hung out together as one big team because that is what we really are. Some took pictures, and some got autographs from some of the swimmers. Everyone was smiling,my kids were running around laughing, the weather was beautiful, and I couldn't think of a place that I would have rather been at that time.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

More fast swimming in Hialeah

Well, I would say the winter season has officially begun. OK i will admit it.... It was a LITTLE cold in the morning, but it warmed up a lot as the day progressed. We swam a good meet in Hialeah this past weekend. It seems like every meet we go to someone is getting a best time, or nudging a little closer. There were some very good swims in general, but also I must say a meet is a good learning tool for me. It helps re-connect me with the team, and the things we still need to work on. We are fast right now, but only in short events. I know I am a sprinter, but I would like to see better 200's of freestyle, and all strokes. Also, we need to tighten the small things: turns, breakouts, starts.

Again we took a large group, and again we had people swimming in thier first meet ever. The thing that I am most proud of is that kids are getting interested in the sport, and I am glad to be a part of making that happen. I love to sense thier exctiement as they are experiencing a race for the first time. It is pure. It is the cultivation of the competetive spirit. A intangible human trait. It is only at meets that I will ever know who will really be a swimmer, and I must say that I am pleased with the competetive spirit that I have seen from my veteran team members, as well as some of my rookies. Again... I want to make swimmers that not only want to race, but have all the tools neccecery to be confident they can swim fast in that race!