MVCC Makos

MVCC Makos

Coach’s Notes

Message from Coach Julia!

3.25.11

Greetings Makos!!                                                       

I can’t believe it’s almost summer and we are getting ready to start our 2011 season.  Don’t forget to check out the calendar for team events, practice schedules and meet schedules.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone on April 6th at our open house, so come with a smile and lots of energy.  We start our pre-season practices on April 10th at Wulf Recreation center. 

Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have questions!

Coach Julia

Practice Schedule 2011!!

Green Group

Monday 7-8am

       Coaches Erik, Gloria, and Brad will lead the swimmers in a fun, stroke-based workout.  Each week will focus on a different stroke, learning proper technique and drills. 

Tuesday 9-10am

       Coaches Taylor and Haley will lead a practice that reviews the techniques from the day before and then build on that with some swimming endurance and relays

       Coach Julia will be on deck to help and will also be available for short conferences with parents and swimmers.

Wednesday 9-10am

       Coaches Erik, Brad, and Haley will lead another stroke technique session with the swimmers.  Coach Julia will be overseeing the session and helping with all of the groups.

Wednesday 7-8pm

        Coach Haley will lead a FUN workout with a little bit of swim and stroke work and a lot of relays, fun and games.

Thursday 9-10am

       Coach Julia will lead a workout with Coaches Brad, Erik, and Haley  to review the week’s teachings and start preparing for the weekend swim meet!

Friday 9-10am

       Coaches Taylor, Erik, Gloria and Brad will work with the swimmers on meet prep and review.  Coach Julia will be on deck preparing the final meet info and will also be available for parent and swimmer conferences. 

 

Black Group

Monday 8-9am

       Coaches Erik and Gloria will lead the swimmers in a fun, stroke-based workout.  Each week will focus on a different stroke, learning proper technique and drills. 

Tuesday 8-9am

       Coaches Julia, Taylor, and Haley will lead a practice that reviews the techniques from the day before and build on that with some swimming endurance.  Coach Julia will be available from 9-10 for parent and swimmer conferences.

Tuesday 7-8:30pm

       Coaches Taylor and  Gloria will lead a conditioning workout for the swimmers focusing on building endurance and also focusing on the stroke for that week.

Wednesday 8-9am

       Coaches Julia, Brad, and Haley will lead another stroke technique session with the swimmers. 

Wednesday 7-8:30pm

       Coaches Taylor and Gloria will lead a conditioning workout.

Thursday 8-9am

       Coach Julia will lead a workout with Coaches Erik and Haley to review the week’s teachings and start preparing for the weekend swim meet!

Friday 9-10am

       Coaches Taylor, Erik, Gloria and Brad will work with the swimmers on meet prep and review.  Coach Julia will be on deck preparing the final meet info and will also be available for parent and swimmer conferences. 

 

White Group

Monday 8:30-9am

     Coach Brad will lead a dry-land workout.

9-10am

       Coaches Gloria and Brad will lead the swimmers in a stroke-based workout.  Each week will focus on a different stroke, learning proper technique and drills. 

Monday 7-8:30pm

       Coach Julia will lead a hard, conditioning workout.

Tuesday 6:30-8am

       Coaches Julia and Taylor will lead a practice that focuses on technique and then builds to endurance for the stroke that week.

Tuesday 7-8:30pm

       Coaches Taylor and  Gloria will lead a conditioning workout written by coach Julia.

Wednesday 6:30-8am

       Coaches Julia and Brad will lead another stroke technique based session with the swimmers. 

       8-8:30am

       Coach Brad will lead a dry-land workout with the swimmers.

Wednesday 7-8:30pm

       Coaches Taylor and Gloria will lead a conditioning workout.

Thursday 6:30-8am

       Coaches Julia and Brad will lead a workout to review the week’s stroke and build endurance in that stroke

Thursday 7-8:30pm

       Coach Taylor will lead a hard workout written by coach Julia.

Friday 6:30-8am

       Coaches Julia, Taylor, and Brad will work with the swimmers on review for the week and meet prep.  From 8-10am Coach Julia will be available for swimmer conferences to get ready for the upcoming meet

Greetings Makos!

I hope we are all ready for a NEW season!!  2011 Here we come!!  After our registration night and speaking with many new and returning families, I am very excited about our upcoming summer.

I want to go through a brief reminder for returning team members and some basics for new-comers.  We are starting our pre-season practices and I’d like to go over a few expectations.  I expect you to be READY to get in the water by practice time.  The first few weeks, we will likely have a little regrouping session on deck, but generally we will be swimming AT 4 or 5.  Parents will likely have questions, and I will be available to talk with parents once we really get in the water and the other coaches will get rolling with the kids, so please be patient while the kids will be our first priority!  The Black 1 and Green groups will start promptly at 4pm.

If you have your own fins, it would be great to bring those to practice.  If not – the Wulf Rec Center has plenty for us to borrow while we are there and we have also purchased some NEW fins for our team once we get to practicing at MVCC.  I really like using fins in these first few weeks of practice because it helps us to work on our strokes while still maintaining some speed in the water without as much effort.  It’s my opinion – especially at this young age- that if we learn it right first, we can go much faster later.  For new swimmers, you will be expected to be able to swim the length of the pool (25 yds) without assistance.  This is important for safety of all of the swimmers and the coaches.  If you are close, but not quite there, maybe a few weeks in lessons, or even a few private lessons may get you there.  The first few sessions will focus on pool etiquette, kicking and basic freestyle and backstroke stroke mechanics.  We will have a few older kids in the water to assist.  We will also play a few games to get comfortable and meet our teammates!   The coaches will be assessing the kids in the first few sessions and we may ask some kids to practice with different color group for a bit to fit in with their progression.  Our goal with our pre-season is to introduce ALL of the strokes to the new kids and to have the returning swimmers get in some work on all 4 strokes.  For the most part we will be wrapping up around 4:45 with the green group, leaving some time to talk with coaches before the next group starts.

The Black 2 and White groups will begin at 5.  Again, that means be ready to be IN the water at 5.  This is especially important for the older kids because we would like to start working on their basic conditioning!  We will generally focus on one stroke per week working technique, while getting in some endurance as well.  For all of these kids we will be working with the clock to get them used to timed interval sets.  We’ll also try to have a little fun J.

FOR ALL of our swimmers, here are some expectations:

Practices:

Please arrive 15 minutes early and be suited up and ready to start on time.  The coaches expect the kids to be on time  – and please try to use the bathroom before practice.  Before practice and after practice, please respect the pool and lifeguards and the facility.  NO ONE is to get in the water before the coaches direct them to.  This includes splashing around. When you arrive, please go to the deep end and line up in the area of the lane that you swam in the previous week.  When we do get in the water, we will use FEET FIRST 3-point entries, which means you need to have 3 points of your body in contact with the ground/ pool gutter when getting in.  This is a SAFETY issue.  There will be times when we practice starts or play games with jumping and diving, but not at the beginning of practice.

When practice is finished and you are done – please don’t get back in the water, push, splash or horse around on deck.  If you are in the early group, the coaches need to turn their attention to the next group.  If you are in the later group, the lifeguard is trying to close the pool.

It is expected that you will respect the coaches, your teammates, and yourselves.  This means that if a set is given, you do the set.  If you are sick, something hurts or you have a question, you should see the coach, but please don’t sit in the lane not swimming.  It is difficult for other swimmers to stay focused when everyone is not.  Practice is short and we have a lot to work on most days, and, this applies more for the older kids, but my usual answer to lots of begging for easier sets, is harder sets with pushups in between!  I try to incorporate something fun at the end of each practice when we are all working hard.

Meets:

The coaches will be doing the meet lineups.  If you have a specific request, it’s OK to ask, but realize that we have a lot of swimmers to take into consideration and we are trying to put forward the best lineup for the team and fill every event so that everyone has fun and the team scores lots of points!  That being said, the coaches will need to know if you will be at meets or not.  It is not acceptable to say you will be at a meet and then not show up and not call someone.  This year, we will do things a little differently.  I am working on our online registration system to incorporate meet schedules.  This will hopefully mean that some time in May you will get a reminder to go online to the team registration and RSVP for the June Meets, then in Mid-June you would RSVP to the July meets.  When I get this set up, I will send an email out with these instructions.  It is IMPORTANT to make sure you have registered online so that you will be included in all of these correspondence!

Team Sportsmanship:

It is sometimes easy to forget that swimming is indeed a TEAM SPORT.  With that in mind I would like to ask the swimmers to respect each other in all facets of life.  This means on deck, in the locker rooms, and even away from the pool.  In meets, it is easy to see that you may be swimming against one of your team mates, but it is not always easy to see that you are also swimming WITH them against another team or teams.  This means that I expect you to support each other through our GREAT times and also our difficult times.  It also means that we work as a team and respect other teams.  Poor sportsmanship will not be tolerated on the Makos! If one of the coaches is made aware of any poor sportsmanship, there will be disciplinary action taken.

 

I am really looking forward to a fun Summer Season and can’t wait to work with you all!  Please feel free to email or call me if you have any questions or concerns.  Julia@wispertel.net, 303-981-5007.

Stay well,

Coach Julia