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 December Newsletter 2009 www.emeraldaquatics.com Coach’s Comments I hope this holiday season finds you all well and enjoying time with family and friends. Don’t forget there is practice during winter break. Check out the slight changes later in the newsletter. As the new year approaches and this year comes to a close take some time to reflect on your training. What has gone well? What could you do better? While it’s mid season for swimming - it’s such a natural reflection time. Think on our convenant of “Fun, Focus and F-ort (effort)”. How have you exhibited these traits? What could you do better? As coaches we are examining the season. We’re half way through short course season and looking at what is going well so far and what needs improvement. Examples of this can be seen in our newsletter. This new year I am looking forward to a new position. I have been elected by Oregon Swimming to be on their board of directors as secretary. It is a 2 year term. I am very excited to be more involved with our governing organization. Meetings are the first Wed of every month in Portland. The board is setting new goals and future aspirations for the team. What an exciting time for our swim team! We are looking at possibly hosting a Short Course Meter meet in the Fall at Amazon, doing some new fundraisers, striving for more pool time, and more! Happy Holidays to all from the Coaching Staff! Kids Krazyness -Canby Animal Meet - Dec 19. We’ve already signed up for this meet. If you are unable to go we will be offering these events in practice to all swimmers. Novice will be doing theirs on Fri, Dec 18 during regular practice time. -Willamalane Winter Invite - Jan 15-17. Sign up on our bulletin board! This is a good meet for all ages and levels! -B/C Championship - Jan 23-24 - North Bend. Sign up on our bulletin board! This is the first championship meet of the season. All kids 14 and under should be going. -Logo Gear is in. If you have not received your gear make sure you ask your coach about it at practice. -Novice: This group continues improving their skills in practice and at meets. The focus of this group is skill development. Before they are ready for real training they must master the skills and rules of the sport! We are pleased as kids conquer their DQ’s, improve their endurance, and continue to get PR’s. This winter they are looking forward to earning their Polar Bear award. They also are learning about group goals! -AGR 1: Also a skill driven group - working on the rules of the sport with an added emphasis on endurance and intervals. They are working on lowering their interval times on freestyle, endurance on IM’s and fly. Keep up the good work on streamlines and form! Besides group goals they are setting individual goals. -AGR 2: Self discipline and leadership are taking shape in this group. They have been sharing their experience with the younger kids and learning to set the example in workout. Besides setting goals for themselves they are learning what it takes in practice to reach their goals, time management, tough intervals and pushing themselves. -AGR 3, HS, SR: It’s high school season. They are stepping up as team leaders on their high school teams, doing doubles (morning and afternoon workouts), weights, goal setting for club and high school, learning and exhibiting team sportsmanship and the team aspect of being on a swim team. Masters Moments -After the last newsletter masters have been hard at work on their focus and have done an outstanding job! They continue to encourage each other through the cold early and late workouts - improving both skill and fitness in a fun environment. Don’t forget we have the 1 hour postal in Jan that we’re training for and the Association meet in April. -Civil War - was on Sat, DEC 5. We had a decent turnout with 15 swimmers. We had some fast folks and some brand new folks - all having fun and racing together! Some of the events included 100 free, 25 back, 50 backwards swim, 50 corkscrew and 4x100IM relay! We ended up winning the meet. Check out our trophy at practice. -We are starting our 2:30 personal sets in workout this month. Twice a week we’ll have 8x2min and 30 sec. You swim your choice of stroke for that amount of time. Each person may do a different amount - but the interval is the same. This is a challenge set! Upcoming Practice Schedule Dec 21-Jan 1 (Winter Break)  Mon Dec 21 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters Tue Dec 22 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters Wed Dec 23 NO Practice all groups DEC 24 - 26 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters Mon Dec 28 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters Tue Dec 29 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - AGR 1-3, SR - NO NOVICE or Evening Masters 4-6 -HS alumni meet! Wed Dec 30 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters Thur Dec 31 6-7:30am - Masters 9-11am - HS 4-6 -AGR 1-3 & SR/ 4-5:30pm -Novice / 5-6pm - Masters NO Practice all Groups Jan 1 Sat Jan 2 8-10am Masters and SR Fundraisers Out football games are done! Thanks to all the volunteers for another season of fundraising for our scholarship fund. Special thanks to our over the top volunteers Kerri Evans and Breyer Barkman (formerly Patterson). Kerri spend countless hours getting people to sign up and show up! Breyer spend countless hours coordinating our booth which includes going to trainings, meetings, showing up early and leaving late. There will be more info soon on the amount we raised and families will receive emails on how much they’ve earned toward their requirements. Clean ups - Mac Court We have two on the calendar, both for 4:30pm at Mac Court. Jan 3rd and Feb 27. Sign up soon before they’re full. We already have 11 signed up for Jan 3 and 9 for Feb 27. These should only be 2-3 hours long - much shorter than the games. Ages 12 and over may help. Entertainment Books Angela Bradley will be at Echo Hollow on Dec 15th during practice to collect any books that haven’t sold or the money for the books. That is our last day for this fundraiser. Anyone that hasn’t got their 2010 book for next year can get one from Coach Gina. They are $20. Coach Jennifer Update With Coach Jennifer’s permission here’s an update on her surgery status. Many of you have already asked. Here’s the latest for those of you that haven’t heard. Last month Jennifer and her husband went down to California for her to have brain surgery to remove the part of her artery that was misformed and causing the strokes. During the pre-opperation MRI the surgeon realized that the area had shrunk to a size that was no longer safe to remove. With the risk of permanent loss suddenly much more than another stroke the surgery has been put off. Perhaps after another stroke it will be enlarged enough to remove. While this has been a hard change to understand she and her family are coming to terms with what this means. For us it means we have Jennifer back to coach through the winter and she’ll be back swimming with us again soon. She would like to thank the team for all their well wishes and support during this trying time. Athlete Education Drink Early and Often- from Athlete Page of USAS(usaswimming.org) There are 2 reasons to drink fluids: (1) to stay hydrated, and (2) to provide the body with fuel. During Workout - Regardless of age or length of workout, all swimmers need fluids during practice to stay hydrated. Easily accomplished with a couple of sips from the water bottle every 15-20 minutes. As swimmers progress, workouts get longer and tougher. It’s well established that exercise beyond 90 minutes benefits from a supplemental fuel source. The sports drink can provide it. But we still have hydration to think about. Drinks that are too strong, or “concentrated,” can provide the fuel but also inhibit fluid absorption and often lead to cramping. Years of research tells us that drinks that are 6-8% carbohydrate by weight provide the perfect balance. Enough carbohydrate to provide a fuel source during long exercise, but not so much that will inhibit fluid absorption. A couple of sips every 15-20 minutes keeps the body fueled, helps prevent unnecessary tissue breakdown, and maintains hydration. Today, only Gatorade and Powerade meet the 6-8% criteria. Most other drinks are too strong to be effective during workout. After Workout – Water is an excellent choice to replenish fluids after practice. It’s always wise to drink at least one cup. But after a tough workout, replenishing fuel stores is equally important. Competitive swimmers need a little over 1 gram of carbohydrate for every kilogram they weigh (lbs/2.2) each hour after workout. And they need it within the first hour. Oftentimes, a sports drink that is easily digested and quickly absorbed, such as Gatorade or Powerade can provide a convenient way to get some of this fuel within the first 20 minutes. Accelerade, a newer drink on the market may also do the trick. Endurox, perhaps, but beware of the high protein drinks, as they often forgo the carbohydrate, and carbohydrate is what you are trying to replenish within that first hour after workout. A little protein won’t hurt, in fact a little bit of protein may actually help by supporting tissue repair and re-building processes. But too much protein, especially when it comes in place of carbohydrate, may actually be detrimental to the post-workout recovery process. **Remember… 1. Carbohydrate is the primary fuel source during tough workouts. Protein is used as a fuel source during exercise only when carbohydrate and fat are not present is sufficient quantities. This can happen during long/tough workouts when the body uses much of its stored carbohydrate, and it must find an additional source. If an additional carbohydrate source (ex. Gatorade, Powerade) is not supplied, the body taps into stored protein, aka your muscles. This is why we drink carbohydrate-electrolyte solutions during workout…to spare muscle protein. And this is also why it is important to replace carbohydrate stores lost during a workout…so you start the next workout with a full tank of gas! 2. Following exercise, the body is very sensitive to the hormone insulin. Insulin is that hormone that rises every time blood sugar rises. In other words, every time a swimmer eats carbohydrate, which causes blood sugar to rise, insulin goes up. Well, it’s insulin’s job to remove sugar from the bloodstream, and it does so by facilitating its storage as glycogen. Glycogen, the storage form for carbohydrate, is what the body taps into for fuel when exercise is very intense. This can happen quite a bit during a tough workout, which is why it’s important to see that glycogen is replenished before the next practice. During the Day – Staying hydrated during the day is just as critical as hydrating during and after workouts. Most swimmers can do this by incorporating a variety of fluids into their daily diet. Water, fruit juice, milk, soups, etc, etc. Water is always an excellent choice, but other drinks, including sports drinks (defined as 6-8% carbohydrate by weight) are okay too. Just remember that variety is the key to a healthy diet. If you use a sports drink during and after practice, it may be better to drink water and juice during the day to stay hydrated. Juices are often healthier than sports drinks in that their sugars are natural. Always keep in mind that juices and sports drinks contribute to total caloric intake. Parent Education For Swim Parents – “The Big Deal About SwimSuits”. by John Leonard, Executive Director, American Swimming Coaches Association. Over the past 18 months, the swimming world has been a frenzy of controversy over the emergence of technology in swimsuits. At the recent World Championships in Rome, the constant and overwhelming refrain about suits, echoed the volume and intensity of the last time we were in Rome for a World Championships,when the topic was doping....drugs distorting our sport...in 1994. Fifteen years later, the emotional topic was the new high tech suits that have swept through the sport from the World Championship level down to the local park district championships in the summer league. The parallels were impossible to miss. FINA, in an unprecedented move at its Congress in Rome, banned the use of all “non-textile” materials from suits beginning in 2010, and limited the coverage of the body to “knees to navel for men” and “knees to shoulder straps” for women. 168 nations voted in favor of the restrictions, against a mere 6 in opposition. (who apparently did not understand the word “textile”) This in the face of strong opposition to the move by the sitting President and Executive Director of the FINA organization. Amazing and never seen before. The USA delegation initiated the restrictions and led the opposition. Why such a strong reaction in opposition to the existing plastic and rubber suits? A parent new to the sport, from a middle class background, might well say “hey, why not? Technology marches on! Equipment gets better. Why not let my son/daughter wear one of the fancy new suits and swim faster?” Its a valid question that requires a thoughtful answer. Here it is. The answer revolves around two words, with of course, a considerable amount of “side data” that adds to the intensity of the discussion and the strength of the resolution to end the problem worldwide. Those two words are “Maximizing” and “Enhancing”. Quality lane lines “maximize” the opportunity of the athlete to swim fast, with minimum turbulence in the lane. (you should have seen the waves in the pool back in the 60’s and 70’s.) Good Goggles allow the athlete to see the turns, see their competitors, and comfortably compete.(to say nothing of allow them to train hard for hours....impossible in the chlorine pool without goggles...in the old days, yardage and performance was a fraction of what it is today.) Goggles Maximize the opportunity of the athlete to work hard. Evolution in coaching techniques in training and biomechanics allow the athletes to Maximize their ability to benefit from their time in the sport. Swimsuits, up until approximately the year 2000, and certainly until early 2008, were designed to maximize the opportunity of the athletes to go fast....the manufacturers designed suits to “get out of the way of the water”. Less suit, less friction with the water, less drag, tighter fit, and better materials MAXIMIZED the ability of the athlete to perform to their highest earned level. Beginning in 2008, manufacturers took advantage (and must be applauded for doing so, within the existing rules, which were close to non-existent) of the idea of designing suits to ENHANCE the ability of the athlete to swim faster. A line had been crossed. Designed suits incorporated plastics, rubberized material and new design criteria, to enhance the ability of the athlete to be buoyant in the suits (riding higher makes you faster), wrapped more tightly (compressing the “jiggly parts” makes you MUCH faster) and shed water from the plastics and rubber materials much more effectively, thereby reducing the drag of the suits remarkably. Since February 2008, 158 world records have been set by elite athletes. Their ability to perform has moved from being “maximized” by their swimsuits, to being “enhanced” by their swimsuits. This rate of improvement is absolutely farsical in the historical context of over 100 years of our sport. At the world championships, new world records were receiving polite applause akin to the “golf clap” for a good shot, rather than the historical roars of appreciation that a swimming crowd used to provide when a human barrier went down, as it infrequently did, by great athletes at the peak of their power. How does this translate down to the local pool? Pretty simple. The manufacturers don’t make any money by selling suits to the elite athlete. They give the suits away to them. They count on age group swimmers watching the “big guys” and wanting the same suits and equipment. And lo and behold, the same miraculous benefits accrue to 12 year old Sam and Samantha when they put on the “magic suits” in their local championships. The time drops are miraculous, the smiles are, literally, “priceless” and child, mom and dad are all happy. Wait a second. That suit just ripped. wow. How did that happen? How much did it cost? Wow! You paid $500 for a suit that Sam just put his foot through, rendering it a $500 broken garbage bag? Uh-oh., well, honey, get him another one....we can’t have Joe Jones’s son Pete beat him in the 200 free tomorrow. Teeth Grit. This is a kids sport? We now have $1000 in suits so far. And of course, all those magic benefits only last 7-15 swims, so good for maybe 2-3 meets, unless its a championship and your child swims 6 events and makes finals in all events...in which case its $500 a meet. Lets see, $500 a meet, we go to 2 meets a month, 10 months of the year....Honey, its gonna cost us $10,000 Just for Samantha’s suits this year! Well, the solution is simple....just wear the suits for the championship meet and wear your regular suit the rest of the time. OK. Good. But, Samantha’s 58.5 100 free with the magic suit on, just became a 1:02 100 free with the old suit on. Smiles gone. Gone. From Samantha, from Mom. From Dad. Oh well. And of course, there are some other objections as well. First, the magic suit deal is like paying for your child to have instant improvement. Is that what you want your child to learn from the sport? Or do you want them to learn to persevere, EARN improvement with hard work, attention to detail, paying attention to the coach and, shall we say it again...”Working Hard”. Or do you want them to learn that you can always “pay your way” with cash to what you want? “Earn it, or buy it”. Which do you want to teach? Answer carefully, parents. Second, the suit does not affect everyone the same. The thin, fit swimmer will benefit marginally by it. The overweight swimmer will swim like a young seal in it. Spending the same $500 on two children will yield radically different results. Not a fair competition at all. Is that what anyone wants? Third, and its seems unnecessary to say this...but if you just buy 3 suits a year, that’s $1500 or MORE. (Today, purchasing one of the great European suits online from the USA will cost you $900...with no guarantee of fit, durability or return-ability, and about 30% of them RIP on the first attempt to put them on...no refund, folks.) Do we really want age group and high school swimmers to have to spend that kind of money to BUY success rather than work for it? It doesn’t make our sport a middle class sport, it makes it a sport for wealthy families. Are you pooh-poohing that? Wait till your son or daughter gets beat the first time by someone whose mommie or daddie could afford a more expensive piece of plastic and rubber than you can. The bitter taste in your mouth is not fun. Not much in the way of “sport” there. So, in answer to the local official who asked “Why are “they” (FINA officials) wasting time with worrying about THAT? Don’t they have better things to do?” The answer is no, the suit debacle is the most important thing that any of us can attend to. It preserves the heart and soul of our sport....which is reverence and appreciation for the hard work, attention to detail, courage and teamwork required to be a fine competitive swimmer and to learn to succeed with those life-skills. Instead of with your Daddy’s wallet. The Congress (not the Ruling Bureau) of FINA took the rules into their own hands after the Bureau had time and again failed to establish the rules necessary to keep our sport vital, credible and important. Bravo for them. All the Best, John Leonard |
