10 & Under 1000 yard IM Top 20

10 & Under - 1000 yard IM (400IM, 300IM, 200IM, 100IM straight through)
TOP 20 LIST (since 2007)

Girls
1. 14:53 Hannah Wilkens
2. 14:59 Charlotte Manser
3. 15:03 Raselle Chetwynd
4. 15:12 Casey Brotherton
5. 15:21 Jessica Epps
6. 15:23 Olivia Boisen
7. 15:23 Rachel Taylor
8. 15:37 Jami Hwang
9. 15:40 Keaton Klein
10. 15:46 Bobbi Thompson
11. 15:49 Mandy Barnes
12. 15:56 Bianca Tatum
13. 15:59 Shayna Vayser
14. 16:09 Victoria Epps
15. 16:09 Courtney Prefontaine
16. 16:17 Kristi Fecarotta
17. 16:36 Ashley Kempf
18. 16:37 Alyssa Tong
19. 16:41 Gabby Brown
20. 16:49 Sharon Li

Boys
1. 14:26 Matt Hales
2. 14:27 Min Zhi Chua
3. 14:34 Braden Olson
4. 15:13 Michael Early
5. 15:27 Daniel Kim
6. 15:41 Jackson Kent
7. 15:59 Michael Smith
8. 16:04 Oliver Manser
8. 16:04 Brandon Kolarov
10. 16:06 Josh Dolendo
11. 16:08 Christopher McElroy
12. 16:13 Alex Qu
13. 16:23 Chris Hales
14. 16:27 Garrett Neamand
15. 16:45 Erik Hunter
16. 17:03 Darian Primer
17. 17:12 Ethan Malin
18. 17:21 Bryce Bernhardt
19. 17:24 Brian Cantin
20. 17:55 Ryker Boisen

Meet Affirmations for 10 & Unders

For the Turkey Classic, I am having the parents read this to their kids right before they go to bed each night. My hopes are that they are mentally preparing for the swim meet even before they arrive. When the time comes to take action, they are ready to go and their confidence is at a maximum:

“Tomorrow…
You are going to wake up and you are going to eat a healthy breakfast. You know that food is energy and the right kind of food will help you achieve your swimming goals for the day.
You are going to pack your own bag with your Nadador suit, at least two Nadador caps, your racing goggles, and anything else that you feel is important for the swim meet to come.
You are going to arrive at the pool 5 to 10 minutes early because you are punctual and understand the importance of being prepared and stress free.
You are going to actively stretch with a mind-to-muscle connection that will help your body become a swimming machine.
You are going to have the best warm up of your entire life. You will feel the water like never before and your technique will feel smooth and relaxed. You will feel amazing.
You are going to check in with your coach before and after each race as well as warm up and warm down to ensure that you are fully prepared to execute your race plan. You have an uncanny belief in your coach and are prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve success.
You will perform at your absolute best for each race. Your confidence is sky high because you have trained to be the best you can be.
You won’t over-think your races. You will just RACE.
You will be proud of yourself, be a good sport, and hold your head up high regardless of the outcome because you are a Nadador.
You will believe in your team, your coach and yourself.
…See you tomorrow.”

Bryan Dedeaux
Mission Viejo Nadadores
Division Director

10 & Under workout for Nov. 17th 2009

Warm up

1x300 (100Fr, 100IM, 100Fr)

Kick-Bk

6x150 on 3:00 (50k, 50s, 50k)

Drill-Brst

4x200 2 on 4:20, 2 on 4:00 (25 2k-1p, 25 swim)

Pull-Free

1x100 on 1:45 - 4x50 on 50 - 8x25 on 30 (w/paddles and buoy)

1x100 on 1:40 - 4x50 on 45 - 8x25 on 30 (w/out gear)

Swim-Fly

2x400 IM on 10 rest w/Fins (200Fly, 100IM, 100IM)

3,500yds

The day before this particular workout, my Gold group got an earful from me about a poor set at the end of the practice. So, on this day I sat them down for a meeting to discuss who was going to be our team capt. for the Turkey Classic and to get a read on their moral. In that meeting I found that the kids didn't go home discouraged the night before, but in fact, they told me they wanted to get right back in and do it again and make it right. I was proud of their response and got a great workout. Probably one of the best of the season so far. At the end of practice, I had a couple of the kids come up and say that they really liked the workout, but wanted a harder one tomorrow. What can I say?...They love swimming.

10 & Under Workout for Nov. 11th 2009

Kick-Brst

8x through

1x100 (Swim 50 Fr, 50 Brst) 0n 2:00

2x25 (Kick Brst-Sprint) on 30

Drill-Free

8x75 (50 Single arm catch up-25 catch up) on 1:40

Pull-Fly w/ small paddles and fins

10x100 (kick, right, left, swim) on 2:00

Swim-Back

16x25 (High Tempo. Rip the thumb out. Slice the pinky in) on 40

Skills-Open turns

Keep shoulders under - Eyes on hand

3,200Yds

"Coach Bryan's Death Camp"

I was taking video of my swimmers a couple years back and one of my kids looks at the camera and says "Welcome to Coach Bryan's death camp!" Our dryland is pretty hard. However, they are smart enough to know why we do the things we do. They are told from the beginning that when you work hard you get stronger and faster. The dryland portion of our workouts are very intense and are often considered the hardest part of the day. My regular dryland routine consists of fun, yet challenging exercises that creatively involve the following ideas:
Running
Jumping
Pushing
Pulling
Crawling
Abs
Coordination
Balance
Plyometrics
I think it is important to make dryland fun for the kids while making it something that they are going to get a lot out of. I notice that out of every new group of 40+ kids that I get each season, only 5 or 6 of them are truly athletic. So, the activities we do in our dryland routine are based on creating athletes. I hope that by having more athletes we will have better swimmers that will be good at more than just water based competition. Watch the video and you can see some of the things we do. I would be interested to see what other teams do for dryland with their younger kids. Please let me know if there are some things that you believe in and do in your dryland routine.

Pick a Card, Any Card

Last week I decided to write down a number of things that I felt my kids needed to improve on at practices. I tried to think of ways to implement the idea of improving upon these things during practice.

So, what I did was write down each idea on flash cards. Each flash card had a different idea. At the first practice, I had 3 kids choose a card and told them that they were going to be a part of my experiment. I told them not to tell me what idea was on the card they picked. Their goal was to do that one thing so well that I could easily guess at the end of practice what they were focusing on. Also, told them that they would be rewarded if I could guess correctly. I ended up getting 2 out of 3 correct.

The next practice I decided to let the girls pick a card and the boys pick a different card. Again, they couldn't tell me what it was and that I was going to guess what they had. This time I made sure to remind them to focus on everything during practice and the idea on the card was to be done even better.

The boys made it difficult to figure out because everything was done fairly sloppy, even if it was better than average. I guessed way wrong.

The girls also made it difficult. But they did everything so perfect and their attention to detail was flawless. I was wrong on my first guess, but I got it on the second.

It was a fun idea and I am still thinking of new ways to use this game to get more out of my kids.

Any ideas?

Tug of War

Pretty much just check it out. The kids thought it was fun and hard. I thought it was awesome!

October 13th workout for 10 Gold

Warm up

1X300 (100Fr/100IM/100Fr)

Kick-Bk

8x50 25 kick/25 swim (no board) on 1:00

Drill-Br

10x75 (25 Hide 'n Seek/25 1 Stretch count/ 25 Sprint) on 1:45

Pull-Fr W/catalyst paddles

16x50 (odds single arm catch up/evens swim) on 1:00

Swim-Fly W/Fins

2x400 (k,r,l,s) on 10 sec. rest

Skills-Brst

Pulldowns

3050 yards

Fun with Caution Tape

I like to play tag for dry-land on a weekly basis. The kids have a lot of fun and have to work hard at the same time. The great thing is that they don't even know that they are getting an awesome workout in. It can also be a great way to warm the kids up before they get in the water. Tag seems to be the magic dry-land activity that I simply can't live without. It requires short bursts of speed, endurance, agility, athleticism, and much more if you are creative.

I have created some amazing ways to play tag, but none as simple, different, and fun as what I came up with last week. Check it out.

I found some caution tape in the office and thought that it would be fun to make some obstacles for the kids to look out for. It turned out that the kids loved it and a simple game of tag became something completely different.

Fin Chase Down

Another fun game I like to play is Fin Chase Down. This is great for getting the kids to sprint for their dear lives.

First, partner the kids up in pairs. One gets to wear fins and the other doesn't. The swimmer without fins gets to go first and the person with fins goes second. I give the kids without fins four chances to to make it to the opposite wall. On the first chance they get a 4 second head start. On chance 2 they get 3 seconds. Chance 3 allows them a 2 second head start. And the final chance only gives them 1 second. The goal for the fin wearer is to catch and grab the leg of their partner stopping them from getting to the other side. Once we get through 4 chances the kids switch rolls and the fin wearer becomes the person who gets chased down.

Luck of the Draw

Monday through Thursday workouts cycle through strokes and disciplines and follow a specific order. Fridays are fun day. Saturdays are my open days. Open days mean that I can do whatever I want without looking at my season plan. The kids love Luck of the Draw. Flip Darr, my coach at Saddleback, had a much more insane version of this. I redesigned it for the younger athletes. So on occasion I will pull out my deck of cards and let luck decide their fate.

What I do is run through a long kick set followed by a simple IM set for the first hour. Then, I have the kids pick a partner. If I want to save time, I just group them by lane. One card gets picked per group. A specific card coincided with a specific set on the Luck of the Draw workout page. Some are hard. Some are easy. And some are just plain fun. Design your own or use this one. Have fun.

Click on image to enlarge.

10 & Unders: To Taper or Not to Taper

It's no secret that 10 and under swimmers don't get the same physiological benefit out of a taper than older, more mature swimmers. And I have heard more than a couple times in the many clinics that I have taken part in that you don't really need to taper the younger kids. But does this mean that they don't get a motivational boost, or perhaps some psychological benefit out of a taper? I have used tapers successfully with my 10 and under athletes for years. The trick is to make them believe! Believe in their team, believe in their coach, and believe in themselves.

THE MEETING

I usually start my taper with the 10 and under Gold group about 5-6 workouts before the big meet. On day one, I begin with a group meeting. Kids enjoy learning and they crave knowledge for the things they love to do. So, I explain to them exactly what I plan on doing, and more importantly, why. I let them know that if they follow my plan that their chances of success are dramatically increased.

NO DRYLAND

I run a very intense dryland program. So, at this point, we stop strengthening the body and focus on strengthening the mind. I am a talker and I like to use the 30 minutes out of the water for motivational talks, games, and discussions. I teach positive thinking all the way.

THE WORKOUT

A typical regular season workout averages a little under 4,000 yards a day with 1 hour and 30 minutes of water time. We stick with our regular routine all season long, alternating strokes and disciplines each day. The kids get used to a routine and appreciate the fact that they can usually figure out what the next set will require. A couple weeks before the taper I will give them some really hard workouts that go a little over 4,000 yards.

So, to begin the taper I break the routine and get them doing something different. I will start with an unusual warm up set followed by a longer freestyle kick set. After about 45 minutes of semi-typical hard work I bring in the racing sets. We will do some broken 100's and 200's for time. Some 25's sprint on 1:00, no breathers, are also common. For the last little bit of extra time, I go over starts, turns, breakouts, etc. I only drop my yardage by about 100-300 yards a day, never dropping below 2,500 yards. Any extra time I get out of dropping yardage goes into more starts, turns, streamlines, and basic racing skills. I do not let my kids out early.

THE HAPPIEST COACH IN THE WORLD

During this time I become the happiest coach in the world. I make a huge effort to build their confidence beyond my normal capabilities. At first it is a bit hard. But after a couple days of making myself see only the positive and working on that alone, it really gets addictive and becomes a very exciting and fun time for myself and the kids. I really try to become the most positive and constructive person that the kids can believe in. No threatening. No yelling. No disappointment on my face EVER.

In conclusion, I feel that it is important to create some sort of big meet atmosphere around the workouts that lead up to the actual big meet. It may not even need to be a real taper. Perhaps you can call it a peek performance week. But something out of the ordinary that will get the kids fired up about swimming fast for the team. Something that will get the kids to believe!

2 lines in 2 seconds

I wanted to get the kids streamlining faster through the flags so I decided to give them a time-limit and a distance. I thought 3 seconds would be a good goal to get to the 3rd black line at the bottom of the pool. GOOD IDEA!....Not really. The first time the Gold group did this was a bit of a disaster and I ended up being the big grump on the pool deck that day. 20x25 on 30 seconds in IM order didn't really allow for the kids to catch their breathe in time to pull off a full 20 repeats of high intensity streamlining. So, lesson learned. Next time, I tried it with my Blue group but brought it down to 2 in 2. It really worked well with the Blue kids this time. They were getting past the flags and faster than normal.

So, if you are looking to get your kids past the flags and want to try something new, add this to your tool box and see what kind of results you get. Time-limit + Distance = Faster streamlining. Just make sure it is a reasonable distance and time and they get enough time to catch their tiny little breaths.

High-Fly Tempo Drill

I like this drill for any style flyer at almost any level. If you want to increase the tempo and get your swimmer undulating quicker, recovering faster, and catching immediately with no hesitation, this is one of the best drills.

First, have your swimmer float out about arms distance from the wall. Have them do vertical butterfly kicking with their arms down at the side for about 5-10 seconds. If you go any longer then they can tire quickly and you won't see the results you are looking for. The vertical kick forces the swimmer to optimize their amplitude and tempo in order to keep their face out of the water. Once you feel that they have the right speed have them grab the wall and quickly go for a lap of high intensity fly. I like to remind them to try to match the speed of their undulation to the speed they were able to achieve in their vertical kicking.

White Water Warm Up

This is a warm up I designed after realizing my kids needed to work on maintaining their kick during breathing and stroke cycles. I noticed many of the swimmers, even the ones that were great kickers with a board, had trouble kicking while they moved their head for the breathe. So, I came up with this set and did it as a warm up for a full week before our next swim meet. I felt that I had good results in the freestyle events so I decided to keep this set handy and pull it out when I needed it.

Short Course on 40 sec.

4x25 Free Kick w/ board

4x25 Free Kick w/ no board - Hands in front

4x25 Catch Up

4x25 Swim

Everything is done with the emphasis on creating white water with their kicking. I try to get them to focus on the speed and size of their kicks from wall to wall. And what I really look for is that they maintain their white water during the breathing cycle. It is easy to kick hard with a board. But take the board away and add in an arm pull and a breathe and it gets much more difficult. This set will help the kids keep that strong kick going from start to finish.

Correcting techniques for age group swim coaches

The following techniques can be used to help your swimmers correct technical problems during the workout.

The set is 6x100 Free on 2:00.  You ask the kids to focus on their streamlines and dolphin kicks off of each wall.  At some point during the set you will notice one or more swimmers poorly executing their streamlines.  First, use the Verbal/Visual technique.  If that doesn't work to your satisfaction and the child is still pushing off the walls with unsatisfactory streamlines, then go to the Tactile approach.  If you are still not getting the desired results on a consistent basis, then add on Tactile Conditioning.   The key is to be patient and assume or imagine that they are brand new swimmers that are learning this skill for the very first time.  

1.  Verbal/Visual:  First, stop the child.  Tell the child what he needs to be doing correctly.  Show the child by making the correct movements yourself.  Then allow him to continue.

-"Hey Chris.  Make sure you are locking your elbows behind your head.  That will keep your streamline tight and ensure you have maximum speed of your walls."

2.  Tactile:  Calmly ask the child to exit the water.  Make sure he doesn't feel like he is getting in trouble.  Use the Verbal/Visual technique and follow it up by making the child repeat the movements themselves.  If he is having trouble making the correct movements then you can carefully help him by guiding his actions.

-"Chris.  Why don't you come out here so we can work on your streamlines.  OK, you see how tight my arms are behind my head?  There is no space between my head and my arms.  Now you show me your streamline.  Good job!"

3.  Tactile Conditioning:  Stop the child.  Ask them nicely to repeat the action correctly.  Do this until they accurately perform the technique.  Also, include the other correction techniques to help if needed.

-"Chris.  Can you do that flip-turn for me again?  This time show me your great streamline and add 5 dolphin kicks.  Excellent."

You can use these techniques for just about any skill that you teach your age group swimmers. Some specific skills may require a little more creativity in order to successfully adapt these correcting techniques to your workout.  Be patient and HAVE FUN!  If you feel yourself getting frustrated at your swimmers for butchering your perfectly planned workout, use these techniques.   

Summer time means tired swimmers

As a coach, I realize that younger kids want to play during the summer, and that often means tired swimmers at swim practice. Today, I had just about half of all my Gold swimmers do something exhausting before swim practice. The fact that it was in the high 80's didn't help much in my pursuit of an excellent dry-land day. Between Junior Lifeguards, pool parties, sleepovers, beach days, surf camps, and just about everything a kid can do with all the time in the world, there hardly seems enough time in the day for a 2 hour dry-land/swim workout. But they come. They come tired, fatigued, and slow. But they still come. I know I may not be able to get 100% out of them, but I make sure to let them know that if they choose to come to any workout, that they are going to give everything they've got. I let the kids know that all those other things are totally cool and OK to do during the summer. I want them to have fun. However, if they show up, they have to work just as hard as the day before. If they are too tired to give everything they've got, then they should have stayed home and made that their day off. After all, they are only required to make a minimum of 4 out of 6 offered workouts per week to be in these groups. Today started slow and the kids were certainly not into the dry-land with the heat, but by the last set they were giving everything they had. And that is absolutely all I expect.

King of the Hill

When I was 9 or 10 my summer league coach called it Peel-Offs. I like the idea of making it more of a game, so I call it King of the Hill. The object is to get to the first position and defend it for as long as you can or simply get as close to the "King" as possible. The "King" jumps in first and when he hits the water the next person gets to jump in and when they hit the water the next person gets to jump in and on and on until you get to the last person. If you can touch the wall before the person that jumped in before you, then you switch positions and move your way up. I like it because the kids race....I mean they really RACE. They don't want to let their friends beat them and getting passed is not an option to most of these animals. I like to remind them that any little mistake can cost them their spot. A bad breakout, a weak dive, or a poor finish can really blow it for you in this game. I usually give them between 30 to 90 seconds rest between races. My summer league coach made the first person leave when the last person touched. That just seemed to brutal for my kids, especially because we usually play for 20 to 30 minutes straight. That is a lot of racing and they really go hard for this game.

Successful Beach Workout

We had another successful beach workout on Wed. We saw about 30 plus kids ranging in age from 7-12 and we had something for all of them.

For our 7-8 year old swimmers, Coach Siga with some great parent help, took the 8 and unders in and out of the shallow waves multiple times. She stresses the importance of knowing where you are at all times and being aware of your surroundings. The current was really strong and kids were being pulled towards the pier. All the parent help along with some of our National team members were greatly appreciated and every child was safe and had a great time.

Our 12 and under athletes went out past the waves to Coach Mike on his board. They circled him and headed back into shore. Many of the kids forgot to run in to the finish area but were reminded to really race back in for the second round. After round 2, I headed out to Mike and waited for the kids to swim out to us. When they reached us, I headed south for about 100 yards, let the kids circle me, and then headed back in with the final few swimmers. They continued back to Mike and then back into shore where Coach Bill and Coach Kelly were waiting for them.

After the outs & ins, the swimming out and around, and the running to the pier, we finally let the kids just play. And that seems to be what they love the most. After a beach workout always comes a beach day. It was a ton of fun and if I didn't have to go back to the pool for some lessons I would have stayed there longer.

I think it is important for any team or group that plans on doing beach workouts to be as safe and prepared as possible. The Nadadores always contact the local Lifeguards before we show up. If conditions are not suitable, then we do not swim. We have 3 or 4 coaches in the water during the day as well as our National team members, all of whom are in the water and swimming with the kids for their safety. We feel these workouts are an opportunity to introduce our swimmers to the ocean and how to prepare for and ultimately accomplish a successful open water competition. Some kids will choose to avoid the beach practices and that is OK with us. You have to enjoy what you do and sometimes the water temperature, the sand, and the waves are too much for some people. We only recommend they give it a try.

Our beach workouts consist of approximately 5 or 6 coaches on hand and a couple parent volunteers. Not to mention all the parents just watching provide more eyes on the kids. This time around we also had about 10 National team members volunteering their time to help with the little ones. It was a great day.

Leg Destroyer Workout

This is not your typical L.C. workout for these kids and very out of the norm for me. I had a fun time making up this workout and had not planned this before today.

We started out playing tag for 30 min. for our dry-land portion of the day. Then, following a hard kicking set, we went straight into a dry-land / sprint set involving squats, starts off the block into a feet-first entry, and then a 15 meter sprint. The kids were to then run back to the end of the line. They had asked how deep should their squats be and I told them to go about half way down. So, these ingenious kids decided to use the bottom step of the starting block as their deepest point. Pretty darn smart if you ask me. After that we put the fins on, to continue punishing the legs, and went 16x50 (4 on a min, 4 on 50, 4 on 45, 4 on 40) all free. Our most intense set of the day was only 4x100 sprint brst on over a min. rest. The hard part was that during that rest they were actually doing toe taps on the step. So, they really got NO REST.

All said and done, the kids really enjoyed the change of pace workout....and so did I.

Last set of the day

Our main swim set today was:

1x400 Free

1x300 Free

1x200 IM

1x100 Free

All on 10 seconds rest with fins.

I haven't used fins in awhile for a free set so I thought they might like swimming a bit faster than usual. This was the last thing we did and I think they like ending on these 10 sec. rest sets because the faster they finish it the earlier they get out. They seem to push themselves a bit harder to get it done before their friends also. About two years ago I used these types of sets quite a bit because of the effort I was getting out of my weaker kids. It seems to put everyone on an even playing field and allows each person to put in as much, or as little effort as they want. It puts the power in their hands. Whether they come in first or last, as long as they worked hard, they get a lot of praise from me.