Now that school seems to start earlier each year, so too, the summer swim season has moved it's respective meets up into July, so that there isn't much left in August, save the few National meets and a nice little vacation.
Still, we have one SWAMI who will be preparing for Junior Nationals, which will take place at Stanford the second week in August. There is also Western Zones (hosted at the aforementioned Clovis, CA facility), for which we would have as many as four SWAMIs racing in, but because of travel costs, we're going to pass on that meet.
It's been a great summer so far. After a lackluster SYAC meet at the beginning of June,—a time when we were just getting use to the notion of long course racing—we've been turning it up a notch in our training regimen. We had perhaps one of our best, most creative weeks yet. Lots of circuit training, lots of tempo work, and lots of stuff from the blocks. We're just trying to keep things "off balance" so the kids don't get into any sort of a rhythm. That might sound crazy from the standpoint of training for the intent of "methodical preparation", but the unique thing here is we have put quite an emphasis on preparation by knowing WHAT we want to accomplish but not knowing exactly how to get it. So we tend to make some "game time decisions" as we go. For instance, how do they look during warmups? What kind of collective mood are we in? Are they up to the task of whats et we planned for that day, or perhaps, can they handle more?
We just want to accomplish our objectives by keeping things unpredictable so our kids don't fall into a comfort zone. If we were planning for a little recovery, but the kids are on fire—maybe we need to boost it up a notch or two. That last kicking set last night didn't end so great, so maybe we need to start by giving them another shot to master it this morning.
If there is one thing I really took from watching and talking to Gary Hall Sr, it's to always read the body language of your swimmers, and to never let one length of swimming go by without trying to perfect what it is we're doing in the water. Every turn needs to be perfect. Every underwater streamline needs to be extended. Every length needs to be technically sound. As Gary put it, survival swimming is great if your plane has just crashed in the middle of the Atlantic and you need to swim to shore, but for short, fast swimming, meticulous and technically sound swimming must be executed if you're planning to race at the highest personal level.
We have spent a wealth of time with this notion in June. Who knows if the times will reflect it for the short term, but for these SWAMIs, who are all still relatively young, we're looking at the long term. I do have faith their times will drop... We just need to stick with this plan and trust the training!
On the dry side of SWAMI, we are still surviving... First off, some good news came in the way of donations from some terrific families we have gotten to know. That will give us some breathing room financially (for a little while, at least). So too, we received a fairly thick envelope from the IRS while I was in Florida. In it contained the "thumbs up" we were looking for—we are officially a non profit entity! As Mary Chris put it, "it was like opening a college entrance letter..." the anticipation... yes or no? Usually, thick means yes, thin means no. In this case, it was definitely thick and the results positive. Now we're on to the task of asking for more sizable donations from area foundations. We're hopeful we'll be able to get some help from them, because we're going to need it!
This week, I talked to Ben Sheppard from the Oakland Undercurrents swim program, a successful outreach club located in the east bay that primarily serves low-income youth in the area. Similar to our mission, Ben has built something special in Oakland, CA. Understandably, I was ecstatic to have had the opportunity to pick his brain. We chatted for more than 30 minutes and the ideas he posed to me were priceless. We now have much fat to chew on as we move forth in serving our mission in Rose Park.
SWAMI is still a very small club. We have maybe 30 kids, although I haven't counted in months. I'm not much into the numbers game right now only because I'm thrilled with the kids we have and the fact we don't have 28 kids in one lane trying to make do. We're thankful we have the lane space and that our kids can work on everything we intend to work on as part of our club objectives. There have been no restraints in that department, thus far. I can't really say that if we were a club of say, 100 (much less 50)... I wouldn't know what to do other than have odd and even days for when kids can show up—kinda like the gas wars of the '70's when your license plate was "odd" numbered, you could fill up on X day.
Frankly, until we can get some support, we need to stay relatively small.
And with growth we need qualified assistant coaches! That can be hard to come by in a place like Utah, where the coaching pool is somewhat limited. The coaches already with job are definitely qualified and are working. Every team in this state seems to have a great staff in place. SWAMI has struggled to fill our holes, but with college kids home for the summer, we're making it work for now. Where I feel I need to improve as a coach is in the time I take to help them out... to give them the tools to succeed. That takes time, though. It's been tough to find that time as I strain to build a new club, care for Lily, and balance a full-time job away from the pool. But it is what it is... we strive to be our best and do our best, all the while still managing to have fun and building something great.
July will be an interesting month. We have the HAST meet coming up. Then on to Portland, OR for Sectionals. Back for the J.O. meet. It'll be our first state meet as a club, since back in March we were still awaiting word from USA Swimming... We're even hoping to fill in a relay or two. Make a great show for a small, fledging club. We'll see how it goes, but in the meantime, it's back to the pool for some more fun and fast swimming!
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