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Need State High School Swimming Results?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by swimmerjoe

Go to Florida Swim Network at http://FloridaSwimNetwork.com, we’ll see you over there!

We now have 3A up under the Results Tab and the High School Tab.

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The Night Before the Big One!

Posted on November 9, 2011 by swimmerjoe

For future reference. This blog has moved to the Florida Swim Network site. Go see http://FloridaSwimNetwork.com

by SwimmerJoe

Thinking of you high schoolers. This is the night before the BIG ONE.

Night of fear
Night of excitement
Night of team
Night of sweat
Night of not sleeping
Night of shaving
Night of apprehension
Night of stress
Night of selective thinking
Night of visualization
Night of silence
Night of boredom
Night of waiting
Night of dreaming
Night of winning

Roll over, get the hotel wake up call

Morning of carbs
Morning of slickness
Morning of queasiness
Morning of worry
Morning of intense worrying
Morning of excitement
Morning of readiness
Morning of warming up over and over
Morning of heats
Morning of praying
Morning of giving it the fight of your life
Morning of dreaming
Morning of crying
Morning of the big one
Morning of the rest of your life

Smile and go rest in between

Night of epic proportions
Night of speed
Night of swimming out of your mind
Night of slow motion
Night of noise
Night of extreme stress
Night of fear
Night of bathroom breaks
Night of silence
Night of explosiveness and power
Night of elevated heart rate
Night of unbelievable performances
Night of records
Night of my life

Do it!

Florida Age Group Championships – Day 2 and 3 Recap (swimmerjoe.com)

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Final Recap and Day 4 – Florida Age Group Championships

Posted on July 18, 2011 by swimmerjoe

Well, well , well, what can I say? I don’t know if I have ever seen such a crazy fast Junior Olympics (now FLAGS) as this past weekend. The times were pretty much unbelievable. Athletes in every age group were getting Top 10 times in the nation, records, Junior National & Senior National Time Standards as well as Olympic Trial Standards. Wait a minute, what? Olympic Trial Standards? Not by a tenth of a second either! Numerous were by over 3-5 seconds! Truly incredible for the one of the best, if not the best swimming states in the nation!

Summer Finke (SPA) and Eric Woodruff (GCST) in the 1500s were very speedy as well as Sherridon Dressel (BSS), Matt Hirschberger (CAT), Kasey Schmidt (BSS), and Caleb Dressel (BSS) in the 50s. In fact, Mr Dressel dumped a 9-year-old record!

Speaking of old records, 12-year-old Jackson Defore (T2) broke a 17-year-old record in the 200 IM with a 2:21 and change.

I hear you, what about the 10 & under athletes? They were equally as fast with Talia Bates (GSC), daughter of former UF football player James Bates, winning the 50 freestyle (30.24), while Lucas Kravelenko (CBS) sneaked by Blake “Hollywood” Wilton with a time of 30.03. Other great swims by the 10-year-olds were Kaitlyn Cronin (GSC), 1:17.01, Marshall Webster (SYS), 1:12.79, both in the 100 Backstroke. In the 100 Fly event, Bates wins another one with 1:18.64, while Hollywood Wilton takes the gold with a time of 1:14.51. In their final event, the 200 freestyle, Katelyn Kilpatrick (CFM) wins the 200 freestyle, 2:30.34 and Kravelenko closes the meet for these youngsters with a blazing 2:17.54.

After seeing the amount of Olympic Trial Standards, Senior National Standards, Junior National Standards and State Records at the Age-Group Championships, I can’t until we see Senior Championships this week! Be sure to tune in to the coverage of the Senior Championships this weekend on http://FloridaSwimNetwork.com and http://swimmerjoe.com.

Day 4 Results

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Florida Age Group Championships – Day 2 and 3 Recap

Posted on July 16, 2011 by swimmerjoe

The speedy Florida Age Group Championships, which is know as #FLAGs on twitter, has added many more Olympic Trial Time Standards for the women after day 3, as well as state records and incredible times for the men. Oh yea and HUGE RAIN STORMS!

The girls from Clearwater Aquatic Team (CAT), Michelle Turek, Sydney Pickrem, and Rebecca Mann have been on a massive assault on the record books and the Olympic Trial Standards. In an amazing race Saturday night, the 200 meter fly, 3 girls (Emma Spilman SPA, Rebecca Mann CAT, Nancy Hu SYS) destroyed a 7 year old record where two of the girls achieved Olympic Trial Time Standards. What about the 12 & Under athletes? Skyler Covert (MACG), Kendall Brent (SWIM) and Sherridon Dressel (BSS) seem to be racing each other for the win in everything.

As for the boys, not to be outdone, from GCST, Gulf Coast, Blake Woodrow, Eric Ordaz, and the gentlemen from BSS, Bolles School, Caleb Dressel and John Hutton are also making big splashes in the pool. Records all over the place. By the way, these kids are huge! Compliments to the coaches for getting them in the shape they need to be in!

The final day of FLAGs is tomorrow and should be an outstanding one, including the relays that were postponed by the massive and very intense thunder boomers! You can catch all the action on http://FloridaSwimNetwork.com through your computer, or chime in on your cell phone or IPad with the Ustream App–Best of all, it’s free!

To check all the results from Day 2 and Day 3, you can get it here. Day 2 of FLAGs Finals, Day 3 of FLAGs Finals

By the way, if you like social mixers, tweetups, or meeting new people, come by and grab a cup of coffee and a donut or maybe even a book from special guest swimmer, Doc Lucky Meisenheimer on Sunday morning at 8:00 am under the scoreboard by the stairs to the stands. See ya there!

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Lessons Learned – Ryan Lochte / Josh Davis

Posted on April 4, 2011 by swimmerjoe

When I showed up this past Sunday for the Mutual of Omaha‘s Breakout Swim Clinic with Josh Davis and Ryan Lochte, I really didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think the kids did either.

I’ve seen many clinics, been a camp director, coached for years, and I was very impressed with the boys. Josh Davis was excellent speaker and tactician, who really engaged the young swimmers with his special ways of teaching. Ryan Lochte was a rocket ship who talked about certain things that kept him going, including his main point, “having fun,” which I agree!

Lessons Learned
150 young athletes listened to Coach Lochte and Coach Davis, swam for 3 hours, and ate mounds of pizza. What did they learn? They learned from incredible Olympic athletes and saw the way the big dogs do it. They saw starts (the launching pad!) and how to win it, streamlining, all four strokes and the drills that can make them great. The swimmers will keep this past weekend in their head forever. (Hey, I remember my first clinic….backstroker John Naber. It must have been 1978!)

Sometimes learning from the great athletes themselves comes across better than from their coaches. Haha!

What an experience for everyone involved! Hopefully some of the young swimmers will be in Josh Davis’s and Ryan Lochte’s position one day. I can’t wait to find out!

Here is the video.

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Watch the Austin Grand Prix!

Posted on January 15, 2011 by swimmerjoe

For April 14 – 16, 2011 –

You guys want to watch some great racing? You guys should tune in tonight for finals, tomorrow a.m. for prelims and tomorrow night for finals. Phelps and Lochte should meet head to a few times. Enjoy!

Click here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2022&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

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It’s Definitely Crunch Time!

Posted on January 13, 2011 by swimmerjoe

As the new big meet of Florida age-group swimming quickly approaches, FLAGS as they call it, I am reminded of some of the very basic things to cover in practice. After all, these are kids still are not at the highest level yet and need to continue to develop their stroke technique and efficiency. We want them to be good as they enter into their high school years and beyond, right? Right!

Being a 12-year-old World Champ (Haha!) is not really going to guarantee them a real world record or a trip to the Olympics in the future, but consistent stroke technique and growth as an athlete will certainly give them the best shot at it. Some of my best swimmers actually started to shine as 13-14 year-olds because of the consistency and willingness to concentrate on the basics as well as build up their pain threshold when it comes to training.

Getting faster is really just getting your body use to faster speeds at a more efficient rate, in my opinion. If you get your body use to doing 59s on many 100 yard or meter repeats, it will get easier to do in a meet. In my book, massive yards don’t make you fast, swimming fast makes you fast!

Doing Things Right

This is the time to do everything as perfect as possible and certainly be as critical as you can, as a coach or swimmer. This is a must. All turns must be fast, clean, streamline, not breathed into or out of, and kicked off properly. I always tell my kids, “You are going as fast as you are ever going to go when you push off the wall, so try and keep your body at that level as long as you can!”

It is the same with starts; why blow the fastest thing you’ll do in your entire race by doing it wrong by not streamlining and breathing the first stroke? I have seen many age-group swimmers win their races on starts and even pass other swimmers on turns. It is pretty cool to pass people without evening taking a stroke!

Lastly in this category, balance your stroke. Many athletes swim so many yards the wrong way that their stroke becomes, lop-sided and inefficient. OUCH! Balance you stroke by watching yourself in video, breathing bilaterally, counting your strokes, and doing many stroke lengthening drills, Popov, etc. Sprint, I mean sprint. Sprint as hard as you can, period. Especially the last month or so. I don’t need to say anymore about that. Duh!

Dream Big!

If you dream big, the dreams will come. Eventually. You will get your day, I can almost promise it.

You will do the best your body can do, but confidence has to be in your mental makeup all the time. Doubt, negativity and worry is a confidence killer and your competitors know it. Go into a meet and stand on a block knowing that no one has worked harder than you on your strokes, turns, starts, and training! And NEVER give up, ever! A certain Jason Lezak comes to mind…

So when you are thinking of your crunch time and the last few weeks of training before your big meets as an athlete or coach, concentrate on the basics and do them over and over. You will see a difference. Flip turn faster than anybody, start with a purpose, balance your strokes, and sprint like you never have before!

And always remember, don’t let anybody take your dreams away from you-ever!

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