This meet was our last of the session before our 2 week holiday break. Although far from being an ideal meet to make it the highlight of our fall season, the fact that the pool is indoors had a lot to do in the final choice. Unfortunately this was a cold weekend and the indoor space we were promised for our swimmers was not available on Saturday. As a result everyone huddled outside the pool building for the whole day trying to stay warm in between races, which proved to be a real challenge. Sunday was better as indoor space was provided to the swimmers, but it seems that Saturday took its toll on the kids.
16 Marlins swimmers participated over the 3 day weekend and Jeff and I watched 88 races, some really good, other less so, but always great opportunities to learn and improve on the details. With 2 disqualifications and 46% of the times improved, we witnessed and average meet from our athletes. Given the conditions, my assessment should be a little more positive, but as a team I maintain that we could have done a bit better.
That said, some athletes had good races. It is worth mentioning Lizzie Ferguson's great weekend with a best time on all 7 events entered in the meet. Also a new Junior Olympic qualifying time for Coco and Jack Berkenfield, Isabella Salmi, Alicia Vogelaar and Anton Zahradnik and two new Far Western qualifying times for Ava Salmi. And I shouldn't forget the fact that Ava also broke 3 new team records (for the 15-16 age group) in the 500 free, 100 and 200 back, her sister Isabella broke 8 team records (for the 17-18 age group) in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 free, 100 and 200 back, 100 and 200 breast and Jared Sears improved his own record in the 15-16 age group 500 free.
I always tell the swimmers to process the outcome of their race during their warm-down, file the pointers given to improve details for swim practice and move on, get ready for the next race. I obviously follow the same pattern, the lessons from this meet have been filed and will be apply to help me design the future workouts and now I will be focusing on our next goal, Junior Olympics and Far Westerns, mid and late March 2012.
Special thanks to Judy Ferguson and Nina Rannel for officiating during the meet. You both have helped the team meet its requirements and stay in good standing with our zone.
Meet results
Swimmer Results.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Junior Olympics - December 2011
What a beautiful weekend it was in Morgan Hill for our December Junior Olympics. Sure it was a bit cold in the morning, but nothing our kids can't handle. Jeff and I coached 8 swimmers who made the trip with their families over the 3 days of competition. As always, the meet was well attended with closed to 100 teams, but the facility in Morgan Hill can handle it.
Our Marlins swimmers did a good job while swimming a total of 26 races during the meet. With a 66% best time and one team record from Monica sears in the 400 IM, we feel the kids did well. Worth mentioning are the performances of James Beard and Ian Chow-Ise who managed to improve all their events but one. Good job to Coco Berkenfield and Lani Kamler for matching their best times, to Annalise Schlafer for her first JO experience, to Anton Zahradnik for continuing to improve at every meet this fall, and to Alicia Vogelaar for a solid performance in the 100 fly, her first best time in a while. Go Marlins!
For more info about the results, please click here for the result by swimmers and here for the meet results.
Our Marlins swimmers did a good job while swimming a total of 26 races during the meet. With a 66% best time and one team record from Monica sears in the 400 IM, we feel the kids did well. Worth mentioning are the performances of James Beard and Ian Chow-Ise who managed to improve all their events but one. Good job to Coco Berkenfield and Lani Kamler for matching their best times, to Annalise Schlafer for her first JO experience, to Anton Zahradnik for continuing to improve at every meet this fall, and to Alicia Vogelaar for a solid performance in the 100 fly, her first best time in a while. Go Marlins!
For more info about the results, please click here for the result by swimmers and here for the meet results.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Napa Meet (11/11-12-13 2011)
Other then our RESL Championships, the 22 swimmers attending the 3 day meet made it one of the biggest Marlins presence at an away meet. This is encouraging and I hope we continue going in this direction. The meet was pretty important for our swimmers because it is a good measuring tool before the more important meets in December. The conditions were good, although Friday had a bit of heavy drizzle, it had no bearing on the performance of our six swimmer racing the 500 free. Saturday and Sunday were nice days and made for a pleasant experience by pool side.
Overall this meet was average and only slightly better then last November's performance. Two disqualifications only and 77% of our swimmers with at least one best time is solid. If anything, this meet highlighted the obvious: for the most part the athlete that are training hard and focused on the quality of their performance did well, just as anyone would expect. The coaches agreed that although the turns are technically correct, most swimmers did not turn fast enough, so this will be a focus at practice for the next month.
Ava Salmi and James Beard posted 3 new Junior Olympic times, and the same Ava broke 2 team records in the 100 free and the 200 back. Justas Reskevicius broke his own team record in the 200 breast.
Big thank you to all the parents who helped with timing and the judging of the meet. Special thanks to Nina Rannel for stepping up and joining Theresa, Judy and David as a meet Official.
Next is Junior Olympics in Morgan Hills at the beginning of December and the Santa Rosa meet the following weekend for swimmers who cannot attend.
Meet Results
Results by Swimmers
Overall this meet was average and only slightly better then last November's performance. Two disqualifications only and 77% of our swimmers with at least one best time is solid. If anything, this meet highlighted the obvious: for the most part the athlete that are training hard and focused on the quality of their performance did well, just as anyone would expect. The coaches agreed that although the turns are technically correct, most swimmers did not turn fast enough, so this will be a focus at practice for the next month.
Ava Salmi and James Beard posted 3 new Junior Olympic times, and the same Ava broke 2 team records in the 100 free and the 200 back. Justas Reskevicius broke his own team record in the 200 breast.
Big thank you to all the parents who helped with timing and the judging of the meet. Special thanks to Nina Rannel for stepping up and joining Theresa, Judy and David as a meet Official.
Next is Junior Olympics in Morgan Hills at the beginning of December and the Santa Rosa meet the following weekend for swimmers who cannot attend.
Meet Results
Results by Swimmers
Friday, November 4, 2011
Spooky Plunge 2011
Well, another Spooky meet ... the 16th since we started the event. I am so greatfull that Northbay Aquatics was willing to host the meet at their pool, Mike did a great job and the fact that we had over 200 swimmers participating made this event one of the best I can recall. I loved the energy on the pool deck, kids seemed to have fun and parents seemed pretty relaxed. To top it off, the weather was as good as we could have wished for.The Spooky plunge is certainly a different meet, we could call it one of a kind, and many years went into designing it so that we can better cater to our younger swimmers' need while making it interesting for the more experienced athlete as well. From the feedback I have gotten so far, it seems that everyone had a good time, and that's the bottom line.
Special thanks to Judy Ferguson and Theresa Kamler who took the time to introduce the art of judging to Nina Rannel. I am excited to see more parents stepping up and helping the team by becoming official. Another thanks to Andrea Salmi for taking the initiative and giving our team members an opportunity to purchased some Marlins gear at the meet. Last but not least I would like to thank those of you who helped with timing during the meet.
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| Soon to be an Olympic event. |
I have posted a few pictures of the event on the Marlins website. You are welcome to add to it if you want. The ribbons for this meet will be ready to be picked up at Ross Valley by Monday, November 14th.
Go Marlins!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Zone III Championships
It has been a long time since we have participated in this meet which is inconveniently scheduled in January, right after our holiday break. With the meet moved this early in our training season, the 28 participating teams approached the event as part of their fall training and most older swimmers were pretty tired from their gruesome fall training. Our Marlins were no exception, our 11 swimmers who competed over the weekend did a good job even though all were tired from training and still in the process of adapting to their new school schedule and home work.
Jeff and I were happy to witness some decent swims even though this meet produced a meager 36 % improvement over the 56 races of the weekend. Still, no disqualifications, some really clean races made this a great practice meet.
Worth mentioning are the 4 team records that Collette Berkenfield, Alicia Vogelaar and Ava Salmi broke over the weekend. Coco,updated an 11 year old record in the 100 breast and in the process obtained a new PRT, Alicia broke her own record in the 1000 free and Ava broke 2 records in the 100 and 200 back.
Congratulation to Annalise Schlafer for getting her first JO time in the 50 free.
Good job to all the swimmers, thank you parents for helping out with timing and Judging during the meet.
Meet result
Swimmer result
Jeff and I were happy to witness some decent swims even though this meet produced a meager 36 % improvement over the 56 races of the weekend. Still, no disqualifications, some really clean races made this a great practice meet.
Worth mentioning are the 4 team records that Collette Berkenfield, Alicia Vogelaar and Ava Salmi broke over the weekend. Coco,updated an 11 year old record in the 100 breast and in the process obtained a new PRT, Alicia broke her own record in the 1000 free and Ava broke 2 records in the 100 and 200 back.
Congratulation to Annalise Schlafer for getting her first JO time in the 50 free.
Good job to all the swimmers, thank you parents for helping out with timing and Judging during the meet.
Meet result
Swimmer result
Our new pool is coming along ....
The remodel at the Racquet club is coming along and I now can see the outline of the pool and get a better feel of what it's going to look like. The project is close to timeline and if the rain stays away for the next month, it will help a lot.
In any case, it is very exciting and I look forward to walking up and down that deck!
In any case, it is very exciting and I look forward to walking up and down that deck!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
First meet of the season in Hercules on 9/24-25
Solid performance from the few Marlins swimmers who attended our first meet of the season in Hercules. The weather was nice on Saturday and we caught the first rainy day of the season for Sunday …. Let’s call that day a heavy drizzle. In any case rain or shine, our swimmers remained focus on the task at hand and either swam a best time or close to it. The strokes were clean for the most part and the few mistakes made are helping us redefine practice goals.
The meet in numbers. 14 swimmers raced 56 events, 41% best times and 71% of the swimmers achieving at least one best time. As far as first meets go, this was a much better performance than last year showing the kids are on pace with their training. We also had 3 new team records from Coco Berkenfield in the 50 back (with a new PRT) and 50 breast and Jared Sears in the 100 back. Worth mentioning, a new JO time standard in the 100 free from Anton Zahradnik.
Go job, Go Marlins!
Monday, August 1, 2011
RESL Championships 2011
I say it every year taking the risk of repeating myself, but when an event is this good, I really don't mind. Few meets bring the team together the way RESL does, no other meet has swimmers race up to 16 events in just two and half days and no other meet requires as much parent support. And although exhausted, everyone was very excited at the team's performance during the weekend. I feel that it was the perfect end to the best swim season ever. Jeff and I got to watch our swimmers swim honest races (over 370), each athlete stripped down to the basic feelings of determination, physical discomfort and a boost of self-worth. What a meet!
42 swimmers participated in this year’s Championships in El Cerrito competing in a total of 370 races. Although our numbers were not as high as in years past, we definitely made up for it in quality. Knowing that we were very light in the younger age groups, I made the decision to have all our swimmers enter 2 races instead of the usual one race on Friday evening. I think it paid off, the kids had the training to handle the extra load and the 83% best times over the weekend confirmed that. Again this year the team finished 3rd, but a lot closer to 2nd!
The Marlins were the most improved team with 83% best times. We received 8 disqualifications, half from last year and well below the teams’ average for the meet. 29 swimmers improved their time standard with a total of 15 new "B" times, 38 new “A” times, 41 “JO” times (20 in 2010), 11 “FW” times (12 in 2010), 2 “PRT” times (2 in 2010) and 1 Sectional time (0 in 2010).
Most amazingly, 28 team records were broken in one single meet, congratulations to Coco Berkenfield, Monica Sears, Ava Salmi, Alicia Vogelaar, Annalise Schlafer, Kate Claman, Tyler Welty, Jack Berkenfield, Ian Chow-Ise, Anton Zahradnik, Aidan Cumming, Jared Sears, Alex Claman, Tommy Davis and Justas Reskevicius. All 15 swimmers helped break 5 relay records and 23 individual records. In addition, Tyler Welty matched a RESL meet record in the 13-14 100 breaststroke.
Overall, the kids improved their times by a total of 1148 seconds, almost double last year’s improvement. That's 19 minutes shaved off their entry times ... I don't really know how to explain this, but I could get use to it! Out of the 42 Marlins swimmers participating, 40 helped score points for their team. Our swimmers did a great job and Jeff and I are certainly proud of their achievements.
I have posted the results (swimmer / meet) at the pool and the ribbons are filed in the team folders. You can stop by the pool anytime during business hours and the lifeguards will be happy to bring the folders out for you.
Special thank you to all the families for doing their part in helping run the meet. To Jackson Miller for supporting his team and helping the coaches on Sunday. There are some great pictures available for download on the team’s website (you do need to log-in). Lester Ng took some very nice pictures of the kids, it's a different look at our sport and certainly a break from the usual yellow cap sticking out of the water. Click here to take a look at them. Thank you to all the parents who participated in the Friday morning breakfasts at Drake over the summer, who again helped put together a great Doughnut Breakfast and a fantastic team BBQ, who were generous enough to give great gifts for the coaches, who take the time to give me feedback on the team, who counsel and assist me when needed. Again, thank you all for giving Jeff and I the opportunity to work with your children.
Marc
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| Happy Marlins |
42 swimmers participated in this year’s Championships in El Cerrito competing in a total of 370 races. Although our numbers were not as high as in years past, we definitely made up for it in quality. Knowing that we were very light in the younger age groups, I made the decision to have all our swimmers enter 2 races instead of the usual one race on Friday evening. I think it paid off, the kids had the training to handle the extra load and the 83% best times over the weekend confirmed that. Again this year the team finished 3rd, but a lot closer to 2nd!
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| Waiting for the relays. |
The Marlins were the most improved team with 83% best times. We received 8 disqualifications, half from last year and well below the teams’ average for the meet. 29 swimmers improved their time standard with a total of 15 new "B" times, 38 new “A” times, 41 “JO” times (20 in 2010), 11 “FW” times (12 in 2010), 2 “PRT” times (2 in 2010) and 1 Sectional time (0 in 2010).
Most amazingly, 28 team records were broken in one single meet, congratulations to Coco Berkenfield, Monica Sears, Ava Salmi, Alicia Vogelaar, Annalise Schlafer, Kate Claman, Tyler Welty, Jack Berkenfield, Ian Chow-Ise, Anton Zahradnik, Aidan Cumming, Jared Sears, Alex Claman, Tommy Davis and Justas Reskevicius. All 15 swimmers helped break 5 relay records and 23 individual records. In addition, Tyler Welty matched a RESL meet record in the 13-14 100 breaststroke.
Overall, the kids improved their times by a total of 1148 seconds, almost double last year’s improvement. That's 19 minutes shaved off their entry times ... I don't really know how to explain this, but I could get use to it! Out of the 42 Marlins swimmers participating, 40 helped score points for their team. Our swimmers did a great job and Jeff and I are certainly proud of their achievements.
I have posted the results (swimmer / meet) at the pool and the ribbons are filed in the team folders. You can stop by the pool anytime during business hours and the lifeguards will be happy to bring the folders out for you.
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| Team Meeting |
Special thank you to all the families for doing their part in helping run the meet. To Jackson Miller for supporting his team and helping the coaches on Sunday. There are some great pictures available for download on the team’s website (you do need to log-in). Lester Ng took some very nice pictures of the kids, it's a different look at our sport and certainly a break from the usual yellow cap sticking out of the water. Click here to take a look at them. Thank you to all the parents who participated in the Friday morning breakfasts at Drake over the summer, who again helped put together a great Doughnut Breakfast and a fantastic team BBQ, who were generous enough to give great gifts for the coaches, who take the time to give me feedback on the team, who counsel and assist me when needed. Again, thank you all for giving Jeff and I the opportunity to work with your children.
Marc
110
Unlikely title for a blog post and unlikely number to sum up our 2010/2011 season. This is certainly a reductive view of the team, but this number is also representative of the transformation the team is going through. 110 team records broken over the last season is quite an achievement.
Thanks to Coco Berkenfield, Lani Kamler, Lizzie Ferguson, James Beard, Monica Sears, Ava Salmi, Annalise Schlafer, Alicia Vogelaar, Jack Berkenfield, Aidan Cumming, Ian Chow-Ise, Anton Zahradnik, Jared Sears, Tyler Welty, Kate Claman, Emma Jones, Justas Reskevicius, Isabella Salmi, Alex Claman and Tommy Davis. These 19 swimmers are helping to create a momentum that has helped the rest of their teammates perform at a higher standard.
Although this season we have seen fewer of our swimmers participating in competition, the ones who did ended up swimming more races, producing faster performances and doing it "cleaner" since we only collected 38 disqualifications out of 2800 races (46 out of 3000 during the 2009/2010 season).
USA Swimming publishes a virtual club championship that is updated once a day during the season. Based on that ranking, the Marlins are certainly improving.
We have a tough job ahead of us this coming season. We still need to build on this great momentum while dealing with the pool remodel. I feel confident that coaches and swimmers are up to the task. But this will not happen unless we also get a lot of parent support.
Moving forward, we now have three certified stroke and tun judges on the team thanks to Judy Ferguson, Theresa Kamler and David Claman. But we need a lot more for two reasons, job sharing will make the task a lot easier and it will be a lot cheaper to swim at meets as the team will get fined $100 per day we cannot provide enough judges for the number of swimmers entered - this fine would be shared by everyone entered in the meet.
I would like to take our team to a place where we can run sanctioned meets. It would be better for the swimmers as their times would be added to the USA swimming database and with our new pool, we will have enough lanes to offer a quality meet. Next year, if we want to keep RESL in El Cerrito, we will need some parents to get trained in running the computer / Colorado timing system. Again, the more parents we have the easier it is to split jobs into smaller parts.
As our team becomes more competitive, my goal in this next season will continue to be welcoming to all levels and to provide all swimmers with the quality experience they have come to expect from the Marlins. I believe what makes the Marlins special is that all of our elite swimmers started at the beginning, in Groups 1 and 2, and this is why we will continue to foster a team that supports a strong foundation and love for swimming that will carry our younger swimmers through all the groups.
Thanks to Coco Berkenfield, Lani Kamler, Lizzie Ferguson, James Beard, Monica Sears, Ava Salmi, Annalise Schlafer, Alicia Vogelaar, Jack Berkenfield, Aidan Cumming, Ian Chow-Ise, Anton Zahradnik, Jared Sears, Tyler Welty, Kate Claman, Emma Jones, Justas Reskevicius, Isabella Salmi, Alex Claman and Tommy Davis. These 19 swimmers are helping to create a momentum that has helped the rest of their teammates perform at a higher standard.
Although this season we have seen fewer of our swimmers participating in competition, the ones who did ended up swimming more races, producing faster performances and doing it "cleaner" since we only collected 38 disqualifications out of 2800 races (46 out of 3000 during the 2009/2010 season).
USA Swimming publishes a virtual club championship that is updated once a day during the season. Based on that ranking, the Marlins are certainly improving.
| Season (9/1 to 8/31) | Score | National Rank (PCM/Total # of Teams) |
| 2003 - 2004 | 8328 | 1889/2463 |
| 2004 - 2005 | 6788 | 2036/2455 |
| 2005 - 2006 | 8480 | 1986/2189 |
| 2006 - 2007 | 9772 | 1940/2454 |
| 2007 - 2008 | 9646 | 1964/2462 |
| 2008 - 2009 | 26175 | 1467/2483 |
| 2009 - 2010 | 30932 | 1368/2553 |
| 2010 - 2011 | 45923 | 1048/2611 |
We have a tough job ahead of us this coming season. We still need to build on this great momentum while dealing with the pool remodel. I feel confident that coaches and swimmers are up to the task. But this will not happen unless we also get a lot of parent support.
Moving forward, we now have three certified stroke and tun judges on the team thanks to Judy Ferguson, Theresa Kamler and David Claman. But we need a lot more for two reasons, job sharing will make the task a lot easier and it will be a lot cheaper to swim at meets as the team will get fined $100 per day we cannot provide enough judges for the number of swimmers entered - this fine would be shared by everyone entered in the meet.
I would like to take our team to a place where we can run sanctioned meets. It would be better for the swimmers as their times would be added to the USA swimming database and with our new pool, we will have enough lanes to offer a quality meet. Next year, if we want to keep RESL in El Cerrito, we will need some parents to get trained in running the computer / Colorado timing system. Again, the more parents we have the easier it is to split jobs into smaller parts.
As our team becomes more competitive, my goal in this next season will continue to be welcoming to all levels and to provide all swimmers with the quality experience they have come to expect from the Marlins. I believe what makes the Marlins special is that all of our elite swimmers started at the beginning, in Groups 1 and 2, and this is why we will continue to foster a team that supports a strong foundation and love for swimming that will carry our younger swimmers through all the groups.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Marlins High School Swimmers - Great perfomances at Championships
Great job from our High School swimmers last weekend. Justas Reskevicius, Erin Hensley and Jared Sears from Drake High. Justin Jo, Annie Warner and Alex Claman from Marin Academy, Tommy Davis from Marin Catholic and Emma Jones and Isabella Salmi from Branson. Six of them competed in the MCALs Championships held at Redwood High, which last weekend felt very close to Alaska, and the other three from MA swam in the BCL league who's championships was held in Lafayette.
Our Marlins swimmer did a good job representing their respective schools and in the process improved 80% of their races and broke another 4 team records. Kudos to Isabella Salmi for breaking a 9 year old team record in the 50 free, to Emma Jones for breaking her own record in the 100 fly and to Jared Sears for breaking his own records in the 500 free and the 100 back.
Thanks to the few Marlins families who braved the cold and came to cheer on our swimmers, it made a difference and we were all greatfull for it.
Three of our swimmers qualified for this weekend North Coast Section where the top 40 swimmers out of the 82 participating high schools around the bay area will duke it out. NCS is a very fast meet and usually a good recruiting ground for college coaches. Emma Jones and Isabella Salmi will be representing Branson in the 200 free relay and Jared Sears will be representing Drake in the 500 free and the 400 free relay. Stay tune for upcoming results.
If you want to see some pictures of the event click here.
The meet results are here.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
World Class Parents
”So, you want to offer your child the opportunity to be a world-class athlete….”
By John Leonard - Executive Director of the American Swimming Coaches Association.
If the above sentence doesn’t scare the bejeezus out of you as a coach reading it, good for you!
The fact is, a number of parents DO, without being raging lunatics, wish to offer their child the best possible chance to be a great athlete….in the same way that they’d like to offer them the chance to attend the most prestigious University, visit the best doctors, be a world-class musician or artist, etc. etc. etc.
The key word is “OFFER”. Not “force”. Not “Make”. Offer. The issue, if you take the words “world class” out of there….is that MOST parents want to “de-limit” their children and “offer them the chance for the best opportunities in life.”. Put that way, it doesn’t sound so bad. In fact, it sounds like “most of us”.
As every coach knows, the devil is in the execution. (or the details, if you prefer.)
I was asked this question twice on a recent trip to Africa…..where the topic came up because of the perception that African children who aspire to be swimmers are considerably limited on their continent. Overall, I thought it a fair question. Here’s my answer….I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts.
#1. It’s all about the coaching. Led by the great researcher, Dr. Anders Ericsson, we know that expertise comes from 10,000 hours of focused, purposeful practice, guided by a “coach” of skill, knowledge and understanding of the learning process providing top quality feedback. So the number one task of the parent on the track of great opportunities….do your homework, research the coaches available to your child, spend time in conversation with them, reach a mutually satisfying understanding of “who is doing what” and then get out of the way, and TRUST THEM to do right with your child. You can “oversee the process” but let the coach, Coach.
That’s answer 1, 1A and 1B…..nothing else comes close in importance. Here are a few other ideas, however.
#2. It’s about RESILIENCE! Your child, all children, are going to hit some rough patches in their development. Teach them to persevere, don’t get the roadblocks out of their way FOR them, let them learn to struggle with it and overcome. Everyone gets knocked back/down. The child has to get good at getting back up…ON THEIR OWN.
“Curling parents” are those rushing down the path ahead of the child, trying to clear every obstacle out of the way for them……and never letting the child gain the satisfaction of overcoming challenges. Don’t be one.
“Helicopter parents” are those who hover over their child at every moment, so intent on making sure the child “gets it” that they become the biggest distraction to the child ever “getting it”. Go sit down. Relax. Read a paper. When the child’s done, love them, don’t make them replay every moment of practice for you. Don’t be one.
#3. It’s about personal responsibility. Make sure you teach your child that “if it’s to be, it’s up to me.” If they want to be a world class athlete, only their effort will take them there. Effort. Not talent. Tons of people have talent to achieve great things. Few do. Often because their proud parents forgot that effort is the only way to achieve. Teach effort.
#4. Be a Motivation Machine. As the great swimmer Michael Phelps was on his steady, effortful rise to the top of the swimming world, his coach Bob Bowman described Michael as a “Motivation Machine”. Something good happens, he got up the next morning with the mind-set, “I want more of that.” And he went off to practice. (not staying in bed congratulating himself..”I earned some more sleep this morning…I’ll sleep in..”) When something Bad happened, Michael got up and went to practice with the mindset “I’m NEVER letting that happen again”. (not staying in bed and having a mini-pity-party.) One of the greatest things I have ever heard that separates a great individual from the rest of us….Be a Motivation Machine.
Parents, you can teach that to your child and it will be a life-gift of importance.
#5. ENJOY THE RIDE! The Chinese have a saying…”most of life is about Chop Wood, Haul Water”. Mundane tasks that are essential to our progress in life. Life is not always wildly exciting and “ fun”. Mostly, it’s steady mundane effort and work. So learn (both as a parent, and teach to the child…) to enjoy and be very “satisfied” with the day to day tasks that, like water impacting the rock, make up our journey towards
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Marlins April Home Meet
Not too bad of a turnout for what could be described as not the most ideal weekend for a meet. Still 62 swimmers participated, about double the amount of swimmers from last year, and we welcomed 9 kids who participated in their first meet ever. Everyone was a bit nervous but stepped up to meet the new challenge presented to them. Congrats to Ashley and Mack Blood, Harrison Flynn, Nick Ginwala, Rachel Katz, Morgan Mutscheller, Jordan Price, Haley Summers and James Worthington.
A 48% best time is well below average, and we owe this relatively weak performance to our older swimmers who were swimming a bit tired. Could be the 30,000 yards a week they are swimming or the difficulty to get fired-up during this kind of competitive format ... at least not all is lost, these athletes still put a pretty good show for our younger kids to watch. In Particular, the following swimmers had a great meet: Jude and Belen Mirsky, Lani Kamler, Sienna and Nick Berry and Ella Biesiadecki.
All in all a good event that hopefully got our new families to learn a bit more about the sport and our older one to have some time to catch-up. Looks like Bobby offered a good alternative to our snack bar. I am thinking about passing the job on to the RRC kitchen from now on. I welcome your feedback in this area.
While not swimming close enough to their best times, our older kids managed to break 2 team records. Alicia Vogelaar, Emma Jones, Justas Reskevicius and Jared Sears broke the 13 and over mixed 200 free relay record and Alicia, Emma, Jared and Alex Claman broke the 13 and over mixed 200 medley relay record. Good job!
Next on the Marlins schedule is the long course meet in Vallejo on May 6,7 and 8. So far we have 14 swimmers attending and the meet is schedule to close on 4/28 or earlier if enough swimmers enter the meet.
On May 13 and 14, all our high schoolers will be competing for their respective high schools in their league championships. We will be preparing our athletes to perform as best as they can for this event. A week later those who qualify will get to compete in the North Coast Section High school championships.
In the meantime, the next meet open to everyone on the team is schedule for Saturday, May 21 at the Tiburon Peninsula Club and will be hosted by NBA. I recommend this meet for all the swimmers. This is very much like our home meets. The meet will be open for registration shortly.
I have officially closed our Spring session schedule to end on 6/10. I will still consider accepting returning Marlins swimmers to the team, but all new swimmers will have to wait until the beginning of the Summer season on June 13.
A 48% best time is well below average, and we owe this relatively weak performance to our older swimmers who were swimming a bit tired. Could be the 30,000 yards a week they are swimming or the difficulty to get fired-up during this kind of competitive format ... at least not all is lost, these athletes still put a pretty good show for our younger kids to watch. In Particular, the following swimmers had a great meet: Jude and Belen Mirsky, Lani Kamler, Sienna and Nick Berry and Ella Biesiadecki.
All in all a good event that hopefully got our new families to learn a bit more about the sport and our older one to have some time to catch-up. Looks like Bobby offered a good alternative to our snack bar. I am thinking about passing the job on to the RRC kitchen from now on. I welcome your feedback in this area.
While not swimming close enough to their best times, our older kids managed to break 2 team records. Alicia Vogelaar, Emma Jones, Justas Reskevicius and Jared Sears broke the 13 and over mixed 200 free relay record and Alicia, Emma, Jared and Alex Claman broke the 13 and over mixed 200 medley relay record. Good job!
Next on the Marlins schedule is the long course meet in Vallejo on May 6,7 and 8. So far we have 14 swimmers attending and the meet is schedule to close on 4/28 or earlier if enough swimmers enter the meet.
On May 13 and 14, all our high schoolers will be competing for their respective high schools in their league championships. We will be preparing our athletes to perform as best as they can for this event. A week later those who qualify will get to compete in the North Coast Section High school championships.
In the meantime, the next meet open to everyone on the team is schedule for Saturday, May 21 at the Tiburon Peninsula Club and will be hosted by NBA. I recommend this meet for all the swimmers. This is very much like our home meets. The meet will be open for registration shortly.
I have officially closed our Spring session schedule to end on 6/10. I will still consider accepting returning Marlins swimmers to the team, but all new swimmers will have to wait until the beginning of the Summer season on June 13.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Marlins News - Monticello / Napa
Jeff and I took 22 swimmers to Monticello High School in Napa for our first meet in this venue. What a treat!
Great weather, gorgeous pool. See the picture below,
and a really fun format getting the kids to swim 5 events in one day. Although we had some technical difficulties with the timing system which lengthened the meet by almost 2 hours (that's a lot!). I felt it was still a good meet, so much so that we will be returning to that same pool on August 6th for the same meet.
Overall, the Marlins swimmers did a great job. 102 races with 9 disqualifications and a 62% best time. We could have avoided a few DQs, but otherwise the races were pretty clean. Every swimmer but one improved at least one race and in the process two of them managed to break another 3 team records. Bringing the total team record broken for this season alone to 40!
Congratulation to Coco Berkenfield (9-10) for 2 new team records in the 50 back and the 50 fly and to Ava Salmi (13-14) for breaking a 9 year old record in the 200 free.
Coco managed to earn another JO cut in the 100 free and a Far Western cut in the 50 back, also Ian Chow-Ise swam his first JO cut ever in the 200 free. Anika Berde, Jack Berkenfield, Ian Chow-Ise, Erin Hensley and Lani Kamler all contributed to a total of 8 new A times that day.
Since this meet was a pentathlon, it was scored on the result of each events, ultimately rewarded the most well rounded athlete in the pool. Coco Berkenfield managed to get the High point award by winning all 5 events and Ava Salmi tied for the same award in the 13-14 age group category.
We had the opportunity to watch Chloe Isleta (11-12) who happened to be at the meet. It is a random event as she is currently the best swimmer in the country in her age group. We all got treated to a solid show of great strokes, turns and transitions at a blazing speed. Humbling, but exciting as well.
Thank you again for all the parents who helped during the meet.
Good Job.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Far Westerns Championships
We just returned from the Far Western Championships in Morgan Hill where Jeff and I took 4 swimmers to compete over 4 days of competition. I was expecting a strong performance and alas it didn't happen. Unfortunately, I cannot find blame anywhere obvious (the plot thickens) and I am filling away a whole bunch of info that may make sense later.
Monica Sears had a tough meet which started with a problem with her race suit in her 200 free. She missed a best time by 1.7 seconds and recovered nicely in her following race, the 100 fly where she posted a best time and a new team record. The following day she swam the 200 IM and although she was 3 seconds ahead of her personal best half way through the race, she wasn’t able to maintain the intensity of the swim and fell back a bit to miss a best time by half a second. On Saturday, she swam the 500 free. We all had great hopes as she was seeded 8th in prelims and stood a good chance to qualify for finals. Unfortunately after the second 50 she was already off pace and never recovered. She finish that race 8.5 seconds behind her best! Two hours later she dives in for her 100 back and somehow pulls off a best time by half a second and break another team record. Talk about highs and lows! Finally, Sunday arrives and her first race is the 50 free, she stood a good chance to improve, and she did, not by much, just one tenth of a second, but that was enough to break the third and last team record of the meet, a record that stood for over 10 years. Fifteen minutes later she dives in for her last race of the meet, the 100 breast. By now she is pretty tired, physically and emotionally and she falls short of her best time by 2.6 seconds. Throughout this whole meet she maintained her cool, sure she was bummed about her slower races, but she kept attacking each one as if they were her first.
Jared, her brother, swam the 200 back with a great improvement on his transition. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get a best time. Two days later he raced in the 100 back and raced slower than he did back in July of last year. It happens, even with hard training, sometimes it can go bad.
Tyler Welty was there to improve a race that he had done 2 weeks earlier, the same race that got him qualified for this meet. He fell short of his goal by three tenth of a second. I could blame his turns (and I could be right) but all in all he swam a much better race this time. It was well paced and he finished strong.
Aidan Cumming qualified in the 50 breast like Tyler, two weeks before. But unlike Tyler, he had to change his dive, his pull down, his kick and his glide. How did he qualify for this meet in the first place? That’s how much raw talent is in this kid. The cool part is that he did change his dive, lengthen his glides, cleaned up his pull down and manage to fix his kick, at least for the first half of the race. And yes, with all that he did get a best time.
I usually do not ramble about the specific of each race, but I felt there was a good story behind the numbers. 36% best time was just not giving the whole picture. Anyways, good job to all of you, and a big thank you to your parents for the support they afforded you.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Junior Olympics
Seven swimmers attended the 2011 Junior Olympics Championships in San Ramon. With very hard conditions on Friday and Saturday (lots of rain, wind and cold) our athletes had a tough job. To spice it up, a record number of swimmers qualified for the meet, bringing the total number of teams attending to 102 and the number of swimmers over 1500! This made for very crowded warm-up / warm-down lanes and a confusing meet happening in 3 pools at once that made keeping track of everything a bit challenging.
But the Marlins managed, and with slightly above 50% best times, everyone getting at least one best time, 5 new team records and 2 new swimmers qualifying for Far Westerns in 2 weeks, we can say that it was not bad at all.
Congratulations to Aidan Cumming and Tyler Welty who both got their first qualification to the Far Western Championships scheduled in 2 weeks in Morgan Hill. Aidan qualified in the 50 Breast and Tyler in the 100 breast.
Congratulations to Coco Berkenfield and Ava Salmi for breaking a team record in the 9-10 100 back and the 13-14 100 breast, respectively, (both 10 year old records!), to Monica Sears, Tyler Welty and Jared Sears for improving their own records in the 11-12 500 free, the 13-14 100 breast and the 15-16 200 free respectively.
Good Job to James Beard, the youngest boy (11) for putting up with the weather and the cold and still improving both of his events.
Parents, thank you for the support. Jeff and I are greatful for it.
But the Marlins managed, and with slightly above 50% best times, everyone getting at least one best time, 5 new team records and 2 new swimmers qualifying for Far Westerns in 2 weeks, we can say that it was not bad at all.
Congratulations to Aidan Cumming and Tyler Welty who both got their first qualification to the Far Western Championships scheduled in 2 weeks in Morgan Hill. Aidan qualified in the 50 Breast and Tyler in the 100 breast.
Congratulations to Coco Berkenfield and Ava Salmi for breaking a team record in the 9-10 100 back and the 13-14 100 breast, respectively, (both 10 year old records!), to Monica Sears, Tyler Welty and Jared Sears for improving their own records in the 11-12 500 free, the 13-14 100 breast and the 15-16 200 free respectively.
Good Job to James Beard, the youngest boy (11) for putting up with the weather and the cold and still improving both of his events.
Parents, thank you for the support. Jeff and I are greatful for it.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Marlins News
Considering the time of the year, the weather was pretty good for our first home meet, even if it was a bit cold for the second half. 60 swimmers participated, about 1/3 more than last year, and we welcomed 14 kids who participated in their first meet ever. Everyone was a bit nervous and I probably didn't help much by adding events to most of them. Still in the end everyone did a great job. Congrats to Cadence Ayoubpour, Bennett Barsotti, Mac Berry, Malia Chendo, Lindsay Eiseman, Ada Huttula, Sophia Lindsay, Alexander and AnnaLea Sreba, Lauren Surtherland, Aidan, Spenser and Haley Thompson and Noa Zimmerman.
A 62% best time is pretty good, considering that 25 and 50 yards event are a bit harder to improve. All in all a good event that hopefully got our new families to learn a bit more about the sport and our older one to have some time to catch-up. Still, I would have rather like to spend my time supporting and coaching the swimmers instead of starting the meet. Next time some of our more experienced family may want to step up.
Next on the Marlins schedule is the Junior Olympics Championships in San Ramon where 8 our swimmers will be competing over 3 days (3/18 to 3/20).
Do not forget our swim suit try-on. Reed from Norcal will be here are the pool from 4 to 6:30 pm on Tuesday, March 22nd. He will be happy to help you size the suits for your kids. He will also bring goggles and will be happy to deliver any purchases if you give him enough time (and the item is in stock).
The Monticello swim meet in Napa on April 9th is still open. So far we have 13 swimmers attending. It is a meet recommended for all our swimmers as long as they have at least one home meet experience.
A 62% best time is pretty good, considering that 25 and 50 yards event are a bit harder to improve. All in all a good event that hopefully got our new families to learn a bit more about the sport and our older one to have some time to catch-up. Still, I would have rather like to spend my time supporting and coaching the swimmers instead of starting the meet. Next time some of our more experienced family may want to step up.
Next on the Marlins schedule is the Junior Olympics Championships in San Ramon where 8 our swimmers will be competing over 3 days (3/18 to 3/20).
Do not forget our swim suit try-on. Reed from Norcal will be here are the pool from 4 to 6:30 pm on Tuesday, March 22nd. He will be happy to help you size the suits for your kids. He will also bring goggles and will be happy to deliver any purchases if you give him enough time (and the item is in stock).
The Monticello swim meet in Napa on April 9th is still open. So far we have 13 swimmers attending. It is a meet recommended for all our swimmers as long as they have at least one home meet experience.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Marlins News - Napa
17 swimmers participated over 2 days of competition. We had quite a few kids sick or recovering from being sick so that explains the low percentage of swimmers who improved at least one event. Two disqualifications only, but both could have been avoided (and both swimmers know it). Still a 50 % best time, 14 new races never perfomed before and 2 team records, make this an overall good meet for the team. Unfortunately, this was the last chance for our swimmers to qualify for the up-coming Junior Olympics Championships and even if a few kids got really close, no one added any events to the current roster of JO qualifiers.
I should mentioned the 2 team records broken over the weekend. Coco Berkenfield (10) broke a team record in the 200 back, it was her first time swimming the event and she took the record away from Sarah Dunn, one of our fastest Marlins swimmer who still hold many records. Also Tyler Welty who improved his 100 breast a bit and broke his own record set back in December. These 2 swimmers helped bring the total number of records broken to 29 since September, surpassing last years total records by 2 ... with 6 months to go before the end of the season. I can hardly wait!
Good job to all and a special thank you for all the parents who help time during the meet, and an immense gratitude for Theresa Kamler who worked as a stroke and turn during the meet.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Marlins News - Vallejo
We just finished our first meet of 2011 after 6 weeks of practice since the winter break. We did not do any specific preparation for the event and treated it as a practice meet. No surprisingly, the majority of the 18 swimmers who participated in the meet performed as expected. Over the weekend, the swimmers improved 49% of their events, well below our 60% average for meet, but no one was really off their best times by much and that is a good sign. Another good sign is that out of 100 races, the team only collected 2 disqualifications.
What was surprising, was the fact that four swimmers collected a total of ten new team records! Congratulations to Coco Berkenfield (9-10) for her performance in the 50 fly, Lizzie Ferguson (9-10) for breaking an 11 years old record in the 500 free, Monica Sears (11-12) for breaking six team records in the 200 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 fly, 200 and 400 IM, and Jared Sears (15-16) for his performance in the 1000 free and the 400 IM.
Less surprising but still worth noting, is the performance of the Coco Berkenfield and Aidan Cumming who added 3 new Junior Olympics times each, Lizzie Ferguson, Justin Jo and Annalise Schlafer who added one "A" time each, and to Monica Sears for swimming a Far Western time on her 100 fly, and getting three "PRTs" Pacific Reportable Times in the 100 back, the 200 and the 500 free.
Big thank you to Judy Ferguson and Theresa Kamler for officiating during the meet.
What was surprising, was the fact that four swimmers collected a total of ten new team records! Congratulations to Coco Berkenfield (9-10) for her performance in the 50 fly, Lizzie Ferguson (9-10) for breaking an 11 years old record in the 500 free, Monica Sears (11-12) for breaking six team records in the 200 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 fly, 200 and 400 IM, and Jared Sears (15-16) for his performance in the 1000 free and the 400 IM.
Less surprising but still worth noting, is the performance of the Coco Berkenfield and Aidan Cumming who added 3 new Junior Olympics times each, Lizzie Ferguson, Justin Jo and Annalise Schlafer who added one "A" time each, and to Monica Sears for swimming a Far Western time on her 100 fly, and getting three "PRTs" Pacific Reportable Times in the 100 back, the 200 and the 500 free.
Big thank you to Judy Ferguson and Theresa Kamler for officiating during the meet.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Marlins Away Meet Check List
1. When you get to the meet, you must:
a. Have your child check-in for every day of the meet. The athletes must check themselves in. The clerk will circle the events for the day, or ask the swimmer to do it and the swimmer will initial next to it. Pre-seeded meet do not require check-ins.
b. Find the team area and set-up with your team.
c. Have your child check-in with the coach, at which point the coach will go over warm-up procedures and any specifics for the meet. If your child is young and the weather is on the cold side, the coach may advise him or her to skip warm-up all together.
d. No events should be modified before clearing it with the coach first.
e. Be ready for the team meeting schedules 5 minutes before the end of the scheduled warm-up.
f. All swimmers must wear their team caps during warm-up and also during their races.
2. Show your team spirit: Swimmers should wear Marlin’s paraphernalia like cap, suit, parka, sweats, T-shirt, etc. Remember to cheer for your teammates!
3. Help your child learn their competition routine:
a. Check their Heat and Lane assignment (if relevant). Heat / Lane information is posted around the pool or can be found directly on the program if the meet is pre-seeded.
b. Check–in with appropriate coaches to let them know their seeding assignment and get a word of encouragement and a technical reminder. Be patient, coaches have to watch races, talk to swimmers before and after their races. They may not be ready when you are; this is why you want to give yourself some extra time to check in.c. Line up to swim and make sure the timers have your name on their clipboard, swim the race.
d. Warm-down (double the distance swam in the race if it is 200 yards and above, or triple it if it is 100 yards or less) if space is provided.
e. Check-in with appropriate coaches to hear feedback on your race, times, splits, pointers, acknowledgments.
f. Go drink and eat! Let go of the last race and prepare the next.
4. Parents, help your child stay at the meet as long as you can to reinforce the fact that any competition is a team event. Get involved in the running of the meet by timing or becoming an official. Avoid coming for your child’s one race and leaving 5 minutes after it’s over.
5. What to do when your child gets disqualified. Disqualifications “DQs” are part of swimming; this is the other way your child’s performance is judged other then with a stopwatch. Rules are designed for purposes such as fostering fairness amongst the competitor, allowing order and smoothness in the running of a meet and protecting the integrity of a stroke against the ever-evolving interpretations of the swimmers and their coaches. Sooner or later your child will be “DQed”. When this happens, remember that this is part of the learning process. The Stroke and Turn Judge will meet the swimmer behind the block and will hand him a yellow sheet while explaining the reason for the DQ. You are encouraged to listen and make sure your child understands the nature of the mistake. The coach will go over all the details to make sure that this “incident” turns into a learning opportunity. Parents and coaches are not allowed to argue the merit of a DQ directly with the judge. If necessary, a protest can be filled by the coach with the Referee who will investigate the call made by the judge. Often your child will be upset. Remember to offer your support and let the coach do the coaching.
6. Pick up your awards at the end of the meet when possible.
7. Clean the team area; leave it as clean as you found it.
8. Check in with your coaches when you leave the meet, even if it’s just to say goodbye. Don’t leave the meet until you know if your are on a relay or not.
9. Parent’s code of conduct: Swim meets are an important part of the sport experience. It is also the one-time parents, coaches and swimmers come together to make the event work and to help it be successful. Each has a specific responsibility, which do not overlap.
The child’s job is to showcase his/her knowledge and experience acquired during practice sessions and other competitions, while having fun. It’s also to reach goals he/she has set for himself/herself as well as socializing with his/her friends.
The coach’s job is to facilitate the experience by sharing his/her expertise, by putting things in perspective and giving an unbiased opinion of the athlete’s performance. The coach’s job is to use the opportunity competition provides to reaffirm and / or redefine goals for each athlete, each training group and the team as a whole.
The parent’s job is to provide unconditional support and love to the athlete. Also to allow the athlete to mature by creating the space needed for him/her to grow. The parent’s job is to assume there is always a certain amount of pressure put on the athlete during competition, and that they should be careful not to add to it.
a. 8 & Under: At this age, it is the parent’s job to help their kids learn about the running of a meet. Don’t expect the coaches to run around looking for your children because they simply can’t. Bring your child to the coach, run them through their competition routine until they know it by heart. Parents should teach their children how to best utilize their coach, they should also help the coach better understand their children by communicating with them.
b. 9 – 12: If your child is new to swimming, you may want to follow the recommendations for the younger swimmers. The goal is to make sure the athlete is doing what needs to be done while helping them less and less as they get older. This means that sometimes parents may want to let the athlete suffer the consequences of a mistake in order to best learn from it.
c. 13 & up: By this age, the athlete understands their expectations at a swim meet … but parents are not off the hook yet. They still need to make sure that there is good communication between their child and the coach.
Remember: If you are new at this, more experienced parents will be delighted to help you out, they all remember being a little confused at the beginning too!
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