This last weekend, Gadi, Jeff and I spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the annual coaches clinic held in Napa every year. It happens to be the second biggest clinic in the country, not too surprising when you see how many teams are located in the bay area alone.
We sat through some good classes and listened to inspiring speaker. We picked up a few ideas from coaches about stroke work, set design and team management.
Meanwhile, we had three of our parents, Theresa Kamler, Judy Ferguson and Nina Rannel participating in a swimming official clinic in San Francisco. Lots of good information was available and I am so happy to have them step up and be Stroke and Turn Official for our team.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Santa Rosa
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.
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.
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!
 |
| 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.
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