News from Around the Pool

 News From Around the Pool

February 2016

Happy Almost Spring!

It is hard to believe how fast time goes.  It seems like just the other day my family and I arrived here in South Florida.  Has it really been 6 months?!?  With a great ending to 2015, I am really looking forward to 2016 and beyond.  I believe that the future is bright and that we are laying the foundation for a strong team for years to come.

Since August, we have made many significant changes to the culture and make-up of the team.  I truly feel like many of the pieces are coming together.  I would like to thank each and every parent and athlete for their continued commitment to the program and our new vision.  We have all made a major investment in this sport with our time and energy.  As parents and coaches we all have athletes’ best interests at heart and I know we are willing to do whatever it takes to help our swimmers achieve their goals and realize the highest possible return on the investment for each child.  The continued success of each and every swimmer matters, whether it is defined in terms of enjoyment, recreation, fitness, or the pursuit of personal bests and regional or national qualifying times.

Within each training group we will continue focus on 6 different areas of development; training requirements, competitive performance, biomechanical progressions, physiological progressions, psychological skills and character development.  Because swimmers are multidimensional and will develop at different rates we suggest that the swimmers attend at least the recommended number of practices (Pathways-2, Bronze 2-3, Silver 3-4, Senior Development 5, & Senior Elite 6), so that each athlete can receive the most out of the program and maximize their full potential. We are extremely focused on each athletes’ long term career development.  Now that we have a clear vision and direction for the club team, I feel that it is really time to get excited.  As I stated before, I believe that the future is bright and with so many wonderful families here at MCDA, that are buying into the process, I think we are laying a strong foundation for a new team culture!

A New Face in the Crowd

If you have been around lately you will have notice that there is another new face on deck.  Many people have already meet him, but I would like to officially introduce Coach Julian Wynter-Andersen to the MCDA family.  If you have not had the chance to meet him yet please come down and introduce yourself.  We are very fortunate to have someone with great experience, knowledge and passion and someone who is a teacher and a great role model for our swimmers.  We are so excited to have him.  Welcome Coach Julian! 

Be on the look out….

We have heard many people asking for more opportunities to race here at our home pool.  In the coming weeks there will be some information about other home intersquad competitions and some specialty clinics (Starts and Turns, Breaststroke, Backstroke, Butterfly). 

Holiday Splash

For those of us that joined in the fun for our annual Holiday Splash, thank you.  It was a very fun afternoon and evening filled racing, music, fun and a lot of laughs.  Thank you to our DJ.  Marco Nogueira, father of Antonia (a Bronze Swimmer), donated his time and gave us a great sound track for the night.  Thanks again Marco!  Also we collected toys for Miami Children’s Health Foundation.  Thank you for your donations.  I know the Children who received these gifts were extremely happy!  I definitely believe this can be the beginning of a great tradition for MCDA!  Below are a few of the picture that we took, if you have others please share.

Upcoming up Events

The Interscholastic Middle School and Varsity Water Polo season has started.  Unfortunately there will be some adjustments to practice times over the next couple of months.  Please check the calendar on our website to see if there has been any change.

Here are some dates to note.  Please mark them on your calendars:

Feb 5^th                        Interscholastic Water Polo Match – NO PRACTICE!

Feb 12-14                    Gulliver Winter Invitational (Every Group!)

Feb 26^th                       Fling into Spring Swim Team Party!!!

Feb 27-28                    Area 3 Championships (Non-JO Qualifiers)

March 4-6                    FGC Junior Olympics (Qualifiers only)

March 18-20                FGC Senior Championships (Qualifiers only)

April 2                         Shamrock Invite in North Miami (Every Group!!)

As always, please check the calendar on the Miami Country Day Aquatics website and look out for other interesting articles, videos and information about our team on our Facebook fan page:

Thoughts from USA Olympic Head Coach Bob Bowman

This December I got a chance to sit down and listen to Bob Bowman speak on many different topics.  If you don’t know the name Bob Bowman, he is famous for having coached Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic medalist in history.

Besides all of the great tips and thoughts on the technical side of swimming there were a few other items that I thought were very pertinent as we continue to grow and change in 2016:

1. Michael mother was “too involved” in his swimming at a young age and was asked to tone down her exuberance.

2. Let the coaches coach, you be the parent and love them and support them!

    

3. Michael never won a Junior National Championship.He developed into a better swimmer later as an older swimmer and being more mature.

4. We are a program with long term goals.As we want to see every child in our program continue to improve, our ultimate goal is to have your children be with us throughout their schooling years and use their abilities to swim in college.

    

5. Coach Bowman routinely kicked Michael and his buddies out of practice, even at a young age, when they were not trying hard enough.

   • Practices are hard and challenging, physically and mentally, because we know all of the athletes in our program can strive to work a little harder.As coaches, we love to see a child’s confidence grown when they accomplish something they never thought they could do!

      

6. Coach Bowman will talk with his swimmers about goals, and teach them how to set them, but he will not set goals for his swimmers….They must own their goals.

   • Some of the best athletes to work with are those that are intrinsically motivated.We will continue to ask all the kids what their goals are.

   • His 3 most important things at the age group level: “Have fun, learn how to work hard, and how to do things correct”.  These are the 3 core principles that we have adopted this year

 Meet Results

This past weekend we attended the SoFlo Open invitational in Pembrook Pines.  I’d like to congratulate Zubin Kamalani (8), who competed in his first swim meet!  Madison Castro (11), Sofia Sarross (13) and  Jack Rodriguez (14) each swam 4 events and had 4 Lifetime Best swims.  Lilly Scheingoltz (9) and Mateo Scheingoltz (7) also had personal bests in every event they swam!  Below are the results.  Congratulations!  Go Spartans!

Swimming Terminology

DRAG

Drag forces act opposite to the direction a swimmer is moving.  Ways to minimize the effects of drag are to increase the propulsive forces by efficient technique or minimizing the resistive forces.

Drag = Bad!

As always please continue to check out our website as well as

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