West Coast Aquatics
Early Spring Edition
In This Edition
* Message from the Head Coach
* Article by John Leonard
* Age Group Silver by Coach Ryan
* Calendar of Events
*Super Swimmers by Coach Kristin
Age Groupers
enjoying a Friday
night practice with no
lane lines
*Training Versus Learning by John
Leonard
*The Mile Challenge –Article and
Pictures
Message from the Head Coach
Welcome to the spring! This is an exciting time of year for our
swimmers as we are just wrapping up the end of the short course season
with many championship meets.
This past February, 23 participants from the WEST age group
program attended the Lost Dutchman meet in Arizona. Coach Mary and
Coach Ryan were very excited with the success of their swimmers that
made the trip. There were many JO and Far Western cuts. Thank you to
those dedicated parents that accepted the challenging task of chaperoning
the trip for their swimmers. The WEST senior program participated in two
top Senior meets this past February and March. The first meet was the
Clovis Senior meet. Star swimmers from this meet included Brandon
Nguyen, Andrea Morrone and Christopher Ruiyantoro. The last meet the
Seniors participated in was the American Short Course Championships
held at the University of Texas in Austin, TX. This was college level
three day meet, which brought in some of the top colleges from around the
country as well as some of the top USA swimming club teams from
around the country. WEST qualified and took 7 swimmers for this event.
There were many standout swims during the meet for WEST, which
included the men's 400 Free Relay which placed 5th next to the Univ. of
Texas Mens’ team, TCU, SMU and Texas A&M men's team. Paul Huang,
Ian Ordes, Ryan Richardson, Andrew Bui and Megana Vasu all gained top
honors at the meet.
Now, we turn our focus on to the high school season and look
forward to league championships and CCS in May. We invite the age
group swimmers that are not yet in high school to come out to CCS and
watch our swimmers participate in the high school sectional meet.
continued on page 2
* Age Group Gold by Coach Mary
* Bronze Group Happenings by
Coach Shannon
* Photo Gallery
“Persistence can change
failure into extraordinary
achievement.”
-Matt Biondi
Senior Swimmers Andrea, Ashley,
Allison, and Megana at the Senior
Meet in Santa Cruz
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 1
Continued from page 1
I would also like to recognize some senior
swimmers for their dedication, hard work, and great
attendance through this last training cycle. Congratulations
to Andrew Bui, Ian Ordes, Andrea Morrone, Megana
Vasu, Allison Bui and Claire Pham. Great job, now let’s
finish out the next 6 weeks with a bang!
Coach Danica
Ian, Coach Ryan, Andrew, and Paul celebrating after
their awesome relay!
What Should Your Age Group Swimmer Be Doing Now, in order to "maximize their talent" later on in life?
By John Leonard
This is one of the great questions of modern day youth athletics. There is far "too much" information out there on the internet
about "how to train" and when parents read it, it can be overwhelming and the only thing we can be sure of, is that MOST of it, is
out of context and out of any sort of realistic order for a young athlete. Young athletes ARE NOT miniature adults.
There is a relatively new swimming book. It's called "...And Then They Won Gold..." Stepping Stones to Swimming
Excellence, Volume 1". The author is world-class Coach Chuck Warner. The material within is endorsed by many of the
greatest coaches of our time, as well as the World and American Swimming Coaches Association. The content follows the stories
of 8 of the world's most successful male athletes in the past dozen years, from early age group years to their Gold Medal and
beyond.....it discusses both what the athletes were doing and what the parents were doing (and thinking.) It is remarkably detailed,
and parents will immediately understand what it is that their child should (and should not) be doing if the parent and child wants
the athlete to maximize their talent at the time in life when it CAN be maximized.
This is the best information for age group swimming parents on the market. If you're a parent, with a child who swims, it's a
"must read."
Age Group Silver
Age Group Silver has had a great last couple of months of training and meets! We have added some
new faces to the group and accomplished a lot! I would like to take a moment and acknowledge a few
notable swims that have occurred over the last couple months. First, is Isabelle who traveled to Chandler,
Arizona with other WEST age group swimmers for the Lost Dutchman Invitational. Isabelle had a fantastic
meet where she raced to a best time in all of her events except one. Isabelle is also the only swimmer in Age
Group Silver to compete in the 400 IM! Way to go Isabelle, keep up the good work! Another swimmer that
has swum spectacularly over the last few months has been Megan Nghiem. Megan recently swam at the
Pacific Swimming Short Course Junior Olympics Championship where she competed in 5 events! That is
quite an accomplishment, congratulations. Everyone else in Age Group Silver has had amazing swims this
year with multiple best times. We continue to get better and inch our way closer to those JO qualifying times.
Let’s keep training and racing hard and have a great summer season this year! Go WEST!!
Coach Ryan
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 2
Super SwimmersCalendar of Events
April 4th-7th:
Far Westerns @ Morgan Hill
April 20th-21st:
Morgan Hill C/B/A (LC) @ Morgan
Hill (this has closed)
April 26th-27th:
“A” League Champs @ Gunderson
(high school swimmers only)
April 27th:
10 and Under Champs (SC) @
Sunnyvale (qualifiers only)
rd
th
May 3 -4 :
“B”& “C” League Champs @
Gunderson
Super Swimmers have had an exciting month. All the swimmers who
attended the Mile Challenge swam at least the 1 mile required. Several
stayed in and challenged themselves by swimming much farther. This was
the perfect opportunity to work on their endurance swimming. The swimmer
who swam the most laps in Super Swimmers was Mateo Solis Prada! He
swam over 170 laps.
Thank you to those who attended the Butterfly Clinic ran by Coach
Mary. It was nice to get some extra feedback on a challenging stroke for the
younger swimmers. These clinics are beneficial to all to promote teamwork,
technique, and skill development. In the future I would like to see more
Super Swimmers attend.
We also had a Fast Friday mock swim meet with Pre-Competitive
and Silver. It was a good time for all, and a nice chance to practice racing
skills. We will be holding these practice meets once a month. Small awards
are given, and times are recorded for their knowledge.
(high school swimmers only)
May 4th:
Backstroke Team Clinic @ JL
10-noon
May 10th-11th:
CCS Champs @ Santa Clara
Coming up is the 10 & Under Championship Meet. The many Super
Swimmers should qualify for this meet. They must have an A time swam in
an official meet, or if they are 6 and under a B time in the 8 & under time
standards. Please check with a coach if you have any questions for this meet.
This meet is one of the most exciting meets in the year for Super Swimmers.
Get them signed up if they qualify right away!
(high school swimmers only)
May 12th:
High School Day After Meet
@ Santa Clara
May 18th-19th:
IM Ready Meet (LC) @ Morgan Hill
Please remember to send your swimmers with tennis shoes on
Mondays and Fridays, so we can make the most of Dryland exercises. Water
is also important to keep our swimmers hydrated.
I look forward to a busy summer with West, and know we will be
prepared for the fun to come!
(Senior Bronze and Age Groupers)
May 25th-27th:
Coach Kristin Fific
Monterey Age Group Open (LC)
@ Salinas
(Senior Bronze and Age Groupers)
May 30th-June 2nd:
SCSC Grand Prix @ Santa Clara
Go And Watch!!!
May 31st-June 2nd:
Senior II Meet (LC) @ Pleasanton
(Senior qualifiers only)
“The difference between the
impossible and the possible lies
in the person’s determination.”
-Tommy Lasorda
Mateo Solis Prada rocking it
at the Mile Challenge!
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 3
TRAINING VERSUS LEARNING
By John Leonard
Last week I was speaking to a young coach who had just taken a new job. His specific problem was
that the coach that was there before he was, had everyone “training hard” and had done a great job of
selling that concept. Everyone from 8 and unders to seniors was pounding the yardage daily.
The new coach wanted to spend 6 weeks or so concentrating on skills development, because in the
first few days on the job, he noticed that many of the swimmers were deficient in the types of stroke, turn
and start skills that would support them as they aged into older swimmers in the program.
He’d laid out that plan to his parent group, including cutting back practices from 2 and one half hours per
day to just 90 minutes for the older swimmers and 60 minutes for the middle groups and 45 minutes for the
youngest swimmers. This, consistent with today’s best advice to dedicate oneself to “purposeful practice”
of new skills if you hoped for optimum learning....shorter periods of intense concentration, with little to
interfere with the concentration process.
He immediately faced rebellion. Moms and a few Dads, called him to complain that important swim
meets were coming up and their little darling needed to “train” in order to be successful. Interestingly, more
than 70% of the calls came from the parents of younger children. The coach asked my advice on how to
educate the parents on this issue. Here’s my answer.
“Long practices, with high training volumes will make all swimmers VERY good at what they are
doing. Repetition builds habit. Habit stands up beautifully under the pressure of competition...when in fact,
nothing else does....as the pain of competition effort removes all traces of thought from the brain.....it
becomes habit that the swimmer relies upon to get him home to the finish.
“Unfortunately, if they are practicing poor technique, that will be learned and habituated, just as
well as good technique. And poor technique makes you biomechanically inefficient at the time of greatest
stress. Hence you struggle more, go slower and your stroke collapses at the end of races.
“This makes swimming a technique limited sport. Your child will be severely limited by the degree
with which they can perform the strokes with good habits, instead of poor habits.
“Lots of training with poor habits will make a very poor swimmer. A little training with good habits,
will result in a good swimmer and one that is “unlimited” in their future. “Which one do you want for your
child? HINT: Get the strokes right FIRST instead of purposefully practicing mistakes.
All the Best for Great Swimming Experiences!
-John Leonard
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West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 4
The Mile Challenge: James Lick Location
2013 Mile Challenge Swim
The 2013 Mile Challenge swim is officially over and a big success. We had approximately 100 swimmers participate
in this year’s swim and as a team we swam over 150 miles! A special congratulation is in order for the top distance
winners at each site; Mateo Solis-Prada of Super Swimmers, who swam 2 miles and 37 laps at James Lick, and all of
Age Group Gold who swam 3 miles at Overfelt! These swimmers embody the spirit of the Mile Challenge and have
pushed themselves to accomplish this great endurance challenge. Parents, coaches, and kids came together to celebrate
our swimmers dedication, talent, and success, despite the soggy day, and were all greeted with chocolate milk, fresh
cookies, and well-earned medals. As a special treat for our youngest team, Super Swimmers, Coach Kristin brought
glow sticks for any child that could swim farther than a mile! On Wednesday, March 13th we collected the donations
raised and can’t wait to announce how big a success this event was. Any swimmer raising more than $150 will get a
great prize furnished by one of our sponsors. This year we have some real treats to look forward to- Rainbow Sandals,
gift cards, pizza, and more!
The Mile Challenge: Overfelt Location
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 5
Age Group Gold
Lost Dutchman Meet: Feb. 15th-18th
West had 14 swimmers, 2 coaches, and 6 parents attend the four day meet in Chandler, Arizona. Abida, Angelina, Mark, Antonia,
Leon, Max, Don, Ethan, John, Hubert, and Denise from Age Group Gold; Isabelle and Diane from Age Group Silver; and Max from
Super Swimmers attended the meet. The kids really enjoyed the 14 hour bus trips each way!
Ethan took home a 4th, 5th, 6th and two 8th place finishes. Our boys’ relays took 6th for the Medley and 8th for the Free. Way to go West
Swimmers!
JO’s:
West had 10 swimmers at the JO’s at Santa Clara. Leon, Max, Ethan, Abida, Maggie and Denise from Age Group Gold; Michelle
from Age Group Bronze; Megan from Age Group Silver; and Christine and Tommy from Senior Bronze competed in the meet.
Ethan achieved 4 PRT’s and one Far Western time, and dropped over 3 seconds in the 100 fly to out-touch two other swimmers. The
other swimmers had a good meet as well and many were close to their best times.
Far Westerns:
Ethan qualified for 7 events, five of which had PRT’s. Andrea from Senior Silver qualified in the 200 back. West had other Senior
qualifiers but with the timing of the meet with high school season, they did not compete in the meet.
Ethan had 3 best times and good swims in his other races. Andrea also had a beautiful race and looks forward to how she will swim at
the championship high school meets in the near future.
Awesome job at all the travel and championship meets West Swimmers!
Lost Dutchman Invitational
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition* Page 6
Bronze Group Happenings
In both Bronze groups we have been taking advantage of having shallower water in our lanes and a shorter
diving well at our disposal. This has made it possible to do different types of drills and technique work. It’s
also been great to be able to walk around the entire pool while watching the kids swim. Thank you so much to
everyone for being flexible during this renovation and especially high school season with the time change and
overlap of the groups. I am also trying to get the groups ready to compete in Long Course season and their
first long course meet in May.
Senior Bronze right now has dropped in size a tad do to a few different reasons but because of this, it has
made our current group become very close and like family. Swimmers are also getting more individual
attention and since I’ve finally gotten a “fancy phone” I’ve been able to use video to our advantage! We are
currently trying to touch on the small things that will help with time drops and prepare them for the high
school championships that are happening in the near future.
Age Group Bronze has changed a lot since we have moved to Overfelt High School, with some swimmers
going to James Lick for carpools and others that are new or have moved into the group from Super
Swimmers. We recently welcomed Deepanjali and her brother Suyash, Jesus, Derek, Dimitri, David, Charles,
Varun, Jonathan, and Kaiden. I’m also very proud of Michelle and Dimitri (even though he turned 13 right
before the meet) who qualified for JO’s. There are also a handful of 10 and Unders who are getting ready to
compete for West in the 10 & Under Champs that are happening soon.
Keep up the good work Bronze Swimmers!!!
Photo Gallery
West Coast Aquatics Newsletter * Early Spring Edition * Page 7