 UPDATES: All practices are at normal times this week. For planning purposes Wednesday, October 31 we WILL have the 5:30-6:30 practices. All the 6:30 practices are canceled for Halloween. Due to a university meet there will be no workouts on Friday, November 2nd. Reflections: We had a great week of practice, with a lot of you working hard to prepare for the meet. As for the meet, We thought a lot of you had a great start to the season. A lot of Tom Dolan and JO cuts were achieved by a lot of you. A lot of us stepped out of our comfort zone and tried some events that we never swam before, and that was awesome! Some of us were not too happy with our swims and you have to ask yourself this...Did I do everything possible to prepare myself for the race? Did I fear the race? (I heard this way too much) As coaches we try to put you in a position to succeed, and this includes the drills we do, the turns every time you hit a wall, and our streamlines off those walls. Some of us held back on our races because we were afraid of the pain. The November open would be a great meet to try a little experiment...Take one or two races and make up your mind that we are going to sprint the entire distance and really push our bodies to failure. Forget about the time and just focus on hitting that  and then  going over or through the wall and see what the other side is like!  It's  bad! To really understand how to race you need to get to the point where it hurts at the end. A lot of you think you have experienced this already, but I truly believe that very few of you (if any) have. I think you've come closer to this feeling in practice. Another observation is that some of you swam you're events and looked good, but you didn't RACE! There is a difference! (More on this next week) Next up was the fact that we had some DQ's and there is NO REASON for this. The DQ"s were the result of lack of focus and discipline and BETTER be corrected. You and no one else controls your race!  Our Top Banana's for this week are RACHEL ANDERSON for High performance. Rachel not only had a great week of practice but she swam 10 events in the meet and made 5 of her JO cuts. The AG2 award goes to ABBY BROCATO who did a great job in practice and swam some great races in the meet. AWESOME JOB you two! We escaped with another hard fought win over the  (sorry Amy).So we enter the bye week at 6-1 and have three tough division games coming up.WEEKLY TOPIC: NUTRITION We covered the importance of water last week, now we will briefly discuss carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Carbohydrates is he most important fuel for the body. A function of carbohydrates is to keep water in the body, and feed the muscles. During exercise if the carbos are low the body will use more muscles for energy, and athletes do not want to lose muscle weight during exercise. Good carbohydrates tend to be colorful foods such as             Colorful foods DO NOT INCLUDE Skittles, m&ms, Jelly Beans etc.Proteins is one of the most misunderstood nutrient among athletes who want to lose weight but also improve athletic performance. Some functions of proteins are; they carry nutrients through the bodies, helps maintain body fluid balance, produces antibodies for your immune system, and maintains proper PH in your body. Little of your energy is derived from proteins because it must be converted to carbohydrate/glucose first and this is difficult for the body to do. This is why athletes stay away from these in the few hours leading up to their events. Too much protein is bad because the body cannot store protein, and instead breaks it down into amino acids and any toxic substance is carried away by water. This process will dehydrate the body. The protein provides cell structures like the rubber on a balloon, and the carbohydrates fill the cell like air in a balloon. The more carbos that fill the balloon the larger that muscle becomes. FATS: are the main source of fuel for the body. When the body is at rest it uses more fat than any other fuel source. The Fats and Carbs must work together. Every cell in the body are held together by a thin layer of fatty acid and each has a head and tail which attract each other and forms a bond called a cell membrane. Without these just simple things like walking would destroy your body after a period of time. Eating before or during exercise? Physical activity is very important for improving health and athletic performance. What you eat determines the overall benefits of physical activity. Many people neglect to feed their bodies before exercise and in doing so start a downward spiral. When exercise is performed for extended time without food musclglycogen levels drop causing a decrease in metabolism side effects. This will slow the recovery time and will increase the muscle soreness. Eating before and after helps increase metabolism PERFORMANCE INCREASES. which will speed the recovery process, minimize muscle soreness. This will INCREASE THE BENEFIT OF PRACTICE, THUS THE Feeding the muscles is the most important habit for a HEALTHlLY SWIMMER. What type of swimmer's body do YOU want to build? HAVE A GOOD WEEK!! MIKE |
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
OCTOBER 22-28
