New year and that means new coaching book…every year I get a new coaching book, usually because my other one is so full and beat up…spiral bound 8″ by 6″ hard cover books…cant beat em.
Anyhoo, I print out the split cheater below just big enough that it fits on the inside of my back cover and tape it down. I made it a bunch of years ago and it is one of those invaluable tools that I keep coming back to when I am writing a complicated split or bracket …

this is pretty awesome news for us as we were switching over to BlueSeventy as our team comp suit. Better discounts for everyone… (link to blueseventy press release is here)
(from swimming world.com)
Blueseventy Becomes U.S. Masters Swimming Sponsor
LONDONDERRY, New Hampshire, December 22. U.S. Masters Swimming is pleased to announce that starting January 1, 2009 blueseventy will become an Official Gold Medal Partner of U.S. Masters Swimming.
The multi-year partnership will see blueseventy become the official swim skin of U.S. Masters Swimming which will feature event signage, presence on www.usms.org, a special …

Coach Nate quoted in this Sunday’s Boston Globe…
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/12/21/finding_songs_to_swim_by/
i love the word forbid. sort of final-like…

“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”
-Herschel Walker
True words indeed from a man who walked the walk. If you do not know who Herschel Walker is or what he did, you don’t need to look far on the interweb. Not only is he regarded as the top collegiate running back of all time (among a ton of other career highlights), he is well known for his training regimen and for never having done a single day of weight training in his …

as coaches, Coach Ellen and I find that inspiration for making our swimmers better can come from some of the weirdest places. some coaches will just call it in day after day with the same old workouts and the swimmers get used to the routine and the improvement just wanes after a while. i had a coach in high school who was the most inventive coach I ever met and still to this day, I smile when I reflect on some of the stuff he got away with. …

“…Some say they sold the yay and know they couldn’t get work on Labor day
It ain’t that black and white, it has an area that’s shaded gray
I’m west side anyway, even if I left the game and stayed away…”

“So keep on gettin’ ‘ya paper (Ah)
And keep on climbin’ (Ah)
Look in the mirror
And keep on shinin’ (shinin’)
‘Til the game ends
‘Til the clock stop
We gon’ post up on the top spot…”

can be seen here…http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos.html…10 strokes - turn - 10 strokes - turn…etc. lovin the SCY effect…every turn makes a difference.

80 videos this week…Welcome to the gun show…

We are working on starts every day now as some of our swimmers prep for the upcoming meet season. I promised them some videos as well as some pics of positioning…I have chopped out the starts from some race videos in the last two years giving you an idea of perfect start form. I love Inge DeBruijn’s starts because she is a rocket off the block. Stefan Nystrand and Pieter van den Hoogenband have massive track starts and I also put up a video of Franciska VanAlmzik …

For years hard training swimmers have sat down at the breakfast table after a long workout ready to enjoy the feast of fat and carbs. Yet, there has always been something missing…something spiritually devoid about eating 3 strips of crispy, once-alive-now-dead pig flesh…at long last…the Holy Church of Bacon has finally released the Holy Book of Bacon!! No more shall your bacon be just another meat on your plate. After achieving your zen-like sweetness from a perfect workout, you can become one with the holiest of holy …