Week of 10-5

Hello everyone!

A big thanks to everyone who partook in the Swim-a-thon this past Saturday! I had a great time and it was good to see all of you there. Congrats to all who made the 200 lengths. I know Colin Martin made all 200 and that is definately the most he has done in that short of a time period by at least 80 lengths. Good work!

This week is a normal week of practice. For the advanced group, we are going to have a slightly less intense week than last week. That doesn't mean that it will be easy, but it will not be quite as hard as last week. For the intro group, I want to keep working on both flip turns and open turn which we started concentrating on last week. We looked pretty good for the limited work we did on them, but there is still much room for improvement! Meets start this coming weekend, so I also want to work some dives and starts with both groups so we can look good and swim fast at our first meet.

As you may have noticed, we have a new coach on deck! I completely forgot to introduce him on here last Thursday when I last posted, but I would like to officially welcome John Sommerville to USC! John is a native of the metro-Detroit Area, much like myself, and just graduated last May from Case Western. He is currently searching for a job in marketing (I think!) and will be with us at least through the end of 2009. He will actually not be at practice all week because he is in Chicago for some interviews and networking. An interesting fact: John and I coached for the same team in Michigan! I coached at the Beverly Hills Athletic Club (BHAC) for 5 summers between 2002 and 2006. After I left, John filled my void for the summer of 2007. That just goes to show how small of a world it actually is.

Two last bits of information...
1) Don't forget to collect all of your pledges and donations for the Swim-a-thon and turn them in. You can bring them to practice and I will lock them up until Brian Mann picks them up (or I deliver them to him).
2) Apparel order forms should be out this week. Michelle Delgross told me on Saturday that she hoped to have them at practice by today, so hopefully we have those soon.

That's all for now, see you at the pool!

Coach Matt

A long time coming...

Hello USC!
Its been awhile since I posted anything, but here we go.

1) Swim-a-thon: A reminder that the USC Swim-a-thon is this Saturday, Oct. 1, at the TFC. It starts at 6PM and runs until midnight. You are welcome to come at any time, but we are asking that some of the older kids come later in the night and let the younger kids have the earlier sessions. If you can only make it earlier, that is fine, you are welcome to swim then. Get out there and get some last minute donations! The prizes for top fundraisers were sent out last night. Here is a recap:

1. Overall top fundraiser on USC will receive a new iPod Nano with video capability. I'm jealous cause I want this!
2. Top fundraiser in each age group will receive a $25 gift card to Target!
3. Each swimmer participating have a chance to win a raffle prize
4. USA Swimming provides awards for reaching certain fundraising milestones. Every participant gets a certificate. Everyone who completes 100-200 lengths gets a pin. If you raise $500-$749.99, you get a USA Swimming T-shirt. If you raise $750-$999.99, you will receive a USA Swimming towel. If you raise over $1000, you will receive a USA Swimming bag!

The money raised from the Swim-a-thon goes to support USA Swimming and USC. Get out there and get people to sponsor you!

2) For those in the advanced group, if you have not yet gotten a pair of tennis shoes to wear in the pool, please do so. If there is 1 piece of equipment that you get and need (besides cap, goggles and swim suit), it is shoes! We are focusing a lot on our legs right now (as if you haven't noticed!) and kicking with shoes on helps to strengthen the small stabilizing muscles as well at the large muscles. It is also impossible to kick improperly with shoes and move forward. So please, go to Target or Payless and get a $10 pair of shoes to wear in the pool if you don't have an old pair of tennis shoes at home.

We have been doing a great job at practice. We are swimming very well and we need to keep it up! See you at practice!

-Coach Matt

Weekly Updates

Hello swimmers and families,
We are one week down and I am excited about what I have seen! First off we have great numbers. I love when there are lots of swimmers in the water! Also, we look pretty good in the water. I couldn't ask for much more as a coach.

I want to apologize for missing half the practices last week and thank Jen and Roderick for stepping in to cover for me. For those who haven't heard, my grandfather has not been in the greatest of health and he went into the hospital last Monday. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off of work, so I flew out to Chicago to see him. While I was there I realized that I had to be at Walsh for mini-class night where I got to meet my students' parents on Thursday night. Overall, a hectic week for me! But I made it through and am back and ready to coach everynight. :)

A couple things...

• All swimmers must have a water bottle on deck with them behind thier lane. No one realizes how much swimmers sweat while they swim becasue they are in water, but it is very easy to get dehydrated while swimming. I am going to look into some USC water bottles so we can represent our team both at practices and meets. I'll give more details on that at a later date
• Swimmers in the advanced group must bring an old pair of tennis shoes with them to practice. We will be using them (starting today) for kicking and leg strengthening. Please run them through the washing machine before wearing them in the pool, though, so we keep the dirt that may have accumulated in them over the years out of the pool!
• The advanced group swimmers will also be using hand paddles quite often this season. We have a very limited supply of them at the TFC, so if you have your own, don't forget them! The same goes with fins.

That's all I have for now. See everyone at the pool!

Welcome!

Hello to all the USC families in the USC Nation! To those returning for another season, welcome back and to those new families joining us, welcome, we are glad to have you! I have been itching to get back ever since champs ended. I spent a week in Seattle (beautiful out there by the way!) at the US Open with Tommy Inwood (now a sophomore at the University of Virginia) and at Junior Nationals with Chris Corbett (now a freshman at Williams) and watching those meets got me very excited for this season. We had some great success and huge improvements over the course of the past year, and I am ready to build on all of that! We have swimmers that are on the cusp of breaking into that next level, whether that is making a Silver cut, a Gold cut, a Zone cut, a Sectional cut, or even a Junior National cut and I have been planning out the season to try and help everyone make it to that next level.

As most of you already know, Stephanie will not be with us this season :( . She has found a job in Indiana and is moving (or may have already moved) there. This is a big hit to our coaching staff. Steph was an amazing asset to our team and she will be dearly missed!

However, I do have a new helper! Actually she isn't brand new, she coached with me a little bit in the spring before returning to Columbus for the summer. I would like to welcome Lindsay Pickut back to the pool deck at the TFC. For those who have not yet met her, Lindsay is a Junior at John Carroll University and swims backstroke and freestyle for the swim team. She will be with us pretty much every day until the end of September when her swim season starts, and then she will be coming 3 days a week at least through December. I am very happy to have her coaching along side me on deck.

I am still looking for another assistant to fill in Stephanie's spot. Charlie and I have talked about possible options and we are searching for an apporpriate candidate as we speak.

I feel like I have so much to say, but this has been a rather long welcome message so I will cut it off here. I will post again later with more that I have to say. I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!

Coach Matt

A "brief" look back to the future

Hello from Federal Way, WA! The US Open just finished up last night and Junior Nationals starts tomorrow morning. Tommy Inwood had best times in everything he swam and he made the C Final of the 200IM last night, so he got to swim twice. It was a very, very fast meet! Jessica Hardy broke 3 world records, the 50 breast twice (both times taking out a 100!) and the 100 breast. Amazing to watch! Perhaps the best thing, though, was watching the A Final of the men's 200IM. With all the controversy about the new tech suits that will be illegal very soon, there has been much said about the swims done in them. The 8 finalists paraded out in their warm-ups ready to swim, and when they got behind the blocks and took their warm-ups off, they were all wearing briefs! The entire aquatic center stood and clapped and cheered for each of them as the introductions were read. To me, this symbolized the start of a new era (actually an old one) in swimming. With the new rules to take effect January 1, 2010, this was one of the last meets where the tech suits could be worn. The 8 guys in the heat took us back to the future showing the past and future of the sport.

I hope everyone is having a great August and I will see you soon!

Long Course Champs

Congrats to everyone who swam this weekend! As a team we swam awesome. Lots of best times all around. Amber Kovach achieved two new AAA cuts in the 400 Free and 200 Back. She also lowered her own team records in the 50 Fly, 50 Back, and 100 Back, while also setting new team records in the 200 Back and 50 Free! Her 50 Free time of 28.81 was 0.02 seconds away from a USA Sectional time, which is very impressive for a 12 year old!

Michael and Matthew Flinchbaugh (the Flinchstones collectively) also had a great meet, having many best times each. Jackie Carman deck entered both days and swam very well for this being her first long course meet ever! Others who swam in their first long course meet this weekend were Elizabeth Schafer and Anthony Gasper, both of whom swam extremely well.

Amanda Knapp came off her trip to USA Sectionals in July to post best times in the 200 IM and the 50 Free, almost breaking the team record in the 200 IM! Amanda Marlow swam the 200 Fly for the first time (my choice, not hers) and did very well! I think we have found a new event for her to train for ;) . Kate Amicone also had best times in most everything she swam. Rachel Czerny and Rebekah Watson also had good meets, having near best times in most events!

I am putting together some suggested "off-season" training for anyone looking to stay active during the month of August. I would suggest that everyone keep doing something, whether it be running, biking, or some sort of strength training (for the older swimmers) and I will post some more thoughts and suggestions about this hopefully later tonight.

This marks the end of our summer season for most of us. Amber swims at Zones next weekend in Indiana, but other than that we are done until September 1 at Twinsburg. Thanks to everyone for making the first year of USC swimming at Twinsburg a success! I can't wait to get back and build on what we have accomplished so far! Have a great August. I'll see you in September!

Catching up...

So I am waaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in updating this, so there are a few things I would like to post about. First off, we have been swimming great at practice and at meets! There have been a few new practice records set, but my notebook that has them written down in it is in the car and I am just too tired (or lazy!) after this weekend at Freelander to walk out to the car to get it...so you will just have to know that new ones were set. When I remember to post the actual times, I will do so!

We have had some team records set at the past few meets by some of our Twinsburg swimmers! Amber Kovach broke the 50 and 100 backstroke records as well as the 50 butterfly record in the 11-12 age group. Jordan Delgross set the 800 freestyle record this past Friday at the Freelander meet for the 10 and under age group. She is the first 10 and under girl to swim the 800 for USC in our 40 year history! Congrats to both of you on your accomplishments and keep up the good work!

Thanks to everyone who came to the meet this weekend and celebrated USC's 40th Anniversary with us. We had a great time with current swimmers and some alums who came to join in the festivities.

A reminder that registration for long course champs is up and we would like to see everyone there. We train so that we can swim fast at the end of the season and the summer has been designed around the last weekend of July and first weekend of August for almost all of us. Come out and let all of your hard work pay off!

That's all for now. See you at practice!