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Growth. Often organizations fear growth because of the added stress associated with it. Can we handle more? What is it going to take? Are we ready? U.S. Masters Swimming is growing quickly and so are your programs. This month a veteran coach shares his experience with growing his coaching staff to accomodate his growing program. Another coach reminds us of easy ways to design workouts that benefit swimmers of all levels. Also, be sure to check out job postings for coaches on the USMS Discussion Forums.

Swimming for Life!
Your friends at U.S. Masters Swimming

Drills for Thrills: Underwater Turns
by Nate McBride, West Side Swim Club
When I was a freshman in college my older brother Ben, a senior at Brown, first taught me the underwater turn drill. He had been taught the drill by Chris Martin when he was at Peddie in the early 90s. I am not sure where Chris learned this drill or if he invented it, but it remains a part of my swimming and coaching to this day.
 
The drill itself is simple in its design. The swimmer, upon approaching the wall, uses the last stroke at the flags as a diving stroke to throw him or herself into a deep dive to the bottom of the pool where the swimmer then, in a streamline, butterfly or flutter kicks to the wall and flips completely underwater. The swimmer then has to streamline back out to the flags and resume swimming.

Drills for Thrills Underwater Turns


 This drill accomplishes many things:
  • The drill works the lungs, especially when done during a sprint or hard effort set.
  • The drill is an easy way to achieve a high VO2 level quickly if you have a shorter warm-up time and don't feel like sprinting.
  • The drill works the abdominal muscles as you have very little momentum underwater; the turn requires the core to make the revolution.
I like to have my swimmers do 200s with underwater turns at each wall. I will put them on a breathing pattern (e.g. 3/5/3/7 by 25), or have them breathe to their weak side only, while doing the 200s. This forces the swimmers to exercise complete breathing control while maintaining a strong pace. This drill may seem intimidating; however the swimmers who have mastered it clear their walls with ease and speed and without feeling the need to take a giant gulp of air at the breakout stroke.
Designing Workouts to Benefit All Your Swimmers
by Lionel Moreau, Auburn Masters; and Ashley Gangloff
How can we make sure that all our swimmers are getting a good workout- one that is challenging for each swimmer's respective ability and experience level?
 
There are two things we must remember as Masters coaches: First, most swimmers are coming to us for direction. They need our attention to improve. After all, they could very well swim along the black line with the public, but have chosen to attend a Masters practice instead. And second, the same workout for all isn't going to do it.
 
Here are six tips that will be helpful when you are developing your program and planning the different workouts to offer your swimmers. Read more
Show Your Pride ...  
USMS offers a FREE Banner to ALL Registered Clubs
To further spread the word about U.S. Masters Swimming, to encourage team pride and to proudly display your team colors at your facility, U.S. Masters Swimming is offering a free banner to ALL registered clubs. U.S. Masters Swimming will pay for and ship a co-branded, 3x6 foot banner to hang at your facility (inside or out)
 
To receive your banner, please send us an email that includes the following information:
  • Your team name (no workout groups)
  • A raw file of your logo (.ai or .eps)
  • Contact person, including shipping address, phone number and email address 
Please email the above information to Kyle Deery at the U.S. Masters Swimming national office.
 
Please allow 2-3 weeks for shipping
Looking For a Job?

Two Masters programs are currently seeking coaches.
 
U.S. Masters Swimming now connects coaches and jobs on the USMS Discussion Forums. Masters programs can post their job openings here, too!
Establishing A Coaching Staff: Taking Your Program from Good to Great
Ashley Gangloff Interviews Frank Marcinkowski
Curl-Burke is a big Masters program that has seen a lot of growth. With multiple sites and nearly 500 swimmers, Curl-Burke and head coach Frank Marcinkowski know the importance of a good coaching staff. Below Frank provides some insight into growth, coordinating an appropriate coaching staff and finding new coaches to be a part of the team. Read more

Reminder: Add the USMS Join/Renew Button to Your Website and Link Up!

new join renew buttonEncourage your swimmers to become U.S. Masters Swimming members by copying and pasting the Join/Renew button to your club website. Link the graphic to http://www.usms.org/reg/ so that your swimmers can register with one easy click.

Website Widgets:
Keeping Your Team Website Current
by the Professionals at swim shop 
Widgets are tools provided by websites that help you take dynamic content from those sites and publish it directly on your website. Widgets fall broadly into two categories: automatic updating and manual updating.
 
Automatic Updating
Twitter Feeds and Facebook Social Networking: Linking to Twitter and Facebook can direct people to those websites respectively, but if you want to keep people on your website, Twitter and Facebook provide widgets.
 
RSS and XML Feeds: By using RSS feeds you can have content from swimming news websites presented as articles on your website. Club Assistant provides XML feeds for upcoming swim meets including regional, LMSC, Zone and National meets.
 
Manual Updating
You Tube Videos: If you want to take video of that perfect breaststroke technique you coached last week, you can utilize a You Tube widget on your website to present your video without having to learn a thing about data compression or embedding videos.
 
In addition to generic Web widgets, Club Assistant has swimming specific widgets that you can use to update your website at a moment's notice, without having to call your webmaster.
  • Announcements Widget: Update your website without knowing HTML
  • Calendar Widget: Display events, meets, practice schedules
  • Meets Widget: Show meet results, meet timelines and meet registrations
  • Events Widget: Present current and upcoming events
    Other Club Assistant widgets include Coaches, Facilities, Newsletters, Birthdays and more.
Adding dynamic content to your website is easy, and it has many benefits. Your webmaster will only have to set up the widget once and will be less stressed by last minute updates. The swimmers will have accurate, relevant information. The USMS community will have well-connected and informed swimmers. Lastly, but most importantly, you will spend less time in front of your computer and more time doing the things you love.
 
If you already have a website, Club Assistant can help you add widgets to it. If you need a website, Club Assistant can help you build one.
 
Call the friendly and knowledgeable Club Assistant staff at 800-SWIM-638 for help.
On Deck: October/November
OCTOBER 2009
28-November 1st
  • Pan American Swimming and Open Water Championships-Veracruz, Mexico
31st
  • End of the 2009 registration year. All registrations after November 1st are for 2010.
Other deadlines this month
  • Newly Elected USMS President appoints committee chairs and committee members
NOVEMBER 2009
1st
  • 2010 registration year begins
  • Minutes of House of Delegates, 2010 Budget and FOG e-mailed to all who attended 2009 convention
2nd
15th
  • 2010 Guide to Operations section updates due to Membership Coordinator (Tracy Grilli-[email protected])
30th
  • All registrations received as of today's date will be included in the mailing of the Jan/Feb issue of SWIMMER

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Open Water: Winter Workouts for Summer Success
About U.S. Masters Swimming
U.S. Masters Swimming, founded in 1971, is a membership-operated national governing body that promotes adult health, fitness and wellness through aquatics.  It does so by partnering with more than 1,000 adult swim clubs across the country that offer swim/fitness programs, promoting information via a bimonthly member magazine and www.usms.org, and sanctioning and promoting pool, open water and virtual competitions.  Nearly 50,000 adults are registered members of U.S. Masters Swimming.


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