STEPPING STONES

Stones? Flagstones? Milestones? Stepping stones . . . boulders of change.

Meets, qualifying times, travel situations, practices, practice groups, practice lanes, dry land, weights, two a days, saturdays, mornings, yardage, age groups. All kinds of change. All kinds of situations. All new, all big steps, all challenging.

By now, most of you are familiar with the national age group time standards. Swimmers are setting their sights on that "BB" time or that "AAA" time and progressing up the time chart, only to age up to a new group and begin the process all over. These time standards provide a measuring stick of performance, they provide a goal to strive for, a reason to put forth effort and they can show the change in one's abilities. But there are also many other markers, other aspects of swimming that swimmers can look to to measure their progress and development.

Meets are a good example. Many meets propose change. Some meets are bigger in name and rank than others and some are bigger in numbers than others. The meets can and should be goals. Some meets are special because they are hard to get to and they represent stepping stones of success in and of themselves. For example, while a swimmer may go to a meet like Age Group Regions and place high swimming your best times, attaining Senior Region cuts and attending that meet where the competition is even faster may help you swim even better times. Though you may not place as high, may not place AT ALL, the achievement of getting to the Senior Region meet is a step further along the road to swimming success.

Some higher level meets may mean traveling as a team with the coach and not with your parents. This type of meet requires new responsibilities, new challenges to cope with from getting along with your roommates to waking up on time on your own to being sure your towels are dry to keeping up with your own eating needs while also being part of a group. One of the positive things about swimming is the constant progression of challenges, and the ability to set goals, reach them, and set new goals. Meets are one of the reflections of this progression, one of the many educational processes teaching swimmers to adapt.

Practices and practice groups also reflect the stepping stones of swimming. Practices and practice groups should challenge you everyday. Sometimes the challenges are evident. Some days they must come from within. Sometimes it is good to focus on beating your teammate. Sometimes the challenge is racing the guy two lanes over back to the wall even though they are doing something different. Sometimes it is going breast against someone else swimming fly, lifting the heaviest weight on the team, doing more sit-ups in the fastest time, leaving 5 seconds back and catching the guy in the next lane who left early. Sometimes it is trying to beat them to the halfway point of the pool. Gaining time and distance over the next couple of lanes on each turn. Kicking up faster and further. Pushing off harder and further on every kick set. Racing the kick sets and learning newer, faster turns. Each event and each thing can be a challenge. Racing back to the wall, racing to the flags or racing off the walls on every turn.

Race yourself. Challenge yourself. Know your best practice times for different sets. 100s, 200s, 500s, 3000 for times, kick sets, pull sets, paddle sets, sprint sets, pace sets, and best average sets. Beat others, beat your last practice time or your best meet time or your best meet splits. To do this you need to KNOW them. You need to REMEMBER them. Make them important to you. Make them stick out in your mind!

Each new thing, each new challenge, each new target, each practice should be available to you to set a new standard. The more measuring sticks that you personally have, the more chances for success that you will have. And the more fun each practice will be. The more involved you will be in practice. Other sports scrimmage a lot to ensure that everyone stays focused. That way everyone knows the measurement involved - winning the scrimmage. Make your practices ones that you can win, or conversely lose, for each set, each effort, each day. That way you can measure each step and take many new steps on your path forward towards success at every practice. It is called making the most of every opportunity!

Each year, each season, each session, we as coaches look for enough change and development in our swimmers to measure them against what we determine to be the needs of the next training group. If the development is there, we talk to the next training group's coach to ask what they think based on what they see or know of the swimmer in question. We ask if there is anything that is new or different in the next training group's practices that might pose a problem to our swimmer. If everyone agrees, we move you up into the next group. A new step in the practice group progression.

Many factors go into this process and individuals are treated as, well . . . individuals! But we also try to move swimmers along in groups if we can so that the adjustment to the new group will be easier. Some are more ready than others and some have things just beneath the surface that we see. But you each have to earn your spot on your own. Meanwhile, there are many things you can do to help each other including: racing each other, encouraging each other, cheering each other's achievements and accomplishments during practice, trying to make as many practices as possible together, working with each other and pushing each other. LEADING each other.

And how can parents help? Besides trusting the coaches and cheering for your swimmer, be aware that whenever swimmers make the change from one group to the next, parents need to help make sure that their swimmer is getting the rest they need, the calories they need, and the appropriate mix of protein and iron and fat and carbs that they need to meet the new training parameters. If the work load is substantially bigger, they will need more calories in general, but make sure that you increase the protein intake and the iron intake. Make sure that rest is also increased and that they have water at all their practices.

Everyone can participate in moving along the stepping stones of successful swimming. Set your sights on the next stone and help yourself, help your teammates and get help from your teammates, from your parents, from your coaches. Be aware of all the various tools at your disposal for measuring your progress. And make the most of all of them! –Coach Liston