2007-08 Swim Dog Weblog

The summer season finally culminated with four special events: Duel in the Pool, Long Course Nationals, the Splash Bash Olympic Viewing Party, and Teen Night II (Jaws).

Coach Mark finished his summer swimming season in Portland, Oregon at the Long Course National Championships (August 14th - 17th).

Overall he was pleased with his swimming as he had PRs in 8 out of 9 swims, finished in the Top 10 in all his events, and placed fourth in his age group, 45 to 49, in the 50M Free (0:26.64).

In addition to the 50M Free, he swam the 200M Free, the 50M and 100M Butterfly, and the 200IM. He also swam on four Top 10 relays (as high as 3rd).

While in Portland, Mark also got to celebrate the birthdays of his mother and father.

The Summer Olympics have been incredible, and Michael Phelps will go down in history as one of the greatest athletes of all time.

USA Swimming and GO Toyota Scion sponsored the Splash Bash Viewing Party at Hampden Heights during a Sunday family night.

There were lots of give-aways and prizes for everyone. There was a trivia contest for t-shirts, towels, and back packs.

Special thanks to Rick Preston for setting up his AV equipment and making this a great event!

About thirty kids set up rafts, floats and tubes in the pool to watch the original Jaws movie.

We had a great time with the Hampden Heights Hurricanes for the summer league season, but we're getting to get back to Swim Dogs!

The highlight of the summer (other than the Hurricane's season) had to be the Trans Tahoe Relay swim on Saturday, July 19th.

Marcia Anziano, Andy Dewey, Susan Nolte, Coach Mark, Kathy Garnier, and Chris Nolte (pictured above) swam across the 11.5 mile Lake Tahoe with water temperature of around 65-degress. The team finished in 4:15.55 to take second place in the Mixed 300+ Category (50th overall).

The week started off with some great practices and lots of relaxing on the beautiful lake. It's one of our favorite spots.

We stay at the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village which is just short distance from the race's start at Sand Harbor. The first picture below is the cabin in which we stay and the second picture is the view from the cabin.

The race starts from Sand Harbor at 7:30am with a lone swimmer (Coach Mark led off) who must swim for 30-minutes and find the team's boat with the awaiting relay members.

The race horn blares and 150 swimmers (teams) hit the water. Each relay member swims a 30-minute leg, moves to a 15-minute leg, and then finally 10-minute legs until the crossing is complete.

In our case, we completed the race without our last member needing to swim her 15-minute leg. The picture below is of Susan Nolte coming out of the water as our last swimmer.

It was an awesome weekend topped off with some great socializing, fun gambling, Shakespeare in the Park, and a Kenny Loggins concert on a golf course.

Early Thursday morning on May 1st, Coach Mark headed to the USMS National Championships in Austin, Texas where he swam in four individual and one relay event.

The meet was much faster this year than it has been in the past, but Coach Mark was happy with his performance. His highest individual place was 11th in the 400IM, and his Mixed 200 Free Relay took 5th.

The overall highlight of the weekend was that the team from Colorado took the Triple Crown by wining the Men, Women, and Combined events!

Mark's individual highlight was the 400IM where he took :20 seconds off his personal best and was a full :40 seconds faster than he swam in Evergreen for those of you who watched him there.

Today was the last day of practice, and all the Swim Dogs had a great time with some races and relays.

After tonight's practice, there are only two practices left in the Swim Dogs' inaugural season. It's been totally awesome!

Tonight's practice continued the IM-theme from Wednesday. Since Coach Mark is training for Nationals, he was already in the water when the Swim Pups showed up at 5:30, so he finished his workout doing some IM sets in preparation for his 400IM next Thursday in Austin, Texas.

As with Wednesday, we worked on some very basic drills with head position, balance, and core movement. Coach Dana's favorite is the long-axis drill of 4 freestyle strokes followed by 3 backstrokes. You try to engage your core on the rotation from one stroke to the other.

Coach Mark took over for the late group and Coach Dana got in the water for her turn in the pool, and we pretty much did the same practice set but with a little longer swims.

Due to the TJ Boy's meet against George Washington, we had only one ALL SWIM DOGS practice tonight. The lanes were pretty full, but the IM-focused workout went great! We had 22 total swimmers in the water!

Unfortunately, the TJ Boys lost there first meet of the season, but Tate, Seth, and Tim Mahoney did a great job for the Spartans! Seth Perry even qualified for the Colorado State High School Championships with a 0:59.9 in the 100 fly!

Our IM workout focused on some drills of each stroke followed by swimming a 50 or a 25 straight. Once we went through all the strokes, the entire group did a 100 or 200IM. I think everyone had fun, and it's great to get the entire team together!

Coach Dana took over the Swim Pups' practice today and EVERYONE was Swim Pup of the Day! That means Julia, Hailey, Eva Claire, and Erin all did a great job!

Dana's practice included several ladder swims where you start with 7 lengths, then 6, 5, 4, etc. down to one. For today's practice each step on the ladder had a different drill or freestyle focus.

Focus: Heads down-looking at the bottom, high elbows, staying on track, strong catch.

Coach Dana joined the late group, and the Swim Dogs did basically the same practice. I thought everyone did a great job (even Dana).

It was another light turnout for the Swim Pup group at 5:30: only Julia Turnbow and Hailey Egelhoff. It was lots of fun, however, as both girls like to race! We worked on starts and some fast swimming...we even got in some barking dog paddle!

In the late group, we had 18 swimmers, so it was packed. Basically, we did the same thing with some work on being streamlined off the blocks and making sure that everyone got the most possible distance out of their dives.

We did fast 25s of each stroke (followed by EZ 75s), and then broke into relays. I think it was a fun practice!

As I have stated before, the Swim Dogs' best stroke is breaststroke. That's pretty crazy, especially since it's the coaching staff's worst stroke.

The Swim Pup group is really small nowadays, so we only had five swimmers. Since we didn't have many people, even Coach Dana joined in for the breaststroke practice.

Breaststroke is a "short axis" stroke along with butterfly, so many of the basic drills are similar. The goal is to engage the body's core into the stroke and let the big muscles do as much of the work as possible. That's why we always start with body-dolphin drills: head and hand lead.

Another key to breaststroke is making sure that the timing is right and that the glide is positioned at the "top" of the stroke. The best drills for that are extended gliding drill where you must count to three or slowly say "Tor-Pe-Do" before taking the next stroke.

In swimming breaststroke, the longer the race, the longer you want to hold that glide position. For sprints, you still want to glide, but you want to increase your turnover.

the breaststroker wants to make sure to get the hands quickly through the bottom segment of the pull. It's a common timing mistake to pause at the bottom and take too much time in an inefficient position.

Finally, the kick. It's very important to finish the kick all the way until the feet come together. In breaststroke, the kick is as important as the pull, and too many swimmers don't take advantage of the kick. You have to finish it all the way through and make sure that you don't get too far "outside of your shadow."

We did our final Test Set of the season. For those of you that have not participated in these, every few months we do the following:

15 Minute Swim, counting the number of lengths. This is an exercise in both conditioning and mental focus. I notice most swimmers getting better just through their ability to stay on track for 15 minutes.

50-yard freestyle for time. After swimming for 15 minutes, this can be rather tough, but since it's only two lengths, most swimmers do pretty well.

50-yard choice for time. This is the last thing of the night, so it's not too bad, and for most people, it's their favorite stroke.

I keep track of how everyone does and check for progress over the season as a team. We really did good on Monday with everyone showing some great improvement. Almost everyone has improved over the season...some significantly.

Coach Dana had other obligations this day, so Coach Mark had to go it alone! It wasn't so bad as our team is a rather manageable number this spring. It's really nice!

Fridays are sprint days so we both groups worked on some "breakout" swims. A breakout is the very fast swimming to start each race. It was a progressive swim, so each length, we added one or two strokes to the breakout.

First, it was backstroke day, and I would say, as a team, not many of us are good backstrokers. I think only Coach Dana has it down.

Second, it was Hailey Eglehoff's birthday, and she brought cookies for everyone.

Since we only had three people in Hailey's group at 5:30, Coach Mark stopped the 6:30 practice in mid-warmup to sing Happy Birthday. I think she was a little shocked.

Both groups worked on several backstroke drills with the "Flapping Bird" and the "up-down-up-switch." We saw lots of improvement, and a few of you may become quite good at backstroke. I thought Chloe looked especially good.

Finally, we had a couple of guest swimmers: two Florida cousins of the Turnbows. I think we tired them out!

Swim Dog of the Day: Collective Backstrokers and Florida Kylie for being a great "before picture."

"Last night our Swim Dogs and Pups got to try out a new training tool: the PULL BOUY. That is the correct spelling (not POOL BOY). Everyone seemed to get a kick out of experimenting with trying some different strokes while holding the float between their legs. We concentrated on Freestyle and Stroke conditioning and swam 1200 to 2000 yards (depending on your level).

I was really proud of the swimmers who were able to follow the workout and start on their own interval. These included Megan, Chloe, Ashlyn, Jackson, Rachel, Glenn and Nancy.

Due to the TJ Boys' swim meet, we had an ALL SWIM DOGS PRACTICE today. Coach Dana took the Swim Pups, and Coach Mark took the Swim Dogs.

At the end, we swam some very fun combined relays where each team had the name of a candy bar: Four Musketeers, Milky Ways, Big Hunks, and Snickers.

Both groups worked on more head positioning and balance drills...Is this getting old?

Practice started again after Spring Break, and it looks like the Swim Dogs got a bit rusty.

In the Swim Pups group, we worked on some basic freestyle drills with head position and balance. These drills and this work is to help the basic techniques become a habit.

In the Swim Dogs group the focus was butterfly in honor of our newest Swim Dog, Seth Perry, who swims for the TJ Boy's team. We worked also on balance and head position following the two beat kick.

Many of our masters swimmers competed in the Colorado State Masters Championships at the University of Denver. Make sure you check out the meet re-cap webpage.

Many of the Swim Dogs must be getting an early start to Spring Break as there was hardly anyone at practice: We only had six Swim Pups and two Swim Dogs.

I actually like these practices as it give me the chance to really focus in on stroke mechanics. In the late group (Nancy and Chloe), we spent most of the time on short axis strokes (Butterfly and Breaststroke). We did plenty of body-dolphin work and trying to engage the core into the stroke. Most of the work was done with fins, and I think it was pretty fun.

In the early group, we worked more on going fast...with fins. We did 25s underwater followed by 25s FAST.

Swim Dog of the Day: Sarah Henderson who went one entire length of dolphin kicking on her back, underwater!

What and inspiration Ryan McLean is! It is great that Ryan came to visit the Swim Dogs and tell her story. We will all face some kind of adversity in our lives, and how we overcome that adversity is critical in our development.

Ryan talked to the Swim Dogs and answered questions for about 20 minutes and then we all got in the pool to swim the day's workout: INCLUDING RYAN!

We did a bunch of drill 25s with the goal of reducing stroke count. This is a key aspect of competitive swimming.

As Ryan mentioned she is going to India in July for some additional treatment. The Swim Dogs were happy to donate $100 to her cause and travel fund. If you would like to learn more about Ryan and also donate, visit www.RyanMcLeanFund.com.

Due to a scheduling conflict, the Swim Dogs only had one practice today. For those of you who came early, however, you got a special treat by seeing the Thomas Jefferson High School Boys Team.

Since we had only one practice time, we had a nice mix of Swim Dogs and Swim Pups, but everyone did the same workout (Swim Pups got to use fins). After a quick warm-up, everyone did 30 x 50s freestyle on 1:15. The goal was to keep the same pace throughout, and I thought everyone did a great job.

The Blogger is taking the week off for some needed vacation! The picture below is from my room.

I hear from Coach Dana that the practices are going well and the guest assistant coaches are doing a fine job.

The Evergreen meet this Sunday should be lots of fun. We have several Swim Dogs participating, and many of our older Dogs are swimming (including Coach Mark).

Today's practice focused again on freestyle, but today the goal was to go fast...and, remember, "fast does not mean fall apart."

We went through a set of freestyle progression drills followed up with a bunch of perfect 25s and 50s.

The Swim Dogs really kicked it into gear with a set of 10 x 50s on :50 seconds or 1:05 depending upon their abilities.

Swim Dog of the Day: Brandon Hougard with Special thanks to Phoebe Briney who helped coach on deck!

Coach Dana led the practice, and we went off-schedule working on a bit of conditioning (as a result of Monday's pool closing).

Both the Swim Pups and Swim Dogs worked on trying to stay long and strong through the water doing Dana's favorite, the DIZZY DRILL, where you breathe on both sides of your body and on every stroke.

We also had a couple of new swimmers try out Swim Dogs: Kylie and Addie Gunderson. They are great girls and really fast swimmers. We hope they join us!

Practice was cancelled tonight due to some vandalism at the pool. There was some broken glass in the pool and they had to have a special dive team come in and vacuum up the bottom and the deck. We should be up-and-swimming on Wednesday.

This gives me the opportunity to recognize our very brilliant swimmers as we had several of them qualify for the City Spelling Bee Championships. Here is my understanding of the qualification round:

It's great that our team has such smart and well-rounded swimmers. It is more important to me that we have great students and citizens than fast swimmers.

With the warm temperatures, I could not help but think of Summer League swimming. The Hurricane's season is not far off! We'll miss you Preserve and Eastmoor Swimmers.

Today was Relay and "Race the Coach" day. In the early group, we had enough for three relays of five (including Coaches Mark and Dana). In the late group, we had four relays of four.

The first relay, each person swam a 25 of each stroke (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle). The second relay, each person swam a 50 free. The final relay was a 50 choice. It's great to see everyone choosing some tough strokes.

After all of the relays were over, everyone got the chance to race against coaches Mark, Dana, and Jon. I am happy to say that I didn't hurt anything!

Both the Swim Pups and Swim Dogs worked on IM today. As everyone knows, the order of the IM is Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle.

We went through a progressive drill sequence of all of the strokes (with fins) and then finally finishing the practice with a complete 100 or 200 IM.

Oddly, our worst stroke as a team is backstroke, and our best is breaststroke. And, I think we're pretty good butterfliers.

Coach Dana took over practice today splitting up the groups in Bolts, Stars, and Moons. Each group did a slightly more difficult set of freestyle conditioning drills which is typical of Mondays.

I think our group likes the three divisions that Coach Dana puts together. It forces everyone to be independent, watching the clock, and going on their own send-offs.

Brandon swam in the 100 breast (35th place) on Friday and the 100 free (40th place) on Sunday in the Silver State meet at DU. The meet is huge with lots of swimmers, and I think Brandon was a little overwhelmed, but he did a great job!

Jon and Coach Mark swam in a Master's meet on Saturday, and they had a great time in Loveland. Jon keeps setting personal bests, and Mark feels like he is in good mid-season form. Jon's lowered his 50 free time to the low 26s, and he almost broke one minute in the 100 free.

Fridays are sprint days, and we did so again today. We did lots of races where each swimmer got to swim the stroke of their choice. Everyone's getting fast!

In the Swim Pups' Group, I was especially impressed with our younger swimmers who swam several laps of butterfly. We make the entire lane Swim Pups of the Day: Eden Turnbow, Grace Jarecke, and Ebbie Sherwood (another new swimmer from The Preserve team).

The Swim Dogs also worked on some fast sprinting (choice of strokes) and they, too, are getting faster. I am very happy with everyone's butterfly and breaststroke.

Due to the holiday, we went back to work on some conditioning freestyle, and some basic drills.

I was happy to see Hailey back in the water as a new Swim Dog, and we had another Eastmoor girl try out the team, Megan. Please give them a nice Swim Dog welcome.

We started with some kicking drills (hand and head lead) and then progressed through several drills until we finally swam some whole stroke free.

Click on the link to visit the North Jeffco Last Chance Swim Meet held during the weekend: North Jeffco Last Chance Recap.

There were several Swim Dog Firsts: We had both a girls and a boys relay on Sunday, and we had the first Swim Dogs Silver State Qualifier: Brandon Hougard who made the Silver State cuts in the 100-yard Breaststroke and the 50-yard Free.

Since it was the day before a swim meet (North Jeffco Last Chance), many of the swimmers worked on starts and finishes. It's always good to take a bit of a rest before meet day.

While Coach Mark worked with those in the meet, Coach Dana worked on balance and breathing with the others. They did lots of kicking and catch-up drills to make sure that they weren't lifting their heads to breath. We work on this stuff pretty much every practice.

In the late practice, Coach Dana cranked up the music with some Beatles tunes, and we had some fun with trivia questions and "Survivor Friday:" where the person slacking got kicked out of the pool to finally determine the Swim Dog of the Day.

I hope everyone was okay with the fun practice? Every once in awhile Coach Mark and Dana need a bit of a fun-break; especially when they are spending the next two days at a swim meet.

There is no practice next Monday, the 18th, for President's Holiday. We're back at it on Wednesday, the 20th.

Surprisingly, Swim Dogs are awesome at breaststroke. I would say that we are better breaststrokers than any other stroke (including freestyle). As a group, the Swim Dogs glide well and everyone's body and head position is excellent.

We still need work on the underwater pullouts, but overall, you are all very good!

We worked on holding our stroke counts low with our eyes looking down, and we also worked on strengthening our kicks with several kick drills.

Conditioning day again today. We divided each practice session into three smaller groups and tried to get everyone to swim 10 freestyle segments on a given interval. The Hearts swam 10 x 50s, the Black Diamonds swam 10 x 75s, and the Clubs Swam 10 x 100s. Only Jon Sarche held up to the "Club" workout.

Just so you know, Coach Mark does similar workouts at his lunch practices. Everything the Swim Dogs do, he does...only more!

Both practice groups were pretty lightly attended tonight making it great for lots of individual attention.

We had a newcomer try our team, Hailey Egelhoff. Hailey came to the Swim Pups practice and did a great job! She knew several of the Swim Dogs already from school and from summer league swimming where she swims for Eastmoor.

At this point our team is still capped, but we may have some openings as I believe a few of our swimmers may be transferring to spring sports.

Coach Dana took over the early group and worked on long-axis strokes (free and back). She did lots of drills and some swim sets to make sure everyone was rotating their cores and using their entire body in the strokes.

Coach Mark and Dana split the late group as we had a large mix of both Swim Dogs and Swim Pups. Dana did the same practice for the Pups, and Mark focused on backstroke.

Again, lots of drills. Most of the guys need work on NOT bending their knees during kicking. I don't know why, but that's a common problem. Everyone needed extra work on balance and relaxation, and I thought that by the end of the evening, everyone was looking better.

We had an exciting head crash between Jackson and Alec. Both had "eggs" on their heads, and the crash forced them out of practice. PLEASE LEARN TO SWIM IN CIRCLES AND WATCH OUT FOR ONE ANOTHER!

It was conditioning day today, and it was exciting to all you Swim Dogs keep up with the practice set.

We only did a quick stretch and sent everyone into the water for a warm-up and drill set.

Then, we divided all the Dogs into three groups: Squares, Circles and Triangles. Each group focused on distance freestyle with the Squares having the toughest workout and the Triangles, the easiest. The Circles were in between.

The first of each distance was long and strong. The second was 2 x 1/2 the distance with a descending time. The last was 4 x 1/4 the distance with a steady pace.

Jon Sarche and Coach Mark competed in the Boulder Pentathlon where each swimmer races in a 100IM followed by a 50 in each stroke.

Jon was particularly impressive in 50 free where he recorded at 0:26.97! That's awesome. He was also impressive in his other swims (except backstroke).

We need to get more of the masters swimmers in the meets! They really are fun. The next Masters Meet is in Loveland (a great pool) on February 23rd.

Since it was Friday, everyone did sprints today, and I can really see improvement.

We had about a dozen in the early group and split off into two relays. Eden Turnbow was captain of one team and Carolyn Jarecke was captain of the other. Each person had to swim one lap of each stroke, and I named each Captain (Eden and Carolyn) "Swim Pup of the Day."

We had a similar practice in the late group with some hypoxic training, i. e. swimming some underwater 25s, followed by sprinting and then a cool down 100. I think it was pretty tough for everyone to go a full length underwater.

For the late group, we split into three relay teams, and again, everyone did a 25 of each stroke.

Jeff Smith NAIA National Champion diver from TJ High School, The University of Oregon, and Metro State came to practice on Wednesday and really put on a show!

I think we'll all remember that last dive, but I am hoping we all remember Jeff's message:

All the Swim Dogs were there at 6:15 to listen to Jeff talk about his diving career and learn some of the lessons he learned growing up and competing at a very high level.

Jeff has translated those lessons in his adult life where he is an inventor (2 patents and several trademarks) and speaker.

Coach Dana took over practice duties today, and Coach Mark swam with both the Swim Pups and the Swim Dogs.

The practice focused on descending 100 swims...trying to drop your 100 time through a series of three. Dana's workout was excellent, and everyone did a nice job of staying on the interval.

It's great to be back at practice! I missed you all. Dana and I got back from our road trip and heard that Jon and Christina did a nice job taking over for us on Wednesday. Thanks so much to them for helping out.

Friday's practice focused on turns. After the swim meet last week, where the Swim Dogs were particularly slow on the walls, I heard from everyone that we don't practice turns enough...that being stated, I want everyone to know that every time we swim a lap, we get the chance to practice our turns. There really are no excuses here. Even when you start a length, that's the time to be practicing our streamlines and our turn technique.

We worked on flip turns by doing some mid-pool started 50s with three turns mixed in. I saw some improvement in pretty much everyone.

Unfortunately, Coach Mark felt sick, so he didn't have the energy to select any swimmers of the day.

Due to some complaining that Wednesday's practice was "too easy," today's practice had a little more oomph to it...especially for the Swim Dogs.

The Swim Pups got to work on some starts and breaststroke pull outs. Everyone did a great job diving! We still need to work on one pull, one kick before coming up to start our breaststroke swimming.

The Swim Dogs had a much tougher practice and one that is not typical of Coach Mark. It was so hated, that even Coach Dana got out of the water.

Everyone did 2 * 200s on 3:30 - 4:00 minutes, followed by 3 * 100s, and finally 5 * 50s on 1:30. Everyone complained but did an excellent job.

Today's practice focused on butterfly and we went back to the beginning with head position and balance. The key is being able to work on the body dolphin and lift the head just enough to take a sneaky breath.

Both groups worked on head lead and hand lead body dolphining. We then shifted over to whole stroke. Everyone did great!

Welcome back from the holidays! I hope everyone had a great time and are ready to get back in the water.

Several of you are competing in the Loveland Heart of Winter swim meet the weekend of January 19^th, so we really need to get you all back into shape.

Dana and I are refreshed and ready to go. Mexico and Las Vegas were great, but we missed the Swim Dogs.

Practice today consisted of getting back to the basics. We went through a freestyle progression with head position, balance, and lengthening. The goal was to reduce our stroke count. Everyone was successful.

Wow! What a great turnout we had for the Holiday Practice Party. I was a bit afraid to combine our two groups, but I thought it went really well.

We swam and sang "On The Last Day of Practice..." with 5-6 people per lane, and it was hilarious watching everyone try to get all of the tasks in.

After the practice, we unveiled the Swim Dogs logo and gave everyone a Swim Dog T-Shirt.

Special thanks to Kimberly Turnbow, Stacey Shigaya, and Chloe Briney for helping put everything together.

We like well-rounded swimmers at Swim Dogs, so Sonja Briney gets special props this week for her participation in her Holiday Dance Recital on Sunday. Both Coaches Mark and Dana attended and presented Sonja with some flowers. The recital was very fun. Way to go Sonja!

Monday's practice focused on "Swimming on Track:" that is keeping each arm on its respective side as it pulls straight through the water on freestyle.

If a person's arm crosses over the body's center line, there is a tendency for the swimmer to wiggle...You don't see any ships wiggling through the water, do you?

Coach Mark swam in the Short Course Meters State Championships over the weekend, so he didn't make it to practice on Friday. Here's what Coach Dana wrote about the practice:

"For a cold, snowy evening, we had quite the turnout for the early group. After a delayed entrance into our pool (all doors were locked at TJ) the lane lines were placed by Coach Jon with help from swimmers and parents. We continued our focus on balance and breathing in Freestyle along with some kick and swim pyramid sets. We finished up with free relays (3 teams of 5 people). The wining team of the 5 x 50 Free were the "swimmers of the day".

The 6:30 group had a total of FOUR teenage swimmers: Jackson, Brandon, Rachel and Tate. These guys were not going to get in the water too quickly. Brandon ended up being the first in, so by default, he was the SOTD. After "dogging it" for a bit, the group focused on free drills, kicking pyramids and then some relays. Tate and Rachel's team raced against Brandon and Jackson competing in all 4 strokes in an extended medley, followed by free sprints."

Coach Dana took over the Swim Pup practice today, and she spent her time working on long-axis strokes. They did "Dizzy Drills," switches, and balance drills to work on staying long and tall...like a pencil.

Coach Mark worked on freestyle breathing drills with Swim Dogs Nancy Briney and Emma Rush.

We had another good turnout for the late Swim Dogs group. They had a hard IM-focused workout with lots of stroke drills and whole stroke practice. We are really turning into a good breaststroke swimming team. We still need plenty of practice in butterfly and backstroke.

I can't tell you how much Dana and I are enjoying Swim Dogs. Every time I leave practice, I say to Dana, "I really like our families." Thanks for making this a great experience.

Today's practice focused on freestyle swimming with lots of practice on balance and breathing...keeping the head low while turning to take a breath.

The Swim Pups swam with their fins most of the time and did "three stroke switch" drills where you only get to breath in the "breathing position."

In order to get everyone to slow down, the Pups had to say, "I love to swim" when they turned their heads. It was very funny and awfully cute.

Five Lengths of Free, four lengths IM, three lengths kicking, two lengths fast, and one length easy. This was followed by 8 X 25s fast to finish up the workout.

The Swim Dog of the Day was Julia Turnbow who at eight years old, hung very well with the older group.

It was very funny when a fully-clothed Coach Dana fell into the pool today! It just goes to show that you can't be too careful...especially when you're getting old!

The holidays are now in full swing. Tate, Coach Dana, and I have been busy decorating our house...and our dog, Jessie. She's not very happy about the Santa hat as you can see from the photo above.

It was Fast Friday today...or "Throw up Thursday" on Friday, if you like. Both the Swim Pups and Swim Dogs did several fast, broken 100s. The first 25 yards were underwater body dolphins, followed by 3 x 25 freestyle sprints...All with five seconds rest: All with fins.

Wednesday's are stroke days and today, the Swim Pups worked primarily on butterfly, and the Swim Dogs worked on backstroke.

Dana led the Swim Pup group in lots of body dolphin exercises and drills. Everyone got the hang of it and we had some pretty good butterfliers by the end of practice.

Coach Mark led the Swim Dogs, and they worked on backstroke. Coach Dana was in the water, and her stroke sure looked pretty.

We do these once every couple of months. It helps me see how everyone is progressing in their swimming and gives me some concrete evidence.

It's not only a test of swimming, but a test of maturity, as many of our "Swim Pups" really don't think they can go very far without stopping.

Eden Turnbow swam 12 lengths in 15 minutes in September, and she swam 22 this time! That's tremendous.

Every swimmer improved from September. Glenn Malloy improved in all three areas by some significant amounts.

"Race the Coach" day today. Despite his best efforts (Okay, almost), Coach mark just couldn't keep up with any of the Swim Dogs or Swim Pups today. Yes, Coach Mark got in the water for some relays with the Pups and then even worked out with the Dogs.

The focus of the practice was sprinting: We did 6 x 25s of free and stroke. The Pups got to use their fins, and boy, were they fast. The Dogs were fast even without their fins.

The photo above, taken today, is from Colorado Athletic Club at Inverness (near Park Meadows Mall). The outside temperature was about 38-degrees.

When not in use, there are removable covers on the pool, and the team has to roll them off before practicing and then put them back after practice.

Ice forms on the deck after practice when all the wet swimmers get out, making it very cold on the feet.

We had a manageable Swim Pup group at 5:30 with about 15 swimmers, and then the older Swim Dogs got in at 6:30, and they were really able to get in some good yardage. We had about 22 Swim Dogs at 6:30.

The focus for both groups was breaststroke, and I must say that breaststroke is probably our team's best individual stroke...even better than freestyle!

Everyone started with some fins-on drills, working on body dolphining, gliding (TOR-PEE-DO), and quick hands through the bottom of the stroke.

We still need some work on keeping our kick together, but overall, it looked very good.

Welcome back from the holiday, everyone! I hope you all had a nice four days off and that you're ready to get wet again.

After warm-up, everyone did a five-minute straight swim and counted their laps. The most laps were turned in by Mrs. Jensen with 14. Even the late group swimmers couldn't top that.

The five-minute swim was followed by another, little shorter distance, and we progressed down to some fast 25s.

Everyone did a great job, I thought, and even the spectators thought practice went well.

Remember, the TJ Girl's Team has a meet on Thursday against Montbello. It would be great if you can make it to watch and give the team your support!

Today's practice was the last one before Turkey Day. I wish all of you a great time with your families.

Monday's practice was another good one. It's the first where we've tried to manage the groups by skill level and age. Dana worked with the very young Swim Pups and Mark had the older kids.

Dana worked on balance, head position, and kicking. Mark worked with his group on body dolphin and butterfly.

The Swim Pup of The Day was Eva Clair who really got the hang of gliding in breaststroke.

The late group really worked hard...so they can afford to eat lots this weekend! They did lots of conditioning distances with some stroke 50s mixed in.

Due to the overwhelming response, Swim Dogs is capping the team. I hate to do this, but one of the cornerstones of our program is a small number of participants ensuring lots of individual attention.

It is also necessary for us to start managing the two practice times by skill level. You'll start seeing the "Swim Pups" in the early group and the Swim Dogs in the 6:30 group. We can make some exceptions, but it's better for everyone if we can segment the groups a bit.

Friday's practice was one of the best yet. Coach Dana took over the early practice, and she did several freestyle drill sets: Fists, Catch-up, Finger Drag, etc. She also had everyone counting their strokes and trying to stay long and reaching toward the other end of the pool.

The early group Swimmer of the Day was Emma Rush. I am really glad to see Emma and her sister, Abbie, back in the pool. We all had fun this last summer with the Hurricanes. Emma is best known for her bowling dance moves. Ask her to show you sometime.

The late group really got after it. We started with the same drills as the early group, but then we did some race strategy swimming combined with stroke count. Everyone did a great job.

We finished up with some combined relays, and I think everyone got a kick out of that.

The late group swimmers of the day were Theo and Lily Jensen. Way to go newbies!

Jackson Epstein finally showed his stuff tonight too and was named swimmer of the day in the Swim Dog group. Way to go buddy!

Thanks to everyone for the great birthday cake, the cards, and the gifts! It was truly a surprise! It's nice to come back from vacation and get such a warm welcome from everyone.

As is typical with Wednesdays, we had lots of swimmers today...and so many new ones. It was fun meeting all the new kids and their parents. Dana and I are really excited about the group.

Since we no longer have our Rock Canyon swimmers, practice focused on freestyle and balance today. Everyone got to use their fins, and we went back to the very basics: head and body position. I was excited to see how well all the new kids did.

The last practice day without Coach Mark! Thanks to Coach Dana for filling the lead role in the practices this week, and also "thank you" to Coaches Jon Sarche and Deb Mahoney for taking over the swim pups!

I heard from Dana that there was another big group at the early practice (18 swimmers) and there are several new people: some from The Preserve and some from Eastmoor. We really like the enthusiasm we are getting for the team.

The late group continues to be of a reasonable size, and the workouts are a little higher quality swimming.

There was lots of sprinting today and some relays. That is pretty typical of Friday workouts and expect to see more of that.

Remember, there is no practice on Monday, November 12th, so we'll see you all back in the pool on Wednesday, the 14th.

It sounds like Wednesday was a very busy day! Coach Dana sent me an e-mail saying that our program is really taking off thanks to some great referrals from our parents. Once I get back from Mexico, I will be working on a "cap" for the program.

Dana also told me that some of the teenage swimmers were a bit distracting! Shame on you guys...You should be nice to Coach Dana. So, 200 Flys for all of them upon my return!

Focus: Swimming forward not vertically. Ba: Rotation & core, Br: Glide & timing, Fr: eyes down & swimming on track.

Total: 1200 - 1400 depending on level

Thanks to Deb Mahoney for showing up to help with the Swim Pups.

Have fun on Friday...it will be your last day before I get back to work you hard!

And, Good Luck to the Rock Canyon girls team. It's been fun having them during their pre-season conditioning.

Don't forget to feel sorry for Coach Mark this week. He misses the Swim Dogs even though he's in a pretty nice place (pictures above from Mazatlan Mexico on Sunday, 11/4). The picture on the right is from his balcony and the one on the left is while sipping a margarita at sunset.

Glenn was our only adult and he pushed himself hard. Others were a bit chatty, but we did manage to get in our water exercise and skills.

After a 200 to 350 warm up we did 3 broken 200's by 50 drills (6 switch, 3 switch, 1 switch, swim) focusing on the "triangle pierce" with fins. Then we did a Kick/Swim pyramid set with the kick hard and the swim portion easy: 25/25, 50/50, 75/75, 100/100.

Emily did well self-directed on her own intervals and she also got a 150 pull in before the 100 cool down.

Lane 1 (Kara, Abby Rush & Sarah Henderson) also did well self-directed. Abby Rush was the Swimmer of the Day.

We had a pretty big crowd -- 2-3 swimmers per lane and then no one showed up for 6:30 slot.

Fast Friday again! I think everyone really did a great job! After some stretching a a lite warm up, we did:

We had a pretty full early group with three new swimmers who are testing out the team: Carolyn, Eva, and Grace. They are all sisters. I hope they enjoyed Coach Dana. I'm not really sure how they heard about our team, but the good word must be getting out.

We also had some familiar faces show up again: Chloe and Nancy Briney as well as Evan Shigaya. It's great to have them back.

The Early Group Swimmer of the Day was Sonja Briney who really came to swim today. Nice job Sonja.

Coach Dana joined the late group in doing the same practice. It's always nice to see her in the water.

I was really impressed with Sydney Stevens who finally got her head down while swimming freestyle. It was a great breakthrough. She was, of course, the Swimmer of the Day for the Late Group.

I will be out of town next week, so take care of the other coaches. I'll keep posting, so don't forget to look at The Swim Dog Blog.

We had a pretty light turnout tonight...only one swimmer, Deb Mahoney, in the late group (6:30PM). Everyone must have been trick-or-treating and eating candy?

For those who came to practice, the early group, which still had about a dozen swimmers, worked on breaststroke. Most of you have developed that habit of pausing at the bottom of the stroke (where you're trying to take a big breath) instead of pausing at the top of the stroke while in streamline.

We worked on holding the streamline for the counts of 3, 2, and 1 with the appropriate amount of gliding.

Everyone was swimmer of the day today, and I passed out Halloween candy to the group.

Since Deb was the only person in the late session, she got a one hour private lesson. Deb has really nice strokes, so pay attention to her when you're at the pool. We worked on her backstroke, mainly, getting her to keep her head back. She did an excellent job.

Today's practice was the last of the 5:00pm and 6:00pm groups. From what I can tell, this is going to work out just fine for everyone. I know it's better for me. Hopefully, we'll not have to put in the lane lines as the high school girl's team will leave them in after their practices.

today, we worked on conditioning by starting with some longer freestyle sets. We then progressed to shorter and shorter distances.

I don't know if you can tell, but I can really see an improvement in everyone's swimming.

SWIM DOGS HAS NOW BEEN OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED BY USA SWIMMING AND COLORADO SWIMMING, INC. (the two governing bodies) AS AN OFFICIAL TEAM! WE'VE MADE IT TO THE BIG TIME!!!!! I received word yesterday that we have been officially recognized and Swim Dogs is the newest team in the state of Colorado. Our new moniker is DOGS, so when we start swimming meets in 2008, we'll go under that abbreviation. WAY TO GO TEAM!!!!

Fridays are "Fast Fridays," so we did lots of sprinting. We stretched, warmed up, and then proceeded with 2 sets of 4x25s (descending), 2x50s (build), followed by one race pace 100. There was plenty of heavy breathing, but I thought everyone did pretty good.

I was especially impressed with Eden Turnbow who didn't want to get out of the water with the Swim Pups and actually lead the older group through the kick set with her chant of "READY GO!"

Coach Dana got in the water again...that's two days in a row. She can be quite the swimmer when she wants to, you know, as pictured below at the Master's World Championships at Stanford University in 2006.

Today, actually, both Coaches Mark and Dana "coached" from the water. Wednesday means stroke day, so we started with some body dolphin drills followed by four IM 75s. Everyone's strokes are looking better but we still need some work on our strength.

The swimmers of the day were Eden Turnbow in the early group and Coach Mark in the late group (Coach Mark is the final decision-maker on Swimmer of the Day).

The early group did 3 x 150s free, followed by 3 x 75s Free, and then 6 x 25s...You see a trend here? The goals is to keep the same pace throughout and understand what happens to your stroke count and breathing as the distance changes.

The late group needed some extra work on keeping their heads down and their arms stretched out while breathing, so they did LOTS of drills.

Needless to say, we're going to work on all of this continually. There's no reason to practice a stroke wrong and develop bad habits.

A couple of the Swim Dogs (Jon Sarche and Coach Mark) competed in the Kevin Nash Memorial Swim Meet at Northglen High School.

Jon swam great 100yd. and 200yd. frees, and Mark swam the 50yd. and 100yd. free and the 100 fly. Mark's swims were not great, but okay for early in the season.

The groups worked on breaststroke and sprinting. Everyone did some vertical kicking and some special drills created by Coach Dana.

It was another crowded day at the pool today, but everyone did great with The Rockies theme! The early group had about 20 swimmers (four adults) and the late group had only six, so they got lots of individual attention.

Since Wednesdays are typically stroke days, we did a little bit of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and some freestyle. There were some drills, kicking, and sprints.

I turned in all the information to make the Swim Dogs an official team. We should know by the end of the month if we're accepted. At that point, we'll start picking some meets for everyone to swim in.

I won't be around on Friday, so Dana and Jon Sarche will be taking over. Treat them nice!

It seems Like everyone must have gone to The Rockies Game tonight, for the late practice only had two people in it!!! Thankfully, The Rockies won and are moving on to The World Series. How exciting for the City of Denver and Colorado.

10 minute swim, 5 minute swim, 2:30 minute swim, and 100 free. The goal was to go further than 1/2 way on each swim while staying long and strong and keeping the head down. I was pretty impressed with the group.

The two Swimmers of the Day were Eden Turnbow (who just kept plugging away) and Xander Butler (who recovered from a distracted 10-minute swim by doing well through the rest of the set).

After Wednesday's fiasco, I had to scold both of the groups. I think things sunk in to everyone that we just can't have so much goofing around. Hey, I'm all for having fun, but when it becomes a safety issue, measures must be taken.

I also started the "Swimmer Of The Day" reward system. Those chosen as Swimmer of the Day will be able to pick out of the toy box at the end of each practice session...I'm hoping a little healthy competition will be a motivator for everyone.

In today's practice, we worked on sprinting...lots of 25s and 50s with fins. It was amazing how much better behaved everyone was.

The Swimmers of the Day in the early group were Abby Malloy and Julia Turnbow. Nice job girls!

In the late group, Danny Sarche was Swimmer of the Day. He's really starting to go fast!

It was a tough day today. I don't know if it's just an odd Wednesday or because we had lots of people today, but it was tough nonetheless.

The early group was especially challenging. I tried to keep them moving, but nothing seemed to work. We tried working on different strokes but nobody wanted to pay attention. I'm going to have to talk to this group.

The late group, however, was great! We did lots of stroke and IM work. We also had two Rock Canyon HS swimmers with us, and that was fun (Sara and Chelsea).

We lost our kickboards today! Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the pool administrators have taken away our kickboards and the pull buoys. It seems that they are still not comfortable with us using "their" pool and "their" equipment. So, if you noticed, all the swimming paraphernalia has been locked up in the white lockers. If you have a kickboard or want to purchase one, please do so. I am confident that we will eventually figure this out with the team and the school. Thanks God that they didn't take away the lane lines!!!

Despite not having the equipment, practice went fine. We worked on some distance freestyle with several 200s thrown in for the strong swimmers and a little less for the newbies.

Both Dana and I were out of town at different conferences today. Dana was in San Fran, and I was in Beaver Creek (pictured above). Since we volunteer for Swim Dogs, sometimes our real jobs (paying) take precedence.

Jon Sarche and Bob Orzolek ran the practice today, and I have heard that things went well....You should have worked on sprinting.

Remember, when we sprint in practice, it is important to go fast! We try to give you more rest so that you can really work on going as fast as you can.

I missed practice today, so Coaches Dana and Jon filled in. From what I heard, practice went well and the group worked on long-axis strokes (free and back).

"We worked on long axis strokes, including breakout swims from fast, streamlined dolphin kicks. We also did drills that combined Free & Back & Flip Turns.

Swimmers of the day were Sidney Stevens who listened well and put her head & eyes down today! Group 2 Swimmer of the Day was Hattie Orzolek who pushed herself to keep up with Allie and Jackson and did some after practice work on her flip turns."

1984 Gold Medalist George DiCarlo (pictured above) came to our practice today! What a special treat. He spoke about how he started swimming here in Denver and at TJ High where he was the State Champion in 1981 in the 500 yd. freestyle.

I hope everyone remembers him saying how much he hated swimming on some days but stuck with it, "climbed the ladder" (goal setting), and eventually won both a gold and silver medal in the LA Games. George was like any of us...not a physical freak of nature (6' 10" and 200 lbs.)...just a dedicated athlete with the right stuff.

We continued the practice with some drills and relays...a fun way to start the month!

I'll be gone again the rest of the week, so Coaches Dana, Jon, and Bob will be taking over practice for the rest of the week. SWIM WELL!

Sorry I missed practice today, but I heard that Coach Dana and Jon did a great job!

"Friday we had a small group (14 at 5pm and 4 at 6pm) so we missed quite a few of you Swim dogs!

I ran the practice with the help of master swimmer, Jon Sarche. We worked on good head position and quick breathing skills along with I.M.s and sprints.

Jackson Epstein was "swimmer of the day" as he demonstrated a positive attitude and was a great example for his teammates."

We started off with an IM and stroke workout followed by some drills. Then we started with butterfly and progressed through each stroke culminating with a 200IM. Everyone looked good...or better anyway.

Our Swimmers Of The Day were Kris Butler for doing fly for the entire practice and McKenna Malloy for just being a great kid!

I announced at practice today that everyone should try to come to the early practice on Monday because we will have a special visitor, Dr. George DiCarlo. He is the only male Coloradoan to earn an Olympic swimming medal (Gold and Silver in Los Angeles, 1984).

In addition to the Gold and Silver Medals, George was also the State High School Champion in 1981, swimming out of TJ! Then, he went on to the University of Arizona where he was NCAA Champion in 1983 and 1984.

Here's a picture of George "Swimming" the Winter Olympic Torch through the Glenwood Springs pool on its way to the Games in Salt Lake City.

George will be stopping by our practice early on Monday to meet our team. Make it if there is any way possible.

Since we have gotten through all of the four strokes now, today's focus was on conditioning. I heard a few complaints, but not really any more than normal.

We started off with our basic warm-up and drills then went into our set of 3 X (3x100's Free) on :30 seconds rest. Everyone kept up well, and I was particularly impressed with Bob Orzolek who kept up with Kelly McCracken on my special instructions.

We all need to make sure that we keep our heads down, looking at the bottom on freestyle. Also, make sure not to drop that lead arm early when breathing...lay your head out on your shoulder as much as possible.

The temperature of the water was still a bit warm, but I think it's getting closer. The folks at TJ have promised to fine tune things.

I am still working on our special guest for tomorrow night. I'm not sure if he's coming, but I'm sure he will at some point.

Coach Dana will be leading the group on Friday with Jon Sarche. Don't forget to give them a hard time.

The pool was finally warm today...too warm, actually, at 87-degrees! That's a full 10 degrees warmer than Wednesday's practice. Ideally, we'd like to have the temperature around 81 degrees.

Today's focus was backstroke, and now we've gone through all four strokes. Next week, we'll start picking up the intensity, but we'll always focus on technique.

We did some head lead and extended arm kicking drills while trying to focus on balance and switching quickly from one side to the other.

By the end of practice, everyone was looking pretty good. We have to remember to resist the urge to tuck our chins...we have to stay flat in the water.

The TJ Pool is nice, but nothing beats swimming outside at Hampden Heights! I can't wait for next summer's hurricane's season (and The Preserve, of course). All of our swimmers will show so much improvement!

The heater at the pool is back up and running, so the temperature should be above 80 degrees for Friday's practice.

Today, we worked on breaststroke, and everyone really looked good. I was especially impressed with McKenna Malloy (and her dad). Remember: quick hands through the bottom and glide at the top in STREAMLINE!

Once we get through backstroke, we'll pick up the intensity and the conditioning aspect of practice...although technique will continue being the main focus.

I hope you got the message about the cold pool. Sorry for the late notice, but I did not find out that the heater had broken until I arrived at 4:45 to put in the lane lines.

I have been told that the heater is fixed, and the pool should be up to a comfortable 81 degrees by Wednesday's practice.

The cold pool reminds me that winter is just around the corner and last year with all the snow.

Only a few people went home (Jackson and Liz) and the rest showing up decided to swim. Even Eden Turnbow made it through the entire practice, and she's always cold.

Both groups did a "test set" today. First, there was a 15-minute swim, followed by two 50's for time (free and choice).

We had a new swimmer from Rock Canyon High School, Sara Classen, who swam 41 lengths of the pool in 15 minutes!!! That's something to shoot for! She also swam an excellent 50 fly.

Coach Mark overruled everyone and made Friday "conditioning day." Where was Kelly McCracken who always wants more yardage?

Lot of people must have taken the day off as the early group had eleven swimmer, and the late group had only five...Makes for lots of special attention.

The highlight of the day was when Dana's son, Tate, showed up with TWO BROKEN ARMS from separate skateboard incidents.

I have never heard of anyone breaking their arms while swimming, and that's another reason why swimming is such a great sport...few injuries. We are going to have to get Tate back in the pool.

After today's stretching and warm-up, we did a few freestyle drills (Fists, Okey-Doakey, Catch-up, and Finger drag). Then, we did the main set of 6*100s with the first 25 "your choice" of stroke. That was followed by some snow plow kicking, some pulling (for the late group), and a couple of sprints to finish.

Stayed tuned for some fun nights, and I hope to have some exciting news for later this month.

Everyone did a great job today! We had the largest turnout yet with 11 people in the early group and 17 in the late group.

We worked mostly on butterfly with body dolphin drills (head and hand lead) and then the "dying butterfly."

Would most of you have believed that you'd spend an entire practice doing butterfly!

I was especially impressed with the masters swimmers as most of them are new to competitive swimming and have rarely done any butterfly...Glenn Malloy was amazing!

Our swimmers of the day were Kris and Xander Butler and Jeannie McCabe. Way to go!

We had a 13 swimmers for the early group and 6 for the late group, so the numbers are finally evening out.

Today, the Swim Dogs worked on "lengthening their vessels" through really reaching out and rolling from side to side during freestyle.

We also worked on distance per stroke (DPS) and reducing the number of strokes per length.

Some of you may remember Coach Nick Levine from The Knolls swim team this summer, who was training to swim the English Channel.

"So I started at 4:06am on Tuesday September 4th, 2007. Now I understand why they call this swim the mount everest of swims, its not an easy task. By far one of the most difficult adventures I have ever been on and most likely will ever have gone on. There were at least 3 or 4 times I just wanted to get out because of the cold, the pain and on top of that I couldn't hold any food down. For the first 8 hours of the swim everything I had eaten (everything I trained with) wouldn't stay in my stomach, the current and tide were just too strong. Thanks to my pilot, Michael Oram, who switched my feeding to this liquid stuff called MAXIM (I will bring some back) everything changed. At hour 8 it was like a new me and I was fine to finish the swim, minus the pain in my back, it hurt let me tell you.

Thanks to everybody for the support, from all of you I coach with, to everybody I swim with, to all the kids and of-course I will never be able to thank my coaches, Maureen and Alexis for all the help. Maureen for sending me all of my training information and Alexis for being there to open the club at 3:00 and going to Twin Lakes with me, make sure to thank Kyle for that one. Thanks to everybody who has posted a note on the cac website as that is truly what got me through. And everybody that I coach or have ever coached, all I could think about for the last 5 miles was finishing it for the team and how amazing it would be for all you of you to start your "SHORT COURSE" season knowing that I finished swimming the Channel.

There is more to tell then I could possibly put into this email, so I will leave it at that. I actually get to take a bit of a vacation now before I head back to Colorado, but I'm thinking about all of you the whole way. WOW, an actual vacation where I'm not going to be swimming something."

Nick

We had 19 Swim Dogs in the early session, and despite the numbers, everyone did great! The later practice had only 4 Swim Dogs, so they got lots of special attention from Coach Mark.

Today's practices focused on head position on long axis strokes (free and back). Look straight down at the bottom on freestyle and straight up at the ceiling on backstroke.

The Swim Dogs did lots of head lead kicking drills and some sideways kicking to become more "fish-like" in the water. We finished off the night with some vertical kicking...trying to stay within the shadow.

Coach Dana told me that many of you do not yet have fins...what's up with that? If you want to become better Swim Dogs, you must have the proper tools:

Swimsuit, goggles, and fins! The TJ pool already has kickboards and pull buoys. You might also want to bring a water bottle.

The swimmers of the day were Kelly McCracken, Kara D'allesandro and Glenn Malloy.

We have 28 new Swim Dogs (19 children and 9 parents). Most swim dogs are from hampden heights with the rest from The Preserve.

We finished the night with some swimming with special attention on streamlining.