Sunday, February 28, 2010
Some important dates for your diaries
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Public Holiday Weekend
Just a reminder that even though it's a Public Holiday Long Weekend,
all our sessions on Friday, Saturday and Monday 1st March will all run
as normal including the 1pm Saturday squad swim and Monday's 7am and
9.30am swim sessions.
Hope to see you there!
Cheers
A very hot, Pommie Paul ;-)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Training This Week
Monday, February 22, 2010
Ride for Youth Focus
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Great results at the Rottnest Swim
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Open water clinic and English Channel meeting
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How Friday's swim will pan out and a team needs a swimmer!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Update on Squad List
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week Ahead!
Friday, February 12, 2010
A note on numbers...
Hope you've all had a productive week.
I just wanted to mention the numbers situation after this morning's
530am session. As you know it was incredibly busy in this session and
we had to make a couple of adjustments to the lane structure as a
result. It looked like we'd be able to keep the 4th lane there for a
moment which did help manage things a bit but then the Dolphins turned
up and as it is their booking we had to retreat to 3 lanes as normal.
You may recall that back in August we managed to secure a 4th lane in
the 630am session which was put in place to balance out the demand for
the sessions. However, for the last two weeks a few people have
drifted from their 630am allocated time to the 530am session which
culminated in this morning with quite a bit of stress on the lane
space availability.
In response to a Blog at the end of January stating that numbers were
a bit low and that there was potentially some space in some of these
sessions, I only heard back from three of you specifically requesting
the swap.
It is really great to see so much interest in the squad, but we need
to do our best to manage the interest as much as possible and require
your help and assistance with this. We are confident that the PAYG
card system is enjoyed by most of you for it's flexibility and value
but may have to look towards putting in place a monthly fee as an
alternative and easier to manage system. It's a bit of a catch 22
situation as I'm sure you can understand.
So here's my suggested action points:
1. Please have a check of the comfirmed list here http://theteamcore.com/images/Confirmed_Squad_List.pdf
and make sure you are on the right list. If not, please email me
with the corrections. Three of you have already done so and need not
repeat this. This is on a strict first come best dressed scenario.
2. If you have any strong feelings either way on how the 530am session
was handled this morning, please, please let us know. We need this
feedback.
3. Please let me know your thoughts on a monthly fee and whether or
not this would work for you. Again, I really want to ensure that
everyone is having a fun session, learning lots and keeping fit in a
nice environment without feeling overcrowded.
Please remember, we can always look at additional sessions during the
week if we think this will help matters.
Thanks everyone for your support and understanding on this matter. I
think any business goes through it's growing pains and we really value
your feedback to help us create the very best environment in which to
train.
Have a great weekend! Oh, and on a lighter note, read on below:
Thursday, February 11, 2010
It finally happened...
I thought this little story of my misfortune today might brighten up
your Friday afternoon!
My speciality area within the coaching world as many of you know is
1-2-1 Video Analysis and Stroke Correction. I love this opportunity to
spend some quality time with a single swimmer showing them what it is
they need to improve. Since we launched Mr Smooth last July, these
sessions are proving more and more popular and I'm currently fully
booked for the next 9 weeks. It's a real chance for me to draw upon
now 14 years of experience doing these sessions and helping people
enjoy their swimming more.
I'm often asked if I've ever fallen in the pool whilst concentrating
on the task of filming a variety of different angles above and below
the water. The answer is always a very proud "no". I'm sorry to say
though that as of the 11th February 2010 I can no longer make this
claim!
Talk about embarassing! There I was with a pool full of school kids,
the West Australian Junior Womens Synchro Squad and a client whom I've
never met before who was treated to the session as a Christmas
present. I had to use the water polo pool for the session as my usual
lane 8 had been allocated elsewhere. Using the polo pool poses some
additonal problems, namely the obstacle of the three diving boards and
fixings. So there I am merrily conducting my favourite session when
"whoops!" I clip my heel and experience that odd time-stopped
sensation where you know you cannot do anything to stop yourself
falling over! I made a spectacular splash into the pool, fully clothed
and with all my equipment, narrowly missing landing on top of the
swimmer! I think he was as shocked as I was! The synchro girls
obviously found it absolutely hilarious but of course I had to act
like nothing had happened - a tough task when you're soaking wet, have
no towel or change of clothes and are unfortunately wearing a pair of
white Capri pants (I like to think of them as sun-bleached-beige) over
black boxer shorts. I had no choice but to drip dry throughout the
whole session with no top or shoes on - nightmare! You have to laugh
though, right?
Luckily though the session went well and I'm hopeful that the only
thing damaged was my ego!
Have a fun weekend and stay away from the pool edge - dangerous place
that! ;-)
Paul
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Training and Racing this Weekend
Monday, February 8, 2010
Recommendations for the final run-up to Rottnest!
- http://theteamcore.blogspot.com/2009/02/taper-tactics-few-final-words-of.html - suggestions for next week's sessions.
- http://www.theteamcore.com/mentalfocus.html - get your head in the right mental space.
- Podcast # 2 on nutrition for endurance events: http://www.theteamcore.com/podcast.html - well worth a listen!
- Race Day Itinerary examples (from Hannah): http://www.theteamcore.com/images/MichaelA.pdf and http://www.theteamcore.com/images/HannahM.doc
- Nutrition suggestions: http://www.theteamcore.com/images/Placid.pdf and http://www.theteamcore.com/images/SDA_Nutrition.pdf
Friday, February 5, 2010
Have your say!
After the highly successful (but brutally challenging!) 50 x 50m swim
set this morning sprinting any lap number divisible by 3 or 5, I've
happened upon a bit of an idea and I hope you're going to like it...
Today's set was actually put forward by James Forbes in lane 3
(5.30am) with a couple of minor tweaks by myself. I thought it worked
really well and added a bit of variety to the program. It certainly
kept me and Adam busy on the pool deck trying to keep you all pumped
up and you all succeeded very well with the challenge. Well done!
This leads me onto the idea. On the first Friday of every month I will
be accepting session ideas from within the squad. You can put forward
a session idea (main set) any time during the month (just email it
please) and we will review them all, pick one, add a sprinkle of Swim
Smooth MAGIC and serve it up for you to all enjoy!
So, get your thinking caps on, be creative and let us know what you'd
like to do. Can I suggest that the longest interval should be no more
than 300m given that this is supposed to be a speed orientated session.
Have a great weekend!
Paul
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Training this Weekend
Friday PM = for the 4.30pm SOLO swimmers, if you can make it, we're going to do a fun rough water swim at Trigg Beach. Please meet at the Trigg SLSC tower at 4.30pm for a 4.45pm start. If you get there a little late, run down the beach and find us...we'll be swimming south into a screaming sou-westerly with any luck! We'll then see you for the BBQ in Floreat from 6.30pm.
Rottnest swimmers should enter the Cottesloe to Swanbourne 2.2km swim which starts at 8am prompt and registration is from 7-7.45am. The SOLO / DUOS should then swim back as well (cruisey). My favourite open water race of the season!
P.S A massive congratulations to Renee Baker who raced awesomely well last weekend at the Perth Olympic Distance triathlon and qualified for the World Championships in Hungary next year - top notch! I didn't get down there unfortunately (computer woes sadly enough!) so if anyone else raced and would like to let me know how they went, please do so!
P.P.S If you were at the briefing for the Rottnest Channel Swim event on Tuesday night you would have received the handbook to the event. I am very proud to say that Adam's photograph of me swimming past the 10km mark in last year's SOLO event made the front cover - thank goodness you can't see how much I'm hurting! ;-)