Del Mar Swimming State of the Team

Week Three

Well, it’s been an interesting start of a season. We went from not being sure if we would have a team to having over twenty awesome athletes.b

I’d call that a success!

Personally, I’m feeling pretty good about how our team is doing. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling better about my own coaching. Maybe because I’m more relaxed because we know each other.

So let’s review some highlights of the the last three weeks…

First, we’ve got a good mix of grades. Six seniors, five juniors, four sophomores and five freshman. Almost a perfect ratio.

(In case you were wondering, a good numbers for a team is about twenty each of boys and girls. The maximum number is sixty.)

But our numbers are good. Here is why…

  • We will be able to have strong a strong varsity for both boys and girls
  • We will have good JV teams and everyone will get to swim a lot of events in the meets.
  • Everyone will be able to swim relays
  • And even if half the team decides to miss practice, we’ll still have ten in the water (That shouldn’t happen!).

Next, I’m happy with how our strokes and conditioning is proceeding. We are still at the very early stages of stroke development and getting in shape. And with the super short season it’s going to be challenging. But I see us getting close to the ideal vision I have for us.

I’m a little bummed that we didn’t have the meet this week. I wanted to see how we looked in races. We also don’t have enough meets. (The maximum number is usually 12. Typically, Del Mar has six. That is something to work on next year…and the year after…and the year after.

And now for some updates on next week…

We will have a meet on Thursday at Del Mar.

We will train an extra fifteen minutes a day (till 4:45). I think we really need this extra time. There’s a lot of skill work I want to get in and we haven’t had enough time.

Finally, there will be an optional water polo session on Fridays from 3 to 4:45.

I think you’ll enjoy the water polo. It’s fun and different than swimming. Yet, the conditioning will help with our swimming. I hope you’ll try it out.

That’s all for now!

Ron Usher

I help swimmer have fun, improve, get fast and learn about the great sport of swimming. I've always loved coaching the swimmers who weren't as talented or world class fast but they loved the sport and they wanted to learn and improve. I want you to benefit from my coaching and training.

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