I tried something at practice the other day that was pretty successful.  "Snippets"  Isn't it funny how sometimes we can over explain things? On the pool deck I played some "Telephone Swimming" with one group.  If you haven't read the post yet - here it is:  Telephone Swimming  It basically uses the "snippet" technique - a short phrase that gets the point across!  Kids hear the snippet and pass it along to the next in line.  Of course there are many other things going on with that exercise.... but it really helped...

Recreation column: T2 Aquatics Masters team finishes seventh at Rowdy Gaines Classic By BARBARA BOXLEITNER Wednesday, November 14, 2012 NAPLES — Seven members of the T2 Aquatics Masters performed well at the Rowdy Gaines Classic in Orlando during October. Lisa Blackburn, Erika Erndl, David Gray, Margit Jebe, Susan Nolan, Mike Stollmeyer and Fred Wakelin combined to place seventh among 42 participating teams. Formerly a part of the USA Swimming national team, Erndl broke age group (30-34) world records in the 100-meter individual medley and 100 freestyle. As the lead swimmer in...

Check out some of these improvements from T2 Aquatics athletes over the last 18-24 months. We've included some of our top 15 and under athletes, plus some of our younger athletes who are not as highly ranked currently. Our hope is to motivate our staff/parents/athletes to higher level performances. See attatched blog post for more information on this subject! Some of our older athletes are listed with Long Course Meter improvements, while some of our younger athletes are listed with Short Course Yard improvements. The goal of this chart is...

  Practice Index Cards Younger athletes need to be told why they did a good job.  So I have come up with a little system that I will probably use for a bit, then put away, then bring back again later.  I bought a small pack of spiral bound colorful index cards.  When someone REALLY catches my eye and swims or acts like an ELITE athlete at practice - I write them a little message.  Here is what goes on the card:   Click to read more:  Getting Even Faster...

  2012 FHSAA High School Championship Meet Twenty-Three T2 Aquatics Athletes will represent their High Schools in the 2012 Florida State High School Championships in Thirty-Six individual events and Nineteen swims on relays!      Congratulations to the following T2 Aquatics 2012 High School State Championship Swimmers  Class 1A Dane Erickson                50 Free, 100 Free Maura Fagan                  100 Back Karen Liu                         100 Fly, 200 IM Liam Hollowsky              500 Free Jacob Buckheit           ...

  Your Vision Controls your Body Position (Part 2) I've discussed in previous blog posts about "Vision" -- and your ability to control your body position through 'looking' in the proper direction while swimming.  Here's a cool trick that coach Tom used today with one of our athletes: he painted the bottom of an old pair of googles with a Sharpie...forcing the athlete to use his eyes better while swimming freestyle. Click to read more:  Create Performance Blogpost

Text-Free Driving Pledge As swimming coaches, it is our responsibility to educate our athletes in the sport of swimming .  Often, this education is regarding swimming-related actions, for which our athletes are repsponsible.  At times, this education is regarding "hidden training" -- the actions outside of the pool that impact our athlete's lives.   I believe that at times, it's important that we use our role as educators to help create positive habits that simply help an athlete navigate their life in a positive, healthy way.  This is not "swimming-related" stuff here --...

FOURTEEN WORLD RECORDS HIGHLIGHT COMPETITION AT ROWDY GAINES MASTERS CLASSIC Olympians reunite to race in short course meters Published:October 15, 2012 www.swimmingworldmagazine.com ORLANDO, Florida, October 15. OLYMPIANS, USA national team members and first-time Masters swimmers mingled at the Orlando YMCA Aquatic Family Center last weekend at the fourth-annual Rowdy Gaines Masters Classic, where 14 Masters world short course meters records were broken.  Three people were each responsible for three of the individual world records. Erika Erndl, a former member of the USA Swimming national team and a 2012 Olympic Trials semifinalist, set three...

We Love To Kick At T2 we LOVE kicking, especially on the age group end.  We work on becoming better kickers each day.  First on a kickboard, then underwater. Click to read more and see the video:  Getting Even Faster Blogpost

PHOENIX, Arizona, June 8. SINCE joining T2 Aquatics in 2010, Paul Yetter has seen his team's stock rise, and he talks about his goals for the team and some of its star swimmers on today's edition of The Morning Swim School. Yetter talks about welcoming Elizabeth Pelton and Katie Hoff to the team recently and what it's like working with his former charges again. He also discusses the other swimmers on the team attending Olympic Trials and what his expectations are for the team as it continues to gain exposure...