Blog

November 7, 2013

Below is a liink to a good article on peer pressure and fitting in with the crowd. How common is this at synchro practice every day? Is this behavior hurting your team? Who is influencing the swimmers on your team the most?

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/cardio/tips/mean-girls/?sssdmh=dm17.700790&esrc=nwfitdailytip110713

September 3, 2013

Great article I found about why and how Russia remains on top- it is all in their approach!

Russia remains invincible in synchronized swimming

August 2, 2013 , Anna Kozina, special to RBTH

The Russian synchronized swimming team has again won all seven gold medals at the world championships, even with a weakened squad and without three-time Olympic champion Natalya Ishchenko.

Following the Russian synchronized swimmers’ seventh absolute victory in a row at the World Aquatics Championships, journalists at the press conference left the Russian women’s recent rivals—the Spanish swimmers—baffled. The reporters simply asked: “Do you know how to beat the Russian team?”

“We seem to train in the same way as them, 10 hours a day,” said the host team in reply, seeming a little embarrassed. “Maybe we need to make sure we never sleep at night and never get out of the water!”

The same idea occurred to Svetlana Kolesnichenko, who replaced the world’s number one synchronized swimmer—three-time Olympic champion and 16-time world champion Natalya Ishchenko—in the duet with Svetlana Romashina. Although Kolesnichenko was new to this type of program, she proved spirited and unafraid to call a spade a spade.

4.5 minutes—that’s how long Svetlana Romashina could hold her breath when she was a child.

“As for the results of the tournament, I was sure there wouldn’t be any surprises—even in the combination we decided to take part in at the last moment. We’re three heads higher than our rivals and we’re continuing to work. To be honest, I don’t see anyone getting close to us,” said Kolesnichenko. “Before a competition starts, you often hear about what super-programs the Chinese or the Spanish women have got, but you get there and realize that they still haven’t caught up with us.”

Svetlana, incidentally, is pleased that the team is maintaining its lead. “People who are a bit more adventurous want to experience intense emotions, as you do when diving. Here, no one knows who will win until the last moment. Even the unyielding Chinese make mistakes,” she said.

Why did Svetlana cite diving as her example? Simply put, synchronized swimmers always support divers, and vice versa. When journalists asked a natural question about how to gain such an advantage, Svetlana replied without thinking, listing the points in which Russian synchronized swimming is strong.

“The main secret to our victories is our excellent coaches: Tatyana Pokrovskaya and Tatyana Danchenko. We even have continuity of generations. Danchenko’s daughter, Lena Ternovskaya, is already helping her mom,” Kolesnichenko said. “And, of course, we have a good school of synchronized swimming. After the children’s and junior competitions, we have well-prepared athletes joining the team, junior world champions who continue to develop their technique.”

It might have seemed that the Russian women, who have not known defeat in four Olympic cycles, should have been big-headed and even somewhat relaxed. The performance gap between teams might have allowed this to happen—but no. They are constantly on the ball. They have been taught this by their chief coach, Tatyana Pokrovskaya, and by the solo and duet coach, Tatyana Danchenko. The favorites in any tournament never celebrate victory too early.

“I know that Tatyana Danchenko makes pancakes for the girls in honor of their victory,” said Kolesnichenko. “I don’t make pancakes, but I do give them a little champagne—although not until the tournament has ended. We don’t like to jump the gun. It’s a kind of superstition, a tradition. Usually we’re anxious and don’t relax until the very end. Of course, we congratulate each other on gold medals in the course of the tournament, but we don’t make a big fuss. After all, we still have several days of competition ahead of us.”

The champion Kolesnichenko does not mind talking about her mistakes. True, these are not so much real faults, as they are an endeavor for unlimited perfection. “During the group free program, the coaches and I were standing at the edge of the pool in a place where you can see all the mistakes and weak points—like being in the wings in a theatre. For example, we wanted them to do one lift a little bit better, a little bit higher—as they’d done in the training session—but they didn’t manage to. That’s the result of tiredness,” she said.

“All the same, it’s the second start in a row after the World Student Games, and our novices are flagging: They’re slim little things. They’ve never had to do such complex routines and lifts before, but they got through it. And I want to say that, in the final, the girls did everything much better than in the semifinal. Everyone noted this, and that was very important for me,” said Kolesnichenko.

Those “slim little things” are the five juniors who, after the London Olympics, were “looked after” by the four Olympic champions who remained on the team. Yet taking part in the world championships was such a “bang on the head” (to use the expression of coach Pokrovskaya) for the young and inexperienced girls, that they grew up right away.

The inimitable Natalya Ishchenko, three-time Olympic champion and 16-time world champion, has also retired. She was planning to compete in Barcelona in her favorite solo event, but she had to change her plans because of an expected addition to the family. Nevertheless, she was always alongside the girls.

During the preparation stage, Ishchenko was helping Romashina and Kolesnichenko put together their program and become a real duet. During the world championships, she called her friends in the team and supported them, helping them to get ready for the start. “It was incredibly difficult to perform in the solo after Ishchenko,” said Romashina, “and the last time I did a solo was at junior level nearly 10 years ago, in 2004. But it seems there was a soloist in me all those years, and today I proved that.”

That is the kind of turnover there is among Russian synchronized swimmers on the podium.

August 24, 2013

Searching the web and found this today- removed the link because it shut down our site- was on Japan today picture of the day site. Very bad comments about synchro and make-up, and removing it from the Olympics. Very distressing and I thought synchro was popular in Japan. The make-up, themes, costumes and theatrical routines have taken synchro over the top. Even as life long synchro swimmers and fans, it has been hard to watch the sport changed into a show. DId it really take a rule from FINA to get rid of the over the top make-up? Yes it did. Let's make synchro a sport again and regain the respect of the sports world.

July 18, 2013

Looks like much of the international synchro world is hoping to shift synchro from the theatrical back to the more athletic by limiting make-up, excessive costuming, pre-deckwork dances, etc. And increasing the percentage that difficulty counts in the scores- YEAH! We hope all the changes go through to bring our sport back to the sport- diminishing the acting, themes, costumes and make-up. Synchro can be even more more entertaining when 8 swimmers perform difficult moves in unison- and the audiences seem very keen to discern a difficult move from an easy showy display.

Let's get our sport back!

July 17, 2013

Great article on training and coaching....

'Base Building' for High School Athletes?

By Latif Thomas

When my mother attended her first ever Parent-Teacher Conference, she expected Mrs. Candlette to tell her how smart I was. Or how polite I was. Or to hear about some other facet of my considerable six year old intellect...

Instead, the first teacher to parent description to fall upon her ears was,

"Wow, Latif sure can run fast!"

What can I say? I owned Duck, Duck, Goose!

So, when I arrived at the University of Connecticut, track and field scholarship in hand, I thought I was well on my way to the Olympic Games.

You can imagine my horror when, a few weeks before the start of my first Indoor Track Season, my coach pulled me into his office. He told me, not so subtly, that I was being red shirted. He then told me, not so subtly, that he thought I was a fluke. That he had no idea, based on what he saw from me that fall, how I possibly ran 10.8 for 100m, 22.1 for 200m or 48.8 for 400m as a 16 year old. (That was pretty good for New England back in the mid '90s.) He then reminded me that scholarships are year to year and that I was not on pace to have mine renewed!

I slowly shuffled back to my dorm in a state of panic and disbelief.

How did it get to this point? I work my butt off. And I set all types of records when I was in high school.

Sure, I had lost the bulk of my senior year to a torn hamstring. But, how was I supposed to know to do a 'dynamic warm up' before a race? I didn't know what that was. My hamstring was tight that day, so I static stretched it even harder.

Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

I thought I had gotten it loose before the start of the relay. And I was still furious I had lost a race earlier in the day. So I was going to take it all out on the anchor leg of that 4x200. As I came around the first turn, I shifted into the gear that normally elicits 'Oohs' and 'Aahs' from the crowd.

And I got them. But not the good kind.

Because the next thing I knew, I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my leg. And then I was flopping around on the track like a fish out of water.

It wouldn't be the last time.

After college, I was hired as an assistant high school track coach by my mentor Kevin Murphy. He told me, no so subtly, that being able to run fast in no way made me qualified to teach people to run fast.

This was, in fact, news to me. Like most athletes, I believed my athletic prowess was a direct reflection of my innate coaching ability and knowledge. All I had to do was teach kids what I already knew.

He proceeded to hand me a box full of VHS tapes, articles, manuals and all of his workouts and progressions from the previous ten years or so. He told me if I wanted to be a good coach, I should study these materials and ask questions.

I dove in. Very quickly, I realized two things:

1. I didn't know anything.

2. All of my injuries were preventable.

My first coaching epiphany came while studying the fundamental importance of designing all training around development of the five biomotor abilities:

Speed. Strength. Mobility. Coordination. Endurance.

As a sprinter, I relied, primarily, on speed and strength. Therefore, in order to maximize my ability in both the short and long term, I needed a base of... speed and strength...

...in addition to consistent and specific mobility, endurance and coordination development.

But, when I got to college, I didn't have a base of any of those things except, maybe, endurance.

I grew up doing martial arts and playing basketball and football. I didn't join the high school track team until the spring of my sophomore year. I was no specialist.

During those developmental years, I did lots of stretching in karate class. Lots of suicides during basketball practice.Lots of gassers at the end of football practice. And lots of distance runs and repeat 200s at track practice.

But, I never ran at full speed, ever, before college.

I was never taught how to accelerate, decelerate or change directions, ever, before college.

I never did a dynamic warm up, ever, before college.

I was never taught how to lift weights or given a bodyweight circuit, ever, before college.

I never learned a drill or was told I had to perform anything in particular, in any specific way, ever, before college.

I had no 'base' to speak of, sport specific or otherwise. I just floated through high school on raw talent and a mind numbing contempt for losing.

Knowing how most athletes are trained, even today, you understand my experience is not the exception. How surprised are you that I tore my hamstring? How surprised are you that I didn't have the training age or biomotor base to handle the volumes or intensities of high school athletics, let alone survive at the collegiate level?

As a track and field coach, athletic development is what we do. It is our sport. In fact, outside of the United States, track and field is calledAthletics!

So it is natural for me to focus on developing a base of speed and power - the qualities required to succeed in the events I coach.

Not a base of 'long jump' or a base of 'hurdles' or a base of '100 meters'.

And this is where many youth coaches of 'team sports' drop the ball. Well meaning as they may be, they don't develop a base. They don't spend enough time on athletic development or multilateral training(despite both common sense and countless scientific studies showing this approach leads to healthier athletes performing at higher levels much later into life.)

Instead, most young athletes spend the bulk of their training time scrimmaging in their sport or practicing 'sport specific' movements, patterns and plays. Youth coaches, apparently, don't have the time or inclination to learn biomotor development, so they try to make up for it with even more scheming and scrimmaging.

So we have an epidemic of overuse and acute injuries to young athletes, especially developing females.

It's not because the basketball coach doesn't know how to teach hedging a pick. It's because the athletes repeat the same high stress movements over and over again without developing the biomotor skills that allow them to handle and recover from the stresses placed on their bodies.

It's because the basketball coach and the soccer coach bamboozle young kids (and their fathers...) into believing that specializing in one sport, starting at age 7, will put that athlete in the best position to get that coveted Division I scholarship.

But here's the truth:

Little Johnny the 15 year old doesn't need to build a 'basketball specific base'.

Or a 'soccer specific base'.

Or a '(insert sport) specific base'.

For subcollegiate athletes, there is no such thing as a 'sport specific base'. Anyone who says otherwise is, almost certainly, trying to sell a sport specific training package or spot on a club team. While I respect their hustle, it's still misleading.

My track athletes regularly overachieve during their track season/s. And they go on to excel in their 'team' sports when it isn't track season.

Why does competing in track and field make Johnny a better basketball player and Mary a better soccer player even though we don't pay much attention to things like 'deceleration' and 'agility'?

Because I don't look at Mary as a 'soccer player'. She can call herself that when she gets to college. I treat Mary as a 15 year oldathlete whohappens to play soccer or happens to be running track.

I develop a base of biomotor abilities through a broad, multilateral approach that gets gradually more specific as they get older and more skilled.

I don't try to make Johnny a better basketball player. Or Mary a better soccer player.

I make them better athletes and their base of biomotor skills naturally makes them better at everything they do.

Building a biomotor base makes training more fun because athletes do so many more non-repetitive activities. And it reduces the likelihood of acute injuries, regardless of their skill level.

I know from experience you can only get so far on talent alone. And torn hamstrings really, really hurt. Especially when they don't have to happen.

And as coaches, it is our responsibility to build a broad base of knowledge ensuring that they don't.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

April 17, 2013

Oakland A's Baseball game last night: amazing how same principles of human movement apply to all sports. Not surprising though- after all - it is human movement and the human brain. Common threads to all sports. Smart training and smart focus. Researching today more on periodized training plans and sport specific training. No synchro - not much out there. Lots of info on other sports. Baseball again!

April 16, 2013

Sad time with only 5 senior teams at US Nationals and 3 of them collegiate teams. Go OSU and UIW! They did a great job- probably preparing tech and combo routines after collegiate nationals. And people still want to get rid of our collegiate program- then what? 2 teams and half of them are juniors? Spoke to a few parents- the only reason their kids do synchro is for the collegiate opportunities.