Monday, November 30, 2009

Great commercial!

We want every child that is part of ACAC to become successful. However, in order to truly succeed, we need to fail, and learn from it. Not sure? Watch this commercial with Michael Jordan, and get his take on it:

Make sure your swimmers watch this as well. This way they will start understanding the importance of racing that 500 free, 200 fly, 400 IM, or the mile, even when they don’t think they are ready!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Highlights from CSC Fall Invite

James Bentley: 6 Best Times, and got two new BB times (200 Free, 100 IM);

Sara Bentley: 7 Best Times, including got one AA time (50 Free), 5 new A times (500 Free, 100 Back, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 IM);

Matt Boylan: 9 Best Times, and got two new BB times (50 Fly, 100 IM);

Alex Pyle: 7 Best Times, and got two new AA times (200 Free, 1000 Free);

Cameron Rasmussen: 7 Best Times, and got two new A times (500 Free, 200 IM);

Morgan Rosser: 2 Best Times, including one new AAA time (50 Free), and 10 new ACAC Records (50 Free: 29.43, 100 Free: 1:05.32, 200 Free: 2:15.77, 100 Back: 1:16.64, 100 Breast: 1:26.32, 50 Fly: 34.04, 100 Fly: 1:15.79, 100 IM: 1:15.55, 200 IM: 2:38.53, and 500 Free 6:04.11);

Katherine Sailer: 6 Best Times, and got two new B times (200 Free, 100 Back);

Gracyn Snyder: 8 Best Times, including one new AA time (50 Free), two new A times (50 Fly, 100 IM), and two new BB times (50 Breast, 100 Fly);

Olivia Snyder: 1 Best Time, which was a new BB time (50 Free);

Sophia Sorenson: 7 Best Times and got two new A times (100 Free, 100 Back);

Sydney Sorenson: 8 Best Times, including three new AA times (50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Breast), two new A times (200 Free, 200 IM), and one new BB time (100 Fly);

Caleb Utesch: 5 Best Times, including one new AA time (500 Free) and one new A time (100 Free);

DMSF Fall Invite Highlights

Better late than never... Well, we had so many swimmers at this meet and so many greeeeeaaaaaaaat swims it gave us a "good problem". We decided to make the highlights a little less specific, so that we can actually get to them! We hope you enjoy reading these as much as we did watching them!


James Bentley: was 9 for 9 on best times, and 4 of those were new BB times (100 free, 50 back, 100 back, and 200 IM);

Sara Bentley: got 6 best times, and 1 of those was a new AA time (100 free), while 3 were new A times (200 free, 200 breast, and 400 IM);

Grace Carleton: dove in for two new events, and got 4 new best times;

Wes Carleton: tried one event for the first time, and got 1 new best time;

Hannah Dietrich: swam one new event, and got 3 best times;

Meredith Farrell: got 2 best times (had to swim the 100 back twice for one of them);

Liz Funk: got 4 best times;

Jazlyn Horras: dove in for one new event, and got 8 new best times;

Olivia Jenks: got times in two new events, and new 4 best times;

Timothy Jenks: swam 2 events for the first time, getting 2 best times;

Ethan Johnson: swam his first meet, getting 2 new best times;

Jackie Johnson: got 4 best times;

Joshua McCunn: tried 2 new events, and got one best time;

Sarah McCunn: dove in for one new event, and got 3 new best times, including a new B time (100 IM);

Isabel McLeod: tried two events for the first time and got seven best times, including one BB time (50 free) and two B times (200 free and 50 back);

Molly Muench: swam one new event, and got 4 best times;

Anna Napolitano: dove in for two new events, and got 8 new best times, including two new BB times (200 free and 100 back);

Alex Pyle: got seven new best times, including three new AA times (50 free, 500 free, and 200 back) and two new BB times (100 breast and 100 fly);

Cael Rasmussen: dove in for one new event, and got 2 best times, including a new B time (100 free);

Cameron Rasmussen: tried one new event and got 8 best times, including two A times (200 free and 400 IM), three BB times (50 back, 100 back, and 100 fly), and one new ACAC record (400 IM: 5:24.93);

Paige Ravenscroft: dove in for two new events and got 5 best times, including three new B times (50 back, 50 breast, and 100 IM);

Alli Rogers: dove in for her first meet in two events, getting two B times (50 free and 50 back);

Morgan Rosser: got 3 best times, including a new AAA time (100 fly) and a new AA time (100 breast);

Lauren Rosser: improved her times on 8 events, including a new A time (500 free);

Tony Rosser: got 2 best times;

Katie Sailer: dove in for one new event and got 5 best times, including two B times (50 fly and 100 IM);

Eva Scheibe: tried 3 new events and got 7 best times, including three new BB times (200 free, 100 back, and 200 IM);

Grace Scheibe: swam 1 new event and got 3 best times, including one new B time (50 back)

Matt Schuka: dove in for 1 new event and got 6 new best times;

Gracie Snyder: was 8 for 8 in best times, including a new A time (50 free) and three new BB times (200 free, 100 back, and 100 breast);

Olivia Snyder: tried 2 new events, and got 7 new best times;

Sophie Sorenson: got 5 best times, including two A times (50 free and 200 IM), one new ACAC Record (200 IM: 2:54.11);

Sydney Sorenson: got 7 best times, including two A times (100 breast and 200 breast) and three BB times (500 free, 100 back, and 200 back);

Hattie Stenberg: dove in for 3 new events, and got 5 best times;

Quentin Strohm: tried 1 new event and got 1 best time;

Zak Strohm: swam 1 new event and got 2 best times, both of them BB times (100 back and 100 fly);

Caleb Utesch: got 4 best times, including one new A time (400 IM);

Molly Winer: dove in for 2 new events and got 6 best times, including two B times (50 free and 100 IM);

Erin Wolter: swam 1 one event and got 2 best times;

Franklin Zhu: dove in for 2 new events and got 1 best time, which is a new A time (50 breast);

10 & Under 200 Medley Relay: the team composed by Jazlyn Horras (Backstroke), Eva Scheibe (Breaststroke), Sophie Sorenson (Butterfly) and Anna Napolitano (Freestyle) set a new ACAC Record with a time of 2:39.11

10 & Under 200 Freestyle Relay: Sophie, Jazlyn, Anna and Eva also set a new ACAC Record with a time of 2:19.95

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Final Gran Prix Update

We had an amazing finish to the weekend. Sunday morning we had Dustin Rhoads 200 back at 1:57.10 and five 100 freestyles, Taylor Kutchen 53.62, Ethan McCallum 52.50, Luuk Dekkers, 50.10, Dustin Rhoads 49.46, and Brian Bacon was 48.22.

The time trial session was fun with Jon Hagen performing a 100 free in 50.38 and Sam Wiedemeier with 56.78 in the 100 back. Both were personal bests.

We had one individual swim on Sunday night with Dustin Rhoads 200 back at 1:56.98. We finished the night with the 400 Free Relay. The "B" Relay was McCallum at 51.99, Wiedemeier at 50.08, Kutchen at 52.40 and Nakama at 51.04. Nakama swam a great race, but remembered how much training is involved with swimming.

The "A" relay swam 3:16.08 and got 9th overall. Brian Bacon was 48.35, Hagen was 50.00, Dekkers was 48.92, and Rhoads was 48.81.

Great job for everyone!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Highlights are comming...

We had not one, but two great meets this past weekend. Coach Aron was nice enough to bring us video updates from Minneapolis. We're still working on the highlights from the DMSF Fall Invite, but to be honest there were sooooooo many of them it might take us a while.

So, we decided to add a link to this article about goal setting. While you wait for the highlight, this is an excellent read, and we hope you will put some of those strategies in place!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Gran Prix Daily Recap Nov 14th

Great evening to cap the day! Dustin Rhoads went 50.57 in 100 back to get 10th. However, the relay was the swim of the night. We had a team meeting and here what I told the boys, "...the team is more important than any one individual. We must swim faster on the relays than we do for our individual races. If you want to win meets you have to win relays. Let's hold true to the values we have been working towards for the past nine weeks. Swim this for each other, hold each other accountable, and support each other behind the blocks..."

They took that to heart and swam amazing times, Dustin 51.98, Taylor 1:01.07, Jon 54.06, and Brian 47.24, for 3:34.35. We scored our first ever top 8 at the Gran Prix coming in 6th.


Gran Prix Morning Session Update, Day 2

Wow!!!!! We had an excellent morning, just watch the video. We have two swims tonight and it should be fun, Dustin Rhoads 100 back, seated 9th at 50.94, and our 400 Medley Relay, seated 16th.


Friday, November 13, 2009

Day 1 Recap

Before I get into a recap, I forgot to mention Luuk Dekkers 1000 free in the video recap, he went 10:00.53, a lifetime best by 9.5 seconds. Way to go!

We learn from our mistakes. The greatest part about this meet is that we get to make mistakes. Meets throughout the season are learning tools. It is very difficult to know how to react in a stressful situation like racing. The body and the brain perform a little differently under stress. Learning how to cope with that is essential to athletic performance. We had a few minor mishaps today that were amazing learning experiences. We got to tweak some strokes, some turns, and some other details. We had some nerves as well that affected race strategies. This is normal and we had some learning moments so that we can be better for the races tomorrow. I am proud of how our swimmers are handling themselves and how they are willing to learn from everything going on around them.

Here is how our day went:

Gran Prix Update

I am here at the 2009 Minnesota Gran Prix. I am excited as this meet features a few Olympians and world record holders. Rebecca Soni and Kate Ziegler were in the psych sheet and should be fun to watch. The guys were a little disappointed to find out that Ryan Lochte was not in the psych sheet. He has attended the last two Gran Prixs. Well guess who deck entered the meet last night...Ryan Lochte. So, this should prove to be a fun meet. I will post some updates from our swimmers as the meet progresses.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Read this!

Hey everybody!!

As we are getting ready for two weekends with swim meets, I found this blog, written by this guy called Garret Webber-Gale (you might remember him from that 400 Free Relay in Beijing). Well, it really addresses how important meets are, and so I think every swimmer on ACAC should ready it!

In addition, be sure to watch this week’s show, already posted on the right!

See you at the pool!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Last week of the session!

As all of you know by now, this is the last week of our Fall session. On Monday, our Senior 2 and National groups boys are going to be gone for the HS season, and we’ll be welcoming the HS girls. To the guys, good luck on the HS season; to the girls, it’s good to have you back!

This past Wednesday we also had our 3rd team meeting. In case you missed, here are the minutes:

- Swimmers were reminded to sign-up and guarantee their spots on ACAC for the next session;

- T-shirts: we are collecting t-shirts order via the main website. To order, click on ‘Team Store’, and then on ‘Logo Gear’. Be sure to order ACAC t-shirts and wear them to the meets!!!

- Practice schedules updated. Just visit the team’s website to check on the workout schedules. For now, it is important to remember that practice is cancelled for all groups except Novice on November 13th (everybody else is expected to attend the DMSF and Grand Prix meets), and cancelled for Age Group 3 and Seniors on November 20th (Coach Aron and Coach Lucas will be gone for the CSC meet)

- Keep your focus on the State meet: at this point in the season, when that excitement from the first weeks are gone, and the State meet still seems far away, it is normal that swimmers start loosing their focus. For that reason it is important to keep looking at the individual goals, and thinking about State. Working hard all season long will pay off when that meet comes around!!! Letters of recognition were given to the swimmers that have attended meets so far, and reminded them that the competition for spots on the Relays at State meet is open!

- Time standards: how many people have looked at the time standards sheet except for looking at State Q-times? There are several time standards for each event and age group, and those are national standards. In order to recognize swimmers for achieving those, they received patches according to the standards they currently hold.