For every great man, there’s a great woman!

Ok, that’s not really how the saying goes. However, that fits our purposes. If you haven’t read yesterday’s blog, simply scroll down before reading this… Now that you are done with it, upon reading the title, you can probably guess what this one is about. Since we are talking about 10 year-olds, we could have used boy and girl on the title, however, we feel that their will power is so great they deserve the title as it is!

Enough of introduction: after Matt’s feat yesterday, another brave soul decided she wanted to give the 1000 yards fly a try! Morgan Rosser was seen on the video of yesterday’s blog. After coach Aron asked why she wanted to do 1000 Fly, while Matt completed one of his 40 lengths of the pool, she said she didn’t really know, she just wanted to do it! We really deny a 10 year old from trying…

Last night, after swimming the whole practice, Morgan stepped up on the block, dove in, and swam 40 continuous lengths of the pool in Butterfly! She was the first female swimmer from ACAC to do so. We are very proud of having swimmers that won’t shy away from a challenge. Below you can take a look on some of those laps:

Congrats, Morgan!

The man, the legend!

It was 6:40pm at the Ames High pool. After a relatively hard practice, kids were given a choice: 200 easy, just to cool down and go home, or 1000 yards Butterfly. His option, an easy one: become legendary! Matt Boylan got up on the blocks, dove in, and swam 40 lengths of the pool, nonstop, all in Butterfly!

The feat deserves recognition. In a season where we are trying to teach kids on the importance of being mentally tough, of taking down challenges, Matt gave the best lecture. Why did he do it? Was it a punishment? No, he simply knew he could, and so he did. That’s how great feats are achieved. There was no doubt in his mind; he just knew he was capable of doing it. There was no price or punishment; he just wanted to do it. Period. As simple as that, and yet by doing so he gets all the recognition he wasn’t expecting. Several senior and age-group swimmers were simply stunned by his resolution, and towards the end he got all the moral support we could hope for.

We were lucky to have a camera on hand, so here’s a snippet of what the last laps looked like. The raw footage was so amazing we felt like we shouldn’t edit it at all:

Congrats, Matt!

More interesting things...

There is more about the minor things that we do that are exciting and crazy, but we just can't video all day long. This blog would be so amazing you may just spend your whole day watching what we do. Here is a short video of some of the things we did last week.

Who’s talking now?

From the World Press: Team Boleiros showed up for the pool in fair numbers against Team Ninja for the second clash between the teams in two weeks. Decided to erase the marks from last week’s defeat, they opened a six-point advantage following the first round of events. During the first break, Team Ninja lost two swimmers – Ethan McCallum due to injury, and Luuk Dekkers, scared after the first round! Team Boleiros utilized its number advantage to open the lead during the second round. With a deficit of astonishing 15 points leading in to the Relay, Team Ninja’s head coach made a plead so that Relay winner would get 16 points and second place would get nothing, which was promptly accepted by Team Boleiros. After a great effort during the Relay from both teams, Team Boleiros came out with the victory, to put a shocking 31 points advantage in the final score. Team Ninja’s Head Coach Aron Nakama was found crying in the locker room after the meet, and did not want to comment (after asking this reporter for a hug). Rumors were he left the state in order to hide. Team Boleiros’ Lucas Ferreira limited to say: “Our guys were hurt after last week, it wasn’t an easy week. And I compliment them for putting such a great performance today. We showed what we are made of, but this is not the end. We better be ready for next week!”

In all seriousness, the coaching staff was again pleased with how swimmers performed during our second week inter-squad dual meet. On top of several good performances for an early season mock meet, it seemed like everybody had fun. For the second week in a row, having a number advantage over the opposite team was crucial for going home with a victory. We expect all those who were present to “recruit” their teammates for showing up next week.

Check out our favorite swimming websites and blogs!

We added a new feature to the blog. On the right side of the page, scroll down to see a list of links to some of our favorite swimming websites and blogs. The underwater recordings of some races that took place in Beijing last year (including what is regarded as the best swimming race of all time, the 400 Freestyle Relay) are highly recommended!

First team meeting of the season!

Yesterday, we had the first team meeting of the season. As we said on the V-log (twice J!), this year we are holding team meetings once every 3 weeks. If you missed it, here’s the agenda (and a short synopsis of each topic):

- ACAC Autumn Opener entries are due on 9/25. That is this Friday, so make sure to submit your entries before that!

- Parents meeting, regarding swim meets also on 9/25, from 6:20 to 6:45. This meeting is geared mostly towards new families, so that they understand everything that goes around during a swim meet. We will also hand out a swim meet manual. Experienced parents are also welcome!

- Check out the coaches’ blog! Well, if you are reading this, good job in doing so! We wanted to make sure all our swimmers know about it, and are checking it frequently. Also, be sure to click on the videos on the right to watch the weekly show! Some laughs and a lot of information guaranteed!!!

- Working out and competing as a team: First off, remember to support and cheer up your teammates. That is going to come around on the days you are in need of some support! Second, we are giving emphasis on how the team scores on each meet. Our first priority? Let’s win our home meet! This is our turf, so let’s defend it! Let’s make sure everybody is swimming as many events as they possibly can, and adding points to the team!

- Team cheering! We are working on defining our team cheers. They should be purposeful, and help us getting pumped up for racing! If you have any ideas, be sure to share them with the coaches!

It was a relatively short meeting, which allowed swimmers to get back in the water and keep their hard work!

Novice swimmers make a splash!!!

As programmed in our 3-week lane schedule, last night the Novice swimmers had a taste of the deep end. Since they were there, they took advantage of it and worked on their starts. And it looked like they were having quite some fun! Being on the shallow lanes most of the time, this opportunity is very important for them. Parents take note of it: Monday, three weeks from now, you don’t want your kid to miss it! BTW, we were also planning on having the TIVO system working for them. Unfortunately, we had some technical problems. We hope those are taken care of by the next time our Novice swimmers are in lane 1!

A few lanes down, Age Group 3 had what was perhaps their hardest practice so far. And they stepped up to it! Everybody making the intervals and responding well, giving the coach a good fell that we can go even further!!! While the focus on Age Group 3 is still mainly on technique – which we didn’t overlooked, since we also worked on turns – it is great to see we can take a few days to swim longer and with quality!

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Age Groups 1 and 2 back in the pool today!

Coach Lucas