Badger’s Zane Grothe adorns the cover of Swimming World August edition after setting the meet record in the men’s 400m freestyle

From Swimming World Magazine:

“With all of the excitement occurring in South America with the 2016 Rio Olympic Games going on, Swimming World wanted to take a moment to highlight the accomplishments of those swimming state-side. Leading up to the beginning of the Games and continuing into them multiple meets have occurred featuring young stars like Zane Grothe (cover) of Badger Swim Club. The first August issue of Swimming World Biweekly highlights the action at the U.S. Open, all four Futures Championships, and the YMCA National Championships.”

Get your subscription to Swimming World today!

Controlling Emotions

A note from Badger Parent Advocate, Mike Conaton:

I felt so bad for Jordan Spieth as his second ball went in the water at the 12th hole during the last round of the Masters. Never thought it would be possible to blow a lead like that but a quadruple bogey can do it. Everyone in attendance and probably millions watching on TV seemed devastated. But you know who didn’t (at least appear) devastated…was Jordan Spieth.

We’ve all read about how important mental toughness and composure are for an athlete to command…but what about those around them? Coaches? …and even parents?

Jordan Spieth’s caddie didn’t seem to express a lot of emotion either. In fact, it is part of his job to keep his golfer focused and in the moment. I thought he did a remarkable job.

What about coaches? I will admit I was pretty excited when Villanova’s Kris Jenkins sunk a buzzer beater for the win over UNC in the NCAA Basketball Championship. While I didn’t necessarily have strong feelings for either team, I definitely got into the emotion of the game and probably even let out a little whoop with that last shot. How could any sports-loving person not? Jay Wright didn’t. I noticed right away the remarkable restraint the head coach of the Wildcats demonstrated. Later there were many articles written about his reaction, one of which is featured here.

http://www.businessinsider.com/villanova-jay-wright-explains-calm-reaction-ncaa-win-2016-4

Wright would say he was still in the coaching moment and not sure the game was actually over so he was thinking about the next play. Great coaching and that state of mind aside, I have to believe there was much more at play than that. Wright also said “I’m the adult. I got all these 18- and 22-year-olds around me”. Clear indication that the coach sets the tone for the team; Sets the example for the team; Controls the emotion of the team that can work in its favor to channel focus and aggression. It can also work in a negative way if a lack of discipline by the coach results in players with the propensity to lose their cool and self-destruct with fouls or poor play to the detriment of the team.

I discussed the general topic recently with a very accomplished age group and former college swimming coach who I met at a recent big meet as he was watching some of his former pupils. I asked him about the parents’ role with their kids in this area. He said it was important to “control the modulation of the amplitude”. What? “You know”, he said, “keep the sine wave steady”. Oh right, “gotcha yea”, I said, as I made a mental note to visit the dictionary when I got home. This guy was pretty smart and, kidding aside, explained to me with what I thought was a great analogy, the importance of keeping our ups and downs, highs and lows, in control. He said we set an example for our kids – Our reactions and emotions influence our kids whether we realize it or not. We have the ability to keep them humble and grounded with perspective during the highs, and keep their spirits up, again with proper perspective during the lows. Temper the highs so the lows aren’t so low.

I understand it’s just like a coach, and especially a swimming coach to impart on THE KIDS that they can always do better – never be satisfied; don’t over celebrate. Of course recognize a milestone and acknowledge the hard work it took to get there – but use that milestone as the stepping stone to the next level. Keep working hard.

But can’t PARENTS celebrate just a little? Enjoy the moment just a little?

At the same big meet, I congratulated a mother whose son had made finals. She was of course beaming but pretty contained, and very gracious. She then also shared with me that she had just heard from her husband who was away with their daughter who had just won another huge event. She was definitely having a good day. I’d want to do cartwheels. But as she was telling me all this incredible good news, in the same sentence, almost apologetically, she said, “remember we’ve had other days too, you know”.

And so the life of the swimming parent goes – taking the good with the bad, rolling with the punches, and supporting the kids to the next milestone.

Michael Conaton, Badger Swim Club Inc. and Badger Swimming Inc. accept no liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.

Caeleb Dressel, Social Media and Internet Safety

A note from Badger Parent Advocate, Mike Conaton:

Caeleb Dressel, Social Media and Internet Safety

When both swimming and non-swimming friends send me the same article, it’s a pretty good indication that there are some good stories involved.  Indeed, this recent article by Karen Crouse in the New York Times contains messages for parents of swimmers young and old. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/sports/for-a-natural-swimming-isnt-always-easy.html?_r=0

The article features Caeleb Dressel, the rising US sprinter who recently set new American records in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle at his college conference championships.   The article summarizes Dressel’s meteoric recent rise, his ironic challenge, and his humble beginnings as an age group swimmer.

Badger 10U parents may hear their kids complaining about having to learn the difficult butterfly stroke.  Well maybe it will make the kids feel better to learn that even American record holders once struggled, and even cried over having to swim Butterfly.  And add yet another funny story about young kids and their early swimming lessons – Dressel once jumped into an empty lane during a meet and actually won the heat.  The problem was that he was not entered in the meet!  He was there to watch his older brother.

Later as an age grouper, the article makes reference to a valuable tool that many kids use today: Dressel still keeps detailed notes in a logbook to chronicle his workouts and performance.  His entries were much more detailed than other kids’ books, focusing not only on recording sets and pace times (as I know some Badger veterans still do), but also on how his body and muscles felt in the water under different conditions.  He was a study on form and technique.

Dressel would emerge onto the national scene, first at the age of 15 as the youngest male competitor at the 2012 Olympic Trials, then a year and a half later making the 2013 Junior World Championships in Dubai.

But when he came home from Dubai, despite all his success, Dressel unbelievably quit swimming.   Introducing one of parents’ greatest challenges with their kids – Social Media and the Internet.

Dressel suffered from feeling the burden of expectations.  It seems his days of racing anonymously were long gone.  Dressel said in the article, “as a 17-year-old kid, people put you on this podium, and it seems like you’re just a source of entertainment for people.  I felt like I was swimming for other people and they’d never be satisfied”.

The author of the article summed it up – “The “other people” are strangers on the internet.  Dressel’s ascent has coincided with the rise of social media, where every person with access to Twitter has the equivalent of a megaphone”.  Dressel was feeling the pressure from social media that expected him to be something special every time he swam.

The point combines two concepts, one we have written about in the past regarding the need for kids to swim for THEMselves. To me the second point speaks volumes of some of the other pressures our kids face today. You can literally be the fastest kid in the world and still feel peer pressure and feel bad about yourself – in this case delivered through the internet and social media. How many times have we had discussions (ok, fights) about social media in our household…It’s obviously here to stay so we all have to figure out how to deal with it – both the unintended and the very intentional and downright mean communications via the internet. I don’t know what the answer is, and obviously there are a lot of great things about the internet (I know I’m showing my age and tech inexperience), but I believe we parents can’t be blind to what goes on with social media and just hope for the best.

Back to the story…Dressel was back in the water after a much needed six-month break from the water.  With continuing support from family, friends and coaches, Dressel is constantly reminded to keep his success in perspective and his focus on himself and his teammates.

Three time Olympian Brendan Hanson is quoted in the article, summing up this last point very well when he spoke to Dressel’s mom – “the best thing you can do for your kids is put away your stopwatch and let it be THEIR sport, not yours”.

As for social media…hope is not a method – very coincidently, our local high school recently hosted a presentation by Laura Forbes, Senior Assistant District Attorney with the Office of the Westchester County District Attorney and member of the High Tech Crime Bureau.  Ms. Forbes spent a couple hours scaring parents with horrible stories and describing the many risks presented by the internet. In short, the following top 10 list of recommendations were discussed:

  1. Set parental controls on devices
  2. Talk about content with your kids (violence, language, other)
  3. If you give a 10-year old a phone, limit it
  4. Don’t let young kids play games or watch movies made for older kids
  5. Tell kids not to give away passwords, personal information or disclose their location
  6. Turn off devices at bedtime – take it away if you have to
  7. FOLLOW YOUR KIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – ALL OF IT – FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.
  8. Tell your kids to stop if you don’t like what they’re doing online
  9. Help your kids or find help if you don’t know what to do
  10. Be aware of Apps that hide content from you on their phones and computers

So we’ll add to the list – Parents are awesome…it ain’t always easy…and it can be really scary…

 

Michael Conaton, Badger Swim Club Inc. and Badger Swimming Inc. accept no liability for the content of this article, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.

Lea Loveless-Maurer Clinics, A Huge Hit

2In kicking off the start of spring Badger was excited to announce a weekend lea 10 under clinic 2of clinics with  one of the sport’s most accomplished swimmers and coaches and a Badger alumni.

The weekends clinics run for the 11 and overs out of New Rochelle and a 10 and under clinic run the following day at Manhattanville were  a huge success.

lea mville dry sideThe clinics focused on body positioning for the four strokes, emphasis on turns for the four strokes as well as starts.

The swimmers in attendance were treated to a very in depth look at how to use their bodies to maximize their performances in the pool.1  Badger coaches look forward to reinforcing the lessons taught at the clinics and seeing the results in the future.lea 10 iunder clinic 3

Look out for future clinics with Lea Loveless-Mauer and a continuation of the Badger Pro-Series Clinics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Clinics for Badger Swimmers and Parents with Lea Loveless-Maurer

Lea Loveless-MaurerLea Loveless-Maurer is one of the sport’s most accomplished swimmers and coaches and she is coming back to Badger from Chicago, Illinois for a weekend residency. We hope our swimmers and parents will take full advantage of this opportunity.

Some highlight’s of Lea’s career including being a lifelong Badger, an Olympic gold medalist, a National Champion, a World Champion, and an American World Record holder in the 100 meter backstroke. After finishing her career as a swimmer, she took naturally to the pool deck as a coach. During her time as a coach in Lake Forest, Illinois she coached Olympic champ, Matt Grevers, before going on to become the head womens coach at Stanford University where she lost only one dual meet in 7 seasons, was a consistent top 3 team at NCAA’s, and placed 2 of her swimmers on the 2008 US Olympic team.

Having coached at the highest level at one of the countries finest academic institutions, Lea has a wealth of knowledge on recruiting and performing at the collegiate level. Lea is a Badger supporter, coach, advocator, mentor and parent of two swimmers herself.

We look forward to an exciting weekend with Coach Lea.

SENIOR CLINIC
Friday, March 18
Manhattanville
Time: 4:00- 6:00

Active, Senior swimmers only.
No sign up required.

11 YEARS OLD & OVER
Saturday, March 19
New Rochelle
Time: 8am-10am

Lea will run swimmers through all the strokes as she works to help them hone the details that are necessary for success in the sport. Special attention will be given to starts, turns, underwater, and breakouts.

Advance Sign up Required
$50.00 per swimmer
Space is limited

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PARENTS NIGHT
Saturday, March 19
119 Rockland Avenue
Larchmont, NY 10538
Time: 6pm-8pm

Join Lea at the Badger main house for cocktails and Q & A. Parents will have the opportunity to mingle and speak with Lea about being a Badger Swimmer, an Olympian, a Coach and Parent of Swimmers. Lea’s experience is impressive and extensive with recruiting high school athletes and coaching collegiate swimmers. We are fortunate to have Lea as resource for all things swimming related and we hope parents will take advantage of this opportunity, especially for those interested in the college process.

Advance Sign up Required.
Donations to Badger Swim Club are appreciated. (All donation are tax deductible.)
Space is limited.

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10 YEARS OLD & UNDER
Sunday, March 20
Manhattanville
Time: 10am-12pm

Lea will run swimmers through all the strokes as she works to help them hone the details that are necessary for success in the sport. Special attention will be given to starts, turns, underwater, and breakouts.

Advance Sign up Required.
$50.00 per swimmer.
Space is limited.

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For scheduling questions, please email Coach Brian Hansbury

Badger Swimmers – NCAA Championship Bound

Just coming off the college conference championships, the NCAA just released the Preliminary Psyche Sheets (pre-scratches) and the list of swimmers invited to the 2016 Men’s Division 1 Swimming and Diving Championships that will be held March 23-26 at Georgia Tech.

The NCAA selected 29 swimmers per event, with a total of 235 swimmers in total invited to the meet.  Swimmers invited are then allowed to swim additional events that they have qualifying time standards in.

Brian Hogan a senior at Yale was invited for the 1650 Freestyle with a time of 14:55.44 being seeded 23rd overall. hogan yale Brian will also swim the 500 Freestyle seeded 40th with a time of 4:19.54 and the 400 IM seeded 38th with a time of 3:51.30.

 

Patrick Conaton a sophomore at Stanford just coming off the teams Pac-12 conaton stanfordConference Championship win was selected in the 200 Backstroke seeded 13th with a time of 1:40.85.  Patrick will also swim the 50 Freestyle seeded 43rd with a time of 19.83 and the 100 Backstroke seeded 38th with a time of 47.16.

Both Swimmers represented Badger as  age-group swimmers through their years with the senior team along with summers that they were home.   Brian and Patrick are also 2016 Olympic Trial Qualifiers.

 

 

 

Badger Swims at American Short Course Champs.

 

amsc (2)The group of Scottie Berridge, Carly Cummings, Kim Jogis, Natlaie Eid, Jalen Ramjohn, Alexa Lantin and Anya Pabby traveled to Austin Texas this past weekend for the American Short Course Championships at the Univeristy of Texas Pool.

The meet was a 4 day competition with the first two days being Long Course followed by two days of Short Course. The completion was fast with many Olympic Trial Cuts being made the first two days and an American Short Course Record in the 50 freestyle being set the second half of the meet.

The swimmers who attended the meet saw second swims each night and returned home with  personal bests and a great experience in Austin.

Badger Swimmers Light Up Prep School Championship

William Powers swimming for Brunswick School struck gold setting a new 500-freestyle high school team record of 4:38.19 and also broke the team record in the 200-free at 1:43.29.

Team mates James Simone took third in the 500-free at 4:42.43 & Christian Farricker, a freshman, finished third in the 200 IM with a school record time of 1:55.86

Badger Swimmers at NY STATE SWIM CHAMPS

Over the past weekend, Badger Swim Club was represented at the New York State Swimming and Diving Federation and Public High School Championships in Buffalo NY.  Badger swimmers represented Fordham Prep, Scarsdale High School, and Rye High School.

Highlights from the weekend were the top 24 place finishes from the Badger swimmers that participated in the meet.

Individual scorers in the meet consisted of Spencer LaFata of Fordham Prep 2nd place in the 200 Freestyle (1:40.52) and Josh Hendell of Scarsdale coming in 10th (1:43.14).

In the 200 IM Scarsdale’s David Bravo was 13th with a time of 1:58.57.

Christian Huber representing Rye took 12th in the 50 Freestyle with a time of 21.68.

In the 100 Butterfly Aristides Speres of Fordham Prep took 11th place with a time of 51.45.

Huber came back with a 10th place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 47.50.

In the 500 Freestyle Badger was represented by Spencer Lafata who was 1st overall with a time of Automatic All American time of 4:27.02, Josh Hendell taking third with a time of 4:33.52 and John ( Jack) Loveless 4:42.74.

Badger swimmers along with a strong showing in the individual events, played a big part in the relay events of the meet.

The start of the meet, Aristedes swam the Butterfly leg of the 5th place Fordham Prep 200 Medley Relay, Hendell also aided his school swimming the Breaststroke leg of Scarsdales 12th place Medley Relay.

The 200 Freestyle Relay was another showing for Fordham Prep with Speres and LaFata teaming up to come in 4th overall while Huber swimming on the Rye Relay came in 17th overall.

In the In the 400 Freestyle Relay the final event of the meet the team of Haofenj Liu, Bravo, and Hendell aided Scarsdale in playing 9th overall while the pair of Aristides Speres and Spencer Lafata made up 2 parts of the winning 400 Freestyle Relay capping off a great weekend for swimming.

Congratulations to all the Badger Swimmers who swam and return to training this week.