Technological Oopsie!!

Sorry to anyone who tried to view the videos on my blog but were unable. I think I fixed that problem. Check out the videos. It took a lot of coaxing for Brent and Ryan to do those videos... they are very friendly but don't like doing video. I really put myself out there for that so please enjoy!





Mike

Canada Cup day 3

Hi everyone. I have had a VERY busy 4 days so I'm glad that Canada Cup has come to a close. I have learned a lot this weekend and am very excited to bring all my new ideas back to training and the executive board.
Kyle swam 100IM and 50BK today. 100IM was decent and technically very sound. Final time of 1:02.44, breaking Alex Maine's former club record of 1:05.04 by over 1.5 seconds, but I still think that we can be faster. Kyle reminded me o f myself in this race. I always had difficulty transitioning from BR to FR and Kyle had the same difficulty in this race. Our focus was the BK/BR turn which was executed very well. I'm pretty happy with it.
50BK was successful in that we wanted to get a high stroke rate (55RMP or higher on the way out) and we were at 60 to start. The only problem was that the strokes were faster which screwed up Kyle's touch. Kyle finished in 38th place with a final time of 28.15. Kyle still destroyed Alex Maine's old club record of 30.39, but again, there is still more there.
Not a bad weekend for Kyle's first Seniro National meet, but certainly one under the belt. We hope that by Eastern Canadian Championships, Kyle will be within the top 3 on the podium with this experience.

My course is going well. I was able to sit in on a talk from Ryan Cochrane's coach and Head Coach of the Victoria Academy, Randy Bennett. Randy is SUPER approachable and had many gems of info. I really loved listening to him and wish that I had a few hours with him to myself. Tomorrow we get to spend some time with Dr. Greg Wells of the Canadian Sports Center (you may have seen him on TV during the Winter Olympics last year) during the High Performance Camp. I am really looking forward to that opportunity. I'll see everyone soon!

Canada Cup Day 2

Thank you, Ryan Cochrane for agreeing to do that, but also for not treating me like "that guy" who asks for that type of thing... note, thanks to Randy Bennett for being cool about that too.

Day 2 at Canada Cup was alright. Kyle had 2 races today, 100BK and 50FR. Both were best morning swims and second best times ever, but still technically not great. Kyle placed 68th in 50FR and 38th in 100BK. There were some strong positives in both races, but there were some things that should have been better. I, personally, cannot wait to get back to work on Monday to make sure that none of those things EVER happen again. I didn't bring the HHBF camera today so I didn't get those races on tape. Sorry guys. To make up for it, here is a candid version of the video I shot with Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, Brent Hayden.

Brent, you're a great sport, thank you so much for doing that!

The course I am in is going very well. A lot of light bulbs going off
in my head and a lot of new ideas to try when I get back. I get the feeling that the athletes in my groups hate when I come back from courses because they have to work so much harder on the new ideas I bring back.

We had 3 HHBF athletes do the Swim Ontario Skills Camp in the afternoon: Michael Jans, Britney Dortona and Veronica Fong. All had a great time and picked up a lot of great things for their strokes, turns and dives. From what I saw, it was a great use of time. During that camp, parents watching got a treat; Swimming Canada CEO and Head Coach, Pierre LaFontain did an impromptu speech to the parents. His message: coaches are not perfect so it is up to parents to provide support to them and the club. Find the positive in your situation and make it better. Do not dwell on what is going wrong; things will always go wrong no matter where you are. Pierre also spoke to the Canadian Team members today about the power of positivity. He says that in order to do well in the world, we have to do well first at home, which is a great message and works on any level of athletics. I have been very critical of Canadian Swimming in general and of Pierre, but what he did today for the Canadian Team and the parents sitting, watching the clinic was HUGE. I thanked him personally for it. My perception of him has turned around so much in the past 3 months. I am becoming to understand what he is about and what he is trying to do and I am really starting to appreciate it.

A BIG showing from HHBF fans tonight who showed up in droves to watch finals. HHBF sponsored the 100BK event in finals and through a raffle, Avery Jans and Bronte McMaster got to present the medals for to Tobias Oriwol, Charlie Francis and Brian Johns, 3 of the biggest names in the sport today. I also saw Kyle Haas, Matt Fox, Bjoern-Ole Schrader, Quinn Jaggard and others looking for autographs from some of our best athletes (including Gord McKay, AKA Bizzaro Mike Thompson... you guys really made his day by allow him to sign your shirts). It really was a great day. Thanks everyone for coming.

We have another full day of Canada Cup Swimming in Etobicoke tomorrow. Kyle swims 50BK and 100IM tomorrow. Prelims start at 10am. Finals @ 6pm. Tickets still available at the door. Please come down to see some fast swimming. I'll try to get more video for you guys tomorrow... but now I'm off to bed.

Mike

Canada Cup day 1

This mornings session was done by 11:30. That doesn't sound short until I told you that the session started at 10am. It was very interesting to see high level athletes warming up and socializing. This is the first time many of them have seen eachother this season.

Kyle's 200bk was decent. The problem was that he was out a tad too slow and that I think he was nervous being in his first senior national (international) meet. Kyle was out in a 29.94 which would have been alright if he had not dropped to a 32 in the second 50 for a split of 1:02.04. At that point, dolphin kick started a fail. Kyle was back in a 1:06.9 for a final time of 2:09.10 which is only .3 seconds off of his best, a best ever morning swim and 2nd best time ever. Overall, not a bad way to spend you first race at the biggest meet you have ever been to. Kyle finished 44th overall.

Tomorrow is 100bk, kyle's best race so it should be a better morning. So far there has been some really fast swimming. Come down to watch finals if you can, its bound to be exciting.

Canada Cup 2010

Friday, November 26th, 2010 marks the return of HHBF to the Senior National Stage since 2008. Kyle Haas will be competing in the Canada Cup in Etobicoke, ON where international competitors will meet for the first time this Short Course season.

2 weeks ago, at Swim International, 15 year old Kyle Haas, posted the fastest 15 year old time this season in 100BK of 58.38 seconds. This time is the 14th fastest time for a 15 year old in Canadian history and ranks in the top 330 fastest times ever posted by a Canadian (86th fastest in Ontarian in history). Kyle will swim 50BK, 100BK, 200BK, 50FR and 100IM this weekend. Preliminary heats begin at 10am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Finals begin at 6pm on all 3 days. Be sure to keep an eye on the blog for updates from the weekend.

I encourage everyone to come down to watch, even if all you can get down for is finals. It should be a very fast meet and you never know who you will see competing. Tickets are usually available at the door, although it sells out fast. $5 for Prelims and $10 for finals. $30 will get you a pass for every session all weekend.
Please email all ticket requests to eswimtickets@gmail.com
Pickup and payment will be at the door on a “Will Call” basis.

It is not very often that HHBF swimmers get exposed to world class racing. Make an effort to get down to Etobicoke this weekend. I learned how to be fast at breaststroke from watching the 1996 Summer Games... you never know what an athlete can pick up from watching someone else.

UPDATE: While I'm at it, I may as well remind everyone about HHBF TEAM NIGHT on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Great deals and an easy way to support our team... A great time to start your Christmas shopping. Don't forget to tell your friends, family and co-workers!

GTA West #2

Crazy weekend for me, as the club had a lot going on. I was unable to attend the GTA West meet on Saturday morning due to some other club and personal business I had to attend to, but things seemed to go reasonably well. I was sad that I missed some good 400Fr's and 100Fly's though. I heard that those 2 events went remarkably well. I was especially sad that I had to miss 100BK (my best event when I swam) because it was reported back to me that we had a lot of good ones.

I happily came in today to whiteness some really great racing. Aside from the water being a scalding 87 degrees (which made it difficult for some people to race comfortably), we were honestly RED HOT this morning with the amount of PBs and great swims.

Unfortunately, our pool doesn't have an electronic score board which would automatically average the finish time, so until I see all the final times (which should be tomorrow or Tuesday), I cannot be positive about final times. Some swims of note though were:

- Isaac West finishing 200IM with almost a 10second PB of 2:56 and Nick Levesque finishing 2nd with a PB of his own.
- John Paul Thomson clocking around a 1:05 for his 100FR. First official 100FR time and indicative of his future ability.
- Coleen Jarv and Nicole Waddick finishing very close to each other in 200IM with best times of over 10 seconds each. Both girls had a fantastic morning.
- Olivia Fong turning her morning around by sticking to a good race strategy in 200IM. Around her best time, if not slightly faster.
- Waiting on the official result on this, but it looks like Corey Leblanc may have squeaked just under the Central Region Qualifying time in 100FR with a best time of 1:01.
- I had previously reported that Brooklyn Shelly had made the Central Region cut in 100BR, but I was incorrect, she had just missed it. She obtained it this morning in 100BR and was very excited.
- Jason Reid dropped almost 3 seconds in his 100FR. Best time was done 2 weeks ago in Milton. Great race!
- Livy Olson had a couple of great races today. 100FR was very quick especially since she was swimming blind (goggles). Very tough girl and a quick swimmer.
- Rachel Ironside had a really good morning and had a 50FR that was surprisingly quick for an 8 year old girl.
- Danielle Logozny was a pleasant surprise to see in the front of her heats this morning. She is fairly new to the club, but is catching on to the sport very quickly.
- Felipe Escobar's 200IM looked very good and his strokes are MUCH improved!

There were so many good swims this morning! I wish I had the results in front of me so that I could be more accurate with time, but that will have to wait. Given the success that we have had early in the season, I would like to commend Shannan, Chris, Ian and all of the junior coaches for getting us to where we are. They are quite clearly doing an awesome job.

If anyone has any really great experiences or stories to share from our meet, please forward them to me by email and I'll try to get some on the blog later this week. I am really pleased with the participation and the spirit that we showed at this meet.

Proud Blue Fin,

Mike Thompson

Swim International 2010

I have never felt better about my role as a coach as when things go well. This past weekend, 18 Blue Fins took part in Swim International 2010 in Brantford, ON. Despite terrible air quality (I swear I had chemical burn on my eye) and LONG days, our Blue Fins faired very well. I was a little concerned going into the meet based on how many people were complaining about feeling tired and slow, but here is how it went...

Aaron Brautigam - A solid 6.5 second drop in his 400IM on Friday night set the tone for the weekend. Aaron also placed top 20 in 200BR where he dropped 2.5 seconds. His 50FR was about the same as best. Aaron also passed his NLS exam on Sunday. Congrats, Aaron!

Trevor Burwell - Trevor had a GREAT weekend for IM, but a little flat for FR (which is his best stroke). Trevor dropped almost 13 seconds in his 400IM on Friday night and about half a second in his 200FR. His FR events over the weekend were consistant, but just slightly below or the same as his best. Of note was his blisteringly fast and totally suprising 200IM (2:22.58, 17th overall AND best placing of the weekend). Trevor split the race very well and finsihed the FR leg in 30 seconds flat. Very well done.

Sam Ceci - Sam was only able to come on Saturday morning, but took off time in both 100FLY and 50FR. Very well swum. Sam looks a lot more powerful in the water than she was last season.

Keri-Lyn Copeland - Keri-Lyn had a great weekend with best times in all but 1 event and smashing 11 seconds off of her 200IM time. She also obtained provincial standards in 4 events and placed 2nd overall in 50FR. I can't wait for her to be rested and race 100FR!

Emma Fender - Emma swam 5 individual races and was top 8 in them all. Most noteably, Emma came within a second of the club record for 11-12 girls 200BR (which also was the 9th fastest time in the country for this season) and broke the 1:30 barrier for 100BR. She also had 3 awesome FR races which really turned some heads.

Veronica Fong - Despite looking a little "wiggely" the first day in 50FR (she'll know that I mean) she dropped a total of 15.28 seconds off of 4 events AND pulled her FR stroke together for an outstanding 100FR on Sunday which netted her a soild A standard. She did very well for her first time at this meet.

Matt Fox - Excellent arrival for Matt Fox. Matt (being only 13 for a few weeks) netted 3 medals over the weekend for that age group and winning 100BK. Matt broke 1min for 100FR for the first time, posted the 3rd fastest time in the country this season for 200BK (13 year old men) and is listed top 20 in most of the other events he swam. All in all, a great weekend... except for 1 touch ;)

Kyle Haas - Kyle's weekend went generally very well, although it was a wake up on what we need to do better. Kyle posted some very good times between 100FR and BK, 200FR and BK, 400IM, and 50FR. In fact, Kyle has posted the fastest time in the country for 15 year old Men in 100BK (58.38) 200BK (2:08.70)and 50FR (24.50). I am pretty happy with how this weekend went for Kyle.

Nolan Haas - Congrats to Nolan for qualifying for his first provincial time ever. His 50FR split of 28.96 gained him the honor and also got him a silver medal. Good job, Nolan; I couldn't be prouder!

Clany Harris - This was highest quality and fastest meet that Clancy had ever been to and I think it was really educational for her. I say that because she really wants to better her other strokes and work on sprinting now, after seeing how fast some of the fasest swimmers are. Clancy had a very productive weekend (total of 6.39 seconds dropped over 4 events) but seems to be very excited to get back to training to get even better, which excites me!

Michael Jans - Michael Jans has been doing very well this season bettering his 200BK time and holding on to 2 B standards in 100 and 200BK. We have been working on the speed of his turn and he had some great races on Saturday and Sunday. His turn has improved quite a bit and his times reflect that. I think Michael was pretty happy with his success this weekend.

Mitchell Krafczek - I am very proud of Mitchell's development in the past 6 months. Although Mitchell spent the first few weeks of the season doing cross country (he went to OFSAA last week), he was still able to focus very clearly during the meet and was able to post best times in every event (event splitting a best time at the 100 in his 200FR). Mitchell has looked a lot more relaxed since Ontario Summer Games this summer and I think the experience was very good for him and his confidence, which is really good for HHBF. I really liked what I saw from him this weekend.

Karl Massey - Karl had a very successful weekend with best times in everything (total of 13.78 seconds off in 6 events) and the major milestone of getting down to 1min for 100BK. I know Karl is particularly proud of that one because he was able to focus and perform better than usual at finals. A great weekend overall. It was also one of my better pre-race talks proir to that race (a-thank-you!)

Loren O'Brien-Egesborg - Loren is still recovering from a nagging injury and is training quite well, and given the training that we've been able to put in, I was pretty happy with the results. Of particular note was Loren's 200FR on Friday night which was the fastest she has been in years and split VERY well.

Bjoern-Ole Schrader - Bjoern was the Ironman of the weekend doing 3 events/day, all within about 45min of eachother. Even still, Bjoern was able to take off 9.01 seconds on the first day and stay about even on the second day. His 200IM would have been better if I hadn't come up with a race strategy that failed... my fault. This boy is going to be fierce soon though (as soon as I can get him to a meet where he gets to rest between his best events).


Elizabeth Skuriat - I was really happy with Elizabeth's racing this weekend especially since she is not in 100% top shape yet. She was very close to best time in 50FR and a second faster than best in 100BK in a SUPERHEROIC race which got her into 8th spot in finals Sunday night. A few coaches from other teams have been noting her return.

Ryan Smith - Ryan had an unfortunate slip on his start for 50FR Saturday which resulted in a false start. Sunday his 100FR was very close to best (less than half a second off of his best). Ryan has great size for a 15 year old and looks about 6 inches taller than he actually is in the water. His ability to lengthen out is uncanny.

Erin Troughton - Erin's first race blew me away as she split best 50FR and 100FR times while going out in her 200FR. We talked afterwards that it was a speed that she had never experienced before. The success here is the development and realization of more speed. Now that we know we have it, we can train with it... and times will drop significantly going forward.

I am very proud of our team, but this is very early in the season to get too excited about performance. We still have 8 months left to this season. Its encouraging that we have had so much success early on, but it can't stop there. I have to get back to work.