Coach Warrenton Masters Swim Team

Notes from the coach:

08/05/09

Our team did well at the recent Culpeper Triathlon. Five of us participated and enjoyed the nice course (although it seems the swim part is always too short!), Jeremy is at Long Course Nationals in Indianapolis this week. He turned in a new team record today in the 50 Meter Fly! Kami and Charlie won their age groups in the swimming part but were over taken by Steve, Mike, and Ben during the bike and run.

10/24/08

We will have 15 swimmers participating at the Sprint Classic Sunday at George Mason up from 6 last year. If our stocks were only going up that much!

10/5/08

During the next few weeks we will be focusing on sprints at practice. It will help you to go all out on the timed swims. Work hardest on your starts and turns, you will naturally swim faster if you do that. Remember to have your whole body enter the same hole when you dive it to minimize drag. When you pop up out of your starts and turns come up fast and attack, if you slow down as you reach the surface you will slow down dramatically due to surface tension! Swim smart!

9-2-08

We had a great practice this evening. It was the largest group all summer for summer. Several new people have started to swim with us so please make them feel welcome and let them know what’s going on with the sets. I’ll start using the boards again to make it easier for everyone.

Keep in mind that this new generation of swimmers are just getting going like many of you were last year at this time so a little encouragement will help.

Active Rest:

One of the things that we worked on during the past year is “Active Rest”

As you can recall one of my favorite sets is 5 x100 with a 50 kick between each 100.

We do this for a number of reasons but primarily because most swimmers do not use their “race legs” during practice it gives your arms a chance to rest between sets yet keeps your cardio going and allows you to work your legs. We will start to tread water between sets instead of holding on to the wall this week!

We will continue to do this during our new season and we will start adding other active rest drills to our sets.

There are a few of you that are not getting the most out of your kick.

From what I can see it is because you are not keeping your toes behind you. It looks like you are walking through the water. I think it would help you a little if you picked up a pair of zoomer fins. I can pick them up for you if you want. The fins will force you to point your toes.

Journal:

I am going to put together a journal that we can use to monitor our timed swims this year and track our progress. If anyone has a good idea about how to keep something waterproof let me know.

Personal:

I was able to get out backpacking after practice last Thursday through Saturday in the Shenandoah’s. Unfortunately my trip was cut short after 20 miles by a slip on a rock and a cracked rib. Yes this is the second time I have cracked a rib this year while photographing. I was able to get some nice shots in before the fall. I’ll be coming in a little early to practice and spending a little more time on deck while on the mend. For some reason butterfly doesn’t hurt my back as much so I will be doing more of that. If anyone wants to work on butterfly let me know, I’ll give you some pointers.

I will be traveling to Denmark and the UK for a few weeks as soon as my passport gets renewed. I have an unexpected opportunity that I’ll take advantage of. This should be late September early October. I’ll get someone to run the practices and help out while I am gone.

Beginners:

Go at your own pace. It will take weeks or months to build up to keeping up with our work outs. Don’t be afraid to rest when you need it. At the same time start knocking down those walls as you can!

I’m so happy to see everyone having so much fun

8-11-08 Wow! How can you not help but be inspired by all the swimmers at the Olympics! The 31 year old Jason Lezak anchoring the free relay, Dara Torres!

4-23-08 Water is 1,000 times more dense than the air we breath! Doubling your speed in the water results in quadrupling your body's drag force or resistance in the water. Our training should focus on the easiest way to get faster, which is to reduce body resistance in the water

4-20-08 Mike King Drops his Trathalon swim time from 30 min to 20 min. Congratulations Mike! He has been working hard on technique all Winter and it is paying off. knock off a few more min next swim Mike!

4-13-08 Stephanie, Troy, and Tod worked hard and broke team this weekend at the Zone Championships in every event they swam in! Troy was .02 seconds from breaking 1:00!

11-7-07 Make sure you look at the Technique section of this web site for new content. We are working on breaststroke this week so have a look and follow along at the pool. We are using the off stroke work as rest. By working on technique now we can then focus on strength and speed the next time around. So think of the breaststroke work as rest and work on big pull and kick off the wall and long stream lined glides with face looking at the bottom of the pull with arms squeezing your head.

11-5-07 We had our first meet and new records were established! Everyone had a good time and did well. We even had our own cheerleaders in the crowd!

10-11-07 We are going to be under contract with the WARF starting Tuesday. Note we will occupy the far 5 lanes. Enjoy! Rotate!

9-25-07 We had a great turnout for the first Sunday Evening workout this week. Every one is getting stronger. It is very obvious to me that everyone is working real hard. The improving group is moving up to the next level making room for more people to swim in the improving lane. Please make note of the swim meets that are listed on the home page. Let me know if you are interested in swimming. The Sprint Classic is a great meet to start off. It is very low pressure and lots of fun.

9-18-07: Wow, everyone really stepped it up tonight. several of the improving folks will step up so we have two medium lanes. Our over achievers worked real hard tonight. Everyone did 200 more then last Thursday! You even had time left over for extra credit at the end! Lets continue to work on the flip turns. Nice streamline off the wall and take the lower stroke first. I know you are not getting much rest but you have 47 hours until the next practice to rest!

Make sure you get out of the way if you are resting at the wall. You might get flipped on!

9-17-07: Please tell coach Charlie if you are interested in participating in the 3000/6000 yard postal swim meet. We swim the race in our own pool and mail results in.
for more info <click here>

9-13-08: It was fun to get started today. We had a great group of people working out. Several people came and said they will start next Tuesday. I was excited to see how well everyone got along. I think everyone realized that they went beyond what they would do by themselves and each swimmer knocked through a few walls to confidence this evening. We had three workouts. The Over Achievers swam 3,000 yards, The Medium group swam 2,000 yards and the Improving group swam a little over a mile! Way to go! I am glad everyone was ready at 8:00 and got right at it. I am very impressed with all of your abilities. We will work on conditioning the first two weeks and start technique on the third week.

Interim Coach:

Charlie Tupitza
Charlie has been involved in Masters Swimming for twenty six years. As Team Captain of the Walnut Creek Masters Swim Team in California Charlie took them through the incorporation process. The team has won four World Championships and over twenty National Championships. He has had several top ten USMS national times, four World Championship silver medals, has won the Alcatraz Shark Fest Swim four times, and was recently a silver medal winner at the USMS One Mile National Open Water Championship.

He currently holds twenty one Reston Masters Swim Team Records. Charlie was a Division II scholarship swimmer in College. He lives in Warrenton and will help put the structure together for the team as well as provide coaching while the team gets started. The team will seek a full time coach when it gets to the size to support one. He currently consults to the Home Land Security Industry and is a Professional Photographer