As a coach, it was awesome to watch so many months of work result in 5 new New England records, 5 PR’s and a National title. I couldn’t be happier.

So big shouts to B-Money for totally kicking ass at Nats this weekend.

To quote the song…

I followed rivers, I followed orders
I followed prophets, I followed leaders
I followed rivers, I followed highways
I followed conscience, I followed dreamers
And I’m nearly there.

Mesa 2011. Where the suits get real and the competition gets beat.

Whale Shark!!!

Unfortunately, lot of national records being set at this meet by folks who are exploiting the June 1 deadline for the silly suit ban. In just 8 short days, all of these “new” records will be left as a stain. Looking forward to Mesa.

Oh and dinner…was quite spectacular…

Brandy also placed 3rd in the 200 Free with a time of 1:56.93 breaking her NE SCY Champs record of 1:58.33 also set back in March.

Abby Maxim, MBCC Lead Intern says “My mother, Jane Maxim, is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed for the first time when I was 13 and again when I was 18. I still remember how happy we all were that she had reached her 5 year mark of being cancer free, which is a major milestone for survivors. It was only a few months later that she was diagnosed for the second time. I have just turned 23, so we are coming up to the 5 year mark again, and I am terrified. My mother’s sister is also a breast cancer survivor. So for me, being diagnosed is a very realistic fear. MBCC’s goal is breast cancer prevention, and I believe in that goal. I am lucky to be able to say my mom is a survivor, but I have many friends who have not been as lucky.”

Massachusetts has the fourth highest breast cancer incidence rate in the country. According to the Center for Disease Control, a woman living in the U.S. is estimated to have a 1 in 7 chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, as compared to the 1 in 11 chance recorded in 1975. These odds are not acceptable to the MBCC and the mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and partners they represent. Please join the MBCC and NESN on June 19th, 2010 in Hopkinton, MA to support and protect future generations from this awful disease. Not one more woman, not one more generation should be affected by breast cancer.

The Greater Boston ‘Against the Tide’ one-mile recreational or competitive swim, two-mile kayak, three-mile fitness walk, and 5K run event will be held at the DCR’s Hopkinton State Park in Hopkinton, MA on Saturday June 19th, from 7am to 12pm and again on August 21st at DCR’s Nickerson State Park, Brewster, Ma. Register online at www.mbcc.org/swim or call 617-376-6222.

Why would you NOT do this swim? Just because you don’t know someone who has cancer or who passed away from cancer. Amongst all of the trivial little triathlons and open water swims you do all summer for yourself…why dont you just do one good thing for someone else?

Lots of small updates…each deserving of its own little mention but none absolutely post-worthy…so they all get lumped together like a big juicy omelet…maybe one or two of them will grow up to be its own post someday…

First, I want to say awesome thanks to Kate Farrington and Joe Mazzone for starting a swim team at my high school Alma Mater, Providence Country Day. PCD did what 3 other high schools couldn’t and that was get my punk criminal ass to graduate. Kate and Joe are PCD parents and are volunteering their time to coach a PCD squad at EP High School in East Providence, RI. Whatever they need whether its money or equipment, they have my full support. Starting a swim team is hard enough, I can testify to that, but in a city short on lane space its twice as tough. Big props to PCD!

Second…West Side Swim Club is now a proud parent! We have a new satellite club in the Delaware Valley LMSC (based out of Limerick, PA) called Wolfpack Swim Club (WOLF). I am taking over as the head coach and we will have quite the squad there by summer’s end. More details on this will be coming out in the next few weeks. Wolfpack Swim Club is a West Side Original. Respek!

Last week was our 2nd birthday! 2 full years of West Side Swimming. Reckanize!

We changed our session times this year to move the seasons around to better accommodate triathletes and open water swimmers. Instead of the traditional 4 month session that most teams employ, we changed our Winter/Spring session to be 5 months long. While most teams are wrapping up, we are peaking and its working great. We took two weeks after SCY Champs for recovery and have brought the base right back up and will continue to ascend over the next few weeks until we reach peak at the end of May and will maintain it through October. Our summer session will only be 3 months, June 1 to August 31, to better accommodate the college kids and the bulk of the tri season.

I listened to the audiobook version of “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall a few weeks ago and this is one of those books that is life changing. At least, for me it was. Over the last few years I have nickel-dimed my running…2 miles here…2 miles there…head down, hating how much it sucked…etc etc. Talk about lighting a fire in my ass…last week I ran 20 with an 8 on Saturday…happier than hell and feeling awesome. And why not? All these years I have been running for the wrong reasons…now I have the perfect reason. Prolong death as much as possible. Here is to you Chris. Awesome book and you have earned a spot in my top 5. Who knew? Leadville in 3 years? Why the fuck not?

2010 SCY Nats is almost here and I will be down in GA with Brandy hoping to take down a few national titles (if I am really lucky I will also get a track run over at AMS). I am also excited about Coach E’s return to Zone level competition after a 2 year hiatus. She is making the long drive down to VA for Zones and this is one of those meets that is going to absolutely set the tone for the next year of training. Down there she will be connecting with Jeremy who will be dropping some Zone records and repping 1776 Colonials for the last time before he joins the Wolfpack.

All this of course, leading up to LCM Championships at Middlebury at the end of June. This year it is going to be an awesome meet (as always). If you are going, find me and buy me a beer and I will tell you a story.

A few weeks ago I participated as the Analyst Coach for the first USMS Extreme Makeover Video session at Simmons College. It will be in the next issue of Swimmer Magazine. It was awesome and I got to work with some really good people. Thanks to Bill Ewan for doing the video and stills the way I needed it, thanks to Bill Edwards for cleaning up my commentary and thanks to Shoshanna for being an awesome student!!! It was a great project and I hope to participate again soon.

Speaking of videos, my last free video clinic at Sudbury (last weekend) put my total video analysis count at 1200!!!. Thats a ton of videos. When I started doing video analysis, I had two angles and couldn’t really articulate what it was I wanted to say. Most of my analysis was long-winded and in some cases made the swimmer more confused. It took a lot of videos and a lot of time to really fine tune the art. Nowadays after doing so many, it has become such an amazing tool and absolutely critical, in my opinion, to any swimmers’ success. No swimmer should ever go without consistent taping and at multiple angles and multiple speeds. Not only is it critical because a swimmer can actually see what a coach is yelling about, but when you go back and compare/contrast videos from different times, you can continuously adjust. You dont need Dartfish or some super expensive camera either. My hi-def camera setup cost <200 bucks.

I put out an announcement a few weeks back offering free video taping/analysis for any club/team in New England that wanted it. As with most free things, people are skeptical at first. But it’s picking up and people are starting to realize its a really really good thing. Babson Masters was the first to go and I am wrapping up their analysis now. 94 videos of 15 swimmers from 7 different angles in hi-def. Oh yeah…Next to go is Dedham Masters and Dedham HS girls. My fee is simply a coffee and a 6-pack. Hard to believe I know but that’s the fee (so yes, technically its not free but if you are savvy enough, its practically free). If your group needs it, just email me. I wont try and steal your swimmers or use it as a platform to evangelize my own club. Its about doing the right thing for swimming and thats the way I like it. If you want to pay lots of money for a clinic then be my guest.

More news in the coming weeks…

fucking LOVE Bukowski…a drunk and a warrior-poet…already 75% of the way towards being a swimmer.

It is amazing what swimmers can do when possessed with just an absolute shitload of hard-crossed determination. There is the tale of the West Side coach who, despite suffering what was diagnosed as a massive concussion back in November after colliding with a swimmer during a sprint in practice, has fought her way back against the odds once again and not only competed in 9 events, coming within spitting range of PR’s in all of them, but who did an additional 21,000 yards in between events this weekend in preparation for 2011 Nats. There are the West Side distance swimmers who continue to see the big payoffs, year after year, this year racing their races entirely based on stroke counts. The PR payoffs were huge. There are the West Side stroke swimmers who continue to fine tune their strokes and who, with a little more block time in 2010, will be thundering back into 2011 with a vengeance. Last but not least there are the West Side sprinters who always seem to bring down the antelopes quickly and cleanly when out for the hunt.

Congrats to all of them for taking it to the limit, one more time.

Special congrats to West Sider Brandy Hugo who swam in five events and, consequently, smashed five New England records. In this day and age its so awesome to see records broken in a pre-2007 legal suit like the FSPro kneeskin and by someone who trains alone doing the workouts I send to her over email. The suit wasn’t nearly as old as the records though. Her 50 Free time of 24.80 broke an 18 year old New England record of 24.92. Her 50 Fly time of 26.85 broke the 17 year old record of 27.41. Her 100 free time of 53.64 broke the TWENTY year old record of 54.14. She also broke her own record of 1:00.44 set in 2008 for the 100 Fly by going 58.56. In addition, her 200 Free time of 1:58.33 broke the 2008 record of 1:58.64.

Sometimes you just have to want it more than anyone else.

Full West Side results are available here.  All of the race videos are up on our Youtube page.

MUCH RESPEK!!

So it was only fitting that I, as Head Coach, returned the favor…

(yes I bought one for my IT department too )

“Discovery mourns the loss of dear friend and colleague Captain Phil Harris. He was more than someone on our television screen. Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil’s every move. We send our thoughts and prayers to Phil’s sons Josh and Jake and the Cornelia Marie crew.”

From Jake and Josh Harris:

“It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad — Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate that strength. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.”

From Thom Beers, executive producer of “Deadliest Catch”:

“Captain Phil Harris was one of the cornerstones of Deadliest Catch since the series premiered. He believed without risk there was no reward, and he allowed us to document his extraordinary life on the Bering Sea. I am forever grateful for his passion about his work, and his direct sense of humor and irony. Phil gave us a remarkable gift during the past six seasons with Original Productions, and became an extraordinary friend. We will miss him.”