Tyson's Top Tips for Kick Starting 2015

With 2014 closing and 2015 beginning it's time to look ahead to a new year. I've come up with some great tips on how to enhance your new year and hopefully these tips will lead to a successful 2015. These tips can be for the pool, the gym, schooling, better lifestyle choices and really anything else you can think of. Most of the examples are swimming related but the headings can be used for any activity.

1. Have a plan
A plan or road map is the most important part of the journey your own as it will help guide you in the right direction and is a perfect resource for when your falling off that track. Here's an example, and I'll use swimming for this tip. Say you want to make the Canadian Swimming Championships cut in the 200 back, your road map would something like this...

A) Have all the meets listed on a sheet of paper from January-August (when the meet is)
B) Star or highlight major meets like Regional's, Provincials, Eastern's/Western's and any other meets you have that would allow you the best chance to make the time
C) Know the cut time
D) Know your best time to the hundredth as that could make or break you making the meet
E) List goal times for each meet you will swim the 200 back at
F) Consult with your coach and ask for he/she's input about your goal and more steps on achieving the goal

2. Putting the work in 
The things you do everyday lead to the end result. In practice if you need to know race splits and more importantly be swimming race splits in practice. If your swimming in a yards pool know the conversions from yards to meters, if you don't know the conversion swimswam is a great resource to find those conversions out. Timing is key but don't forget technique, you need to be practicing race technique in practice all the time so your body has a feel for what racing feels like when your at the meet.

3. Everyday won't be perfect
We can't be perfect or as good as we want to be everyday and that's ok. Our bodies won't be going lifetime bests everyday for practice times, and we won't be going best times every meet we swim at, and that's ok, it's recognizing today wasn't the day tomorrow is a new day and you can improve the second you leave the pool deck with proper recovery. Swimmers can't beat themselves up over the smallest things that don't go the way they were hoping, always stick to the plan and if in the end it doesn't work out the way you were hoping re evaluate the plan.

4. Surround yourself with positive's 
The worst thing you can have around you when your trying to achieve your goals is negativity or people who aren't willing to work or put the time and energy in. If this is the case try moving lanes, or if at school decks. This can be difficult sometimes, but the one thing to always remember is the path your own and your goals.

5. Listening is gold
That lecture you listen to and took awesome notes on and are ready for the exam, or the time you spent working on starts in practice with a national champion may just be the ticket you need to make your goals. Sometimes listening to others and being mentored is what brings out the best in yourself, your able to pick the brain of the person teaching you and get as much help as you need at your fingertips. Even better sometimes you can each bounce information or tips off one another or compare notes.

6. Health is key
In order to achieve your swimming goals (yes using the swimming again) your health needs to be on point. You need to be eating properly, sleeping at least 8 hours a night, drinking lots of water to stay hydrated, if outside competing using lots of sunscreen to protect your skin, dress warmly in the winter, and be on top of your health knowing what you eat and how much. You don't need to be logging everything and you definitely don't need to be counting calories, you just need to have an idea of what your eating. Most importantly stick to what works with you and your body. Not everyone's going to be eating 2 helpings of pasta, a 1L of chocolate milk, a bowl of salad and 4 roles, and that is ok, once again know your bodies limits and listen.

7. Listen to your body
Your body is the first person to know what's going on. If your shoulders are hurting let off the swimming and do arms down snorkel kicking. Your legs are hurting do pull. Most importantly talk to your coach and parents as soon as things appear to be going south. The worst is spending a whole season recovering from an injury that could have been prevented. Know and develop limits for your body to prevent injuries in the future. Not everyone is going to be able to swim 60 x 100 free and that's perfectly fine. If you can do 30 perfect if you can do 10 great if you can do 1 it's what you want and need even better. You know what's going on more then anyone else, so listen to it.

8. Goals Goals Goals
Set multiple goals for yourself. Whether it's long term, short term, meet goals, or even better daily practice goals this will help you keep and stay on track. Write the goals in your phone, on your wall, have them on your computer, at the pool on practice sheets, in your logbook, where ever you keep your goals is up to you but always have them handy and keep referring to them to stay on track.

9. Celebrate the Small Wins
Maybe you went a PB for a practice time or got what you call a great mark on a project or test, don't be scared to celebrate your success. At the same time keep your celebration in check and don't over celebrate and definitely don't rub it in everyone's face for the next week. That's poor sportsmanship towards your teammates and it's just rude towards your classmates. There are ways at celebrating and keeping it in check, once again know who your around and know the limits. Sometimes this will take a little testing of the waters, but you know you won't forget.

10. Keep your Head in the Game
When your feeling low or having an off day remember those small wins, remember those goals you wrote down, and try and feed off other peoples energy. This comes back to "Not everyday is perfect" which is perfectly fine, just don't let your off day or negative thoughts effect the rest of the group. This is the toughest skill to master for everyone and will take time to be able to jump over. Always remember the little things that have helped you improve so much so quickly.

Hopefully these tips will help you live a better 2015. I wish everyone the best in the new year and always remember to reach your goals and work hard everyday and you will see improvements. New posts coming in 2015.

Pointe Claire 2014

With 2014 coming to a close it's to look ahead to 2015 and set our goals for the new year, but before we do that I want to look back on December for a moment as a lot of great swimming was swam during the month.

WRMS braved the snow and winter conditions driving to Pointe Claire for the annual 4 day double ended AA & AAA meet. This year the meet attracted more then 1200 swimmers competing, all in all the meet was ran with any problems. Big shout out and congrats to Pointe Claire and it's parents/officials for running such an incredible meet at such a beautiful facility. For those of you that haven't been to this pool or meet I encourage you to enter one of the meets PC hosts during the year. The 10 lane 50 meter pool with a 6 lane 50 meter warm up pool is truly world class. Having 12 25 meter warm up/down lanes running through every session including the session warm up is unheard of and perfect for swimmers who don't race till mid session, allowing them to sleep in extra and come for a later start time. With A & B finals (10 lanes for each final) for both AA & AAA meets many WRMS swimmers were getting second swims.

WRMS Scores:
AA (Slower meet) 13th out of 28 scoring teams with 217.5 points 
AAA (Faster meet) 10th out of 31 scoring teams with 180 points 

This meet is attracting many Ontario teams such as London, Mississauga, Oakville, Markham, and Burlington. Note there were other Ontario teams at the meet (to many to list). Which leads me into the next part of this blog.

I'm glad to see teams deciding to opt out of Division Team Champs in Ontario (1,2,3) as at least how I see it the definition of "Team" isn't 30, 40, or 50 swimmers. To me "Team" is every single swimmer on that "Team". Having said that I understand Team Champs is about picking the best number of athletes to represent the team at this meet. The major problem is (and I've scene it happen in 4 different clubs I've been with) parents/swimmers having hurt feelings over not being selected or a swimmer not being selected that should have. This drama starts up in October 2 months before the meet and drags out through the season when parents/swimmers recall the meet.

I see meets like Pointe Claire and the Camo meet better alternatives for clubs as they can take more swimmers, still do a travel meet, have amazing swims, and the meets are in December which is perfect for block one performances. These two meets are perfect for large clubs who would have to nail biting task of trying to select 50 swimmers out of the clubs 500+ membership, instead some of these larger clubs are taking over 100 swimmers (double what you can take to Div 1 team champs) to PC or Camo and no one is having hurt feelings.

I'm not saying Team Champs is a bad meet, it's always been fun, loud and most times teams pull together and swim like a team, however trying to break the "Team" up and only select a number of swimmers doesn't and hasn't ever sat well with me.

Below are Results from both the AA & AAA meets from PC as well a few pictures. A full album of pictures I took during the meet can be found on my Facebook page.

AAA Results
AAA Team Scores
AA Results
AA Team Scores

Pointe Claire Comp Pool

Some of the WRMS swimmers that attended PC 2014

Sporting my new WRMS sweater