Short Course Season Accomplishments – 2009/2010

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Andy Scherer

As we go into the New England Regional Championships, I want to recap our 2009/2010 Short Course season with the Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoon swim team. So, without further ado, here is how our season played out:

We started our season with our swim clinic about 3 weeks prior to any other swim team in our Yankee Cluster, and it proved to be very successful! The swimmers learned a plethora of drills and skills that they would be then used throughout the regular season to improve their stroke and racing technique. Following the clinic, we had our first meet in early October.

The 2009 National YMCA Virtual Invitational had 220 swim teams (in total 11,605 athletes throughout the U.S.) swam locally to compete nationally against each other which was the first time that an event like this has been run by the YMCA. The Typhoon swimmers did extremely well with the following as highlight swims:

W. Munstermann placed 12th in the 50 free, and 15th in the 50 back
G. Livsey placed 19th in the 50 free, and 11th in the 100 breast
10 and under boys placed 15th overall
Typhoons finished 2nd out of all our Cluster teams (69th overall out of 220 teams – not bad for being a young swim team)

The Autumn Classic was the next stop for the Typhoon swim team, and we did excellent! Some of the highlight swims were:

A. Allen took off 9.23 seconds from her 100 free
G. Desroches dropped nearly 4 seconds on her 50 freestyle
E. Hodes dropped over 5 seconds in his 50 breaststroke, and over 3 seconds from his 50 free
N. Kern dropped 10.98 seconds in his 200 free
G. Livsey cut 5 seconds from his 200 free
M. Munstermann took down her 200 IM by 8.30, and her 100 free by 3.80

Our meet against Farmington Valley YMCA, though long, was a very fast meet for the athletes. In total, there were 18 Typhoon swimmers that dropped time for a cumulative of over 3 minutes dropped by those 18 swimmers. That equals out to an average of 17 seconds dropped per swimmer!

And the times just kept getting faster and faster throughout the year! Typically swimmers will usually flatten out (or plateau) with their times as the season progresses until it is time to taper. However, the Typhoon swimmers truly didn’t experience this – at least not at looking through everyone’s times! That not only shows that we still have room to grow, but that the swimmers have tremendous heart and dedication to get better no matter the circumstances!

So, the short course season went on and into Yankee Cluster Championships. Last year, we (as an almost brand new team) finished 11th out of 13 teams. This year, we were able to overtake significantly larger teams and place 9th overall out of 13 teams – as an aside, we were the second smallest team in attendance! Not only were we able to accomplish that, but take a look at our other achievements:

13 and 14 year old girls placed 8th overall
13 and 14 year old boys placed 5th overall (and this includes 15 – 18 as well)
9 and 10 year old boys placed 3rd overall

The Yankee Clusters wrapped up our regular season which produced 8 individual qualifiers for New England Regionals, but our swimmers wanted more! So, we ventured off to the Last Ditch meet where we entered 8 individual events. Four of those events ended up as qualifying times where we added 2 more individually qualified swimmers to our total!

Our year-end stats are still in limbo depending on how the swimmers do at the Regional meet, but here is a quick look at how we stand so far:

43 of 66 team records broken (some broken several times)
over 50% of swims were personal best times
Out of 60 swimmers, 10 individually qualified for New England’s, and a 19 swimmers competing in relays which is almost 50% of our team that will attend Regionals this year – the highest number in our team’s history!
And, most importantly, a total of 60 smiles on 60 swimmers’ faces every week throughout the year as they learned and had fun with their friends!

So, congratulations to the swimmers, the coaching staff, the parents, and the Hamden North Haven YMCA community! I will try to update all of you on our happenings in Boston as we travel this weekend so stay tuned for more Typhoon News!

Go Typhoons!!

YMCA Yankee Cluster Championships 2010

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Andy Scherer

The regular short course season for 2009 and 2010 has officially ended on an extremely high note with the YMCA Yankee Cluster Championships this past weekend! I want to congratulate all of the swimmers, parents, Coach Kait, and Coach Nicole for their accomplishments, achievements, and improvements throughout this year!

Here are some of the overall highlights from the meet:

8 and under boys took 7th overall
9 and 10 boys finished 3rd overall
11 and 12 girls brought home 6th overall
11 and 12 boys took 8th overall
13 and over boys took 5th overall

Not bad for being the second smallest team that participated in Clusters – a total of 39 swimmers from our team that attended the meet!

If you want to see the results for this past weekend, please check: Yankee Cluster Championships.

Freestyle Drill – Distance Per Stroke

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Andy Scherer

I was asked by one of our Hamden North Haven Swim Team members this past week about DPS (Distance Per Stroke), and why we do this drill in practice. His thought was that DPS was essentially a pulling set and therefore we should just go into a pulling set and not do DPS. My thought was, “Oh no, he is not doing the drill the right way”!

The reason that DPS is done as a drill is to practice making the pulling phase more effiencent as well as determining the correct timing of the stroke; therefore making the swimmer faster. Distance per stroke is where you want to maximize the distance that you get from your stroke while holding the maximum speed with the pull. In other words, each pull will propel you through the water. Obviously the swimmer will hit a peak speed during the pull. At the point of the peak your other arm should be poised and ready to pull to maintain that speed. So, it’s not just a pulling set or just a pulling drill, but an efficiency drill where you are truly working on getting the biggest bang for your buck!

Backstroke Technique

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Andy Scherer

The following video really shows how the backstroke should be done! Notice how the body rolls from one axis to the next pulling nice and deep while pushing the water as far down as possible. Also, notice how close the shoulder gets to the chin and how the head stays almost completely still! The last thing that you will notice (and quite possibly the first thing because of how the video is structured) is the excellent dolphin kicks starting off the stroke! Enjoy, and happy swimming!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team – Open House and Team Fitting

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Andy Scherer

Title: Open House and Team Fitting
Location: Hamden North Haven YMCA
Description: Dear Typhoons swimmers and parents:

October 13 (next Monday) is Typhoons’ season opening Q&A session with the Head Coach and the following events are scheduled starting at 5:30 PM:

Team Suit Fitting with our vendor, Metro Shop (for new swimmers, returning swimmers only if previous suit no longer fits)
Location – lower level outside boys\’ and girls\’ lockers
5:30 PM: fitting for Silver Group
5:45 PM: fitting for Senior and Junior Groups
6:00 PM: fitting for Gold Group
· Mandatory meeting with coaches

o Location – poolside

o Starts at 6:15 PM

· Open House

o Location – upper level and kitchen area

o Starts immediately after the meeting (~6:30 PM) to 7:30 PM

o Sandwiches, Snacks, Cookies, and Drinks

o Typhoons Parents Board – meet and greet

o Volunteer sheet sign up

o Team T-shirt and baseball cap order sign up

o Media release form sign up

o A swap box for parents to donate gently used swim suits and for other parents to exchange or obtain without added cost

Looking forward to meeting all of you next Monday.

Go Typhoons!

Start Time: 17:30
Date: 2008-10-13

Hamden North Haven Swim Team Practice Update

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Andy Scherer

As an update on our Hamden North Haven Swim Team‘s (the YMCA Typhoons) practices we are right on track with yardage for the Juniors and Seniors, and we are definitely on track with technique for the Gold and Silver groups! Coach Elaina and I are extremely happy and proud of the accomplishments so far this season, so congratulations to all of our Typhoon Swimmers!

Last night’s practice went extremely well with the Juniors hitting 3,200 yards in an hour and fifteen minute practice, and the Seniors swimming 4,600 yards during their swim practice. Coach Elaina took the Gold group through 1,650 yards and the silvers through quite a bit of technique work! Again, we are right on target for the season with the completed yardage and technique and couldn’t be happier with all of our swimmers!

As a quick reminder, and I will write a complete post about this, but October 13th will be our Open House and team fitting. Our regular Monday practice times will be the same, and the Silver group will lead off our team fitting at 5:30. The Juniors and Seniors will be getting their team fitting at 5:45 and the Gold group will be fitting at 6:00. There is a mandatory parent meeting on the pool deck at 6:15, and the Open House will start at 6:30. Again, I will post a full article on this, but I wanted to get this in as a quick reminder.

See you all at our YMCA Swim Team open house!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Andy Scherer

As a quick update on the Hamden North Haven Swim Team (the YMCA Typhoons), our practice from Friday went extremely well! The Typhoon Senior Group hit around 4,300 yards primarily of all drill while the Typhoon Junior Group swam 3,500 yards. We have been continuously increasing yardage and intensity in both of these groups which shows that all of our swimmers are working very hard!

Also, the Typhoon Gold Group practiced on Friday and swam approx. 2,500 yards. Again, the focus of this practice was primarily drills and technique. We have steadily increased the yardage with these practices and have introduced several new drill to our Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team! This upcoming week will be more of the same while increasing yardage and introducing yet a few more drills to bring along our technique (especially with the younger two groups – the Silver and Gold Groups).

For more information on how to become a Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoon swimmer please feel free to contact us at any point, or feel free to visit our homepage!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Andy Scherer

We are reaching the end of our first week in the short course season for the YMCA Yankee Cluster League. We (the Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoons) have a significantly larger team than we did last year (which I am so happy to see), and we will hopefully have a great improvement throughout the year!

As a reminder to all of our Hamden Swim Team parents, our open house and fitting will be held on October 13, 2008. Also, we will be holding a parent board meeting (doors are open to all parents) where we will discuss the planning of our open house and how we anticipate to run it. If you think that you could help out please feel free to attend the meeting!

Alright, so back to swimming…Coach Elaina and I will be looking for a couple of senior swimmers to demonstrate swimming drills (freestyle drills in particular). So, if you are a Hamden North Haven Swim Team (YMCA Typhoon) Senior Swimmer please feel free to let me know if you are interested. The last step would be to clear it through your parents! Until tomorrow…happy swimming!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team – First Night

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Andy Scherer

The Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team (the Typhoons) opened their Short Course Season with their first practice tonight. The Silver Group was the first to attend (at 4:45), and they definitely started the night off well! We worked primarily on the structure of practices as well as a few freestyle drills and a little bit of endurance swimming.

Following the Silver Group were the Juniors and Seniors. I was anticipating to get around 2,700 yrds done with the Junior Group and about 3,600 with the Senior Group. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised! All of the swimmers pushed through the entire practice with the Juniors swimming around 3,100 yards and the Seniors reaching about 4,100 yards. A good majority of this yardage were drills, but (again) I am very proud that they got through the entire practice and then some!

Tomorrow night brings a crowded pool night for this Hamden North Haven Swim Team. We have all four groups here throughout the evening which will be a first with this large of a number on our roster. Until tomorrow….happy swimming!

Hamden North Haven Swim Team – Basic Catch Up Drill

Posted on September 21, 2008 by Andy Scherer

The following video is a good example of how we (the Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoons) start to learn the freestyle catch up drill. The swimmer demonstrates an excellent streamline position which is something that we stress. However, things to remember that this swimmer has a difficult time doing:

Rolling to and through the other hand; your hands should meet in that streamline position, but your body should not stop rolling at that point. The body should continue to roll until your recovery hand passes over top of the next pulling hand. Remember that the easiest and most efficient way to complete this drill is by rolling from one axis to the next! There are a lot of swimmers in Connecticut (and all around the U.S.) that have a hard time remember to fully rotate.
The kick should be a non-stop motor throughout this drill. At this demonstration speed, there should be 6 kicks on one axis, 6 kicks during the roll from one axis to the next, and 6 kicks on the next axis (and repeat). This particular swimmer, unfortunately, does not remember to keep the kick consistant and doesn’t get the most out of the drill that he can.

Overall, though, this is a great way for our Hamden North Haven Swim Team kids to really get to know the Catch Up Drill!

For more information on Typhoon Swimming, please feel free to contact us at any point!