Spring/Summer Swim Team Starts Monday!

With our pre-season swim clinic almost over, the Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoons look to start their Spring/Summer season this upcoming Monday (April 26, 2010).  However, before we move forward, let’s take a look at what we have done so far this past week and a half in our clinic:

Flip Turns
  • Increased the speed that they get around on the flip
  • Improved the efficiency of their last pull before the flip
  • Adjusted their hand positions prior to the push-off from the wall
  • Fine-tuned the smaller details of the turn to make it as efficient as possible
Freestyle
  • Worked on individual hand entry
  • Focused on improving the high catch and early vertical forearm
  • Improved body position and kick technique
  • Altered the follow through of the pull to increase torque
Backstroke
  • Worked the efficiency of  the kick
  • Introduced utilizing the core during the stroke to increase velocity
  • Practiced proper body position and swimming downhill
  • Implemented a new flip turn technique to minimize time between the last stroke and the flip turn
Breaststroke
  • Focused on kick timing to increase stroke efficiency
  • Worked on when to let go of the water during the stroke
  • Introduced “pressing”
  • Practiced the proper way to pull and shoot the hands for maximum torque and minimum drag
Butterfly
  • Improved the efficiency and the timing of the kick
  • Worked two different ways to catch and pull the water, and each swimmer decided which way was better for them
  • Practiced the timing of the stroke
  • Introduced a new butterfly turn in order to minimize arm drag during the breakout

Even though we have already had a great clinic with the swimmers, we still have an IM day, and a day to review with everyone!  All in all, this has been a very successful clinic, and the coaches can only look forward to what is going to be an outstanding (and fun) Spring/Summer with the Hamden North Haven Swim Team!

If you’re interested in finding out more information about the Spring and Summer season, please either visit our Registration Page or contact Coach Andy.

Happy Swimming!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team – Last Practice

The Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team has their last practice tonight and will travel to the New England Regional Championships this weekend!  Our 13 – 14 year old swimmers will compete on Saturday afternoon where we have one qualified male swimmer and a female relay team (should be very fun to watch).  On Sunday, we have a 9 – 10 male qualifier, 9 – 10 female qualifer, and an 8 and under male qualifier with two other relay teams attending.

We (the coaches) are so excited to see the hard work pay-off for these swimmers as they have been through some intense practices over the past month!  Let’s wish them all well this weekend as they attend their last YMCA Swim Meet of the season!

Hamden Swim Clinic

The Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team will host their semi-annual pre-season Swim Team Clinic in the last week of April.  This will be (as always) a great time for the swimmers to learn as it is much more hands-on and more of a teaching technique than swimming workouts.  It’s a great way for Hamden North Haven Swimmers to get back into the water and refresh their previous year’s experience, but it’s also a great way for new swimmers to get in the pool and learn while getting to know the returning Typhoon Swimmers.

So, again, the Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team will be holding their Swim Team Clinic starting on April 27, 2009!  Register soon as spots will be extremely tight for the summer swim team!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Meet with Northern Middlesex YMCA

This past weekend marked one of Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoons’ last swim meets of the season.  The meet was held on February 7th at the Northern Middlesex YMCA with the Barracudas Swim Team.  There were a few technical faults with regard to entries, but everything worked out fine in the end!

The Typhoon swimmers, from what I saw and heard, had a great time supporting each other, and times looked great from what Coach Elaina, Coach Alisse, and I were recording.  One new swimmer qualified for New England Regional Championship (which will allow us to send a 9-10 boys’ relay team), and two of our swimmers (already qualified) improved their seed time for their qualifying events.  I will, hopefully, have the swim meet results to post on the website by tomorrow evening!

Next weekend (February 14, 2009) will be our last YMCA Dual Swim Meet until the Long Course Season.  We will be at home (Albertus Magnus) with the arrival time of 7:45 am and warm-ups starting at 8:00 am.  Please make sure you let me know as soon as possible whether or not you plan on attending.  Since this is the last dual meet for our Hamden North Haven Swim Team, and we are nearing the Yankee Cluster Championship (entries posted on our YMCA Swim Team website, I hope that we can get a good showing from all of our swimmers!

Happy Swimming, and Go Typhoons!!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team – Practice Cancelled Tonight

So, due to the snow (once again) we had to cancel practice for our Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team (the Typhoons).  While we cancelled for the Silver and Gold group, we still had practice (though abbreviated) for the Junior and Senior groups.  With that said, those two groups works extremely hard and deserve a huge “thank you” for not letting the weather affect how you practice!!

As a quick reminder, I do need to know which swimmers are planning on swimming at the Yankee Cluster Championship as soon as possible.  I need to submit the swimming entries no later than February 6, 2009 which only gives me a few days to fill everything out.  That being said, I somewhat expect (and please pardon my tone) our swimmers to attend the meet that weekend in Plainville (at the Plainville High School).  It is a very important meet as it will be the last “hoorah” for the season for several of the swimmers and is somewhat unfair to the swimmers who are going to be there and relying on a team relay for 5 events.  So, it is not necessarily for my sake that you would attend, but for the sake of the team and your swimmers’ friends (no guilt trip or anything ;-) .

Alright, so I look forward to no snow tomorrow and back to practice as usual for our Hamden North Haven Swim Team!

Happy Swimming!!

Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team’s New Forum

I am proud to announce that we, the Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team (the Typhoons) now have an open source forum for parents to leave comments, question, news, etc.  They now have the ability to openly communicate with eachother via the internet and do not have to wait on e-mail to get a response as the forum is accessible from any computer or smart phone.  You can visit the forum by clicking: Hamden North Haven YMCA Swimming Forum.  I am currently, however, still working on the design so that you are able to easily navigate back to the home page.  I will keep everyone up to date on how that re-design is going, but please enjoy the forum!

New Hamden North Haven Swim Team Website

Alright, I have finally revamped our Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team website (www.typhoonswimming.com). Please feel free to check it out, let me know if you see anything that needs to be updated, changed, etc. Happy swimming!

Registration Deadline for the Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team

We are nearing the deadline (January 10, 2009) for registration with our Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team.  That being said, for more information about us you can visit our Hamden North Haven Swim Team website.   So, if anyone is still out there and interested in joining a YMCA swim team during the short course season please feel free to contact us and find out more information!

For those of you that are interested, but are hesitant because you/your swimmer hasn’t been to a meet yet, don’t worry!  We still have 6 more swim meets this season (not including our New England Regional Championship meet).  So, your swimmer will get plenty of experience and time with their swim team friends!  Also, if you cannot register due to scheduling difficulties, we do have our semi-annual swim clinic coming up in late April that you can register for ahead of time!

All the best, happy swimming, and Go Typhoons!

Swim Meet Against Farmington Valley YMCA Swim Team

I will send out an e-mail to everyone regarding this information, but I also wanted to post this on our blog so it is out there in the open for anyone interested!

The next ymca swim meet for the Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team (the Typhoons) is going to be held at Albertus Magnus College where we’ll be swimming against the Farmington Valley YMCA Swim Team. This will be a 70 event dual meet with the arrival time at 8:00 a.m. and the warm-up time at 8:15 a.m – 8:30 a.m. We will do one way starts from 8:30 – 8:40 a.m. with the meet starting at 8:45 a.m.

Should anyone have any questions regarding how to get to Albertus Magnus or if you need anything else, please feel free to let me know!

On a separate subject, I still have a couple of time slots available to swimmers for private coaching sessions throughout the week!

All the best, and Go Typhoons!

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to very quickly wish everyone a very very happy holiday season! Enjoy your time with your family and don’t forget to say a prayer for our troops over seas and the families that are struggling during this time of the year!

On a more swimming subject, I still have some time available on Monday afternoon for private lessons, and I also have some time slots available for Tuesday morning as well. They are filling up fast, so let me know via e-mail if you are interested in taking a lesson or two. The other day that would be good for this break is Friday if that works for any of our Hamden North Haven Swim Team.

Again, Happy Holidays, and I wish everyone the best!!