[PacMasterUpdate] July 1, 2001

Sun Jul 1 20:45:55 EDT 2001

LONG COURSE METERS
Folks want to book a room for the Pacific Masters Swimming Long 
Course Meters Championships need to do it immediately.

The rates are $79 and the  hotels are the
	Beverly Heritage (408) 943-9080  
or
	The Sheraton (408) 943-0600
HELP IS NEEDED IN MANY AREA - Timing, registration, refreshments and 
other jobs. Pacific Masters depends on its volunteers, if you can 
help (if only for an hour or two between events) contact Dale Finch at
	mailto:dfinch at ix.netcom.com

DONNER LAKE SWIM CANCELLED -> SWIM PINECREST
The Donner Lake Swim scheduled for August 11th has been cancelled, 
Jim Wheeler, the Open Water Chair announced.

For those swimmers who want to swim in an alpine lake, Tuolumne 
Country Masters will be having the first Pinecrest Lake swim August 
25th. Pinecrest is a beautiful man made lake surrounded by pine trees 
east of Sonora in the Gold Country. (Pinecrest is located just a few 
miles from Dodge Ridge ski resort).
	http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/01tuol.html

RESULTS BURLINGAME SPLASH AND DASH
The results of the first Burlingame Splash and Dash are posted on the web site.
	http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/results.shtml
There were two world records broken by Laura Val - 50 back and 50 
free and one national record broken by Bob Strand - 50 Breast). 
Thanks to Chairman Doug Huestis and the Burlingame Masters who put on 
this event.

UPCOMING EVENTS
   LAKE SONOMA
The Lake Sonoma Open Water swim is this Saturday July 7th. Race date 
registration is available. Checkin and registration is from 6:30am to 
7:30am
	http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/01lakesonomaOw.html

   PACIFIC MASTERS OPEN WATER CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2001 Pacific Masters Open Water Championships will be held in 
Santa Cruz the first weekend in August. Medals will be given to the 
top five finishers in eash age division.
	http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/schd.html
On each short meet sheet there is a link to the full meet sheet.

   UNITED STATES MASTERS LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
This year USMS Long Course Championships will be held in Federal Way, 
Washington. Just a short flight north. The postmark deadline is July 
8th, 2001
	http://www.usms.org/comp/lcnats01/meetinfo.shtml

   Coaches school at LCM Nationals
There will be a coaches school there A MACA Coaches Certification 
School and Seminar will be held Wednesday, August 15, from 1 to 5 pm 
at the Aquatic Center. All Masters coaches and swimmers are welcome. 
Cost is $40 ($35 for MACA members). For information and a 
registration form contact Dan Frost (831)899-7213; email: 
frosty at usms.org, or visit the MACA website (www.macacoach.org).

USMS LOOKING FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS
At the 2000 USMS Convention, the delegates authorized seeking ways 
for the organization to increase its public exposure. We are seeking 
proposals from professional public relations practices that can 
assist in this goal. The USMS Request For Proposal describing the 
objectives and requirements of this public relations program is 
available here for interested parties to download. Proposals are to 
be received at the USMS National Office by July 13.
	http://www.usms.org/admin/publicrelationsrfp.pdf
For those who would like to see the demographics of USMS and to see 
how the different regions of the country compare to each other - look 
at pages 3-8 of the proposal (Pacific does very well).

USMS CONVENTION
At this years USMS annual convention, the delegates will be voting 
for new executive officers of the organization. Joan Alexander, the 
Pacific Masters Secretary is running for USMS Secretary. Julie Paque 
Heather, former chairman of Pacific Masters, is also running for 
Secretary and Sally Dillon, formerly of Truckee (and ran the Donner 
Lake Swim), is also running for secretary.

If you have time September 12- 16 to attend the convention in 
Dearborn, MI, please contact Doug Huestis or Nancy Ridout
	http://www.usms.org/admin/election01/

STROKE TECHNIQUE WORK - INTERNAL FOCUS OR EXTERNAL IMPUT?
Often a coach has to wonder -- is it time/effort effective to spend a 
lot of time doing 'stroke drills' and constantly re-enforcing stroke 
technique tips with your swimmers.

Well, to look at it from the perspective of the swimmer -- time and 
attention is always time well spent; it is nice to get feedback from 
the coach.

But at what level is (constant) 're-enforcement' and/or lots of 
stroke drills not "cost effective"??

To come to the answer  we need to realize that the learning of a new 
'motor pattern' (a drill or stroke technique)  requires at least 
5,000 repetitions before a new neural pathway of motor pattern 
response (ie, the learning of the action) has become a 'reflex' -- 
and thus done without 'conscious awareness'.   In other words, if you 
have to think about what you are doing  -- that skill/drill is very 
'in-efficient' and not very effective at moving you through the water.

The human body will become very efficient at the SPECIFIC MOTOR TASK 
it is learning. You could do 'one arm drills' for butterfly for a 
year -- and become very, very good (and efficient at it) -- but it 
would not necessarily follow that your 'regular' butterfly would 
improve to a like degree.

So doing a lot of drills -- will mostly help you "do drills."  So use 
them for 'awareness' and to force you to 'think around the problem' - 
of how to efficiently move through the water -- but not as a cure for 
your stroke technique needs.

In regards to a coach having to 'constantly' remind swimmers about 
their stroke needs -- as it takes some 5,000 repetitions to 'ingrain' 
a skill -- does the coach need to remind you each and every stroke?? 
You will have agree that that is physically (and psychologically) 
impossible. So ask the coach for help with your stroke -- then assume 
the responsibility of working on that task until YOU have achieved 
results.  There is nothing so satisfying as accomplishing something 
YOU (internally motivated and produced) have accomplished!!!
    Coach Midnight

(ed note: It is nice to get some feedback from the coach if you not 
doing it correctly.)

SWIMMING LONG COURSE IN THE NORTH BAY
Carol Eber drops a note: Training for long course championships or 
open water?  Swimmers in the North Bay can tune up their skills at 
the Petaluma Swim Center.  The 50 meter pool is set up for long 
course Tues/Thurs 6:45 - 8:15 PM, Saturday
8:00 - 11:30 AM, and Sunday 9:30 - 11:30 AM.  The pool is just west of
Highway 101 at the Washington St.exit.

NEW MAIL LIST MANAGER
You may notice from all the different headings in the email headers 
that there is something different in the Update. The Pacific Masters 
Update is using a new mail list manager. With over 8,500 subscribers 
to the Update there is no way to send out a weekly email with out 
automation (I thought there were over 8800, but the new listmanager 
sorted out the duplicates).

The user interface should be easier to use - if you want to 
subscribe, unsubscribe or send the list moderator a message there are 
web pages where the changes can be made or email addresses to send 
the changes. This should make it easier for the user to make his/her 
own corrections/additions.

To subscribe a different email address go to the web page:
	http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/pacmasterupdate,

    or send an email (from the new email address) to:
	mailto:pacmasterupdate-request at PacificMasters.org?subject=subscribe

to unsubscribe  go to:
	http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/pacmasterupdate
    or send an email to:
	mailto:pacmasterupdate-request at PacificMasters.org?subject=unsubscribe

and a new feature is an archive of old Updates
	http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/pacmasterupdate/

The archives start with the five tests that were done before the list 
manager went live.

have a good week

michael

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