OK... so I'm no poet! But at least I tried!

Have a great Christmas, Chanukah, and New Year. Be safe, and train hard. This is a great opportunity to reclaim any missed training, or technique aspects that you've missed so far into the season. Most of all, have a great weekend.

WHHRRR!! RING! HONK, BEEP, HONK!!! RING RING RING!!! Computers, phones, TV, radio, cars. The sounds of everyday life are enough to drive you batty. One day this week I was at my wits end, which isn't hard to imagine or very far to go because I am naturally a half-wit. So I went in search of my mind.

The January 2005 issue of Men's Journal magazine contains an excellent article by P.H. Muller called "Peak Performance: The Michale Phelps Swimming Workout." The article talks about stroke mechanics and training philosophy, and contains a ten-week program that speaks to all levels of swimmers. Here's a practice that I gave Masters swimmers, based on a practice from Week #8 of that program. Have some water handy!

Holiday break? For some swimmers, it's more like holiday get-broken-down. At many clubs across the country, the holiday break from matriculation (that's school) means underwater asphyxiation (that's a really really tough workout).

This past weekend we had a chance to hang with some old friends in the best place to do it, on a pool deck. The New Jersey mini clinic was a get-together of old pals. So Glenn and I packed up the truck and hit the road. Mr. Blue made the trip with us as well. Some of you might remember him from the Coach Black posts last season.

If you attended a Go Swim summer camp in 2004, you will certainly remember Coach Marcia Diederich. Marcia has been living and teaching in China for the past four months, and files this report.

At a recent swim clinic, I found myself spending a lot of time working on hand recovery. Coincidentally, there has been some good discussion recently on our Discussion Board about hand recovery. It seems to me that people can get a little too caught up in what is -- or isn't -- the proper way to recover the hand. And this goes for EVERY stroke, not just freestyle. In all the debate, there's an extremely important aspect of the recovery that sometimes gets overlooked.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a swimmer. Not just any swimmer, but someone who had a desire to go FASTER than he had ever gone before. But even though this swimmer felt like he worked hard all the time, he was never able to achieve the results he felt he deserved. Eventually he became unhappy and discouraged because he couldn't figure out WHY he wasn't faster.

When I was a kid, there was a cartoon that I absolutely could not go without, and that was G.I. Joe. I guess it was my need to be utterly surprised when G.I. Joe somehow foiled Cobra Commander's sinister plans on EVERY SHOW.

I'd like to thank my Mom....and oh, yeah, that you can use breaststroke kick when you swim butterfly (Masters, that is)....

1. WATER! Anywhere. Pools are tough to come by, so when we find one we can spend some time at with some swimmers, we feel very fortunate. For this, I want to thank Bucknell University, New York Military Academy, and Clarence Middle School for our summer camps.

There's only so much love to go around at a swimming pool. Sometimes, a bit too much. I'm not sure I know too many people who like to be around a pool more than I do, working with swimmers, watching them laugh and have fun. There is a dark side, however, that comes out when kids cross the line of reason and decide that EVERYTHING is supposed to be fun.

The curious thing about a moment is that it's always passing. It's not right now...not right now...not right now...nope, not right now, either. So, when was it, where did it go?

There's a thread on the Go Swim website called "Why Do I Swim?" It was started on December 11, 2003 by Dave Denniston, and, last time I checked, it had been read 1214 times. That's about five times as many reads or "hits" as a typical thread on our site, and double the number of even its closer rivals. For all of you who are passionate about swimming, here is an introduction to two swimmers whom you might want to know more about -- Lynne Cox and Christopher Swain.

What is good? I think that "good" might be the most ambiguous term in the English language. "Cute" and "nice" also battle for the top spot, but I still have to give it to "good" as the epitome of vague.