Profile of the new
‘Senior’ Training Group

Picture: Gabriel Dobrescu
See some more underwater scenes of a
Senior Group training session here...

Unique Model

This is a unique group, because it is comprised of swimmers who are exclusively 13 years of age and older. The creation of the new Senior group was established when a need arose to find a suitable training location, time and training environment for NYAC's more experienced Central Region level swimmers aged 13 and over. It is always important for swimmers to train with their peers and sometimes kids come into competitive swimming at a later age. This group provides them with an excellent training environment where they can be with their peers rather than starting in our lower levels with younger swimmers.

The Senior swimmer focuses on becoming:

• Fitter (improve conditioning and athleticism)
• Faster (improve speed through technique)
• Stronger (improve core strength, overall stability and flexibility)

The goal is to create a training environment that facilitates a swimmer achieving 100% of their potential. We work on many aspects that include technique improvement, race strategy and goal setting. This group is learning to become more self-reliant and to take ownership of their responsibilities as a swimmer, as opposed to relying on a parent or coach. Some of their responsibilities include planning their season, understanding goal race time/splits/stroke count and overall becoming more coachable.

The Senior Group in relation to the NYAC Model

The group is comprised of swimmers who were previously in the Provincial 1 and Provincial 2 groups last season. The Senior group fits into the NYAC model very well because it fills a need to have similar age and caliber of swimmers in a training group together. NYAC has had an influx of 13 and over swimmers who have trained together in the past. This group is a natural progression from their past training environments, where they can build on their technique and power, but with a training schedule that accommodates their age, school and social environments.

It is our goal that the Senior swimmers in this group will be developing at a level that could move them on to the National Development and National Training groups. Swimmers in the Senior group will focus on reaching a level of conditioning, race times and general winning attitude that could enable them to compete at the Provincial and National level.

Uniqueness of the Senior Group

The current group of Senior swimmers is incredibly diverse and dynamic. They range in age from 13-19 and their actual times start around "D" level for several swimmers in their weaker events all the way up to one swimmer who is going for his Eastern National cuts this season. Our group has a male to female ratio of 3:1 and have as little experience as 2 seasons all the way up to 9 seasons of experience.

The training location is ideal for this group, because it is centrally located in the Newtonbrook pool for 5 of their 7 weekly training sessions. This is a big step up for many of the swimmers, because the swimmers who moved up into the Senior group this season are now swimming 2 additional times per week. A few have had a slight decrease of 1 training session weekly however.

The Senior group differs from almost all the other NYAC training groups except maybe National by the fact that our age range is so varied and even our ability level is fairly diverse.

Some of the exciting benefits and changes our swimmers are now enjoying as a member of the Senior group include:
• training alongside the ND group during morning workouts
• having a home pool with Newtonbrook
• more travel opportunities at the CR and faster level
• being included in the Christmas Camp schedule
• faster and more dedicated training partners
• being coached by the 2 John's (some might find this a little scary actually)

Coaching Style and Attributes

Keeping my athletes motivated is a necessary challenge I look forward to as a coach. One of the biggest motivators is helping the athlete remove the stress of confusion and burnout through proper planning of their respective seasons. Having a short-term (season) and long-term (2-4 years) plan allows a swimmer to break down their goals into more manageable pieces and helps to accommodate any problems or issues that arise. Planning with the coach is paramount to a coach-athlete relationship working and for the coach to push them to a goal an athlete believes in. On deck I give the standard words of encouragement and occasional screams but I like to see myself as approachable off the deck and through email and my biggest gains of trust are through off deck activities outside of the training environment.

I gauge the success and functionality of my program on variables as simple and trivial as attendance records all the way up to our test sets. Currently I'm following John Calnan's test sets of 3x800M FR, 4x400IM and 5x200m event (non-free). This is proving to be an excellent gauge on the swimmers’ overall fitness and general IM proficiency. These are two valuable skills for any swimmer, but especially the 14 and unders who are now required to perform their respective pre-requisites. My plan for this season is to get one swimmer to get to his Eastern Nationals and 2 others to get their AGN's. I want 8 of my swimmers to get provincials (4 SC and 8 LC) and everyone needs to be Central Region qualified by the end of the season. Right now it seems a little lofty to some of my swimmers but I expect all of them to buy into this plan before Christmas Camp when their fitness and technique has improved enough. We are already averaging around 25km a week and I think we'll be able to maintain a comfortable 30-31km a week holding 4000m/hour.

Having swimmers take on more ownership of their career paths as an athlete will help drive them. I like to identify certain groups within Senior for example a group more adept at sprinting short distance, and challenge them to a specific sprint set catered more to them. Other groups may include mid-distance, IMers, event strokes or others. A lot of the younger or newer swimmers will, by instinct, race anything and everyone around them. I stress the importance of racing the clock and yourself over others, but I do like a little racing and I like to challenge them if they're up to it the odd time.

As a coach, I find I have a 60/40 democratic/autocratic approach. I actively seek feedback from the swimmers and adapt my workouts accordingly and sometimes on the fly. Improvisation is a coache's best skill and hardest to develop I find. I always like to back up my statements with facts, so I do play the numbers game and log as much information as possible to make the athlete believe what I am selling. Finally I see myself as a motivator through constant encouragement and advice on and off the pool deck.

Although it's early in our season, several swimmers have stood out among the others as being self-driven and having a very high work ethic such as Sierra and Chris. Ronald has motivated others through his drive and willingness to share his experience as a NYAC swimmer. Finally Danny and Jordan have proven the most eager and coachable to this point. I expect a few other swimmers will stand out in their own right when they are ready.

Some of Coach John McLeod’s Interesting Features

Favourite Movie
Anything with Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino directed by Martin Scorsese

Current Reading
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into values by Robert M. Pirsig and
|Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

Favourite Food
Spaghetti and Meat Balls with Salad and some White Wine

iPod Songs
Strung Out – Andy Warhol
Atmosphere – Bam
Jay-Z –Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
Slayer – Psychopathy Red
Jimmy Eat World –Work