Weekly Practice Schedule
November 12th-18th, 2020
All practices will run as scheduled this week. Please CLICK HERE to visit our website, and view the MAC weekly practice schedule.
Thursday Drill: Anchors! What do we anchor while we are swimming? We will be applying it in backstroke and finish working on Feel for the Water as well – come join us! |
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News:
1. There was a broken link, in last weeks email, in the Featured Article “Mindful Swimming” (resent again below) – which has now been fixed. All featured articles can be found on our website, MilfordAthleticclub.org under the “Resources” tab, > “Featured Articles”.
2. Great MAC swims today at EMU Meet. Thanks Coach Dianne for being on-deck with instant feedback, support and coaching tips! The MAC team members in attendance were: Rita Gelman, Steve Heaney, Steve Hertz, Jim Izzi, Rebecca Kanner, Don Kroeger, Bill Porter, Brandon Marriott, Ryan Noechel, John Riggs, Mike Schuldinger and Mike Smith.
 Congratulations Ryan, for winning the MAC meet attendance raffle of a $10 Lottery ticket. At each meet this season we will have a MAC attendance drawing. You must come to a meet to get into that meet’s drawing! Prizes will vary by meet.
3. 1-Hour Postal 2020: During MAC practice on Tuesday, January 21st & Saturday, Jan. 25th we will swim the 1-hour postal. Objective: To swim as far as possible in one hour, while someone on-deck keeps track of your time/laps. You can register your individual results by registering with USMS – CLICK HERE.
4. This Monday PM (only), there will not be a seperate MAC Lite instructor, but MAC Lite swimmers are welcome to swim with the MAC group (Jim, the MAC coach will accommodate). |
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Swimmer of the Week:
Brandon Marriott
 So – as my parents tell it – I’ve always been a “fish”…even though I didn’t start competitively swimming until I started high school (way back in 1988…yikes!) Up until then, I’d spent my summer vacations water skiing at my grandparents’ cottage, swimming in Lake Michigan, and – almost every day all summer when we were home – playing “Sharks and Minnows” at the local pool until the sun went down. Those were the days!
That all changed when we moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania just before I started high school. I had to make new friends, and so I joined a Boy Scout troop. One of the activities that our Council held every year was a “Swim-o-ree” – basically a fun swim meet for Boy Scouts. My (future) high school coach was one of the meet coordinators, and – after one of our relays – he talked my dad into signing me up for the high school team that fall. It was exciting, but terrifying, too – I had no idea how to swim butterfly, and the rest of my strokes were – at best – “recreationally competitive”!
Jumping straight into the proverbial “deep end” with a group of seasoned swimmers for my freshman year was a bit rough – learning how to really swim, do flip turns, etc. was a huge challenge. Through it all, though, I found I had a real passion for the sport, and began swimming competitively year-round after that. By my senior year, I was an above-average swimmer whose best events were the 100 fly, 100 breast, and 200 IM. I never set any records or qualified for States, but I graduated high school with a couple team letters, and was happy with how far I’d come in a few short years.
After high school, I had the opportunity to swim D3 – but decided to join the Aerospace Engineering program at the U of M instead. At orientation I met a couple other former high school swimmers and water polo players, and we all decided to join the Michigan Water Polo Club team. I’d never played polo before, but I could swim…so what could go wrong? (ha, ha)! It was a lot of work, but through our five years together we earned three Big 10 titles, and we won Nationals our senior year. I earned 2nd Team – All Big 10 recognition that season, too, which was an awesome way to end my college career. Joining that team was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made – and I’ve already recruited one of my best friends from that team to swim with MAC, too!
After college, a few major shoulder surgeries (one from volleyball, and the other from a mountain bike crash) – ended all my athletic endeavors for a few years. I had finally healed by the time I married my wife Michelle in 2008, but our expanding family and my career left no room for swimming…until my then-8-year-old decided in 2017 that she wanted to swim for the Huron Valley Penguins with a friend of hers from school. Sitting there at Lakeland watching her first practice – smelling the humidity and chlorine again – I decided it was way past the time for me to get back in the pool!
After a few months of swimming on my own, I noticed a MAC posting on the Lakeland bulletin board, and I decided to join the team for the 2018-19 season to see if I could be competitive again. I am so glad I did! Just like high school, I had a lot to learn; new vocabulary, new stroke techniques, new drills, and new faces – but everyone at MAC has been fantastic! I really appreciate how the coaches – especially Jim, Maria, and Dianne – have created a “work hard, play hard” atmosphere; the camaraderie with this team is something I’d really missed since my college water polo days. The swimmers here have been friendly, humble, and supportive, too – just an all-around great group. Maybe the best way to describe MAC is this: it really says something about the quality of people and the program when a bunch of people whom you just met a month ago are standing at the end of your lane cheering you on in your first race. Everyone deserves a chance to be part of a team like we have here!
MAC Swimmers are the greatest advertisements of all! We love how you share your stories on social media, with friends, etc. We would like to share your stories as well. Each week we will highlight a MAC Swimmer so we can learn more about the team. |
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Monthly Feature Article:
Mindful Swimming
By: Dianne Johnson
MAC Head Coach
 While swimming a workout, have you ever spent the entire time planning out the rest of your day or the upcoming weekend? Finished a workout and not remembered what you swam? I’ve swam countless laps with a certain song stuck in my head or replayed previous races. Although this is great for getting through that workout and pounding out the yards, problems appear when the habit of mindless swimming leads to sloppy technique. If you aim to improve your strokes or get more out of your workout then mindful, not mindless, swimming should be your goal.
For example, you may want to improve your underwater dolphin kick in order to drop time in your freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly races. The goal is to make not only the kick more efficient but to extend the underwaters off the walls.
First, swim a workout and.. To Continue Reading, CLICK HERE |
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Weekly Featured Workout:
300 sw (75 Long, 25 OverKick)
200 Kick build by 100s
200 (50 drill/50 swim) choice
10 x 50 2-streamline kick on back, 2-build freestyle, 2-build Best non-Fr stroke, 2-hard streamline kick on back, 2-freestyle drill @ :10 rest
2-3 rounds of:
4 x 75 IM order 1. (fly/back/breast) 2. (free/fly/back) 2. (breast/free/fly) 4. (back/breast/free) @ :15 rest
100 IM Timed
4 x 50 build non Fr stroke – Maximize each wall, hard within flags on :10 rest
100 stroke non Fr Timed
2 x 50 Best stroke drill (including Fr)
All strokes 3/3/3 drill w/paddles :10 rest
———Descend 100s by round
100 backstroke kick
200 pull focus on high elbow catch Fr or Bk
200 Warm Down |
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 Countdown to State Meet Begins!
Friday-Sunday, March 27-29, 2020
East Kentwood High School
Kentwood, Michigan
MAC Team information can be found on our website: CLICK HERE |
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 Swim Your Way to Bronze, Silver and Gold!
Earn Bronze, Silver and Gold medals by swimming events in practices, at meets, and at the 2020 State Meet. You can set goals to challenge yourself, race against teammates and even participate in our Medal Ceremony next spring! For complete details, visit our website – CLICK HERE
KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PROGRESS…
CLICK HERE to download a printable PDF worksheet, to keep track of your MAC Olympics progress, events and times, in addition to writing on the banner on the pool deck. |
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Spread The Word:
Share the fun and fitness we have created at MAC!. We now have a flyer available on deck. It gives details about MAC and MAC Lite. Thank you for being a part of the MAC Family! To view the flier, CLICK HERE for a printable PDF. |
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Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, Jan. 21st & Saturday, Jan. 25th – MAC 1-Hour Postal
Sunday, Feb. 2nd, Brighton FAST Super Bowl Meet
Saturday, March 7th, South Lyon Spring Swim Meet
Saturday, March 14th, Milford Meltdown Swim Meet
Friday-Sunday, March 27-29, Michigan State Championship Meet in Kentwood, MI. |
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Team Communication:
We use REMIND app/website, to send out last minute schedule changes, or messages. To sign up, and for more information – CLICK HERE |
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