Confirmed NEW YEAR training in NAC for 2nd & 3rd SQUADS

CONFIRMATION

There will be a Training Session for ALL 2nd & 3rd Squad swimmers on Thursday 3rd January 2007 in the NAC from

8.00am to 9.30am.
Diving Blocks will be in place and the TEAM members will be afforded the chance to practice diving from the blocks as well as the opportunity to swim in a Long Course (50M)

pool set up.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

McSherry & Thom to Represent Leinster TEAM

WELL DONE, CONGRATS, YIPPEE, YAHOO and lots of HO! Ho! HO!
to both Amy McSherry and Ian Thom on their selection today to represent LEINSTER and the club at the CELTIC TRI-NATIONS meet in Edinburgh in February 2008.

After their strong performances at the Winter SC Championships in the first week of December they have been rewarded with these selections as part of a 30 strong TEAM to go to Edinburgh.

Well done to you both, your hard work and dedication and attention to detail in TRAINING EVERYDAY has paid off.

TEAM TSC is proud of you!!

Christmas Training

Christmas Training Schedule

IRISH MINOR Schools Champions in TEAM TSC

A HUGE congratulations to our club swimmers who swam to IRISH MINOR Schools titles, medals, Finals and GREAT PB's on Saturday in the NAC.


Our NEW IRISH MINOR Schools Title holders are
Alison O'Driscoll for her Gold Medal performance in the Girls U12 50BS
Jonah Clegg for his Gold Medal performance in the Boys U11 50BC and a super tight race to finish 2nd in the 100IM. Well done to them both on their great swims and the PB's also.


Congrats also to Rory Fleming and Luke Dillon who both managed to qualify for the finals and finish 7th in their respective events. For both boys it was their first ever IRISH final and a great experience for both of them. Excellent PB swims too were delivered by Kieran Hayes, Cathal Tan and Caoilfhinn Tan in their respective events.

All of these results continue to demonstrate how the emphasis on IMPROVING SKILLS EVERY DAY in training is the KEY to successful swimming. Well done to you all on your hard work.


Looking forward now to the NUIM Devils meet tomorrow.

Leinster SC Champions & a lot of PB's

LEINSTER SC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Last weekend in the NAC saw another great set of performances by TEAM TSC Members in the 1st Leinster Winter SC championships. One of the primary targets for the TEAM this side of Christmas would be to be sure that ALL members are back to PB swims and still training hard. With a total of 87 PB's (not including Relays) form a total of 149 individual swims (including Heats and Finals) showed just how strong the team performed across the meet.

We had a great weekend as a TEAM which was topped off with Ian Thom's (left) LEINSTER CHAMPIONSHIP win in the Mens Freestyle Skins competition in a new PB time of 24.95. Ian's ongoing commitment to working hard also paid huge dividend for him in the placing 4th on a 53.8 100FC swim and a 4th in the 200FC also. Backed up by some great swims from Andy Farrell, Brian Lee & Peter Sherry it was great to see TEAM TSC Men's team finish 4th in both the Medley & Freestyle relays. Andy's individual swims were strong throughout the meet and an equal PB swim int he 100FC saw his recent illness not detract from his efforts. With PB Swims from Daire O'Driscoll, whose ongoing development of his skills saw huge PB's in his 1500FC and 200Fly and medal winning performances for him in both events (silver in fly & bronze in 1500) too across a number of his events. I think Daire is demonstrating that the focus on technique and skill development is a KEY factor in improving your results in swimming. Liam O'Neill's monumental performance in the 100FC saw him crack the sub 60 seconds and Finbar McTiernan's impressive display int he BC also saw him swim PB's in the 100 and make the final in the Skins competition. Not to be outdone on the PB's Michael Gray also set lifetime best times in his 100FC, 200FC and 100BS. Our younger Men, John Martin, Conor O'Keeffe and Brian Feighan also demonstrated that their efforts in training together over the last number of months has definately paid off for them as they ALL swam PB's across a number of their events. John's impressive 100FC & 400FC were equalled by equally impressive PB's from Brian Feighan in the same events and a Massive PB for brian in the 200FC, thus again reinforcing the quality of the technique work he has done since September. Conor's PB's in the 100FC and 100BC were just reward too for his efforts. A special request by Leinster Swimming has been made to me to ask if the "Conor O'Keeffe School of Streamlining" would consider releasing Conor to share his skills with the masses as his hugely improved skills in this area were noticed by many coaches.!!

And WHAT about the LADIES??

Well what can I say, if the lads swam well and delivered numerous PB's our girls continued the Clubs success with some MASSIVE results by the Girls team. Amy McSherry (left) was by far and away in her best form EVER as she demolished each and every swim she had to set new best times across her three main events and qualified for 'A' finals in those events and finishing 4th in the 100BC and 400FC and 5th in the 200FC. Happy too with her swims was Laura Martin who swam PB's in her 400FC and equal bests on the shorter Freestyle events. Again her focus on technique is paying dividend too since September. Both Gemma Houlihan and Aoife Newe who have increased their training volumes considerably snce the start of the season saw strong results delivered with tactically better races than they have had previously. Both girls continue to impress in training and their ongoing commitment to developing their skills dominates their daily effort.

All of TEAM TSC girls were fantastic all across the weekend as Anne Marie Finn swam to a 100% PB success during the meet with excellent performances across her events and a great start to the year. A BIG well done too to Ciara Robinson, Martha O'Donoghue and Alison O'Driscoll who ALL swam 100% PB's too across their events. Alison's powerful 200BS and fantastic 200IM times were ones to take note of over the weekend. Martha & Ciara were essentially swimming their first OPEN meet and handles themselves with distinction in their efforts. After a tough month of training Niamh Murphy and Dayna Clegg swam very heavy programs over the weekend racing some 18 races for Niamh and 15 races for Dayna. A very tough program for them both but strong PB performances across a wide range of events with Dayna's impressive PB's in the 800FC, 200BF and 200BC and Niamh's strong PB in the 400IM the best events of the weekend for them both.

Both Niamh and Dayna were joined by Emma Crossan, Grace Branagan & Niamh Bryson who also produced best times in their events and saw both Grace and Emma also deliver strong relay performances to demonstrate the strength and depth of the TEAM TSC squad. Niamh Bryson continued her strong results this year with a Leinster Regional squad qualifying time in the 200FC and equally strong performances in the 400FC and across her Breastroke events. Emma too also showed her class as she swam strong PB's in the 200FC, 400FC and 100BF. Emma has also increased training volumes since the start of the month and this additional effort was obviously paying off across her varied swims. Grace Branagan's exquisite performance in the 100BC on the final relay of the weekend immediately following her PB in the 200BC final saw her post one of the fastest set of times by an athlete of her age in a number of years. The team stood in awe of the 1:10.4 100BC lead off on the relay and then were gobsmacked as Grace had just delivered a superb 2:29 in the 200BC and won the 'B' final finishing 7th overall in an open senior event. Essentially Grace delivered another 100% PB set of swims across the distance and middle distance freestyle events and also across her favoured backcrawl events.

Without fail the TEAM who swam at the weekend delivered encouraging performances and is very focused now on the next 22 weeks which will see the IRISH LC Nationals be the culmination of the next block of Training. En Route to the LC Nationals the athletes will continue to race in the Leinster Senior School (6 Weeks), Leinster Distance Gala (8 Weeks) and Irish Senior Schools (9 Weeks) and LEinster LC Championships (12 weeks) and Dave McCullagh Gala (17 Weeks). There will also be some smaller Club meets in between which will help the athletes to stay sharp and fast over the course of their preparation.

Well done to the entire TEAM on this great start to the YEAR. Looking forward too to the Christmas CAMP where yet again Rudolph's Revenge will bring fun and challenge for ALL of you.

NEWS from COVENTRY - Shane Faul working hard

TRAINING HARD & RACING TIRED
After a number of weeks settling in to Coventry University, Shane Faul has put some strong mileage over the last month and has been hitting mainly 50K+ every week and racing regularly too.
Two weekends ago Shane maintained a full training week including Saturday am and a full weights sesson before travelling to the Speedo leagues where he raced a few events tired in some solid times. (1:12 100BS & 1:05 100IM). Having continued to deliver strong mileages performances this weekend Shane competed in the Midland Championships this weekend in Leicester. Results are available on http://swimmingresults.org/liveevent/midland/index.htm and Shane swam PB's in his 400FC and a solid 200IM. You should check out the rsults on the link above and see where you would have placed had you been there.

The IMPORTANCE of 100% ATTENDENDENCE & BEING TIRED
It's important for ALL of you to understand that at this time of year you need to expect to attend EVERY session whilst being able to RACE tired and RACE strong and to the best of your ability EVERY opportunity you get. For the older athletes training fulltime being tired at this stage of the season is a good sign of the fact that you should be adapting to training. Racing in training and with each other makes training FUN and keeps you all focused on TEAM performances and improving what we do EVERY week. Keep it up !!!

The IMPORTANCE of SLEEP & REST
You DO need to understand that muscle tiredness and lack of sleep are NOT the same thing. It's important to be getting a FULL 8 HOURS sleep every night but in general you're daily training peformances will suffer if you do not get enough sleep and enough rest. Take EVERY opportunity to get to bed early and to rest during the day if possible.

Like Shane, you all need to stay focused on your Goals and to believe in yourself and be sure that each and every day in training you are DOING something to achieve those goals and not just talking about it or going throught the motions.

GOALS

• ATTITUDE GOALS - What I am going to think about to stay focused - e.g. Positive
• BEHAVIOUR GOALS - What am I going to DO about achieving my goals - e.g. 8 Hrs sleep
• SKILL GOALS - What do I need to learn to improve my skills - e.g. BF kick UW
• TACTICAL GOALS - How I swim my race to achieve target - e.g out on a 28.5 to feet
• MENTAL GOALS - What will I do daily to stay focused - e.g. Nothing is impossible

100% make sure you have definite GOALS for the next Competition and some additional goals for the next few months

GOALS - should be

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Achievable
• R - Realistic
• T - Timeframed

Write the GOALS down and put them up on your Bedroom wall. See them EVERY day and then DO something Daily to take a step toward the GOAL.

• Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
• Louisa May Alcott

TALENTED, TOUGH & TOP CLASS - That's Us - TEAM TSC

What a weekend of Swimming the TEAM had this weekend

The Leinster Distance & Graded Meet.

We came, We swam, We were ALL FANTASTIC at The first main Leinster swim meet of the season. In the NAC the TEAM of 45 swimmers from the club, one of the largest club representations performed really well with PB's a plenty.

At the youngest end of the club we saw our talented youngest swimmers Sadhbh Bryson, Jessica Burke and Caoilfhinn Tan compete fantastically in one of their first events. It was great to see them deliver their dives, tumble turns and some great results across the full range of events.

We too saw our older athletes also deliver great early season swims which were as fast as they had swum last season and shows us that the season is already progressing very well. We also saw an impressive set of races by Ian Thom, Amy McSherry in setting strong early season swims which were at seasons bets level from last year and to Cian Murphy who saw some great PB's as a just reward for all his hard work in the first 8 weeks of the season.

Some of the toughest performances of the day saw athletes swim a multitude of events in PB and equal PB times. Well done to Niamh Bryson, Emma Crossan, Dayna Clegg, Grace Branagan, Alison O'Driscoll and Anne Marie Finn who swam 6 events each over the course of the day. Impressive efforts from them all and also some strong efforts and well paced swims from each and every one of them.

Next Steps - Learning to SAVE energy to STAY fast.

This TEAM needs to learn how to take care of each other during a long day of competition. It's important that athletes understand the value in Warming up and swimming down throughout the day and also the need to stay 100% hydrated and stay rested and fed as much as possible across the day. This was a very long day of competition and conserving energy is a key skill for ALL athletes to learn.

The UK Masters Championships

Andy Farrell swam last weekend in the UK at the UK Masters Chapionships and yet again delivered both PB's and Medals in his swims. A silver medal in the 200FC and a NEW PB in the 400FC (2 Second PB) and 800FC (5 Second PB) with a 6th place finish in the 800FC saw Andrew's training pay off in the best way. Unfortunately having been ill for the previous week, Andrew's performances over the weekend fell short of his expectations as the illness took a little sharpness from his efforts. Best of luck Andy in getting back to full fitness and take heart from the new PB swims as reference to how well training is going.

The COACHES return - WOW - What a WEEKEND !!!

Not to be outdone by their athletes Helen Kelly, Brian Lee and Peter Sherry got back on the blocks this weekend and swam their first Masters competition at the Aer Lingus Masters meet this weekend. Helen, Brian & Peter won ALL their events. Helen won the 50, 100 & 200 Freestyle and the 100Breast, Brian won the 50 & 100BF and 100IM and Peter swam equal to his Nationals performance in the 100BF in another gold medal swim. WEll done to the Coaching team and here's hoping their contnued training brings more success.

All in All it was a fantastic weekend of racing for the CLUB and the TEAM. WEll done one and all.

Farrell swims into the record books again!!!

Well done to Andrew Farrell who yet again this season swam in to the record books with a NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORD in the Mens 200FC at a meet in the UK on Saturday. After swimming inside the record at the Nationals in July the record needed to be delivered at a Masters competition. The previous mark of 2:01.43 had stood for 12 years and after a fantastic swim on Saturday Andrew WON his age-group and the event overall by a full 11 seconds in a new Irish Masters record of 2:01:15.

Andrew - from all of us a massive "well done" yet again.

PADRAIC GRAY - SEA Swimmer of the YEAR 2007

A massive TEAMTSC congratulations to both Padraic Gray (3rd from left) and our team of sea swimmers (above) who after a fantastic summer in the sea finished the season in style with some fantastic results in the Liffey Swim - with only a small team we went to the awards dinner and collected:

1. Padraic Gray - Sea Swimmer of the Year 2007
2. Gabby Byrne - Fastest Masters Swimmer in the Liffey 2007
3. Daire O'Driscoll - Fastest U-20 Swimmer in the Liffey 2007

The TEAM above of Ian Kelly, David Hobson, Padraic Gray, Michael Gray, Pat O'Driscoll, Daire O'Driscoll, Stephen Higgins and Gabby Byrne deserve a massive congrats from the club on flying the TEAMTSC flag for the men so well this season. Our girls were represented by Aoibheana Hobson and Niamh Bergin in the sea this summer also and a big congrats to them for their collective efforts also.

The Season Starts - Olympic Dreams part II, III & IV

Apologies for the lack of Blog activity in the first two weeks of Training. It has been noted from our blog readers in the USA that I have not been keeping up to date so my sincere apologies for that. Anyway - WELCOME back to the entire TEAMTSC membership who have joined us again this year for the next stage of the adventure that is our pursuit of the ultimate dream - the OLYMPICS - this season will end in an Olympiad in Beijing in the summer of 2008, but already I am looking to the possibility that London 2012, or perhaps wherever 2016 is, will see someone in this TEAM realise their ultimate goal.

The DREAM can take 10,000 Hours or 10 years to become a reality. EVERY sportsperson at the highest level in their chosen sport has practised that hard - Swimmers swim, that's what they do so your journey starts today and every day after that !! The "Pursuit of EXCELLENCE" is our goal in this season. Everyone knows that we work hard, I know that we have some very talented athletes in the water but in the overall search for our best effort we need people to push beyond that point and really LIVE the DREAM everyday. If you want to be your very, very best then EVERY day has to be pursued with a focus that you will do whatever you need to do to realise your best. "Practice makes Perfect" is what they say but that's not quite correct. "PERFECT Practice makes PERFECT" is what it really means. You have to practice PERFECTION and EXCELLENCE constantly so that it becomes what you do automatically. In training what does that mean?

1. Turn up on TIME - that's 10 mins before to get ready!!!
2. Bring your OLYMPIC ATTITUDE with you to training - DAILY !!!
3. LEARN to PERFECT your skills in EVERY stroke, EVERY length, EVERY 10m pushoff
4. Have FUN, ALL the time !!
5. Set standards for yourself, WIN every day against yourself, the clock, delivering TOUGH sets to the BEST of your ability: WANT TO!! = CAN DO!! = WILL DO!!

Welcome back to the NEW TEAM TSC - A BETTER, STRONGER, FASTER, MORE SKILLFUL, HAPPIER, MORE FLEXIBLE, TOUGHER & FITTER TEAM.
Lets ENJOY the journey one and ALL so Remember:

100% right is 100% right

99% right is 100% wrong

FARRELL smashing records at EUROPEAN MASTERS

Andy Farrell continues to lead the way for the TEAM with a RECORD BREAKING set of Swims at the European Masters Championships in Slovenia this week. Having trained solidly throughout August Andy has been in good form in training and with a few days rest, Andy travelled to Slovenia on Sunday last to get ready to compete in his first European event.

On Tuesday Andy had his first swim in the 800FC and swam an incredible 14Second PB and a NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORD by some 19 seconds. The time was 9:27.07 and was 5th in the overall event. Andy has broken this record a couple of times this year but this 19 second improvement on the record sets a strong standard for the event. Wednesday was the second day of competition and Andy swam a 2:06.17 which was fractionally outside his best time and his own current Irish Masters record of 2:05.99. Andy finished in 6th place in this event so for the second day in a row delivered a result well inside the top10 in Europe which was his goal. Day three of the meet was a day off for Andy so after the rest day Andy returned for the fourth day of competition looking to focus on his 400FC swim. Earlier in the session Andy stroked through his 100FC with a solid 58.9 swim and allowing him a 27th place result. Later in the session and swimming two in a lane Andy swam another NEW IRISH MASTERS record by 1.4 seconds with a time of 4:32.63, which was 0.38 outside his PB but good enough for 6th place and allowed Andrew notch up his third swim in the TOP 6 in Europe.

After the Meet and a fantastic season Andrew commented, "I'm delighted to have attended this European level competition, to be swimming for Ireland and to be the first Masters representative for TEAM TSC. I've had a great season and these top 6 finishes have been very satisfying". He also said he'd see us all in training on Wednesday next to plan his attempts at next year's records. I think the entire TEAM and Templeogue Swim Club are delighted with his results and know how well deserved they are with all his hard work in the pool this year.

Looking forward to next season.

COMMUNITY GAMES

The season never really stops for some of the TEAM.

A BIG congrats to Dayna Clegg, Alison O'Driscoll and Jonah Clegg who represented their local community games teams and the club at the National Community Games Finals in the last week. Dayna and Alison won their events in the Girls Under 12's events as Dayna collected gold in the Backcrawl and Alison collected Gold in the Freestyle. Not to be outdone Jonah Clegg finished 5th in the Boys Under 12 Backcrawl and, with a few years left to go in that age group, that's a great result for Jonah.

Well done to you all.

THE Olde Men!!! (LOL) of the SEA and a few RIVERS too!!

The Club just keep getting better and while some of you have taken the month off in August our "Masters" athletes continue to lead the way with some impressive results in the SEA.

While the rain came tumbling down all Summer Padraig Gray (1st - 16 swims/17 events) Gabby Byrne (9th - 13/17) Pat O'Driscoll, (36th - 9/17), David Hobson (61st - 10/17) Ian Kelly (185th - 4/17) and the Younger TEAMTSC members Daire O'Driscoll (131st - 5/17) Stephen Higgins (139th - 5/17), Michael Gray (170th - 4/17) have been particpating in the Mens section of the Open Sea Swims. There are a total of 370 men involved this season . Our girls too have been represented by Aoibheanna Hobson (109th - 4/15) and Niamh Bergin (141st - 2/15) with some 195 ladies taking part.

As of the 17 races held since the season started in June, Padraig Gray is leading the TOTAL Mens swimmer of the year at this moment with Gabby Byrne in 9th place overall. There are 370 Men who have taken part to date in the event series so it's a fantastic result to see the lads swimming so well. As a TEAM we are running 8th overall.

One of the most recent events saw the lads tackle a 5K in the sea and A MASSIVE Congrats to Daire, Gabby & Pat who swam same.

Keep up the good results and the best of luck for the Liffey Swim in the next week.

Great Swimmers - And Brains TOO !!!

BRAINIAC's in the POOl !!!

This is a short note of CONGRATULATIONS to the TEAMTSC members who had some fantastic Leaving Cert Results in the past 10 days. They all did themselves proud and have succesfully delivered results which have allowed ALL of them secure College places and their desired courses in the colleges of their choice.

Note to PARENTS:
At ALL levels in the club's history there are strong examples of our members achieveing not only high performance pool results but excellent academic results too. Year on Year we get great LC and JC results from the team.
The discipline, organisation and healthy lifestyles required to participate in an intensive training programme like ours allows the athletes acquire the skills and concentration to cope with their exams and the pressures of public exams. Largely speaking it is possible to continue to train through JC and LC school year and balance training, study and other activities and manage to perform across all areas. Please encourage your children to retain their involvement in the sport during these exam years as the benefits far outweigh the supposed additional studying (which invariably involves more time watching TV and updating BEBO!!).

Andrew Bree Qualifies for Beijing & other REALLY REALLY great Swimming Videos

Some of you might know that Andrew Bree has qualified for the Olympics in Beijing after a new Irish Senior Record in the Heats (2:13.44) and Finals (2:13.15) of the 200BS in the AMerican Nationals.

This is the link to video footage from the American Nationals where Andrew Bree qualified for the Olympic Games.
http://usaswimming.sportnet.com/index.php?stream=07_31

Fast forward to 01:03.30 to get to his final and see his swim. Also have a look at this link and the others on the page for other really good video footgae of American swimming.

Technically pay attention to the number of strokes per 50 they take, the quality of the underwater work off ALL the turns and also the pacing of their races.

I'd also ask you all to look at how FIT, ATHLETIC, STRONG and FLEXIBLE each and EVERY competitor here is. The Men and the Women are ALL fit, LEAN, FAST, FLEXIBLE and strong and they look it. YOU ALL need to do your dryland exercises, press ups and situps, flexibility and the other dryland circuit exercises that we have done all year and KEEP doing it EVERY day. Those of you with Therabands should also be using it daily to keep your shoulders strong.

See you all in a few weeks.

OH By the Way, Andy F, Ian and Stephen H have continued to train over August as Andy F is getting ready for the European Masters in Slovenia in 3 weeks. Well done lads for staying in shape and keep up the training.

All the Best with the Leaving Cert results next week too!!!!!

NATIONALS 2007 - The Real Results

I was well impressed this year with our Nationals TEAM performances. Across the board we swam PB after PB with over 59 PB's from 101 swims (That's all the heat swims and all the final and relay swims). There were a small number of medals this year but a couple of impressive results in Shane Faul's 200IM 3 second PB effort from Lane 8 and a fantastic 4 x 200FTR from the Men (Andy 2:01.1, Ian 1:58, Stephen 2:04, Shane 1:57) to get a great TEAM medal. There were also over 20 Top 8 finishes.

Ian Thom had a great meet with all 6 events he swam in getting to the 'A' final and demolishing his freestyle PB's in every distance he swam. Andy Farrell also demolished his freestyle PB's with some great swims. After cool Heat swims Shane Faul made finals and time and time again delivered some spectacular swims in the final swim with big PB's across his swims. Amy McSherry swam well and back to her best after her recent injury and continued as always to impress us in her swims. Laura Martin swam PB's in EVERYTHING also as she really finished the year in style with her most impressive set of swims this season. Ailish McLaughlin tabled a solid set of sprint swims to see her finish a strong year with good efforts. Niamh Murphy had a typically imressive set of performances but carrying a slight injury in to the middle of the meet she swam PB's and made some good finals with her most impressive swim being her win in the 'B' final of the 200IM. The Sterling performances from the Girls was Niamh Bergin's demolition of her PB's culminating in a 'B' final swim of 2:13.99 in the 200Free. Niamh swam a PB on the split of her 400 Heats (4:50, 2:20), followed that with another PB in the 400 Final (4:46, 2:18) and then swam a 2:15 in the heats of the 200 to finish with a 2:13.99 swim in the 'B' Final before she heads off to Greece for the European Youth Waterpolo Championships.

The Boys also swam well with Stephen Higgins posting PB's in everything, Dylan Farrell and Finbar McTiernan also knocking seconds of their more recent swims from LC Age Groups. Dylan's impressive 57. off the relay set a new standard in the 100Free for our boys and was matched by a 57 from Finbar and Stephen blasting through the sub 60 barrier and barely stopping at 59.1 (Also swimming 59.8 to his feet on the 200FC Relay). Finbar swam well in his favoured Backcrawl events making 'A' finals in his 100 and a 'B' final in the 200. We aere also graced witht he presence of Andrew Clarke and Sean Carey who made a Welcome return to the water and Cian Murphy who gave his 100Free one last go for the season.

Not to be outdone, Peter Sherry swam on Thursday and made the Semi's of the 100BF and showed the younger lads how to do it. A big thank you too to Helen Kelly and Eoghan Dillon who made the journey to Lisburn to show their support.

All in all it was a great finish to the season.

As always I'm extremely proud of this team and of the team that swam Age Groups. This volume of PB's at the end of the season makes all of your work worthwhile.

Next season WE GET BETTER, we WILL be FASTER and TOUGHER in both training and competition and will help to continue to build this TEAM up to being the strongest club team we can be.

Well done one and all on a 100% fantastic year.

Thank you all for your positivity, determination and smiles !!!

TOP 10 result in British Age Groups

TOP 10
10 Dayna CLEGG Ireland
100's (652), Form (619), Medley (599), Free (600), Total (2470)

What a great experience it must have been for Dayna to swim in the British Age Groups. While the rest of us were doing our best at the Nationals, Dayna was putting together a great set of swims in Ponds Forge Pool in Sheffield. On Day one Dayna made the 100BC final and swam close to her PB's in all of her other swims. This is a tough meet and only 70 athletes in the UK qualify for this meet as 11yr olds, but only 18 qualified to swim in all 4 event categories so Dayna has done very well to be the only girl from Ireland to compete in this age category. This meet scores athletes across their 4 best swims in the 100's, Form strokes, Medley events and a free style event. The average for each event is 600+ points with a 700 point swim being an outstanding result. The #1 swimmer got 2,700 points and only 18 swimmers qualified to score in all 4 events. Well done Dayna.

I think this level of competition is one of the toughest meets in the world for Age-Groups and with the 2012 Olympics being held in London then the British swimmers are really focused on getting geared up for this meet.

Well done Dayna, We're all well proud of you.

100% FANTASTIC

Well what a fantastic weekend at the Division 1's. Without question I think this was the most successful weekend of swimming at this level we have ever had in the history of the team. There were 133 individual swims between HEATS and FINALS and we had 123 PB swims, thats 92% PB's and ALL LC as well.

The most impressive swims were the ones that demonstrated to me that this TEAM is growing in confidence to control pace and swim the race strategy with control and balance in both effort and skills. Anne Marie's 200FC, Dayna's 200BC, ALL the 800's and Daire & Stephens 1500's were well paced efforts.

The Theme I had asked the TEAM to focus on for the weekend was to be

100% FANTASTIC

and thats what it was. A massive thanks to Helen, Sandra for their coaching efforts and to Bernadette, Kevin, Siobhain & Shirley not to mention Sarah, Eilish & Liz, Kay and all the other parents for their help support over the weekend.

This was a great TEAM effort. You all outdid yourself on supporting your TEAM mates. 15 Swimmers swam EVERY event with EVERY member of the TEAM. The strength we showed was confident and strong and proud to be TEAM TSC members with a real purpose in how we were going to race our races.

I was delighted to be there and to watch you ALL be 100% fantastic. Now lets focus on the Nationals and wish Dayna good luck in her endeavours in the British Age Group championships.

WELL DONE TEAM

APOLOGIES for the lack of Blog!!!

Sorry troops for the lack of Blog activity over the last two weeks. There's been so much good stuff happening in training that I can't get it all down on the blog.

Looking forward to the Bar-B-Q on Sunday and will see you all then.

Division 2's - Totally Fantastic TEAM TSC

WELL done to this TEAM TSC team who had a fantastic performance at Division 2's in Limerick last weekend. The TEAM produced a number of 100% PB performances from Liam & Cian and a number of the others proving that ALL the hard work done by the TEAM over the year has paid off. For a number of swimmers this was their first time to experience a meet at this level and they did extremely well to smash PB's in most events.

The Swim of the Meet had to be Gemma's Silver medal performance witha 10-second PB in her 100Fly. Gemma was pushed tight too by some fantastic PB's from Niamh B across her events and a super 100BS final which she paced really well and demonstrated that ALL the skill work on her TURNS was paying off. She managed to gain a few feet on EVERY turn with well timed breakouts and excellent streamlining to see her touch out her nearest rival in the final. Well done on the skills.

Impressive swims too from Eva M, Eva B, Saoirse, Martha, Cathal, Michelle, Keith, Eoin, Michael, Aoife & Ciara saw all of them come home happy with their endeavours for the year and looking forward to next season.

Another great performance from the TEAM.

Confidence in TEAM is HIGH after strong NAC MEET !!!

HELEN's face says HOW CRAZY!! it was in the NAC today. We had another fantastic demonstration of how well this TEAM is performing with some fantastic swims across the TEAM. AS we prepare for Div 2's (in 6 days), for Div 1's (in 26 days) and Nationals (in 39 Days) the swims delivered this weekend showed how well preparations were going.

There were too many great swims to mention here but with Jonah & Saoirse leading the way in the younger ages, we also had excellent PB performances by Niamh M and others in the older ages to show how strong they are improving this year so far. Niamh's impressive 100FC PB (1:02.90) LC at the end of a tough week's training and a tough days competition was just reward for her commitment for the continued development of her TECHNIQUE in training EVERY DAY.

Great skills are the KEY to consistent performance and allow you the confidence to RACE FAST and control PACE and to also let you know that even when you're tired your learned TECHNIQUE remains efficient and speed in your swims does not decrease. Poor technique makes you tired, slows you down and will always be second best when the going gets tough!!!

A Great day for the TEAM AGAIN !! oh yeh by the way LYDIA's back

Congrats again TEAM!! TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE it's the ONLY way to ENSURE success - WORK on it DAILY, Every SET, Every LENGTH, Every STROKE. !!!!

Quote for the DAY

"When I go out and race, I'm not trying to beat opponents, I'm trying to beat what I have done ... to beat myself, basically. People find that hard to believe because we've had such a bias to always strive to win things. If you win something and you haven't put everything into it, you haven't actually achieved anything at all. When you've had to work hard for something and you've got the best you can out of yourself on that given day, that's where you get satisfaction from." Ian Thorpe

MASTERS of the Universe !!!! well the UK &IRL anyway !!!

TEAM TSC Members Andy Farrell (right) and Ian Thom Set New Irish Standards at British Masters Championships this weekend in Manchester

UPDATE for one and all

On Friday Andy set a NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORD in the 1500FC with a Time of 18:12 and Won GOLD in the event. Ian Thom had a strong start with a SILVER in the 200IM. Today, Saturday, While the rest of us were fantastic in the NAC, ANDY and IAN continued on their merry Medal collecting haul in the UK
ANDY set the second of his NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORDS in the 200FC with a SILVER medal Performance in a new PB of 2:05.9 (inside the old record of 2:12.11) and he also broke the 800FC IRISH MASTERS RECORD with a 9:41.13 on the split of his 1500. He did swim the individual 800 but was again in the SILVER position with a 9:46.2.
IAN had THREE GOLD medal performances today also in the 800FC and 200FC and 100BC with TWO NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORDS in the 800FC and 100BC.

The lads have represented the club with distinction at this top class meet in the UK. Well done to them both and lets hope that Sunday brings even More Medals, records and results for the TEAM

CONGRATS from TEAM TSC!!!!

TIMETRIALS, MISSING WARMUPS & EXAMS

Bank Holiday Sunday!!
Some fantastic swims and a big well done to Ciara, Hannah, Martha & Saoirse on qualifying for Div 2's and a massive congrats to Jonah, Saoirse B, Luke, Niamh, Oisin & Cilian, and everyone else who took part. I know I don;t have all the naes here but well done anyways. I was well impresed by the TEAM spirit and the way all the Mums & Dads did us proud with the timekeeping.

It's great to see such a strong number of qualifiers for both Division 1 and Division 2 this season. The largest TEAM we have EVER had at these meets. Well done Coaches Helen, Brian & Peter on a job well done.

Bank Holiday Monday with Portmarnock SC !
Big Thanks to Peter O'B for facilitating our swimers in the NAC for a strong 30 x 100's set on Monday. They did 1FC, 1BC & 1BF all the way through and by all accounts Dayna, Daire, Brian & Michael G did a pretty savage set on this one. Michael - Here comes your new EVENT 200BF. Love it !!!! Thanks again Peter & Well done TEAM.

Oh By the Way I heard there were loads of Training PB's on Monday PM in Templeogue for the quality Set Helen handed the troops. Getting FASTER and STRONGER EVERY week TEAM lets keep on moving it !!

Tuesday AM
Warm Up Queen Where were YOU !!!! WE missed her for the warmup but did a killer session on Abs anyway. Nice Session on Tuesday troops !!! A solid set by one and all on the 30 x 100's and a strong 6K in total. AS Always the development of the TEAM gets better week to week. The focus on UNDERWATER pushoffs and kicking is beginning to sink in to the watery brains but generally it's getting there. YOU need to set urself the challenge of getting to 7M on EVERY push off, then 8M, then 9M and eventually you will be PHELPIAN or PHELPESQUE with quality 12M pushoffs EVERY turn. (Actually I hear Michael Phelps has relations living in Knocklyon so next time he's here for TEA I'll ask him to drop doen to the pool)

Well done TEAM, Getting Better

Thought for the DAY -
LIVE IT !! LOVE IT !! - MAKE IT HAPPEN !! - NO FEAR, NO EXCUSES !!

Make Each Day Your Masterpiece
by John Wooden
"Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control.
You can't do anything about yesterday.
The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away.
You can do nothing about tomorrow. It has yet to come.
However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today.
So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that.
By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better."

ps. GOOD LUCK In EXAMS - Make those Watery Brains WORK today!!!

THE WARM UP QUEEN DID it AGAIN!!!

Tuesday 29th was the day!!!

5.15am was the time!!!!

She arrived prepared, and even had diagrams and drawings for me. After a quick losening up from me, The Warmup Queen showed us what to do. I call her AMF, or The Warmup Queen. Her Team mates call her ANNE MARIE. We all watched and learnt as AMF dazzled us with some great exercises, "The straddle, The Pike, The Mushroom" and then the most awesome exercise ever!!! Single Legged Squats - RIGHT down to the floor and back up again.

Anne Marie, Thanks for a great dryland session on Tuesday morning and I'm pleased to announce that next week you can show us again and we all looking forward to it. Well done Girl.

In all seriousness, this level of flexibility, core strength and basic body weight strength and control is somethign that EVERY world class swimmer is good at. EVERY day training should involve dryland work, Theraband exercises, stability exercises, mobility and loosening and basic body weight and core strength exercises. If you are serious about staying injury free, developing your technique more easily, getting more powerful and stronger then YOU need to do this exercise routine every day. Most importantly IT MAKES YOU FASTER !!!!!

Wednesday 30th

WE had a great session on Wednesday too with Niamh Murphy setting a time on a broken 200 swim that was 12 seconds inside her PB and would have won Gold at last years Nationals - Awesome swim by her and by all who attended on Wednesday. This was truly one of the best sessions we have had for race quality swimming in the whole year. EVERYONE who swam was under PB pace for the set and you can take a big confidence boost from that guys n gals!!!

Keep thinking RACE TECHNIQUE and RACE SPEED in TRAINING - MAKE IT HAPPEN EVERY DAY IN TRAINING !!!!

Thursday 31st

Special Note to the team members who worked had on a long aerobic piece today and delivered solid 200's throughout the set. Special mention to Lisa Meehan on a fantastic session and one of the best I have ever seen her do. Also to Laura Martin and Dylan Farrell for their consistency in the set and making all the descenidng times. Also to Andy Farrell who lead Ian for the majority of the set. Strong session after such a great day on Wednesday. Well done one and All !!!

QUOTE:

GOOD, BETTER, BEST

NEVER LET IT REST

TILL YOUR BEST IS BETTER

AND YOUR BETTER IS BEST !!!

It's that TIME of year AGAIN !!!

Just a quick note for Today !!

Best of luck in EXAMS for ALL TEAM MEMBERS doing Junior Cert & Leaving Cert in the next few weeks. Also to those of you doing College exams the best of luck to you too.

For those of you who have finished school this week it's VITAL that in the run up to Nationals and Age Group competitions that you continue to do the following

1. Maintain a regular sleeping pattern daily.
2. Continue to be Early to Bed if doing Early Mornings
3. Quick "NAP" after training is fine but DO NOT go to bed for the day
4. Set your alarm clock for c. 40 mins as a catnap but no longer
5. Daily Dryland Circuit - No Excuses as you have more time now !!
6. Daily Flexibility programme - No Excuses as you have more time now!!

• Additional Sessions will commence next week for those doing Div 1's & Nationals. ONLY swimmers who swim in the AM will be accomodated in the extra PM session. These sessions are EXTRA and not substitute.

Best of luck to one and all in the exams. I know you all and you're all going to be fantastic and do great in your exams. Enjoy !!!!

LEINSTER Training Session - FANTASTIC !!!

WOW!!! is all I can say - Ian, Daire, Amy, Grace, Dayna, Alison & Anne Marie turned up tonight to Train with the Leinster Squad session in the NAC and what a fantastic set of results we got on the main set. Anne Marie showed me a thing or two on the Dryland session that she did. She's going to show the whole TEAM how a good stretching and dryland warmup could benefit us ALL. Watch out TUESDAY AM as Anne Marie - The WarmUP Queen !!! is going to show you a thing or two. Listen and learn from her - Lets all get stronger by doing the dryland work EVERY day !!!


In the Pool it got better and better this week. Earl McCarthy (Trojan SC) led the session and Peter O'Brien (Portmarnock SC) and I kept everyone in check. The session was a tough one but we swam Training PB's again - Ian went 2:03 for a 200FC Pull and a 2:01 for a 200FC Swim on the main set and Dayna finished up with a 2:27 200FC Swim and a 1:07.1 100FC effort. Alison really impressed at her 1st ever Leinster Session with a strong 1:15 100FC at the end of her second 2Hr training session today. Grace too delivered some good quality on the 200's and continues to impress as she copes too with the 2nd 2Hr session in the day. Well done Grace as some considerable improvements over the last few weeks. Amy Mc stayed strong throughout the session and delivered some strong Kick results ont he main kick set too. Daire's commitment to his technique development is going to be the reason he continues to improve, isn't that right Daire !!!


What happened the rest of our TEAM !!! - This is an important session in the week and when we have the Chance to train with other people and learn how to keep competitive and FAST when you're tired it's a MUST for everyone on the TEAM to experience that. Next week Let's see you ALL in the NAC !!.


Quote for the Day !!
Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Muhammad Ali

TEAM TSC Training like Olympians !!

440 DAYS to GO to Beijing - What about Training this week - What a great week it was!! There's been a lot of really good stuff in training this week. I actually think the Olympic ATTITUDE we want in training showed it's face on Wednesday.

Ian Thom swam two season's best times and equalled his PB's in Training with a 55.3 100FC and a 1:01.32 100BC. Niamh Bergin swam a PB in training with a 1:04.3 and a 1:04.1 100FC and her PB before now was a 1:05. Niamh Murphy & John Martin swam 1:04's and Dylan Farrell went 1:00.7 and 1:00.6 for his 100's Free. Shane Faul too swam Training PB's on the timed 100's as did Aoife Newe.

The other swimmers there swam equal to PB or very close to Training PB in the session. This is what it takes and to think that the majority of our senior Athletes are capable of getting to that level in Training fills me with confidence that we really are stepping it up. We also had a shock appearance of Collie Kelly on the poolside to say hello on Wednesday AM.

I'm just back from the NAC where the 1A's swam another quality session. One disappointment was that only 5 swimmers were there and I know we have more people who could be there. COME on TEAM get that Olympic ATTITUDE of your TEAM MATES and lets get the best out of Training EVERY SESSION.

This is a FANTASTIC TEAM - Each and Every one of YOU has the capability for PB swims and ongoing improvement in TRAINING. Think TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE as it's the KEY to success. Our Sport is ALL about Technique. You've gotta concentrate in training EVERY day about technique. TRAIN smart, TRAIN technique, RACE fast and RACE TECHNIQUE every day.

Well done to ALL of the TEAM TSC swimmers who are training like OLYMPIANS - Quality TEAM guys. Well done!!! Maybe some of you will be heading to LONDON in 2012 if training keeps getting better like this.

NAC Minnows

Hi to the TEAM members who are competing in the NAC Minnows Gala tomorrow. I'm here in the NAC this weekend with the IRISH 2012 TEAM and I've spent the weekend listening to Steve Parry, British Bronze Medallist at the Olympic Games in 2004. What a fantastic guy and a phenomenally positive speaker. We've done a lot of work on the "5th" stroke Butterfly Kick under water and I've learned loads from the weekend so watch out one and all, as we bring home the info and help you all to learn to kic better fly and be FASTER !!!

Best of luck to ALL the TEAM TSC Members on the hunt for best times and better racing experiences in this GALA. Good Luck to you all and I know you will do yourselves and the TEAM proud.

Remember to Stand TALL and RACE with every ounce of power and commitment you have. BE Strong and positive and give it your best. Most of ALL ENJOY being part of this wonderful TEAM

LAG Div 1

Well done TEAM on a fantastic Weekend. You all raced well and did yourselves and the TEAM proud. Special note of congrats to SHANE FAUL who broke Colm Kelly's 200BS Club Junior Record. The new Junior record is 2:30.57. WELL done TEAM!!! Time to get back in the Water COLLIE !!!!