Meet Day & The Big Picture

Hi All,

Well, it is finally meet day! The entire staff is really looking forward to our first team-wide meet in quite some time. Coach Nick and I have already sent out the basic meet information and administrivia. This message is more about where we are in the season and what we are trying to accomplish.



We believe it’s important that our families understand the why behind what we do. Fair warning: that means I’m going to share some bigger-picture concepts… so yes, it may get a little wordy. Ready? Let’s go.

The Big Picture

At FAA, we break the short course season into two main cycles: August to November/December and December to March/April. We do this for several reasons, but the main one is long-term athlete development while still living in the real world of competitive swimming.

The optimal length of a training cycle is roughly 11–22 weeks. Breaking a 32-week season into two 16-week cycles is simply better physiologically and psychologically for the athletes. The full science behind that is a post for another day, but trust me — it works better.

The good news is that this also lines up well with:

• High School States and Winter Juniors/SC Nationals for our seniors
• A late November/early December championship meet for our age-group swimmers

Having the whole team working toward similar season-ending dates makes the entire program flow better.

There’s another big benefit.

If we can have swimmers qualify for their spring championship meets in November/December, we avoid having to chase cuts in February or early March. Sometimes that’s unavoidable — but when we can avoid it, we should.

In my experience, when a swimmer tapers early just to make a cut, they often have less left in the tank for the actual championship meet. That’s not fun for anyone. So we prefer to make cuts early — and often when possible 🙂

But Wait, There’s More…

I like to think of FAA as being modeled more like a college prep program for swimming.

Not because of where our kids go to school — but because of how we structure training, seasons, expectations, and long-term development.

As a former DI and DII college coach, I know exactly how college seasons are structured and what college coaches are looking for. And since we’re part of a college program, we get to see those realities every day on deck.

College programs also run split seasons, usually with a winter target meet and a spring championship season. The same is true for post-grad programs. By getting our swimmers used to this flow early, they’re much better prepared for the realities of college swimming.

OK Rich, What Does This Have To Do With This Weekend?

A lot.

We’ve just spent the last five weeks building the endurance base of our athletes. That included a two-week pull-in phase followed by more sustained aerobic work. This gives them the platform they need before we start stressing higher aerobic and anaerobic systems.

Without this base, they wouldn’t be ready for what’s coming next.

Practically speaking, that means:

• We may not see peak sprint sharpness this weekend
• But we should see better ability to sustain speed, better back halves, and better technique under fatigue
• 
  

We’ll be looking for even splits, smart races, and strong finishes. If they swim correctly, they shouldn’t get “gassed.”

The Long View

We take a long-term, strategic view of athlete development.

We’re not just training swimmers for this meet or this season — we’re giving them the skills, habits, and mindset they’ll need at the senior level and beyond. Seasons build on seasons. The kids hear me say that all the time… because it’s true.

Each phase of the season sets up the next one. When everyone understands that, it becomes a lot easier to enjoy each phase for what it is, instead of judging everything by one weekend.

One More Important Piece

We try to keep the entire team on a similar seasonal timeline so everyone has championship opportunities around the same period.

Here’s what the end of the short course season looks like:

• BB Champs – Feb 22
• FGC Age Group Champs – March 5
• FGC Senior Champs – March 13
• ISCA Senior Cup (15+) – March 24
• ISCA (14&U Nationals) – March 31
• 
  

If we take a program break after the last meet, we restart the second week of April for long course. But what about swimmers whose season ends in February or early March? That’s a long time sitting in a tunnel waiting.

So we fixed that.

We added a short course championship meet for the entire team:
➡️ The TYR Championship in Tampa in early April

Everyone gets a championship experience. Everyone stays on a similar rhythm.

We only got accepted a few days ago, so that’s why you’re just hearing about it now. More info is coming soon — and yes, this post is already long enough 😄

If you made it this far, congratulations.

The more you understand the why behind what we do, the more enjoyable this whole journey becomes.

Let’s go have a great weekend, swim with passion, and enjoy the process.

See you at the pool,

Rich