GMA Year In Review 2009 Video

Congratulations to our GMA swimmers for a fantastic 2009 and a terrific start to 2010! We are looking forward to a great New Year filled with valuable hard work and excellent team effort toward our goals. We love helping each of our GMA swimmers improve every day. We are certain that with continued improvements, we will have many GMA swimmers primed for the 2012 USA Swimming Olympic Trials! Keep up the good work GMA!

Please note that there are a few sensitive words in the music ("Why I Am" by Dave Matthews Band) on this video. Additionally, the video is primarily of the GMA Senior, Sectional and National Group swimmers.

Maria's GMA Wisdom

“Mom, tell me again, what is your profession”? This is a question I have heard frequently from my offspring as they fill out one form or another.

I thought about this as I stood on deck this weekend at the Winter Classic meet, surrounded by GMA swimmers checking in and out, warming up and down, racing, crying, eating, laughing, and cheering. I did a quick mental inventory of how I landed here on deck wearing the GMA coach’s shirt.

I was once an age group swimmer. GMA's founding father Jim Donoghue was my coach. I showed up at school with frozen pigtails after early morning practices. I lost hundreds of pairs of goggles. I was the confused child hanging on to the gutter trying to figure out how to breathe to both sides. I begged to use kickboards. I understand.

I also have been a GMA swim parent. I watched my child throw up blue Gatorade. I went the wrong way in the I-89/91 matrix more than once. I pondered the question of how my child’s breaststroke could look SO different every time she swam it. I cried when she finally broke 1:00 in the 100 Free. I understand.

I am a GMA masters swimmer. Laura is my coach. I have SLUDKA’D. I have chest pressed. I have “overkicked”. I have double descended hitting my goal 200 race pace. I understand what its like to train the GMA way.

My life experiences in the pool, driving to the pool, and sitting at the pool have all led me to my current position, on deck coaching your children. I am privileged and honored. I appreciate your willingness to lend them to me for a few hours every day to work with them and help them become better swimmers. I appreciate the commitment you have to getting them fed and watered and where they need to be. I appreciate your trust in believing in the GMA philosophy and letting GMA coaches do their jobs. At GMA, every skill progression, interval set, dry land exercise, and warm up protocol is based on science and experience. For every activity in or around the pool there is a reason.

As many of you remember, before computers and heat sheets, there was the dreaded “Bull Pen”, an extremely chaotic area full of cold, folding chairs in rows, hordes of excitable children, and two or three sacrificial parents trying to get and keep the swimmers in order. Like the rotary phone, the bull pen has become extinct thanks to modern technology. Now our kids have the capability to actually warm up their muscles, get their hearts pumping, and get their mojo flowing, before every race.

Your children are athletes. Athletes perform best when they are warmed up. During a typical GMA age group practice, athletes will swim their best times near the end of a 90-minute workout. Simply, warming up is a good thing; standing behind the block for 15 heats of the 200 freestyle is not.

I had a posse of worried age groupers circling my coaching wagon last weekend. They were staging a protest against pre-race warm up. By utilizing my extraordinary communication skills (yelling and wagging my finger), ultimately I convinced them to warm up. While some embraced the concept more than others, I am proud of all the age groupers for trying something new and preparing for a race the GMA way. Age Groupers were rewarded with several personal best times and championship cut times. (I love it when it works out that way...)

I am lucky to have my unique perspective of GMA swimming and coaching. Though I have not seen it all, I sure have seen and experienced a lot of it. It is from this place of experience that I can say, I believe in our GMA parents, athletes, and coaches. We are a mighty team. Lets keep on working together to achieve excellence.

Gotta go, time to drive to the pool......

Maria Cimonetti

Vision for Team GMA!

11/25/09
This morning during our first workout of the day, I had a vision of our GMA team-of-the-future. We had over twenty high school-aged athletes, training away with focus and intensity. As they finished their first fifty of over-kick swimming, I saw a pool filled with National-caliber athletes. It was so exciting. Each and every athlete in the pool was demonstrating the technique, commitment, effort and attitude necessary for excellence. Every swimmer was caught up in the thrill of training with enthusiasm. I was so thankful that I could share that vision with the athletes in the water and let them know that I believe in their dreams, their goals and their potential.



One of the main reasons that I decided to become a swim coach was to share my eternal hope in the power of goal setting and dream making. I was especially excited to support young people in achieving their goals and dreams in life. I think that is the value in seeing our team as a National-caliber team. It inspires ALL of our athletes to challenge themselves and to reach for their peak potential. It inspires all of our coaches to work with our athletes to help them realize their goals. Most importantly, it bonds us all together as a group of people determined to be the very best teammates and human beings that we can be. Is there any better way to direct one's life?



Thank you for being a part of my GMA vision. Thank you for inspiring our team to greatness!



Laura Matuszak

Training Magic, The GMA Way

So, I was chatting with Coach Brian on the phone the other day, (actually I was bragging to Brian) about a training session that seemed like magic from the previous night’s practice. I was telling him about how each and every one of our swimmers were working to their potential and how there was some racing going on in our set of 20 x 100. Everyone, I mean every person in the pool, kicked butt on the last max effort 5 x 100. One swimmer swam her fastest 100 in practice so far this year at the end of 19 other 100’s! Coach Brian encouraged me to make it known that I was pleased with the results from that practice. So, thinking about it, I looked back in my training journal where I had taken the time to highlight three other sessions that I thought were magic from this season. And I got to thinking about WHY those sessions were different from other sessions. Originally, I wondered if design of the set encouraged some of the magic, but after considering existing variables from each session I came to realize that teamwork is the common denominator and why those sessions were different. At each of the sessions our swimmers came together and sometimes silently, sometimes with a knowing look, and sometimes with a few words of encouragement, worked together to achieve something that most certainly would have been tough to do on their own. And, as a coach, I know things are going well when the swimmers are taking things under their own control and kicking butt as a team!

Coach Laurie Albert

Head Coach - GMA Upper Valley

Coach Eileen says, "Get tough GMA!"

The theme for the Senior, Sectional, National group this past week has been “toughness”. We are not talking about the kind of toughness where you hold your hand over an open flame or anything like that, but a toughness of spirit and a willingness to get the job done no matter what. We have been talking about toughness being defined as “consistently performing at the upper range of your talent and capabilities no matter the competitive circumstances”. This concept is being explored by experts outside of GMA as well as our resident expert Laura Matuszak! Since we have so many athletes whose stated goals are very ambitious, we wanted to have the athletes explore what they are willing to do to achieve them and to give them tools to access their inner reserves of strength when necessary. This process isn’t always easy. As all adults know, success doesn’t come without some suffering and even pain. Our decision to experience that pain and discomfort may well be the key to unlocking the best performances we are capable of.

When I was a young athlete, we called this “guts”. “No guts no glory” was a popular phrase of the time. When I think about this idea of toughness however, I do believe that guts are a pretty accurate term for what is going on. From the butterflies before the race, to the sometimes roiling insides an athlete gets after a tough race, to the hunger that always follows a good training session, the guts are where it happens! Training that place inside us is critical for excellence. I was a very successful swimmer as a kid. I pretty much raced on guts alone. I loved to compete and there was no amount of pain too great that it could keep me from my cravings for a best time, a win, a fast swim. I didn’t however, love to practice! My father, who was usually a peripheral figure in my swimming, looked at me one day as I was waffling about practice. “Eileen,” he said. “You have guts. Someday though, you are going to have to race someone who has guts AND is good. She is going to beat you.” Here at GMA, we pride ourselves on our practice ethic. Most of are kids are GOOD. Now it’s time for the guts….lets get tough!!

Coach Eileen Hall

Another Wonderful GMA Season Is Underway

Another wonderful GMA season is underway.

We just finished our distance meet this last weekend. I was impressed by how many athletes pushed themselves in the longer events. There were many regional swimmers who completed a 500, there was one who even did a 1,000! The age groupers' hard work during their practices also showed because their 100 split times were very even throughout their distance races.

Regional 1 and 2 had twenty swimmers last night in training and our group is the largest it has been in a while. We recently had new swimmers join our team and this is one of my favorite times of the year. The swimmers who are new to the team are used to our routines and are now able to focus on learning the specifics of each drill set. The swimmers who are returning get to revisit the drills and their techniques, serving as great group leaders.

Last night we got to focus on BREASTSTROKE! Since the IMX meet is coming up soon, we’ve been focused on improving all parts our Individual Medley. In Breaststroke, we started by focusing on our body line in streamline kick, then we focused on flexing the feet out during the kick. Our pullouts have been amazing! Every swimmer has been doing pull-outs past the flags and many are starting to get to the white lane marker.

It’s been a super start to this season. I’m excited to watch the athletes become faster and stronger throughout our season and I anticipate seeing our team members grow closer as teammates and friends.

Sincerely,
Nick Mack

HELLO from the FLA senior challenge

Today was a good day for us here at the FLA Senior Challenge. Despite extreme heat we performed well, posting best times across the board. Taylor complained continuously throughout prelims, naptime, and finals. He dropped 9 seconds in his 400 free g0ing a 4 14. Ubert swam well in his 400 free as well dropping 3 seconds at 4 17 and a sectional cut. Dylan dropped 2 seconds in his 100 back and got his first zone cut. I dropped 2 seconds in my 400 free posting a 4 11. We are repping GMA here in FL, swimmming fast and getting our tans on.
The weather here has been pretty typical for Florida. Hot in the morning and afternoon and the occasional fatal lightning storm in the evening. We have had a light show these past two nights and missed out on the end of finals due to the storms......too bad ;). I dont know about the other three guys, but sharing a room with them has been a great time! We have also created a unique smell that some would call a haunting aroma.
Tomorrow is our last day and we are looking to finally swim a relay together as a team. Hope all is well in VT....GMA pwns