ANA Synchro – You Start as Friends, You Graduate as Sisters

Last month, we interviewed recent ANA Synchro alum Alice Rodgers about what she likes about coming back to coach on her college breaks.  Here is Part 2 of our interview:

ANA Synchro:  How did you get involved with ANA Synchro?

Alice Rodgers:  My friend Caitlyn, who was already on the team, brought me to “Bring a Friend to Synchro Day” when we were both in third grade.   At the time, I did swim lessons and dance.  I didn’t really like dance, but I loved the music. The music was the most fun.  So when I tried synchro, I remember being in the pool and thinking, “they get to dance to the music??!!”  I came to the show that year, and I was enamored.  I felt I really needed to try this.

Alice (far right) with some "friends" at the beginning
of her synchro career, including another recent alum,
Laina Gray, second from left!

ANA Synchro:  What do you remember from your first year?

Alice Rodgers:  I tried out for novice, and we swam to “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!”  And I remember being in the show that first year.  My most vivid memory is from the rehearsal.  I remember the lights going off in the pool, and I was shocked!  I didn't know they could do that!  I wasn't sure if I should open my eyes underwater because it was pitch black. It was so scary, but it was so much fun too. I remember thinking, "Wow! This is so intense! This is awesome! I want to do this!"  And then the next year I swam with the Intermediates, and we swam to “Jungle Book”.  It was great!

ANA Synchro:  What would you tell young girls (and their parents) who are considering synchro as a sport?

Alice Rodgers:  Synchro has just the same amount of struggle and strife, (and drama sometimes!), as any other sport.  For me, lifelong friendships is the coolest thing I got out of this sport.  I'm sure lots of sports contribute to your daughter's ability to build and maintain lifelong friendships, but I did not have literal sisters until I came to this team.  And I have left with people that I view as siblings in a way I couldn’t possibly comprehend.  Even after synchro they are still my closest friends.

We’re also not internally competitive as some other sports because you really do have to swim all together, requiring a unique kind of teamwork.  The common goal is to succeed, and, to do that, everyone has to be as one to be able to do the same thing in the water.  And there is something that is so weird and special about breathing at the exact same time as seven other girls to music. You wouldn’t think it because it sounds just weird, but after a certain while, when you realize you are doing it, you say to yourself, “Wow!  That's eight human beings who are taking their breath, which is the most important thing we do consciously, at the same time.”  That's pretty crazy.

Alice (standing, middle-right) with her "sisters" in
one of her final team performances at the annual show.

ANA Synchro:  Any final thoughts?

Alice Rodgers:  ANA Synchro has improved as a team so much since my first year as a novice.  The girls I’m coaching today are so much better, I think, than we ever were!  I remember going to our first nationals and seeing the caliber of teams from the west coast, and that made us want to work so much harder. We were so determined after that.  And, two years later, we made finals at nationals for the first time, and that was a huge deal.

I look at the most successful girls on the team, and there’s a certain amount of natural talent there.  But I don’t believe for a second that anyone without the natural talent can’t achieve the exact same thing provided she’s working extremely hard for it.  The really young girls who come to our team who did gymnastics or dance and already have their splits, for example, can just come here and maintain that flexibility.  I only got my split down for the first time in my whole life as a junior in high school.  That’s very, very unusual.  But I got my split that year because I was on the senior team and I desperately, desperately wanted it.  So, to the girls, I would say that your ability to improve drastically in this sport is completely determined by your willingness to work for it – 100% willingness.

Of course, it's not enough to just want something; you have to have someone to show you the path to get there.  And, with Head Coach Leah Pinette, we have a great person to show us!

ANA Synchro is hosting its next “Bring-A-Friend” Day on Sunday, April 6th. Please Email us at synchroana@gmail.com for more information.

Also, ANA Synchro will hold its Annual Show on April 26th and 27th. We invite you to see our novices, intermediates, age groups, senior team, and even our outstanding coaches swim exciting routines to show their stuff in the water. Maybe your daughter, like Alice, will be inspired to join ANA Synchro! Tickets are available now at the front desk of the Andover/North Andover YMCA, 978-685-3541. See our fabulous poster with all the details by clicking here: http://anasynchro.org/meets/2014Show/index.php

ANA Synchro is the competitive synchronized swimming team of the Merrimack Valley YMCA’s Andover/North Andover Branch.  To visit the ANA YMCA’s website, click here: http://andover.mvymca.org/ANASynchro

Youth Development – a Focus for ANA Synchro and the Y!

Today, every Y across the country, and even the world, is united by three common pillars:  Youth Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility.  What exactly does this mean for ANA Synchro?  What does it mean for any team competing under a Y banner?  In this first part of a three-part series of posts, ANA Synchro talks to Alex Turek, Executive Director of the Andover/North Andover Y, about what it means for ANA Synchro athletes and families that the Y is so focused on Youth Development:

Alex Turek, Executive Director of the
Andover/North Andover YMCA,
home base of ANA Synchro.

ANA Synchro:  What does “being for Youth Development” mean to you?

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  The three pillars – Youth Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility – really encapsulate all that we do here at the Y.  I often think of modeling and reinforcing the four qualities of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility as what we do for youth specifically.  There are a lot of different things within each of those four qualities that we teach every day in all our Y teams and programs.

ANA Synchro:  Why should a parent or an athlete care that the Y and ANA Synchro have a focus on Youth Development?

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  When a program like ANA Synchro, or any of our teams for that matter, constantly works on developing those four qualities in young athletes, I think you get a lot more out of the youth sports experience.  Kids and families might look at belonging to the team as just an activity where their kids do synchronized swimming, but the goal of the Y is much bigger than that.  Of course we want them to reach their full potential and compete at a national level, but we also want to develop the whole athlete.  We want to build their self-confidence and set the stage for lifelong wellness through physical activity.  We don’t want them to burn-out, we want them to learn to compete intensely and professionally with respect for other athletes, and we want them to learn the importance of winning as a team.  This is not to say, of course, that you can’t get the same experience anywhere else, but I believe that we here at the Y are more intentionally focused on it.

ANA Synchro:  How does the Y do this?  It seems complicated enough just to teach the skills for a sport and manage the competitions.

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  It’s a combination of hiring the right people, training them the right way, and providing them with resources they need.  When you do all that, you can expect great things. 

ANA Synchro:  And you’ve just hired Leah Pinette, former captain of the US National Team!

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  Yes!  And I’m excited for our direction.  Knowing what Leah has done just in these first couple months, and seeing how she interacts with the athletes, families, other coaches and staff, I’m confident that our ANA Synchro team will grow and achieve great things.  Leah is a coach who understands the concept of developing the whole athlete. 

ANA Synchro:  What do you mean when you talk about training for the coaches?   It seems like they know all they need to know about the technique of the sport.

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  I’m interested in helping all our coaches understand a little bit more about positive youth development.  It’s something we talk about a lot and even include as goals for individual coaches.  Plus, I’m researching some training programs specific to positive youth development – not just for synchro, but for all the Y coaches.  I’d love to see this as being part of what the Andover Y does for our own coaches and maybe even what the Merrimack Valley Y does for all youth sports coaches in our area.

ANA Synchro:  Why are you so interested in this?  Is it just because of the national Y directive to be for Youth Development?

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  That’s part of it certainly.  But I’m also a coach myself!  I went to school for it, and I coach basketball today.  I’m also a parent of young kids who want to play sports.  So I naturally concern myself with these issues and how youth sports coaching can continue to advance.  I see how my own kids are treated as athletes and how our kids here at the Y are treated as athletes.  And I want to be doing the best we can to arm our coaches with the knowledge and tools to provide a positive youth sports experience for these kids.

ANA Synchro:  Do you think you sacrifice anything, competitively, to maintain this focus on developing the whole athlete?

Alex Turek (Executive Director):  Absolutely not!  The best athletes are well-rounded and balanced people – not those who compete at any cost.  ANA Synchro has a long history of participating and competing at the national level, and that’s not going to change.  Leah and I both believe that the relationship between being competitive and developing the whole athlete is very strong and can’t be separated.  We believe we can absolutely have high-performing, but well-rounded athletes who care about the people around them and who are going to be well-adjusted adults.  That’s the ultimate goal – to develop kids to be strong people both in and out of the pool.

Readers…Stay tuned to the blog! In the coming months, we’ll take closer looks at the “Healthy Living” and “Social Responsibility” pillars of the Y and what they mean for ANA Synchro athletes and families.

For more information on Leah Pinette and the coaching staff at ANA Synchro, click here: http://anasynchro.org/coaches/index.php

ANA Synchro is the competitive synchronized swimming team of the Merrimack Valley YMCA’s Andover/North Andover Branch.  To visit the ANA YMCA’s website, click here: http://andover.mvymca.org/ANASynchro

Coaching Plans – A Key Tool for Consistency & High Performance

We think all our coaches are pretty awesome.  Each brings their unique experience to the team.  But that creates challenges too.  Athletes need consistency in what they are being taught.  So there needs to be some way for each coach to take advantage of the best techniques from the rest of the staff.  Today we talk to Head Coach Leah Pinette about how she blends the strengths of her staff with her own direction for the benefit of every athlete and the whole team.

ANA Synchro:  We’re sure that all the girls would love for you to be their coach every day, but you are only one person.  How do you manage it on a big team like this such that every girl feels impacted by you and your expertise?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  Well, first, I have to say, we have a great staff of coaches, and we work together really well.  For example, when I teach a particular technique, like how to do sculls, the other coaches will listen in so they can teach it the same way.  We just want a very consistent teaching method.

ANA Synchro:  So you’re driving all of it?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  Oh no, it’s not just me.  We coaches are a real team.  In addition to having swum synchro, two of our coaches, Erica Courtmanche and Meaghan Arsenault did speed swimming in college.  So I’m learning what they do with swimming technique.  Both Yoshiko Gray and Zsuzsa Belhazy-Kovacs are so in tune with body mechanics from their yoga practices that we all pick things up from them about stretching safely and effectively.  We just don’t want the girls to get confused or wonder what they should be focusing on, so we coaches try to be on the same page with how we teach different things. 

Head Coach Leah Pinette confers with coaches
Zsuzsa Belhazy-Kovacs and Erica Courtmanche
about the plan for the day.

ANA Synchro:  How do you direct all the girls’ learning on a day-to-day basis?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  I write coaching plans every day for each group.  I write, usually by the half hour, what each group should be doing and what I expect.  Maybe the first half hour is workout conditioning, and then we’ll focus on support sculls.  Maybe next week it’s going to be eggbeater technique.  I also write in which figures we want to work on.  Sometimes, if multiple groups are practicing at the same time, we’ll do certain things together if it makes sense, but then we’ll go into our separate groups for routine work.

ANA Synchro:  What about when the girls need to practice to their music?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  Yes, that’s part of it.  Every day, I write in where we’re going to slot music time because that can be the hardest part of having multiple groups in the water at the same time.  Otherwise, it would be so chaotic. 

ANA Synchro:  How do you ensure your coaching plans are being implemented the way you intended when you wrote them?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  Well, I am on the pool deck at every practice, so I do see every girl throughout the week.  I will often walk over to the other groups, see what they’re doing, and talk to their coaches.  I make sure what they’re doing is what I envisioned and what we’ve discussed as a coaching staff.  Not that my way is always the best way, but I am accountable for everything that happens.  I hold my coaching staff and our athletes to the high standards I would hold for myself.

Head Coach Leah Pinette watches
carefully as an athlete practices a figure.

ANA Synchro:  Anything else to add about coaching plans?

Leah Pinette (Head Coach):  One of the particular things on my to-do list is making sure we’re all together on techniques for figures.  We finally got all the new figures in the rule book including what the judges will be looking for.  This is great because we don’t want to be teaching something that might not be important for competition.  So I want all of us coaches to have this information when we work on figures.  Consistency is key.

For more information on Leah Pinette and the coaching staff at ANA Synchro, click here: http://anasynchro.org/coaches/index.php

ANA Synchro is the competitive synchronized swimming team of the Merrimack Valley YMCA’s Andover/North Andover Branch.  To visit the ANA YMCA’s website, click here: http://andover.mvymca.org/ANASynchro