Grade Levels – FAQ with Head Coach Leah Pinette

Competition season is underway!  But this year, synchronized swimming athletes across the country are practicing more than just figures and routines.  They are also practicing skills for Grade Level testing because all 13-15 Age Group and Junior/Senior athletes wishing to compete at the US National Championships in Arizona this April must pass USA Synchro’s new Grade Levels 1 through 3.

ANA Synchro Head Coach
Leah Pinette

To help athletes and their parents understand Grade Levels, we have prepared a two-part series for our blog.  In this first part, ANA Synchro Head CoachLeah Pinette answers many practical questions about Grade Levels.  In the second part to follow, we will turn to John Ortiz to give us some higher-level insight into why we’re doing Grade Levels and what USA Synchro hopes to accomplish with them.

Both John and Leah have been working with other coaches and officials around the country as part of USA Synchro’s Athlete Skill Development Coordinating Board (ASDCB).  Together, this committee has developed an important and exciting initiative for our sport – the new Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) program.  The goal of the LTAD program is to enable more athletes from more clubs across the country to reach their full potential - and therefore to also increase the number and skill of athletes that represent the U.S. at the Olympics and other international competitions.  

Grade Levels are an important foundation component of the LTAD program because they help guide coaches in developing sensible, effective, and consistent training plans for all ages.  And they help athletes measure their progress and set appropriate goals.

ANA Synchro:   First, can you please confirm who has to take the Grade Level tests this year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  All athletes who want to compete at US Nationals in Arizona this April must pass Grade Levels 1, 2, and 3.  That means all Junior/Senior athletes and 13-15 Age Group athletes who qualify for US Nationals at their zone championships.

ANA Synchro:   Why are Grade Levels 1-3 required for US Nationals this year but not for Junior Olympics?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Grade Levels are new for this year, and USA Synchro is rolling them out in phases.  USA Synchro wanted to give the Junior Olympics athletes enough time to train for the Grade Level testing and enough time for their coaches to weave the training into practice plans.  At the same time, USA Synchro felt it was appropriate to challenge the athletes who are able to qualify for US Nationals with the additional training and testing needed to pass the first three levels this year.

ANA Synchro:  You said that Grade Levels will be phased in.  Do we know what the requirements will be next year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  For 2016-2017, all Age Group athletes who want to compete at Junior Olympics will have to pass Grade Levels 1 through 3.  And, the current plan is that all 13-15 Age Group and Jr/Sr athletes who want to compete at the US National Championships in the spring will have to pass Grade Levels 4, 5, and 6.

With the help of USA Synchro's Grade Level Manual,
coaches can help athletes execute the skills properly.

ANA Synchro:   How many Grade Levels are there?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  There are a total of 10 Grade Levels.  You can think of Level 10, the highest level, as being for our senior national team athletes.

ANA Synchro:   Is Grade Level testing only for Age Group athletes?  Will Intermediate and Novice athletes ever have to do it?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Eventually yes.  Grade Levels 1 through 3 are designed for the grassroots teams around our country – that is, teams that train girls from the very youngest of ages.  Our committee at USA Synchro is still working out the details of how and when to roll the Grade Levels out to Intermediate and Novice athletes.  In the meantime, coaches have the option to incorporate the Grade Level skills into their regular Intermediate and Novice training anyway.  After all, having these basic skills gives you a strong synchro foundation, whether you have to pass a Grade Level test or not.

ANA Synchro:   Can you describe the testing for us?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Grade Level testing is much like doing figures at a meet in that every athlete will perform a single skill, by themselves, in front of a panel of assessors.  Typically there will be 3 assessors.  Some of the skills will be on land, and some will be in the water.  For land skills, the athletes will wear their black suits or black tank tops with black shorts.  For water skills, the athletes will wear their black suits and white caps.   For Levels 1-3, there are two or three skills in each of the following categories:  flexibility, conditioning, acrobatics, speed swimming, figures, and synchro routine swimming.  Levels 1 and 2 have a total of 13 skills, and Level 3 has a total of 14 skills.  Athletes will know at the end of the session whether they pass the level or not.

ANA Synchro:   How do the athletes know what the skills are?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Here at ANA Synchro, we have been working on the skills in practice since the beginning of the season.  All of us coaches have a Grade Level manual, which describes in great detail how the skills are to be performed and how the points will be awarded during the testing.  Many of the skills can be practiced at home, and I have encouraged all my athletes to develop a habit of practicing at home to reinforce what we do together.  More information about LTAD and Grade Levels can be found in the Members-Only area of the USA Synchro website under “Resources”.

Every Grade Level has two or three skills in each of the
following categories:  flexibility, conditioning, acrobatics,
speed swimming, figures, and synchro routine swimming.
Headstand is a Level 3 Acrobatics skill.

ANA Synchro:   How does an athlete pass?  Will they have to perform everything perfectly?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Athletes have to get 80% of the total points available for all skills in order to pass.  That means they can be strong in certain areas, weaker in others, and still pass.

ANA Synchro:   Do you get do-over’s?  If you mess up on a skill, do you get to try again?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  Athletes have to concentrate and be prepared to perform the Grade Level skills just once for the assessors.  

ANA Synchro:   Do the Grade Levels have to be passed in order:  Level 1 first, then Level 2, then Level 3?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes, they do have to be passed in sequence.  But ultimately athletes will only work on achieving one level at a time.  It is only in these first couple of years, when we are just implementing the Grade Levels, that athletes have to pass multiple levels in the same season.  This will change as Grade Levels become a standard part of our season and a standard part of an athlete’s development.

ANA Synchro:   Once an athlete passes a Grade Level, will they ever have to go back and pass it again?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  Once you pass a Grade Level, you pass it for life.

ANA Synchro:   What happens if you don’t pass Level 3 this year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Athletes who do not pass Level 3 this year will unfortunately not be able to participate in US Nationals in Arizona, even if they qualified at their zone meet.  However, they would still be able to compete at Junior Olympics.

ANA Synchro:   If an athlete does not pass the Grade Levels, will they be asked to change to a different practice group?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  That will be up to individual teams and coaches.  Here at ANA Synchro, the answer is no.  You will stay with your practice group regardless of whether you pass a specific Grade Level.  The Grade Level test results just show you what you need to work on.  When I was competing, I liked to challenge myself to continually improve.  So I appreciated knowing what I should be working on.  As a coach, I really like this aspect of the Grade Levels – they give athletes concrete feedback and goals to strive toward.

ANA Synchro:   What are your suggestions for athletes who want to pass?

Assessors will be following a strict method to award points,
so it's important athletes understand all the details involved
with the individual skills.

Head Coach Leah Pinette:   First, study up on how the skills are to be performed and how the points will be awarded.  John Ortiz and the entire USA Synchro committee spent many months to put a very detailed manual together.  All the information athletes and coaches need is in there. 

Next, I would highly recommend supplementing your regular practice time with some sessions at home.  There are plenty of skills that can even be practiced while watching TV!

Finally, on the day of test, try to relax and concentrate, just like you do for figures.  All of us coaches have seen athletes fail to pass a level because they just didn’t take the whole thing seriously enough.  Or because they thought they wouldn’t really be judged on all the details from the manual.

The assessors have a very strict method they must follow to award points.  If you study the skills, do extra practice at home, and execute the details on the day of the test, you should be in a good position to pass the Grade Level test. 

ANA Synchro:   Do the Grade Levels signal that there are other changes coming to the Age Group, Intermediate, and Novice competition structure we are all familiar with?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  The Grade Levels, along with the Long-Term Athlete Development program, represent a general framework for training and developing athletes.  The competition structure as we know it will remain the same.  We will still have Novice, Intermediate, and Age Group meets.  We will still have zone meets, Junior Olympics and the US National Championships.

ANA Synchro:   Does any of this mean that the skills of the Grade Levels will become the focus of practice?  In other words, should athletes and their parents expect more skills and less synchro?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I know everyone loves to swim routines!  But before you can swim a routine, you have to be able to swim the figures that make up the routine.  And before you can swim a figure, you have to be able to execute the skills that make up the figure.  At ANA Synchro, we spend the better part of the fall working on general conditioning, skills, and figures.  I have seen how this results in better figures scores and better routine performances.  It’s always a balance to work on the basics versus turning on the music and working on routines, which is certainly more fun.  So, the direct answer to your question is no – the new Grade Levels do not mean that we will spend less time on routines.  But it does mean that the time we spend on basics will be better organized and more effective.  If it ever feels like we’re spending more time on skills, it’s not because of Grade Levels.  It’s because we need stronger fundamentals to do our best figures and routines.

Figures are included in each Grade Level.
"Tower"' is a Level 3 skill.

ANA Synchro:   Is there still a place in synchro for girls who love synchro, but don’t necessarily strive to be a Level 10 / National Team athlete? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes!  Absolutely!  Synchro is a great sport, regardless of your individual goals.  It’s one of the few sports that requires such total body development in cardio, strength, and flexibility – along with the artistry, creativity, and teamwork of performing to music.  Grade Levels are simply a new way to teach and learn the fundamentals.  And just like tennis or golf or any other sport, the basics are important to enjoy the sport recreationally or to strive for the Olympics.

A Year Abroad for Study & Synchro!

High school Junior Gates Bryan is one of approximately 1,100 American teenagers studying abroad this year with American Field Service(AFS-USA).  But Gates, a long-time member (since 5^th grade!) of ANA Synchro, didn’t want to just study abroad, she wanted to swim synchro too!  So, with the help ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette, Gates found a host family in the south of France who was involved with synchronized swimming as well! 

Gates, third from right, poses with her new French
friends and teammates after a recent competition.

We checked in with Gates shortly after her French team’s first competition.  Read on to find out how she’s getting along with swimming synchro in France:

ANA Synchro:  What’s the name of your team?

Gates:  My team is Nautil Club Boucain.  Our colors are lime green and black, which is pretty nice. You look kind of intimidating when you wear it. <she smiles>  It’s a big team – just under 100 people.  I don't really know everybody on the team because I don't practice with everybody at the same time. 

ANA Synchro:  Does France have the same age groupings as we do in the US?  Are you a “16 – 19 Age Group” athlete over there?

Gates:  No. Here, they have Novice, they have “Espoirs,” which translates to “hope,” and they have Junior and Senior. I’m a Junior.  “Senior” functions as a masters team because Senior is for everyone above the age of 18. My coach, for example, is on the Senior team.  I would say Espoirs is in-between what we know as Intermediate and Age Group.  Here in France, you also have to pass tests to move up levels.  I had to pass the gold test to be able to swim as a Junior in France.  It really wasn't too hard, but I was still stressed about it because, if I didn’t pass, I wouldn't have been able to compete.

ANA Synchro:  Are you swimming a team routine?

Gates:  Yes I am.  We have seven people on my team.  I'm not swimming a small routine, which is fine by me.  It's already enough work swimming my team routine because it's extremely strenuous.  It's an extremely fast-paced, non-stop routine, so, by the time it's finished I'm good with just having to swim my team routine and not a small routine as well.

ANA Synchro:  How often does your team practice?

Gates:  Three times a week, which is less than my team back home. We practice two hours on Monday, three hours on Thursday, and three hours on Saturday.  So that's a lot less.  I can see the effect that has on my endurance, which kind of stinks because my team routine is so much harder here!  It's a very, very strenuous routine, and I am completely dead by the end of it.  So I'm missing that endurance that I wish I had.  Last year, and the year before that, and as far back as I can remember at least in high school, I really ate, slept, and lived synchro.  And so now on Sunday, when I don't have practice and I don't have homework, I say to myself “Whoa! What am I supposed to do with all this time? I have to find a hobby!”

ANA Synchro:  What kind of music do synchro athletes in France like to use for routines?

Gates:  Mostly about the same as back home.  They do have themes to most of their routines. The music to my team routine this year reminds me of aliens and extraterrestrials.  It's really, really weird, but it's kind of awesome at the same time!  They'll sometimes use classical music, and they'll sometimes use music with lyrics.  What I find funny is that, if they’re using music with English lyrics, I’m not sure they always know what the lyrics mean.  But it’s the same in the US.  We might use music that’s in Spanish or Russian, and we won't exactly know what the song is saying all the time either.  Sometimes, I'll hear some English lyrics that are either explicit or racy, and I can just imagine the faces of the judges back home if they heard it played for a routine!

ANA Synchro sends its warmest regards to Nautil Club Boucain

ANA Synchro:  Are the figures the same as the US?

Gates:  Yes, they're all the same.  My coach will say “Aurora” and my team will say, “which one is that again?”  But Aurora is something I've been doing for a while, so I know what she’s talking about.

ANA Synchro:  What has been the hardest thing about joining a French Synchro team?

Gates:  Definitely the language barrier. My coaches don’t speak English, so all the instruction is in French!  It can be really confusing and annoying at times when they say something, and I'll have to say “What was that word again?  I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  And you don’t want your coach thinking that you're not working hard because you don't understand something…like when everybody says “yeah, let's go” and they all go underwater, and I'm just left there on top of the water looking like an idiot because I didn’t know what was going on!  I can get frustrated and mad with myself if I end up getting yelled at because I didn’t understand something.  Luckily, in synchro, the pool deck is really loud most of the time anyway, so my coach can tell me with hand signals whether I was arched or that I piked, for example. 

ANA Synchro:  Are you fluent in French now?

Gates:  That's a tough question.  French fluency is not something that I can see myself ever achieving because there will always be something I can get better at.  There will always be more words to learn, more expressions, and more phrases.  I can conjugate better.  And so I would say I'm very proficient. I can get by just fine.  However, there are definitely moments when I don't know words.

ANA Synchro:  Do you automatically count to 8 really fast in French now or do you still count in English?

Gates:  I do both. They’re exactly the same for me now.  My teammates find it really funny when I count in English.  When I'm all alone, I'm in the habit of counting in English, but if I'm counting with my team, we all count in French.

ANA Synchro:  Have you had a meet yet?

Gates:  Yes, we just had our first meet this weekend!  <big smile!> It was extremely nerve-wracking for me!  My first meet in France!  Definitely a marked point in my life!  We got first in team, which was so awesome for me. I was so excited to blow the competition out of the water.  We had a score of 65, and the next team down had a 63.  I know a lot of people would look at that and say “that's nothing,” but, to me, that was a really big deal!  I came in 15th in figures, which wasn't my best figures day.  But I did all-right.  I'm going to look to advance next time.

Land drilling is done differently in the US and France.

ANA Synchro:  Any other similarities or differences that you'd like to share?

Gates:  Yes.  The way they land drill here is all in reverse compared to what we do in the US!  They land drill with their arms out in front of them, and it's really weird to me.  I really had to adjust the way I land drill.  Now, my teammates say I speak both land drilling languages!  Competitions are also much more relaxed, I think.  And it threw me off at first when the judges didn’t say “go” to start figures.  And my teammates find it so cute when I cheer in English because I don’t know how to cheer in French.  All they say is “Allez!” and I say “this is boring – I’m going to mix it up!  I’m going to cheer in English!”  They find that so funny!

ANA Synchro's 16-19 athletes with a message for Gates :-)

ANA Synchro:  Any final thoughts?

Gates:  I really love it here.  I have an awesome team.  I have a good coach.  She's nice and she's funny, but she definitely scares me – in a good way.  We’re really working hard.  I’m mentally preparing myself to die in practice this week because we have to get down to business before our next meet. We have a two-week vacation coming up, and in the second week, we will have seven practices in a row.  That's going to be so rough!  I'm just really looking forward to the rest of this season.  We’ll have French Nationals in May.  And then we have a big show the 20^th of June which my parents are going to be able to see, so I’m really excited!  They'll be able to see me swim in France!  

What is a Tech Duet?

ANA Synchro is competing a “Tech Duet” this season!  What is a Technical Duet?  Read on as ANA Synchro’s Head Coach explains:

ANA Synchro's Tech Duet

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  A short definition for a Tech Duet is “advanced figures placed in a shorter routine.”  Technical routines are considered senior level.  You can begin competing in the event at age 15, and you have to swim one starting at age 19 for USA Synchro Senior competitions.  US Collegiate Nationals doesn’t require them, but if collegiate level athletes want to compete at US Nationals or US Opens, they must have a technical routine.  These routines are swum at elite level international competitions, including the Olympics.

A Tech Duet is performed along with a Free Duet.  If you compare this to figure skating, the Tech Duet is like a short program, with prescribed elements, and the Free Duet is like a long program, with more creative choreography options.  A Tech Duet contains six of the highest level difficulty figures, performed in a particular order.  Athletes do not have a separate figure competition because the figures are done as part of the Tech Duet.

ANA Synchro:  Is it just duets that follow this format?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Synchro has technical solos, duets, and team routines.  And it’s the same short/long program idea for each. 

A double ballet leg is one of the required elements
of a Technical Duet.

ANA Synchro:  If athletes aren’t required to do Tech Duets until they’re 19, why do you have some of your Age Group swimmers doing one this season?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I wanted to give them an opportunity to do something a little different this season. I have them doing a Tech Duet to challenge them in a way that they’ve never been challenged before – to open a more competitive side for them.  It also allows them to focus on themselves as athletes and improving their own technical skills, so why not give them the most difficult technical elements we have in our sport?  I know they eventually want to swim past high school, so introducing it gives them great experience for college.

ANA Synchro:  Is the choreography easier for a Tech Duet since the elements are prescribed and must be performed in a particular order?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I find it easier to choreograph a technical routine, maybe because I was a technical swimmer myself.  But there still are some challenges and strategies.  You want to put the elements in a place that highlights them.  And we, on the East Coast, have to deal with a shallow end, which makes it hard because a lot of the elements require spins or sinks,  All those years swimming with the National Team, I never had to worry about a shallow end because we trained in all deep pools!  Yet we still want to evenly space out the elements so the athletes are not doing one on top of the other.

Athletes competing in Tech Duet also must swim a Free Duet,
which is longer and not constrained by prescribed elements.

ANA Synchro:  Do all meets feature Tech Routines?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  There are certain competitions that feature them.  Our zone doesn’t necessarily see a lot of Tech Routines because our East Zone allows 19 year-olds (commonly seniors in high school) to compete in our Age Group and Junior tracks

ANA Synchro:  Did you have a favorite Tech Duet?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I do have a favorite one!  It was the last duet I swam with my sister.  We are rockers, and we wanted to swim to Guns & Roses “Welcome to the Jungle.”  But we weren’t sure how our coaches would react because it’s not your typical synchronized swimming music!  So we cut the music ourselves and had it all ready for the start of the season.  They did allow it, and it ended up being our favorite routine!

Synchronized Swimming Figures

A synchronized swimming meet will often have two very different parts to it – 1) a lively, loud, and colorful part where the athletes swim in teams to complicated and exciting choreography, and 2) a much slower, quieter part where the athletes, all dressed in black suits and white caps, individually perform a single move in front of a panel of judges.  This slower part of the meet is called the “figures” competition.  

Just what are “figures” in synchronized swimming, and why are they so important to spend time on and master?  ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette explains:

A figures competition involves athletes individually performing
 a single technical movement in front of a panel of judges. 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Figures are the more technical side and skills-based side of synchronized swimming.  Routines are the more artistic side.  Figures help with movement, and they teach the athletes what they should be doing at each age level.  Our novices start with a simple back tuck somersault, for example, and the figures get progressively more difficult in the older age groups.  Ideally, figures will teach the athletes the progression of how to do certain skills so that, when they are older and ready to do the more complicated versions, they know how to do them.  In gymnastics, for example, you wouldn’t try doing a flip without first knowing how to do a front somersault.  It’s the same in synchro.  You start with something simple and build on it from there.   So, the real purpose of figures in this sport is to help build the athlete.

"Flamingo Bent Knee" is one of many figures in synchro.

ANA Synchro:  How many figures are there?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  We have a thick rulebook of many different figures.  Every four years, FINA (our international governing body) selects eight of them for each age group to focus on.  From these eight, there are two compulsories swum at every meet, and then two more are chosen randomly for each meet by the Technical Chair of the Region or Zone.  It used to be that athletes would know far in advance which figures would be competed at specific meets, so they’d just focus on those.  But today, we find out only 18 – 72 hours in advance of a meet what the figures will be.  This is better, I think, because then you have to know all the figures evenly.  It’s challenging to know all eight figures throughout the season!

ANA Synchro:  Why do the figures change every four years?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Different figures get athletes’ bodies to do different things.  A new set might include the same set of skills, just at a higher difficulty.  Or, maybe the people who run our sport will want athletes to focus on speed or agility, so they’ll add those qualities to the required figures.  If they want to see more flexibility in our athletes, they might put a split into a figure.  Today, we’re seeing figures that require more back and leg flexibility than we’ve seen in the past.  Athletes in the 13-15 age group, for example, are doing the “Ariana” figure, which is very hard and requires a lot of leg flexibility.  And, new for athletes in the 16-19 age group is the “Nova” position, which is a bent knee ballet leg position held in an arch, that uses more back and flexibility in the arms and legs.

Black suits and white caps for figures
enable judges to focus on the technique.

ANA Synchro:  Why do the athletes all wear black suits and white caps for a figures competition?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It’s supposed to be for the judges so they can just judge the figure.  The idea is that if everyone looks the same, then it’s not so subjective.  The judges can evaluate an athlete just based on what their skill is on the figure, not on who the person is. 

ANA Synchro:  How are figures scored in competition?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Every athlete will perform a figure in front of a panel of judges.  If there are enough judges at a meet, there will often be four separate panels the athletes will rotate through, each one judging a different figure.  Each judge will rate the figure on a scale of 1 to 10. The high and low scores get thrown out, and the rest of the scores are averaged together and factored with the figure’s degree of difficulty for an official score. 

ANA Synchro:  Are figures treated as a separate event at meets, just like solos, duets, and team competitions?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes, figures is considered a separate event and athletes can earn awards just for their figures results.  However, figures scores in the US also count for 50% of the total routine scores.  As an example, and just to keep the numbers simple, let’s say a routine scored 60 points and the figures score was 40 points.  Their final score would be those numbers added together equally, for a total of 100 points.  Another team could have the exact same routine score of 60, but, if their figures score was higher – 50, for example – then they would win the competition with a total of 110 points.

ANA Synchro:  So, doing well in figures is really important for competition!

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes.  It can work both ways.  Figures scores have been known to pull people up in the final standings, but they’ve also pulled people down from where they would have been if you just counted routine scores.

ANA Synchro:  How are figures counted toward a final score when there are two people in a duet or eight people on a team?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  All the figures scores are averaged together.  The figures scores of the individual athletes are added together and then divided by the number of athletes in the routine.  For a duet, for example, you’d add both athletes’ figures scores and then divide by 2.  For a team, you’d add all the athletes individual scores and then divide by however many athletes made up that team. 

Being a technical swimmer herself,
Head Coach Leah Pinette enjoys
teaching figures to athletes.

ANA Synchro:  Were figure scores always weighted so high at 50% of the total final score?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  I remember when the final score used to be 75% routine score and 25% figures score here in the US. We’ve seen a decline in figure ranking on the international level because we lost our focus on the basic technical skills of our sport.  So, USA Synchro decided to put 50% of the score on figures and 50% on the routines as a way to get athletes and coaches to work more on figures. 

ANA Synchro:  This emphasis on figures must be challenging for any coach because the girls probably prefer working on routines, right? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes, they do tend to want to work on routines!  I suppose I can understand that.  It’ harder, mentally, to work on figures and technical skills than a routine.  But if the girls want to have great routines, they have to be able to do a ballet leg correctly and know how to scull and spin correctly.  And the more advanced they get, the more critical it is to have a strong foundation of basics to be able to learn those harder technical skills.  So, every week when I write the practice plans, I put in there how much time we’re going to work on figures and how much time we’re going to work on routines so everybody knows the plan.  For Age Group athletes, it’s about 50-50.  For Intermediates, it’s about 75% figures and technical work, and 25% routines. 

ANA Synchro:  How did you feel about working on figures when you were an athlete? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I really enjoyed figures because I was more of a technical swimmer.  I didn’t necessarily enjoy practicing figures though!  You don’t move around as much practicing figures so I was always cold and shivering!  But I loved doing them because they calm your mind and calm your heart rate.  I think I excelled at them because I could just focus on what I was doing at the time, at the slower pace, and think of what I could do to improve.  Now, as a coach, I have discovered that while I do love routines and the choreography side of synchro, I really love teaching the technical side of synchro.  I think the girls have figured this out by how much time we spend on them!  I still get the questions from them “when can we do routines?”, but all our work on basics and figures are paying off.  Everyone’s figures scores are improving, and I think the athletes are starting to make the connection that strong technical skills mean they’ll have stronger routines. This means they can do more advanced and exciting routines!

Stay tuned for our next installment of the figures topic where Coach Leah reveals the number one thing athletes can be doing to improve their figures score!

Olympic Champions Talk About “The Basics” of Synchronized Swimming

Sarah & Karen Josephson at the esynchro booth
at the 2014 Age Group Nationals in Seattle.

ANA Synchro had the pleasure of talking to Olympians Karen & Sarah Josephson at Age Group Nationals this past July in Seattle, WA.  And it was clear that they are as passionate as ever about the sport of synchronized swimming, which took them all over the world as our country’s top duet, and which took them to the medal stand in not one, but two Olympic Games – gold in ’92/Barcelona and silver in ‘88/Seoul!

Today, the Josephson sisters, along with sports performance expert Duke Zielinski and long-time synchro official and philanthropist Carol Valles, are putting their talent, expertise, and energy into esynchro, an outstanding collection of printed and on-line resources for basic synchro training.  They have instructional videos and handbooks on safe and effective stretching techniques, figures, swimming strokes, and more.   

ANA Synchro:  At the start of our season in the fall, our coaches spend a lot of time on “basics,” like verticals, sculling, and eggbeatering.  What can you tell our athletes and their parents to help them get through this learning period, when they probably would prefer getting straight to the new routine or taking turns on top of lifts?

Sarah:  Everyone wants to do the cool stuff now!  But you have to swim first, and then you get to do the cool stuff.  It’ll make you better at the cool stuff!  Duke has a saying:  “Advanced techniques are nothing more than basic techniques performed to perfection.”  Once you learn how to do a back scull, for example, it doesn’t change when you get to an elite level.  You still do the same back scull.  You still do the same vertical scull.  So it’s really important to get those basics down.  The basic skills are one of the things I think we’ve lost in this country.

Karen:  To get successful in anything, you have to put the time in on the basic skills.  Life will be easier if you work on getting those basic skills really good.  It’s like learning to read.  You learn early, and then it’s a breeze.

ANA Synchro Coach gets in the water to help our youngest
swimmers get comfortable with the basics of the sport. 

ANA Synchro:  But it seems like the basic skills are all underwater, where judges aren’t looking.  Does it really matter what happens underwater, as long as you can do the moves well above the water?

Sarah:  Yes, it matters.  For example, to me, there is a very efficient way of tucking underwater and getting to the surface quickly.  But when I watch the girls today, I see many girls just sprawling out of a position now, which slows them down.  And when they torpedo down the pool, they should be able to shoot out and travel down the pool very quickly. 

Karen:  If someone doesn’t have good technique, they look like they’re just plowing through the water, and they’re not moving as far, or as fast, as they should.

Sarah:  Watch the Russian National team.  The strength and power of their kicks to move themselves down the pool are just so much more impressive than most of the rest of the world at this point.  That’s just basic swimming technique.

ANA Synchro coaches spend some practice time on stroke
technique because the better swimmer you are, the
better synchronized swimmer you'll be.

ANA Synchro:  Basic swimming technique?  Are we talking freestyle?  The common strokes?

Sarah:  Definitely.  It’s swimming.  It might be synchronized swimming, but it’s still swimming.  I think we forget that sometimes.  The better swimmer you are, the better synchronized swimmer you’ll be.

Karen:  Back when we were competing, we spent a lot of time with Matt Biondi, and he spent a lot of time on technique.  He made sure every finger was right when he entered the water.  That’s why he could win.  His training to the technique was exactly precise.  And it’s the same in Synchro.  It really needs to be that precise. 

ANA Synchro:  As you know, USA Synchro evaluates athletes on a specific set of skills, both land-based and water-based, to determine who will earn a spot on one of our national teams.  For girls who aspire to that, should they focus on just those specific skills?

Karen:  We’re big on not just training one specific movement.   You have to train all around.  Sitting in a split, for example, doesn’t necessarily make your split better.  You need to stretch out different ways.  It’s not just the one exact movement.  When you do just the one movement, that’s when you tend to get injured.  Because in Synchro, you are never just doing a straight leg lift.  You might be doing a leg left while swinging it around.  So you have to be all-around fit.  Synchro is really whole body fitness, not direct straight line moves.

ANA Synchro athletes get evaluated a couple times
a year so they can know when they improve and what
they still need to work on.

ANA Synchro:  Last year on our team, though, we started quarterly evaluations to measure how people are doing against particular skills.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Sarah:  A good thing!  Not every club does this, and I think they should.  In timed sports, you have a time, and you know if you get it or not.  In basketball, you know if you score a bunch of baskets.  It’s much more quantitative.  In Synchro, it’s not.  And there aren’t meets or competitions every weekend like other sports.  So evaluations give kids an easy way to set goals.  They can see where they are at this point and what they need to do to get to the next level.  It gives them something to measure.  Still, at the end of the day, Synchro is a subjective, judged sport, but there are objective ways to judge it to improve upon the skills to get where you want to go.

ANA Synchro likes to kick off its season with a fun social
activity.  This year's choice - a group trampoline event!

ANA Synchro:  What would you like to tell kids involved in this sport?

Sarah:  All the way it should be fun.  It’s an activity.  It doesn’t mean you can’t work hard, but it should be fun.  You should enjoy the challenges of working on things, learning new skills, and working with teammates. 

ANA Synchro:  What would you like to tell parents whose kids are involved in this sport?

Karen:  Make sure there’s enjoyment and improvement.  Are they getting better?  Are they working toward goals?  Not just randomly working, which is sort of an easy thing to do in Synchro if you just start working on a routine without knowing if you got any better.  And it’s quality of practice not quantity of hours.  More hours does not necessarily mean getting better.  It can just be exhausting the kids thoroughly.  And, if there are more hours, are they really working in the pool or just hanging out?  You can get a lot done in a few hours.

Synchronized swimming - a blend of athleticism,
technical skills and artistry.

ANA Synchro:  Finally, tell us what you love about synchronized swimming.

Sarah:  I think it’s that balance between athleticism and the technical skills and the artistry.  The choreography is just a way to show off your athletic and technical skills.  It’s the creative part with the technical part.  That balance is cool.

Check out eSynchro at their website:  www.esynchro.com

Synchro Skills Evaluations Explained

When Head Coach Leah Pinette arrived on the scene of ANA Synchro for the 2013-2014 season, one of the first things she did was implement a regular evaluation of fundamental synchro skills for all the athletes.  “I think the girls were a little hesitant at first because they thought we would use the results to select athletes for small routines and team routines,” says Pinette.  “But once I told them ‘no,’ this has nothing to do with routines, that it’s just information for them as athletes, they started to understand the value.”

Head Coach Leah Pinette uses evaluation results
to show ANA Synchro athletes how they've improved
over the year and what they still need to work on.

ANA Synchro recently kicked off its 2014-2015 season, and once again, one of the first things the athletes did was – you guessed it – evaluations!  ANA Synchro athletes are right now receiving their individual evaluation reports from their coaches, and this blog article is to help athletes and parents understand the evaluation report, the skills themselves, and why we do evaluations.

ANA Synchro:  Why are skills evaluations important?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Because synchro athletes need something to know how they’re doing and what their strengths and weaknesses are.  Synchro is a subjectively judged sport at competitions, which can make it difficult for athletes to see their progress.  But skills evaluations – especially repeated, regular ones like we have implemented – give the girls some objective ways of tracking their development as athletes.

ANA Synchro athletes work on "V-Up's" for a strong core.

ANA Synchro:  What exactly are they being evaluated on?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  We measure core building block skills that are the foundation for high performance and injury prevention.  There are six land-based skills – push-ups, V-ups, right split, left split, bridge, which is like a backbend, and headstand.  And seven water-based skills – ballet leg, eggbeater, torpedo, bent-knee vertical, double-leg vertical, water split, and 200 individual medley (200-IM) swim.  I know some of those terms may be unfamiliar to parents.  Several are described in an earlier blog entry, and I encourage parents to ask their kids about them or even to demonstrate them at home.

A person who is strong out of the water
will be strong in the water!

ANA Synchro:  Why are land-based skills even part of a synchronized swimming evaluation? Shouldn’t we just focus on water skills since being in the water is what we do?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  If an athlete is strong out of the water, they’re going to be strong in the water.  If you really look at the land-based skills, collectively, they are measuring strength, core, and flexibility.  These are the very qualities an athlete needs to hold verticals in the water, have good height in the water, and move quickly through the water.  Pretty much everything they do in the water is affected by how well they can do the land-based activities, which is why we have land-training every week as regular practice and which is why we include them in the regular evaluations.

A Synchro "Bridge" - not your ordinary backbend!

ANA Synchro:  OK, so what’s the measure of all these skills?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It varies by skill.  For push-up’s and V-up’s, we measure how many they can do in 30 seconds – in proper position, of course.  Right and left splits are judged 0-5, with 5 being a perfect flat-split position.  Bridge is on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being a perfect position – feet together, knees straight, arms in the 12 o’clock position.  A perfect bridge is really hard!  And it requires great back flexibility.  The headstand is also judged 0-10, with 10 being a perfect hold, with no wavering, for 20 seconds.

Bent-Knee Vertical -
one of 7 water skills.

ANA Synchro:  And the water skills?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  With the exception of the 200 IM, which is just a straight time measure, all the water skills have multiple, measurable components to them.  Ballet leg, for example…we measure how long they can hold the position, the height of the leg, and the quality of their extension.  Some girls have good height but need to work on extension, or vice versa.  So, by giving a score to each aspect of the skill, the girls and their coaches know exactly what they have to work on.

ANA Synchro:  Who determined what a “5” or a “10” is or how high a leg should be out of the water? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  USA Synchro has a point system for the skills that they use to determine who gets to be on the national team, so we have adopted that.  We’re talking the “national” team here, so we are definitely holding our girls up to a very high standard.  I tell athletes all the time that they should not get discouraged if they see a zero or a low score on their report.  They are doing things they’ve never done before so everyone is going to start with low scores.  It’s just an indicator of what they need to work on.  I can’t emphasize enough that these standards are very challenging. 

Coaches evaluate ANA Synchro athletes about three
times a season to help them track their development.

ANA Synchro:  Is it just you evaluating the girls?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  We try to have three coaches to give independent scores, and then we average them together for a final, combined score.  The report that people get will show the three scores as well as the average.  And, in some cases, the report will also include some judges’ notes and comments to help the girls – things like distance off the floor, if a move was performed too fast, etc.

ANA Synchro:  Is all this really worth it?  Don’t evaluations just take time away from working on routines and figures?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Evaluations do take time out of practice, that’s for sure.  But I definitely think it’s worth it.  When you just do routines, you can go all season without knowing if you individually made any gains or not.  By regularly evaluating the girls, they get a good sense of where they were when they came into the season and how they progressed throughout.  Having that knowledge should be both satisfying and motivating at the same time. 

ANA Synchro:  You have a whole year of data from last year…did people improve measurably?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes!  This has been a great experience for me, too, seeing where we were as a team at the beginning of last season and where we are now.  Together, we’ve come very far on torpedo, verticals – everything really.  You know, no one becomes a great athlete overnight, no matter what the sport.  And, you can ask any accomplished athlete – they’re always working to improve on something.  When I was competing, I always had to spend extra time and effort on height.  At only 5’2”, I had to be the highest to be even with everyone else!

These evaluations are just one part of a bigger process to develop these young girls into not just athletes, but successful young women.  The lessons they get out of it – acknowledging weaknesses as just something to work on, accepting coaching help, making goals, working hard, celebrating accomplishments – are life lessons.  True, they’ll help their synchro season today, but they’ll benefit just about anything they want to do later in life as well.