A Secret to Better Figures

In an earlier blog article, Coach Leah described synchronized swimming figures for us – what they are, their overriding purpose, how they’re scored, and how she manages practicing them with her team.  In this follow-up article, Coach Leah reveals her number one suggestion for improving figures:

ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette

ANA Synchro:  If an athlete wanted to improve their figures, what’s the number one thing they could do on their own – stretching splits, strengthening their core? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Flexibility and strength are important, but I think the most important thing is your mind and what you’re telling yourself before and during a figure.  I think the biggest thing that someone could work on if they’re trying to improve a figure is visualization of that figure.  When I was competing, I clearly remember slipping into the water to get ready to do a figure and I would visualize what I was about to do.  Maybe that’s why I excelled at figures and why I like them.  Being in the proper mindset is huge in synchronized swimming.

ANA Synchro:  Do you actively work on visualization with your athletes? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes, we focus on it a lot.  Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re doing it.  When a girl does a figure for me, I’ll ask them “What were you thinking just now? What were you telling yourself?”  If they want to do great in figures, they have to be able to calm themselves and be positive in what they’re telling themselves.

ANA Synchro:  Is this something that comes naturally to athletes, or is it something that is taught and practiced, just like all the physical moves of synchro?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It does take practice.  I started at a young age.  Probably high school is when I started doing it for my figures.  I remember going to camps when I was on the New Canaan Aquianas, and Duke Zielinski would work with us on visualization.  And then, when I was on National Team, we had a lot of sports psychologists who worked with us on it.

ANA Synchro athletes do a "think through"
of their routine before competition.

ANA Synchro:  Does visualization work for routines too, or just figures?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It definitely works for routines too.  Although, it took me a long time as an athlete to be able to visualize a routine.  We would do routines totally as a “think through” where we’d sit, listen to the music, close our eyes, and visualize the whole thing.  There are different techniques to it.  You can do it from the point of view of what you’re seeing and what you’re feeling, or you can do it as an outsider looking in. 

ANA Synchro:  Which way did you do it?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I’m a visual person, so I’d always visualize my teammates and what I’m seeing.  I could not visualize as the outsider looking in.  When I visualize a routine, I have to do it as what I’m seeing as I do it.  I wouldn’t see myself flying, for example, I’d see what I see as I was flying.

Coaching figures
includes training
athletes to visualize
their figures going well.

ANA Synchro:  How do you know, as a coach, if your athletes are doing it properly?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I guess you never know.  I don’t know if my coaches knew what I was seeing when I thought about a routine.  Sometimes I actually saw some bad things in there!  I’d often see a routine going wrong!  So that was a hard thing – to be able to change my mind and do it correctly in my mind.

ANA Synchro:  That’s so fascinating that you’d visualize something gone wrong!  Because that’s just your mind making it up!

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Exactly!  It’s your mind making it up!  That’s what I try to tell the athletes. If someone tells me “oh, this will be bad,” I say, “yes, you’re right!  If you think it will be bad, it will be bad.”  This is the power of visualization.  You have to think it’s going to go well.  You have to see it going well.

ANA Synchro:  Visualization seems like a pretty big topic!

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes!  Someday I’d like to run a whole clinic on it.  And maybe we’ll get an expert to do a guest blog on the topic.  Stay tuned!  

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!

How to knox hair for synchronized swimming

We are about to enter a busy competition season, so we thought it would be a good time for a “How to Knox” blog post!  If you are new to knoxing, or just need some refresher tips, take a look below.  Our 13-15 Age Group team was kind enough to let us watch while they knoxed for their first routine meet of the year.

By knoxing their hair,
synchronized swimmers
keep their hair in perfect
place throughout a routine.

Why do synchronized swimmers knox their hair?  To keep it in perfect place while swimming a competition routine.  It is only done when swimming routines at meets.  At ordinary practices, or for figures only, synchronized swimmers wear caps.

Do you mean “Knox” as in the gelatin product you buy at a grocery store?  Yep!  The same thing!  It’s pretty gooey when it goes on, but it dries nicely to keep the hair in place.  And it’ll stay put throughout a day because the water in pools is usually only about 80 – 84 degrees, not hot enough to melt the knox.

How do the girls get it out?  It takes a nice, long hot shower after the meet is over to dissolve the knox away.  Tip for success:  Some girls like to use conditioner to keep the hair detangled while getting all the knox out.

1. Gather your supplies.  Tip for success:  Many girls like to build a little kit of supplies with the following items.  That way, everything is right there for every meet – no tedious searching around.

Supplies for knoxing hair.

• hair brush
• pony tail elastic(s)
• bobby pins
• hair net
• squirt bottle for spritzing hair
• 3-4 individual envelopes of Knox
• ¼ or 1/3 cup measure
• cup for mixing (some parents have a special plastic knox-mixing cup, and other parents use disposable coffee cups to simplify clean-up)
• plastic fork for mixing
• medium-sized comb
• paint or pastry brush
• towel for wrapping shoulders while painting on the knox
• smaller towel or washcloth for catching knox drips 

Good knox starts with a tight ponytail.

2. Pull the hair into a tight ponytail and secure with an elastic.  This step is critical!  The tighter the initial ponytail, the smoother, and prettier the knox will be.  Tip for success:  Dampen the hair to minimize flyaways and smooth out the hair from the start.








3. Make a bun with the ponytail. 

   

   Option 1 for thicker hair, split 
   ponytail into two sections, 
   then wrap each into the bun.

• For thin hair, simply twist the ponytail in one section until it naturally falls into a bun coil.  Secure the end with a bobby pin. 


• Option 1 for thicker hair:  Split the ponytail into two pieces.  Twist each section in opposite directions.  Coil one section around into a bun shape, securing the end with a bobby pin.  Then coil the other section around in the opposite way, securing that end with a bobby pin also.

Option 2 for thicker hair: 
make either 2 or 3 braids
before wrapping bun.

• Option 2 for thicker hair: Split the hair into two or three sections and braid each section.  Wrap each piece around into a bun coil, securing each end with a bobby pin.

4. Wrap the hair net around the bun.  It will go around 2-3 times.


5. Secure bun with bobby pins.  Overlap bobby pins at the base of the bun for stability.  You should be able to tug on the bun and know that it is secure at this point.  Use hairpins down the center if desired for thick hair. Please note:  some parents will put the hair net on first, then lock down the bun with bobby pins; others will lock it down without the net, then add the net.





Secure bun with bobby pins.



Wrap hair net around bun 2-3 times




6. If hair has started to dry out, give it a spritz all around and smooth it down with your hand or a comb.  Tip for success:  Be especially careful to dampen and smooth all the little wisps of hair that collect at that base of the neck and forehead.

Dampen and comb up all the little wisps before knoxing.

Now, get ready to knox!

7. Boil the water.  Tip for success:  The hotter the better; a hotpot will be fine; the coffee maker typically found in hotels for travel meets will be fine too.


8. Empty 3 or 4 knox packages into cup.  Use 3 packages for younger athletes and for those with thin hair; most everyone else will be fine with 4 packages, though we know of some swimmers who use more than that. 




9. Pour the hot water into the cup with the knox and mix.  Until you know and can eyeball the right consistency of the knox, try these ratios:  ¼ cup water for 3 packages knox; 1/3 cup water for 4 packages.

   

   With experience, you'll be able
   to eyeball the knox for the right
   consistency.

   Tip for success:  Resist adding more knox or adding more water after you’ve already mixed!  The consistency can change dramatically when you try to fine tune the mixture after the first mix, and no one wants to be that girl with the clumpy knox!  If you need more, simply mix up a new batch.


10. Starting at the center of the forehead, comb a layer of knox into the hair.  Dip your comb into the cup of liquid knox and comb it in.  Working quickly, go all around the head with the comb, dipping the comb in for more knox with each new section of hair. 

    

    Comb in a layer of knox all around the head.

    Tip for success:  Dampen a corner of your smaller towel with hot water before starting this step; this will be good for catching any drips of hot knox that fall on ears or exposed necks.





11. Next, dip your paint or pastry brush into the liquid knox and paint it on the surface of the hair.

    

    Paint the knox on the hair with
    a paint or pastry brush.

     
12. When you’ve gone all the way around the head with the brush, use the last part of the liquid knox to paint the bun.

    

    The bun is the last thing to paint.












13. Let the hair dry for about 10 minutes, and pin the headpiece on.  The hair will be just gooey enough to easily put the bobby pins in to secure the headpiece.  

    

    Pin headpiece on before knox dries.

    Tip for success:  If you wait too long, the knox will dry hard and it will be very difficult to get the headpiece in.

Combined "Combo" Routine

In  Part 1 of this 2-part article on “Combo” routines, ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette described for us what a Combo routine is and the choreography challenges and opportunities it presents.  She also gave us a glimpse of ANA’s Combined Combo this season with Cambridge Synchro and the North Shore YMCA Selkies.  In this second and final part of the article, Coach Leah tells us more about how that joint venture came about and how she and the two other coaches manage it all.

Head Coaches:  (l-r) Katie Rice of Cambridge Synchro,
Carrie Reynolds of North Shore YMCA Selkies,
and Leah Pinette of ANA Synchro.

ANA Synchro:  Why did ANA Synchro, North Shore YMCA Selkies, and Cambridge Synchro combine this year for a Combo? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Our three teams are combining for a Combo this year to give our older athletes a chance to work with others at their level and compete as one.  It’s really a unique opportunity in that these girls are swimming alongside girls they normally compete against.  That’s different because your competitors are who you watch – for years sometimes – and you look up to them.  Even though you’re competitors, you want to be able to swim with them too.  You want to be able to swim with the best in your group. 

ANA Synchro:  How do the rules allow for a combined Combo?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I learned about the opportunity to join forces at our national USA Synchro Convention last September.  USA Synchro put this into place to accommodate smaller clubs.  In the past, if you were a smaller club, you might have put together a trio of similarly-leveled athletes, but we don’t have trios any more as of this year.  So, USA Synchro is allowing teams to combine to give athletes an opportunity to get involved in a bigger group.  I thought it would be a neat opportunity for our older girls, so I reached out to a few teams in our area. 

ANA Synchro:  What was their reaction?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Both Carrie Reynolds, Head Coach of the North Shore YMCA Selkies and Katie Rice, Head Coach of Cambridge Synchro thought it was a great idea.  We coaches then reached out to our athletes to see if there was any interest.  Initially, we had about 20 who at least wanted to learn more about it.  In the end, we had 11 (10 swimmers + 1 alternate) who were willing to make the commitment.  According to the rules, we couldn’t call the combined Combo any of our existing team names, so we’re competing under the name “New England Synchro.”

New friends are being made in the New England Synchro
Combined Combo.

ANA Synchro:  How is it going?  Are the girls meshing together?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It’s going well!  It’s a huge learning experience for all of us, and I do find the girls are meshing.  They are not just hanging out with the girls on their own team.  All of the girls are open and welcoming, helping each other, and becoming a team.  Part of it, I think, is that all these girls really want to be here.  They had to consciously decide to commit to the extra practices, the driving to each other’s pools, and the time and expense of traveling to the bigger meets.  You don’t always get this full-on commitment with an ordinary age-group team, so having it with the Combo makes a real nice dynamic.

ANA Synchro:  How are the three coaches making it work?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  We had never worked together like this before, so we definitely had to find our groove as coaches.  We each have different styles, which I think is turning out to be a positive to the whole experience.  Carrie is probably the most artistic one of the three of us, so she has great vision with solos and the presentation of everything.  Katie is a teacher, so she’s a very good communicator and very organized.  She tends to be the planner of the group.  And Katie is patient, which balances my coaching style because I tend to be the taskmaster of the group.  (That probably comes from all those years as captain of the National Team!)  I think we are all learning from each other, and, together, we’re creating stronger athletes all around, not with just our own.  We might even be getting a little spoiled having three head coaches around to be more eyes on deck and to independently watch all the different parts that make up a Combo.

Three Head Coaches on deck means three pairs of eyes
to watch over all parts of the Combined Combo

ANA Synchro:  So the girls don’t look to just their own coach for leadership?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Not at all.  They’re very comfortable taking direction and correction from all three of us coaches.  I actually love this part of it.  It’s the same reason I love when our athletes go to different camps and clinics.  Sometimes another coach can tell my athletes the exact same thing I tell them, and it’ll just click with them because they’ll hear it in a different way.  So, by providing these different perspectives on the same athletes, the athletes are improving, and we coaches are improving too, just watching how each other operates. 

ANA Synchro:  What has been your biggest challenge with the tri-team arrangement?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  The biggest challenge is we don’t get together as a group as often as we would if it was just our own team.  So it’s January and the girls are still working on learning a couple of the laps.  Luckily, the season is young, and we have the flexibility to add more practice time if we need it as we get closer to the bigger competitions.  Another challenge is making sure the choreography is all connected, but that would be there regardless of whether we were doing a combined Combo or one with just our own team.

The Combo starts its Snow
White story on deck with a
dramatic portrayal of the mirror.

ANA Synchro:  How are the girls enjoying the storytelling nature of Combo choreography?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I think they like it because it’s different than anything they’ve done.  Our story starts on the deck!  Even though deckwork is not supposed to be judged, it is still a great opportunity to make a strong first impression.  We have one girl portraying the evil queen, another portraying Snow White, and the rest of them portraying the mirror.  The whole storytelling concept is pretty new for them, so I don’t think they got the mirror concept at first, but when they did, we just saw it all come together.

ANA Synchro:  Has there ever been a multiple team effort like this before for a Combo?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Actually, ANA Synchro has done a combined Combo years ago with the New Canaan YMCA Aquianas when Eugenia Gillan was Head Coach.  (Genia is now coaching Boston University's Synchro Team.)  Genia and Krista Karwosky (formly Bessinger) from New Canaan were talking about how they were both going to US Opens one summer, and decided to join forces for a Combo.  Because she had first-hand experience with a combined Combo, I asked Genia her opinion and for any pointers. 

ANA Synchro:  Have you gotten any feedback from other teams about your combined Combo?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes.  I was asking a lot of questions about it at Convention, and the other coaches there were giving positive feedback.  Carrie attended a choreography clinic in Colorado Springs earlier in the season where she asked a lot of questions about it as well.  She also got a lot of support, especially from the smaller teams who had representatives there.  I think if we can show a good example of it, that we were able to come together and make it work, maybe other teams will try it too.  I know we’re not necessarily the smallest team, but we can still show how it can work.  And who knows, I wouldn’t be surprised if other teams, especially the smaller ones, are doing the same thing already and we’ll see them at nationals.

The Combined Combo is a great learning experience
for both athletes and coaches.

ANA Synchro:  So you foresee doing it again?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Sure!  We’re showing that it can work.  If there’s enough interest, you can get the athletes competing at the skill level that they should be swimming.  The bottom line for me is this is good for synchro in general.  Our combined Combo is helping to develop our own athletes.  It’s helping us coaches learn from each other and stretch ourselves with new techniques for choreography.  And, though ANA Synchro has a long history of attending national meets, that’s not the case with all the teams in the US.  A combined Combo may be the thing that exposes more clubs and more athletes to higher level meets than what is available in their own region.  I know when ANA sent their first group to a national level meet years ago, they witnessed the top teams in the country and came back fired up to get to that level too.  And now, years later, we have routines placing in finals at those same national meets.  So, who knows what this could inspire!  But I’ll be excited to see what unfolds!

"Combo" Routines Explained!

This year, more clubs, including ANA Synchro, are putting together Combination (aka “Combo”) routines.  USA Synchro has added the event to Junior Olympics and all the way down to our association level meets.  In this first of a 2-part article, ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette helps us understand Combos:

A Combo routine can feature anywhere
from one to all ten of its athletes. 

ANA Synchro: What is a Combo routine?

Head Coach Leah Pinette: A Combination routine is made up of 8 to 10 swimmers, and USA Synchro is allowing athletes in the 13 & over Age Group to compete in them.  Unlike a typical team routine, where all athletes are doing pretty much the same thing, a Combo can separately feature anywhere from one to all ten of its athletes.  It’s longer, too, than a regular team routine by about a minute.  So, with a Combo, you have a chance to be more creative with the choreography and make it more of a “big story” routine. 

ANA Synchro:  What do you mean by “big story”? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  It means telling a story with the choreography.  Many Combos are based on musicals or movies so there’s a built-in storyline or theme.  For example, I swam a Combo routine based on Chicago which had so many different aspects to the storyline that we tried to convey in the water.  And I remember one of my favorite Combos was a West Side Story routine that I swam when I was on the US National Team.  We portrayed the Sharks and the Jets from our time on deck to swimming in the water.   I also love watching videos of some recent Combos that China has done.  You can look up their Phantom of the Opera and Alice in Wonderland routines on YouTube – they’re great!

ANA Synchro:  You said “today’s” Combos tell the stories….were they not always that way? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  They’ve definitely gotten much more involved than when they first started.  It used to be, for example, if you had a soloist performing, then everyone else was required to be on the side just eggbeatering.  And when it was time to swim again, the rest of the team would duck under the water, without being seen, to get into position.  They’ve relaxed those rules, so that’s why we have more free range today to play around with and build more intricate choreography. 

A "Combo" routine can have up to 10 athletes.

ANA Synchro:  Combos must be challenging to choreograph if you’re also trying to tell a story!

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  The challenge is getting it to flow and connect and still tell the story.  You want to please the eye.  If your solo or your duet is swimming, you want the rest of the team doing something, but not be distracting.  So, yes, it’s challenging to keep the focus where it should be.  It should be obvious to the audience where they should look.

ANA Synchro:  Why did USA Synchro add Combos to Junior Olympics this year? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I think it’s related to the decision to eliminate trios from the age group track.  Those tended to have more fun with their choreography.   And trios aren’t competed on an international level whereas Combos are.   Combos are considered a spectator event, so they can actually help draw interest to the sport because they are so fun to watch.

ANA Synchro:  Are they judged the same as team routines? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  The score is 100% routine, versus 50% routine + 50% figures for a team routine.  While figures are not counted, Combo athletes still have to compete in figures.  The routine score is still judged on Difficulty, Technical Merit, and Artistic Expression.  Technical Merit is how well you execute the moves and your synchronization; and Artistic Expression will include your use of music, overall presentation, and choreography.

13 & Over Age Group Athletes can compete this year in the Combo
event at Association-level meets as well as Junior Olympics.

ANA Synchro:  Do you expect to see a lot of clubs doing Combo this year? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  We’ll see as the season goes on who will be competing in a Combo.  When I was competing, most teams entered them at US Opens because they weren’t competed at any other competition throughout the year.  In the past, US Opens was held during the summer, when school was out.  Teams had more time to focus on this event especially since it wasn’t in our regular season meets.  I’m hoping teams that may not have them this year will consider having one next year.  This year, more athletes, coaches and spectators will be introduced to the event.  Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw combination routines in the Olympics someday.

ANA Synchro: What’s the best way to approach a Combo if a club doesn’t have a lot of experience with them?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:   I’d recommend starting from a theme and going from there.  You could even look up old-style Combo routines where people were eggbeatering on the side while the solos and duets performed.  It’s still OK to do that, and it may give a club an easier starting point.  You don’t have to be so intricate with the choreography if you’re just starting out with Combos.  Luckily for ANA Synchro, we’ve done Combo routines before, and I have swum routines both in the old-style as well as the newer connecting-style.

ANA Synchro: What can an athlete learn from a Combo that she may not learn from a more traditional team routine?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I think the biggest thing they can learn is the bigger picture of a routine and how everything connects.  If they’re doing one thing in the water, they should be thinking about how they connect to others who may not be right next to them as they would be in a team routine.  These routines also are more artistically oriented than a technically-driven team routine which allows athletes to express more of their artistic side.  Synchronized swimming is, after all, a performance sport. 

Combo athletes are all smiles after their first meet of the season!

ANA Synchro: Finally, what is ANA Synchro doing for Combo this year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Our theme is “Snow White and the Huntsman.”  We have someone portraying the evil queen, and someone portraying Snow White.  And we are delighted to be doing a Combo this year combined with athletes from two other clubs in our area – Cambridge Synchro  and the North Shore YMCA Selkies.  We’re just a few months into it, but so far it’s been a great experience for the athletes and for us coaches.  We can’t wait to take our Combo to more association level meets as the season progresses and national meets as well.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of “What is a Combo?” where we ask Leah to talk more about ANA Synchro’s combined combo with Cambridge Synchro and the North Shore YMCA Selkies!

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