Upcoming Tryout Dates & Locations The Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club will be holding open house tryouts for interested new swimmers throughout the remainder of July and into August. Locations will be spread throughout the Seattle metro area and you are invited to attend any tryout that is convenient for you. The currently scheduled open house events are below. Tukwila Pool (4414 S 144th St, Tukwila, WA) Wednesday July 14, 2021 6-7 PM Wednesday July 21, 2021 6-7 PM Wednesday July 28, 2021 6-7 PM Kent Swim & Tennis Club (25821...

Foam Rolling Part 3: When and How To Foam Roll Always, always, always stick to rolling your muscles, rather than ligaments like your IT band or joints like your knees or elbows, says Polly de Mille, R.N., C.S.C.S., director of performance services at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. You should also skip your lower back. “If you foam roll your lower back, it could cause the muscles surrounding [the vertebrae] to go into spasm,” he says. “The risk really outweighs the potential reward” since this part...

Foam Rolling Part 2: How Foam Rolling Actually Works Although there isn’t a concrete cause and effects to how foam rolling works, there are some solid theories. The leading one is focused on myofascial release. But what is fascia—and why would you want to “release” it? According to Polly de Mille, R.N., C.S.C.S., director of performance services at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City puts it like this: “Think of fascia as the sausage casing surrounding every muscle fiber, every organ, every nerve fiber, every bone in...

Foam Rolling Part 1: Potential Benefits I recently had a major realization about how obsessed high level athletes are with foam rolling. In college, I remember it being a big part of our warm up in the weight room. I recently started watching “Head Above Water” on Prime, which follows four elite level international swimmers, including Olympic Champions Kyle Chalmers and Ian Thorpe. There are scenes that show athletes walking in and out of high level facilities and they ALL have foam rollers or massage/percussion guns hanging or clipped onto...

Does RedBull Actually Give You Wings? We often see the commercials for energy drinks like RedBull, Monster and more recently, Bang. Every company claims that their drink increases mental awareness, energy metabolism and physical performance. Some of the older athletes on the team might have started trying out pre-workout drinks that also claim to increase performance. In a sport where any edge one has over the competition is needed, does caffeine actually help with physical performance? What is caffeine? Caffeine is found within coffee beans, tea leaves, chocolate, cocoa beans...

What Causes Muscle Soreness? Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is a common yet unforgettable pain and stiffness that haunts you days after your workout. DOMS can occur anywhere in the body that has recently been exposed to unfamiliar or intense physical activity. Symptoms of DOMS can be local muscle pain, tenderness to the touch, stiffness of the joint, reduction in a joint’s range of motion, and temporary reduction in strength of the affected muscles. Delayed soreness develops within the first 12-24 hours and peaks at around 48-72 hours after exercise....

A few weeks ago, stumbling on Ratatouille led me to write a bit about the concept of “Belief In All.” BELIEF IN ALL is one of the four pillars, along with LEGACY, PURPOSE, and COMMUNITY, that is foundational for the Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club and when I focused on it in that piece, I looked at it through a teamwide lens and how it relates to the pursuit and process of achievement. In this case, I want to look at BELIEF IN ALL on a more individual level and how...

Dealing With Setbacks Usually when we've worked hard and followed the process, like when we study our tail ends off for a test, we get what we want, like a good grade. Unfortunately sometimes we experience setbacks that push our goals back or our performance doesn't live up to our own expectations. This last championship season might have accurately reflected the hard work you’ve put in, but for some of us, we might not have swam as well as what we thought we should have. If the latter applies to...

Resilience I have been spending a little more time than usual watching tv due to my training for a triathlon starting to ramp up. This means that whatever free time I have is spent sitting, watching tv or doing work. I recently watched the Tiger Woods documentary on HBO about his life. In the documentary, they did a great job putting into perspective just how dominant he was, especially in the years 2000-2008. Throughout the production’s entirety, the narrator or someone being interviewed would throw out a ridiculous stat to...

I Am Because We Are For the first time in 710 days, avid sports fans like myself finally get to watch March Madness take over the sports world. For a week and a half, 64 Division 1 College basketball teams will battle until one team remains. That team will be crowned NCAA Champion and etch their names into the history books. While watching Michigan State play against UCLA, I noticed that the Michigan State players had a phrase printed on the back of their warm up jerseys. The phrase read,”I...