GETTING OUT.OF YOUR OWN WAY

 Sometimes as athletes/ swimmers we do things to sabotage our path to success.  Whether intentionally or unintentionally we get in our own way that has a direct effect on our training and more importantly our races.

To our swimmers swimming this weekend out at UMD in the 14 and under's championship.  The sky is the limit for each of you this weekend, so don't put a limit on anything as you work through your line up each day.  The more you believe that you can the more you can achieve.  Don't be afraid of setting some scary goals and then go out and chase them down.  It's always fun to chase the goals down.  It's all about you so don't compare yourself to others.  You may come up short, but at the end of the day you must have the mindset and the courage to race and that it is possible to achieve those goals.  Will there be challenges and obstacles, of course there will but they can be overcome.  The key is to stay out of your own way and not create any internal obstacles.

The University of Maryland pool is your arena this weekend.   Remember all the hours of hard work, dedication, and grit that got you here, and now comes the fun and rewards of this sport.  Embrace the moment, swim your best and no excuses leave it all in the pool with each race.  IT's RACE TIME.

SO YOU THINK THE WATER’s COLD

 Have you ever thought that the water is too cold to train or race in.  Do you know why it always feel cold or a little uncomfortable at first.  Well your body temperature is about 98.6 so most bodies of water are always going to feel cold at first but as you begin to move you start heating up your muscles and core temperature and the water becomes tolerable.   Might be the reason coaches try to keep swimmers moving.

I saw this clip about ice swimming this morning and thought of you all on those days when you tell the coaches the water is too cold.  Check it out and oh be careful the next time you tell me it’s too cold.

Crazy ice swimming race

WINNING THE DAY

 

 Swimmers at all levels usually have a goal as the step up on the block for their races.  For age group swimmers that goal usually revolves around four things;

1. Winning the race
2. Winning the heat
3. Personal best
4. Achieving a qualifying time

The order of these goals may differ amongst age group swimmers depending on the time of year or the meet itself.

The truth is that all age group swimmers want to accomplish something in every race but how many are

willing to really do what it takes?  How many are willing to get uncomfortable in order to accomplish something they desire? One thing for sure is that when a swimmer or any athlete steps out of their comfort zone and enter into the uncomfortable zone they really see who they are, what they are really made of and what is possible.  The confidence level of these athletes soars to new heights.

There’s an old saying, “talk the talk, walk the walk”.  It’s easy to say things but it takes real discipline to do what is necessary to accomplish a goal.  Having the will to accomplish any of the goals listed above is great but without a real commitment and discipline it becomes “just talk”.

In order to win that championship race at the end of the year, you must first win each day, each practice, each set, and each repeat.  To win the day you must have the right mindset and be focused the task at hand.   For example let’s take a simple set of 10x50’s free. The focus is to have 3 underwater’s off each wall and bottom arm/ no breath off each turn and no breathing flags to finish.  I’m willing to bet that all you heard was 10x50’s and then your brain went to airplane mode.  The problem is that you missed the 3 critical things that will make you better, heck I can do 10x50’s all day but am I really doing anything of substance.  The other thing that you heard was 10 and instead of focusing on the first 50 and striving for perfection you just swim and can’t wait till you get to 10.

This is where your commitment and discipline come into play.  Can you step out of your comfort zone become uncomfortable and complete the task correctly.  Do you have what it takes to “win the day”.  It begins with simple things and will require discipline.

WINING THE DAY

• Keep up with school assignments.
• Go to bed and arise each day at the same time.
• Make your bed. Your first win of the day.
• Hydrate…hydrate….hydrate. All day long. Keep sipping.
• Arrive early for workouts. Ready to go when we start.  
• Have a great attitude and mindset as you step onto the pool deck.
• Win your warmup. Win each set. 
• Absorb your coaches feedback and then work on it.
• Hold yourself accountable. 
• Spend time journaling after practice.  What worked well. What didn’t.  Where you need to focus more.  

SWIMMING GUARANTEES

 

So, you've had perfect attendance and worked hard at practice and now it's time cash in and race.  You step up on to the blocks, ready to explode and you fully expect your race to end with a personal best.  As your hand hits the touchpad and your attention turns to the score board a look

of disbelief overtakes your facial expression and the flood gates open with all kind of emotions.  First thought and what I hear from swimmers is this; What did I do wrong?  (I hear it a lot).  Your confidence has been shaken and I see it before we even meet, your shoulders are slumping and your smile has been turned into a frown that can be seen from far away.  

The vast majority of swimmers, and virtually all parents believe that the time is the only measure of a race.  In their minds they believe  that a good time means a good race and a bad time means a bad race.  I hear it all the time from swimmers returning from their race and declare that "I was bad" all because of the time.  Sometimes they even get a P.B. but still think they are a failure all because of  a time.   As we know there're two sides to the coin and the other side is "I was great" all because of that time.  The problem is that racing is never that simple.

Swimmers, coaches and parents unknowingly contribute to this with only praising the time and from this the swimmer is only thinking about that time.  Their view becomes distorted and they can't see the good and the bad in the race which inhibits the learning process.  In developing swimmers I always like to ask the swimmer this question first, How did that feel?  What did we do good?  What needs to improve?  How were the underwater's, the turns, the pace, or did we increase tempo at the right time.  Rarely do I mention the final time because that is not going to help the swimmer learn and develop.  The standard for most age groupers (which I believe is that if they get to the blocks and just dive in the PB's will roll in.  

The reality is that their strokes are often so inconsistent that they can add a lot of time as easily as they drop time. Sometimes I can see a young swimmer change their stroke several times within the race.  You may ask how can they drop time if they are inconsistent and the simple answer is that their bodies are changing daily (they are growing).  This is where the learning process comes into play and it's a hard concept to grasp for a younger swimmer if they are always asked their time and that becomes their whole focal point.

Conditions drastically change from meet to meet or even race to race and that is why its important for you to have a plan for the meet and this is where the problem starts for some swimmers.  It's very frustrating for coaches when swimmers arrive at a meet without even knowing what events they are swimming.  The failure to plan is a recipe for disaster.

Swimmers sometimes forget things in their pursuit of speed.  Swimmers get into a routine with their practice routines and sometimes those routines are upended due to a variety of reasons ranging from illness, injury, vacations or school.  When you have these missed opportunities they affect your body and it's internal clock.  

Bottom line is that swimming has no guarantee but what I can tell you is this "If you pay attention to the process you will be in a better place to achieve your dreams.  Let's go into competitions thinking about racing and less about time.

WINNING THE RACE

Why do we go to meets and race?  Not a new question and although the reason might be clear to all of you they actually may go deeper than you think.  The first think that should come to mind is the fact that racing is and always should be fun, one of the best part of this sport.

Exploring this issue further it becomes clearer that meets are a vital part of the process in reaching your final goals whatever they may be.   Although you should always be testing yourself during your workouts the swim meets bring along a higher level of accountability in a little more pressured environment.  There are officials involved with a meet, there is more time involved along with a lot more mental energy.  You may start paying more attention to nutrition, hydration and sleep habits.  While all of these are important daily during your training there's a special emphasis put in during competition periods.  

You should be using competition events as a training event to improve.  When you approach your competition with this in mind it becomes a rehearsal for your bigger competitions down the road.  This is part of your training process, because you're literally teaching your body to perform at a higher level.

These meets provide you the opportunity to evaluate what you are doing well and what you need to work on during future workouts.  This is the area that seems to get lost on a lot of swimmers in the process.  Swimmers should be talking to a coach after your race while it is still fresh in everyones mind and talk about things that worked or didn't work and something to really take back to practice and work on.  Unfortunately swimmers miss this huge opportunity because they don't seek the feedback or they don't take the feedback back to practice and make the honest effort of improving in the areas that were discussed.

Another area that meets provide is mental training before your race.  Sometimes the race is won before

you even start and what I mean here is sometimes you’ve swam your race before you start.  We have discussed visualization before and how important it is in your overall success in the pool.  I have talked to many swimmers who are always putting negative thoughts into their heads.  It always amazes me as a coach how an athlete thinks of everything that can go wrong in competition when they know they have worked hard in practice.  Will things go wrong, of course they will but through your hard work you have put yourself in the best possible position to be successful.  All you need is a positive attitude going into the race. 

stop going to the dark side before your races and start practicing visualizing your success.  It has to become a habit.

 

We win the race by controlling the pool. Space and time.

A COACHES VIEW FROM GREENSBORO

 

70 Makos traveled to Greensboro last weekend for a four day meet at the coliseum.  We began the meet on Friday with a couple of distance events where several of our Mako swimmers participated in and left with some awesome swims.

Saturday morning came early as the 12 and under were  scheduled for first warmup at 7;30.  For those of you who have never been to this complex let's set the stage.  You had the main complex of 2 pools with 8 and 14 lanes that we would be racing in and then you had the diving well  that would have another 8  lanes.  Through the hallways on the other side of the building there were 2 other pools that each had 10 lanes.  Of course the teams were assigned different pools for each session and of course our 12 and under were scheduled for the back pool for that session.  Have you ever tried to round up 40 8-12 year olds early in the morning, started feeling like a lost shepherd looking for his lost flock.😃. Our first warmup of the meet needless to say was a little chaotic as I expected everyone on time

knowing what to do (my bad) without remembering that we had swimmers from other groups. As we worked through our warmup this is what I saw in my mind.   The best thing was that we had a half hour to have time to go over what was expected of them.  We went over our meet warmup procedure for our 12 and under's and emphasizing how important it was to be on time and how if your late it affects the whole group and is very disrespectful to everyone involved.  The second thing we  talked about was the actual swimming which went like this;

• feet first
• 200 free smooth and strong
• 4x50  free to back descending 
• 100 kick on back streamlined
• 3x50 kick descending 
• 8-12 25's alternating choice (no free) and free fast
• 2 starts off blocks

The swimmers were awesome for the rest of the meet as they were on time and went through warmup

without a hitch and what I saw was like night and day.

Are you ready for the most asked question of the meet?  When should I go over?  We all know that some of that was if not all of it was being anxious which is understandable.  Here is a rule of thumb for the 50's go over about 6 heats before (they go fast) for your 100's maybe 4 heats and for the 200's about 3 heats.  Why?  If you know when to go over to the blocks it reduces the anxieties that much more and that is time you can relax a little more.  This is part of what we talk about; "TAKING OWNERSHIP" of your race.

As for our actual racing we had tons of awesome swims from all of our Mako swimmer, lots of new events and a Buch of personal best posted throughout the weekend.  One thing that stood out race after race was our starts with great streamlines and our momentum off those blocks.  Time after time our swimmers were coming up ahead of their competition. We are learning and executing what we have learned in our races.

Our turns need some work.  Technically they are improving but we need to be more aggressive in and out of those turns.  We saw some slowing into and out of those turns and this kills momentum and speed.  We need to do a better job engaging a faster and more purposeful dolphin off those walls to carry our speed into the next leg of the race.

FINISHES-- We need to set up those finishes to the wall.  The object is to get your hand to the pad before

the other swimmers and you can't do that is you relax on that last stroke.  We've say it all the time, "FINISH LIKE A CHAMPION" no matter what.

Overall we had a great showing at his meet and its time now to turn our attention to the qualifying meets and see how many cuts we can get for the championship season.

Stay on point and keep up your hard work and take care of yourself away from the pool.

PLAYING IT SAFE

 

WEEKLY QUOTE.  “ Excuses make today easy, but tomorrow hard.  Discipline makes today hard, but tomorrow easy.”

Once you, the swimmer have signed up for a meet the hardest thing now is to hold yourself accountable.  Where am I going with this?  You’ve signed up for an event and as that event gets near you start playing that mental game in your head.  It’s that voice in your head that starts talking to you and fills your head with self doubts and worries as to what may go wrong.  Bottom line it tries to steer us from anything that is difficult and to stay in our safe zone (comfort zone) where it’s cozy. 

Whatever your dreams, goals or aspirations may be will not be found in your safe zone.  You need to open the door and go into territory that you have never been to, as that is where your aspirations will be found.  On the other side of your doubts and fears.

Once you have signed up that is whereby your mental side needs to shift, your whole attitude and outlook needs to shift.  Find a way to own your events.

SNOWMAN CHALLENGE. During the snow storm last week we asked the JUNIOR GOLD kids after practice to go home and build a snow man and send us their pics.  The first one was brought to life by Evan M.and it certainly looks like he is ready for a 25 free.  Why 25 ? And why Free.  Simple really after a 25 I believe he will be absorbed into the pool water and as for free well just look at those arms.

The second snow woman was brought to life through the efforts of Molly D. and brother Keegan. I’m sure that being breaststrokes they truly believe that swimmer can surly make at least a 25 but I have my doubts because he will have trouble getting to that flat streamline position out front.

Nice job people and thanks for sharing.

UPCOMING MEETS

We have had the swimmers ask about both the Mako Qualifier meet and the presidents meet.

THE QUALIFIER. 

 MY Suggestion for swimmers who are trying to achieve qualifying times for championship meets is this, look at the events that you have a realistic chance of qualifying for.  Try and pair that list down to 2 events a day and put all your effort and energy into those events.  Do not swim events that you have no chance in and at the same time do not swim events that you have already qualified for.

PRESIDENT MEET

This meet is a prelims and final meet. Traditionally we have used this meet as a back up for any events that you are trying to qualify for during championship season.  That being said if you want to swim in this meet, “ go for it”. That being said you should not be swimming any events that you have already qualified for.  If you get a qualifying time during prelims we would like you to scratch out of finals in the evening.

WEEKS SET. WORKING FRONT HALF OF IM

4x75 broken (25 fly @40 /50 back @1:00

1x50 free smooth @1:15. Breathing pattern every 3 or 2-3-2

Fins on now

4x125 broken (50 fly @50 /75 back @1:30

1x50 free smooth

All fly is to be done keeping chin on water when breathing. Get into our breathing pattern.  All back is building to a fast tempo.  As always work your walls strong and long.

Fins off

4x25 back swim down 1st all out 2nd 80%. Third 60%. Last one double arm with breast kick glide