VISUALIZATION--BREAKFAST--and more

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The wishbone will never replace the backbone.

NUTRITIONAL TIP OF THE WEEK

Last week we talked about the importance of putting a little something into your tanks as you walk out the door for that morning practice, swim meet or school.  Did you know that while your getting your 8-10 hours of sleep during the night, your body is hard at work fasting while your snoozing.  Eating something at breakfast (BIG or small) raises your blood sugar levels and sends energy to the brain and other cells in your body. 

Here is an exercise look at dads mower and locate the little button plunger.  Before starting that engine you need to push that a few time signal the mowers engine that it's time to get too work.  Guess what that little breakfast is the signal to your body that it's time to go to work in the same way.  That breakfast sends an injection of energy to your brain and body, which means attention, focus and memory are heightened and you body is energized for motion.

Young swimmers often say they feel too sick and nauseous after waking up to eat anything, but eating might help.  Sometimes stomach acids collect as your sleeping and the food you eat acts like a sponge, scopping up stomach acids and fueling that sick feeling.

What you do outside the pool is just as important as what you do in the pool for your overall success.  But, remember it takes work, experimenting and practice until you figure out what works for you.  One solution does not fit all.  Talk to each other and figure it out.

BANANA SUPER SHAKE 

Vanilla almond milk will make this a great protein shake.  It promotes mass growth without unbalancing your diet.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 banana 
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

Mix in a blender/ shake and enjoy

MENTAL TIP #3 

Let’s dive a little deeper into this visualization exercise this week.  You may be asking how will visualization help me swim faster?  Visualizing on a regular basis can have a very positive effect on your daily life but most importantly for us on our swimming performance.    Just like life there are no guarantees to this process, but what I do believe is that if you fill your head with positive thoughts and outcomes you will be in a better place to be successful.

I believe that it's important to work hard physically and preparing the body for the grind and stress of competition but like all athletes in any sport, the mind comes first. WHY? Good question and glad you asked. 

 

I truly believe that most swimmers come up short because they were not mentally prepared.  You can put in all the work in the pool but if you walk into a meet focusing in on how tired you are, or what you are missing, or what you are afraid of then your success may have already been determined.  If you have visualized success beforehand your brain will work towards helping you achieve it no matter what obstacles you encounter on the way.  On the other hand if you do the opposite and you fill your head with negatives you make your path to success much harder, you may get there but the road you have taken will be harder.

When you can start to feel your environment and seeing it at the same time--what the water will feel like?--Who's beside you?--What's it going to be like as you touch the wall?--you can start to prepare yourself for every situation and that my friends is a huge advantage.

The key to this is that just like practice you need to be consistent with the process.  You can do it on the way to practice (yes you can use it for practice also), in between events and of course you can always put that phone down for a few minutes each day and close your eyes  and go to town.  

LAST WEEK WRAP UP

Our three groups (PREP/GOLD/BLUE) had a real good week of workouts, as we continued working on our streamlines (lock thumbs--squeeze ears--look down--off both our dives  and turns.  We had an especially good end of practice working on our dives a reason I like being over there on Saturday mornings.  Parents I know sometimes it may look as if the kids are just swimming back and forth but be assured that they have one or two things that they are working on during those swims.  Its very easy to do things perfect when doing them slow, but at some point the swimmer needs to perform the same action under stressful conditions when they are tired.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons the prep group is doing very well on those long swims at intervals that are dropping each week.  The purpose goes back to working on the mental side.  Those 2 sets are designed to help your swimmer feel like they doing the same set at a faster interval and they feel strong at the conclusion.

MOVING FORWARD

We have a few meets coming up that we need to touch base on.  First off is the distance meet which these three groups should not enter.  The other 2 meets are the Mako Gobble meet and the swim and rock meet (trails and final on Friday and Saturday). Unless we have a good reason we should be only swimming in the Swim and Rock and we should be doing our best events.  If there is a strong desire to swim the Gobble meet have your swimmer talk to me or e-mail.  If we decide to swim it we only want to do one day and events that we don't normally do.

PREP--on Monday morning you will get the next 3 week cycle of strength conditioning to put in your folders.   Don't miss a session.

Blue Group if there are some of you who want to swim in the swim and rock you need to send me an email so we can discuss.

Remember that these 2 meets are back to back weekends and being on the deck that much is hard for your swimmers.

SET OF THE WEEK

WORKING OUR IM. ALL RACE SPEED OR THE SHARK WILL GET YOU

• 6 rounds
• 25 fly strong @1:00 (keep chin on water and forward when breathing)
• 50 back to breast @1:00 (keep tempo fast through back and fast to full extension during breast)
• 75 free @1:00
• ALL RACE PACE
• 50 easy kick boards @2:00

Make sure you stay on top of your school work this week, take care of yourselves away from the pool, wrap up after practice it's starting to get cold.  Help out around the house and thank your parents.

Looking forward to a good week of workouts.