THE DISQUALIFICATION

 

Yes that dreaded disqualification, a little yellow piece of paper that is signed by the officials and in most cases given to the coach explaining the swimming infraction by the swimmer.  That is the moment that it becomes official whether we like it or not.

This past weekend I had several swimmers maybe 4 or 5 who came back after races and either said they thought they were DQ or asked if they were.  This happens at every meet and the one thing I normally ask is, What makes you think that?   What I’m looking for from the swimmer is a rule infraction that they think they may have had in the race.  The majority of the time the swimmer states they saw a hand raise.  

First thought,  why are you looking at the official ?  This tells me that no matter what you say and think your entire focus is not on YOUR race.  You can say it is but just saying it is doesn’t make it so.  

The stroke and turn judge is watching 2 or more lanes during the race and they make a judgement call on what they see or think they see.  Disqualifications will happen and they happen to swimmers at all levels. As a swimmer the one thing that you can do to reduce them is to focus on the little things (no matter how little you think they are) during your practice and training sessions.  Be aggressive with your turns, pay special attention to good stroke counts, stop floating into your turns especially backstroke, and two hand turns and finishes in breast and fly.

Take the feedback from the coaches from this past weekend, write them down and let’s get back to the pool and really focus on them going into the swim and rock meet and our mid season December championship meets. 

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

 

When thinking about your goals and it comes down to times you have one constant and that is your time in any event at this moment in time.  Remember you need to have SMART GOALS and they must be RELEVANT to you.  You can't set goals that pertain to times based on other swimmers or things that are outside your control.

For our purpose we are going to base everything on one event (you can use any event) the 100 free.  In today's world people, swimmers not immune expect instant positive results and have a real problem when faced with conflict and for swimmers it's the time on the scoreboard.

Sometimes when you look up it's like getting smacked in the face, it stings but it's not the end of the world.  Is there a way that you can avoid that moment, I think YES and it comes down to managing your expectations depending on where YOU are in the process.

Think about setting upper and lower expectations when setting goals based on times in addition to your SMART goals.  When you do this you are creating a situation where it's all or nothing.  The goal is still important but you also allow yourself to think bigger and also give yourself a reality check.  

Now let's take an example such as the 100 free:

• Your time at the moment: 1:03:99
• Bare Minimum:  1:03:50
• Smart Goal:  1:01:99
• Stretch Target:  1:00:99

In this example if everything goes right you are slipping under 1:01:00 and that in itself would be amazing but if you don't get there it's not disaster because you have some other goals that are achievable.  Set some reasonable goals for yourself and at the same time don't be afraid to set a stretch target and you need to WRITE them down in your journal or they become meaningless.

Now is the time to sit down and put pencil to paper and figure out what your dreams and goals are for this season before we get into SWIM and ROCK and the DECEMBER MID CHAMP MEET. Be Honest with where you are in the process when thinking about this.  There are many things that will affect the results that happen outside the pool such as; health, nutrition, hydration, sleep habits.  Are you making your training sessions consistently or are you in and out.  When you are at your training session, are you there both physically and mentally and doing what will make YOU a better person and swimmer   It's not to late to do it, SO DO IT NOW and make it happen.

ELECTION DAY

 

So, today is Election Day and although you may still be to young to cast a ballot, I’m sure you will enjoy your day off from school and welcome Wednesday morning will bring an end to all the news surrounding the election.

PRE-COMPETITION ROUTINE:  

Do you have a routine that steady you and eases your anxiety?  Watching and talking to some of you at the last meet I sensed your anxiety and the fact that mentally we failed to prepare.  First of all, it's not the end of the world and it is something that we can work on.  Having those feelings does not make you a bad swimmer, it's just another step in the process that you have to commit to working on.  It's as important as the time you put into your time in the pool.

First step is to think back to that one or two times when you had incredible races and start working backwards.  Journals are great for these exercises.  Think back to that dyad write down short notes to yourself of what you did leading up to those races.  What did you eat?  What was your warmup like

?  What were your thoughts leading up to the race?  Don't over think this basic step.  Just write down what comes to mind.  Maybe even draw a line down the middle and lable them ass positive/negative and that way you are aware of things that help you and things that get in your way.

This is a true and tested way of preparing mentally.that is part of the process that just may lead to that spectacular swim.

How well do you know your history?  Our first three Vice Presidents were chosen by the electoral college and was changed when the 12th amendment to our constitution was passed.  There was a time when the electoral college voted for two candidates with the candidate receiving the majority becoming president and the second place candidate becoming the vice president.  It worked well for George Washington and John Adams, however during the 1797 election the winner and runner up were from opposite parties.  This was the only time in US HISTORY that the president and vice president were from opposing parties.  The 1800 election ended in a tie between Jefferson and Aron Burr which took 36 votes to break, and so before the 1804 election the 12 amendment to the constitution was adopted and passed.

Can you imagine what today might look like without the 12th amendment?

TALKING BACKSTROKE

 

Over the last couple of weeks we have spent a lot of time working on our backstroke.  We have covered a wide range of topics with this long axis stroke starting of course with our STREAMLINES and UNDERWATER DOLPHIN KICKS, to the breakout, the catch, the rotation and finally the kick.

First off for all you Air Hogs out there you get to swim this stroke with your face out of the water so enjoy breathing.

The first and most important thing we talked about was your body position and how that begins up top with your head and how important it is to hold your head still an d looking straight up.  this allows you to keep your hips in alignment and high in the water.  If your constantly changing the position of your head your hips start riding that "rollercoaster" creating a lot of drag decreasing efficiency and making you swim slower.

THE CATCH and PULL: We begin the pull with your hand exiting the water thumb-first keeping your arm straight and slowly rotating the body setting up the catch with the pinky entering first.  We talked about the clock and how we wasn't to make the catch at the 11 and 1 on the clock. We don't want to enter at the 12. notice the picture on the right.  The pull feels similar to a high-elbow freestyle pull. 

THE KICK:  Think SHORT and FAST here.  Kick is driven from the hips not the knees.  Toes are pointed and legs not too wide. Smaller and faster kicks will produce more speed.  Too slow or no kick and your hips drop creating drag and slower times.

ROTATION: With a small rotation on the catch you reduce shoulder drag and resistance, but be careful not to rotate too much (a little less than in free).  Remember Humans are not made to swim in the water efficiently so we are looking for ways to decrease drag and resistance at every opportunity.  This should be your focus during training.  It may take time but eventually it will produce speed and power.  Notice the rotation in the first picture.

TEMPO: Fast backstroke comes down to arm speed and that is challenging for young swimmers because it's hare and uncomfortable, so again we have to work on becoming uncomfortable if we want to swim fast.

FUN FACT

Half of the American population does not know how to swim

MOST IMPORTANT WORD FOR SWIMMERS

 

What is it?  Can you guess before reading any further?

If you guessed STREAMLINES you’re right if you guessed something else your not wrong it just might not be as important as those STREAMLINES.

How important is the STREAMLINE to swimmers of all ages at every level in swimming from the novice to the Olympian, simply put it's gigantic and for short course races it's enormous.  

First off, every lap in your race begins with a streamline whether you are starting or coming off your turn and the longer your race the more streamlines you have during the race.  The streamline starts with your fingertips and runs all the way through your body to your toes.  It's also important in developing that 5th stroke: UNDERWATER STREAMLINE DOLPHIN KICK.

The two biggest  enemies  of every swimmer is drag and resistance and there is a lot of both that is created around the walls as you go in and out of your turns.  While you may not pick up speed off the walls you certainly don't want to lose speed.  The one and only thought you should have going into your turn and coming out of your turn is this: I WANT TO MAINTAIN MY SPEED.  If you can do this that breakout stroke into the next 25 gets easier and more powerful.  

Here is a thought for you to ponder before your next training session.

Let’s say we do our routine Wednesday warmup for our gold group.

400 mixer (100 free-200 back-100 free) How many chances did you just have to work on improving your streamlines? The answer is 16. 

Put another way, thats 16 investments that you and only you are making in your swimming.  That investment will just compound and become larger and better over time and something that you can draw upon on RACE DAY!  This is something that YOU can control and that's a good thing.  The choice is yours!

Here is a 1 minute video for your enjoyment

The four biggest mistakes that coaches see swimmers during races are: 

1. Pushing off the wall and begin swimming immediately.
2. Pushing off the wall with arms apart in "position 11" or the "Superman" position.
3. Head Up looking forward.
4. Not being firm and having a "jello" bodyline.

Just like making your brushing your teeth,  performing a streamline should be the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night before bed."  Okay not exactly but yo get the idea.  Right!

The sentence that uses every letter of the English alphabet is, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."  Check it out if you have doubts.