BRAIN HEART COURAGE

"Athletic skills are acquired over a long period of time after countless hours of practice.  Your talent sets the floor.  Your mindset sets the ceiling", and "It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back that counts."

The Wizard of Oz can teach a swimmer some valuable lessons that can be applied in their training and competitions.  What do you have in common with the scarecrow, the tin man or the cowardly lion?  

Let's jump in and see if we can learn anything from this classic.

THE SCARECROW and how important is the brain for a swimmer. 

Swimming is not just a physical activity but a highly cognitive sport requiring a good mental mind set.  Your brain helps you control how you learn, focus and respond under pressure.  The brain in young swimmers is still developing which makes mental skills are a big part of your swimming success.  

Your brain-to-muscle communication is important in your reaction time in getting off the blocks and into your race.  The good thing is that all of you already have a brain (whether you use it or not) that is a big part of your mental game.

THE TIN MAN  and how important is the heart for a swimmer. For obvious reason the heart controls and regulates the blood flow rich with oxygen to your body.  This allows you to maintain speeds for longer periods of time which helps with muscle fatigue.  This is the reason you do not need to breathe so much in a 50 as all of you are racing for only 23 to 35 seconds.  For the longer swims that breathing pattern you have worked on allows you to have a steady pace throughout the race.

Your heart supports your brain by delivering the oxygen to your muscles to effectively train and race.

A healthier heart makes you a more confident athlete and the good thing is that all of you already have a heart and don't need to seek out a wizard.

THE COWARDLY LION  and how important is courage for you as a competitive swimmer. 

Courage can take many different forms, but the type of courage a swimmer needs is that is about taking risks, try hard things even when you don't want to.  It's about staying steady when something feels uncomfortable or uncertain in the pool.

Swimmers courage is the ability to race with confidence even when you're nervous or unsure how it will go.  It's about the ability to bounce back from a bad start, turn, DQ or bad race.  It's having the ability to push into that discomfort zone during workouts and competitions and succeeding.  

Courage comes in all shapes and sizes and the good thing is that within each of you lies some type of courage, you don't need a wizard. you just need to look at yourself and realize it's there.

YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Yours is that black tile line on the bottom of the pool, follow it in your race and don't veer off of your road to success or you might run into those flying monkeys and witches.  You will find your land of oz at the end of that road.

So there you have the story of the wizard of oz and how you can apply it to your own swimming.  Follow that yellow brick road (black tile on bottom of lane) and if you need a wizard  look into a mirror, there's the wizard and surprise it's YOU.

WEEKLY TECHNIQUE TOPIC

THE START:

 What exactly is the purpose of the start and are there ways that you can practice to get off to that great start.  The first thing is to be ready as soon as you step onto those blocks.  That is not the time to be putting on your goggles or waving to mom or day.  Your focus should be on what is in front of you, THE RACE, that’s it.

Some tips:  As you are standing behind the blocks that is a signal that it is time to clear the mind and you should have a key word or phrase (do not share it, it becomes your password to the race) that you say to yourself so that you know it's go time.  

Reaction time:  Be ready to react to the buzzer.  This is why I like to use a whistle during practice.  It is as close to a real time situation as we can get and the sound is consistent each time.

Move forward not up.  This is one of the most common problems I see with young swimmers.  On hearing the buzzer they stand up and dive when they should be propelling themselves forward and over the water.  If you stand up first it wastes time and time is a commodity in swimming especially those short sprint events.

Water entry, Streamline, and breakout:  Three areas that are often overlook but are critical when setting up your race.  The entry should be clean as your entire body should be passing through that hole created by your arms.  The body should be in a tight streamline with your thumbs locking around your other hand and all your muscles squeezing.  The breakout or first stroke should be strong and taken with a statement that you are here to race.

SET OF THE WEEK:

This was a pre set we did after warmup with fins.  The purpose was to engage the heart rate with some speed work.  The other thing we wanted to work on was some speed with all our IM strokes.  Intervals were different for the three groups.  We did 2 rounds with prep, 1 for gold and blue groups.

• 1x50 fly (85% and don't forget to get your air)
• 2x50 back (increase your tempo on the 2nd 25)
• 3x50 breast (first one 3 second glid  2nd one build  third one race)
• 4x50 free (first 3 at 95%  last one ALL OUT)

 NUTRITIONAL TIP OF THE WEEK 

When you pick your fruits and vegetables think of the rainbow.  Try to make your choices as colorful as possible with each meal.  How many of you can get a different color on your plate during the week.  Write it down and keep track because you may actually see a difference in the way you feel during workouts and competition.

TRIVIA TIME

Last week answer "the breakout"  Did you get it right.

This weeks question.  Which stroke is know as the oldest know competitive stroke?