RESETTING

 "Breathe in confidence, breathe out doubt."

As all of you head off to your team time trails this weekend and into your first meets let’s spend this one on how to RESET after a unusually tough outing.

A bad workout or race will happen to all of us at some point and as you age these moments seem to happen more and more.  It happens to all athletes across all the sports and no one is safe from those moments.  It all comes down to how do you respond when those moments smack you down.

The first thing that you need to do is: acknowledge that it will happen and develop a plan to deal with those moments.  Your frustrated and that makes sense.  It was a tough set or race and it's okay to feel the way you do.  Everyone has off days and those moments don't define you and they don't make you a bad swimmer.

The next thing you should do is to redirect your focus on the things you can control (the past is the past).

History teaches us that is important to learn from the past or it will keep repeating itself.  Take one thing from the moment and decide to work on that and make it better such as;

• first three strokes
• stronger streamlines
• breathing
• finishing kick
• pacing strategy

Look at the moment, don't be overwhelmed or get to emotional and make a mental checklist and then get get to work.  It becomes easier to reset when the targets are small and specific.  The smallest success allows you to hit that reset button sooner than later.

Talking to yourself positively  will help you build a resilience to moments like this in your swimming, phrases such as;

• "One race doesn't beat me."
• "I can fix one thing and be better."
• "I can get better by trying again."
• "I'm learning, not losing."

Put these in your self talks with yourself. In closing try this after a tough race.  Go to the swim down pool and come up with a 30 second  Reset Routine before talking to anybody.

1. Breathe ( take a few dep breaths and do a 10 second exhale)
2. Shake it Out (arms-shoulders-legs-neck/head)
3. Choose One Fix (take one thing, don't try to fix everything at one time)
4. Try Once Again ( same event one perfect lap and walk away)

Sometimes your effort means more than the time.  Your always learning so that you may come out stronger at the next opportunity.  Your a good swimmer it was just a tough moment.

NUTRITION CORNER

Strawberry Banana Swim Fuel Shake--It's fun, easy to make, easy on the stomach and great for recovery INGREDIENTS;

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup milk/oat/or almond milk
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon of nuts/almonds or wheat germ (optional)

SET of Week (for our 11-12 year olds)

WARM UP 2x2x2

2x100 mix (50free/50 kick boards/ 50 back/ 50 kick no boards)

2x25 kick fast boards

2x50 (first one build to fast/ 2nd one all fast)

TECHNIQUE BLOCK (20 MINUTES)

2 ROUNDS

8x25 back (odds back focus on rotation/  evens breast 15m corners then 4-5 hard strokes to wall)

4x50 ( odds back  evens breast with 2 hand touches+strong pull outs)

STARTS (back and breast)

BACK- explode and get your rear ends up hold your streamlines +3

BREAST--lock in your streamlines 3-2-1 and explode into those pullouts + 3 stroke

GAME BEAT THE COACH

TRIVIA MAILBOX

Last week answer:  breaststroke

This weeks question: Is freestyle really an official stroke?