To Taper or Not

This is THE question. Every swimmer wants to taper but resting takes a lot more courage than training. Training is, relatively speaking, easy .Resting changes everything. It leaves you often feeling unsettled, nervous and often messes up your sleep patterns. Plus you have all this extra time and energy.

Our senior club trains 15 hours a week. Not a lot compared to some others, especially back in the day. Yet if you trim that by 1/3 to 10 hours, what do you do with those extra 5 hours? Maybe go a little bit crazy?

Here is the truth. To get faster you need to do 2 things: 1- work hard and 2 – rest. That’s it. But most athletes don’t work as hard as they think they do and few if any rest enough to make a real difference.

How can a person tell what advice to follow? That’s simple as well. In our sport of swimming look to the most accomplished coaches and see what they have to say on this, or frankly, any subject close to the sport. Accomplished coaches are those who have a long track record of success with a variety of swimmer types.

When it comes to taper we believe (based upon the above criteria) that you either need to rest 3 days or 3 weeks. Nothing in between has long term time measured validity. Some may even need more than 3 weeks. 1 week or 2 weeks or 10 days just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Something else to consider…there are 3 items to consider around taper time…the tech suit, the shave, the rest. In our opinion, rest is the most important. It takes enormous amounts of courage to rest. First and foremost, train as hard as you can, then train some more. Then take 3 days or 3 weeks rest and watch how fast you swim.

Comments?

Robin Sharma

We discovered Robin Sharma from a fellow coach. We bought his book, “What To Do When It’s Your Turn”. We then got on his email list and occasionally get some gems. All that follows are from his recent email. We found the thoughts simple but masterful and very relative to what we as coaches are striving to accomplish with our team.

If you're the smartest person you know, it's time to know some new people.

If you're the most successful person on your street Don, today I encourage you to find a new street. [I'm only partly joking on his one].

If you're the most productive person in your community, it's definitely time to find a new community.

The principle I'm hinting at with my usual love and respect for you? We become our conversations. And our associations sculpt our destinies. 

5 leadership lessons my mentors have taught me:

Think like a pro

Lead like a warrior

Produce like a Picasso

And love like a saint

Be great

The Value of a Straight Line

Two weekends ago we raced at a local senior meet. Of the many observations we noted that some of our swimmers swim in “circles”. Some of these circles are more pronounced than others. We asked Audrey, since she has some brain power! – to figure out how much extra yardage is navigated when something other than a straight line is swum. Some of your swimmers might be interested in the chart below. 

One other thing, we looked everywhere and couldn’t find any “cuts” for a 510.864 swim. 

Extra Distance from Circle Swimming*

	50 yards	100 yards	200 yards	500 yards	1000 yards	1650 yards
3” from line	0.030	0.061	0.122	0.304	0.608	1.003
6” from line	0.155	0.311	0.623	1.556	3.113	5.136
1’ from line	0.545	1.089	2.179	5.447	10.893	17.974
1.5’ from line	1.086	2.173	4.346	10.864	21.729	35.852
2’ from line	1.753	3.506	7.013	17.532	35.064	57.856

* Distances are in yards

Santa Clara XLIV International June 2011

Overheard on the deck while at this meet…

Coach, I want to make Olympic Trials

Move it from your head to your heart

And this one…

Boomers vs Millennials

Get on their page (this is the toughest lift)

A Set Sampler

We had a good workout on Sunday and thought we’d share the ideas with you. Our intention is to craft training sessions so that everyone has an opportunity to “latch onto” some work of value. We look at our club team of teenagers as being all sprinters while dividing them into long, mid and short sprinter sub groups.

The sets below came after about 50 minutes of warm-up and technique work. We measure the benefit in the moment by how much talking goes on while they are on the wall…less chatter, more grit being developed…at least that’s our bias. We’ll know down the road in a couple of months if we are correct.

Long sprinters 500/7 then 3x100/1:40 fast] 12 x 5 rds = 60 min

Long sprinters 500/6 then 3x100/1:40 fast] 11 x 6 rds = 66min

Long sprinters 500/5 then 3x100/1:40 fast] 10 x 6 rds = 60 min

Long sprinters 400IM/6 then 3x100IM/1.40 fast] 11 x 6 rds = 66 min

The 500’s are NS (negative split) by time and the IM’s NS by effort

Mid sprinters     

200fr/2:30 then 4x50/1 stroke fast then 200 stroke/3 then 4x50fr/1 fast] 13.5 x 4 rds =52

Flyers did laps 1,4,8 fly on the stroke 200; Breasters did 1st and 4^th 50 breast

Short sprinters

3x100/1:30 NS w dolph kks off each wall

Then all fast: 2x25/.30 then 2x50/1 then 1x75/1:30] 9 x 6 rd=54

This group went any stroke they wanted on the 25’s, 50’s and 75

We needed to keep encouraging them to go fast on the fast stuff since the natural tendency was to use the longer rests to go easier. Once they bought in, the lane chatter went away…no rest between rounds.

The Never Ending Quest

As coaches we are forever striving to hit the correct phrase to flip the proverbial switch with our swimmers…the switch that leads them to the promised land of success and fulfillment…sounds a little like snake oil but what the heck…

This week we came up with the following…

There are really only 3 types of swimmers

1 – The swimmer who works diligently and is in darn good shape

2 – The swimmer who refines her skill set and has fabulous technique

3 – The swimmer who has both skills and conditioning

Those who fall into group 3 are far more often than not the ones swimming up front. No single athlete is in the third group all the time. Life gets in the way and they move around and yet we have on our team – and so do you! – those who consistently live in group 3. By far the largest group is probably group 1. We have very few in group 2…that one requires a fair amount of brain power and connectedness.

As club coaches we never give up striving for large percentages in group 3. We have found that once a swimmer experiences group 3 they won’t want to leave…and that is the Promised Land.

Footnote: there is a group 4…those who have neither but our experience is that by 13 or 14 they self-select out of our sport because it takes too much work and so group 4 usually only exists in 12 and unders

Rust Never Sleeps

Rust Never Sleeps is an album by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young and American band Crazy Horse. It was released on July 2, 1979, by Reprise Records.^[3] Most of the album was recorded live, and then overdubbed in the studio. Young used the phrase "rust never sleeps" as a concept for his tour with Crazy Horse to avoid artistic complacency and try more progressive, theatrical approaches to performing live.

We took our team to a ½ day conference meet with 3 other teams today. We haven’t been on the blocks since early August. We have some rust and it showed today. However, we need not fret since we are, like Young, avoiding complacency by being more progressive in our approaches to racing.

All of our racing is formed by our training. We have been working on instilling new techniques taught to us by Bob Gillett for the effective use of underwater dolphin kicking. We are far from proficient yet many of our swimmers are discovering the wisdom and value of “getting it right.”

And yes, like Young, we have a few theatrical approaches by our swimmers…life is never dull around kids!

Back to the rehearsal studio – oops, we mean pool – tomorrow.

Goals – Something Old, Something New

Nothing really new here on this topic. It is that time of the year again when we think individually and collectively about what our goals are. Goals, of course, are the map to the destination. No map, you just end up driving around. We saw a card once that said “to be sure of hitting your goals, shoot first and whatever you hit, call it your goal.”

And this isn’t really news to any of you either. When you hear something you have a small amount of retention. When you read the same thing, your retention goes up somewhat. When you write your goal your success rate goes up quite a bit. When you see your goal daily, or even more, your success rate improves dramatically.

Why? Because we humans move toward and become like that which we see, hear, feel and envision being true about us. If you examine your spot in life right this moment you will see that this is indeed true. You get, most of the time, that which you actively seek.

We had a chat with a friend today who asked, “So what’s your team look like for the coming season?” We said, “It sure looks different than it did last year and we lost some firepower due to graduation. However, we have willing and able athletes and we know how to coach so we will be fine.” That is a goal statement.

But this is perhaps newsworthy. What do most young people (at least teenagers and up) look at 30-150 times a day? Yup, their phone. What if they put their goals on the screen saver? Potentially a game changer…

Fort Lauderdale & Rio

We spent the week in Fort Lauderdale at the annual ASCA Coaches Clinic. If you are a coach and not yet a member we urge you to become one…invest in your profession, education and get inspired all for way less than a cup of coffee a day. The clinic was of course anchored by the accomplishments of Team USA at the Rio Olympics.

A few impressions from that theme are as follows:

Look at the swimming IQ of your team – watch, react and appreciate all the swimmers work and their workout swims…Team USA built on those swims in training camp

Learn to touch the wall ahead of the others…this was a key mantra if you will…USA garnered something like 12 of its total 33 medals by a combined 2.7 seconds…they were extremely focused on touching the wall ahead of as many as possible

Ask the question of your team “When did the switch go on for you?”…every swimmer at the top has an identifiable moment in their career when that has happened…know when that was for you

Don’t assume anything – cover all the bases

As a coach you must fight for excellence for your swimmers. It isn’t cheap. You must commit to it and as a club coach you may not get the credit or the limelight.

In its ad on this month’s back inside cover of Swimming World, Arena has a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that pretty much summarizes the difference between podium swims and the 5 other swimmers…a harsh assessment but more often than not true…

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Getting It Right

We are a little bit like proud parents after watching our offspring do something remarkable. The following came to us last week from Mitch. We know we did right by him and that he got “IT”…so proud of our efforts and his progress…pats on all the backs all the way around. Thanks for sharing Mitch…You got it right!

“Hey Don!

Just got out of my first college practice...still hasn't set in that I'm swimming at D1 school. Seemed like yesterday I was sitting in your car wondering if I should even swim. I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me over the past 3 years. I still remember the night I came as a scrawny/moody kid to the Bay Area to check out NorthBay. I knew immediately that NBA was the place I wanted to be because everyone was so happy. Ken was poking kids with a noodle...and he was the head coach. It was such a weird concept for me that people could actually swim fast and have fun. I definitely had my fair share of pity parties and screw ups as a Tuna, but you were always there to talk me off the ledge. I've still got some work to do in that department, but I can't thank you enough for helping me grow up. You made me realize that nobody really remembers how fast you went in our sport or in life. What they really remember is what kind of person you were. You helped me to understand that my role is to be not Mitch the superstar, but Mitch the leader. For this, I will be eternally grateful. I can't wait to see what NBA's gonna do this year - I'll most certainly be keeping tabs. Keep in touch and all the best for this year mate.”

The Value of Failure

We stumbled upon a blog post from Jeff Kubiak and Eric Ewald today, gotta love the internet. We actually know Jeff personally…a most excellent swimmer and coach who now appears to be a renowned educator. Anyway, the subject was failure and its importance in the role of success…in all walks of life.

It resonated with us in particular since this Tuesday is our first day back in the water. We haven’t had much interaction with the team for the better part of a couple of weeks, which feels like a much longer period of time than it actually is.

We know as coaches we feel energized and ready to move forward and suspect that most if not all of our swimmers feel the same. The ones who may not feel so are perhaps the ones who missed some success last season, at least in their eyes.

The ball player who hit a home run last night cannot wait to get to the ballpark today; the one who struck out 3 times, maybe not so much.

One of our recurring themes this year is grit…defined as” the tendency to sustain interest in an effort toward very long term goals” (thanks Jim Richardson!).

From Kubiak and Ewald we get this: “Failure + Perseverance = Success”

Michael Jordan missed more than 9,000 shots. He said he was entrusted to take the game winning shot and missed 300 times.

Point: we all fail and we need to use it, not shy away from it. As coaches we need to keep reassuring our athletes on this point…you cannot succeed without failing.

From Humble Beginnings

One of the compelling aspects of the Olympic Games is the human interest stories that emerge for both super stars and back in the pack athletes. We find it interesting to see that none have had any success handed to them. Everyone earns what they get.

Then we started thinking about how those athletes are supported by parents and coaches and teammates. This led us to thinking about the origins of those supportive members of any athlete’s circle.

My Dad, Guthrie Swartz, began his career as a minister in October of 1946 – age 20. He is still alive and well at 90, living independently and driving; he has a silver Honda Insight so you may want to give him a little space if you see him on the freeway!

He shared with me a handwritten letter from September 28, 1946 from H. Edward Hooper who was the Clerk of the Harwinton Congregational Church. In read in part, “It was voted unanimously to extend to you a call to serve as Pastor of our church at an annual salary of $1600 plus 5 tons of coal plus the electric bill at the parsonage.

That in my eyes is indeed a humble beginning. He has influenced thousands of church members at about ten churches over his career.

It made me think about my own beginnings in coaching in 1966, earning $4 per hour. Indeed every coach out there, regardless of your sport, has had a humble beginning. And for whatever reason you kept at it and collectively we have influenced millions of young people. Every now and then one ends up in an Olympic uniform. Those that don’t are just as valuable to the community they serve, be it local or global.

Smile and take a small bow. Sport has been good for all of us.

This is How We Move

As we reflect on our successes and missteps of the season just ending we are undoubtedly like many of our swimmers. We are wondering about missed opportunities and marveling at transformations. This takes place both team wide and individually.

We are reminded while watching the Futures meet at Stanford that humans (and groups of humans – teams) are constantly in motion travelling toward that upon which they are focusing.

You must choose between that which you want and that which you want to avoid. The former will lead you to the promised land. The latter will lead you to the dark side.

The old adage comes to mind; winners see what they want while losers see what they want to avoid. Want to finish a race with power then focus on it. If you focus on not dying in a swim you are most assuredly going to fade, sometimes spectacularly so.

Teams move in the same direction. Want a team full of positive, supportive and trustworthy athletes? Then you must as a coach talk about that, recognize it and call into question those who don’t “fit” your desired model.

Want to be upbeat? Then go do it and dump negativity whenever and wherever you see it. Hold yourself and those around you to the standard which emulates your goal.

These are all conscious choices we make daily as we move through the often whimsical forces of life. When you evaluate your season be honest.

Choice is powerful. You are responsible for who you are and who you will become.

Season End Keeping It Simple

The end of season meet is upon us all, swimmers from Olympian to National to Age Grouper, parents and coaches of same.

Here is a basic primer of how to get what you have earned. Your “bank account” is as full as it is going to be this season. Now figure out how to spend it all…empty the bank.

Swimmers; all you need is equal parts of trust and courage…trust that you will do your best and courage to put aside any doubts and fears. When the moment comes – and it does in darn near every race – when you find yourself wondering if you can make it to the touchpad simply say “GO!”…as many times with as much emotion as you need. Keep it simple.

Parents; just love your swimmer…stay away from advice…feed them the same no matter the result…keep things light…let them get their own towel, snack bar and water. Keep it simple.

Coaches; you are the steady rock. Stay in character, be calm. Tell the truth. Most important perhaps is to use a teaching moment if it arises…know what to say to them if the swim doesn’t work out.

Keep it simple.

This is the time of year when less is actually more.

Planning vs. A Microwave

Since being at Olympic Trials we have been thinking about the direction of our program, defining it and then implementing a plan. We decided that it is in our team’s best interest to develop a 4 year cycle. The goal will be to put as many swimmers at Trials in 2020 and give any a shot at a second swim or making the team the best opportunity to achieve that goal.

We had four swimmers at this year’s event, 2 who are still at our club level and 2 who had dual representation with their universities and our club. None of them had cuts 4 years ago. 2 were not even on the team 4 years ago.

Point – a lot can happen in 4 years. Your promising 13 year old without cuts today can make them in 4 years. Any of the 4 who were there this summer can improve in 4 years.

We have to make the statement of intention publicly so all will know what the center of our target looks like. No one is excluded, though naturally many will exclude themselves due to training neglect or development of other interests.

We attempt to “coach” all swimmers on our team while acknowledging the reality that some only get “trained” while others actually ask for and are susceptible to being coached. Also, being willing to be coached doesn’t mean you will get to Trials. We are of the belief that if you only train you probably won’t make it to Trials. We talk about this openly; we play no favorites; we are an equal opportunity team…everyone has the opportunity and they must own it. We facilitate; they swim.

A couple of weeks ago we were listening to a radio interview being conducted at San Diego in conjunction with MLB’s All-Star game. Respected baseball authority Tom Verducci was asked why the San Diego Padres (host of the game this year) faired so poorly over such a long stretch of time. They have made the playoffs very infrequently yet reside in a baseball rich area of the country with excellent weather and great living conditions. His comment burned in our minds. “You cannot microwave a championship”. You must plan, build, invest and coach like crazy…over the long haul.

That’s exactly what we are doing…beginning yesterday.

This One’s for the Coaches Out There

Paul Lundgren swims on our Masters team. He contributes mightily to our program. He is a deep thinker and highly respected distance athlete (he has attempted to swim across the Sea of Cortez twice). His book, “Where Mountains Come to Swim”, subtitled “A journey into the mind of a man training to swim across the Sea of Cortez” is available through www.swimcortez.com. He sent us the following which made us laugh instantly; reminding us that laughter is indeed the best medicine. You will appreciate Joe Namath’s quote.

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble the football" - John Heisman  
 
"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game." – Bear Bryant / Alabama
 
"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle, you can hear it!” - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame  
 
"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money, and we don't have any." – Erik Russell / Georgia Southern
 
"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."  -  Lou Holtz / Arkansas - Notre Dame
 
"When you win, nothing hurts."  -  Joe Namath / Alabama
 
"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall."  -  Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
 
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."  -  Woody Hayes / Ohio State
 
"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation.  I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation."  -  Bob Devaney / Nebraska  

"In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant."  -  Wally Butts / Georgia
 
"I never graduated from Iowa.  But I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's."  –  Alex Karras / Iowa
 
"My advice to defensive players is to take the shortest route to the ball, and arrive in a bad humor.”  -  Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee
 
"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar except for my grades."  - Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
 
"Always remember Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David."  -  Shug Jordan / Auburn   
 
"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me ."   He said,"Well, Walt, we took a look at you, and you weren't any good."  -  Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State 

"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel."  -  Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"Football is NOT a contact sport, it is a collision sport.  Dancing IS a contact sport."  -  Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
 
After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post-game message to his team was, "All those who need showers, take them."  -  John McKay / USC
 
"If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.”  -  Murray Warmath / Minnesota
 
"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb.  To be a back, you only have to be dumb."   -  Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
 
"We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches."   -  Darrell Royal / Texas   
 
"We didn't tackle well today, but we made up for it by not  blocking."   -  John McKay / USC
 
"I've found that prayers work best when you have big players."   -  Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
 
Ohio State’s Urban Meyer on one of his players: “He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades and he doesn't know the meaning of a lot of words.”
 
Why do Tennessee fans wear orange? So they can dress that way for the game on Saturday, go hunting on Sunday, and pick up trash on Monday.
 
What does the average Alabama player get on his SATs? Drool.
 
How many Michigan State freshmen football players does it take to change a light bulb? None. That's a sophomore course.
 
How did the Auburn football player die from drinking milk? The cow fell on him.
 
Two Texas A&M football players were walking in the woods. One of them said, "Look, a dead bird."The other looked up in the sky and said,"Where?"

What do you say to a Florida State University football player dressed in a three-piece suit? "Will the defendant please rise."
 
If three Rutgers football players are in the same car, who is driving? The police officer.
 
How can you tell if a Clemson football player has a girlfriend? There's tobacco juice on both sides of the pickup truck.
 
What do you get when you put 32 Arkansas cheerleaders in one room? A full set of teeth.
 
University of Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh is only going to dress half of his players for the game this week; the other half will have to dress themselves.
 
How is the Kansas football team like an opossum? They play dead at home and get killed on the road.
 
Why did the Tennessee linebacker steal a police car? He saw "911" on the side and thought it was a Porsche.

How do you get a former Illinois football player off your porch? Pay him for the pizza.