Empty the Tank

This is a big week for Bruce Springsteen fans. The latest album Wreaking Ball has been released and on Friday the 9th at the fabled Apollo Theater in Harlem, Bruce and the E Street Band performed a concert in honor of the 10th anniversary of Sirius Satellite Radio. The new album is loaded with specific and metaphorical images about the current social condition. This concert was the opening night of the band's new tour.

If you are a fan and have been to a concert you know the drill...all night, nonstop, no holds barred energy from one of the great performers of all time, let alone our time.

We found a link on Google we want to share. If you search for "Jon Stewart Bruce Springsteen Kennedy Center" you will find Jon's introduction of Bruce for the evening's festivities. The usual humor is there. We found the following to be particularly compelling...since we have seen Bruce live many times and since we coach - live.

To paraphrase Jon...the power of Bruce Springsteen is that whenever I see Bruce do anything he empties the tank, every time and the beautiful thing about this man is that he empties that tank for his family, he empties that tank for his art, he empties that tank for his audience and he empties that tank for his country...and we are on the receiving end of that beautiful gift and are ourselves rejuvenated if not redeemed.

We have coached many athletes. We have been privileged to have several over the last 4+ decades that know how to empty their tank.

We have coached, not often enough, emptying our tank. We resolve to do better.

Toward the End

At some point all seasons end. And as we look back on this point what do we feel; how do we assess where we are; what comes next? Some of our swimmers are competing in college conference championships this weekend. Some will move forward to NCAA championship meets. Some will not. Our club swimmers are at their "last chance to qualify" meet for the March Junior Nationals in Orlando later this month.

In each case the severe nature of our sport is in plain view; either you make your "cut" or you don't. Either you move on to the next level of competition or you go home and back to work for the next training/racing block.

At our team meeting during dinner tonight with one day to go in our pursuit of Orlando cuts we reminded everyone of three things. While some made cuts this weekend and some didn't and some have another shot or two tomorrow we said the following:

If you missed it, is ok to be disappointed but not discouraged. Discouraged means literally a lack of courage and no one on our team striving for higher standards lacks courage. Disappointed perhaps; discouraged - never.

As each swimmer gets closer to their own personal zero - the fastest possible speed for them - it gets more difficult to whittle time off the watch. No one will ever swim the 100 free in zero seconds. Yet someone will swim it faster than has been done so far in history. Each of us has our physical limits. The trick is to get all the way to that point and savor the pursuit.

Finally, this pursuit is what makes us as coaches and you as swimmers feel so very much alive. It is important to remember to be grateful and at the same time realize it is important to ask for more.

We asked each team member tonight to be grateful and ask for more. We are doing the same tonight as coaches. We hope you will join us as you pursue excellence in your chosen field, on your chosen path.

The Difference Between Trials and Finals

We are at a final tune up meet this weekend in Concord, CA. It is a dress rehearsal if you will prior to our championship meet(s) in early and mid-December. This meet has lots of value to our swimmers since it marks the first competition since we have shifted our focus from base building to speed building. From now until we go to the big meets in December it is all about speed gathering. So at this meet we are checking to see where we are in the transition from “capacity to utilization” (to borrow from Bob Bowman – coach for Mr. Phelps).

This particular meet is very helpful because it has trials (prelims) and finals. If you are fast enough to be in the top 30 (it is a 10 lane pool with A, B, and C finals) in trials you get a second swim. It is of great value to have this second swim because rarely does everything go perfectly and so the swimmers get a chance to redo their swim and make necessary adjustments. (Wouldn’t it be nice to have a second chance on that last sales call that didn’t go perfectly; a chance to say things a little differently or perhaps to appear a little less eager?)

And this brings us to the point of goal setting and more importantly to goal resetting. Athletes and most high level performers in any walk of life have goals. Those goals set our level of expectation and give us something to strive for on a daily basis. They also keep our focus sharp when it comes time to deliver. Having said that, when an athlete reaches her goal then what? When the salesman closes the sale then what?

At this meet we have had numerous swims that exceeded expectations for this time of year. We can tell you that it has been a great opportunity for our swimmers to practice resetting their goals. If you do not yet possess this skill, what happens is that you flat line once you have reached your intended target. Then you miss out on the opportunity that gaining that night time swim affords.

Greg Troy is the coach of the US Men’s Team for 2012 London. At the recent ASCA Clinic he admonished all coaches who have swimmers planning on making the US Olympic Team to prepare for two meets. Many swimmers fall into the trap of wanting to make the Olympic Team and once they do they are so happy/relieved that their Olympic swims do not quite measure up.

Once a swimmer has a good race and “makes a final” as is happening here in Concord, we are encouraging/challenging them to reset their level of expectations. Doing so is a skill set unto itself…and a remarkable handy one to own. It is not for purchase anywhere; you simply need to decide you want it…and then go and earn it by practicing it.

And as Ken says, if all else fails, at least when you go out really fast in the finals, if the wheels come off then you will die a noble death. This is another reason he is the Head Coach of North Bay Aquatics!

2 Questions

We have been working on the importance of self-evaluation after races. Our new season has begun and we have had two rather low key one day meets. This brings us quickly back to the subject of times.

Swimmers, and we guess runners and golfers, are plagued by the value assigned to times and scorecards. Very often we tend to look first at the time, make an evaluation and then attempt to rationalize it. “That was a great time for early in the season.” “I can expect to go much faster when I get in better shape.” “I will certainly be able to do better when I get in shape and then shave and taper.” The list goes on…and on ad nauseam.

The real comeuppance happens later in the season when we do not “get what we want” or come up short of our expectations.

So how do we handle the results/outcomes of these early season races in such a way that they have a positive impact on the rest of the season?

We are suggesting to our team the following and we trust that it has some value to you as well…without getting preachy you can of course see how this applies to closing a sale with a new account or getting an existing customer to “buy into” your next offering.

If the swim doesn’t go the way you intended ask yourself, “What am I going to do about it?” This means on the technical and the physical level. Do I need to improve my technique and or my conditioning?

If the swim goes as planned or even exceeds current expectations ask, “What am I going to do with this?” This means how can I use this performance to leverage myself into a higher level of expectation for the next outing?

So, we are encouraging our team to use whatever outcome is realized in a positive forward thinking/moving manner. After all, we are in the business of progress!

Have a great week in and out of the pool…

A Coaching Conundrum

We went to a meet this weekend. It was a developmental meet with very little at stake…or so we thought.

We were struck with the importance of the performances by the swimmers themselves in a meet that had very few implications, if indeed any.

Early and mid-season meets are a great chance for swimmers to practice that which they have been working towards in training. These meets give coaches an opportunity to gauge how well they have been coaching. (We overheard one coach this weekend chastising his swimmers for not doing things correctly – such as breathing inside the flags at the finish on a freestyle race – while simultaneously declaring that this same flaw was one they always did in workout. Our reaction, kept to ourselves of course, was that this is a coaching problem, not a swimmers’ problem.)

So, we digress…when a swimmer in a development meet puts a lot of importance on their time we ask ourselves…WHY?
There is so much more to competitive swimming than the time. Olympians go several years digging for a tenth or two and still manage to stay involved and not get too upset at swims that are not their “best times.” Yet our younger swimmers who are training strenuously and are not “primed” to swim their fastest are still concerned about the times they post.

We believe that the culture around our sport needs constant evaluation. Are we serving the best interests of our swimmers? Are we striving to give them tools they know can help them get where they want to go? Are we as coaches fully informed about how to help youngsters “get better” – whatever that may mean?

We asked more than one swimmer this weekend the following question; “If you came into workout today and we asked you to swim 3 really fast swims with 30 or so minutes of rest between them, then go have lunch and come back and swim three more really fast swims, would you be able to do that?” Each one of course said, “Yes.”

We then asked the rhetorical question – with a smile on our face – “What is the difference between that and what we are doing at this meet?”

We are very pleased to report that the answer to that question was most often, simply a smile. We feel we made some progress this weekend. That in turn makes us feel like we used our time and efforts wisely.
What say you?

What is Most Important?

We had an interesting question from a swim parent last week that we thought we would share with you. His son is a 14 year old freshman who came out of our local summer league at the end of his season 16 months ago. He had raced 50’s and the 100 IM and that was it. His older brother swims at USC and is a national level swimmer who also started a little late in our program.

The Dad asked, “What does my son need to do to keep improving? What is the most important thing for him right now?” He appreciates the level of stroke instruction hi son receives in our pre-senior group and the coaching is really impressive there, which he also acknowledges. The parents want to give him the opportunity to excel, to see where he might go in swimming. We should also mention the swimmer really is into the team and training. This is not one of those situations where the parents are pushing an unwilling participant.

Our response was pretty simple. “Keep getting him to the meets our team signs up for.” We elaborated a bit from there. A swimmer who goes to training but not meets has no idea if they are progressing. We mean getting faster but also how are they constructing their swims, what is their technique like in races and how do they respond to the various stimuli of competition?

We are a competitive swim team and so how we handle competition is important. It is not the only factor in what we do but it is a very important one. We find that kids who go to workouts but rarely compete are more disconnected to the entire process – the team building, character development etc. Conversely we find that kids who go to meets regularly come to more workouts and get more out of the program as a whole. They develop a keen appreciation for the correlation between effort extended and results obtained. This “connecting the dots” is a critical life skill that our sport teaches. But without the racing the lesson falls way short of the mark.

So, we encouraged the parents to keep making the sacrifices required to get their son to the meets. We race approximately once or twice a month, maybe three times in an 8 week period. There are many significant planning issues around a young high school age swimmer to make all this happen. Not the least of which is school work. That one always comes before swimming.

You wouldn’t send your youngster to a school that doesn’t do some sort of testing. The same holds true for our sport. To get the full reward you need to race on a regular basis. It is the only way to hone your competitive skills.

Controlling the Outcome of a Race

We were in Irvine, CA last week at the US Nationals where all the top racers in the country were vying for spots on upcoming National Teams. Initially they were racing to make the Pan Pacific National Team which is competing in Irvine later in August. Additionally, spots on the US World Championship Team next summer are up for consideration as are places on the World University Games. So you get the picture; there was a lot a stake. To no one's surprise there were some excellent races as all finishes in the top eight counted. Who knows, there may have even been a couple of places in the B final that will get selection officials attention. We watched riveted to the action.

Swimmers at all levels have had the experience of having a particularly excellent race where they knew, or fairly certainly knew, they controlled the outcome of a race. One of our swimmers said when talking about Michael Phelps' 200 Free final that 'I can't imagine having control of a race like that". She was referring to the way that Phelps answered Ryan Lochte's challenge off the third wall. Phelps was in the lead with Lochte in close pursuit throughout the early going. Lochte made a move coming into the turn at the 150 actually touching .01 ahead of Phelps. He - Lochte - kept the heat on actually opening a half stroke lead by the 180 meter mark. It was at that point that Phelps hit another gear and at the 192 mark you could tell that he had set up the final 4 strokes so he would hit the wall exactly at the end of his recovery - and just in front of the furious pursuit of Lochte. The margin between the two was about 3 inches and yet you could see that with about four strokes remaining Phelps had set the finish up perfectly.

That is what our swimmer was referring to in her comments about being in control of the outcome of a race. When we see the most accomplished in any field perform at their highest level we simply take for granted that we could never be so equally capable. And yet the exact opposite is true. Most swimmers, indeed all swimmers at a National Championship meet, have experienced this happening. Our swimmer had just done the very same thing 10 days earlier at Sectionals. They have been on the giving and receiving end. If more swimmers gave themselves more credit then they would also be in "the thick of it" when it comes to competing at ever increasing higher levels.

This is the best part of the swimming experience. When we learn the skill of "controlling the outcome of the race" we actually can transfer that skill set to any phase of our life in which we wish to use it! Think about that one for a minute or two...while you are swimming next time

Thoughts for Champions & Championship Meets

Here in Northern California it is high school swimming championship season. Many swimmers are putting their hopes (and fears) on the line figuring out how to coax a little (or a lot) more speed out of their bodies. Also, the National Masters Championships are next weekend as well. We have a number of swimmers heading into that meet with high expectations.

It seems to us that the trick is to dance on the fine line of exertion balancing the complimentary/contradictory forces of power and grace. When we see someone practicing their craft exceptionally well often the phrase that we use is, "They make it look so easy." Indeed, that may be a very good definition of someone combining power and grace.

Mull that one over a little and see where it leads you.

The following quotes are contributed by Coach Allan Kopel. Thanks for sharing Allan. If you are racing soon, perhaps one of these is the "pearl of wisdom" you have been searching for.

+ Hall of Fame basketball great Jerry West was asked about his message in an upcoming graduation talk. West hoped to encourage the graduates to embrace three attributes that let people be particularly successful.

- Take Risks
- Have Lofty Goals
- Be Able to Bounce Back From Disappointment

Some Quotations:

+ "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

+ "Energy and persistence conquer all things." (Benjamin Franklin)

+ "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." (Benjamin Franklin)

+ "Your attitude, not your aptitude will determine your altitude." (Zig Ziglar)

+ "You do not pay the price of success. You enjoy the price of success." (Zig Ziglar)

+ "Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of athletic competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust."
(Jesse Owens)

What a Gem

We hope you find this enlightening as well as entertaining. This is how it feels to be "right there." Annie captures this very private moment exquisitely. Enjoy!

Last Stand on Land; By Annie Chandler

An Important Reminder

A few of our team, from 10 year old Claire to 17 year old Allan, raced this weekend at the Far Western Age Group Championships. It was a good reminder that it is important to always (strive to) do the best you can with what you have available.

For some of our younger less experienced swimmers this is a very big meet. Over 250 teams from the west coast plus several from the east coast come out to this meet. The first two days were warm and sunny and spirits were high and times were fast. On days three and four the weather turned ugly. Sunday was 50-ish, winds gusting to 40 and heavy rain. Did we mention the meet was held outdoors? You get the picture.

For our older high school age swimmers this was a training meet. We have been pushing very diligently in the pool for 4 weeks now. We asked the group to pick one day of the four and go race since we knew the level of competition would be high. It was an opportunity for them to see what they could do in a tired state. (One of the things college programs look for is swimmers who can race well when tired.)

As we went through the meet, especially today, we kept reminding the swimmers to do the best they could with what was available.

10 year old Claire entered the day with a best time of 29.8 in her 50 free. She left the day the same. She swam a 30.1 and was so disappointed since she has in her mind a 28 something. But we reminded her that she held her breath off the turn – for the first time! – And was very close to her best…in the pouring rain. We turned tears into smiles.

17 year old Allan swam a 5:08 in his 500, out in 2:33 and back in 2:35. This from a young man who kicked 10x100 on the 1:40 on Friday, most of them under 1:15, several under 1:10. A very solid training swim in our minds.

Madison actually improved her 100 breast from 1:17 to 1:16 by executing much better pull throughs. We have been working on this aspect of her swimming for a while and today…in the storm…she pulled it off.

Sandy swam his 200 im in 2:03…his best is 1:53. Yet his under waters in backstroke were a full 10 or 11 yards…not the 12+ we are looking for but much better than he has done before. He was out in 58 for the 100. This is from a 15 year old swimmer who is headed for the top of the mountain. His last 4 weeks of training are spectacular. This swim today is really good. He then followed it with a nice, clean start and turn 50 free in 22.7. This is a very impressive morning for him.

His 13 year old brother swam his 200 fly breathing every other stroke the entire way for the first time. Scott actually swam his best time improving from 2:14 to 2:11.

Charlotte has been training up a storm of her own. On Friday in the sun she swam 54.5 in her 100 free which is darn fast for her. Today in the storm her 50 was 25.3. She was disappointed but the effort was solid, out in 12.1 back in 13.2 which if you consider the dive is negative split. Charlotte has very little easy speed right now. She will go a 23+ in 7 weeks at the high school championships and 52 in her 100. She is a sophomore who is going to make some college coach very happy.

As we went through the weekend we were reminded that no matter what meet you go to not every swimmer will record best times. It matters not your level of preparation or rest. No meet winds up at the 100% level…not even the Olympics. And yet there are many swims that are noteworthy for a wide variety of reasons.

Our task as coaches and swimmers and parents too is to find the value in every attempt regardless of the outcome. Each of us has swum or witnessed a race that resulted in a best time that was nonetheless not constructed well nor executed the way it was intended.

We are blessed in swimming with the non-subjective valuation of the stop watch.
We are cursed in swimming with the non-subjective valuation of the stop watch.

Do the Best You Can With What You Have

What We Learned & Two More Great Quotes

We were in Austin, Texas this past weekend at the Grand Prix meet and saw this quote on the back of a T-shirt, "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary". We liked that one a lot.

There are many places in the world where athletes are training diligently and that is a very important component in the equation for success. Whenever we compete at big meets where we rest, shave and taper we are attempting to achieve one of the most important things we teach, namely how to perform our best when it counts the most. There are not too many places in the world where athletes learn this vital skill, the one of dealing with the pressures and being able to perform as planned. We want our program to be recognized by our athletes as one of those places. And so it is that when we reflect on these meets we learn the most valuable lessons, indeed far more valuable than the ones we learn during training sessions. In no particular order here are some of the items on our list after the Texas Grand Prix.

• 1 - 10 weeks of training is good but not as beneficial as 30.


• 2 - No matter how much speed you have you MUST be able to swim the last 25 yards or meters with conviction.


• 3 - You must be able to compare suits to suits...meaning tech suits to textile suits as regards to times achieved.


• 4 - If you benefited greatly from a tech suit then you need to build your own body into one of those suits. Reduce not so much your weight - though that will help - as much as your percentage of body fat. Core strength is critical.


• 5 - Value your swim based upon the construction and competitiveness of it and not merely the time...see #4 above.


• 6 - When you swim a great race you absolutely must take that passion and pour it into your next round of training. You are now free to train at a higher level of intensity.


• 7 - When things don't work out the way you planned, allow yourself a moment or three of disappointment...and then get over it (and yourself if need be!).

The second great quote at the meet came from one of our swimmers who was offering some assistance to a teammate who was disappointed in a swim. We really liked this one a lot...if we owned a T-shirt shop we'd put it on one now.

"The art of this sport is being able to pick yourself up after a disappointment like this." A. Sayadi

A Sampler from Vancouver

We have been enjoying the competition from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver these past two weeks. Watching the best in any field come together testing their courage and confidence is always a treat. We especially take note during the interviews of the self talk of these athletes. You'll remember a while back we noted that when you hang out with champions you can learn a lot listening to how they talk. It was then suggested that you keep a sharp ear for how you talk about yourself and your performances as you go through your day.

The following are excerpts from some US medalists. If we lived in Germany or South Korea we would have more quotes of a similar nature from German or South Korean athletes.

Evan Lysacek - figure skater
"It was definitely my best, and that is what I came here to do. Of course you know it's been tough the last couple of months not thinking about the results, but I've had to shove all those thoughts out of my head, and my thought process was just mind your own business. I wrote that on a little card when I got here and taped it up in my room: Mind you own business, worry about what I have to do and what my job is, and the truth of the matter is that mission was accomplished here."

Julia Mancuso - alpine skier
"My coach kept saying, 'You've got to just keep doing it, just keep going on,' no matter how frustrated I got in all the fall races...but my training has been really good and I proved today I could do it."

Bode Miller - alpine skier
"At our level it's more about self-discovery." As for the Olympics, he added, it's not about obsessing over medals - and certainly not about obsessing over other people obsessing about your winning medals. "It's about digging deeper and finding inspiration...having fun, about skiing like I did when I was a kid." More from Miller - "I've never had too many confidence issues in my skiing. But to execute on a day like today, and the way I executed, the way I've skied, is something I'll be proud of for the rest of my life. I've put down absolutely wide open runs before - I could have skied better today - but I skied with 100 percent heart and I didn't hold anything back."

Whenever top performers are interviewed you will most usually see similar self-talk. Take a moment over the next couple of days to monitor what you say to yourself (and others) as the events in your world unfold.

Have a great week in the pool...we know we will!

Lessons Learned

We went to a swim meet this weekend and to no one’s surprise we learned some more goodies about how to be effective under the magnifying glass that is competition. This particular meet was held in a long course pool meaning 50 meters long. Not only is a meter longer than a yard, when you take away ½ of the turns you really get a good perspective on how the swimmer’s fitness is progressing – or not.

There is one axiom in our sport that goes something like this: one goal of a swimmer is to be long course fit and short course fast. To swim effectively in a 50 meter pool you need to be really fit. To compete effectively in any size body of water you need to have speed. If open water swimming is your thing then you absolutely need to be very fit. If competing in open water is one of your goals you will want to make certain that you have speed as well as fitness. Many a place is determined in racing by the closing speed at the finish. This applies to open water as well as pool swimming.

You can get long course fitness in a short course pool, even a 20 yard pool or a motel pool; simply do a flip turn before you get to the side of the pool, pushing off on the water, not the pool side. Try it sometime. You’ll be amazed at how challenging it is to swim laps like this. We often have our swimmers do 100’s or 200’s doing long course turns at one end while doing short course turns at the other. In our county there are pools that are 50 meters, 40 meters and 33 1/3 yards long. Each of them offers opportunities to get long course fit.

In fact, even swim programs that have 12 month access to 50 meter water day in and day out still practice a lot going short course. Too much long course swimming makes you a sled dog. Too much sprinting makes you a greyhound. If you are going to venture into open water or long course pool swimming make certain you are fit while keeping up your speed so you can be competitive at the end of the race.

We know there are a lot of you who are tri-athletes out there. In the cold of winter you can do a lot for yourselves by swimming even in a short course pool by simply varying your routines. Give it a try and let us know how it goes for you!

We Are Trapped

The seemingly never ending quest for best times in competition provides a trap when a swimmer keeps comparing his/her current performance to an "all time best" swim time. It is a similar challenge faced say by a runner who is working to improve her 5K or 10K time.

So here we are in the middle of heavy winter training and occasionally we go to a meet (or enter a local 5K or 10K run) for fun and/or to check our fitness level and/or to get feedback on how we are progressing with a certain type of training. A for instance might be we have done a fair amount of aerobic fitness swimming and the meet can tell us how well this training is working by how fast we recover from a certain swim or series of swims.

But with many swimmers the comparisons continue. "I was off my best time in the 100 fly by 4 seconds. What is wrong?" This is often accompanied by the pained expression, the wrinkled brow, perhaps even a hint of a tear.

In our never ending quest to come up with ways to make early and mid season competition meaningful we like to ask our team to evaluate their swims by having them ask themselves if the race was "a best time effort" not merely how close or far it was from an actual best time.

One skill is invaluable: the skill of being able to "lay it out there" on a consistent basis. If when one does this, and then evaluates by asking if the effort was "best time worthy" and can say "yes" then we call it "mission accomplished".

We want to cultivate the atmosphere where taking risks and pushing one's limits is rewarded by the recognition - by self and team - of a swim or run or bike "well done" regardless of the absolute time achieved.

So, let go of the comparisons to best times for a while, especially in the early and mid season. Rather go with the idea that every single time you compete at a high level of effort expended you are practicing a very necessary skill - namely the ability to leverage your actions in a positive way regardless of the numerical value attached to your effort.

Make sense? We hope so. Let us know if you agree or disagree or have questions. We are here to help. Have a great week at the pool or on the road!

Here We Go Again - Time vs. Effort

It is the beginning of the competitive swim season and all across the country, indeed the world, swimmers and their coaches are hitting the first couple of meets to see what is going on.

So, what do we see? What exactly is going on?

Coaches see swimmers doing the following:
1 - Attempting new techniques
2 - Struggling with new techniques
3 - Doing the same old routines
4 - Being dissatisfied with results
5 - Wondering if they are in shape
6 - Wondering if they are out of shape
7 - Asking familiar questions
8 - Asking new questions
9 - Eagerly trying new racing strategies
10 - Frustrated by results when using new racing strategies

You can see this list is nearly endless, or so it seems to us.

What is very clear to us however is that to improve upon previous performances, swimmers must look to gain new insights to swim more effectively. If you want to swim faster you must embrace change...and know what to change and what to keep the same but do more efficiently or effectively. The difference between these two is a subject for another time.

Today we want to reinforce the need to look at the difference between times achieved when racing and the effort or improvement achieved when racing. Our sport is wonderful in that we require zero subjective input – namely, no judge determines the outcome of a race based upon how we look while we swim. The clock tells the story, period. And this is often the bane of our existence, especially as coaches. Extended improvement occurs when new skills are learned. For the sake of simplicity we will say today that those skills fall into two categories: technique and pacing.

When you race using a different technique you are challenging your brain enormously. Old habits are tough to overcome. When you race using a different pacing strategy you are challenging your brain enormously. Old habits are tough to overcome.

No, you didn’t read that incorrectly. The brain and its wiring are extremely powerful in regards to how we swim and how we race. The same old strategies and techniques that yielded the same old results make it challenging to make change.

This is the same for all swimmers, from the slowest to the fastest. When you think of the fastest swimmers in the world they too must continually challenge their preciously held beliefs about what works and what doesn’t.

The message today is that while you are working on change focus on your effort. Time improvements occur when more effective technique blends with more efficient pacing strategies. Those two items require time for the brain to make the change and for you to become comfortable with that change.

For now, focus on improvement and let the time take care of itself. When we were in sophomore history looking at the clock, waiting for the period to end, the teacher remarked, “Time will pass, will you?”

Enough said. Enjoy your week at the pool! Let us know how it goes.

One More Thing To Consider

We are in Federal Way just outside of Seattle this and next week competing at the US Open and Junior National Championships. One of the most gratifying opportunities at such meets is the chance to exchange ideas with fellow coaches, swimmers and officials. Whenever you get a group of like minded people together there are always good information/perspectives available.

One of the most respected coaches is Terry Stoddard of Swim Pasadena. He is the one who gave us the quote that "Long course swimming is the truth serum of our sport." We were discussing with him various reactions athletes have after their swims. He had an interesting perspective.

Swimmers can be frustrated, angry, disappointed and even discouraged if a swim doesn't meet expectations. Terry said, "It's OK to be disappointed; but never OK to be discouraged."

We hope those words ring the same way with you as they did with us. One of our swimmers wasn't very happy with a swim this week. Emotions were very real and very exposed. We said that it was OK to be upset but not to get down on yourself. You are in a National level meet competing with the very fastest swimmers available. If you handled your swim in less than perfect fashion it is not a sin; it is merely a swim that didn't go as planned - learn from it and move on. Use the disappointment as fuel for motivation for the next swim or the next round of training. Getting down on yourself, or as Terry would say, getting discouraged is pointless. It has no short or long term value. All the mornings you got up before the sun, all the lifts in the weight room, all the sacrifices you have made in fact make it impossible for you to be discouraged. You have made such a personal commitment to excellence that will always be of value no matter how fast you swim a particular race.

This goes for coaches as well. Disappointment is something we must learn to cope with. As long as we do our level best we cannot allow ourselves to get discouraged. We hope this viewpoint helps. We are all striving for personal improvement. We are all measured on the outside by how we swim/coach compared to others when in fact we can only control how we do and more importantly, how we handle the outcomes on the inside.

We hope this helps. Let us know your thoughts and have a great week!

More Lessons From Tiger

The great ones in any field never stop teaching. To learn from them all we need do is observe, keep our eyes and ears wide open and pay attention.

This weekend Tiger Woods is playing in the U.S. Open which is one of golf's "Majors". When he wins his next Major it will be number 15 for him. Jack Nicklaus holds the record at 18.

He is coming back from major knee surgery about a year ago, working at his game after changing his technique yet again (the great ones are always trying to improve). He said last Tuesday "I feel great, I keep getting better and better."

He is finally feeling strong enough to resume his routine of going to the practice range following a round in a tournament. Yes, you read that correctly. Woods goes to the practice range immediately after a round in a tournament.

We are not certain how many swimmers go into the practice pool for a set after a day of racing...none on our team do...not yet anyway.

More from Woods; "To get better at this game, you have to put in the time. You don't think about it and magically get better every day. You have to do the work, and I'm able to start doing that now." Woods is a golf geek in this sense. Listen to him talk about practice and you begin to realize he enjoys those range sessions nearly as much as playing in the tournaments. He didn't win 14 Majors on sheer talent alone.

Never stop learning; never.

Have a great week!

It May Be Time To Change

We went to the races this weekend and did we ever learn some stuff...as in a ton! As coaches we are a lot like teachers. If there were never any tests we wouldn't know how much the students were learning. Racing is the absolute best feedback mechanism for measuring our effectiveness as coaches and swimmers.

When we finish a training block with a series of meets that matter to the swimmers we really get a chance to evaluate our progress. When things go well it is tempting to think we have it all figured out. And conversely when they don't go well it is equally tempting to toss everything out the window and start from zero again.

As is often the case, we believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The additional challenge as coaches is that we must evaluate for an entire group of swimmers. The easiest way for us is to make lists...what we did well so that we keep doing those things and what we need to improve upon so we can look for solutions. We issue a "report card" to each swimmer and that gives them specifics they can work on in the context of the general workouts.

As an example, the following are two case studies from swimmers we train with a focus on the need to change what they are doing. (They do many things correctly but in the interest of space and time we will limit this discussion to the changes we want).

George (not his real name) swims the 200 and 500. He swam lifetime best times in the just concluded training block. When he races he swims with his head too high which means his body position is not as flat as we would like. Also, off each turn he pulls first with his breathing side arm which means he gets very little forward pull on the first stroke.

Solution: We will have George swim more in practice with a snorkel so he and his body learn what it feels like to swim flatter in the pool. While swimming with a snorkel he will get more aerobically fit in addition to having his correct body position reinforced. We will have him pull of each turn first with his non-breathing side arm so that his muscle memory knows that he pulls first with his left arm (non-breathing side arm) and then with his right arm (his breathing side arm). We will allow him to swim with fins for added speed assistance so he can make more challenging intervals and still swim correctly. Laps swum incorrectly are not only a waste of time; they build more poor muscle memory.

Rachel (not her real name) had a couple of tough weeks leading up to the big meets and for several reasons did not swim her best times. We think her primary event is the 200 free. She was very disappointed and frustrated. Even more critical, she has lost her confidence. She loves swimming but feels a little lost as many of her teammates had lots of success.

Solution: What we as coaches and she as the swimmer have been doing obviously is not working. It is time to admit that and find a new direction. She has excellent stroke mechanics so we don't need wholesale changes there. We are going to drop her dry land program of lifting and have her work out with a local boxing coach. This will keep her aerobic fitness level high, give her some one on one athleticism work (this coach really puts his clients through the paces in a positive no nonsense way - we already have three swimmers working with him), we will challenge her more in workouts with different sets than she usually uses (this will keep her from being able to compare too much with what she already knows about) and we will have her train with the sprint group two days a week or even three vs. the 200 group. On kicking days will have her use fins and even a snorkel occasionally so she can kick on faster intervals so she knows what it is like to move faster in the water. We also will no longer use her lifetime best times as a reference point. Rather we will use her season's best times and work from there. We don't really know if this will work. What we do know is that our current path is not working. Her confidence will grow from the work with the boxing coach and her faster swimming in workouts with fins. We may find that she needs more sprint work even though her best event is the 200. We may even discover we were wrong and her best event will be the 100 free. She also can swim fly so that may emerge as another event for her.

We encourage all coaches and swimmers to use meet performances as feedback mechanisms. Keep doing what is working well and drop that which isn't. The best coaches - measured by their effectiveness - adapt to their athletes...not the other way around...in our opinion. What is yours?

Oh, Those T-Shirts...

Recently we were in Orlando, Florida at the Junior National Championships. We saw the following on the back of a T-shirt.

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize"... Mohammed Ali

This man and his body of work bear studying. Along with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods he is today, some 40 years later, recognized as one of the most influential athletes ever. The statement above would seem arrogant coming from almost anyone other than Ali. He was an athlete of exceptional skill; a person of extraordinary principle. He went to jail, foregoing several years of his career - at his prime - rather than serve in Vietnam, because he didn't believe in killing people.

He is the same man who is quoted as saying, "The fight is won far from the witnesses." (It is what you do in the moments in training which no one else sees, that makes the difference when you compete). As we continue to perfect our craft, let us remember these ideas.

Study and surround yourself with successful people, no matter the field of endeavor. You will learn enormous amounts of precious and valuable qualities which will serve you well all the years of your life.

Have a great week. Let us know how we can help!

Which 50 Is IT?

When swimming a 200 free we often ponder the question "Which 50 is the most important one?" When you look at the swims below you can "see" the race unfolding.

These are the top three finishers and their splits from the recently concluded Men's and Women's NCAA Swimming Championships. While each split is significant in that it is part of the swim, which 50 do you think made the difference? Then the next question is "What are you doing in your training program to make that split available to you when it counts the most?

Let us know what you think. We are here to help!

1 Fraser, Shaune            FLOR             1:31.70   20  
    r:+0.75  21.57        45.24 (23.67)
        1:08.49 (23.25)     1:31.70 (23.21)
  2 Walters, Dave             TEX            1:32.59   17  
    r:+0.75  21.66        45.39 (23.73)
        1:09.46 (24.07)     1:32.59 (23.13)
  3 Berens, Ricky             TEX            1:32.74   16  
    r:+0.77  21.70        45.55 (23.85)
        1:09.45 (23.90)     1:32.74 (23.29)
  
 
1 Vollmer, Dana       CAL                1:42.01M"A"     20  
    r:+0.78  24.38        50.52 (26.14)
        1:16.47 (25.95)     1:42.01 (25.54)
  2 Scroggy, Morgan     UGA              1:42.90 "A"     17  
    r:+0.74  24.54        50.93 (26.39)
        1:16.89 (25.96)     1:42.90 (26.01)
  3 Schmitt, Allison    UGA              1:43.09 "A"     16  
    r:+0.73  24.50        50.47 (25.97)
        1:16.84 (26.37)     1:43.09 (26.25)