Knoxville Clinic

We just spent the last several days in Knoxville at the Winter Junior Nationals. At every meet there runs concurrently an informal clinic as coaches and swimmers discuss the wide range of topics of interest to them. We were struck particularly with how fast some of the front runners were in the various heats. 

And in the finals it was even more pronounced – the fast were really fast.

We started thinking about how they get that way…really fast. Since this is competitive swimming (and competitive coaching too!) we found ourselves going back to basics.

The cell needs energy – fuel – to work. That energy comes from ATP. The cells create ATP from two sources; oxygen and lactic acid. An event that takes less than 2 minutes (which is most of the ones in our meets) requires the cells to make ATP from lactic acid and to a lesser extent oxygen.

Now this mix is the constant source of debate among coaches. We will admit that we are not scientists and therein may lay the flaw to our reasoning. Yet we remain convinced that the most important muscle in the body is confidence. And when it comes to swimming fast, especially in the big meets, the one thing that builds confidence is fast swimming in practice. Fast practices create fast expectations. Few if any athletes excel with diminished expectations.

We wonder how many miles the typical elite 400 meter and 800 meter runner ran as a 12 year old. We are going to research that one. Our guess at this point is not nearly as many as some of our 12 year old swimmers swim, even factoring in the 4:1 ratio of running to swimming. The 400/800 runner is our 100/200 swimmer.

Now we grant you that running is much more impactful than swimming and therefore it is unreasonable to assume that they could run that much even if they wanted/needed to do so. And yet we wonder what is the value of all those yards as proscribed by the proponents of high yardage to build the aerobic base for the future?…especially when the fastest swimmers aren’t using all that much aerobic functioning while racing.

And that’s what this is all about – racing.

Our supposition is that the value of laps as a youngster is the imbedding of technical know-how. Groove your strokes; build muscle memory, myelin wraps. More importantly it is the feel for the water and how your various levers and muscle groups work in concert with one another to move you through the water.

We posed these thoughts briefly to David Marsh of SWIM MAC. His reply was, “That’s the question we should be asking.” He also said he figured he was probably swimming far less than most of the other athletes at the meet. He admitted to doing widths in a 6 lane pool twice a week.

Dave Salo dropped the line in Las Vegas at the ASCA clinic that he is more concerned with metabolic rates than heart rates.

Greg Troy at the same clinic said the swimmer who maintains their stroke technique the longest in a race usually wins – especially at the elite level where the athletes are generally at the same level of fitness (all right, that can be argued as well…).

Elite level coaches Marsh, Salo and Troy have empirical evidence to support their various methods of training. We wonder as we prepare our teenagers for the rigors of college swimming if we need to spend all that much time counting laps.

We may just be better served counting high speed efforts…and when the stroke falls apart then stop and swim easily (not necessarily slowly) rebuilding the technique, working the myelin wrap.

The swimmer, who can swim faster repeats – even if that means only 25 or 50 yards- and more of them, will create more confidence thereby building higher expectations. To our knowledge no one ever got to the top – and remained there – without expectations of doing so.

To simplify; to build technique you need lots (as in countless) of strokes done correctly; to swim fast you need the technique done quickly; to swim fastest you need both. Do that and you will have a waiting list for your team, and swimmers in the A final at Nationals.

Your comments please…

Nick Saban

Saban is the football coach at Alabama. His team is most likely going to face Notre Dame in the college Championship game this January. Before last week's matchup with Georgia - which his team needed to win to play Notre Dame - he was asked how he focuses his players on winning the big games. We found his response interesting.

He said something to the effect that while they wanted to win it was most important to play the game the way it needed to be played in order to win. He said if you execute your basics you will win; therefore in prepping for games he has his staff and players working on the process not the win. He said, "If you work the process you will win" but if you play to win and forget to pay attention - in practice and on game day - the little things go wrong. When the little things go wrong in a close game you usually end up on the wrong side of the score.

We also read recently that an NFL coach said the following... and we paraphrase here, "Every single offensive play, if executed properly, will score a touchdown. The problem is that on every single play in a game something goes wrong. Someone does not execute and therefore not every play produces a score." Imagine that; even at the professional level "something goes wrong on every single play."

Picture a moment the swim race and the various components...we simply here...the start...the dive...the entry...the underwaters...the breakout...the turn...the finish...the various amounts of energy (we call it pacing) used in the various segments...the tempo...the distance per stroke...the breathing pattern. We think we are safe when we say that no swim race ever goes perfectly.

To get your cut or to win your race you must focus on the process (including in practice!). Of course you have your goal in mind but where is your focus?

The baseball player knows his team needs a hit, could surely use a home run. S/he has a much better chance of doing it if the focus is on the task, not the desired result. Yes, the result is in mind all the while the focus is on the task.

Work the process in practice; work the process in warmups; work the process in the race…the win will come if you trust the process.

Random Notes

We were looking for something on the “notes” spot on our phone the other day and discovered some “random” thoughts heard at the September ASCA Clinic. Often the best information you hear from fellow coaches comes from “throwaway” lines in the hallways. You can often pick them up at meets as well as coaches exchange ideas about what works for them or how they are solving challenges that may be similar to your own.

In no particular order with credit given when known:

No swimmer who has trained well ever misses a taper.

Punctuality is a choice not an accident. (Karen Moe Humphreys)

You have the most growth when you are living on the edge. That is what an athlete does. (Karen again)

The swimmer who has the best technique for the longest period of time in a race has the best chance of winning.

No matter how much you care or how hard you try you cannot coach someone who doesn’t want to be coached, so it is important to clarify this connection. Said another way, when the swimmer is ready, the coach will appear.

It’s OK to be wrong so long as you have the courage of your conviction. (Greg Troy)

Inside every piece of stone is a beautiful statue. (Michael Angelo) The coach’s job is to find and grow the champion inside every swimmer.

Have a plan and follow it; modify if necessary but have a plan. Some are better than others but you must have a plan.

Swimming is not that important. It is what you learn from it that counts. (Greg Troy)

Simplifying Tapering

The subject of tapering is a never ending one among swim coaches (and we would guess the same is true in every sport- baseball teams want to “peak” at the right time – Go Giants!). We looked for a couple of standard definitions and present below first from Wikipedia and then from the USA Swimming website.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the context of sports, tapering refers to the practice of reducing exercise in the days just before an important competition.[1] Tapering is customary in many endurance sports, such as the marathon, athletics and swimming. For many athletes, a significant period of tapering is essential for optimal performance. The tapering period frequently lasts as much as a week or more.

As a general rule of thumb, longer endurance events are generally preceded by longer tapering periods, with the curious exception of particularly long endurance competitions, such as ultramarathons and multiday races. In swimming the opposite is true; distance swimmers will often taper for only a week or less, while sprinters (50 m-200 m) taper for up to 3 weeks.^{[citation needed]}

And this from the home page of USA Swimming…

“A progressive nonlinear reduction of the training load during a variable period of time, in an attempt to reduce the physiological and psychological stress of daily training and optimize sports performance and enhance training adaptations during the taper period.” (Mujika et al. Sports Med. 34:891-927,2004; Thomas & Busso Med. Sci. Sports & Exerc. 37: 1615-1621, 2005)

This is further explained as a –

1 – Reduction in volume in the range of 40-90%

2 – Reduction in frequency – below 20% is not recommended

3 – Reduction in intensity – higher intensity is better than lower intensity, given 1 & 2 above

So what does all this mean?

Ken and I have been coaching for a combined 70+ years which means two things…no smart remarks here please! 1 – We are older and 2 – We have seen a lot of tapers.

We are taking our swimmers to a “big” meet in early December. Our entire training group has a “taper” meet, though the meets are different ones, they all occur within 8 days of one another. Then we have finals and then we begin build up into our winter training block. So we are in taper mode right now. 

And what does that mean?

To us it means this…a time when expectations for fast swimming are heightened. These expectations are what fuel the big meet. They come from and are justified by the recent meet performances and the workout swims we see on a daily basis – either fast repeats or super smooth technique – both of those are confidence builders.

The key ingredient in our minds is confidence and that comes directly from recent fast swims as well as the swimmer feeling like s/he is making progress on their stroke technique. We do a lot – and we mean a lot – of fast swimming without a watch. We are looking for technique and stroke balance and pacing. We can tell when a swimmer is closing the gap between training and racing speed by watching them perform certain skills in the course of a workout. We praise effort and pacing, not the time on the watch.

Ken has a great reference in this regard. He calls it “checking the oil.” He asks them, how often they check the oil in their car before turning the key. We all know the answer to that one…never. So why do they keep asking us to time them for a 25 or a 50? We tell them, no. They are not allowed to check the oil. They need to trust that the speed will be there.

I once had a swimmer tell me that “you don’t need to worry about me coach at this meet because I am going to swim fast.” That simple declaration was perfect. It stated the positive expectation he had. The only question that remained was “how fast”…and that is precisely why we go to the meet!

So taper = reduce the volume, reduce the workouts per week by only a little, look for higher levels of intensity…and never ever discount the power of belief. Positive expectations fuel positive races. Positive expectations come from recent meets and recent workout accomplishments – either speed or stroke improvements.

Keep it simple…always. It is easier for them to digest and for you to deliver.

And always smile…either the one that greets a great swim or the one that ruefully greets a swim that got away.

As Bruce says, “Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up
Then go racin' in the street

Be one of those guys…

Finding Center

By Abby Pledger 

The ping of the alarm, not the pitter patter of little feet or a babe’s cry, jolts me out of a deep sleep. As I drowsily turn off the alarm I glance at the clock. 5:25 am. I quietly drag myself from the warm bed, pull on my swim suit and slip out of the house. Swim practice awaits. As I roll onto the pool deck 15 minutes later there is already a buzz in the air and steam rising from the pool. 40-50 others are crazy enough to join me in this early morning venture. I shiver as I sprint on my tip toes across the icy pool deck. It’s a cool 39 degrees this morning. A booming hello and a “yip, yip, yeah” greets me from my coach. I can feel the energy enter my body. I plunge into the pool and my body comes to life.

What is great enough to pull a mom of two little sleeping kids from her bed? A search for me.

I swam competitively from age 6 to 20. It was my life. It was where my best friends were made, where my personality was formed and what I identified with. In college I lived, ate and breathed swimming. By the time I graduated, I was ready for a change. I needed to find my identity beyond the pool. I swam intermittingly, on and off for the next 16 years, but never with much intensity. I focused on my career, creating a family, and squeezing in a workout when I could.

Over the past 5 years, since becoming a mother, I’ve felt a bit lost as an individual. It’s as if I had lost my center, my grounding. I’m sure many relate to this feeling. When you transition into motherhood you give all of yourself to your babies. At day’s end, you are a bundle of mental and physical exhaustion. There is nothing left to give. As the babies grow, you catch glimpses of the old you and bit by bit recapture some of what used to make you happy. Of course you have new fulfillments in your family, but it is critical to also be true to yourself and focus on what fuels you. For me, the gas tank was in the red.

For my 37th birthday last year, with kids ages 2 and 4, I gave myself the gift of a triathlon. The race was on my birthday and as my family cheered me on at the finish, not only did I feel a great sense of accomplishment, but a deep joy. I had touched the core of me again and was surrounded by the people I loved most. As I raced I kept telling myself, “This is for you Abby. This is your race. Go for it!” While the joy was pure, the feeling was fleeting. I quickly was wrapped back up in the trials and celebrations of being a stay at home mom of two kids.

I carried on, got into road biking, and slowly was finding my way back to center. I always knew the day I would enter the water again at a serious level would come. I did not know when, but I knew the call would come. After all, it is the core of me. And then one day it happened. There was no major revelation or magic moment. One night at dinner I shared with my husband that I had found a team and I planned to get back into the water. That was that. I committed to him that I would make 3 workouts a week. And more importantly, he committed to me his support in helping make that happen. Once I put something out there, I don’t generally back away. So there it was. Time to face the music.

I was quite nervous, but getting back in the pool with a team of swimmers felt like coming home. These are my people. These people I hardly know, I understand. I know what makes them tick. A few months later as I finished a grueling workout I looked up at my coach and said, “That was a crazy hard workout.” His comment back, “Well, it made you smile.” I guess—as I had a huge grin on my beet red face! And really, that’s the essence of it. I come home with a huge smile on my face, crazy tired, but happy. And that happiness is what matters.

You see, in the water I am not a mom, a wife, a daughter, or a consultant. I am Abby. The same Abby I have always been, with her head down in the water, pouring every ounce of energy into her swim, in complete focus, with no distraction, and pure joy. And that is why as the alarm goes off at 5:25 am in complete darkness, I get up. I get up to be me. I get up for joy. I get up to keep my center.