A Word About Taper

It is December very soon and this means we are taking our team to a championship meet to reap the rewards of the last three months of training. And of course they love to taper; you know, less work, less yardage, more fun, out early, visualization practice at the end of a shortened dry land session.

There is another aspect to this time of year and it revolves around the most important muscle in the athlete’s body: confidence.

Without confidence there is no glory, personal or otherwise. No matter the amount of work, the stroke technique, the new muscles, the faster workout times, without very real and believable confidence the races just will not be there.

Of course, coaches always know best when it comes to taper time; we reduce the total number of yards/meters swum and the ratio of work to cruising yards changes as well.

But if the athlete doesn’t believe then we are actually not right but indeed very wrong…and no coach worth her/his salt wants to be in that position. So, how to make sure we are right involves a ton of very close listening.

Just the other day one of our more highly visible athletes said “I trust you Don, but I am not sure that I am doing enough work.” Man that was very important to hear. We have all the graphs and charts with yardage and effort but it isn’t resonating with this swimmer.

Athletes at every level, rank beginner to top notch pro, are always “checking the oil” as Ken says. You know every few repeats they want you to look at their stroke, tell them if they look fast or quick or whatever…they are telling you they are getting nervous. So when they start checking their oil, we call them on it by saying, “Do you check the oil every time you get in your car?” Of course they don’t! But the car will not run without oil so why don’t you check it every time? The reason is that you trust it, and your engine warning light.

Same with our swimmers heading into December, getting on an airplane, travelling to a big meet, lots at risk here, so better check the oil…but not every day, several times a day! If they trust you AND it FEELS right then all is well…athletes and coaches need trust and the FEEL.

So what I am going to do with this particular athlete is have a frank conversation and listen very well. I believe the answer is to give this swimmer a slightly higher load of work, one that is more recognizable and familiar while still staying within acceptable boundaries of total yards and work to rest ratios.

Having said all of this, we can tell you for certain, that it is always better to be more confident than trained “properly”. We can also tell you that we will make whatever adjustment is necessary to make sure the athlete feels in the right groove when it counts the most.

It is, after all, about them; not us. Have a great week at the pool and we will do the same!

Keep Your Ears Open

You know the old one about having two ears, two eyes and one mouth. Just the other morning at Masters we heard this one…a classic!

Maggie was leaving the pool a tad early…something about what we refer to as “employment issues”…Germana was still hanging in there gearing up for one last round of our main set. She was doing some of the usual stuff – you know, about how she might be a little tired… (We are smiling here as we recall the scene).

Then Maggie drops the quote of the day, week, month, year – you pick it – on Germana, “Are you getting over the fear of swimming fast?”

We then asked Maggie to clarify and she said, “We talk about not going out 95 percent because we fear the physical outcome. Is this common?”

Yes Maggie, Germana and everyone. It is one of the most common concerns any athlete faces. If you go out “hard” you probably will “die.” However, if you can figure out how to go out “fast” you then have a chance at doing something magical…reaching a new level of performance.

You have two months left in 2011. Perhaps discovering how to go out fast in a swim rather than hard is a worthwhile goal for the remainder of this year. Practice it in workouts; practice it in any meets you have; practice it in the season ending Tri; keep practicing the art of easy early speed and you will discover the magic and fun of super-fast times. (Coaching tip – save your legs for the second half…oh, and breathe)

It is a thrill worth pursuing. Have some fun!

Why Winners Win at …by Nick Summers

Andre Agassi was losing: a lot. After a meteoric start to his professional tennis career, with the best return and fastest reflexes in the game, Agassi had become a chronic underachiever by the early 1990s, dropping early matches and choking in finals alike.

Brad Gilbert was the anti-Agassi, a moderately talented junker who in his own career had eked out matches he had no right to win. His book about tactics, just published, was titled Winning Ugly. At dinner in Key Biscayne, Agassi wanted an honest assessment of his game. Why did he keep losing to less skilled players?

Gilbert excoriated him for trying to play with perfection. Instead of risking a killer shot on every point, why not keep the ball in play and give the other guy a chance to lose? "It's all about your head, man," Gilbert said, as Agassi recalls in his memoir, Open. "With your talent, if you're fifty percent game-wise, but ninety-five percent head-wise, you're going to win. But if you're ninety-five percent game-wise and fifty percent head-wise, you're going to lose, lose, lose."

"There are more players that have the talent to be the best in the world than there are winners," says Timothy Gallwey, the author of several books about the mental side of tennis, golf, and other pursuits. "One way of looking at it is that winners get in their own way less. They interfere with the raw expression of talent less. And to do that, first they win the war against fear, against doubt, against insecurity--which are no minor victories."

This information comes to us from the July 18, 2011 Newsweek article. Thanks to Theresa for sharing with us. We find it particularly interesting since we are always looking for information about how the brain works, the super computer for our bodies. We agree with Gallwey that the victories over fear, doubt and insecurities are indeed major ones.

Tossing Kickboards

We have this "thing" going on after nearly every workout where we have a contest, tossing kickboards into the "bin" - the wire basket on wheels that contains them. We have one for pull buoys but the game isn't the same for some reason and we actually rarely even engage in it. But the kickboards, aha! Now this is a real beauty of a game.

The reason is that the farther away you stand the less control you have of your accuracy. If there is any kind of wind then all bets are off...but we still go for it. We have discovered that underhand tosses are far better than overhead. The mixed strategy is that the farther away from the bin you are the more loft you need to get the board there. If there is wind, the more loft you have the trickier the shot...you get the idea.

Thursday morning the bin was next to the pool fence. Our fence is 10 feet high. If the board goes over it is a long walk around the gym to retrieve it. You definitely don't want that to happen.

We often take a couple of shorter tosses to get warmed up. Ken was working the scene pretty well. Then he took several steps back so he was a good 30 feet away. He needed a bunch of loft if he was going to make his shot. There was a breeze working, often with gusts. His shot was up and clearly from the outset going to be wide left...no danger of going over the fence but wide to the left even as it left his hand.

His comment was, "I wanted to make sure it didn't go over the fence." It didn't and the shot was wide to the left of the bin...not way wide but nevertheless not in the bin.

He looked at me and said, "There is your blog for this week," all the while flashing his engaging smile.

"Winners see what they want; losers see what they want to avoid."

A golfer says, "I sure hope I don't land in the sand trap." A swimmer says, "I hope I don't go out too hard and die," a runner says, "I don't want my legs to cramp up at the end of my race," the list is endless..."I sure hope I don't botch this interview".

Next time you are lining up for your "shot", check your self-talk. Make sure you see what you want rather than what you want to avoid.

(Best kickboard toss on our team, by Ken of course - is around 55 feet, with a slight breeze. The size of the bin is about 24" x 36")

Josh Morgan

As the National Football League figures out how to divvy up their mutual billions of dollars the players are figuring out how to stay in shape, work on plays and otherwise fill their unaccustomed free time in a meaningful way. This has led the media to figure out how to find meaningful stories when the normal pre-season drivel is unavailable.

And for those of us who find the sporting section of the dwindling daily newspaper boasting an occasional nugget or two it is a time of continual fascination. When the “norm” no longer works we are often treated to a real glimpse of an athlete’s perspective on their life. If you think about it, a high level athlete has only a few years of prime time available. So what runs through their mind is of interest to us.

The San Francisco 49er’s wide receiver Josh Morgan was casting some lines at a reporter the other day after an “informal” workout of fellow players. “We accomplish a lot”, he said. “As long as you’re working out with your teammates, you can always get better.”

Then the nugget…

“The best thing to do is stay ready. A coach told me one time: You stay ready, you never have to get ready.”

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?

Time vs. Effort or Time + Effort

The big meets for the summer are just about done. The last of the summer championships are in the books. We know there are still several big "end of season" triathlons still on the books but in general things are beginning to wind down.

What we do, especially at this time of year, is to think about things we learned from observing our team perform at the big meets. We add to that what we learned watching other swimmers in the same setting. We have been asking coaches for tips. One very nice thing about American swimming is that coaches seem willing to share ideas about what works and what doesn't...at least in their situations. So here are some of the observations we have made. We'd love to hear from you about yours. Sharing is a wonderful of getting better.

Jim Bauman, the US Swimming Sports Psychologist, encourages athletes to "make sure your autopilot is engaged" when it comes to being able to perform at big meets.

In butterfly we saw Tyler McGill breathe every stroke for about 90 meters and then none at all for the last 10 meters. We also saw Michael Phelps take 17 strokes per lap - talk about distance per stroke.

Larry Liebowitz who coaches women at Oregon State turned us on to tabata training. Look it up on the web and or You Tube. He also said he has been collecting old "retired" fire hoses which are free instead of having to purchase heavy ropes.

Nort Thornton said he had recently seen an older interview with Popov who said the three things he kept thinking about were "rhythm, range and relaxation".

Several coaches spoke about Matt Fitzgerald's new book "Run".

John Dussliere who coaches the Santa Barbara Swim Club said since he has put his kids on jump ropes his shoulders problems have vanished. He also mentioned a good book, "Evolve Your Brain". He has developed a monster drag chute that seems very interesting. Watch for news about that.

David Marsh talked about how important his Masters group was to his Youth swim team...in a variety of ways from fund raising to development of additional coaches. He is speaking on this topic at the ASCA World Clinic.

And then this gem, from Theo St. Francis, a sophomore who swims for North Bay Aquatics. We were talking about the upcoming season and how many workouts each week he would be able to make given his school schedule and his commute. He had big improvements in his backstroke this year and can now "see" making his Junior National cuts. We said to some degree it matters how many sessions you make but it is even more important to put your best effort forward when you do train. He responded nearly instantaneously, "If I'm going to put in the time I might as well put in the effort". Truer words have never been spoken. It made us think about how many athletes - and coaches - put in the time but not the effort. And how many put in the effort but not enough time to really make a difference. It is definitely the combination that makes the difference. Put in the time plus the effort and you will get the results...especially if your auto pilot is engaged.

See you at the pool!

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!

The Importance of Self-Talk

We have always been interested in how our athletes treat themselves. One of the easiest ways to monitor this is to listen to how they talk to themselves and others. We know that "put ups" vs. "put downs" make a huge difference in how a swimmer feels about what she/he is doing and how it contributes to their success. The real value is what each individual says to him/her self and then to a lessor extent (but still significant) what others to whom we assign value, have to say. We like the exercise offered below. Keep your ears open. You might just grab an insightful moment! Have a great week in and out of the pool!!

Excerpt from Secrets of the World Class, by Steve Siebold

Self-talk is what we say to ourselves all day long and also how we say it. For years, philosophers, psychologists and performance experts worldwide have known about the impact self-talk has on us. That being said, average performers
are oblivious to what they are saying to themselves and how it's affecting the quality of their lives. The pros have always been aware of the power of language in programming and reprogramming the human computer.

Dr. Shad Helmstetter, in his magnificent book, What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, writes that up to 77% of the average person's self-talk is negative. According to Dr. Helmstetter, we spend our lives talking ourselves into and out of things.

Champions believe and embrace this idea. As a matter of fact, the easiest way to know you're in the presence of champions is to listen to them. The world-class has spent years overcoming prior programming, and this process usually begins with the use of language, both with themselves and others. The great ones believe almost anything is possible, simply because they have repeated that idea - and others like it - to themselves for years.

To quote Dr. Helmstetter, "Repetition is a convincing argument." Developing world-class self-talk may be the most powerful of all the mental toughness secrets of the world-class. Like most of the habits, traits and philosophies in this book, it's so simple that it's often overlooked. As a result, amateur performers continue to perpetuate amateur language with themselves and others. Meanwhile, the great ones create ideas out of thin air, convince themselves achievement is possible, and then go out and make it happen.

Action Step for Today:

Begin monitoring everything you say to yourself and others. Ask this critical thinking question:

"Is the way I use language programming me for success or failure?"

Next, begin listening to the way people around you use language.

Ask yourself the same question about them. This is an eye-opening experiment.

Suits that Make You Go Fast

This week we want to pass on some interesting insights from Shawn Klosterman.


A GLIMMER OF HOPE IN TEXTILE

As always, let us know your thoughts. Enjoy!

Then There is the Matter of Confidence

As US Swimming Club coaches one of the many bonuses we have is real time connectivity to a number of collegiate programs. This connection comes as a result of our swimmers who graduate high school and matriculate into college and university programs.

This week one of our swimmers sent to us an interesting article he received as a member of his school's swim team. Sport and Clinical Psychologist Scott Goldman, Ph.D. writes about the matter of confidence. In all areas of performance, not just sport, confidence plays huge role. We were particularly struck by Michael Jordan's comment that one of the big reasons for his success was his failures.

Have a great week in the water. Enjoy the article and let us know what you think!

Confidence

Guaranteed To Stretch Your Brain

Last week we had a long and interesting piece on the "suit wars" issue. This week we present a much shorter take on a different but clearly (at least to us) related matter.

In his book "Virus of the Mind" Richard Brodie writes about "The New Science of the Meme". For your consideration we offer the following excerpts:

"Definition of Meme: A meme is a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events such that more copies of itself get created in other minds.

The most interesting thing about memes is not whether they're true or false; it's that they are building blocks of your mind.

Memes can and do run your life, probably to a far greater degree than you realize.

One of the ways the memes you are programmed with greatly affect your future is through self-fulfilling prophecy.

The distinction-memes you are programmed with control what information you perceive. They actually make reality look different to you."

We find this kind of discussion fascinating since we are in the fulfillment business...helping athletes and coaches reach their vision. And to do that we all must be very aware of what our reality looks like.

Have a great week and let us know what you think!

Making Adjustments

The Pessimist complains about the wind...The Optimist expects it to change...

The Realist adjusts the sails...

We are not certain when we first saw this William Arthur Ward quote but we liked it then and it floated to the top of a pile of papers in the office this week and we still like it.

In swimming (indeed all sports and life in general) we see all kinds of folks - both as swimmers and as coaches. When we look at those who seem to be having all the fun, you know, the ones who are having success on a fairly regular and consistent basis...well, we see the realists.

We all have to deal with "wind", usually on a daily basis. The trick is what we do with it. The above pretty much outlines the three responses: 1 - complain, 2 - hope for things to get better, 3 - figure out a way to deal with the situation and then act on your plan.

So this week, when you get tossed a "curve ball" figure out what you are going to do with it. Complaining doesn't fix anything, nor does hope. What is needed is a plan and then implementation. And if your plan goes awry, make a new one. Keep working on the solution. Get help if you need it but keep working toward a better course of action...adjust your sails!

Have fun and let us know how it goes for you...