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.

Jerry West

Those who follow basketball and those who are casual sports fans know the name Jerry West. He is a Hall of Fame player who also has coached in the NBA and has been an extremely successful, competent executive in the NBA.

We live here in the San Francisco Bay Area, home of the Golden State Warriors NBA franchise. This franchise has been woeful for so many years we cannot even remember. The team won the NBA title in the mid 1970’s when Rick Barry and others led the team. Since then it has been mostly a team of promise, playing pretty much poor basketball compared to the rest of the league.

There has been an ownership change and one of the moves the new group made has been to hire Jerry West as an advisor. In a recent interview he gave some very compelling answers that reconfirmed what we know generally to be true about high level performers.

Q: Gotta ask you, as a former head coach in the NBA, how much of that job is X’s and O’s…and how much of it is player psychology?

A: First of all, I think you have to motivate players…I said it once and I’ll say it till I die: Hard work is a skill, and a coach can bring a game plan to the room, he can have every X and O down to a science…but the bottom line is…you’ve got to have players that go out and compete every night.

Q: You chose to join the Warriors as an advisor, and you know you could have done any number of things with your life. There must have been something about the owners and their pitch to you that said, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to spend my time with the Warriors.”

A: One of the most important things in life is to be around people that have great energy and great enthusiasm. I don’t want to be around anyone at this point in my life that’s an energy drainer, because they’re not a lot of fun to be around, and pretty soon you are at…their level. But these are two incredibly enthusiastic men. They are unbelievably bright. They want to do something very, very positive up here…The goal is to get this team to a greater height…and the way to do that is to have a very, very tough and strong ownership that has fiber to it, that’s not afraid to make decisions. And sometimes they’re not always popular, but that’s exactly what you are going to see up here.

Pretty clear to us…how about you?

Distance per Stroke

Whether you are swimming for fitness or competition distance per stroke is an excellent skill to work on; we of course recommend regularly but will settle for occasionally for those who are more fitness inclined.

Distance per stroke, along with tempo (how fast you move your stroke cycle) are the two main components of speed. For general fitness you can simply focus on dps (distance per stroke).

What is it? No mystery here. It is exactly what it says: how far through the water can you propel yourself with each arm cycle. When you swim freestyle, backstroke or butterfly you only count the propulsive phase. Do not count the recovery. When you swim breaststroke you count the arms and legs as “1” complete stroke cycle. If you come up with a partial number, such as 16 and ½ then you are counting incorrectly. It is probably 16.

It is extremely important to do this in the regular pool you training in so you have a “base line” number. Obviously 25 yards and 25 meters and 50 meters will all be different. Some folks swim in a 33 1/3 or a 40 meter pool. It makes no difference. If you swim open water you will not be able to get an accurate count.

So let’s say you have a number in a 25 yard pool (we’ll use this since it is the most common one here in the US) that is 18 strokes of freestyle. If you can figure out how to get that number down to 17 or even 16 you have made a significant improvement in your stroke efficiency. If you swim competitively that is very important. If you swim for fitness it is also huge in a different way. By lowering your stroke count from 18 to 17 you have just moved your body (your weight hasn’t changed) over the same distance with one less stroke. Another way to look at it is this. If you bench press 100 lbs. 18 times you have lifted 1800 pounds. Lift that same 1800 lbs. in 17 lifts and you will need to add some extra weight to the bar to make the totals the same. To do that you will put more stress on your muscles which will break them down and have them rebuild at a stronger level. You just got stronger.

If you want to swim competitively in open water you need to master this dps skill. If you simply want to swim for fitness you probably have a goal of some sort; swim a certain number of laps or yardage per week. Why not get stronger in the water (and out of the water at the same time) while you are achieving your goals? If you get into the dps skill you will do just that. You will get stronger and more efficient in the water…

…and that is a great thing since swimming is the only sport activity that can actually save your life…if you are strong – efficient – enough to reach shore.

Have a great week and count your strokes now and then!

Fred Shero

Fred Shero
Shero during his playing days with the New York Rangers
Born	October 23, 1925(1925-10-23) Winnipeg, MB, CAN
Died	November 24, 1990(1990-11-24) (aged 65) Camden, NJ, USA
Height	5 ft. 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	185 lb. (84 kg; 13 st 3 lb.)
Position	Defense
Shot	Left
Played for	New York Rangers
Playing career	1947–1958

Frederick Alexander "The Fog" Shero (October 23, 1925 - November 24, 1990) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach, and general manager. He played for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). However, he spent most of his playing career in the minor leagues. Following his playing career, he went into coaching, spending 13 years coaching in the minor leagues before making it to the NHL. As an NHL head coach, Shero won the Stanley Cup twice with the Philadelphia Flyers (1974 and 1975) and reached the Stanley Cup Finals three times in Philadelphia (1974, 1975, and 1976). He also had four consecutive seasons of having a 0.700 or better winning percentage and remains the Flyers all-time leader in coaching victories. Shero controversially left the Flyers following the 1977-78 season to become the head coach of the New York Rangers, whom he led to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season. He resigned from the Rangers after coaching for less than three seasons. Shero had a unique style of coaching that led to several innovations that are still used today. He was the first coach to hire a full-time assistant coach, employ systems, have his players use in season strength training, study film, and he was one of the first coaches to utilize a morning skate.

He was known for his enigmatic and introverted personality often times appearing or disappearing from a room unnoticed, or being completely lost in thought. He often left philosophical sayings on a chalkboard as a way of provoking thought or as a motivational tool.

Prior to game six of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals, Shero wrote his now famous quote "Win today and we walk together forever" - a statement that continues to be quoted to this day.

Another quote worth remembering from Shero is “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion; you must first set yourself on fire.”

We will use both of these quotes in our team meetings this week. You just never know when someone else’s words will strike a nerve in one of your athletes. As coaches, that is one of our major job requirements – striking nerves, compelling athletes into action. Have a great week in the pool!!

Two Basic Questions

It is a pretty exciting weekend for mid-June. We are at the Santa Clara International Grand Prix meet here in California. In addition to many of the stars of US Swimming there are racers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, South Korea and Mexico. Many of the big names from the US contingent – Dana Vollmer, Natalie Coughlin, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte to name a few – are using this meet as a tune up for the World Championships being held July 24-31, 2011, Shanghai, China.

We wondered what we would do if one of those swimmers came to our pool for a week or two to train? What could we offer that would be meaningful to them? How could we be effective as a coach to such an accomplished athlete?

The first thing we would do would be to ask them two questions. The first is “What is the one thing you haven’t done in the training pool that would make a difference in your racing?” The second is, “Knowing yourself as well as you do, how would you coach a competitor to out race you in your best event?”

We believe that honest answers to those two questions would be a great start to the week. Each of us knows – regardless of the level at which we participate – what we are avoiding in the training pool that we already know would help us. Each of us also is very familiar with the chinks in our armor. Properly motivated, every single person on the planet could stop avoiding what they know is keeping them from being more successful. Each of us also knows how we need to shore up our game.

Have a great week – in and out of the pool!

The Challenges of Holding Patterns

Every now and then we find some of our swimmers get stuck in what we refer to as a “holding pattern.” We define this as a space where lots of activity occurs but the swimmer is going nowhere. It comes of course from the airplane analogy of not being allowed to land so the plane is put in a holding pattern, circling the airport, going nowhere while waiting for a chance to land.

This time of year our swimmers are particularly vulnerable to holding patterns. They have completed their high school season three weeks ago. Many have just finished finals. Some have graduated. There are endless social events to attend. There isn’t so much sleep happening…you get the picture.

The challenge is that the clock is ticking, endlessly, without regard for your personal situation. First a few days go by, then a week…10 days out of touch turns into 2 or 3 weeks. Now the long course season is in full swing and the swimmer hasn’t really trained all that much. The State Sectional meet is 5 plus weeks away; Nationals are 2 plus weeks after that. If you aren’t into training fully engaged you are running dangerously close to not being able to taper.

We find that this process is rarely intentional. It just sort of happens. One event leads to another; one dinner cannot be missed, let alone be late to…the beat goes on. The intentions are good, “I’ll start again Monday,” or, “As soon as my last final is done I’ll get back into the swing of it.”

So, how is one to avoid this dangerous trap or cycle?

Pretty simple from where we sit. Have a clear vision of what it is you want to get done; figure out which choices are most in line with that vision and then execute your plan.

Realize that you cannot make everyone happy. But you are in charge of your decisions so you must own them. Five weeks from now at the State meet all those friends that you had to see at all those parties will be nowhere near you…and of no assistance as you endeavor to swim fast.

So, have a plan; stick to it; make your choices based upon your plan; own your swimming career. Not rocket science but very effective.

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.”

2:17.99 vs. 2:17.87 = .12

So what exactly does 12 one hundredths of a second mean anyway? Today, to Madison, it meant the difference between the qualifying time for US Junior Nationals, a trip to Palo Alto, CA this August to race against the fastest 18 and unders in the country and her new best time. Splits for her swim – the 200 yard breaststroke - were 31.5 – 35.1 – 35.0 – 36.2. This is her first trip as an individual qualifier to the summer Junior Nationals meet. Trust us when we say, it is a very big deal. To qualify for an individual event at this prestigious meet is an indication that a swimmer has reached a very high level in the scheme of things in US Swimming.

Her fastest time in the 100 breast is currently 1:04.4. We told her that we believed if she was out in a 1:06 mid on the way to her 200 she could indeed make her qualifying cut. She did exactly that. She did fade a little on the last 50. This was her 5th day of very competitive racing in 9 days. She was running near the end of her tank. Yet she mastered her swim with the skill we see in veterans.

This swim is a testimonial to Madison, her diligent work in pursuit of her goals and her unending belief that the best is yet to come. And of course as is often the case, she is not yet done. She goes to college in the fall, making her coach and new team very happy. As she said shortly after her breakthrough swim, “I think I am going to be swimming this event a lot next year.”

All those 5 AM workouts, those heavy lifting sessions in the weight room, the endless search for perfection in stroke technique, the ups and downs of a season and the balancing of school and sport all are easily worth it when you shave off an all-important 12 one hundredths of a second. Ask any swimmer, they will tell you it is so. So, to Madison and all the swimmers who have had breakout swims this year, we say congratulations!

You are the reason we coach…and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

The Power of a Well Timed Surge

Watching the Kentucky Derby last weekend we were again impressed with the power of a well-timed surge. If you will click on the link below and watch the race unfold you will see that the eventual winner, Animal Kingdom, is not anywhere near the front until it counts. And what pushes him past the other horses – racers – are not one but two well-timed surges of power. It is almost as if he were shifting gears.

The first occurs as he runs past the “S” in 300 yards. The 2nd as he hits the 0 in 100 yards. Watch carefully and you can see it. It is almost tangible.



If you race at anything, think what would happen if you could develop that ability. There are several ways to get it. They all involve your ability to change speeds on the fly. Swimmers get it by being able to call upon more kick power to keep or even increase their tempo late in a race.

Simple swims, or sets of repeats where that is the only thing being worked on is a good place to start. Negative split swims are another. We even do swims of varying lengths of time – 3 to 10 minutes – where a predetermined amount of distance or time is done at a “surge” speed.

Play with this concept. It will give you another race tactic plus it gives you a real feeling of empowerment when you can pull it off. Let us know what you think.

Proverbs

In his book “The Soul Would Have No Rainbow If The Eyes Had No Tears” Guy A. Zona writes that, “Proverbs often serve as a means of instruction in the rules of conduct and ethical behavior expected by all members of a society; what makes them an effective tool is that they are based on a keen observation of human nature and behavior rather than an idealized and unrealistic standard.”

While on a recent long weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we stopped in the rather ordinary “Visitor’s Center Bookshop” only to discover this – in our opinion – rather extraordinary collection of Native American Proverbs. Several hit a particular resonance with us. Happy Sunday to you on Mother’s Day 2011.

Talk to your children while they are eating; what you say will stay even after you are gone – (Nez Perce)

The more you ask how far you have to go, the longer your journey seems – (Seneca)

Everything the Power does, it does in a circle – (Lakota)

Those who have one foot in the canoe and one foot in the boat are going to fall into the river – (Tuscarora)

Even when we lay down, we lay down on our own path of life – (Pawnee)

It is less of a problem to be poor than to be dishonest – (Anishinabe)

A rocky vineyard does not need a prayer but a pickax – (Navajo)

You already possess everything necessary to become great – (Crow)

A Simple Little Set

Here’s a fun easy set to take for a spin sometime soon. You can do it swimming, pulling or kicking. You can mix and match strokes anyway that you want. You can vary the intervals forever.

We did this with our team on Friday – Masters did it swimming, kids did it kicking using .30 per lap as the interval. Let us know what you think and have a great week at and in the pool!

• 1x50


• 1x100


• 1x50


• 1x25


• 1x50


• 1x25

Do three rounds of this (or multiples of 3 rounds – knock yourself out!)

1st round the 50’s are recovery, blast the 100 and the 2x25

2nd round blast the 50’s using the 100 and the 25’s as recovery

3rd round do one of each distance fast and the rest of the swims are recovery. On this round you only have one 100 but no matter how you choose the 25 and 50 combo they will be back to back – unless you choose the 1st or 2nd 50 in which case you will be back to back on the 100.