Swim Coaching Brain » Hot Topics

Talent ID in Swimming: the Talent Pool!

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:05:45 +0000

: swimming-pool from Crestock Photos

Talent is Harder to Hide than it is to Find.

When looking for the characteristics, traits and abilities that may indicate a swimmer’s talent, the most obvious things to look for are the physical ones.

However, swimmers with real physical talent are harder to hide than they are to find!

How many times have you been to a Swim Meet and seen the ten year old who is built like a fifteen year old blitz the opposition and break the Meet record? Finding physical talent in very talented swimmers is like telling people you discovered the Pacific Ocean-someone was going to find it sooner or later – hiding it would have been a far greater challenge!

And…ultimately, physical talent is only one indicator - and not a particularly good one - of performance potential.

It’s more than merely muscle.

Real talent is a far more complex thing than merely muscles, tendons, nerves, blood and ligaments. It’s an integration of mind, body and spirit: a combination of physical, mental, technical, tactical, genetic, cultural and personality factors that come together in a pair of swimming costumes that may one day break the World record or win the Olympic Gold Medal.

So what are the Top Ten Talent ID Techniques for Swimming: how do you find the most talented swimmers in the talent pool?:

Parents – (genetic material): choose your parents carefully;
Parents- a supporting, loving, caring environment, where parents or carers provide a swimmer’s core needs in nutrition, time management, sleep, rest, education and family support;
The Ability to learn fast – learn more in a shorter period of time = faster progression and improvement;
The Ability to deal with difficulty, adversity and change – the path to greatness is never straight or smooth. Many Olympic Gold medalists have had to endure set-backs, surgery, illness and disappointment and fight hard to achieve their dreams;
Physical talent- you have to have at least one “weapon” – speed, size, strength, power, flexibility….having at least one physical gift is useful;
Self confidence / self belief – they can who believe they can;
Passion – the love of swimming is the driving force of so many great swimmers and great swimming performances;
The ability to get along with other people - swimming is an individual sport wrapped up in a team environment. The ability to work well with team-mates in often tough, hard, high pressure situations, e.g when touring with a representative team, is a critical skill and a much under-estimated talent;
The ability to keep a sense of humour and balance about life – after all it is only swimming and you are so much more than just a swimmer;
Time availability – whilst not strictly a measure of talent, the amount of time available to train, prepare, rest, recover and compete are critical determinants of the level of swimming you can achieve.

Or if you like…

Talent is….
Attitude to train to your full potential everyday;
Love of the sport;
Enthusiasm – particularly in the tough times;
Nurturing – unconditional love and support at home from a family who cares;
Toughness – being able to persevere and keep giving your best when your feel so tired you can barely lift your arms;
Inherited characteristics – choose your parents carefully;
Desire – never give up.

Putting it all together.

So when looking in the talent pool for talent in the pool, keep your eyes, ears, heart and mind open.

It’s a lot more than just being the biggest, the strongest, the tallest or the fastest…..talent is a total package: a combination of factors that, when combined with consistent hard work, dedication, commitment and an uncompromising devotion to perfect preparation, turns potential into performance.

Wayne Goldsmith

The W Word: Winning.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:17:24 +0000

: business graph from Crestock Photos

Winning. Winning. Winning. There, I said it.

That felt good. I’ll say it again. Winning.

That felt so good I’ll do it again. Winning!!

It’s time we made the “W” word fashionable again.

Everyone talks about “doing your best” and “trying really hard” and “never giving up” and “achieving my personal best” but when is the last time you heard someone get up and say, “I am here to win”.

So let’s start thinking about winning, talking about winning and doing things in training, preparation and competition that make winning as certain as night follows day, dogs chase cats, and having too much homework to do on weekends.

Winning. To come first. To be the best. To be better than your competition. To be the leader.

All these things sound really positive and worth striving for but why have they become so difficult to talk about and so rare to find?

Because talking “winning” means putting yourself “on the line”. It means making a clear statement that your intention is to win and that second is unacceptable. Making a statement like “I am here to win” means you have made a commitment that nothing except the Gold Medal matters. It is absolute – it is finite – there is no misunderstanding: you thirst to be first! You want to go for the gold and leave the silverware for someone making a dinner setting.

And that’s why it is so scary and so intimidating for so many people….there is no “out” clause, no excuses, no alternatives – it’s win or it’s lose. When you declare “I am going for the win” there is no ambiguity, no misunderstandings, no confusion…winning means winning.

It’s ok to talk about pushing for the podium, to go for the gold and to want to win…..IF and this is a big IF, your winning thoughts and winning words are supported by winning actions.

Winning thoughts – The process of winning begins with Winning thoughts. Winning thoughts are dreams, and everyone dreams. They are those moments when your spirit soars, when your imagination flies and you dream about achieving great things. They are the fire – the inspiration for all the great things you want to do and will do in the future. Lots of people dream about winning – lots of people can even imagine (visualise) themselves holding up the Olympic Gold, doing the press conference in front of the world’s media and some people even imagine what they will say when they get asked “So what does it feel like to be the Olympic Champion”. Having winning thoughts is not the issue…..it’s going to the next step and saying (and meaning) winning words.

Winning words – If your dreams are the fire – the spark of your winning ways, then your words – your winning words are your fuel. We all use some form of self talk in everyday life – you know that little voice that says “I can do this” or “This isn’t so tough” or “Hang in there – this pain will pass”. Winning is about taking these inner voices and actually giving them a real voice. Letting winning thoughts out and hearing them makes them real. It takes them out of the world of dreams and imagination and into the real world where they can be heard – by you and others. Saying it is one thing…now comes the big step: turning winning words into winning actions.

Winning actions…and the key to it all is action. Winning thoughts are easy to think. Winning words are easy to say. But winning actions….they require something different – they require your energy, your enthusiasm, your commitment and you taking responsibility to make your dreams real. It’s easy to dream “Wow – I really wish I could win”. It’s easy to say “I really want to win”. But the reason why so many people never actually win is that they are not prepared to do what it takes to prepare to win.

Imagine for a moment you were looking through a magic mirror at the swimmer who will be the Olympic Gold medallist in your favourite event in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. They are in a pool somewhere in the world today, doing what you are doing, training, stretching, kicking, doing drills and all the other stuff that you do every day in every workout.

It’s not what they are doing…it’s how they are doing it.

They got to the pool early and did some extra stretching and strengthening work.

They had their own drink bottle and drank regularly throughout workout.

They attacked every turn like it was the final turn of an Olympic final.

They drove off every wall with power and speed.

They finished off every repeat on the wall with race quality finishes.

They completed all their sprint work at maximum speed – holding nothing back in spite of the pain and discomfort.

As soon as workout finished, they immediately started recovering from training and began the preparation process for the next session

They made a decision that they would out-train, out-stretch, out-strengthen, out-kick, out-pull, out-dive, out-turn, out-swim, and out-prepare any swimmer in their event in the world and that’s why they will win the Gold medal in Rio. They had a dream – they spoke it – they believed it – they put it into action and…they will win.

So, my question to you is this…“if you know what it will take to win the Gold Medal in Rio in 2016…why aren’t you doing it now?”

You’ve got the dream. You know the words. You know what actions you have to take….so do it! You can do it.

Summary:

So don’t be afraid of thinking about and talking about winning: winning is a good thing;
But…..and this is the key to it all….it’s only cool to think about and talk about winning IF you then turn your winning thoughts and winning words into winning actions with outstanding, consistently brilliant and uncompromisingly excellent training and preparation;
And, if you don’t win….learn, learn, learn from it. Winning means improvement and improvement comes from learning. So every experience, win, lose or draw is learning. Learn more – improve faster – win more often.
What the mind can conceive, and with words can believe, the body can achieve.

Wayne Goldsmith

Speed development workouts – five of the best speed workout sets to have you burning up the lanes!

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:48:21 +0000

: winner from Crestock Images

Gennadi Touretski– coach of legendary Russian speedster Alex Popov once said, “speed is the most precious thing in swimming – in the end it is what we are all about – it is what we are all trying to achieve”.

There are no gold medals or world records for the person who can swim the slowest or swim with the best technique or with the strongest kick or who has the best heart rate. There are no gold medals for the swimmer who wears the most expensive swim suit (at least not any more!).

There are no gold medals for the person who can lift the most weights or who has the best hairdo – winning is all about speed.

Speed’s seven golden rules: (to be read to swimmers at every speed development workout!!!!)

Train fast to go fast – train the way you want to race and include speed development training every week – and in all cycles of training;
The faster you want to go – the more relaxed you have to be! The only difference between swimming slow and swimming fast is the speed. Speed has nothing to do with gritting your teeth or tensing your muscles or pulling / pushing harder in the water – the faster you want to go, the more relaxed you have to be;
Only fast is fast. 90% of your best is not fast. 95% of your best is not fast. Only 100% is fast. You don’t get faster by doing your speed workouts at near to best speed. You get faster by training faster than you ever have before;
Think fast to go fast. Get yourself mentally ready for speed training by thinking about speed – focus on words that give speed meaning to you like “explode”, “drive”, “power”, etc;
Wall to wall speed. The fastest swimmers in the world usually get to top speed before their opposition. In other words their acceleration is critically important. They also have great finishing speed and often will swim over their opposition in the final few metres. If you are practicing speed, work on it wall to wall – maximum speed starts – maximum speed finishes;
Quality not quantity. The aim of speed development workouts is to develop speed. Increasing the number of repeats to achieve an increase in workout volume at the expense of the quality (speed) of the workouts will only develop the ability to swim slowly more often;
Maintain skills / technique and legality at speed – going faster does not mean a compromise on skills, technique and legality (i.e. Legal dives, starts, turns and finishes).

Here are five speed development workout sets to help your swimmers burn up the lane!!!!!!!!!!!

Number One: Killer kick set- Parts one and two.

Fast swimmers are invariably strong kickers. The ultimate aim of this set is to help a swimmer bring their 50 kick time as close as possible to their 50 swim time.

Killer kick set part 1 – finding your speed limit.

Start with the swimmer’s pb swim time for a 50 and add 15 seconds.

They then aim to kick a 50 in better than that time.

Now take off 1 second.

The aim is to kick a 50 in better than that time.

Now take off 1 second.

The aim is to kick a 50 in better than that time.

Keep going until the swimmer is at the point where they can just make the wall in the target time.

This is their kicking speed limit.

Killer kick set part two – practicing at your speed limit

8 x 50 kick on 2:00 minutes holding the individual kicking speed limit.

Variations:

No kick board;
Combine with a swim at target race pace, ie 50 kick, leave the kick board at the end of the pool, then sprint 25 / 30 metres at target race pace.

Number Two: Over / under set

Over / under sets are those which target speeds over a best previous speed at distances under a target race distance.

For example, if the swimmer is targeting 100 metres in one minute. An over under set might be:

Warm up;
Stretch;
Three to five minutes break;
2 x 25 metres at 15 seconds;
2 x 30 metres at 18 seconds;
100 easy swim and stretch;
2 x 40 metres at 24 seconds;
2 x 50 metres (feet on the wall) at 30 seconds;
200 easy swim and stretch;
2 x 55 metres (tumble plus five metres) at 33 seconds;
2 x 60 metres (tumble plus ten metres) at 36 seconds;
300 easy swim and stretch;
1-2 x 70 metres (tumble plus 20 metres) at 42 seconds;
1-2 x 80 metres (tumble plus 30 metres) at 48 seconds;
Swim down;
Stretch.

The key to the set is the flexible rest interval. Unlike most sets where the aim is to hold a cycle, e.g. 10 x 100 on a cycle time of 2 minutes, in speed development sets, the swimmer takes as much rest as they need to achieve the target time. Repeating mediocrity only achieves mediocrity!

Variations:

Shorter distances – more repeats;
Longer distances – fewer repeats;
Decrease rests between repeats only if quality can be maintained;
Start mid way down the pool so that the distances / times include a turn at target speed;
Add stroke count targets.

Number Three: 8-10-12-14-16

You can use any numbers you like – the principle is what matters. For example:

Warm up;
Stretch;
Break for three – five minutes;
8 strokes at maximum speed (no breathing on free or fly);
Easy swim to the end of the pool / one minute rest;
10 strokes at maximum speed;
Easy swim to the end of the pool / one minute rest;
12 strokes at maximum speed;
Easy swim to the end of the pool / one minute rest;
14 strokes at maximum speed;
Easy swim to the end of the pool / one minute rest;
16 strokes at maximum speed;
Easy swim to the end of the pool / 200 easy swim;
Repeat the above 2-4 times;
Swim down;
Stretch.

Variations:

Add a dive;
Use paddles (take care with young / inexperienced swimmers);
Control breathing patterns;
With young swimmers, these numbers will work fine. With senior swimmers their additional distance per stroke and distance off the wall underwater will mean using numbers like 6-7-8-9-10;
Start at various points in the pool to include more turns at target race speed.

Number Four: Dive cones

This is a fun speed workout for all swimmers.

Organize swimmers into pairs with similar swimming speeds.

Ask one swimmer in each pair to swim as fast as they can for ten seconds. The other swimmer walks along the side of the pool and places a cone (one of those brightly colored plastic cones used by gym teachers and other coaches to mark out training activities) to mark the distance their partner has achieved.

The set could be:

5 x 10 seconds at maximum speed – aiming to go a little further each repeat;
4 x 15 seconds at maximum speed – aiming to go a little further each repeat;
3 x 20 seconds at maximum speed – aiming to go a little further each repeat;
2 x 25 seconds at maximum speed – aiming to go a little further each repeat;
1 x 30 seconds at maximum speed.

Why does this work?

It taps into the competitive nature of swimmers;
It provides immediate, clear, visual feedback after each repeat;
It gives each swimmer a clear, immediate, tangible, measurable goal;
It provides an opportunity to develop stronger team bonds with each swimmer encouraging and urging their partner to achieve improved results over the set.

Variations:

Control breathing;
Set stroke count goals;
Have “world championships” where the winning swimmer is the one who improves their distance swum the most over the set.

Number Five: Super sixties

Sixty metres sprints are a great distance to train over. They are long enough to teach a swimmer how to sustain maximum speed but short enough to train at developing real speed qualities.

For example:

Warm up
Stretch
3- 5 minute break
6 x 60 metres at target race speed with an easy swim and stretch between each. Cycle time is dependent on the swimmer’s ability to maintain the quality of the set.
Warm down
Stretch

Variations:

Move the start / finish after each repeat. For example:

1^st repeat – dive, swim 50, tumble and swim ten metres;
2nd repeat – start at ten metres, swim 40, tumble and swim 20 metres;
3^rd repeat – start at 20 metres, swim 30, tumble and swim 30 metres;
4^th repeat – start at 30 metres, swim 20, tumble and swim 40 metres;
5^th repeat – start at 40 metres, swim 10, tumble and swim 50 metres (with a race finish);
6^th repeat – dive start, swim 50, tumble and swim ten metres.

So if it is speed you need, these sets will develop speed indeed!!!

Wayne Goldsmith

The P.A.C.E. System of Managing Swimming Training Intensity.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:14:51 +0000

: Olympic Gold Medal Winner for 100m freestyle, Goldfish league from Yuri Arcurs Website

The challenge itself is relatively simple.

How to simply, practically, reliably and accurately manage training intensity in swimming.

Now add in these complications:

67 kids aged 8 – 13 years all in the water at the same time;
Only one coach on deck;
No heart rate monitors (i.e. so any heart rate monitoring is done manually);
No sports science support.

The challenge just got a little more difficult…..or has it?

Introducing the PACE system – P.A.C.E.

So why bother to re-visit the topic of managing training intensity? There has been after all more words written about managing training intensity in swimmers than there have been in all the Harry Potter books!

The key is in the word - “practical”.

As most articles on managing training intensity are written by sports scientists or elite coaches working with small numbers of senior swimmers, they are not relevant or practical for part time, age group coaches working with large numbers of young swimmers in overcrowded lanes.

So the aim of the P.A.C.E. system is to “fill in the gap” – to give hard working age group coaches a realistic, simple, practical way of managing training intensity in their teams.

The other main benefit of the P.A.C.E. system is that it is based on swimming training times relative to the achievement of a future performance goal. Most training intensity management systems use a past event – i.e. a previous test or previous PB on which to base training intensity levels. The P.A.C.E. system uses the targeted speed of a future competition as the baseline measurement guide with the result being that swimmers and coaches are focused on achieving future performance goals rather than on duplicating previous testing or competition performances.

In summary, the P.A.C.E. system is:

P = PREPARATION AND PRACTICE PACE = or if you like easy swimming – around 50-60% max speed for warm up / warm down / drills / skills / recovery;
A = AIR-ROBIC = endurance development – around 70-80% max speed;
C = COMPETITION SPEED = training done at target race speed with race mechanics, race quality skills and race breathing patterns;
E = ELECTRIC SPEED = neural stimulation, speed development training – max/ supra max speed.

The P.A.C.E. system uses speed as the core ingredient because it is easy, simple, practical, reliable and accurate to measure and…………the other three most common methods of managing training intensity have too many problems associated with them when working with large numbers of young swimmers:

Heart rate – too hard to get kids to take it manually, too much variability day to day, too many questions about it as a determinant of training intensity in young kids;
Lactate - no one is even sure what it does in pre-pubertal swimmers, it is costly, invasive, and there are real questions about its value when working with young swimmers;
RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) – too subjective, too inaccurate – young kids have real trouble using RPE with any real consistency.

Again – the question is not what is the best possible test under perfect conditions – the question is “what can coaches working with 65 kids aged 8-13 years of age do that is fast, reliable, accurate, simple and easy to administer?”

Let’s look a little closer at the P.A.C.E. system:

PACE ONE – Practice and Prepare Pace.

Pace one is slow, easy, relaxed swimming (but with good technique and skills of course). It is the ideal pace for warm up, warm down, skills, drills and recovery.

PACE TWO – Air-robic Pace.

The core of most age group programs, Pace Two creates, builds and develops endurance capacities for the short and long term.

PACE THREE – Competition Preparation Pace.

Pace three is about preparing swimmers for the specific demands of competition swimming – i.e. to swim at the pace targeted to perform well at their next meet.

PACE FOUR – Electric Pace.

Electric Pace is speed development. It is work performed at maximum speed over short distances with the aim of developing real speed through stimulating neuro-muscular adaptation mechanisms.

And now, many of you are asking, “where is the AT / the anaerobic threshold intensity level?”.

The most over-used yet under-useful training speed when working with kids is AT. Many coaches still do their slow work too fast, and their fast work too slow, and as a result kids never full develop real speed or great endurance. The culprit….too much A.T. work! Pushing kids at threshold pace gives the impression that everyone is working hard and therefore everyone will improve if they swim at A.T. often.

However, the accuracy of measuring and managing A.T. when working with large numbers of young age group swimmers is questionable at best and the value of training young kids at sustained A.T. speeds is very doubtful.

As the majority of races kids compete over are 50 or 100 metres, there is no point in doing lots of kms at AT – particularly when almost half of the distance kids cover during races are dives, starts, turns and finishes – i.e. skills based.

Am I suggesting, the P.A.C.E. system is the best way of managing training intensity in all swimmers? No.

Am I suggesting the P.A.C.E. method should replace heart rates, lactates and RPEs in managing the training intensity of all swimmers? Not entirely.

What I am suggesting is that the current methods of managing training intensity are impractical when working with large numbers of young age group swimmers and for coaches who are working in this environment the P.A.C.E. system is practical, simple, easy to implement, common sense and replies on using the one tool every coach and swimming Club can afford – a clock!

So try the P.A.C.E. system and let me know how it works with your team.

Next Article: Introducing the Engagement Factor - a new way of writing workouts and designing training programs.

Wayne Goldsmith

Mental Skills Training in Swimming – a new approach.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:57:50 +0000

: colored brain from Crestock Stock Photography

What is your experience with sports psychology and mental skills training?

Is it meeting a psychologist or mental skills professional at an office and talking quietly about attitudes, anxieties and ambitions?

Or is it having a mental skills professional come to the training centre and do a “motivation” lecture or a mental skills training session on relaxation, focusing, visualisation / imagery and attitude?

Time to take mental skills training out of the office, away from the training room and into the pool.

How?

In a recent post on my www.sportscoachingbrain.com site I talked about the fourth aspect of designing and developing training programs: Engagement.

In the article I suggested that in traditional programs, coaches write workouts in terms of the “big three” physiology variables: Volume of training (how much to do), Intensity of training (how hard to work) and Frequency of training (how often to do it).

However, this is old thinking…because it assumes that training adaptations are all about physical training and exercise physiology. Coaches and athletes know that there is another key determinant of training adaption…engagement - (how engaged the athlete’s mind is in the training activity).

The central argument is this. No matter how well designed the set and workout might be, it is the athlete’s approach and attitude to completing the workout that largely determines the outcome.

A brilliantly designed training set, sculptured perfectly in terms of heart rate, speed, volume and lactate levels, will not be performed optimally unless the swimmers have engaged in the set and are committed to performing the set to their full potential.

Remember that competitive swimming is not just about swimming fast – anyone can learn to swim fast.

Competitive Swimming is….swimming fast, with great technique and skills, under pain, pressure and fatigue.

If competitive swimming was only about swimming fast – then we would just train the body.

But…competitive swimming is about maintaining speed and technical excellence when the body is enduring pain, pressure and fatigue and it is the swimmers who can best integrated mind and body to work together in harmony in these conditions who prevail.

And it all starts with training set design and workout planning.

How can you integrate “engagement” with the physiology “big three” – volume, intensity, frequency?

Example:

Old way (physiology model):

Training set is 16 x100 metres (volume) on 2:00 minutes holding a speed of PB plus 10 seconds (intensity).

Enhanced Mind – Body way:

Training set is 16 x 100 metres (volume) on 2:00 minutes holding a speed of PB plus 10 seconds (intensity). Key mental skills learning (engagement) – At signs of fatigue, work with swimmers on relaxation under pressure and on breathing techniques to learn how to manage pain under fatigue and pressure conditions.

In every workout, there are opportunities to teach lessons which can make an incredible impact on the swimmer’s mental abilities for competition. At times of pain, pressure and fatigue during workouts, opportunities emerge to teach swimmers life lessons and mental skills that can not be replicated in an office or classroom.

This is the key: we all want swimmers to master the mental skills necessary to compete successfully in the pool.

So it makes sense to shift our mental skills training focus into the pool. If Gold Medals for 100 freestyle were handed out for winning a race around an office, let’s do our mental skills training in high buildings…..but it is all about mental skills mastery in the pool.

Optimal performance in any field of endeavour comes from the integration of the mind and the body working in harmony.

Next time you are writing a training program or training set add in engagement - the critical fourth dimension in training - and teach mental skills at every opportunity.

Wayne Goldsmith

Energy Systems: 1-2-3 – let’s take a new look at an old (but still hot) topic.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:57:10 +0000

: tree silhouette and lightning from Crestock Stock Photography

OK, OK – another article about energy systems and training zones in swimming.

No – this is not just another energy systems article – this one is different….

Now, the real problem is not with the zones themselves – (although we could debate the accuracy and usefullness of some of the “landmark” training studies on which training zone theory is based) – the real problem is in the practicality of using training zones in their current forms in the coaching of age group swimming squads.

Take for example this typical, common swim squad scenario:

The coach of the local age group swim squad plans a workout for his team. He wants them to do a workout which includes a training set of 40 minutes at AT. He has 25 kids in the water doing the workout with ages ranging from 13 years to 19 years. The team completes the workout and he is confident they have all swum the main set at the precise speed he requires for them to stimulate a response and adaptation for AT enhancement.

He creates workouts using his training zones model of seven different zones:

RECOVERY (60% max);
AEROBIC ENDURANCE 1 (65% max);
AEROBIC ENDURANCE 2 (70% max);
AT 1 (80%) max;
AT 2 (85%) max;
VO2 (90%) max;
SPEED DEVELOPMENT (max speed).

Here are just ten things that make this approach really questionable:

Unless each swimmer is measured accurately and continuously throughout the training set, how can you know for certain they are training precisely in the right zone?;
How do you know each swimmer has the ability to pace their training exactly, evenly and precisely through the set to ensure they are in the right training zone?
If you are basing the intensity of this training session on a previous testing session, how do you know if the swimmer has improved or gone backwards since the test session thereby making the test results useless for this current workout?;
Each individual swimmer will be at different stages of recovery from their previous workout and from other activities, e.g other sports, being at school;
Each individual swimmer will have adopted a different nutrition and hydration strategy during the previous 24 hours;
Each swimmer will have different levels of engagement with the current session and will execute the session differently;
How accurately are you measuring intensity? Heart rate is increasingly suspect as a primary measure of exercise intensity – particularly with young age group swimmers. RPE is wide open to error and inaccuracy owing to its subjective nature and individual variations in perception. It is basically the good old stop watch if it is anything;
If swimmer’s racing is about executing technique and skills at speed under fatigue and pressure, why limit the intensity prescription to fit a purely ‘physiological model?’;
The incremental gaps between the training zones in this typical model are very small and very very difficult to measure accurately in the splash and dash chaos of an age group swim team training environment – honestly – can you really accurately measure the difference between 80 and 85% max in 25 kids in the middle of a swim set?
The validity of the training zones model itself? Coaches and physiologists working with small squads of elite athletes can’t all agree on one training zone model, so what hope does an average part time age group coach working part time with large numbers of swimmers have?

Yet, in spite of all these complications and variables, we have waxed lyrical about how small variations in swimming speed at training are critical because you will be stimulating AT1 instead of AT2.

When you think about it, we are basing the training of swimmers on a theory which has more holes in it than a box full of broken sieves.

It is time we all took a more practical, realistic approach to the whole energy systems / training zones theory. Why not for example simplify things like this?

TRAINING ONE: Low intensity for endurance and recovery;
TRAINING TWO: High speed neural stimulation / speed development;
TRAINING THREE: Race specific – i.e. at target race speed with race skills, stroke mechanics and strategies.

But most importantly, if the sport is going to progress, surely we must move beyond our current limited models of managing exercising intensity and strive to identify methods where each individual athlete within a squad is training at their own unique optimal intensity level every session: individualisation of preparation is critical for peak performance success.

Sure, the research might say things are more complex than this. I agree totally – things are probably a lot more complex than this at cellular level.

Sure, some coaches will say they know for sure that their training system using six, seven, eight or twenty two different training zones works and they have medals to prove it.

Sure the physiologists will all speak with confidence that the research tells us the body has multiple, complex, interacting energy systems. All this may be true.

However, in practical terms – (read that word again – Practical) it is next to impossible to accurately and precisely determine training zones for all the swimmers in a moderate to large size age group swimming team.

And therefore, you have to ask, why are so many coaches still doing it?

And you also have to wonder if there are much better ways of doing things?

I would love to hear your views.

Wayne Goldsmith

Message to Swimming – you still don’t get it!

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:37:19 +0000

: Old wall from Crestock Creative Images

Six years ago I wrote an article called “Changing Times” about the Sport of Swimming and the challenges it faced all over the world.

You can find the full article at numerous sites (or just email me for a copy).

In short, I challenged the swimming community to work together, to strive to create new, exciting, interesting training and competition environments, to put away petty political and personality conflicts and work together in the best interest of kids, athletes, families, coaches, Clubs and the sport.

Now, Six years later…..You still don’t get it do you!

A few weeks ago I was at a famous Aquatics complex in a major capital city. As usual, I was drawn to watch the swimming programs in the pool – the coaches, the athletes, technique, skills, performance levels, attitudes….I am passionate about swimming and want to see the sport succeed.

This is what I saw.

A young coach working with about 50 junior squad swimmers, aged 10-14 in very crowded lanes.

He stood at one end of the pool for the whole hour of the training session, most of the time with his leg up on the starting block in Lane one. He yelled workout instructions to the whole group and did not provide any swimmer with individualised feedback. All swimmers – all ages – all levels of ability did the same workout.

Skills and drills were performed poorly and received with little feedback. The feedback that was given was general feedback to the whole group.

The following week, I was at a similarly famous Aquatics complex in another capital city in another country. Again, I spent time observing a junior swim squad in training. Again I saw the same lack of engagement, lack of creativity, lack of passion and lack of quality coaching I had seen previously.

The next week I went to a local swim meet – again out of interest and love of the sport. Guess what?

Swimming is still offering 65 heats of the 7 and under 50 backstroke, still providing little or no interesting competition opportunities for swimmers over 15 years of age, still awarding those stupid colored ribbons to all swimmers from 5 years of age to 25, still being over zealous with breaststroke rules, still doing little or nothing to engage parents, still offering mostly junk food at the shop…………………..I thought I was in a time warp and it was 1973 all over again.

Put yourself in the position of being a swimmer in one of those squads.You have a choice. You can train for football, outside, with your friends, emulating your heroes and enjoying the team environment. You can stay at home and spend time on your computer engaging with your friends and the web. You can play other sports, play music, just enjoy lazing about with family and friends or…

“I can be pushed and driven up and down a pool with no engagement from my coach, receiving no feedback, learning nothing and being bumped and bruised in crowded lanes”.

Put yourself in the position of being a parent of a swimmer in one of those squads. You are paying money for your child to receive professional coaching. You have had to change your work, social and family schedule to be there. And what do you see?

“My child is receiving no quality, individualised instruction, is gaining no learning and receiving no feedback, is swimming mindless lap after mindless lap, bumping into other kids, the end of the pool and the lane ropes and I am paying for the privilege”.

Or what about the parent going to the Meet? “I sit there for two days to see my kid swim four events, either in stinking heat or inside breathing in chlorine gas, giving up my precious weekend time and paying through the nose to get in to the facility, buy food and for race fees”.

And then the kid drops out of the sport in their mid teens and we all scream “What’s wrong with kids today?” – rubbish: the reason kids drop out of swimming is totally the responsibility of the people who coach, administer and organise swimming training and competitions. Kids and families will stay in swimming if it is engaging, enjoyable, exciting, educational and embraces excellence in all things.

We are offering mass mediocrity, outdated competition formats and inferior coaching quality and expecting people to continue to accept it. Well, have a good look at your registrations, Meets and bottom lines……..people are not accepting it.

The sport of swimming – like many other Olympic sports – is at the crossroads. The very existence of competitive swimming hangs in the balance like no other time in its history.

Now, more than ever we must provide quality, engaging, interesting, enjoyable and challenging training and competition experiences or swimmers and parents will no longer support the sport.

Why would a talented young swimmer, with so many choices available in sport, in social activities, in study programs, in social media and in life, waste time ploughing up and down a black line in a boring, repetitive, monotonous, poorly coached program?

Why would a parent with limited time and limited money pay for a child to be part of a sport which offers mediocre coaching and dull, boring, tedious competitions which typically offer the same events, on the same day, in the same order year after year after year?

If you consider just these coaching and competition issues – without even thinking about the child abuse allegations which are all too common around the world, the swim suit debacle and how that made the sport a laughing stock and concerns over the long term dangers of swimming in heavily chlorinated water and we are in crisis.

To all my friends and foes in swimming around the world – wake up! This is now a matter of great urgency.

Improve coaching standards – do not accept mediocre coaching anytime / anywhere from anyone;
Provide more engaging, interesting and enjoyable training environments;
Create new, interesting, stimulating and enjoyable competition formats;
Stop trying to force all kids into pathways designed to make them Olympic champions – give each individual what they need to realise their potential at all levels of achievement;
Put “fun” before “fast”;
Embrace parents into swimming programs as partners in swimming performance and stop treating them as lepers who pay fees;
And most importantly, stop this “we are different”, “those things will not work in swimming” and “that’s not the way we do it in swimming” thinking that is killing the sport around the world.

C’mon – we can do this!

Wayne Goldsmith

Five New Ideas that will Change Swimming Forever.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:47:10 +0000

: human hand offer a bulb light from Crestock Stock Images

They say that “success is a moving target”.

This is so true in swimming where new ideas, information and innovations are constantly being thrown up to challenge, inspire and stimulate the thinking of swimmers and coaches.

Recently a wave of exciting and challenging new scientific research has come forward which has sparked some new ideas and forced the swimming world to sit up and take notice.

Here are five new ideas that will change our swimming world…………..forever!

1. Stop Stretching in warm up before training and racing.

Some great new research has really challenged the way we look at stretching in warm ups before training and racing.

Seems that long hold static stretches are actually counterproductive to producing speed and power. Long hold (i.e. 10 seconds or more) static stretches switch off some of the mechanisms within muscles and tendons that help the body performance fast, powerful, explosive movements.

(Note: The exception to the rule is around swimming injuries. If you are injured but continuing to train and race follow the guidelines of your doctor or physical therapist).

The research also says that stretching is still really important for increasing the range of motion around joints and in injury prevention but that stretching should be done as a separate training session away from warm up pre training and competition – at least four hours prior to training or competition!

Another great option is to schedule a team stretching session immediately after workouts when muscles are warmed up and receptive to flexibility improvement training.

Far better options pre-competition are the more dynamic forms of stretching and warm up like jumping, skipping, walking, jogging, using long “drill type” strokes in warm up etc.

So incorporate regular stretching into your overall program but schedule flexibility training at times when it will not impact on swimming performance.

2. It’s not all about technique, technique, technique.

We have all read it or said it over the years: swimming is all about technique, technique, technique.

Researchers have discovered that the old excellence by excess system – that is – repeat a simple skill in training ad finitum until it is mastered is not the best way to improve skills performance in competition.

The idea is that learning skills is a continuum. On one end of the continuum is what is called Stability and at the other end Instability or Chaos.

Where the training environment is reasonably Stable (i.e. constant, unchanging, consistent, the same), the racing environment is Chaotic with swimmers having to execute skills and make tactical decisions in a very Unstable (i.e. rapidly changing, inconsistent, variable) setting.

The research suggests that doing more skills work in an Unstable environment in training, i.e. one that is changing, different and variable, stimulates a swimmer’s brain to learn how to execute those skills more effectively in racing.

With the Internet and the way we know kids are using it and seeking information, the presentation of skills and drills work the same way over and over and over again is counter productive to the learning process.

In practice this means getting rid of the old 40 x 25 one arm freestyle drills etc and instead focusing on achieving a higher standard of quality in each repeat and continuously changing the learning environment to stimulate the swimmer’s thinking.

Chaos drill theory means varying how drills are presented to swimmers to teach them to think and learn more effectively.

For example:

Old Way of doing Drill A, then Drill B, the Drill C:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA followed by BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB then CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Chaos Drill Concept:

ABCBBAACCCAAABBBABABABCBCBCAABCAACCCCAAABB etc.

Try it – use your imagination to vary the presentation of drills.

You need to follow a 5x5x5 philosophy – can you teach the same lesson using five different drills, presented five different ways in five minutes?

3. Physical talent is a poor indicator of long term success.

There is no doubt that swimming is a tough sport physically. But a lot of research across several sports tells us that athletes who succeed in the long term and at the highest level are not just physically gifted and talented.

Just as important are characteristics like:

Self esteem and self respect;
Independence;
Ability to maintain satisfying relationships, e.g. family and friends;
Ability to adapt and solve problems;
Ability to deal with stress and difficult times;
Being happy and optimistic – even in adverse situations.

What this tells us is that working hard in the pool and in the gym is important but no more important than working on mental skills development, emotional intelligence and self confidence.

Yet, in spite of this most swimming programs based their talent identification and development on finding physically gifted and talented athletes, preferring muscles to motivation and strength to stress management ability.

Coaches need to focus on developing the total athlete– and spend time each day building the personality and character of swimmers (in partnership with parents, families and the swimmer them-self).

4. Tapering to swim fast is a fallacy.

Tapering has been around as a concept for a long, long time. However, its importance in swimming has been overstated for almost as long.

The original concept of tapering was developed primarily for adult athletes in weight bearing sports like running and ski-ing. The majority of athletes in swimming are young and more importantly involved in a non weight bearing activity.

The concept is pretty simple. Athletes work hard in training. Just prior to competition they decrease an element of training – usually volume (i.e. the amount of training) they are doing to reduce fatigue and perform at their best.

The record books are full of stories about swimmers who broke records and won titles while still in full training. Swimmers have swum PB times at all phases of their training.

More importantly – many, many swimmers who have had an outstanding taper, often do not swim PB times in competition or win titles!

Have a look at the NCAAs or the World Champs or even the Olympics. Every swimmer would have gone through a taper of some kind – yet very few do PB times at those competitions.

The main reason this occurs is that tapering may make the body ready to swim fast but it does nothing to get the mind ready to swim fast. Tapering does not improve a swimmer’s perception about their own ability. It does not improve their self confidence. It does not improve their resilience to pressure. It does not teach them to manage the stress of competition. It does not teach emotional control or composure in race conditions.

All it does is reduce fatigue levels – and people can race fast even when tired.

Tapering in swimming is over rated, over emphasised and just plain over as a performance enhancement strategy.

Bottom line: DE-emphasise the importance of the taper on performance and work hard to develop a balanced, total preparation– one that incorporates mental, technical, tactical and of course physical elements.

5. Squad Training is Dead.

Now this is a scary one. Squad training is dead.

Let me re-phrase that, Squad training to optimise individual performance is dead.

In the “old days” back in the 50s and 60s coaches trained their teams as whole. Everyone did more or less the same program regardless of their stroke speciality.

In the 70’s we moved to training specialists – flyers did fly, breaststrokers did breaststroke and sprinters sprinted.

In the 80’s and 90’s we specialised even more – sprint specialists, 50 metre specialists, short course specialists, middle distance specialists etc.

Now we are in the age of the individual – and swimmers are demanding more and more individualised training and preparation.

Competition at all levels is getting tougher and the need for attention to detail with each individual is greater than ever meaning that the old “one size fits all” way of preparing swimmers is outdated and inappropriate.

What do we know about individuals in this century?

They are unique;
They learn differently;
They have different preferences for taking in information;
They prefer to take in little bits of information in a variety of forms rather than a lot of information presented the same way;
They want to have some ownership and engagement in the things they are doing;
They are motivated by different things.

So, given this, how does writing a single workout on a white board and presenting it to 100 unique individuals, with different needs, different learning styles and different learning preferences work? The answer is “it did work – but it is no longer good enough”.

In terms of producing great swimmers, the squad model has to change. Champions are unique. They are different They are special. They are typically A- typical. That’s why they are champions.

How can we treat all swimmers the same way and call it quality coaching?

Times have changed. It is no longer a coach driven sport – it is a partnership program: Coach, swimmer and family – working together to achieve success.

We have to change the old squad model and increase the attention to detail with each individual. We need to find ways to inspire young swimmers to take increasing responsibility for their own preparation and performance – and thereby helping the coach to coach.

This is THE greatest challenge to coaches and the sport everywhere. It’s not finding heart rate monitors or lactate analysers or video analysis equipment or copying the latest drill sets from successful programs – it’s finding new ways to inspire the hearts and minds of young swimmers to commit to the sport and realise their full potential.

And how will we do this? By treating every swimmer as an individual and providing them with the preparation environment that gives them the opportunity to succeed.

Wayne Goldsmith