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For Swimmers

How much training is right for me (or how cake baking can help you swim faster!!!)

Without doubt the toughest question in swimming to answer is “How much training is right for me?”

Coming up with the right swimming training program has often been described as being a bit like making a cake.

When you make a cake, you follow a recipe which specifies how much flour, how much butter, how much milk, how many eggs, how long to bake in the oven, what temperature to set the oven for – yummy I can almost taste it now!

If you add too much butter, no eggs and five pounds of flour more than the recipe needs, then cook it for three hours at a high temperature, you get a mess more like a brick than a dessert!

Training is a mix of the right things done at the right time in the right quantities.

It all starts with your training plan – your “recipe” for success. Read more

Questions you always wanted to ask your coach but were afraid to ask.

• Did you ever want to ask your coach a question but couldn’t find the right way of asking the question?
• Did you ever have something you wanted to say to your coach but couldn’t find the right moment?
• Did you ever want to sit down with your coach and discuss some stuff you have been wondering about but never had the chance?

Well – here’s your chance!

Questions you always wanted to ask your coach but were afraid to ask! Read more

Swimming Psyche Outs. How to be in control, confident and composed when faced with psyche outs (and how to use them to your advantage!!). Part Two.

Ten things you can do to respond to a psyche out-er:

• Smile;
• Say “thanks”;
• Shake their hand and say “I really appreciate your support”;
• Laugh and say “is that the best you can come up with?”;
• Tell them, “I am sorry. I really wasn’t listening to you”;
• Tell them an even bigger “exaggeration”;
• Walk away;
• Say, “wow – I am really lucky to be racing someone as talented and gifted as you”;
• Keep chatting with family and friends.

But the best thing of all is to……………ignore them and swim your best.

Psyche out practice – dealing with Dirty Downers. Read more

Swimming Psyche Outs. How to be in control, confident and composed when faced with psyche outs (and how to use them to your advantage!!). Part One.

“The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it.” John ruskin

How many times do you hear a football player or baseballer or basketballer say something like “It was tough out there today. The other team really psyched us out”.

Sportspeople talk about the psyche out as something someone else did to them – that someone somehow did something mystical or magical that impacted on their performance.

Lots of people talk about psyching out…………..so what is it?

What is a psyche out? Read more

Five Breaststroke Essentials for all Swimmers and Coaches

1. If you want to swim breaststroke – you have to swim breaststroke

We have all been there – sitting behind a breaststroker, trying to overtake them, trying to get around their wide kicks and slow speed. Frustrating!!!

However, to get good at breaststroke – you have to swim breaststroke! That is to say, if you want to swim fast breaststroke in competition you have to train to swim fast breaststroke.

Many swimmers wonder why their breaststroke does not improve. Often the reason is simple…they don’t swim it enough in training. Read more

Flying into Fly: Five Tips for Swimming Brilliant Butterfly.

Motivation: 50 Tricks, Tips and Techniques or How to find the fire when the fire isn’t firing!!!

1. Set your self a daily goal to improve by one tenth of one inch. Anyone can improve one tenth of an inch each day. Over a week that’s almost an inch. That’s about 4 inches a month. That’s about 3 feet a year…..and 12 feet every Olympic cycle.
2. If you are in a pace line (i.e. a line of swimmers) chase the feet of the person in front of you.
3. If you are leading the pace line, imagine the person behind you is a shark or crocodile and you need to make sure you stay ahead of them!
4. Promise yourself a small gift or reward for improving your skills and drills – reward excellence in technique – technique is the key to swimming success.
5. Encourage other swimmers – the better your team mates perform – the more it will lift you and your performance – “a rising tide lifts all the boats”.
6. Keep a training diary and write in it three things you improved each day.
7. Keep a PB record sheet on your wall. Watch how you improve over time.
8. Remember you are special. How many people are prepared to get out of bed at 5 am, train hard and balance school, swimming and life the way you do?
9. Link your seasonsby making your short course PBs this season your long course PBs next season. Read more

The Top Ten Technique Tips for Every Swimmer

1. Effective propulsive movements in swimming go from SLOW to FAST.

In swimming, effective propulsive movements are SLOW to FAST.

In Fly, you reach long, feel the water, catch then accelerate through the stroke to recovery. Same in back. Same in breast (arms and legs). Same in free.

It starts with an effective feel on entry and a strong catch then…..throughout the stroke it is acceleration that makes all the difference.

2. The relationship between HIPS and HEAD is critical.

There is a critical relationship between the HIPS and the HEAD in swimming. Simply, when the head is up, the hips go down and if the hips are down three important things happen:

• Hips down means you kick down – instead of back;
• Hips down means your body is in an inefficient position;
• Hips down means that your body is not streamlined.

Be aware of this relationship and keep your head and hips in the right positions. Read more

Twenty Things to do NOW if you want to Win Gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

1. Start training – today!

Every day – every session – every lap is an opportunity to improve something: your skills, your speed, your fitness, your technique, your pacing, your breathing control….get in there and start working towards London…. today.

2. Believe anything is possible.

Imagine Phelps on the blocks about to swim the first heat of his first event in Beijing. Can you imagine him thinking, “Wow – I don’t think I can do this. It’s going to be too hard. I will never beat the “Sptiz” record”. No way! Winning in London in 2012 means believing you can do it right now! Read more

The Ten Myths of Swimming.

The dictionary says:

myth (noun)

1. a traditional story of unknown authorship, ostensibly with a historical basis, but serving usually to explain some phenomenon of nature, the origin of man, or the customs, institutions, religious rites, etc. of a people: myths usually involve the exploits of gods and heroes
2. such stories collectively; mythology
3. any fictitious story, or unscientific account, theory, belief, etc.
4. any imaginary person or thing spoken of as though existing

There’s the Yeti.

There’s the Sasquatch.

There’s the shopping cart with four good wheels.

There’s  the low fat, great tasting chocolate cake.

And there’s these….the ten myths of swimming. Read more

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• About this Blog

  Expert advice, ideas, innovation and inspiration for all sports coaches and team managers - from 'grass roots' through to elite and high performance levels. All posts are written by Wayne Goldsmith, AKA the "Sports Coaching Brain". If you have a question or comment about any post, please add it to the comments section.

• Recent Posts

  • How much training is right for me (or how cake baking can help you swim faster!!!)
  • Energy Systems: 1-2-3 – let’s take a new look at an old (but still hot) topic.
  • Message to Swimming – you still don’t get it!
  • The Swimming Coach Score Card – a must for all coaches (and swimmers and parents).
  • Questions you always wanted to ask your coach but were afraid to ask.

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