Swim Coaching Brain » Swimmers

Mental Toughness for Swimming: Building a Bulletproof Brain.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:56:56 +0000

Can you imagine yourself standing at the end of the pool at your next Swim Meet, hands on your hips, with a huge smile on your face and laughing as all the usual challenges and problems like nervousness, anxiety, pressure, “psyche-outs”, emotions and noise bounce off you like bullets bouncing off Superman’s chest?

Would you like to be mentally stronger – mentally tougher, so that nothing can affect you, nothing can harm you, and nothing can stop you from swimming like superman?

Would you like to be so mentally tough that you go to Swim Meets filled with with courage, calm, confidence and composure (as opposed to feeling weak, wimpy and wishing you could be somewhere else?).

Here’s how:

Mental Toughness Tip 1: You have to make training more challenging and more demanding than the competition you are preparing for:
Mental Toughness Tip 2: You have to out-prepare – in every aspect – every swimmer that you will be facing in competition:
Mental Toughness Tip 3: You have to do the first two tips every day, in everything you do, in and out of the water.

Mental Toughness Tip 1: You have to make training (physically and mentally) more challenging and more demanding than the competition you are preparing for:

Think of it this way.

Imagine Swim Meets had a “ranking” between 1 and 10, where a ranking of 1 is a swim for fun meet at your own club just for prizes and laughs and a ranking of 10 is the Olympic final.

If you are preparing for local school Meet, let’s say with a ranking of 4 out of 10, then your preparation needs to be set at a level of 5 or 6 out of 10.

If you are preparing for the State Champs, with a ranking of 6 out of 10, make sure your preparation is at a level of 7 or 8 out of 10.

Unfortunately many swimmers prepare for a “4” level Meet by training at a level of 2 or 3 and then hope that everything will work out when they get to the competition pool. ….and hope is not a recommended strategy for success

By always preparing to a level higher than the Meet you are preparing for, you can race with the confidence that there is nothing the Meet can throw at you that you can’t beat: no obstacles you will have to face which can stop you, no challenge that will be too great for you to defeat.

Mental Toughness Tip 2: You have to out-prepare – in every aspect – every swimmer that you will be facing in competition:

This means not just training harder, smarter, more consistently and faster in the pool than your opposition – this means every aspect of your preparation must be better than every swimmer you will race against.

You have to eat better than your competition;
You have to get more (and better quality) sleep than your competition;
You have to work harder in the gym than your competition;
You have to take care of any injuries more effectively than your competition;
You have to manage your time, your work, your study and rest better than your competition.

Imagine for a moment you are preparing to race an outstanding swimmer at your next Meet. Imagine you are going to look across the pool to Lane 4 and there’s Phelps standing smiling back at you. Or Stephanie Rice.

Now there is nothing you can do to control their talent, their skill, their training or their abilities. All the things that they own – that are part of who they are – are outside your control. So forget about them.

What you can control is every aspect of your own preparation.

You can control what you eat.

You can control when you go to bed and how well you sleep.

You can control how much effort – how much focus – how much concentration you give to your pool and gym workouts.

And if you know that you have consistently “out-eaten”, “out-slept”, “out-recovered”, “out-gym-worked” and “out-trained” your competition you can go to the Meet with the confidence you can perform at your best in every situation, every race, every time.

Think of it another way.

If you were racing Phelps or Rice – with all their talent and ability and….they had also eaten better than you, slept better than you, recovered better than you and trained better than you…you have no hope what-so-ever of beating them.

By Controlling the Controllables: by controlling all the things that you can control, you can always compete to your full potential and you are giving yourself the best possible opportunity for success.

Mental Toughness Tip 3: You have to do the first two tips every day, in everything you do, in and out of the water.

Want to know the secret to being mentally tough????

The secret to being mentally tough is to not have to be mentally tough!

Most people think being mentally tough is fighting hard to overcome tough situations. Others believe being mentally tough is staying strong in the face of adversity. Some people think being mentally tough is never showing pain and never succumbing to pressure.

But the real secret to being mentally tough is to not have to be mentally tough.

By ensuring that your training is consistently more challenging and more demanding than any Meet could ever be, and by knowing with absolute certainty that you have out-prepared in every aspect every competitor you will be facing in competition you don’t need to be mentally tough.

Talking tough, walking tough, yelling team war-cries, painting your face, listening to motivational speakers, getting tattoos, screaming out heavy-metal rock tunes…all these things are great fun but none of them are real and none make you really mentally tough.

Real mental toughness comes from one thing: preparation.

Real mental toughness comes from one person: you.

Real mental toughness is based on confidence.

Confidence which comes from knowing.

Knowing that you have done all within your power to prepare to the best of your ability every day.

Summary:

1. Building a Bulletproof body is a matter of training hard every day, making sure your practice sessions are always challenging and demanding and above all consistently training to your full potential;

2. Building a Bulletproof brain is the same: challenge your mind to face new challenges every day, learn to overcome demanding and difficult situations in practice and consistently engage your mind to its full capacity in everything you do;

3. Being bulletproof in competition comes from confidence and confidence comes from knowing…knowing that every day you have challenged both your body and your mind to a level even more challenging and more demanding than any competition could ever be.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Top Ten Technique Tips for Every Swimmer

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:56:55 +0000

: swimmer in swimming pool from Crestock Stock Photography

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.

3. SOFT HANDS and feel!

If someone gave you a rose and said, “feel this – it is so soft” – what would you do with your hands? Cup them tightly? Clench them into a fist? Force your fingers wide apart with lots of tension? Or……..would you relax your fingers and hands and wrist and gently feel the rose?

You can’t feel anything with tight, tense hands. To improve your feel of the water, relax and think soft hands.

4. Think tall – think long – think strong.

There is no doubt that objects that are long, tall, thin and streamlined move better through water than things that aren’t!

Streamline off every turn.
Streamline on entry at each dive and start.
Streamlining off walls is important but………….think tall and think long all the time!

Believe it or not, an awareness of being tall and long in the water is important. For example in breaststroke recovery, think tall and long as you stretch and reach forward – reach long…..then kick strong.

It is the combination of long and strong that produces the most efficient swimming movements.

This “tall” thinking and awareness really helps your body move and flow through the water.

5. The faster you want to go, the more relaxed you have to be.

Watch a little kid running. Now tell him to run as fast as he can…..what happens? He clenches his fists. He gets red in the face. He holds his breath. And he lasts about twenty yards!!

The faster you want to go, the more relaxed you have to be.

Speed is about relaxation – not grunting – not fist clenching – not tightening up – not breath holding – relaxation.

If you want to go fast, focus on staying calm, relaxed and moving easily.

6. The POWER Circle – POWER ON – POWER OFF.

Swimming has two primary phases – the “propulsive” phase and the “recovery” phase. For many swimmers, the recovery phase is actually an extension of the propulsive phase in that they don’t actually recover. The recovery phase is a time to relax and allow muscles to switch off in preparation for the next propulsive pull. Learning to do this can make a big difference to a swimmer’s ability to maintain a strong powerful stroke throughout a race.

Think POWER CIRCLE – POWER ON / POWER OFF. When the hands and arms are under the water and pulling it is power ON. As the hands leave the water to recover, it is power OFF.

The ability to turn the power off and relax during recovery is an important skill for all swimmers to develop.

7. Finishes – Head forward / Hips high / full kick / full stroke.

Good finishes in all strokes have four common elements: HEAD – HIPS – KICK – STROKE

Head – leaning forward towards the wall – as opposed to turning and looking at the opposition or the results;
Hips – high and in a strong position – to keep the body in a streamlined position and moving towards the wall;
Kick – still working and driving the body forward at the wall. In fly finishing with a strong down kick and in breast finishing with the feet accelerating all the way to a toes touch position;
Stroke – finishing in a long, strong, tall position at the end of recovery so that the body is streamlined and capable of reaching and stretching towards the finish.

Every finish in training is a race finish and should include these four elements.

8. Starts – Key words = focused thinking.

There are many distractions at the start of a race – noise, crowd, media, other swimmers, etc etc.

The world is not going to shut down for you – you need to “shut” the world down.

To do this, try the simple “key word” technique.

Find a word that means “start” to you – something like:

Power
Explode
Drive
Strong
Relax

Take a long, deep breath – and if you can, take 5 seconds to inhale fully. Then on the exhale, say your key word quietly to yourself, taking 5 seconds to exhale fully. Repeat this for about a minute, continuing to breath deeply and slowly (about 5-6 breaths per minute), focusing on the key word every exhale.

This does three things:

It gives you confidence and control over the pre race environment;
The slow deep breathing keeps you relaxed;
The focus word allows you to eliminate external distractions and focus on a good start.

9. Turns – tight.

Turns are an important part of swimming and invariably great swimmers are great turners.

Turns need to be tight.

Heels up close to the buttocks;
Legs tucked up and under the body;
Arms in close and held near the centre of the body.

Being tight keeps the body in an efficient minimum resistance position but it also allows the swimmer to adopt the “coiled spring” position.

Muscles can contract with greater power after being stretched and put under tension. By pulling the limbs in close to centre of the body, the large, powerful muscles of the legs, shoulders and back are placed on stretch.

Then coming out of the turn, the body can open up with power and explosiveness and use this elastic energy to drive off the wall and get back into fast swimming!

10. Consistency is the key.

The key to it all is to take the first nine tips and practice them consistently – every session – every day – every week.

Consistency provides opportunity – opportunity provides the talented swimmer with the chance to achieve anything.

We are creatures of habit. What we do repeatedly and what becomes habit, is what we do instinctively in times of fatigue and pressure, i.e. racing. If you practice doing things consistently well in training and doing things well becomes your “habit” under the pressure and pain of racing you will always come out on top.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Flying into Fly: Five Tips for Swimming Brilliant Butterfly.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:43 +0000

: Dolphins from Crestock Stock Photography

Is there anything better in swimming than swimming great fly?

When you get it right, everything seems to flow, arms and legs working in rhythm – no wonder they call it FLY – it feels like you are flying through the water: not swimming – but actually flying.

But like anything that looks easy and feels that good, it takes a lot of hard work to turn the basics of the stroke into the fundamentals of flight!

Five Fantastic Fly Facts:

Everyone’s fly will be different: everyone is unique. However, there are five consistent factors in all fast fly:

Long arms / fast legs: keep your arms, long, loose and relaxed and your legs moving with power, speed and strength;
Kick in both directions with power and rhythm: make sure your legs keep working in both directions with power flowing – Hips, Thighs, Knees, Shins, Feet;
Power on / power off: a fly fundamental – power on when your hands and arms are in the water, power off when they are out of the water recovering forward;
Breathe early, breathe low: keep up and down head movements to a minimum – push your chin forward to breath and keep it low and close to the water;
Slow to feel, accelerate through pull: keep your hands soft and relaxed and feel the water, then apply pressure and accelerate your hands all the way through your pull.

Now you have the fabulous fly fundamentals, let’s turn them into fast flying:

Five Fabulous Fast Fly Sets:

Fly Flyers:

Swim 6 strokes of fly (from a push start) at top speed without breathing. The aim is to go as far as you can on each stroke: Long and Strong. Have a team mate put a marker, (your pull buoy is a good marker) along the side of the pool to indicate how far you got in six strokes.

Now go back to the start and aim to get to the Six Stroke marker in only Five Strokes. When you achieve the “Six in Five” target, aim for Six in Four– i.e. the distance you went in six strokes achieved in only four.

Then……….Double Up.

Swim 12 strokes of fly at maximum speed from a push start and once again ask a team mate to mark the distance. Can you swim 12 in 11, then 12 in 10?

All repeats are done at maximum speed with legal underwater kick distance and with a push start.

Flyer Scorers:

Give yourself a Starting Fly Score of 15 for short course and 30 for long course.

Each Stroke is worth one point.

Each Breath is worth one point.

The aim is to get your Fly Score down as low as you can, for example:

Short course: Starting score = 15 – which could be 10 strokes and 5 breaths. You decide how your starting score is broken down.

Then aim for 14 – either by taking one less stroke or one less breath.

All Fly Scorer repeats are done at maximum speed with legal underwater kick distance and from a push start.

To make it really challenging, decrease the value of strokes and breaths, e.g. each stroke is only worth ½ a point so you have work harder to reduce your score.

Fly Kickers:

Kick a lap of fly (hands in long streamline, breathing as you need). Record the time. This is called your Fly Kick Base Time.

Now kick another lap of fly, this time with your hands by your side. Record the time.

Next lap is kicking on your left side. The following lap is kicking on your right side.

The final lap of the series is kick with your arms folded above your head and your hands holding their opposite elbows.

The aim of each lap of kicking is to get as close as you can to your Fly Kick Base Time.

All Fly Kickers are done at maximum speed with legal underwater kicking distance.

Fly Lappers:

Swim a lap of fly at maximum speed. Record the time. Double it.

Swim two laps of fly at maximum speed. Record the time.

What was the difference between the two times?

5 seconds or more – hey – were you asleep when you did this?
4 seconds – ok but could be better.
3 second – good 0 but keep working.
2 seconds – great.
1 second – fantastic.
Less than one second – Superstar!

Swimming fast is great: learning to maintain top speed for longer is sensational. Aim to keep your 2 lap time as close as possible to your 2 x one lap time.

Fly in / Fly out or FIFO Sets:

FIFO is a great way to improve fly, underwater fly kick, fly turns and even the starts and turns of your freestyle and backstroke!

The basic set is:

5 x 200 on 4:15 Freestyle with FIFO (i.e. Fly in from the flags / fly out from the flags).

So each 200 starts with a fast underwater fly kick (as always to legal distance), then steady freestyle to the flags. When you hit the flags it’s fly (no breathing) to the wall (aiming to get there is no more than 2-3 strokes), a fly turn, fast underwater fly kick back out to legal distance and then back into freestyle. Each 200 finishes with fly – again no more than two or three strokes from the flags at maximum speed and no breaths.

Variations:

Longer or shorter repeats (longer works better though);
More repeats;
Less rest;
Faster speed.

So in summary: Find five fun fabulous fantastic fast fly fitness factors…. and work on them every day!

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Five Breaststroke Essentials for all Swimmers and Coaches

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:41 +0000

: Boys in Goggles from Crestock Stock Images

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.

How often do you do a full session of breaststroke? That’s breaststroke warm up, breaststroke kick, breaststroke pull, breaststroke drills, breaststroke main set, breaststroke starts / turns / finishes.

Many breaststrokers find themselves doing a few breaststroke drills in warm up, a few 50’s of breaststroke kick and then freestyle or medley main sets. Now often this is because of crowded lanes and the need to get the work done – particularly during main sets – but there is an old saying, “train the way you want to race”.

Allocate two to three sessions per week of nothing but breaststroke, breaststroke specific sessions, and especially timed breaststroke main sets. Then, watch how much you improve!

2. Think shape not stroke:

There are as many views and opinions on what constitutes perfect breaststroke technique as there are swimmers who swim it and coaches who coach it!

Don’t think too much about the stroke. The basics you learn in stroke school or in your junior squad program will take you a long way.

Instead think Shape.

There are three key shapes in breaststroke:

Torpedo Shape – At the end of recovery with hands and arms stretched forward, legs squeezed together, toes pointed and everything is tight. Although this shape is only held for a fraction of a second, it is important to extend yourself to be in this shape after every single stroke.

Cobra Shape – After the torpedo shape, you move into the cobra shape. This is when your legs are still long behind you, your arms are pulling in towards your chest at maximum strength position and your head is up looking directly ahead at the end of the pool (and you are taking an in breath).

Frog Shape – Directly following the cobra shape comes the frog shape. This is a shape that you would be familiar with when learning the breaststroke kick. Your feet are close to your backside and turned outwards with your toes pointing towards the sides of the pool. Your hands are under your chin/chest, about to push forward to regain that torpedo shape while your chest, hips and knees are making a long slightly outwards curved shape (hips are extended, not flexed).

3. Don’t over think or over coach breaststroke.

In keeping with the Shape not Stroke concept – don’t over think (or over coach) breaststroke. Learn the basics well, learn to do them consistently in training and learn to maintain them at high speed and under pressure in competition.

Too many swimmers (and coaches) catch the PBA disease: Paralysis by Analysis. That means that they spend too much time and energy getting breaststroke “just right” and are constantly tweaking, fiddling and adjusting timing, rating, pull width, kick depth, head position etc etc.

Once you get a good basic breaststroke – Leave it Alone.

Keep it simple. Think Shape.

4. Long and strong / long and strong / long and strong.

Once you have a good concept of Shape, focus on long powerful kicks and strong powerful arms: or long and strong for short.

The critical shapes in breaststroke – the Torpedo shape and the Frog shape allow maximum distance per stroke from a position of maximum kick propulsion: maximum propulsive force at the point of least resistance.

Reach long – (torpedo Shape) and kick strong – (frog Shape)

The long and strong becomes a mantra and helps to develop rhythm in the overall stroke: reach long / kick strong, reach long / kick strong, reach long / kick strong etc etc.

5. Small head movements and all of them directed forward.

In all swimming strokes (and just about everything else you do), your body follows your head. If your head is moving fast and excessively up and down, chances are in breaststroke, your body will also be moving up and down excessively creating too much drag.

In breaststroke, small head movements can help when there is too much height at the breath point and therefore not enough forward propulsion.

Try thinking Forward rather than Up and Down, i.e. push your chin forward to breathe then gently push your forehead forward back into the water. The total distance your head needs to move throughout the stroke is about 3-5 inches – the distance between your chin and forehead.

Whether breaststroke is the best stroke – you can decide. It is certainly one of the best four strokes and a stroke that can be fun, enjoyable and rewarding to swim.

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:39 +0000

: The swimmer from Crestock Stock Photo

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.
If you are in a pace line (i.e. a line of swimmers) chase the feet of the person in front of you.
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!
Promise yourself a small gift or reward for improving your skills and drills – reward excellence in technique – technique is the key to swimming success.
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”.
Keep a training diary and write in it three things you improved each day.
Keep a PB record sheet on your wall. Watch how you improve over time.
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?
Link your seasonsby making your short course PBs this season your long course PBs next season.
Make it your aim to have your 100 yard kick time no more than 10 seconds slower than your 100 yard PB swim time.
Reward PBs with things that will help you do more PBs. For example, if you do a PB, reward yourself with a copy of the latest swimming magazine.
Understand what motivates you – not anyone else – what motivates you! If you are motivated by winning, then do everything in your power to prepare to win. If you are motivated by learning new skills and challenging yourself, do it. The key to motivation is knowing what it is that motivates you.
Make a PARTNER PROMISE. Find someone in the team who wants to swim fast and make a commitment to them. For example, make a commitment that you will help each other achieve your goals. Each session say something positive to each other, encourage each other, meet at the pool early and do some extra work together, support each other through the tough times. Sometimes knowing you have made a commitment to help someone else is a great motivator for you.
Play imagination games in training like imagining the final lap of every set is the final lap of the 2012 Olympic final and all you need to do is work hard for a few more strokes and you will win the gold medal and break the world record. These imagination games are great fun and very motivating.
Make up some unusual, fun and weird goals that mean something only to you. Like how many times can you say “sausages” on a single breath or what’s the weirdest stroke you can come up with. Having fun is the best motivation of all.
Find a fast beat song that you enjoy and play it before you get in the water. “Feel the rhythm” and the beat when you are swimming and feel it lift you when you get tired.
Do your favourite stretches that make you feel good – as you start to stretch, you will find you begin to relax into the right mind set for fast swimming.
Imagine you are finishing a race when you pass someone in the next lane. Thinking about it will ignite the competitive fires!
Think about how heavy you thought the weight was when you first started doing gym. How much heavier are you lifting now?
How many push ups / sit ups / chin ups do you do now? How many did you used to do? Be proud of all your success. Enjoy the journey.
Think of the other swimmers that you have beaten recently that used to beat you. Give yourself permission to be proud of your resilience, your toughness, your perseverance and your character.
Imagine how good you will feel when you go home, have dinner and curl up in bed tonight? – Now work hard so that comes quickly!
Challenge yourself to turn (or start or finish) better than ever. Before you know it you will feel better and motivated to train hard.
Think of each lap as an opportunity: an opportunity to improve in an area of your swimming, which will bypass you if you don’t take it. Remember, someone somewhere IS taking that opportunity.
Ask a top swimmer (or successful athlete in any sport) what they do to stay motivated. Learn from them. Copy them.
Work hard – sometimes not thinking about it – and just doing it – is all the motivation you need.
Do the old NEVER ENDING STORY routine. Make up a funny story and tell someone in your lane a small piece of it between repeats. See how long you can make the story. It really motivates you to get to the end of the pool fast (and start telling the “never ending” story).
Get some support!!! Talk to some friends about motivation and every day support each other, encourage each other – motivate each other.
Put some photos of Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and other swimming greats up on your wall. Imagine about what they would be doing, what they would be thinking and how they would be training each day.
Finish off one task every day. Nothing motivates you like finishing something! Might be something as simple as homework. Or a chore at home. Just finish something.
Shave down in training – no reason – it just feels great.
Stay positive. Everyone has tough days – the difference is in how you allow the tough days make you feel. Tough times fade…..tough people never do.
Say one positive, encouraging thing to every person in the team: coaches, swimmers, parents, pool attendants – everyone. You will be surprised how motivating others will motivate you.
Believe anything is possible – never, ever stop believing that.
Buy yourself a new, fast swimming costume.
Switch your brain on to something else. Focus on improving in another area of your life – school, music, another sport……..success breeds success.
Remember the three best things that ever happened to you. Just the thought of these amazing things will change the way you look at life.
Put up motivation quotes all over the place. Some good places are next to your alarm clock, on your swim bag, on the top of the bathroom mirror and in your training diary.
Get to training early and motivate some of the younger swimmers in your club. They look up to you and admire you the same way you look up to and admire older and more successful swimmers. Being a role model for others will trigger some really great, positive motivation messages in your brain.
Be the first. For example, get to the pool first on January 1^st and be the first in the team to swim a lap, a mile, two miles, five miles and so on. Striving to be the first is a great driving force and very motivating.
Try a new sports drink. Or sports bar. Or a new all natural diet. Motivate your “inside”.
Do something everyday that is “impossible”. Try kicking 50 metres underwater at maximum speed. Or sprinting 60 metres on a single breathe. Or aiming to do a PR from a wall push off (i.e. no dive). Keep trying one impossible thing each day and sooner or later the impossible becomes reality.
Form a triathlon team with two friends at school who cycle and run and enter in a local triathlon.
Lead the team cheers at your next meet. Even better, get some of your team together and write some new team cheers….and lead them at the next meet.
Allow yourself to be proud of you. Look in the mirror and take time to realise what an amazing person you are.
Do something away from the pool to help your swimming. Take an aerobics class to improve your fitness. Do a martial arts course to build strength, balance and confidence. Take up dancing to improve rhythm and co-ordination.
Play a counting game. Swimmers are great at these. Count tiles, laps, turns, breaths, strokes…………….you know the drill.
Have repeat or two in each set which is PERFECT. If you are swimming 10 x 50 always make the second, fifth, eighth and tenth ones perfect.
Challenge someone much faster than you to a race at the end of training. Nothing motivates like a real challenge.
Smile. It is impossible to smile and not feel better.

Wayne and Helen

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:38 +0000

: London Big Ben Tower from Crestock Stock Photo

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!

3. Challenge yourself – everyday

To win in London, you need to be thinking like, acting like, working like a London Olympian now. Many swimmers think they will “build” their performance over the next four years. In fact, it’s the reverse. Think, act, behave and be like the London Gold Medallist now.

4. Get enthusiastic

Be excited. Get loud. Be passionate. This is your dream. Get enthusiastic and make it happen.

5. And then infect some others with your enthusiasm

Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? Nothing will help you stay focused on achieving your dream more than the company of other people who are just as excited about it as you are.

6. Do some research – understand where your event (and the sport is going)

What’s the current world record in your event? What was it five years ago? Who won the Gold Medal in your event in Atlanta? In Sydney? In Athens? In Beijing? Learn as much as you can about the history of your event to help you understand what you may have to do to win in the future.

7. Improve your skills

There is no doubt that starts, turns, dives, finishes and underwater work have improved at an incredible rate in the past ten years – can you imagine where they will be in four years? Work on your skills every day. If you are swimming 50 – 100 – 200 metres make skills practice the core of your every workout, i.e. skills first….swimming strokes second! It’s that important!

8. Stay on top of changes in equipment, etc

Make sure you know exactly what is happening with changes in training equipment, supplements, training ideas, changes to suits, etc – do not be left “on the blocks” in the technology race.

9. Find a coach who wants to win in London as much (or more) than you do

You will need a coach to help you achieve your London goals. Find one who is passionate about winning – and wants to win in London. Together you will be unstoppable.

10. Plan

“Don’t fail to plan….you know the rest. You need to put in place a London 2012 plan. Include training, competitions and recovery time and don’t forget important stuff like school terms, exams, etc.

11. Be as committed and professional out of the water as you are in the water

When you are in the water – train like a London gold medal winner! But also eat like, sleep like, think like, dress like and recover like a Gold Medallist. The way you do anything is the way you do everything.

12. Get your family to come along for the ride

Ian Thorpe’s mum! Michael Phelp’s mum! How important are mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grandmas, granddads and friends to swimming success? Priceless.

13. Find something else – other than swimming – to be passionate about

The best swimmers can “switch off” – turn off their minds and enjoy other activities. Being able to switch off refreshes your mind, re-energises your spirit and re-vitalises your body. Get passionate about another sport or reading or going to the movies or music…anything you enjoy doing. What you do when you are not swimming – can often help your swimming as much as training or racing or going to the gym.

14. Improve your underwater stuff

Underwater kick is now the fifth stroke. (There is no doubt at some stage somebody will suggest underwater races). But until then think about what you do underwater as just as important as what you do above water.

15. Learn to deal with tough times

No Olympic campaign is easy. Sometimes you will be injured. Occasionally you will lose races. Often your muscles will be sore and you will always be tired. Learn to deal with the tough times and come through them tougher and stronger than ever.

16. Get tough physically

With the introduction of Semi finals you need to be able to race fast more often. Chances are you may have to go close to the world record in London just to make the semi finals and then break it to get an inside lane in the final!

When training gets tough – learn to love it. Enjoy the “burn”. The price you pay to be the best in the world is the hard work you do each day.

17. And even tougher mentally

What do all Olympic champions have in common? They are tough under pressure and calm and composed at competitions. Spend just five minutes a day working on your mental skills: relaxation, focus and control over emotional stress and you can do anything.

18. Clearly understand who you are.

Spend some time really thinking about who you are, why you want to win in the Olympics, what your strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to do to improve to be the best you can be. In the end, you have to do it your way – but you need to understand what your way is!

19. Race regularly

Embrace the race! There are opportunities to learn lessons through racing that you just cannot learn in training. Learn to love racing. Chase opportunities to challenge yourself in meets. Seek to race faster swimmers to extend yourself. Embrace the race!

20. Learn a lesson a day

Start a diary. Write down one lesson you learnt today. And every day, write down a new lesson – a lesson a day. Over the next four years you will have enough lessons to win ten gold medals.

Remember – mistakes are not fatal– mistakes are opportunities for motivated, positive people to learn, improve and progress.

So good luck in 2012 – I will be the first guy to come down and shake your hand when you succeed.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Last Race

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:33 +0000

For every swimmer there will be one last race.

One time when you hit the wall, look up at the score board, see “Jones, P 1:03.07” for the last time. Or “Lane 6 56.83”. Or “Lane 3 – 2:45.71”

And in that one moment, how do you want to remember your swimming career?

And in that one moment, how do you want to be remembered as a swimmer?

And in that one moment and throughout the next 50, 60, 70 years…..what will you remember about swimming?

What will all those early mornings, long sessions, tough gym workouts and competitions mean?

It would be easy to measure a swimming career in terms of medals, cups, trophies, ribbons, records, titles, championships and podium finishes: to measure your swimming career in terms of your competition performances.

But that will reduce a career of wonderful experiences and life changing events to a few dollars worth of plastic, metal and cotton.

What has swimming really meant to you?

The world has changed.

Everything is fast, instant, immediate and entertaining.

Swimming on the other hand stayed true to old fashion values like hard work, commitment, dedication, being selfless and working with others, being part of a team.

Swimming taught you lessons – not just about fly and back and turns and starts but about the things that really matter.

It taught you to set goals and work hard to achieve them.

It taught you that when things got tough, you got tougher.

It taught you that hard work and a positive attitude could overcome any obstacle.

It taught you to be humble – how to deal with losing.

It taught you to be humble – even in victory.

It taught you about honesty – about the importance of giving all you had to give and letting people see what you were capable of.

It taught you to deal with pain and discomfort.

It taught you about discipline, about time management, about being organised.

It taught you about nutrition, about health, about fitness, about taking care of yourself.

It taught you to stand up and face challenges – to be assertive – to never be intimidated by anything or anyone.

It taught you about confidence and believing in yourself and in believing anything is possible.

Swimming was the best teacher you ever had.

So what if you didn’t win the State final.

So what if you didn’t break the World record.

So what if you didn’t get that Olympic gold.

You became so much more than a flashy piece of metal – you became something far greater.

You became a person who achieved amazing things. A person who could push themselves through barriers other people see as insurmountable. A person who could overcome adversity and meet any challenge life threw at them. A person who gave everything they had to chase a dream and even if they came up short, got up and had another go at achieving it….and another….and another.

You became an outstanding student: staying up late to study for an exam was nothing compared to driving yourself up and down a lane 20 hours a week.

You became a great parent: having a child and losing some sleep was insignificant compared to travelling over night to a meet, racing all day, driving home and then getting up for training at 4 am the next day.

You become a wonderful partner: dealing with the differences between you and your partner was a small issue after working so close to a team of people pushing themselves to their limits day after day after day.

Don’t measure yourself or measure your career by gold or silver or bronze. Don’t measure it by ribbons or medals or titles.

Measure it by the only things that really matter – how much you enjoyed doing something you loved with people you loved being with. Or how many fun times you had with mom and dad on the way to training or on long, sleepy drives home from meets. Or by the jokes between repeats that went on and on and on and had you laughing under water most of the session. Or by the friends you had when you were ten who would still do anything for you 20 years later.

Or by the lessons you teach to your children: passing on the swimming experience and life lessons to the next generation and helping them be all they can be.

So when it is your last race, whether you grab the gold medal at the Olympic Games and retire on top or if it is swimming 3:35 for 100 free as a 92 year old in the State Masters championships, take a moment or two to smile, think about what you have achieved and feel very, very satisfied.

You did it.

Wayne Goldsmith (written for and inspired by Helen Morris)

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Ten Myths of Swimming.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:30 +0000

The dictionary says:

myth (noun)

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
such stories collectively; mythology
any fictitious story, or unscientific account, theory, belief, etc.
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.

MYTH 1: It’s faster under water.

It’s only faster under water if you are faster under the water. Just being under water does not mean you will move faster.

For example, if you swim freestyle at two yards per second pace, but only maintain a speed of 1.6 yards per second under the water – get to the surface!

MYTH 2: More training makes you a better swimmer

We’ve all heard about the magic numbers that supposedly guarantee swimming success, e.g. 50 miles a week, 60 miles a week, ten sessions a week, 20 hours of training a week, 3000 miles a year etc etc.

There is no evidence to say that 60 miles is better than 48 or 56 or 79. There is no solid research to support the idea 10 sessions is any better than 8, 15 or 127.

More training by itself does not guarantee success. There is no short cut or easy road to swimming success. It takes a lot of hard work, commitment, dedication and discipline. But, just adding more sessions and more miles is not the only answer.

Swimming fast is about PHYSICAL fitness and physical factors like strength, speed, endurance and power. It is also about MENTAL preparation, technical skill and tactical knowledge / execution. It is a balance between PHYSICAL / MENTAL / TECHNICAL / TACTICAL elements.

So hard training is important but it is not the only thing.

MYTH 3: Vitamins and minerals and supplements will make you a great swimmer

The word supplement means “something added, especially to make up for a lack or deficiency”.

The research around how effective supplements are at improving swimming performance is not conclusive. However these things are 100% conclusive for all swimmers:

Consistent training
Positive attitude
Staying strong during tough times
Honesty
Great technique.

Buy a few bottles of these things and you can’t lose!

MYTH 4: If you start out swimming one stroke well, you will always swim that stroke well

We’ve all seen the “child champs” – the nine year old superstar backstroker who seems destined for Olympic glory. However, rarely, if ever do “child champs” make the Olympic team and win Olympic gold medals in the same stroke they first showed talent in. Often, kids will be a good breaststroker at 8, then a good freestyler at 11, then a top notch backstroker at 13 before ending up an outstanding flyer as a senior swimmer.

As kids develop and grow, changes in their limb lengths, their proportionality (i.e. the relationship of their limb length to overall body size), their muscle mass, height and weight, flexibility and strength will all impact on their ability to swim specific strokes.

Advice – become proficient in all strokes, in sprints and in distance events, medley and at dives, starts, turns and finishes. Then, no matter what happens to your body, you are ready for it!

MYTH 5: Weight training makes you a better swimmer

Weight training, strength training, Pilates, Yoga, Spin classes, Dance classes etc etc can all help improve your swimming performance when used in balance with pool training and when integrated into an overall swimming performance program.

Just throwing around a few weights and getting stronger does not guarantee swimming success.

Question: Why would you take up a weight training program?

Answer: To improve your swimming performance.

So the key issue is to ensure that the weight program enhances and supports what you do in the water.

MYTH 6: Body fat makes you swim faster because fat is buoyant OR being super thin will make you a great swimmer.

Sports scientists used to talk about % body fat or skinfolds and about optimal body fat levels for swimmers.

These days the critical concept is YOIPS – Your Optimal Individual Performance State.

There is no magical skin fold number or mystical body fat level that ALL SWIMMERS must attain to be successful.

The YOIPS concept is that each individual swimmer has an optimal body composition for their peak performance which is unique. For some swimmers that may mean being a lean, mean swimming machine. For others, an extra pound or two may help maintain their general health and well being and allow them to train consistently and shedding any excess weight will lead them to illness and being sick.

The bottom line is – find out what works best for you and stick to it!

MYTH 7: Lane 4 is the fastest lane and the only one you can win from

World records have been set in all lanes.

World championships have been won from all lanes.

Olympic gold medals have been won from all lanes.

NCAA, National, State and Club championships have been won from all lanes.

Enough said.

MYTH 8: A successful coach makes a great swimmer

One of the big mistakes a lot of swimmers (and parents) make is to change coaches too often for the wrong reasons. A good reason to change coaches might be that you have moved states or gone to College and you need a local coach to help you with your swimming program.

A poor reason to switch is because another coach seems to have produced a stand out young age group champion and you believe that simply by moving to their program, you will experience similar success.

Coaches are important in the scheme of things. Their training, knowledge and experience are invaluable to help all swimmers improve their physical, mental, technical and tactical skills.

However, a swimmer with a great attitude, who works hard consistently and who seeks to maximise the impact of every training session will succeed regardless of the coaching, facilities or club environment – they make their own luck and drive their own success.

A swimmer with a poor attitude, poor work ethic and negative approach will not succeed even if they go and train with Michael Phelps’ outstanding coaching team!

Coaches and swimmers (and parents) form a performance partnership – together they can achieve anything.

MYTH 9: It will be all right on race day

Many swimmers have TWO BRAIN disease. It is a terrible affliction.

One brain is the one they use for training. It allows the swimmer to perform sloppy dives, slow turns and to always finish a few yards short of the end of the pool.

The other brain, the one they use for racing, only comes out at Meets and makes sure all the dives, starts, turns and finishes are perfect.

The problem is that over time the TRAINING BRAIN starts to take over the MEET BRAIN and that’s when things start to go wrong.

Train the way you want to race.

If you execute sloppy dives every day in training – you get sloppy dives at meets.

If you do slow turns every day in workouts – you get killed in the turns when you race.

If you stop a few yards short every repeat at training – you will lose most tight finishes in competition.

Train the way you want to race.

MYTH 10: The more money you spend on swim suits and equipment, the faster you will swim

You need high quality equipment to compete at the highest level but no amount of money will make up for missed training, poor skills, sloppy technique, a poor diet, a lack of quality sleep or a lack of self confidence.

Improve yourself first – physically, mentally, technically, tactically………then go and buy a fast suit.

If you are driving a beat up old car, with a broken down engine, bald tyres, a faulty gear box and low grade fuel, giving it a $5000 paint job doesn’t make it go any faster. Sure, it looks a lot better but it will not win any races.

There is a common theme about all these myths – that is that people are always looking for a system or a secret or something they can buy or do to guarantee success.

There ain’t no such thing!

There is however, something that can make a real difference.

Something that can make every session outstanding and every day something special.

Something that can take every opportunity and turn it into a performance advantage.

You!

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:08:59 +0000

: Meditating by the Sea from Yuri Arcurs Website

“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?

Pressure – Pressure – Pressure – Pressure.

A psyche out is the words, actions and behaviors of another person trying to increase pressure on you and as a result try to negatively influence your performance.

Pressure is a misunderstood concept in sport.

Pressure is not the race;
It is not the crowd;
It is not the gold medal;
It is not the opposition.

It is something you put on yourself – it is something you create: it is something you generate.

The psyche out has one goal – to convince you to put more pressure on yourself.

Even the best swimmers will perform poorly if they lack confidence and can not deal with the pressure of competition.

Think about swimming in your home pool on a warm summer morning with your friends. It feels great. It feels relaxed. It feels comfortable.

Now imagine 50,000 people sitting in the stands around the pool watching you swim.

How do you feel? Nervous? Tense? Uncomfortable? Under pressure?

Why?

The pool hasn’t got any longer. The water hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed is you – and your perception that swimming in front of 50,000 people is different (and more pressure) than swimming in front of a few moms and dads.

Pressure is something you generate in response to your perception of the situation.

Why do some people try to psyche out others?

Nothing impacts on performance like pressure! The main reason people try psyche out others is to artificially create pressure by increasing doubts, fears and insecurities in their opposition and try to erode their confidence.

Remember this…………Pressure places people in positions for poor performance.

Why are psyche outs such an effective strategy?

Your attitude and your confidence determine your destiny. Anything that impacts on your attitude and destroys your confidence is potentially damaging to your performance.

The psyche out is a tool some people use to attack attitude and kill confidence to get you to increase pressure on yourself.

What kinds of psyche outs are there?

Psyche outs come in two basic forms – the Dirty Downers and the Positive Power Plays.

Dirty Downers (DD) are those psyche outs which focus on bringing people down through criticism, sarcasm and down right meanness.
Positive Power Plays (PPP) are psyche outs which give you strength and confidence without putting anyone else down.

Dirty Downers: Where do they happen?

Dirty Downers can happen any where – the locker room, at the end of the pool during warm up, in the ready room, in the marshalling area, behind the blocks…….you name it, the Dirty Downer can hit you anytime…anywhere.

Who does them?

Thankfully not many swimmers are Dirty Downer Do-ers!

Dirty downer do-ers are often swimmers who lack confidence in themselves and decide their best tactic (and their best chance of winning) lies not in developing their own confidence and self belief but in destroying the confidence of others.

Make yourself psyche out proof.

Here’s the secret……………………..psyche outs only work if you let them!

It’s not the psyche outs that are the problem – it’s how you respond to them.

Dirty downer do-ers can find fault in your appearance, your clothing, your hairstyle, your club, your friends, your family, your coach, your training program, your swim gear, your body odor, your dog………but the important thing is to learn to control how you respond to the comments and criticisms.

A Dirty Downer Do-er is trying to get you to lose confidence and get you to create pressure on yourself by making you feel inadequate in comparison to them.

Forget comparing yourself to other people – compare yourself with how close you are to your own full potential.

Some of the best (and worst) psyche outs:

A few leading swimmers were asked to talk about the best and worst psyche outs they have ever heard. Here are some real beauts!

“Is that swim suit really small or have you just put on weight lately”

“Are you still swimming? I heard you gave up a long time ago”

“You look really tired – are you ok?”

“Those goggles are really old. I can’t believe you still wear them”

Regardless of the psyche out – remember the secret – the psyche out only works if you respond to the pressure it is trying to create!

What they say and what they mean………………………….

Often the Dirty Downer Do-er will give hints about how they really think and feel in their psyche outs.

If they are feeling a bit flat, tired and fatigued, they might try to hit you with a “hey you look tired and worn out” comment.

Listen to what they say but also listen to what they mean:

For example:

They say: “I have been doing 10 sessions a week and I am in the best shape of my career” .

They mean: “I am not really sure how i am going to go today”

They say “We’re swimming through the meet. We’re not even tapering for this meet”

They mean: “I need an excuse in case I don’t swim well today”

They say:“We’ve just done a hell week”

They mean: “I am really tired”

They say: “We’re doing 50 miles a week”

They mean: “I am really tired”

They say: “I’ve just done a huge pb in the gym”

They mean: “I need to make you think i am stronger than i really am”

So………what do you do when a Dirty Downer Do-er strikes??????????????

Read Part Two ………Ten things you can do to respond to a psyche out-er!

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The “I Guarantee to Take Two Seconds off Your 100 Metre PB” Swimming Article.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:02:05 +0000

: close-up of a stopwatch isolated on white background from Crestock Royalty Free Images

If someone told you, “Hey, you got to go on line and read this article I just found. It tells you how to take two seconds off your 100 metres PB time”.

Would you read it? Of course you would!

OK – look down – because here it is.

Competitive swimming practice has one aim – to “find” time: to find ways of cutting time off your race PB.

You “find” time by focusing on improving technique, with consistent hard physical training, by improving flexibility, strength, speed, power and of course you find time by focusing on improving swimming skills – dives, starts, turns and finishes.

In sprint events, skills – dives, starts, turns and finishes – represent almost half of the race.

In an event like the 100 metres (short course), 45 metres of the race are skills based – dives, starts, turns and finishes.

The first 15 metres are almost totally reliant on your dive, start and underwater technique.

The last 5 metres into the wall and the first five metres off the wall are largely a product of your turning technique, “wall” power and underwater skills.

The final 5 metres of the race are dependent on your finishing skills.

That’s 45 metres of the 100 – almost half of the total race – which are skills based.

Yet, in spite of these facts, I’ll bet you don’t spend anywhere near 50% of your training on skills practice!

The typical swimming training session ends with a “token” five minutes (or around 4% of training time) of skills practice.

In a perfect world of course, every dive would be a race quality dive, every start would be a race quality start, every turn would be a race quality turn and every finish would be a race quality finish but…….it ain’t a perfect world.

So skills practice – or what we call F.F.A.S.T. (Fast Finishes Aggressive Starts and Turns) – is a critical part of enhancing swimming performance and should be a priority of every training session.

There is “easy” time to find in skills practice – that is, it’s much easier to find time improvements through quality skills practices than to try and find time by just swimming more and more laps.

For most age group swimmers, Masters swimmers and triathletes, there is at least 2 seconds improvement to be found by committing to daily F.F.A.S.T. practice!

Think of how many extra laps you would need to do to find those 2 seconds just in swimming practice. (And think of how much time you can find by working hard in both F.F.A.S.T practice and swimming practice).

Where exactly are those 2 F.F.A.S.T. seconds?

Here’s your first 0.5 second - it’s in your dive.

There is an easy half a second to be found in your dive.

The most common mistake made by swimmers when diving is they “flop” lazily into their “take your mark” position instead of taking a strong, powerful, “coiled spring” position and being ready to explode off the blocks when the gun goes.

This means that when the “go” signal comes, they must first get into the right take off position, before they can actually leave the blocks and this means a loss of at least half a second.

If you start with a “grab start” it is highly likely your hips are well back towards the back of the blocks. You can find time in your grab start by working on your flexibility in your lower back and hamstrings and aiming to have the centre of the outside of your hip, the centre of the outside of your knee and the centre of the outside of your ankle bone in one straight line and your chest flat on your thighs.

If you do a “track start” chances are you are not using the explosive power potential of your inner “elastics”. The muscles and tendons in your arms and upper chest are like big rubber bands. When you are in “take your marks” position, pull back on the front of the blocks and the tension and energy in your “rubber bands” will help to explode you forward when you “go”.

Here’s your next 0.5 second – in your “three kicks”.

Most swimmers lose time (as opposed to “finding” time) by losing momentum unnecessarily after hitting the water following their dive.

There are three “danger” zones in the first underwater kick – i.e. the underwater period following your dive.

Danger Zone one – kicking underwater: kicking underwater after the dive should be fast, strong and explosive: do not glide! The glide kills momentum and loses time.

Danger Zone two – kicking towards the surface: many swimmers run out of air and “pop” up to the surface, stop kicking and lose time. It is much faster to kick deliberately and powerfully towards the surface and maintain momentum.

Danger Zone three – kicking into your first stroke: without doubt the biggest danger zone. Many swimmers will stop kicking, start stroking, then start kicking again. This is the swimming equivalent of hitting the brakes at full speed in your car. Kick into your first stroke (breakout stroke) with speed and power – hitting the surface like a great white shark hitting it’s prey. It’s not only faster but it scares the daylights out of your opposition!

The next second will come from your turn.

You are never faster than when you are coming off a wall – “wall” stands for We Accelerate Lazy Limbs – turns are an opportunity to gain speed and “find” time.

Walls are where you increase your speed, gain momentum and get a competitive advantage over your opposition.

Attack the walls with power, aggression and speed. In freestyle and backstroke, keep it simple and fast: chin on your chest, then kick yourself in the backside and flip straight over. In breast and fly, your hand touch should trigger the snap of your hips and knees to your chest and to get your feet on the wall as fast as possible (ideally well under one second from the time your hands touch the wall to the time your feet touch the wall – i.e. hand touch / foot touch time).

And the final 0.5 second is in your finish.

There are four key elements in every great finish:

Finish with your head forward – i.e. pushing towards the wall;
Finish with your hips high and legs driving towards the wall;
Finish on a full stroke, i.e. with your arm (in back and free or arms in fly and breast) fully extended;
Finish with your legs working at maximum speed.

So, there you go – an easy two seconds off your 100 PB!

Now turn off the computer, get to the pool and make it happen.

(Watch for a future www.swimcoachingbrain.com article with drills and practices to improve each of the F.F.A.S.T. areas).

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter