Every swimming team has a unique culture.

Some teams have a culture of fun, enjoyment, family and friends.

Some teams have a culture of hard work, discipline, dedication and training.

Some teams are based at schools, colleges and universities and their culture is a reflection of the culture of the institution.

The culture of some teams comes from their location, the ethnic background of the people in the team, the climate or the city they live and train in.

Every team is unique and every culture is special.

But for many teams, there comes a time when the coaches, swimmers, families and supporters decide they want to become a winning team. They decide to set some serious competitive goals and work together as a team to achieve them.

And to become a winning team requires the development of a winning culture.

What is a winning culture?

It’s about environment and opportunity.

A winning culture is one where everyone in the team – coaches, swimmers, families, staff – everyone – is committed to creating a performance focused environment. A performance focused environment provides the opportunity for the team and every individual on the team – to win.

Developing a winning culture doesn’t mean you stop having fun. It doesn’t mean that swimming isn’t enjoyable. It doesn’t mean that people can’t hang out and be friends.

It means that the primary goal of the team and everyone associated with it is the development of an environment of excellence for everyone.

How do you develop a winning culture?

Empowerment and ownership: culture comes from within:

A winning culture grows from within. It cannot be imposed from the outside. The culture of the team is something which comes from the team members: you own it: it is part of you.

With many clubs, particularly those older established clubs with long traditions, there can be an attitude of “this is the way we do it here” or “that new idea will not work here because we’re different”.

In developing a winning club culture these barriers to success must be broken down. The swimmers, coaches, officials and families need to embrace change and to seek to be the best of the best in all aspects of swimming. Everyone needs to be committed to improving and accelerating team progress – at the same rate and in the same direction.

Respect the history and tradition of the club.

Respect and remember the great performances of the teams and swimmers of the past. But also strive to progress and improve on them. The greatest honor you can do for any club is to make it successful.

Practical Tip One: Before the beginning of the season, bring everyone in the team together for a day of sharing ideas and opinions. Give everyone a chance to speak and share their views. Provide the opportunity for everyone to be heard with respect and dignity. Allow the current team members to feel their views matter and the club is theirs – they are the current custodians of the club – and they are the people who will lead the club into a successful future.

Winning vision – a statement of success:

“if you don’t stand for something – you will fall for anything”.

A Team Vision is a statement which represents the views and opinions of the team which clearly states “this is who we are, what we want to do, where we are going and what we want to achieve as a team”. It is your team’s trademark!

For example:

“our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best”.

or

“our vision is to be the leading swim team in the state by consistently working hard, encouraging and supporting each other and doing everything possible to ensure all swimmers in the team have the opportunity to achieve success”.

Practical Tip Two: Once the team comes up with a team vision, write it up on the team room wall. Have every swimmer write it down in their training diary. Get it printed on t-shirts. The closer you stay in touch with this vision, the more the vision comes to life. The most successful teams in world sport are frequently those who compromised the least on making their vision become a reality.

Winning culture values:

Having a great vision is one thing: bringing it to life is another.

Values are a set of words that team members develop to provide a guide on how to act and live and which help you and your team realize your vision.

For example:

Team vision: our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best.

Values to support the Team vision:

• hard work (“work hard” from the team vision);
• passion (“strive” from the team vision);
• team spirit (“together” from the team vision);
• unity (“every swimmer” from the team vision);
• respect (“every swimmer” from the team vision);
• excellence (“best possible” and “best” from the team vision).

These six words become the themes for the team for the season and the guidelines for everything the team does.

Practical Tip Three: Use the values as “code words” for team practices. For example, when things get tough towards the end of a hard set, team members can use words like “passion” and “spirit” to encourage and motivate each other. Living the vision means living the dream.

Winning culture behaviours and standards:

In a perfect world, everyone would live the team values, everyday. However, just as there are “road regulations” to provide a set of rules for people to drive cars and “laws” to provide a set of rules for how to live as part of society, swim teams need to have a set of team rules to provide a framework for how to act and behave at training, competition and other team activities.

Team rules or behavior standards need to be developed and enforced by the people the rules and standards apply to:

The swimmers: team rules should grow from the team vision and team values and be a practical set of guidelines for how the team will behave in a range of situations and circumstances.

For example:

Team value: unity.

Team rule: all swimmers will have equal opportunity to train and compete.

Team value: hard work.

Team rule: all swimmers who have committed to swimming at national championships next season must complete a minimum of seven sessions per week.

In addition to team rules, a set of consequences for breaking team rules should be developed by the team. These are a set of clear, fair, just, reasonable and equitable “laws” which the swimmers in the team believe best represent how they want to be judged and punished for breaking team rules.

For example:

Team value: respect

Team rule: all swimmers will show respect for each other as people and for each other’s property.

Consequence for breaking team rule: team room cleaning duties for two weeks.

Practical Tip Four: Form a leadership group from team members which can be elected by team members or selected by a panel of team members and coaches. The leadership group should consist of swimmers of varying ages and levels of ability so that the views of everyone are listened to, respected and represented. The leadership group needs to be empowered to make decisions, to implement team rules and to administer the consequences of breaches of team standards of behaviours. From leadership comes culture….from culture comes performance.

Living excellence – “not every four years……..everyday” (US olympic training centre motto):

Lots of teams come up with great slogans, team visions and cool team rules. But very, very few teams actually develop winning cultures. Why? Because words which say excellence are easy to come up with – what makes the difference is living excellence.

Practical Tip Five: Develop a team war cry or song which is based on the team values and triggers everyone to start thinking and acting like a winning team.

At the start of every training session, someone in the team should lead the team war cry and everyone joins in signaling the start of training and the commitment the team has made to each other and to excellence.

Keep it relevant – continuous improvement:

Winning once is tough. But a winning culture means you are working to ensure that winning is sustainable – i.e. the culture that you have created is a positive, winning environment which provides ongoing opportunities for swimmers and coaches to perform at their best season after season after season……year after year after year.

It is important that the team sits down at the end of every season and reviews how things went and makes a new commitment to improving, changing and progressing.

Why? Because success in swimming is a moving target. What works this season may not work next season. World records are always getting faster meaning that if you stand still…….you will be left behind.

Practical Tip Six: A simple way of reviewing your performance as a team is to brainstorm the season using three questions:

• What are we doing that we should keep doing? or what is working?
• What are we doing that we should stop doing? or what is not working?
• What are we not doing that we could introduce to improve our performance? or what are some new things we can do that will work?

Ask tough questions, get honest answers and you will lay the foundation for a successful future.

Summary:

• Creating a culture of excellence and developing a winning culture does not take a lot more money, facilities, time or resources;
• It takes a common desire to work hard and to create an environment where everyone has the optimal opportunity to perform at their best – consistently;
• It’s not for everyone – but for some, being part of a winning team which has grown from a winning club culture can be the stuff that swimming dreams are made of.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. The W Word: Winning.
2. Five New Ideas that will Change Swimming Forever.
3. Talent ID in Swimming: the Talent Pool!

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:

1. It gives you confidence and control over the pre race environment;
2. The slow deep breathing keeps you relaxed;
3. 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

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Flying into Fly: Five Tips for Swimming Brilliant Butterfly.
2. Twenty Tips for a Tip Top Taper!
3. Top Ten Tips for Swimming Coaching Success.

Speed. Speed. Speed. And more speed.

It’s what swimming is all about.

There are no gold medals for the person who can swim the most number of 100s or the slowest 400 or even for the swimmer who has the highest heart rate.

Winning in swimming is about one thing and one thing alone….speed. You swim faster than your competitors…you win. Simple as that.

So if swimming is all about speed, what is speed all about?

Here are four really important things for every swimmer who wants to swim faster to think about:

1. In sprint swimming, most of the time it is the person who gets to their top speed in the shortest time who wins the race;
2. Getting to top speed in the shortest time means having a brilliant first 15 metres;
3. Having a brilliant first 15 metres means having an outstanding dive and underwater kick;
4. And having an outstanding dive and underwater kick means having a Super Start!!!!!

So….that means if you want to win more sprint races, you need to have a SUPER START and a brilliant first fifteen metres!

The First Fifteen is the critical Fifteen!

For a sprinter, where every fraction of a second can mean the difference between success and failure, what happens in the first fifteen metres often determines the outcome of the entire race.

Want to know how to develop a FFFFF – Fantastically Fabulously Fast First Fifteen?

There are five starting “zones”: five places where you physically and mentally ensure that your first 15 metres are so fast it looks like you are the Space Shuttle wearing a swim-suit!

Let’s work through the Five Starting Zones – The S.T.A.R.T. Zones:

• STARTING ZONE 1 “SELF”: In the stands;
• STARTING ZONE 2 “TAKE CONTROL”: In the marshaling area;
• STARTING ZONE 3 “ATTENTION”: Behind the blocks;
• STARTING ZONE 4 “READY”: On the blocks;
• STARTING ZONE 5 “TAKE-OFF”: The first 15!

STARTING ZONE 1: In the stands;

Your Super Start really starts in the stands…well before you ever think about getting wet.

This is the “Self” zone – the moment when you put yourself and your needs first.

The “self” zone begins and ends with one question, “What do I need to do right now to make sure I am ready to race?”

For some swimmers that means stretching. For others that means jumping up and down. For some swimmers this “self” zone means putting a towel over their heads and having some quiet time with their own thoughts and emotions.

Whatever “self” means to you,  Zone 1 is all about switching your brain on to the business of fast swimming.

Think about the Space Shuttle.

The computers are all on line and ready to go long before the engines begin to fire up to blast off into orbit.

Zone 1 is where you switch your “computer” on, get it on line and begin the countdown towards take off!

STARTING ZONE 2: In the marshaling area “TAKE CONTROL”;

Once you get called to the marshaling area, it is all about you taking control.

Taking control of yourself, taking control of the marshaling area, and taking control of your competitors….Starting Zone 2 is about taking control and making the race your own.

Taking control in Starting Zone 2 comes from the two Big-Bs of pre-race management:

• Breathing: Breathe slowly, deeply and with purpose. As a guide aim for 5 breathes per minute. That’s four seconds to breathe in, four seconds to fully breathe out and allow yourself four restful seconds of relaxation before breathing in again;
• Body language: Moving into and around the marshaling area with confidence, calm and control: head up, shoulders back and using strong, slow, deliberate movements….make it look like you own the marshaling area;

This is what real “psyching-out” is all about. You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to put anyone else down.

Through controlled breathing and strong body language in the marshaling area you can “blow the minds” of most of your competitors and you will have defeated many of them mentally without the need to even get in the water and race.

STARTING ZONE 3: Behind the blocks “ATTENTION”;

Behind the blocks in Starting Zone 3, the focus now shifts to “attention” – that is, paying attention to the things that matter, paying no attention to the things that don’t and…..knowing the difference!

The key here is to understand the difference between Thoughts, Words and Actions.

Most swimmers will wait until their thoughts become actions, e.g. uncontrollable nervousness, before they do anything about them.

In the Attention Zone (Starting Zone 3), the aim is to recognise your thoughts but only pay attention to the ones that can help you swim fast: letting all the others just flow through your mind without taking hold.

For example:

THOUGHT: “I am feeling really nervous”.

RESPONSE IN STARTING ZONE 3: “I note I am feeling nervous” – but that’s where it ends. You “hear” the thought, you recognise the thought, you note the thought but just as soon as you notice it, you allow it to drift off without paying it any real attention.

This ability to pay attention to thoughts without judgement and without allowing them to become words or actions is the cornerstone of real
mental strength and emotional control for every swimmer.

STARTING ZONE 4: On the blocks “READY”;

Starting Zone 4 is the “ready zone”: on the blocks and ready to go. The three keys to success in the “ready zone” are P.R.E:

• Position (i.e. body position, head position, feet position, hand position): Being in the best possible starting position (which you would have practiced over and over and over in training of course);
• Relaxation: (continuing the controlled breathing you started in Zone 2 and the thoughts management technique you started in Zone 3);
• Energy: Feeling connected to all the energy in your body.

Starting Zone is the connection zone: the zone where your  mind and your body are connected together as one: a unified swimming owerhouse about to unleash everything you’ve got with power and precision.

STARTING ZONE 5 “TAKE OFF”: The first 15!

Bang! The gun has gone and the race is on!

The most important parts of Starting Zone 5 are the “three kicks”:

• The first kick: Is the kick you do under the water after your dive. In fly, back and free that means fast, strong, powerful, explosive kicks to maintain the speed from your dive. In breast that means completing the underwater pull and kicks with flow, power and rhythm;
• The second kick: Is kicking your body deliberately and with purpose towards the surface.
• The third kick: And the most important kick of all is the kick you do to kick yourself into your first stroke on the surface: the breakout!

Speed over the first fifteen metres comes down to a simple equation:

How speed can I generate as I leave the blocks PLUS How much speed can I maintain under the water before I start stroking?

Or:

FAST FIFTEEN = Maximise Speed off the  blocks AND Minimise Speed lost underwater.

If you got it right in Starting Zones 1-4, then Starting Zone 5 will take care itself!

After that, you’re on your own…but, if you have worked your way through  the Five Starting Zones, and have got to your top speed faster than anyone else in the pool you have given yourself every possible opportunity for a great race, a fast time and a winning performance.

Summary:

• In sprint swimming, the first 15 metres often determines the outcome of the entire race: the swimmer who gets to their top speed first most of the time will win!
• The start is not just what happens on the blocks. The start begins in the marshaling area, continues to the zone behind the blocks, on to the blocks and over the first fifteen metres in the water;
• Start the way you want to finish: if you want to finish first…start fast and go, go, go.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Related posts:

1. 101 Super Swimming Tips for Super Swimming Coaches: 101 Ways to Be the Coach You Want to Be and the Coach your Swimmers want to See.
2. How much training is right for me (or how cake baking can help you swim faster!!!)
3. The “I Guarantee to Take Two Seconds off Your 100 Metre PB” Swimming Article.

Club championships programs are not easy to put together – after all, you are usually racing the same people you see day after day after day after day after day……. (you get the idea).

Many clubs lament that their Club Championships are not well supported and are generally disappointing in terms of attendance and commitment from swimmers and families. Well guess what??? It’s your – (as in the organisers of the event) – fault!

If people don’t want to buy the “product” you are selling, sell something else! If people do not attend your Club Champs – don’t blame the people – don’t blame other sports – don’t blame the economic crisis – change what you are selling!

If you want a really great Club Championship program, the trick is to combine the four Ps:

• Performance – Club championships are- after all-about racing.
• Parents – Get them involved and get them wet! This is the one chance all year to have some family fun.
• Practice – Club Championships are not the end of the story….for many swimmers Club Championships are the beginning of the competitive season and it’s a great opportunity for practicing skills, strokes, technique, dives, starts, turns, finishes, warm ups, cool downs, stretches, race day diet, mental skills and other racing skills.
• Party – have a really fun day with the families, friends and other fantastic people who make swimming the wonderful sport it is!

And, here are four really dumb things to avoid unless you want to have a really rotten Club Championship program – the four Cs:

• Coaches – as in leaving them out of the planning of Club Championships. Big mistake. Coaches must be an integral part of the Championship program committee so that the program reflects what they are trying to achieve with their overall planning and periodisation strategy;
• Change – as in “don’t change”. Some Club Championship committees just keep rolling over the same program year after year then wonder why people stop coming! Make it different, interesting, innovative and enjoyable by throwing in some new ideas every year;
• Catering – as in offer junk food. Big challenge for all Clubs is to raise money for things like equipment, coaching fees, competitive travel etc. But try not to do it by taking the easy options like providing junk food at Club Championships which might be great for profits but sends the wrong messages to swimmers and parents;
• Competition – as in don’t make it one! The greatest challenge in creating a great Club Championship program is balancing fun with fast racing. It is important that Club Championships are really enjoyable but make sure they also provide the right environment for real competition and challenge swimmers to produce their best. Don’t award frivolous prizes just for attending the Club Championships – it devalues the hard work and effort of swimmers who really want to achieve something.

Here are the first 15 of 50 ideas to help you create a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect program:

1. Radical relays – boys vs. girls, older swimmers vs. younger swimmers, dads vs. mums, coaches vs. swimmers………..millions of relay ideas.
2. Make sure your CLUB championship program mirrors the program of the next level meet, e.g. If the next level meet is your State Championships, try to make your Club Championship program the same  – i.e. same events, in the same order – so that your Club Championships are preparing your team to be successful at the next level.
3. Have parents’ races!
4. Have parents and kids relays!
5. 50s of each event.
6. 100s of each event.
7. 200s of each event.
8. Fin races. i.e. race fly, back and free with fins on.
9. What about throwing in some Kicking races?
10. Invite qualified, experienced State or National level race starters, judges and officials to make sure the quality and standard of your meet is the best it can be. And ask them for a written report so you can fine tune skills and techniques before your swimmers race at high level meets.
11. Change your Club Championships program and format EVERY year. Nothing turns off swimmers and families more than having to sit through the same races, in the same order for the same prizes year after year.
12. Make everyone welcome. Parents and families who are new to the Club and who are attending their first ever Club Championships should be made to feel like old friends and part of the swimming club “family”.
13. More is less………don’t be tempted to make the day longer just because you can! Families are busier now than ever and if you want them to keep coming back, make Club Championships enjoyable and short! Leave them wanting more.
14. Make awards relevant for age groups. Another big mistake Clubs make is to award the same medals, ribbons and certificates to 6 years olds as they do to 16 year olds. This is a guaranteed way to push your teenage swimmers towards other sports! How about DVDs as prizes? Or gift vouchers for cool clothing stores? Or Nintendo Games? Or gift vouchers for the I-Store (if you don’t know what this is, you are in real trouble). Or gym memberships? Or training equipment?
15. Combined events scores, e.g. add together each swimmer’s times for their 50s in each stroke and compare it to their 200 IM time. Whoever gets the 200 IM time closest to the 4 x 50s wins a prize, e.g. 50 fly time plus 50 back time plus 50 breast time plus 50 free time added together compared to 200 IM time.

See Part Two and Part three of this Post.

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part Three.
2. How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part Two.
3. Five New Ideas that will Change Swimming Forever.

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. The Top Ten Technique Tips for Every Swimmer
2. Twenty Tips for a Tip Top Taper!
3. Motivation: 50 Tricks, Tips and Techniques or How to find the fire when the fire isn’t firing!!!

Tapering is fun, it’s fantastic and above all its about feeling fast fast fast.

It is the time when you feel light, loose and long in the water as your body regenerates and recharges after weeks of hard work.

And above all tapering is one thing – one simple thing that everyone already has in their possession but it is one thing most people use very often….common sense.

Think about it this way.

Imagine you were telling someone – someone who knew nothing about swimming, “I have been training for months and months for a big Meet coming up in two weeks”.

And then you told them, “And for the next two weeks I am going to change lots of things, get little or no rest, stress out a lot and worry about things that may not even happen, eat strange foods that I have never eaten before, buy some different swimsuits to wear on the day without trialling them and I will not spend anytime practicing exactly what I want to do at the Meet”.

They would probably tell you, “Well good luck with all that and here’s the number of a good psychiatrist!”

So how do you have a tip top taper?

Here’s twenty tips to turn tapering into triumph:

1. Try it before you use it! It is really tempting to buy a new suit or a new pair of goggles or some new sporting supplements to give you a special something extra for the big Meet. But time and time again, swimmers who have worked hard and trained hard for a Meet blow it all by reaching for a miracle over the counter super swimming supplement. Find out what works for you and keep doing it; 
2. Don’t add anything new. Another taper trap is to add more work in the belief that if some training is good, then more will work even better. Taper is the time for the four Rs – Rest, Regenerate, Recover and Race - not the four Ms – More – More – More – More;
3. Work fast, work smart. Tip three is an important one. Taper is the time for speed: training fast to race fast. Once you start tapering the golden rules are: Decrease training volume but maintain training frequency and training intensity or if you like train fast, train often but train less;
4. No sleep-ins. Lots of swimmers (and their parents) fall for this one. Swimmers will often try to scam a few mornings off during taper by telling their coach they need the rest to swim at their best. Some swimmers – you know who you are – will even get their parents to push the coach for some morning sleep ins. Again the golden rules are….train fast, train often, train less;
5. New suit – old suit. It feels great to race in a nice new, fast suit but a new suit only works if you have done all you can do in training to make it go fast. A slow driver in a Ferrari is still a slow driver;
6. It’s all mental. Racing is 90% mental. So practice “mental tapering” as well as physical tapering. During your taper take time to relax, to do things you enjoy, get plenty of sleep, read a book, watch some TV and taper your mind as well as your body;
7. Dives and starts. During taper – more than any other time – every dive is a race dive – every start is a race start…..every dive is a race dive – every start is a race start……..;
8. Turns. And you guessed it…every turn is a race turn;
9. Underwater practice. To go fast above the water, practice going fast under the water. Practice the three big kicks of underwater speed at every opportunity during taper: Kicking fast under water in streamline, kicking fast to the surface and kicking explosively to the surface for the breakout stroke;
10. Easy speed. A feature of a great taper is easy speed – being able to move fast with little effort. ”Easy-speed” comes as your body recovers and regenerates as the training load decreases. Enjoy this feeling – it is what all the training is about;
11. Practice several warm ups. Practice your ideal pre race warm up several times during the taper. Be very comfortable with it – know it backwards and try to rehearse it in conditions which are as close as possible to actual race conditions. And practice a few “what-if” warm ups. “What if we get to the practice pool late and I only get five minutes to warm up” or “What if for some reason I can’t do a pool warm up and have to warm up on dry land?”: plans and back-up plans and back-up plans for back-up plans;
12. Practice several swim downs. And again….”what if they change the race schedule at the last minute and I don’t get a chance to do a full swim down?”. Don’t make the mistake of practicing for a perfect day – be prepared to deal with whatever can (and will) go wrong;
13. Fast Fuel. Eat “fast” foods – no, not the kind you usually eat. Plenty of fresh fruit, salads, vegetables and quality, nutritious, healthy food. You can’t put low performance fuel in a high performance machine and hope it will race fast;
14. Swimming bag check list. Make a check list of everything you will need on race day – goggles, cap, suit and back up suit, food, drink, something to read, two towels….write it down, tick it off as you pack your bag and leave nothing to chance;
15. Spares of everything. Ever had a pair goggles break on race day? Ever lost a suit? Your swim bag should be like Noah’s Arc…everything in two by two;
16. Don’t do anything dumb…Taper is not the time to take up bungee jumping, sky-diving or professional stunt work;
17. Relax. Take it easy. You’ve worked hard. You deserve to relax;
18. Recover. Help your body to help you by committing to a daily recovery schedule. Eat good foods. Drink plenty of water. Do some light stretching and most importantly……….;
19. Sleep. Sleep is the most under-rated but most important recovery tool at your disposal. And..an extra hour  of sleep each night means an extra night’s sleep each week. If you have a three week taper, then by going to bed an hour earlier each night, you get three extra nights sleep to recover and be ready to race like you have never raced before;
20. Practise everything that can be practised. Perfect practice = perfect performance. As the Meet gets closer, make every aspect of your practice as perfect as the performance you want on race day.

It’s all mental – it really is.

Believe. Believe. Believe. It all starts with what you believe. Think fast, train hard, taper smart, race brilliantly!

The performance equation…..looks something like this:

A great training season plus a consistently professional attitude in and out of the pool plus a well designed and executed taper = Success.

It all adds up!

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Top Ten Tips for Swimming Coaching Success.
2. Twenty Things to do NOW if you want to Win Gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
3. Physiology based Training Set Design in Swimming: There must be Another Way.

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

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. The Number 1 Reason Why Most Swimmers and Coaches Fail at Swim Meets.
2. Flying into Fly: Five Tips for Swimming Brilliant Butterfly.
3. The Trials of Teenage Swimmers: A Guide for Parents and Coaches.

Coaches – ever wanted to know how you rate as a coach?

Swimmers – ever wanted to know how your coach rates as a coach?

Swimming Parents – ever wanted to know how your kid’s coach rates as a coach?

Then look no further than….the Swimming Coach Score Card.

This score card is a little different. Instead of being awarded points, you lose points for poor coaching standards and mediocre coaching behaviours.

Are you ready?

OK – your starting score is 100 CCs – that is 100 coaching credits.

1. Take off 5 CCs if you have been late to training in the past month;
2. Take off 10 CCs if you coach from one end of the pool all the time and another 5 CCs if you ever sit down during workouts;
3. Take off 5 CCS if you have not given each swimmer in your team one on one quality coaching in the past week;
4. Take off 20 CCs if you have used a mobile phone during workouts while on deck in the past year (except in emergencies);
5. Take off 5 CCs if you allow swimmers to breathe inside the flags in free and fly;
6. Take off 5 CCs if you allow swimmers to finish poorly on the wall at the end of fly and breast;
7. Take off 10 CCs if you talk to parents, swim club committee, non swimming swimmers and pool staff during workouts;
8. Take off 20 CCs if you don’t take time to write down the work the swimmers actually completed during the session, i.e. as opposed to what was scheduled to be done;
9. Take off 10 CCs if you made up the workout on deck as the swimmers walked in to the pool;
10. Take off 5 CCs if you didn’t give each swimmer in your team at least five quality instructions and / or pieces of feedback during your most recent session;
11. Take off 100 CCs if you still throw kickboards, fins or pull buoys at swimmers to get their attention;
12. Take off 20 CCs if you don’t give each swimmer one on one feedback after each race they swim at Meets;
13. Take off 10 CCs if you don’t wear team gear to training and / or competitions;
14. Take off 5 CCs if you don’t attend Club Nights;
15. Take off 15 CCs if you don’t know the first name of each of your swimmers within 2 sessions of them starting training with you;
16. Take off 50 CCs if you don’t have an individualised plan for each swimmer in your team for the next two seasons;
17. Take off 10 CCs if you have never scheduled time to meet with the parents of each of the swimmers in your team (i.e. away from the pool deck and outside of training times);
18. Take off 30 CCs if you have not completed at least 50 hours of professional development, learning and personal improvement in the past year;
19. Take off 5 CCs if you don’t ask swimmers “how did that feel” (and really listen to their views) after they try new skills;
20. Take off 30 CCs if you don’t have an outstanding dryland program which engages the total commitment of every swimmer in your team;
21. Take off 10 CCs if you don’t include mental skills development activities in every session;
22. Take off 5 CCs if you didn’t smile at least ten times during the team’s last workout;
23. Take off 50 CCs if you smoke and or / drink alcohol in front of the swim team (i.e. junior swimmers);
24. Take off 20 CCs if you don’t regularly practice “performance under pressure” – i.e. making training more challenging and more demanding than any competition could be;
25. Take off 20 CCs if you don’t encourage and embrace recovery during and after every workout.

So, how did you do?

Swimming Coaches Scorecard key:

90-100 CCs: Wow – Amazing. Please stop reading this blog and my articles. Start writing your own – I want to learn from you O Coaching Master.

80-89 CCs: Outstanding work. Do they call you SUPER COACH? If not, they should!

70-79 CCs: Great stuff. Some things to work on but generally you coach like a basketball – plenty of bounce and well rounded.

60-69 CCs: Not bad. Keep working on the little things….the funny thing is that when it comes to poor coaching and the little things…there are no little things.

50-59 CCs: Danger – danger – warning – warning. You need to improve and fast.

40-49 CCs: How did you find this site? Were you looking for help to save your job? Or were you looking for Coaches Anonymous?

30-39 CCs: Have you thought about taking up football coaching? It’s still challenging coaching but at least there is no danger of people drowning.

20-29 CCs: Have you thought about another career? Something not too brain taxing where your unique skills will be appreciated - maybe an Economist at Wall Street? A Government Advisor on the Environment?

10-19 CCs: I think I need to type slower so you can read this….S.T.O.P. C.O.A.C.H.I.N.G!!!!

1-9 CCs: The only job for you I can think of for you is something that requires no skill, no brain power and no effort…Congratulations Congressman!

Zero (or less) CCs: Please return your coaching card to your national swimming authority. Do not go anywhere near water…ever. Stop bathing. Stop shaving. Ask for help when drinking a glass of water. The further you keep away from water the better for all of us.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. 101 Super Swimming Tips for Super Swimming Coaches: 101 Ways to Be the Coach You Want to Be and the Coach your Swimmers want to See.
2. The Trials of Teenage Swimmers: A Guide for Parents and Coaches.
3. The Number 1 Reason Why Most Swimmers and Coaches Fail at Swim Meets.

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

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Twenty Tips for a Tip Top Taper!
2. Sporting Parents: Gold Medal Parenting for the Parents of Young Athletes.
3. The Ten Myths of Swimming.

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? 

The Fourth Variable - Engagement:

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.

Competitive Swimming is not just swimming fast.

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.

Find Opportunities to Enhance Mind-Body integration:

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

© 2011, Swim Coaching Brain. All rights reserved. This post can not be reproduced in full or in part without the expressed consent of the author Wayne Goldsmith.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Physiology based Training Set Design in Swimming: There must be Another Way.
2. The Engagement Factor – the essential element in designing training sets and swimming workouts.
3. How much training is right for me (or how cake baking can help you swim faster!!!)