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Posts Tagged ‘Swimming’

Creating a Winning Swimming Club Culture – excellence, environment, everything, everyday, everybody.

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. Read more

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The Top Ten Technique Tips for Every Swimmer

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

In swimming, effective propulsive movements are SLOW to FAST.

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

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

2. The relationship between HIPS and HEAD is critical.

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

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

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

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How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part One.

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! Read more

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Flying into Fly: Five Tips for Swimming Brilliant Butterfly.

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Twenty Tips for a Tip Top Taper!

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? Read more

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Five Breaststroke Essentials for all Swimmers and Coaches

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

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

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

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

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

1. Start training – today!

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

2. Believe anything is possible.

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

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Mental Skills Training in Swimming – a new approach.

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?  Read more

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Physiology based Training Set Design in Swimming: There must be Another Way.

Walk on deck at any pool in the world on a typical Monday afternoon.

There it is – the old whiteboard over there at the end of the pool.

And what’s written up on the whiteboard?

Today’s training program!

• “10 x 100 on 1:45 at 75%” or
• “20 x 50 on 1:00 holding PB plus 5 seconds” or
• “12 x 200 IM on 3:30 holding 2:50 or something similar.

You would think that swimming training, preparation and performance was all about the body wouldn’t you? Read more

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Complementary Carnivals: Why Swim Meets Fail.

Ever wondered why the Grandstands and bleachers at your Club Swimming Carnivals and Swim Meets are empty?

Ever wanted to know how to get lots of people to come along to your Swim Meets?

Ever wanted to know how to get the support of Coaches so that they actively support your Swim Meet and send large numbers of their swimmers along to race?

Then design and deliver Complementary Carnivals!

Read more

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• About this Blog

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

• Recent Posts

  • Getting Mentally Tough (or How to be Tougher, Rougher, Meaner and Nastier than your Opposition while still smiling and being a generally nice person)!
  • Creating a Winning Swimming Club Culture – excellence, environment, everything, everyday, everybody.
  • Mental Toughness for Swimming: Building a Bulletproof Brain.
  • The Top Ten Technique Tips for Every Swimmer
  • Super Starts: How to get faster sooner and leave your competitors languishing in the slow lane.

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