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Posts Tagged ‘winning’

Super Starts: How to get faster sooner and leave your competitors languishing in the slow lane.

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? Read more

Swim Up to Swim Down: Some new ideas on Swim Downs to enhance your Swim Meet Success

In the old days it was simple.

You raced. You did your best.

You spoke with the coach about your race, you swapped ideas about dives and turns, you listened to feedback, discussed splits and stroke technique etc etc.

You drank a little water or sports drink.

You jumped (or maybe slumped) into the swim down pool, did a few laps at a speed your grandma would consider too slow and climbed out three minutes later ready to go for your next race (or so you thought).

That, as they say was then and this is now – and now, more than ever, swim down is a critical element of every swimming competition. Read more

Swim Shop – Now Open

The Swim Coaching Brain has Opened a Swim Shop.

In response to the overwhelming demand for more information on swimming topics, we have put together a series of swimming books for you to download and enjoy.

The first book in the series: Longer and Stronger: Stretching and Strengthening for Young Swimmers is available now!

More books will be added regularly.

Make sure you bookmark the Shop page and visit it regularly to check out some of our great new swimming products.

 

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.

1. Never use your mobile phone on deck during workouts.
2. Smile – it makes a big difference.
3. Say one constructive, positive thing to every swimmer at every workout.
4. Be a master of technique: technique is critical in fast swimming.
5. Be creative – the best ideas win.
6. Bring parents into your program: parents are your partners in performance.
7. Understand the basics of swimming science: get a “PhD” – a “Practical Human Degree” – i.e. learn enough about sports science to work effectively with people.
8. Be comfortable talking about “winning”. It’s cool to talk about kids achieving their best.
9. Teach one new swimming skill every week. That’s about 50 new skills a year and around 500 over the career of most swimmers.
10. Walk workouts: never sit down and coach from a chair. It’s like asking the swimmers to train from showers. Read more

Top Ten Tips for Swimming Coaching Success.

  

ten from Crestock Images

Here are my best ever Top Ten Tips for Swimming Coaching Success.

Whether you coach men or masters, toddlers or triathletes, females or freestylers, babies, breaststrokers or butterflyers, these ten tips will help you make a success of your swimming coaching career and more important help you to help every swimmer turn possible potential into peak performance. Read more

The Number 1 Reason Why Most Swimmers and Coaches Fail at Swim Meets.

Want to know the Number 1 Reason Why Most Swimmers and Coaches Fail at Swim Meets? Read more

Talent ID in Swimming: the Talent Pool!

Talent is Harder to Hide than it is to Find.

 

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

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

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

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

 

It’s more than merely muscle.

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

 

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

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

Or if you like…

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

 

Putting it all together.

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

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

Wayne Goldsmith

The W Word: Winning.

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

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

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

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