Pocket Intensity

Posted by Glenn Mills on Dec 29, 2010 06:00AM (0 views)

This article is meant for competitive swimmers who have expressed their desire to be great at this sport. This does not apply to everyone and I don't mean it to. I do NOT carry this level of intensity with me anymore in my swimming, and only wish it on those who do choose it.

I've toyed with writing this article for a few years. I've always been a bit in amazement by people who feel attitude at a specific time will get them through a situation against someone who has been preparing for years.

Like the short video above, which is obviously a friendly competition to highlight the great talent by the smaller, and seemingly younger wrestler, no talk in the world, or intimidation could possibly get the larger athlete through this competition. In a skill sport, no matter how "intense" he decided to get, talent and preparation will always overcome someone who talks a good game.

Swimming, unfortunately for people who choose when to be intense, is a skill sport. It's a sport in which the technique you use is as, if not much more important than the fitness level you achieve. Simply put, could you imagine a competition in which average people show up at a pool, and get to race even former Olympic swimmers? You can usually tell someone who's achieved a certain amount of mastery in swimming by watching them for just a couple strokes. You can also usually tell someone who is still in the developmental stages of swimming. The thing that stands between them... years of preparation.

If you've decided that swimming is your sport, then you're going to have to also decide on your level of intensity. Trash talking doesn't exist in our sport, and usually when it does, it has a history of playing against the trash talker. No matter the level of respect that comes after the fact, trash talking hasn't been very successful in the sport of swimming. The Americans telling the Australians how he was going to beat them in the 2000 Olympics only fueled the fire of the opponents and helped them win. Just as the French team telling the American's in 2008 how they were going to smash them, helped create one of the most exciting and memorable races in the history of the sport. How foolish do people feel when they talk a good game, then fail.

I'm also not saying there's really anything wrong with an Olympic Silver medal. Are you kidding me? I'd take one, and those athlete's who have earned them have prepared incredibly, and if for only an instant, a mistake, or an strategical error, the would also be Olympic Champions. Those are just two very striking examples of trash talking in swimming.

What bothers me the most if the trash talking that takes place at the beginning and at the end of the season. Everybody seems to be intense when it matters most. The beginning of the season, especially in the goal setting meetings, there is talk of heroic feats to come at the end of the season. The visions of holding the hands high in victory at State Championships, Junior Nationals, and even higher... everybody is a champion at the BEGINNING of the season. The same happens during taper. Those that are of this persuasion seem to think that a few sprints, or NOW focusing on starts and turns will turn everything around... and their personal TOUGHNESS will prevail. It's only on the last length of a hard fought race, when there's simply nothing left and the competition is leaving them in the dust, does reality set in. No amount of tough talk, or "pocket intensity" is going to will something great to happen.

Greatness comes with constant intensity. The intensity that isn't glamorous. The intensity that reaches over to the alarm clock at 4:55 am to shut it off and climb out of bed. The intensity to work an IM set when you're a sprint freestyler. The intensity to push off in streamline and do 3 or 4 dolphin kicks off each wall in practice.

This type of intensity isn't what people like to talk about. This type of intensity carries with it more of a feeling of drudgery than the screaming american gladiator. This type of intensity is usually lonely, hard, and extremely waring on the psyche of the individual who practices it. It doesn't come with woots and hollars and fist pumping in the middle of practice. It normally comes with gasping for air in the :03 seconds of rest between intervals, or the soreness of muscles day in and day out.

I heard a great quote the other day that works well here. "You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." - Henry Ford

My advice as a former athlete. Stop talking a good game, and get IN the game. Preparation and intensity isn't just about yardage and fast swimming. Intensity means showing up on time, completing a practice with integrity, not cheating, and trying to get something out of every length you swim.

If you don't carry that level of intensity with you on a daily basis, good luck pulling intensity out of your pocket at the end of the season.

Hope that works out for ya. ;)

Cheat Success or Honest Failure?

Posted by Glenn Mills on Dec 28, 2010 04:51AM (0 views)

This starts with a question:
Is it better to appear successful when you had to cheat to do so, or fail while following the rules and trying your hardest?

While this post could easily be extrapolated to pro sports, or the Olympics with steroids or blood doping, this is simply about practice.

Coaches across the world spend countless hours developing season plans, crafting practices that hopefully intrigue and excite swimmers into giving effort in areas the coach knows the swimmer needs work in. If the swimmers accomplish the practices as written by the coach throughout the entire season, chances are very good for success. However, if the practices are performed in sections... specifically only the sections swimmers enjoy or feel like working, and the rest of the practice is cruised, or worse, cheated on to get through, then in reality, the design of the practice is no longer valid.

A good practice will either overload a specific muscle group (like upper or lower body), or focus on a specific swimming task (like speed or distance), or be an overall general distribution of many muscle groups or techniques so a more general understanding of the water can take place. Very few practices, when done as written, are bad practices. Failure to do practices as written, again, make the overall practice have less long term impact to your goals.

Picking and choosing when to work is understandable. Picking and choosing when to be legal is NEVER understandable.

There are several simple rules to practices that, when followed, make it much easier to accomplish a practice 'as written'.

Here are a few:

1. Start from the wall, not the flags.
2. The lane lines are to DIVIDE the lanes, not to serve as an additional form of propulsion for you.
3. Turn at the wall, not the flags. Don't forget, the flags are to tell you that the wall is coming soon... they're not a temporary signal for you to turn right there.
4. Leave the prescribed time behind the person in front of you. Quick hint; if there are 6 people in a 50 meter lane, you don't have to go :05 seconds apart... or :04... :10 seconds apart will give you your own space and allow you to focus on your stroke, pace, and even give you more work because there's less chance you'll get caught in the draft of the swimmer in front.
5. Kick sets are for kicking. Pulling on the lane line, or using your kick board as a paddle, or simply flat out swimming doesn't mean you're working your legs... YOU'RE CHEATING!
6. Unless your coach has told you to switch strokes at the 12-1/2 or 25 (long course), chances are they've designed a set that was meant for the same stroke to be swum at the END of the length that you started with at the BEGINNING of the length. So swim the entire length the same stroke.

Come on coaches... how long could this list be, but if your swimmers all followed just a few very simple rules, all the time, how much better would your team be?

Swimmers, if you have a kick set that you're having a hard time making by following the rules above, and you decide to cheat to make it... it may APPEAR that you've succeeded, but you know you've failed. While there may be another swimmer in the pool who has NOT made the set, but done everything according to the simple rules above, at least that swimmer has a guideline as to how close they came to making the set, and hopefully the next time, will get closer.

Here's more specific information. If there are two swimmers who have a set of 10 x 100's on 1:10 (pick your pool... it's theoretical). Swimmer A does everything legally and makes the first 6... then starts to fall off the pace. Struggles home and is missing the interval by :05 - :08 seconds by the last one. While they may get yelled at by the coach, or heck, praised by the coach for their effort, they know that the next time that set comes around, they know that if they make 7 or 8 of the 100's on 1:10, that they're improving. Swimmer B on the other hand... also gets to #6 successfully, but notices on #7 that by the 50 turn, they're simply not going to make the interval... at the 75 turn, rather than swimming all the way in to the wall, they turn at the flags and come back just in time to leave on the 1:10... the same practice is applied for the next 3 and unless the coach saw this, appears to have accomplished the task at hand.

If Swimmer A and Swimmer B were of exactly the same ability level... who got a better practice?

The most fitness comes in athletics when you continue to push through a certain point and just keep going. Even if you don't make the intervals, if you're doing everything correctly, at least you know where you stand.

Here's my feeling on young competitive swimmers. I don't mind slow swimmers. They have so much upside, so much to learn, and so much hope. What I can't stand are cheaters. Even extremely talented swimmers who cheat. To me, it's just a waste of time.

Swimmers. Look in your heart at your next practice. When you cheat, you're not just giving yourself a break, you're also disrupting the design of the practice. This disruption means you're not getting the work you were supposed to get. Because of this, if you cheat regularly in practice, you can NOT blame your coach at the end of the season for your failure. You are the only one to blame.

Moving into a new year is the time for resolutions. Athletes need to question themselves and understand that they hold their own destiny in their hands. Failure to grab that destiny in a positive, and honest way, will ultimately lead to dissatisfaction.

When that happens, take ownership of your failure and use it as a lesson. Don't look to see who you're going to blame, blame yourself.

At the same time, if you take the opportunity to swim practices with integrity and honesty, although you may appear to be going slower (because you're actually doing the set), you'll ultimately understand what it really means to be an athlete and will more than likely be very happy with your career. I can't even promise that it will pay off THIS season. It's almost January... it's almost too late for THIS season.
However, the summer season will be here soon... how happy do you want to be?

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: P is for Perfectionism

By Dr. Aimee Kimball, Mental Training Consultant

Wouldn’t we all like to be perfect and live a Ferris Bueller type of life? Of course we would, but reality makes perfection pretty hard to achieve. I know far too many swimmers who, when they don’t have the perfect race, are extremely hard on themselves. This article will focus on the concept of perfectionism and how to encourage individuals to be OK with being slightly less than perfect.

Striving for Perfection
Are you one of those swimmers who expects every race to go exactly as planned? If so, that’s great! I love the optimism! Not to rain on your parade, but the likelihood of you dropping time in every event in every race you ever swim is kind of slim. Believing you can do it is fantastic because that demonstrates you have confidence in yourself, which is extremely important when it comes to sport. However, perfectionist thinking can create problems before, during and after races.

“Perfectionists” often have pre-race anxiety because they look around the pool, see whom they are racing, and assess how they will do in comparison. Totally normal, until people with this personality take it to the next level and have abnormal amounts of stress over the “what ifs” (what if I lose, what if I don’t perform well, etc…). So while they have high expectations for themselves (which is good), they worry obsessively about perfection, which interferes with their performance.

I have worked with athletes who expect so much of themselves that if someone passes them during a race they give up almost on the spot. They unconsciously provide themselves with a reason why they didn’t win. Basically, at the end of the race they can save their ego and tell themselves “I didn’t try my hardest. That’s why I lost.” If you fall into this category, ask yourself, “Would I rather lose knowing I could have given more or swam my best and it not have been good enough?” Typically, the disappointment of not having been as good as you thought you were fades while the frustration of having given up lasts much longer.

After races, perfectionists often focus on what they could have done better. They may have won by a body length or dropped half a second, but they focus not on how well they did but on what else they could have done. As such, they are rarely happy with their performance and eventually their overall enjoyment of their sport will decline.

My advice? Strive for perfection but allow room for error every now and then. It’s the pursuit of perfection that makes you great, not perfection itself.

But I’ve Been There Before
You may have had that one “perfect” race where you were confident, had a great start, flawless technique, sharp turns and a superb finish. It felt so good you just wanted to bottle it up and do that every time. It is good to believe you can have that type of race consistently. The problem is not in believing this can reoccur, it’s in trying to force it and then being disappointed when it doesn’t occur. When you force perfection, it doesn’t happen. When you trust yourself to be as close to perfect as the circumstances allow, then you’re giving yourself the best chance to at least be in the vicinity of where you want to be.

Perfection Continuum
Perfection doesn’t have to be an absolute, it can be a matter of degrees. Evaluate your race on a continuum:

1) Awful— 2) Could Do Better —3) Good—4) Pretty Good—5) What I Trained For

If at the end of the race you can say to yourself, “That’s the type of race I trained to have,” you should be happy with your performance. You may decide your race was “pretty good.” Maybe it wasn’t exactly like you planned, but it had more of what you wanted than what you didn’t. That’s ok, too. Sometimes “pretty good” is good enough. I’m not suggesting you set out for “pretty good” before races, but sometimes you have to be OK with the way you swam. You don’t have to be elated, but you can be content. However, as I said before, you want to strive for perfection (i.e., work to have the race you trained for) not just to be content. If you fall in the “awful” through “good” categories, it is actually a good sign when you’re slightly unhappy because that means you’re competitive. If you have one of those not-so-perfect races, realistically evaluate what you did well and what you could have done better and use this evaluation to create goals for the upcoming practices and meets.

Keep at It
Wanting to be perfect is a great quality. Too many people waste their talent because “good enough” is always good enough and they are satisfied with just getting by. I’d take someone who is disappointed with anything less than perfection over someone who doesn’t even care. However, if you find that your perfectionist tendencies get in the way of your performance and enjoyment then maybe you need to give yourself some slack. You may just find that you’re actually much better when you expect perfection but allow yourself a bit of breathing room. Regardless, if you are less than perfect, keep working at getting there since hard work will at least get you closer to perfection.

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

ABOUT AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PhD

Dr. Aimee C. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine. She received a PhD from the University of Tennessee where she specialized in sport psychology.

She is an Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology Certified Consultant, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Registry, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau.

As a Mental Training Consultant, Dr. Kimball has worked with professional, collegiate, high school, recreational, and youth athletes in a variety of sports, and assists the Pittsburgh Steelers in analyzing potential draft picks.

She has been a featured speaker at conferences across the nation and has appeared in Men’s Health Magazine, Runner’s World, Athletic Management Magazine, various local and national newspapers, and has appeared on ESPN, NPR, and news broadcasts across the country.

She is a Clinical Faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Orthopaedics and an adjunct faulty member in the Sports Marketing Department at Duquesne University. Currently, Dr. Kimball works with athletes and other performers to assist them in achieving success in sport and life. For more information contact: 412-432-3777; kimballac@upmc.edu

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH TYLER CLARY

Speedo Tip of the Week

Tyler Clary won the silver medal in the 400m IM at the 2009 FINA World Championships. Here are the keys to his success:

Perseverance: It’s hard to come into every practice and work yourself to exhaustion day in and day out. The perseverance is what helps get you over the hump to your next goal, especially as far as the day-in and day-out routine is concerned. It’s also something I have faced with a shoulder problem because I have to work to come back from that just like a tough set in the pool.

Hard work: You have to put your nose to the grindstone. If swimming at an elite level was easy, everyone would be doing it. Even being a swimmer at any level, it’s not easy, or everyone would be in the pool. On days when you don’t feel like it, get over it. Like Kevin Perry used to say when I, or someone would be complaining, “Shut-up and swim!”

Attention to detail: Pay attention to every turn you hit, every breakout, every stroke for that matter – and I could list a ton of things such as catch and release and other technique issues. You have to pay attention to all the details all the time, so that when it comes race time, you are on autopilot.

Intensity: You have to have that willingness to race. I’ve said before that I have a hatred for losing. Having that intense feeling makes it a lot easier to put in the hard work you have to put in. You have to see it not just as hard work, but sometimes literally willing yourself to move forward.

Passion: If you don’t love this sport, why are you doing it? The passion is the only thing that can keep you going at times, and not just for a love of the sport, but for your teammates. Swimming with my team at the University of Michigan is the greatest thing I’ve ever been a part of. That passion is what gets me through every workout.

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH RICKY BERENS

Speedo Tip of the Week

Set goals. It doesn’t matter what it is, in practice, in school, in X-Box or anything – you have to set goals. If your coach gives me a set in practice of 10x100 all out, my goal is to hold 50 the entire time. That’s a short-term goal. The short-term goals should help you achieve long-term goals.

Don’t be afraid of change. You definitely have to be able to handle change. In the swimming world, that’s big, because change is constant. You have your coach, your training and everything, but sometimes you have to take some chances -- well thought-out chances that make sense. If it’s just a change you have to deal with that maybe you didn’t want, make the best of it. I came from the east coast to Texas, but I knew I was going to get to train with one of the best coaches in the world.

Let go of the bad – quickly. When you are at a big meet, if something bad happens, don’t freak out. Take it slow. Hill Taylor, a teammate of mine, makes me think of this from NCAAs. We had this big relay against Auburn at NCAAs, and his nose clip fell out and landed in the gutter. The week had already been a hard one. But he knew what had to be done, so he finished his race. Be prepared for something to go wrong. That’s an important part of being ready to step up to seize the moment.

Listen to your coaches. Your coach has to be someone who you trust. You are swimming not just for yourself, but for him or her. Eddie Reese has been at Texas for more than 30 years. He knows almost everything about swimming. When you are going to the biggest meets, NCAAs and Nationals, while you are tapering you wonder if you should maybe be doing more or less. That’s when you listen to your coach, and trust they know what you are doing. Remember, you aren’t the first person your coach has coached.

Have fun. This has made “Keys of Success” several times, but it should, because it is the biggest key to success. Swimming takes a big toll on you. Waking up at 5 a.m. and jumping into a cold pool and swimming back and forth isn’t always the most fun thing in the world. But you can make it fun with your friends, coaches, being a good teammate, feeling good about yourself and working toward short-term and long-term goals. Just don’t wear yourself out with mindless yards. You have to keep it fun.

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH TERESA CRIPPEN

Speedo Tip of the Week

National Teamer Teresa Crippen helped the University of Florida to an NCAA Championship title in March of 2010. Later that summer, she earned a silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships. Here are the keys to her success:

Determination. This is one that belongs in “Keys to success” for sure. If you’re not willing to put in extra work when no one else is, it won’t play to your favor in the end. You have to want it. You have to be determined to get it done.

Have fun. There are plenty of times when I am swimming with my head down and yelling at the lane line saying, “I don’t want to be in this pool.” But you have to learn how to have fun with it. That really happened at 2010 NCAAs. I enjoyed racing again and being on those blocks, going against people. You have to enjoy swimming, taking your wins and losses together and learning from both.

Listen to your coaches. Don’t fight with your coaches. You can always think, “That doesn’t work for me,” but you have to believe they know what they are doing. As you grow older, you learn to work with your coaches better. That’s something I’m really learning with coach (Gregg) Troy at the University of Florida, telling him what is working and what I feel needs to be changed. That’s important.

Good people. Have good people around you. Last summer, 2009, when I didn’t swim as well as I wanted at World Team Trials, I called my sister, Maddy. I knew she had such great swims in her career, but she also had some swims she didn’t like, so I knew she would understand what it was like to work hard and not get something you feel you were on track to get. It was so nice to have that. I still call (Germantown) coach (Dick) Shoulberg, too. It’s great to have great people behind you who still love you and remind you, when things are tough, that the sun will still shine the next day.

Be your own person, but learn from everyone. Before I started swimming I thought, “No way am I ever doing the 400 IM or 500 free,” because my brothers and sisters did them and those events are so hard and so long. I had to be me doing whatever worked for me. But there I was in the 400 IM at the NCAA Championships. So some of the events they did work for me as well. Having them as a support system – and learning what they did from those events – helps me a lot.

The Science of Swimming and Sleeping

Getting a Good Night's Rest Makes a Big Difference

by: Garrett Weber-Gale

11/13/10

As a young swimmer I never really paid attention to how much I slept.

I’d go to bed when I finished everything for the day and generally I would always wake up tired. On occasion, during my taper periods of the year, I would wake up naturally and feel like a million bucks.

This year the thought came into my mind of, “what if I could feel good most mornings when I wake up?” It’s a bit odd that this never seriously crossed my mind earlier in life. I think maybe, like many of you, I came to the conclusion that feeling tired and still worn out from the day before was just a fact of life. This year I set a goal for myself: I want to feel good when I wake up.

In the early days and weeks of working on this goal I was still doubtful it was possible, at least consistently. My first order of business was to keep track of when I went to sleep. In general I would go to sleep between 10:30 and 11pm. The three weekday mornings when I workout I woke up at 5:50am. The other two mornings I generally rose at around 9am.

Some of you who may know me are well aware that I’m an extremely excitable person. The smallest things can send me off into a crazy spurt of excitement, which often includes running around and/or screaming something! While I love being excitable, this is sometimes difficult to manage when it is time to go to sleep. When we travel on the USA Swimming National team, we have a great sports psychologist with us named Jim Bauman. Jim says going to sleep is not something that just happens, you need to prepare for it. Just like pre-race preparation we need to do a pre-sleep preparation in order to get ourselves relaxed and ready for bed.

Plain and simple, I decided my bedtime needed to be earlier. I decided I would make it my goal to be in my room by 9pm. Dr. Bauman also explained how the blue light in monitors actually stimulates us, which makes it harder to fall asleep. After 9 there is no TV or computer for me.

From 9pm on I stretch, read a book, write in a notebook, meditate, or roll my muscles out on a foam roller. What I quickly found was that I was ready to go to sleep within 45 minutes of the ‘quiet time’. Not only was I ready to go to bed earlier but once I got in bed it felt so natural to drift off into sleep. Before I could lie in bed for almost an hour before falling asleep.

I realize it is difficult for most of you to start the ‘quiet time’ at 9pm. When I was in school there was no way I could have done this on a regular basis either. So here’s my advice: At whatever time you can go to bed, begin to prepare yourself for sleep at least 20 minutes beforehand. My point is don’t just go straight from studying to lying in bed. Help your mind wind down and get ready to drift off. In addition, your muscles will appreciate the light stretching.

I’d love to say this technique works all the time but I’d be lying if I said it did. Certainly there are still times when I have things on my mind. Times when I’m excited, sad, mad, worried, sick, etc. I’m confident that by practicing this technique on a regular basis I’ll become more efficient at falling asleep. My goal is to get to the point where even when these feelings do arise I will still be able to find sleep more easily. What I can tell you is that on a much more regular basis than ever before, I wake up feeling good! Not only does this make my body happy but my mind is thrilled as well.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

Pike Syndrome

What is the Pike Syndrome all about and what are the implications that we can learn from it?

Firstly, lets learn about the Pike Syndrome.

The pike is a fierce carnivorous fish that eats smaller fishes. In an interesting experiment, scientists took a pike and placed it into a large tank with many smaller fishes. The pike however, was separated from these smaller preys by a layer of glass, forming a barrier preventing the pike from reaching its prey. The pike continuously smashed itself against the glass barrier while trying to reach its prey, but was unsuccessful in its attempts in penetrating this invisible barrier. Gradually, it became discouraged and discontinued this behavior. The pike eventually sank to the bottom of the tank and just laid there. When the pike finally stopped hitting the glass barrier, the scientists removed the barrier, allowing the pike to feast. To their surprise, the pike continued ignoring the smaller fishes, even when they were swimming right next to the pike. Eventually, the pike starved to death, even when its food was swimming right in front of it. This behavior was eventually known as the “Pike Syndrome”

So, what are the lessons we can take from this “Pike Syndrome?”

Well, the Pike Syndrome tells us that our minds are indeed very much in control of our behavior. In the experiment, when the barrier is removed, the fish were swimming right in front of the pike, yet the pike still perceive the barrier to be in place and starved to death. The pike still believed that the barrier was there.

In real life, people are limited by a whole host of barriers such as age, abilities or even self confidence. It does not matter if the barrier is physically there or not, but if our minds perceive a limitation, then a barrier is very much in place. If you perceive yourself to be inferior for instance, this could eventually become a self fulfilling prophecy In addition, this experiment tells us that it is often difficult to identify the change, even when the barrier is removed. The pike was unable to change its mindset when the barrier was removed and starved to death.

Similarly, people suffer from the same problem as well. We often assume that the barrier is still in place when in fact, it has already disappeared. So, do try to identify cases of Pike Syndrome in your life in your coaching. Remove the constraints that limit your life by critically examining the situation and remove any false assumptions that have been previously holding you back. You can change and be a better person! Achieve better interpersonal communication!

On Getting Started When You Don’t Feel Ready

by Sonya Derian

“Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Take the action and your feelings will change.” ~Barbara Baron

A few months ago, I challenged myself with Adventure Boot Camp. I thought, “What would be more challenging than waking up at five in the morning and working out with a group of ladies for an hour, four days a week?”

And I have to say, it was tough! I couldn’t walk for 3 days.

But as the days progressed and my muscles acclimated, it occurred to me: I’m someone who can roll out of bed at 5 AM and within a half hour, lift 8-pound weights over my head while jogging a track. I didn’t know that I could do that!

That’s the thing about taking an action. You don’t know that you can do it until you do it. And then you become someone who does it.

That’s how we grow into new lives.

How often do you stop yourself from doing something, waiting for something else to change before you move forward? You think you need to wait until you’re more prepared, knowledgeable, financially savvy, confident, secure—or insert excuse—to take the action. But then you never get to that place and never take the action. Then 5 years pass and you’re still talking about it, feeling “not ready yet.”

Sound right?

Maybe you feel a sense of urgency to step out, own your power and live our out loud, but aren’t sure what your purpose or path is. So you stop yourself because of the feelings you might confront. It’s easier if you know what you’re doing first. That lets you feel more confident moving forward. Like you won’t make a fool or yourself. Like what you’re doing is “right.”

But what if there’s never that guarantee? What if the only way to find out is by doing it? What if the only way to gain confidence is to do the thing we you’re not yet confident enough to do? What if the only way to gain knowledge is to jump in and find out what you need to learn? What if the only way to get more prepared is to prepare as much as possible, and then learn the rest as you go?

There is always something in us that knows and knows that it knows. We have an inner compass that knows the way. The only way to get feedback from this knowing is through being engaged. Not in our head. Not in our mind. Not in theory but in action. In real time.

It’s like that game we played as kids. Someone hides something, and you go looking for it, waiting to hear “hotter” or “colder” or maybe even “boiling hot!” as you move. Those little pieces of guidance help you figure out whether you’re getting close or not.

The only way to find that item is to start looking not. You can sit around and plan, waiting for the stars to align just right. But you won’t get any feedback until you actually start moving and looking.

Your inner compass does the same. It will always give you feedback on what you need to know, what you need to do differently, what you need to do next—as long as you get out of your head and get moving.

Whatever it is you want to do, it starts with getting out of your comfort zone. You’re not one small person waiting to create big change. You’re a powerful person wanting to create small change. You have tremendous power to create in this world; but just like the energy vortex that exists behind an outlet, that power is useless until you plug it in.

Plug it in.

Sign up for that class. Make the call. Face your taxes. Put up that website, even if it’s not perfect. Pay for the membership—just get on board. Have the difficult conversation. Place the ad. Send off the resume. Go to that networking event. Make the introduction. Get your book-keeping in order. Dust off the manuscript. Distribute the flyer. Get rid of the clutter. Go on that date. Take the trip. Call the publisher. Make the collection call. Ask for the raise. Publish the article. Make the speech. Take the test. Schedule the visit. Call the creditors. Fill in the blank—it’s yours to determine.

Do that thing you’ve been putting off. Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Just take the action and see how your feelings change.

And remember: you are not doing this for the outcome, although there will be an outcome. You are doing this because you are the creator in your life and you have decided that now is as good a time as any to jump in.

Sonya Derian is the owner and founder of Om Freely, a company dedicated to helping people live out loud, tap into their power, and transform their lives. To pick up your free ebook: Om Freely: 30 Ways to Live Out Loud, please visit http://omfreely.com . Or check out her online store at: http://cafepress.com/omfreely. Photo found here.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/on-getting-started-when-you-do-not-feel-ready/

When Sally Swims Poorly…

How Mom and Dad Might Talk To Their Child at a Swim Meet

By John Leonard

Swim Meet conversation between parent and athlete can be either highly productive, or highly counter-productive. Your goal as a parent should be to contribute to a positive swim meet experience for your child. This is the same goal as shared by the coach and the athlete. It is important that all three sides of the triangle be working together on meet days, as well as the rest of the swim year.

As I travel the country talking to parents, and observing swim meets and the effects of individual athletes, a few things stand out for comment. The inter-relationship of athlete, coach and parent on the days of swim meets is one of the most important. To discuss this adequately, it is necessary to define the role of each person.

The athlete attends the meet to attempt to gain or affirm some progress that has been made in their development. This may take the form of a personal best time, or holding a stroke technique together for an entire race, or executing accurately a particular strategy for "splitting" the race, or any of a multitude of other possibilities and combinations. The role of the athlete is the active one. It is up to them to perform, and the meet day is a selected time to perform the experiment.

The role of the coach on meet day needs to be thoroughly understood. It is dependent upon how the coach has presented themselves in the athlete's swimming career. Primarily, for most coaches, they are the technical resource that a swimmer depends upon to help them improve. They also serve as a role model, and to a greater or lesser extent, as a motivator, friend, and co-author of the strategy or experiment being performed on that day.

The parent is the racing "support crew". The parent makes sure they have all their human needs attended to, and continues their parental function of supervising personal development. Their love, attention, and caring are key ingredients in creating a successful experience on race day.

Athlete, technical support, and human support. That's all it takes.

Now, back to the question of meet conversation. Lots of talk goes on at a meet, and coming and going around the meet. Let's focus on the conversations that go on around a particular swim, and see what can be learned from that item.

Sally is eleven years old, and she is about to swim the 100 yard freestyle. Sally is a pretty good little swimmer, and has a best time of 1:01.3. She'd like to go a personal best time in this event at the meet, and she and her coach have been talking all week about how Sally has to concentrate on keeping her stroke long and strong during the last 25 yards of her race. Sally knows she is supposed to stop and talk to Coach before she swims so she goes over to see her.

"Hey Kiddo, ready for the big swim?"

"Coach, I got it all under control, and I'm ready to go fast."

"What do you need to remember on this swim?"

"To keep my stroke long on the last twenty-five."

"Not just long, but...."

"long and Strong!"

"Right! Have a real good swim. Now, go get it!"

Sally blasts off, and gets out in front immediately. Mom and Dad cheer like crazy. Sally turns for home, and......

(Now, at this point let's consider two endings. We will take a look at each one.)

Sally turns for home and...... shortens her stroke bit by bit as she gets more and more tired, and struggles to the wall, with a time of 1:01.5.

Sally is disappointed, and she goes back to her coach choking back tears, and stands there, waiting for her to speak.

"Well, not quite what we wanted. How did it feel?"

"It felt awful! I was terrible! I couldn't do anything!"

"From here, it looked like you were only pushing through to your waist, and towards the end of the race maybe not even that far. Where should your hand finish?"

"At my suit line."

"And what did your arms really feel like?"

"I got all hot and my arms were burning at the end of the race."

"Do you know why that is? I think you haven't had enough good fast pace work yet. Next month, we'll work on that, and by the next meet you'll be much better!"

Sally leaves happy and feeling much less like the Ugly Duckling. Now, she heads to see Mom and Dad.

Most parents I talk to think that this is a tough time to deal with their children. It isn't! (The tough one is next.) All Mom and Dad have to do in this case, is two simple things:

First, deal with human things.

"Are you warm enough, honey?"

"Put on your warm-ups, and your towel"

"Do you need something to drink?"

Then, if all is well, STOP. Do not get into the race unless the child wants to. That is not your role. You are there to support.

But let’s say that Sally comes back and says....

"I Stunk!"

Mom and Dad say, "Stunk? Stunk means you smelled badly. All that chlorine is kind of nasty, but I wouldn't say you stunk. What do you really mean?"

After Sally has a chance to get rid of her emotional response, you should ask, "What did Coach say?"

Now is a good time to explore this. What you are trying to do, as a parent, is duplicate the same mind-set the coach is trying to re-instill. Analyze what went wrong with the experiment. You don't have the technical expertise to offer the answers that her coach does, but by asking questions that require a technical response, you shift Sally out of the emotional context. This is nothing more than an experiment that did not turn out the way Sally and her coach wanted it to. This is perfect swim parenting. You reinforce the message that the coach is sending.

If you will simply take care of the human needs, and shift the emotional disappointment to an analytical response, all will be well in Sally's world.

Lessons Learned…

“Freedom isn’t worth having if it doesn’t involve the freedom to make mistakes.” -Mahatma Gandhi

The worst disappointment doesn’t come from making mistakes; it comes from expecting you shouldn’t make any. To err is human. It’s how we learn; it’s how we develop and understand who we are and what we want; it’s how we make progress.

Time you spend feeling bad about a mistake is time you could use improving your life with what you’ve learned.

What lesson can improve your life today?

tinybuddha

ABC’s Of Mental Training: O is for Overtraining

By Dr. Aimee Kimball//Sport Psychologist

Physical exhaustion, sore muscles, mental fatigue, moodiness – what swimmer hasn’t experienced this before? While most swimmers are accustomed to wearing themselves out, too much exertion with not enough rest can lead to what’s often referred to as “overtraining.” This is a very common problem with swimmers and the physical and mental aspects need to be understood in order to prevent overtraining and ultimately to avoid burning out from your sport.

What is overtraining?
Basically, overtraining occurs when athletes train to their maximum without getting the physical and mental rest their body and mind need to recover. While athletes should be training to their utmost capacity, the importance of appropriate rest cannot be stressed enough. Overtraining is often more about the amount rest/recovery than about the training itself. If you’re going full speed ahead for weeks (or in some cases just days) and you don’t train at lower levels, eventually you are going to run out of energy. Overtraining can technically be both positive (when athletes are able to adapt and increase their training threshold) and negative. For the purposes of this article, I am going to focus more on the negative aspects.

How do I know if I’m overtraining?
There’s a fine line between working hard and pushing it too much. The symptoms of overtraining are similar to what you would experience after a long, exhausting practice. However, overtraining tends to occur after a period of time where you consistently have symptoms such as physical exhaustion, moodiness, apathy and trouble sleeping. If you start experiencing excessive weight loss, a higher than normal resting heart rate, consistent illness or injury, or chronically sore muscles, you may be experiencing what is called “overtraining syndrome.” If you hit this phase, it’s likely time to take a day off or have a very light training day because your body is telling you it’s time to slow down or it’s going to have to shut off. If you continue at the current training level and don’t give yourself adequate rest, you’re susceptible to burnout. Athletes who hit the burnout phase usually have to take more time off from their sport because they end up lacking motivation and just don’t want to be near a pool for awhile.

How is overtraining related to tapering?
Before big meets, many coaches will push their swimmers to their limits with the intention of giving them significant rest before the competition. In this case, “overloading” the athletes is intentional and is often a planned part of training so they can peak at the right time. Coaches who use periodization strategies often consider a variety of physiological factors to ensure their athletes are maxing out but also able to recover.

How is overtraining related to mental training?
Just like every athlete has a different capacity to endure physical challenges, individuals’ mentality can also impact their likelihood of experiencing overtraining or burnout. Your ability to cope with stress and to handle the pressure you place on yourself (or that others place on you) can affect how you interpret the difficult training you are going through. Constantly focusing on how hard training is, doubting the training is going to make a difference, worrying about what the coach will have you do in practice, and even experiencing stress unrelated to swimming can all increase the likelihood that you will burnout.

Mental Tips for Hard Training

• Have a positive attitude and take time to manage your sport and life stress.
• Ask the coaches for their rationale behind the training. This will allow you to be more confident in their plan and help you to trust that the fatigue will be worth it.
• If you have some life stressors going on outside of swimming, talk to your coaches. Individual stress is something they need to consider to make sure they are training you hard but not overtraining you.
• Do some relaxation exercises before practice. You’ll find that by starting out in a more relaxed state you’ll be able to endure higher levels of training.
• Set goals for training. It’s easy to focus on pain and just surviving tough practices, but if you focus more on what you’re working to accomplish you’ll find the training much less exhausting.

Make it Great!
Dr. Aimee

Dear Former Self

Pieces of advice, tidbits of knowledge, even just awkward running-dialogue

by: Mike Gustafson, Senior Analyst

Getty Images

Reflect back and write a letter to yourself. Who knows what you will learn!

07/15/10

On NPR last week, I heard a story that piqued my interest. Americans are writing themselves letters. They sit down at their computer, type in, "Dear Former Self," and begin to type. Pieces of advice, tidbits of knowledge, even just awkward running-dialogue:

Self: So...

Former Self: Yes?

Self: Um, so, um, how are you?

Former Self: (Pause). Don't talk to me.

The point of the exercise is cheap therapy. By bestowing advice and/or regret onto your imaginary (or not-so-imaginary) Former Self, you see your present situation perhaps a little differently.

For instance, if you write, "You shouldn't have left her," then the next time a beautiful woman comes your way, well, maybe you won't leave her.

When it comes to swimming advice, I can’t offer much to my Former Self. My experience was more a trial-and-error situation (similar to my life in general). But for the purposes of this column, here goes:

***

Dear Former Self:

-If you skip practice, blame your bowels. Yeah, it’s disgusting. But hurt shoulders, broken alarm clocks, looming midterms, and forgotten directions will only get you into more trouble. That is, unless you pull the food poisoning/gastric infection card. Crowded pools and M.S.L.’s (Mysterious Speedo Leakings) are veritable get-out-of-practice free cards.

-The above scenario does not work on training trips.

-Go to Northwestern. But on your application to Yale, when they ask you to write 500 words about something they don’t know about you, don’t write in as your entire response, “I’m lazy.”

-Also don’t write about M.S.L. theories for said application.

-Use conditioner. Ripping your hair on account of mismanagement is disgusting, and impresses no woman of respectable quality.

-Cheer your teammates. When you’re 45, you will only remember teammates jumping up and down for you. Cheering is like karma; it will come back. No one will ever -- ever -- cheer for you in the professional world. When you’re 45, your coworkers will never hover outside your cubicle screaming your name, “LET’S GO BILL! LET’S CRANK IT UP!” as you prepare your expense report. Embrace it while it lasts.

-Swim after college. Work out. Move around. Do this as soon as you retire. Don’t wait until you’re 25 and girls confuse you with Biggest Loser cliental. That 4ish-pack jiggle-less abdomen you have? It’s not from eating 5 pizzas a week. Soon it will be a one-pack.

-If you shadow box behind the blocks, learn how to box. You look mildly confused, at best. No one wants to watch an awkward, skinny white boy gyrate behind the blocks a la a Middle School Fun Night Dance. Gary Hall Jr. shadow boxed because he won an Olympic Gold Medal. You have not.

-Skip class during taper. Skip your lectures, your tests, your quizzes, your obligations. You won’t miss the lecture, and you can make up your quizzes. Come up with an excuse. Because if it’s your senior year in the last season of your life – and you have one week before your big meet -- take a vacation from work and school and other goings-on unrelated to swimming. Unless your future job involves the market economy in the early colonies, you’re not missing anything.

-Practice will be tough. You might cry. If your coach sees you crying, it will be tougher. So don’t cry.

-Never ask what a “blivet” is.

-Forget winning. Forget about being like Kobe or Jordan. Most of the legendary winners would slit a throat to get to the top. There’s more to life than winning, just as there’s more to swimming than the top podium.

-You should never let another man shave your back. There is no excuse for this, especially in a co-ed campus. (Unless you enjoy men shaving your back, then hey, more power to you (I’m looking at you, West Hollywood Aquatics.))

-Compliment people after good practices; encourage them after bad ones. Hit them with paddles if they don’t do the same for you.

-Swimming is like food. Only eating cookie dough (50 breast) might be great today, but you would get better with balance. Swim the mile (uncooked potatoes), sprint the 50 (Pop Rocks), swim the 200 fly (McRib) for a healthy, balanced swim experience.

-You’ll learn your heroes aren’t that heroic. Your enemies aren’t that evil. So just worry about yourself, and your misshaped head.

-That moment behind the blocks? In the big championship meet? After a full season’s hardship, after taper, after everything you’ve went through? In that moment, look around. Take it all in. Remember the damp smell, the electric atmosphere, the way the water forms glass beneath your toes. Remember the way you look at yourself in the mirror in the bathroom, nervous, shaking, that look in your eyes like you’re going to put it all on the line this time. Remember seeing your parents in the stands, smiling at you, cheering for you. Remember your coaches high-fiving you, your teammates slapping your back as you walk to the blocks with the invincible leap of youth in your step. Remember, remember, remember.

Swimmer-Parent-Coach Roles

SPEEDO TIP OF THE WEEK
BY Dr. Alan Goldberg, Phd, Sport Psychologist

“I'm so nervous. Oh my god, I can't wait for this event to be over! If I don't get a good time, I'm going to hear about it all the way home! Every time I swim slow, I have to go through the ringer with my dad (mom) and listen to everything I did wrong. According to them I don't work hard enough, my turns suck, and I fool around too much. They always make me feel awful after bad races, like they're disappointed in me. It makes me hate swimming.”

A lot of swimmers get a bad case of performance anxiety pre-race which saps their confidence, tightens their muscles and drains the fun right out of the sport. Oftentimes, underlying these pre-race jitters is the powerful worry that unless they produce, mom and dad will be very angry and disappointed.

When a parent responds to your bad swims with their anger, disapproval and criticism, we can assume that most of the time, their heart is in the right place. They're simply trying to be helpful and want you to do well. Unfortunately, this is not their role on the team, and they need to know that their trying to be helpful in this way may actually be causing you to swim slower.

Why?

In order to swim your best, you must be loose, relaxed, excited and having fun pre-race. If you're worried about disappointing your parents, then you'll be too nervous, distracted and physically tight to swim well. Your parents need to understand that if they really want you to go fast, then their role on the team must be to help you stay calm and have fun.

They can do this in two ways:

• First, by being your “best fan.” Parents need to be emotionally supportive and positive with you, to pick you up when you're down, to help you feel happier and better about yourself, especially after a bad swim.
  
• Second, by not coaching. Coaching is the one parent mistake that will cause serious unhappiness in your house and performance problems in the pool. Coaching involves critiquing your practices and races, pushing you to work harder, trying to motivate you, focusing you on beating other swimmers or achieving certain times, offering pre-race strategy and technique advice, etc.

Have a conversation with your parents today and tell them that when they act like your coach and get angry and frustrated when you go slowly, they aren't being supportive, and this will never help you relax, have fun and swim faster. Instead, coach them as to exactly what you need from them before and after your races. Help them understand what, if anything, they could say pre-meet that would help you relax and have fun. Tell them what you most need from them after a disappointing swim or meet. Remind them that they have to play the right role on the team for you to be successful.

Is it possible to beat a swimmer who is faster than you?

Yes! In fact, it happens all the time. Let me explain how this is possible. Many times I have worked with swimmers who have been technically better and faster than another competitor, yet they were consistently beaten by these competitors at meets. Even more frustrating, they quite often put in better training times than their competitors, only to find themselves battling to catch them in the meets.

What these swimmers lacked was the mental edge over these swimmers. This mental edge simply creates opportunities which may not otherwise be there for you in that race on that particular day. This mental edge often includes many different factors, one of which I will mention one today. This is a subject has won many races for swimmers who simply weren’t as fast as their competitors, but they managed to score a psychological win. The subject is body language.

Every single moment you are at the pool, without even knowing it, you are unconsciously showing your competitors your level of self-confidence. Simple aspects in your body language often gives away valuable information to other swimmers, and so it is essential to only send out signals which say "I feel great, I'm relaxed, and I’m ready to go!". Your body language plainly shows your competitors whether you are feeling confident, relaxed and self-assured, or whether you are lacking in confidence and feeling nervous about the race to come.

When you demonstrate confidence to your competitors (whether you actually feel that way or not) it can affect them in two ways. Firstly it often makes them wonder where you got that sort of confidence from, which often triggers negative thoughts in their mind before the race. Secondly, it often forces them to examine themselves and question their own confidence, asking themselves such questions as "Am I as confident as they are?" As soon as they begin thinking these thoughts, they have handed you the mental edge for that race! This means that they will assume that you have the edge on them, and their mind will program their body accordingly for that race.

This is a fabulous effect on your competitors when you have not even said a word to them! The funny part about this is that you may not actually be feeling confident at all, all you’ve done is just make them think that you feel confident! And the added payback is that when you begin to act confident, you very soon begin to feel that way anyway.

So what unconscious signals do you give out to other swimmers? Are you exuding confidence and relaxation, or stress and nerves? Here are some things to watch for in your body language when you are at a meet; firstly, always keep your head up, never allow your head to drop towards the ground, as this always gives the appearance of a person who doesn’t feel confident enough to make eye contact.

Secondly, smile and laugh a lot, rather than having a tense look for the world to see. Remember, winners are grinners! This very often unsettles competitors, when they see how relaxed you appear! Additionally, smiling has also been scientifically shown to relax the body through a variety of relaxing chemicals it releases into your system.

Yet another aspect is to walk around confidently, as if you are already the champion of the pool, not as if the weight of the world is on your shoulders. If you do feel nervous, don’t let anyone detect it from your behavior, act relaxed and in control at all times, as this will not only fool your competitors, but quite often improve your own emotional state as well. If you want to feel relaxed, begin acting relaxed, and miraculously you may begin to experience feelings of tranquility beginning to wash over you.

Most importantly, never, ever show feelings of negativity, nervousness or any other ‘vulnerability’ to your competitors, until you are away from their view. Act positively no matter what, as if you don't have a worry in the world, and eventually word will get around that absolutely nothing ever seems to bother you!

They may start thinking of you as a machine, who is totally unaffected by setbacks - a bit like the Terminator in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, or the ‘Iceman’ in Top Gun. Eventually no-one will ever bother trying to unsettle or intimidate you before races again, in fact they may become quite psyched out by swimming against you. Absolutely no-one wants to swim against a machine!

So be aware of the subconscious signals your body language is giving out to other swimmers, they can be either a huge psychological weapon or a major disadvantage, the choice is yours. It has often been said, to become a champion, firstly begin acting like one. This saying may be even truer than it sounds. Many champions copied the mannerisms and behavior of their idols when they were young, and this may well have been their key to their success. Think of a champion you admire, and begin copying their most impressive habits. You may be surprised at the results.

Swimmer's Mental Edge - Mind Training Tips for Swimmers

From Craig Townsend

“I Went To The Results Board To See How I Did…”

By John Leonard

It was a great teachable moment. Out of the mouths of young people come things that “set up” the coach for an opportunity to do some great education. When an athlete came over to me and started with the sentence at the top of the page, here was my response.

“Really? You didn’t already know how you did?”

“Well, I was sixth the 100 fly and 5^th in the 100 back and….”

“ No, really , you didn’t already know how you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what did you do incorrectly in the 100 fly and what do you need to do to improve?”

“You said I have to keep my hips up on the back 50 and make sure I keep breathing every second stroke…”

“and so….??”

“Huh?”

“and so, THAT is “how you did”. Not the place. The place means nothing. I can take you to plenty of swim meets where you can finish first….and can take you to even more where you’ll finish dead last……where you finish depends on what others have done, not on how you have done…..You need to measure two things…your time versus your best time (which is you against the previous best you) and how you did compared to the assignment I gave you before you headed for the starting blocks. How was your time?”

“Well, I don’t know, I never swam long course before.”

“Of course you haven’t, so now you have a time to measure yourself against…congratulations. And do you need a results board to tell you how you did?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Don’t guess. Know that you don’t. If you go to the blocks with clear goals, you know how you did without anyone else needing to tell you. You can evaluate the race for yourself, and “know how you did”.

“So what is the race for?”

“Two things…first, it’s always easier (and more fun) to swim fast when you are racing someone next to you. And second, as you mature, there is a purpose to “winning races”, but in the developmental stage, it’s a terrible way to evaluate yourself…….racing is stimulation, not measurement of you as an athlete, a learner, a person….anything…..Enjoy the race, but measure against your own best self.”

Please everyone take that lesson to heart and mind.

All the Best, Coach John

News For SWIM PARENTS Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association

BELIEVE

BELIEVE in yourself

and in your dream

through impossible things may seem

someday, somehow you’ll get through

to the goal you have in view

Mountains fall and seas divide

before the one who in her stride

takes the hard road day by day,

sweeping obstacles away.

BELIEVE in yourself and in your plan,

say not – I cannot – but, I CAN.

The prizes of life we fail to win

because we doubt the power within.

BELIEVE

Author Unknown

Those Who Do

swimtelligence.blogspot.com

Here's an excerpt from Dara Torres' book Age is Just a Number.

"When I was training for the 1984 Olympics at Mission Viejo, a sociologist named Daniel Chambliss watched us practice nearly every day. Chambliss then wrote a book called Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers. That book totally captures the details-matter mind-set... swimming is sort of like one of those Impressionist paintings made with millions of dots. Sure, a dot is a dot. What's the big deal? But if you care enough to make each dot the exact right size and the exact right color in the exact right place, something amazing occurs."

She goes on to say:

"The truth is simple: Most swimmers choose every day not to do the little things. They choose, in effect, not to win...In some sense everyone 'could' win the Olympic Games, but 'could' doesn't count. The gold medal is reserved for those who do."

I couldn't have said it better myself... the gold medal is reserved for those who DO.

Not those who dream.
Not those who wish.
Not those who want.
THOSE WHO DO!

A Cluster of Healthy Behaviors

SPEEDO TIP OF THE WEEK

BY KATHLEEN WOOLF//Correspondent

Did you know that behaviors are found in “clusters?”

Engaging in a healthy behavior, such as eating fruits and veggies, increases the likelihood of adopting additional healthy behaviors. On the flip side, trying a cigarette (or another unhealthy substance) increases your risk of taking on multiple risky behaviors, even later in life. This phenomenon is known as “behavior clustering.”

As an athlete, you participate in regular physical activity – a healthy behavior. Cluster this activity with other positive behaviors to promote good health and improve performance. Here are some suggestions:

• Eat breakfast! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and influences performance at school AND practice. A healthy breakfast should include whole grains, fruit, dairy and protein.
• Avoid smoking, drinking and other risky behaviors.
• Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep slows your thinking and makes it tough to focus on a task. Juggling practice, school, work and social events makes it difficult to get to bed on time. However, if you don’t get enough sleep, you are more likely to take more risks.
• Decrease time spent watching television and playing computer games one to two hours per day. Too much television interferes with other healthy behaviors, such as reading, doing homework, spending time with family and friends, and being physically active.
• Increase consumption of fruits and veggies. They are loaded with essential vitamins, minerals and fiber, which may help protect you from chronic disease.
• Decrease consumption of high-fat foods. Saturated fat (full-fat dairy products and fatty meats & poultry) and trans fat (processed cookies, cakes and chips) can be dietary villains.
• Consume a variety of nutrient-rich and tasty snacks throughout the day. Store snacks in your backpack so that you have healthy foods available rather than relying on a vending machine for between-meal snacks.
• Drink plenty of water. As a swimmer, you are at increased risk of dehydration. Consume fluids before, during and after exercise to ensure you are getting enough.

About Kathleen Woolf

Kathleen Woolf, PhD, RD is a registered dietitian and a member of the American Dietetic Association, the Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The Virtue of Failure

swimtelligence.blogspot.com

One of the trends of the last several decades often lamented by coaches in many youth sports is that parents and administrators have become consumed with making sure that each and every child NEVER experiences failure. I spoke to one coach recently who told me about his son's little league baseball experience. Apparently, it takes four strikes to strike out. If a child does strike out, he still gets to go stand on first base. That way he FEELS successful. Though this may seem paradoxical, I can think of few things that we as coaches could do that would harm our athletes more than not allowing them to fail. Failure can be a tremendous learning experience. Failure is often the building blocks for future success. If a child never fails, how does he know when he is successful?

The senior swimmers I coach will tell you that they fail in practice frequently. If they didn't, I probably wouldn't be asking enough of them. It is on that border at the edge between CAN and CAN'T that an athlete finds out the stuff of which he is made. This is where he explores his abilities and summons his motivation to push himself to new heights. Being on this edge is how he learns to do what it takes to excel in life.

Check out this video from YouTube about some incredible successes who began as failures:

Failure is vital to an athlete's development of the characteristics that it takes to be successful. Failing helps define success. As the valley is deep, so is the mountain high.

Top 10 Ways to Impress Your Swimming Coach

swimtelligence.blogspot.com

10. Don't miss practice. Want to be the best swimmer you can be? Showing up is a good start. As a coach, our primary chance to help you is at practice. If you are not there, we simply cannot help.

9. If there is a legitimate reason why you will miss practice, contact your coach beforehand, explain the circumstances, and ask how you can make it up. Connecting in advance of your absence suggests you care about the practice and more importantly, about your own training.

8. Show up on time. Don't be that swimmer who is perpetually late to practice. You'll anger most coaches and frankly, even perturb your teammates. If you think your fellow swimmers are forgiving of your tardiness, you're mistaken. Most dislike it or conclude you feel like you deserve special treatment or consideration.

7. Be prepared for practice. When the coach is planning your training, he is expecting that you will have the necessary items to perform as instructed. Not having your mesh bag, swimming equipment, water bottle, shoes for dryland, etc. is just plain sloppy and makes him wonder whether you really intend to improve or if you are just showing up hoping to get better.

6. Give your best effort consistently at practice. We are not asking nor expecting every swimmer to be a world-beater every day. We merely expect you to perform at your capability and be willing to push that boundary every once in a while. Your effort will determine your results. Even the best coach does not bring magic swim-fast fairy dust to practice.

5. Listen and ask good questions at practice. Coaches like swimmers who are attentive and focused. If your coach constantly has to repeat himself, it wastes your time and his. If you have a question, find the right time to ask it--not 2 seconds before you are supposed to push off the wall, but during the explanation of the set or after practice.

4. Understand that every day is an opportunity to improve and once it is over the opportunity has passed. Be sure to get the maximum benefit each day. Be willing to make changes and seek the coach's insight on how you can do this. Don't just keep doing what you're doing and hope that your hard work will overcome your other mistakes. We know that many of you dream of achieving at the highest levels of the sport, so we have to work together to get you there.

3. Set awesome goals. Make them reasonable yet challenging, clear but flexible. Not only are they important to help you focus your energies, but goals can also help inspire your coach. A good coach is motivated by a swimmer with high goals and the drive to achieve those goals.

2. Let your coach know if he's doing a good job. If the practice engaged and challenged you, tell him. If you enjoyed the new exercise you tried for the first time, let him know. If you're a better swimmer or person at the end of the season, send him a handwritten thank-you note. The flip side to this, of course, is helping him improve. Is he unclear in his instructions on a set? Did he misunderstand your question or put you on an easier interval than you are capable of? Is there something that you are missing in your training? A good coach is responsive to your feedback and will look to improve.

1. Be a leader and make your personalized contribution to the team. The best compliment a coach can give any swimmer is that "you made everyone around you better than they would have been without you." If you hear your coach say that, know this: we were indeed impressed. Be THAT swimmer.

This post was adapted from 10 Ways to Impress Your College Professor

ABCs of Mental Training: N is for Negative Self Talk

“You are awful!”

“Quit now!”

“You’ll never win!”

Have you ever caught yourself saying these things to yourself? How do you feel when you think like this? Do you let yourself get away with it or do you put a stop to these thoughts and try to be more positive? In this article I will address something almost everyone has been guilty of at some point in their lives—allowing that voice in their head to be excessively mean.

Be Your Own Best Friend

Take a moment to write down some of the negative things you have said to yourself over the past year. Now look over that list and imagine your best friend saying those things to you. Do you find it hard to imagine someone who cares about you being so nasty? When it comes to negative self-talk, I find it even harder to imagine that the one person (you) who has to be nice to you is being so mean. If we know our good friend – someone who always has our back – would never be negative, why is it difficult for us to be kind to ourselves? The answer is simple: because we forget we’re supposed to be unconditionally supportive of ourselves. My first piece of advice to combating negative self-talk is to be your own best friend and say the things to yourself that you would say to someone you cared about who was struggling.

Choose the “Good” Voice

In cartoons, whenever a person is struggling with a decision they would have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. In real life, these “voices” are in our head. We have this devilish little thing in one part of our brain telling us all of the reasons we will fail. In the other part of our brain we have a cheerleader (AKA “Positive Patty”) telling us how awesome we are and why we will succeed. Even in the most optimistic and confident people both of these voices exist to some extent. The difference between the optimists and the pessimists is that the optimists rarely hear the little devil because they are too busy listening to the cheerleader, while the pessimists are turning the megaphone over to the negative voice. If your “inner devil” is loud and obnoxious, you don’t have to fight him and try to make him go away, tell him he’s going to have to be content just hanging out because you’re putting him on mute and are going to CHOOSE to listen to the positive voice that’s keeping you optimally focused.

It’s Not All Bad

I myself am a pretty positive person and am good at taking a “glass half full” perspective. However, I recognize that not everyone is wired like this and some people tend to see all that could go wrong or has gone wrong and let that bog down their minds. So I in no way think that “being positive” is easy for people. In fact, I think that most people do see the downside of situations, but this isn’t necessarily bad. For many swimmers, in order to do well, they have to know potential pitfalls and plan for them. They have to recognize mistakes they’ve made in the past and work to make sure they don’t happen again. This is when having a “glass half empty” mindset is helpful, when it makes you work hard so that you can fill up the glass. It’s only harmful if you’re thinking “the glass is half empty and I don’t have a pitcher to fill it up.” On the flipside, someone who always sees the positive may become content and not feel that their glass needs to be full. That contentment doesn’t necessarily help swimmers to reach their peak because they are too optimistic and maybe don’t put in enough work. So again, being wired to see the downside isn’t all bad, as long as it’s a motivator rather than a hindrance to performance.

Change the Negatives

If your negative self-talk does start to get in the way, stop the negative thoughts, reframe them and refocus them by following three easy steps:

1) Become aware of your thinking habits. Know situations in which you have a tendency to be negative and what your specific mental obstacles are.

When I’m in a tough workout, I convince myself I’m tired and can’t go anymore. I catch myself saying, “You’ve worked hard enough, no need to push it any further.”

2) Reframe the negative thought into something more realistic or more positive.

“I have worked hard today, but I’m still afloat so I can keep pushing even harder.”

or

“I know when I exhaust myself I have more confidence on race day—that’s why I’m going to keep pushing.”

3) Refocus your thoughts on what is important now and what can help you to swim well.

“Keep my strokes smooth and long, just like I want them to be in the last leg of my race. I know I’ll be tired then so I have to develop good habits now.”

As you can see, none of these thoughts are super-duper positive, though you can certainly make them be if you’re up for the challenge. Most sport psychology books will tell you to focus on only the positive and throw all negative thoughts away. This is the ideal way of thinking and is what you want to be working towards. However, it’s hard for someone who is always negative to say to themselves, “I can do it! I feel great!” so if you don’t currently fit into the category of someone who can flip the switch from negative to positive, try to at least find a middle ground where you go from destructive to constructive. If you are negative, start by just getting yourself to be realistic, process-focused or slightly more positive. When that becomes easy, then you should be able to bring out your inner cheerleader and maintain a positive mindset.

It’s the Little Things

Some people need a physical release from their negative mentality. Wash your face off and say to yourself “wash away that race,” do some jumping jacks, brush the “devil” off your shoulder, listen to music, go over your race plan, have routine…find something that triggers a mental/emotional release from whatever negatives you’re experiencing. Explore what works for you outside of swimming when you’re having a bad day, see if that can help you at meets and practices. Becoming a more positive person is something that will benefit you not only in sport but in life in general. By learning how to control your thinking you’ll experience greater enjoyment as well as enhanced performance.

Make it Great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD:

Dr. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training for the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine. She is an Association of Applied Sport Psychology Certified Consultant, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Registry, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. She works with athletes, coaches, and parents to help them achieve success in sport and life.

For more information contact: kimballac@upmc.edu, 412-432-3777, http://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm

Don't Let Fear Affect Your Swimming

BY STAN POPOVICH

Sometimes, fear and anxiety can get the best of us in swimming. The key is to know how to manage that fear and anxiety. As a result, here is a brief list of techniques that a swimmer can use to help manage their fears and every day anxieties.

Occasionally, you may become stressed when you have to swim in an important event. When this happens, visualize yourself doing the task in your mind. For instance, you have to swim in front of a large group of people in the next few days. Before the big day comes, imagine yourself swimming and doing your thing. Self-Visualization is a great way to reduce the fear and stress of a coming situation.

Sometimes we get stressed out when everything happens all at once. When this happens, a person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off of the problem. A person could read the newspaper, listen to some music or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things.

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that you can carry around with you. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you. Whenever you feel stressed, open up your small notebook and read those statements. This will help to manage your negative thinking.

In every anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a small walk before your event to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around.

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Remember that it never hurts to ask for help.

Remember that patience, persistence, and education will go a long way in preventing fear from becoming a factor in sport of swimming.

Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy-to-read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties.

Keys to Success: Whitney Sprague

Five Keys to Success with 2009 World University Games medalist Whitney Sprague

1. Determination. When you come up against an obstacle, you just have to keep on going, otherwise, you won’t end up achieving anything. I had so many obstacles the past year. It was obvious I would not succeed if I did not push through them.

2. Set really good short-term goals. My entire 2009 was short-term goals, just one foot in front of the other. I had knee surgery in November and had to take a month and a half off from swimming in the middle of the season. But I worked hard each day to get back.

3. Find a good support system. I could not have done it without my trainers, friends and parents, and all the coaches and teammates I have had. They can always help bring you up and help you realize that the goal is only a little bit further in front of you. It’s nice to have that kind word when you are not feeling that hot.

4. Take good care of your body. I did not do this very well for a while, but in the end, I started listening to my coaches, trainers and doctors. You need their help so you can focus on what you need to do. You have to train properly, eat right and take care of your body outside of the pool. You also have to do your physical therapy if you are coming back from an injury. I learned that one the hard way.

5 Have fun. I have to have fun while I am swimming, or I just can’t do it. I always try to keep a good attitude and have a smile on my face while I am training. If you are not happy, it’s just not going to be fun. The people around you get down, too, and it’s a chain reaction. So I learned, through being on a team, the importance of staying positive.

What Causes Muscle Soreness?

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Your muscles should feel sore on some days after you exercise. If you go out and jog the same two miles at the same pace, day after day, you will never become faster, stronger or have greater endurance. If you stop lifting weights when your muscles start to burn, you won't feel sore on the next day and you will not become stronger. All improvement in any muscle function comes from stressing and recovering. On one day, you go out and exercise hard enough to make your muscles burn during exercise. The burning is a sign that you are damaging your muscles. On the next day, your muscles feel sore because they are damaged and need time to recover. Scientist call this DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.

It takes at least eight hours to feel this type of soreness. You finish a workout and feel great; then you get up the next morning and your exercised muscles feel sore. We used to think that next-day muscle soreness is caused by a buildup of lactic acid in muscles, but now we know that lactic acid has nothing to do it. Next-day muscle soreness is caused by damage to the muscle fibers themselves. Muscle biopsies taken on the day after hard exercise show bleeding and disruption of the z-band filaments that hold muscle fibers together as they slide over each other during a contraction.

Scientists can tell how much muscle damage has occurred by measuring blood levels of a muscle enzyme called CPK. CPK is normally found in muscles and is released into the bloodstream when muscles are damaged. Those exercisers who have the highest post-exercise blood levels of CPK often have the most muscle soreness. Using blood CPK levels as a measure of muscle damage, researchers have shown that people who continue to exercise when their muscles feel sore are the ones most likely to feel sore on the next day.

Many people think that cooling down by exercising at a very slow pace after exercising more vigorously, helps to prevent muscle soreness. It doesn't. Cooling down speeds up the removal of lactic acid from muscles, but a buildup of lactic acid does not cause muscle soreness, so cooling down will not help to prevent muscle soreness. Stretching does not prevent soreness either, since post-exercise soreness is not due to contracted muscle fibers.

Next-day muscle soreness should be used as a guide to training, whatever your sport. On one day, go out and exercise right up to the burn, back off when your muscles really start to burn, then pick up the pace again and exercise to the burn. Do this exercise-to-the-burn and recover until your muscles start to feel stiff, and then stop the workout. Depending on how sore your muscles feel, take the next day off or go at a very slow pace. Do not attempt to train for muscle burning again until the soreness has gone away completely. Most athletes take a very hard workout on one day, go easy for one to seven days afterward, and then take a hard workout again. World-class marathon runners run very fast only twice a week. The best weightlifters lift very heavy only once every two weeks. High jumpers jump for height only once a week. Shot putters throw for distance only once a week. Exercise training is done by stressing and recovering.

Keys to Success: Margaret Hoelzer

Keys to Success, with 2008 Olympic medalist Margaret Hoelzer

1. Have fun. I think people start doing a sport because they love it. Keeping it fun and keeping that love alive is extremely important because otherwise, you will ultimately hate it and you will quit. There’s a mistaken idea out there that if you are successful at something you will enjoy it. I think it’s the other way around – if you enjoy it, you will be successful.

2. Keep perspective. Swimming is not who we are. Rather, it is what we do. It’s a part of us, but it doesn’t define us completely. Fear and pressure – all of that is derived from perspective being lost or things getting blown out of proportion. There are a lot of worse things in life than not winning a race or not making the Olympic Team. Get rid of these external negative things that eat away at your confidence.

3. Be open to change. This means knowing yourself and being able to accept that life is about change. You have to know your priorities and what is best for you. That constitutes knowing when you need to make a change and when something is not working. You can’t be afraid to try something different, like when your coach suggests trying something a new way. It might also mean keeping something the same regardless of what people around you are telling you – not making a change when a change isn’t warranted.

4. Take ownership. Life is a continuous learning process. You never completely know everything, not even about yourself. But as you get older, you should be getting more in tune with yourself. You are a work in progress. You have to take ownership of what you do know. Swimmers get lost out there sometimes. They’ll say things like, “I don’t know that much.” If you know how to swim at all, you know something. Take ownership of the things you know, but also take ownership of the fact that you don’t know everything, and keep learning from informed sources.

5. Be open to evolving. The sport is continuing to evolve, and we have to, as people and as swimmers, evolve. Some of that is technique changes. Even Michael Phelps is changing his stroke. If you want to get better, sometimes you have to evolve and develop new strengths or new techniques. Michael Phelps can get better, and not just in freestyle. If he wants to beat his best times in his other events, he’ll have to get better in those events, too. In my event, some of the best backstrokers in the world had a shallow catch, then they all had a deep catch. You have to keep an open mind toward change. Even the best in the world are constantly trying to get better.