Are You the One?

Posted by Glenn Mills on Mar 25, 2011 07:22AM (0 views)

Obviously, this article isn't for everyone, but the ideals can be applied BY anyone.  I'm writing this to remind those individuals who talk about being the best, or reaching their potential, but who don't really get it.

In each heading listed below, there is someone who IS... and the rest who AREN'T.  Can you be the ONE?  Chances are slim, and that's understandable, but the question is... how close are you to being the one?

Hard Worker

Somewhere in your city, your state, country, or planet, is there someone working harder than you?  Think about it... If you're goal is to be the best at anything, then you better start realizing that there is a very real relationship between work and reward and there is probably somebody out there working harder.  Do you do dry land training, and if so, do you use that as an opportunity to joke around with your friends or do you try to figure out how THAT particular exercise is going to make you a better swimmer?  The next time you watch Ryan Lochte win a race, and you wish... boy, I wish I was that good... remember the video posted below.

Desire

Do you have more desire to win than anyone?  Are you willing to set your alarm 10 minutes earlier so you can get to practice on time because you're nervous about missing a chance to do as much as possible?  The way you train should be the way you want to perform.  Be honest with yourself about this one, if you don't have the desire to train, then you really don't have the desire to be the best.  You can NOT have one without the other.  You may day dream about being the best, but without the effort that matches the dream... then it is what it is... fantasy.

Talent

Are you the most talented swimmer in the water?  In your event, are there people, or a person that you'll eventually have to race who simply has more talent than you?  If you're the one, and you don't apply the first two aspects of this article, it won't matter if you ARE the most talented.  While talent is important, talent in itself is worthless without polish.  Is Michael Phelps talented?  I know, stupid question,  he would be a good swimmer without doing anything at all, he was one of the lucky ones to be born with the feeling, but without years of what you see in the following video, he would have never rewritten the history of the sport.

Attitude

No matter how nice someone appears, the ONE has a killer attitude inside, and won't give up when things don't go their way, or when the road gets tough.  You don't have to be a jerk outwardly to maintain the attitude that creates greatness, and the question is, do you have the attitude geared to greatness.  Attitude is more than about smiles, thinking positively, and trying hard.  Attitude is about talking yourself into doing what you need to do when you don't feel like doing it.  When it would be far easier to stop, skip, take a few strokes with your arms during a kick set when your legs hurt a bit.  Attitude is about doing just a little bit more than you wanted to.  Want to know why Amanda Beard keeps making Olympic and World Championships teams when after getting married, having a beautiful son that she wants to spend time with... It's because when she gets the opportunity to train, she trains like the video below.  Can you beat that attitude of not giving up?

Honesty

Are you the ONE that's the most honest about all of the above, about how much you really commit to your sport?  While you may not want to be the best, or may not believe you have the ability to be the best, since there can be only ONE, are you honest about being your own ONE?  Are you honestly doing all you can to maximize your performance?  Are the choices you make about how you spend your time productive ones, or are you failing in your time management?  Reaching your potential means keeping up with your studies so you don't have to cram for your exams.  It means deciding to not go to parties when you know you have a competition approaching, or morning practice that you know you shouldn't miss.  Honesty is about not making up excuses that you think your coach will "buy", but rather, about making sure you put in as much effort to be at practice on time as your coach does.

This last video is obviously very special to me, as it served as much motivation when it happened.  It's both hard to watch, and completely exciting to watch.  This 2 minute video doesn't show the complete dedication and effort that went into this team becoming the ONE.  It was ultimately a spec in time in these athlete's lives now that they're older... but that moment will last forever.  

The last question for this is... can you become you own ONE, or are you simply day dreaming?

Are You the One? - GoSwim!

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH CHLOE SUTTON

Speedo Tip of the Week

Olympian and 2010 Pan Pac gold medalist Chloe Sutton’s Keys to Success:

Be there! Don’t miss practice. You have to make it a priority. We all have lots of things going on in our lives. We have school, friends, family and hobbies, on top of trying to become a champion swimmer. Juggling it all can be hard at times, but if you make swimming a top priority, then getting there should never be a problem. For me, going to practice is automatically a set-in-stone appointment in my agenda and everything else works around swimming. There have been a few times where I have been sick or unable to get to practice and I have had to miss. In my mind, on that rare occasion that I cannot make it to workout, all I can think about is how every yard that I am missing my competitor is in the pool making progress and getting faster, while I am doing nothing.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. This is another way of saying that you need to work hard. If you want to reach your goals, you’re going to be uncomfortable at times, and you have to be comfortable with that. You have to be willing to pay the price if you want to receive results in return. You can’t just float through each practice and expect to break any records at the end of the season. Becoming a champion isn’t going to be easy, but that’s what makes the rewards so satisfying. No pain, no gain.

Be good to your body. Listen to it. When you’re eating, sleeping and swimming are the times when you should be listening the most. You need to put the right fuel in your body so that it functions properly. You need to get enough rest so that your body can recover from your challenging workouts, and you need to communicate how you’re feeling with your coach so that you push yourself, but not so hard that you get injured.

Have short term goals as well as long term goals. Have things that you can accomplish each day in practice and throughout the season so that you always have something to lock your eyes onto. Staying motivated can be hard if you only have one end goal in mind, especially mid-season when your big meet seems so far away. Having a few small goals at each practice can help bridge the gap and make getting to your end-of-season goal a lot easier.

Keep it positive. Stay away from negativity. I am a big believer in positive thinking. If your mind is in the right place then your body will follow. If you’re thinking about how hard a set is or how much you dislike what you’re doing, chances are it is going to get even harder and less fun because that’s what you’re dwelling on. Directing your thoughts so that you are thinking about the benefits that you are getting out of a particular practice or set can help make everything so much easier. At competitions, sometimes people can talk themselves out of swimming fast by making excuses for themselves. When you do this, you are simply setting yourself up for disaster. Prepare for races and step on the blocks knowing for a fact that you are going to swim your very best. Put your heart into each race and go for it.

THE MAGIC OF AN OPPORTUNITY

3/14/2011

 

BY MIKE GUSTAFSON//CORRESPONDENT

Imagine Doc Brown from Back to the Future came up to you and said, "Today you're going to set a world record. The only thing you have to do is race."

You'd swim that day, right? You'd be the first person in the pool, warming-up, excited and ready to swim?
World records aren't broken every day. The opportunity is rare. You'd take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, time travel and Doc Brown do not (yet) exist. Swimmers don't know what the future holds. Sometimes, we don't feel like swimming.

Instead of swimming that looming, ominous 1500m this afternoon, we'd rather go to the beach. Or go shopping. Or take a nap. There will be another day, another race, right?

But you never know. Sometimes the difference between breaking a world record or not is simply showing up to swim.

Take Kate Ziegler.  At the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Ziegler told me that on the day she broke Janet Evans' hallowed 1500m world record, she didn't want to swim that evening. She wanted to go to the beach. She wasn’t really feeling it. Fortunately, her coach convinced her to swim that afternoon. The rest, as they say, is history.

But what if she had gone to the beach? What if she never swam that day? For whatever reason, the nuts and bolts were zooming in perfect harmony that day. Would they realign? Could she repeat that same performance the next day? Next week?

What if she didn't swim that day?

I was once told from the creator of "Friends" that the hardest thing to do in the entertainment industry isn't getting your foot in the door; it's being prepared when you're already in.

People always get their foot in the door, but they rarely take advantage of it.

It’s that old “elevator pitch” theory. You should always be prepared when you live in Hollywood, because you never know who could be stuck in an elevator with. Some of my friends went from assistants to executive producers in 24 hours because they were stuck in an elevator with someone like Rosie O’Donnell, pitched her an idea they had rehearsed, and made the most of their opportunity. No joke.

Swimming is similar. Any given lane at any given time is an opportunity. "Give me a lane, anywhere, anytime," one famous swimmer used to say, "and I'll aim for perfection."

Sometimes, swimming is viewed in a linear path. You’d think, “Times will get faster. Races will get easier. I’ll eventually get here, do this, swim that, and by this year I’ll be where I want to be.” Swimmers sometimes circle on the calendar, "This is when I'll swim my fastest. This is the plan."

But swimming is rarely predictable. It’s not this linear, easily-planned calendar of time progression. It's more a chaotic fun house. It’s opposite than what you’d expect. You swim fast when you expect to swim slow. You swim slow when you expect to swim fast. One day, you could be planning a trip to the beach, while your body secretly knows, “I could be breaking a world record right now, this very second.”

You never know when the swim of your life will happen.

You can’t plot out the future. And unless Doc Brown swings by your house and points out the highs and lows of your future swimming career, it’s best to say to yourself, “Give me a lane, anywhere, anytime – and it could be magic.” 

Punctuality

Posted by Glenn Mills on Mar 07, 2011 08:36AM (0 views)

I have to imagine it's going to be tough to put down my thoughts on this subject without sounding like an angry old man who talks about how it used to be.

With that said... what's the deal these days with swimmers, people, not showing up to practice on time?  Have we got to a point in society in which we're so important, so egocentric, that those we work with are only there to serve us?  I'm sure people have a word for people like me, who is habitually early or on time.  I panic if I think I'm going to be late for a train, plane, meeting, lesson, or practice.  I'm not really sure where that all started, but I can certainly pinpoint exactly where it was reinforced.

My Dad was a business professional with the same trait that I have... so I'm thinking he was the initiator of the habit.  He always spoke of respecting other people's time, and if you had a time set up to meet, to be on time for that... no matter what.  He was a usually over prepared for things, and promptness was one of those things.  My Mother certainly added to this being a music teacher, her entire passion involved time.  She sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for 25+ years and was forced to respect time, sure in a bit different way than I'm trying to point out here, but imagine the exactness of time she had to respect.  Come into a phrase too early.... STOP the conductor would yell.  Come into a phrase too late... STOP he'd yell again.  She had to be precise with her time, and we, as children were also taught that in all that we did.

Pinpointing the reinforcing of this is also very easy.  I can remember moving to Cincinnati to train under then coach, Skip Kenny (Stanford legend).  I lived with a family (eventual Olympic Silver Medalist, Dave Wilson) and he drove to practice.  We had to drive nearly 45 minutes one way to practice and we were never late.  It simply wasn't allowed.  We had people who drove nearly 90 minutes TO practice, and no matter what time practice was, they were never late.  If practice started at 3:00 pm, the deck was filling for stretching and pre-practice ab work at 2:40.  When the clock hit the 60 at 3:00... we were either IN the water, or had to complete the entire practice butterfly.  We didn't get kicked out, we were tortured more.  The coaches didn't see much use in kicking out someone who obviously didn't want to be there... so they would just make them work harder.

My next coach was Denny Pursley (former US National Team Coach and now UK National Team Director), and I remember morning practice starting at 5:15.  We were required to be on deck and stretching at 5:00.  My Mom and I lived about 3 miles from the pool, but it still took about 8 minutes with the lights (yes, I had it timed down to the minute).  Every night before I went to bed, I'd have all my gear put together in my bag.  I'd set the alarm for 4:45 and there was never a SNOOZE tap.  On rough nights, I'd go to bed fully dressed just to make sure I didn't have to waste time dressing... who was going to see me anyway.  While I had the time as close as possible, there would always be that 1-2 minutes of leeway just in case, but I can't remember anyone who was ever late for practice, and certainly no one was habitually late.

It basically got to the point where there was simply NO ACCEPTABLE excuse for showing up late to practice.  Now, I'm sure there were a few, I could just never think any up.

OK, I have to admit, I remember one day when my training partner, Glynde Mangum and I were stuck in traffic heading to afternoon practice with then coach Jay Fitzgerald (now of Pine Crest).  We knew were going to be in HUGE trouble, so to diffuse the reaction in any way we could... when we got to the pool, we proceeded to walk in and dive directly into the pool with our clothes on to show our remorse.  We spoke just last week about it, and seemed to remember a chuckle coming from Jay, just before he gave us a set of 20 x 400 breaststroke long course.  We paid the price.

What is the point of all this ancient reminders of "how it used to be"?  It's to again, put the ownness of performance on the athletes.  If you're a coach and you're habitually late, then you get what you deserve.  If you're a swimmer and you're habitually late, and you miss stretching, shaking out your arms, getting your gear together, or the proper warm-up for your practice, then... well... you get what you deserve too.

Practices are generally designed, by competent coaches, for you to perform at specific times.  Those practices can also teach you so much about when you're body is actually ready to swim fast.  I know this sounds crazy, but that can play a big role at swim meets.  Missing part of the warm-up, really means that you, and your coach really doesn't know exactly when, how much, how much stress, where the heart rate should be... when you're ready to swim FAST!  You're setting up a guessing game for performance.  If you're that talented, then good for you, but I can count people that are THAT talented on one hand... and I still have a couple fingers left over.

Even if I ONLY speak of your ability to perform, you should show up on time.  When you consider your working relationship with your coach, and your teammates.  When I speak of the respect for their time, for the fact that the coach has spent time prior to practice designing specifically something that will make you faster, or a better swimmer... and you show up when you feel like it, it simply shows very little respect for their time and preparation.

What I can tell you from age and experience, coaches are generally SO forgiving, and care about you as an athlete so much, that they tend to overlook your taking advantage of them.  They want you to perform for many reasons, and see you smile at the end of the season so that you're happy.  When you swim fast at the end of the season, you'll also be much happier.

Summary:
Punctuality = Respect
Punctuality = The Coaches Ability to create effective training
Punctuality = Forming good habits that you can carry forward into your professional life

Of course, there will be times when things come up, and when you're habitually on time, it's not an issue.  That's when communication becomes important... but that's a topic for another article. :)  

Now, set your clocks 10 minutes ahead, and see you at the pool (on time).

Punctuality – GoSwim!