How Fast Are You Swimming in Practice?

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Being an elite-level swimmer means you should be ready to race at any time, even in practice.

Over the course of nearly a decade Russia’s Alexander Popov dominated the 50m and 100m freestyles.

During that span he raced a lot. And I mean a lot.

The guy averaged around 100 races a year. Perhaps more impressively, he could swim insanely fast during training.

Dave Salo, head coach of the USC Trojans and one of the best coaches on the planet reflected on a swim workout he watched Popov swim at the Olympic Training Center in 2000 while preparing for the Sydney Olympics.

In the middle of a grueling session—at altitude, no less—Popov’s coach Gennadi Touretski pulled him out of the water and put him on the blocks to blast a 50m freestyle.

The result?

Popov swam a time that was 0.10 under the world record.

In practice.

Unrested.

(The timing was done on stopwatches, so clearly not official, and even if the stopwatches were off by a few tenths of a second it’s still a stupid-fast time.)

Popov–Full beast mode in competition and especially in training.

This was not a rare occurrence during the sprint Tsar’s training.

Touretski frequently had Popov (as well as his training mate and 100m freestyle world record holder Michael Klim) get up on the blocks during practice, after practice, as practice was starting, and belt out full blast efforts.

The goal was to be as close to possible as race pace under all sorts of circumstances, which would help the athlete feel confidant in their ability to be able to swim well no matter what the situation.

As Salo says, this kind of ability demonstrates a mindset that differs from the majority of swimmers:

There is a difference between training to make it through practice and training to race. That specificity of training, as well as developing a racing mind-set, makes all the difference in the world.

For most swimmers, they are under the impression that they have to “save up” their great swimming for competition. That they can’t be mentally prepared to swim a really fast race when they are neck deep in training.

See Also: Practice is Everything: The Mindset Behind Superhero Workouts

Now, I am not saying you need to be swimming best times every day in practice, because, well, that’s just kinda crazy. (Although it does happen from time to time…)

But you should be able to bang off close-to-race pace efforts while in training.

After all, swimming fast in practice will help you:

Be better prepared to swim even faster in competition.

Swimming fast isn’t really a mystery—in order to race fast you need to train fast.

It seems obvious, but how many swimmers ever reach that kind of intensity in practice? Consistently training at 60-70% of full intensity and velocity won’t give you the kind of improvement you are looking for. Especially if you are trying to gain blinding-speed.

One more time: Train fast, race fast.

Tighten the technical elements in your swimming.

One of the key things that happens when you swim your fastest in practice is that the “little” things—your race-speed flip turns, breakouts, and breathing patterns get some much-needed attention and TLC.

After all, the way you do those little things while swimming through a low intensity aerobic set is vastly different from the way you perform them during your events.

The speed you approach the wall is different. The wave you turn your head and try to breathe over is much larger. And the tempo you dolphin kick off the walls with is going to be different as well.

Getting race pace efforts in at practice means you are better prepared for meet-time when those walls and flip-turns come hurtling at you faster than you’ve ever experienced before.

Toughens you up mentally.

Ever met the “Perfect Conditions” racer? They are the swimmer that needs everything to be absolutely perfect in order to feel prepared to swim fast…

The warm-up needs to be done to a tee. They need to execute their stretching routine. They must have had 8 exact hours of sleep the night before.

Any deviation from their perfect conditions and here come the excuses—

Oh, I wasn’t really feeling that race. My technique didn’t feel right. I didn’t have a good warm-up.

Now, I’m not saying that those things aren’t important. They are. But you should be able to swim like a demon even when conditions are far from ideal.

Racing fast in practice proves to you that you can swim fast in a tough environment. It will show you that even after a long week of training, at the end of a 5,000m practice, that you can still bang out some seriously fast swimming.

You won’t need everything to be perfect because you already know that things don’t have to be ideal for you to swim like a chlorinated gangster.

The Takeaway

We’ve said it more than a few times around these parts—train the way you want to race, and race the way you train.

Randomly add some full blast efforts over the course of your training so that you don’t need to get ready to be ready.

How Swimmers Can Learn to Be More Consistent in Training

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

You won’t always be the most talented or the fastest swimmer in the pool. But you can be the most consistent.

You can have the greatest facilities in the world. A world-class coach. A support system that is positive and encouraging. You can have a custom-designed nutrition plan tailored specifically to your needs, and have a strength coach on dial to help you in the gym.

But without consistency, it’s not worth a chlorinated lick.

All that awesome advice, all the support, all that knowledge and power—all for nothing without the consistency to go along with it.

After all…

• You say you want to improve your kick, but you aren’t adding any extra kick sets to your practices.
• You say you need to improve your underwater dolphin kick, but you keep doing your push-offs and breakouts the same way you always have.
• You say that you want to improve your core strength, but after each practice you go sit in the hot tub instead of doing core work.

Think of the importance of consistency this way: the way you perform at the big meet is going to be a reflection of the averages in your training.

And being consistent over long periods of time is not easy. It requires building good training habits, it means being patient, and it requires an implicit understanding that in order to be successful you need to get your reps in.

Most swimmers will say that they understand this. That they know they need to be consistent.

And yet, far too many will work super hard for a few days and then slip off the face of the planet for a week or two, continually repeating this go-go-and-stop-stop approach to their training, leaving them with a low average.

Here are a two things you can do to raise your average of consistency in the pool:

Log your workouts.

Quelle surprise, right?

But logging your workouts is not only the easiest way to get yourself some accountability and some much-needed self-awareness, it’s also a cheap and scientifically proven way to get better results from yourself.

Whatever form you use, a spreadsheet, a Word doc, one of the million tracking apps, a notebook, or even loose-leaf paper, track your workouts. It will provide you with an accurate overview of your training, nutrition and even sleep.

A bird’s eye-view of your training can help combat inconsistent training by showing you what happens right before you fall off (too much stress, lack of sleep, etc) so that you can avoid those pitfalls moving forward.

Having your workout history at hand can also show you that your expectations of having a much-improved kick are a little overblown given that you’ve done three kick sets in the past month, or that your core strength is stagnant because you haven’t done any ab work in weeks.

Grade your workouts.

One of the biggest mistakes swimmers make when they track and log their workouts is not measuring the things that matter most in their training. Overall volume and even attendance isn’t an accurate indicator of effort and focus.

This is one of the reasons that two swimmers, who attend all the same practices and swim the same meters, can have wildly different results when it comes to racing at the big meet.

Showing up to practice, while half the battle, is not enough.

How are you training while in the water? A simple way to stay on top of giving a consistent effort is to grade yourself after each workout. Out of 10, or with a letter grade, or with an emoji of your choice.

Since I was a 12-year old age grouper I have always given myself a quick ranking out of 10 for how I did at practice. The power of this simple action is profound the more I think about it in that it really forced me to be honest about how I was swimming.

Knowing that I had to grade myself later on pushed me while in practice. I wanted to be able to go home and write a 9.9 out of 10 because it felt good. Which meant that on a day when I felt like a “5” I would still push myself so that I could avoid having to give myself a bad grade.

The Takeaway

If you looked back at the “average” of your recent training, would you say that it matches up to the expectations that you have for your swimming?

If not, no worries—start logging and grading your workouts starting today and start getting more from your time swimming around the black line.

You won’t always be the most talented swimmer in the pool, or be the tallest, or be the swimmer with the best facilities or coaching, but you absolutely can be the most consistent athlete in the water.

Breathing and Swimmers’ Posture

Dr. John mullen, DPT, CSCS

http://www.swimmingscience.net

Breathing is obviously important to swimming.  We’ve discussed breathing multiple times on this site with topics from breathing patterns, Armpit breathing, Swimmer’s Lung Capacity, and Inspiratory Muscle Fatigue.  Most recently, Dr. Mitch Lomax discussed his recent findings in this area noting that “[Inspiratory Muscle Fatigue]occurs during swimming, even in very well trained swimmers. It can negatively affect stroke characteristics, and has the potential to speed up the occurrence limb muscle fatigue. The good news is that we can do something about it.”

One concept that we’ve also addressed has been breathing’s effect on spinal mechanics.  Breathing is often overlooked as a movement pattern, but plays a vital role in shaping movement.  Virtually everything we do involves breathing, whether we realize it or not.  As Hodges (2001) notes, “[r]espiratory activity of the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles is normally coordinated with their other functions, such as for postural control of the trunk when the limbs move.”

Postural abnormalities such as kyphosis (hunchback) and lordosis (swayback) are commonly associated with shoulder and back problems in swimming.  It has been well established that hyperactive upper trapezius activity, shortness of the pectoralis minor, and weakness in the lower trapezius are linked to shoulder maladies and to thoracic kyphosis.  Given what we know about respiratory mechanics, might breathing be an avenue to effect change in this area?    

One study to explore the link between breathing, posture and movement involved swimmers.  Obayashi (2012) studied twenty six healthy swimmers evenly divided into an exercise group and a control group.  Authors sought to determine the effect that breathing exercises could have on spinal curvature of the thoracic and lumbar spines.  The exercise group performed respiratory muscle exercises ten minutes per day three times per week over four weeks.  The control group only performed their normal swim training.  Findings included:

• Significant a decrease in the thoracic kyphosis by 13.1% in the exercise group  (less hunchback)
• Lumbar lordosis reduced by 17.7%  in the exercise group (less swayback)
• Compared to the non-exercise group, the exercise group had 8.6% less thoracic curve and 20.9% less lumbar curvature than the control group
• forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in 1.0 s were significantly increased after four weeks in the exercise group

Authors offered the following explanation for their findings:

“[A]rise in intra-abdominal pressure presses the rib cage upward and effectively allows the extension of the thoracic vertebrae.  In addition, we attribute the decrease of thoracic curvatures to a stretching effect on the thorax. In a previous study, Izumizaki et al reported that thoracic capacity and rib-cage movement were changed by thixotropy, which is the exercise of maximal expiration from maximum inspiration. The stiffness of the rib cage leads to thoracic kyphosis.  In this study, repetitive deep breathing resolved the stiffness of the rib cage and straightened thoracic kyphosis. This process may be responsible for altering the spinal curvature.“

Similarly, we wrote last year, “The rib cage is more than a passive protector of internal organs and a mere puppet of respiration. Though it’s not a body part amenable to cueing in the water, better rib cage function can free the swimmer of restrictions. Most importantly, optimal rib cage function via breathing, posture, and movement can improve shoulder health.” (See, Forgotten Rib Cage)  In sum, consider not just the shoulder itself, but the structure and function of all areas around it.  Breathing is a key part of that consideration.     

CONCLUSION

The findings in this study make intuitive sense to anyone who observes breathing in a training environment.  Yet training the breath is often seen as a wasted activity more properly reserved for quiet meditation and not of sufficient importance for “serious” dryland training. 
Even if you don’t set aside time for breathing exercises, attention to respiratory mechanics should be a part of any dryland program to optimize spinal function and develop healthy shoulders.  Though more study is needed in this area, this research does lend support to the connection between respiration and shoulder mechanics in competitive swimmers.    

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REFERENCES

1. Hodges PW, Heijnen I, Gandevia SC.J Physiol. 2001 Dec 15;537(Pt 3):999-1008.
2. Postural activity of the diaphragm is reduced in humans when respiratory demand increases.
3. Ludewig PM, Reynolds JF.  The association of scapular kinematics and glenohumeral joint pathologies.  J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2009 Feb;39(2):90-104. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2009.2808.
4. Obayashi H, Urabe Y, Yamanaka Y, Okuma R.  J Sport Rehabil. 2012 Feb;21(1):63-8. Epub 2011 Nov 15.  Effects of respiratory-muscle exercise on spinal curvature.
5. Izumizaki M, Ohshima Y, Iwase M, Homma I. Chest wall motion after thixotropy conditioning of inspiratory muscles in healthy humans. J Physiol Sci. 2006;56:433–440.

By Allan Phillips. Allan and his wife Katherine are heavily involved in the strength and conditioning community, for more information refer to Pike Athletics.

Dr. John mullen, DPT, CSCS

Dr. John Mullen, DPT, CSCS world-renowned physical therapist and strength coach.

Why Not You?

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Today someone will make the decision to be great. Will it be you?

Over the couple of years that I have been writing for SwimSwam, USA Swimming and here on my own website I have received a significant amount of email from readers of my articles. Many of them seek advice, while others reach out to share stories about their own swimming journey.

In this heap of correspondence I have read stories of hope, of frustration, of success and of failure, but there is perhaps nothing that drives me to react more viscerally than a variation of the following:

“I have goal to win a medal at nationals but my teammates and parents don’t think I can do it.”

Look, I fully appreciate and understand the need to be moderately realistic with the goals you set. (When I was a kid I wanted to be a Transformer. That didn’t quite pan out.) But what I don’t understand is people telling someone that they can’t do something.

Tell them what it will take, sure, explain to them in gruesome detail all the work it will take to accomplish this goal, the superhuman commitment and dedication required to achieve superhuman feats in the pool, but to flat-out tell a swimmer they cannot do something they dream about makes my blood boil.

In replying to these emails I generally ask the swimmer a simple question: “Why not you?”

After all…

Today a swimmer will dare to dream a little bit bigger. Why not you?

The dedication and steps that are necessary to drop 3 seconds from your best time are the same that are required to drop 5 seconds. With high aspirations comes more effort, so why not stretch what you want to accomplish a little further?

Big dreams require more work. They require fearlessness to overcome the small thinking of those around you (and all too often yourself). And they require you to adjust what you think is possible.

In the words of Tom Hardy’s character Eames in the film Inception…

“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

Today a swimmer will decide that they will make the full commitment necessary to achieve their goals. Why not you?

It can be frightening to go whole-heartedly after something you crave dearly. All sorts of doubts and fears plague you not only at the outset, but at every junction and step along the way. Setbacks and errors will be overly scrutinized, somehow symbolic of a greater conspiracy for you to not achieve big things.

Similarly, many swimmers hold themselves back because they don’t feel completely ready to charge forward, waiting for the moment that they are 100% prepared.

Opportunity and life does not wait for you.

If you sit around waiting for that fictionalized moment where the stars align, where things are just right, than you will not only be waiting a painfully long time, but the opportunities that are before you now will float by.

Today a swimmer will do it a little bit better than they did yesterday. Why not you?

Success in the pool, and any endeavor in life, is a result of making small gains, barely perceptible gains, those 1% improvements, consistently over the long haul.

When we watch others succeed in a grand, sudden moment of epicness we come to believe that this is how change is applied with our training as well; big, sweeping, dramatic moments of uprooting change.

In reality it’s not like that at all. It’s the constant application of making yourself a little bit better every time you jump into the pool. Bit by bit, inch by inch.

Today a swimmer will decide to have better habits in the pool. Why not you?

Our habits are the foundation of our swimming.

From whether or not we get up for early morning practice, to exercising good nutritional consumption, to maintaining technique when fatigued, the myriad of habits we have in the pool forms the swimmer that gets up on the blocks come meet time.

Our training habits can become such second-nature to the point that we don’t even think about them anymore.

Deciding to use this power of automaticity for the betterment of your swimming is the closest you will get to putting success on auto-pilot. When doing the tough thing, the hard thing, the right thing, becomes second nature those big scary goals will begin to crumble before you.

Today a swimmer will help others succeed. Why not you?

It’s understandable that as a high flying athlete you get caught up in your own swimming. You have a lot of things on your plate, after all.

Between the endless swim practices, cramming in work and school, and achieving the amount of sleep you need to perform your best and the bottomless eating to make this all possible, it is easy to lose sight of the passion you have for the sport.

An easy way to get back in touch with why you love the sport is by giving back.

• Spend a few minutes working with one of the youngsters on your team. (They look up to you more than you know.)
• Encourage a teammate that is having a tough workout.
• Be the one who steps up and makes the training environment one that is more enjoyable for everyone.

These things may seem trivial, but they can go a long way in not only deepening the passion you have for the sport, but also in developing a place for you and your teammates that fosters success.

In Closing

You were built to do some great stuff. Whether you do it or not is up to you. Not your swim coach, not your parents, not your friends.

Instead of looking at the swimmers around you doing big things with their swimming look in the mirror and ask, “Why not me?”

Next Up:

The Ultimate List of Workouts for Competitive Swimmers. Our ever-growing list of practices and sets for swimmers. Includes sets and workouts from Olympic gold medalists and some of the top coaches on the planet.

Practice is Everything. Seriously want to crush your goals in the pool this season? Start by giving your practices the attention they deserve.

How to Be a Better Swimmer In and Out of the Water

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Swimming teaches us a lot. Besides how to excel at Sharks & Minnows (still my favorite as a fullyish grown adult), the sport gifts us patience, discipline, and the ability to eat like dump truck.

Here are a few ways to level up your training in the pool that go beyond trying a new supplement or buying a new suit.

Best of all, they are things you should be able to apply to the time spent between workouts dealing with the “real world,” whatever that is.

Here we go!

Hey you, keep your commitments!

Are you dependable? Do you keep your word? When you say you’ll do something, do the people around you scoff and roll their eyes, or do they quietly nod, knowing your word is iron-clad?

Having integrity and keeping your commitments matters on two different levels.

You want to be the teammate that can be counted on. That will be there when training is toughest, that will work hard to represent for the team during championship season. Setting the bar high and setting a good example for teammates and the impressionable youngsters who, believe it or not, look up to you.

But having integrity is more than just being dependable in order to be a solid teammate.

If you say that you are going to do something, do you believe it?

Fulfilling the promises you lay out does a few powerful things. It reinforces whatever thoughts you have about your ability to perform. Either you keep your word, or you flake (“As usual,” you will tell yourself), rendering your commitments hollow.

Keep your commitments and get into the habit of finishing. Not only will you be more likely to get things done (bonus!), but you’ll grow to trust that you are capable.

Be engaged (not married, the other kind).

How many times have you crawled out of the water at the end of a long workout and thought to yourself, what did I just spend 90 minutes doing?

If this is happening even somewhat often, it’s time get more focused in practice.

To be honest, I can understand why we zone out during workout.

It tends to happen after you swim at a particular level for a while. You start to gap out more frequently. You’ve been so accustomed to what you are doing, the movements have become so habitual, to the specific technique, the pace, that your body literally goes on auto-pilot and your mind goes elsewhere.

To reminisce on last night’s episode of Brooklyn 99. On the essay that you are struggling to finish. The hilarious text you are going to fire back at your best friend after practice.

When you catch your mind slipping (or losing count for what seems like the fifteenth time that set), get back to basics:

• Make sure your hand entry is perfect.
• Do an extra dolphin kick off each wall.
• Breathe every four stroke to your weak side.

Swim with intention, and that way when you climb out of the pool you can look back knowing that you didn’t waste the meters or yards given to you that day.

Prod your comfort zone (gently, if necessary).

Our comfort zone is a funny thing. (Peculiar, not hilarious.)

We work hard to get to a specific level of conditioning. Once we get there, somewhat satisfied and totally comfortable, we linger for longer than is necessary instead of further pushing ourselves.

The simplest way to insure that you are always pushing yourself just a little bit?

Progression.

Do something a little bit better. A little bit longer. With slightly better technique.

Progress isn’t about crushing your personal best time each time you dive into the water. It’s about making the minor adjustments on a daily basis that insure our swimming is continually trending upward and onward.

Big successes come with little steps (steps on steps).

You don’t need me to tell you that the season for a competitive swimmer is a long haul. Once you get a certain level there isn’t really an off-season, a couple weeks, maybe a month break at the end of the summer.

Staying motivated and hungry for the duration of a full year or training is tough. There are valleys, peaks, bubbling streams and all sorts of other nature-like metaphors.

In order to sustain forward movement forget about the perfect swim. Or the perfect stretch of training.

Instead, view each day as a tiny opportunity to improve. To get just a tiny bit better.

In other words, fall in love with the repeated application of small wins.

The focus isn’t to drop 5 seconds off your 200 free at the end of the year. It’s to train a little bit better today.

Walk on deck with a goal (and with a car blowing up in the background like a total super bad-a**).

Each set and workout has benefits and targets in mind. What are they?

When you deeply understand the purpose of each rep, each set, each workout than you cannot help but be more invested in your training.

Decide what you are going to work on without coach having to emphasize it.

Choose to have deadly streamlines on all your push-offs. Make the decision to hold a specific breathing pattern. Resolve to hold a specific time for every repeat.

Put it all together

Training like a boss doesn’t have to be complicated. And it isn’t reserved for the top athletes in our sport. It simply requires that you are a little more mindful during practice.

(You are gonna be there anyway, so you may as well make the most of it!)

Train like a champ, and you will perform like one when you stand up on the blocks come race time.

Body Mind Mastery

BRIAN JOHNSON · JULY/AUGUST 2013

Selected wisdom from Dan Millman’s guide to training for sport and life.

Dan Millman is a former world champion athlete and gymnastics coach at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. He’s best known for his 2006 bestseller, Way of the Peaceful Warrior (which was also turned into a film), but his other book, Body Mind Mastery: Training for Sport and Life (New World, 1999),  is well worth reading, too. Here, Millman shares the knowledge he’s gained from his own athletic achievements to offer advice to anyone — whether involved in sports or not — who wants to experience more personal growth, improve performance and reach his or her full potential. Body mind mastery, he explains, is not about dedicating your life to training, but about dedicating some of the principles of training to your life. Let’s dive in.

CHILD’S PLAY

When we’re learning a new skill or trying to master an existing one, Millman suggests that we can learn a few valuable things from babies.

Young children are always in the present moment. They are “free of concern or anxiety” and their bodies are “relaxed, sensitive, elastic, and aligned with gravity. . . . Emotions are spontaneous and uninhibited.” This relaxed, mindful state is what makes children so capable of learning and growth, he explains.

Imagine what a child wouldn’t absorb if she were riddled with anxiety and self-doubt. “If babies held the same tendency toward self-criticism as adults, they might never learn to walk or talk,” notes Millman. “Can you imagine infants stomping, ‘Aarggh! Screwed up again!’ Fortunately, babies are free of self-criticism. They just keep practicing.”

One of the keys to improving performance in all areas of life is to treat yourself the way you would treat a loved one. “Be gentle with yourself; show yourself the same kindness and patience you might show a young child — the child you once were,” writes Millman. “If you won’t be your own friend, who will be? If when playing an opponent, you are also opposing yourself, you will be outnumbered.”

BEYOND FAILURE

Most of us were taught as children to fear and avoid failure — so much so that in many cases we didn’t want to risk trying something new or challenging. Such fears trigger a domino effect of physiological problems that can undermine our athletic performance, Millman notes: “Fear of failure produces tension; tension constricts the blood flow and slows the reflexes, which produces shallow breathing; shallow breathing results in the contraction of opposing muscle groups, which reduces coordination. Ultimately, fear of failure generates a vicious circle that creates what is most feared.”

These types of physiological changes don’t just affect our bodies in motion. Research by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, PhD, has shown that they also wreak havoc on our mental state and emotional well-being. When our breathing gets shallow and our muscles contract, our perspective narrows — we are less able to see the big picture — and we have trouble making connections and solving problems. When we are relaxed, our view on the world broadens. We can take in more information and assimilate it more effectively.

So how can we shift our fear of failure in a way that helps us improve performance? We can view failure as an essential tool for learning, says Millman. When we mine our failures for information about what is working and what isn’t, we get important feedback that we can use when we undertake similar projects in the future.

“The greatest inventors, artists, and athletes have all failed many times,” Millman reminds us. “Babe Ruth was the home-run king of his time, but also the strikeout king.”

EMOTIONAL MASTERY

Our feelings are our feelings. We can’t will them away — and if we try to, it creates a whole new set of problems. But often our emotions run counter to our best intentions — we’re too scared to try that new yoga class; we’re too upset this week to try eating healthy; we’re too overwhelmed at work to dive into our personal creative endeavors. Millman offers up a variety of techniques for better handling our emotions — and for moving more quickly and effectively through the difficult or entrenched feelings that crop up.

“Body mind masters do not deny or repress their feelings but learn to stay physically relaxed even under stressful situations,” writes Millman. We can do the same.

“Even when feeling angry, fearful and sorrowful, breathe evenly and fully,” he suggests. “Keep your body relaxed. You have much more control over your behavior than you do over your thoughts or emotions, so, paradoxically, the best way to master your emotions is to let them be, stay relaxed, and focus on constructive action.”

This practice of consciously slowing down to acknowledge and accept your emotions without reacting to them allows you to reconnect more easily with your motivation and willingness to train (no matter what your endeavor).

“Motivation, like all states, comes and goes, rises and falls,” Millman explains. But with the right emotional energy, you can encourage more of it to “rise” in your life.

THE PRESENT MOMENT

Before you read the rest of this article, try this exercise: “Take your keys, a piece of fruit, or any handy object, and go outside,” instructs Millman. “Throw the object up into the air. Staying relaxed and easy, catch it. Be sure to catch it. Then come back inside, and continue reading.” Done? Good.

“Now consider the moment the object was in the air,” Millman suggests. “At that moment you weren’t thinking of what you’d have for dinner or what you did yesterday. You weren’t thinking of anything else, either. You may have been attending to thoughts before you threw it or after you caught it, but during the throw, you were pure attention, reaching out, waiting for the object’s descent. In that same moment your emotions were open, and your body was alert and vitalized.”

Millman describes this as a moment of satori. “Satori is a word from the Japanese Zen tradition that points to a ‘sudden awakening’ or ‘insight into our fundamental nature,’” he explains. In short, it is an experience of the present moment.

Staying focused on the present can be challenging (the mind is terrific at time travel!). But that’s precisely why it gives you such a powerful training advantage. So grab an object and toss; repeat as necessary. You’ll find that this brand of mindfulness exercise — one of many in Millman’s rich training arsenal — helps you reach more of your personal and athletic potential.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Millman is a former world champion athlete, college professor and coach. His books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior (HJ Kramer, 2006), The Life You Were Born to Live (HJ Kramer, 1993) and Everyday Enlightenment (Grand Central, 1999), have been translated into more than 20 languages and have inspired millions of people around the world. Learn more about Millman at www.peacefulwarrior.com.

How to Master the Process of Becoming an Elite Swimmer

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

If you really want to accomplish your goals in the pool you need to stop focusing on them and instead work on crushing the process. Here’s why.

Goal setting is a trip. We choose something we really, really, really want to do in the pool and then end up giving ourselves a metric-ton of stress and anxiety over it.

• “Will I actually accomplish my goal?”
• “I have so much work to do still, I don’t know if I can do it…”
• “What happens if I don’t swim the time I want to?”

The stress and anxiety comes from uncertainty. Because no matter how much we want something there is no guarantee that it will come to pass.

The solution?

Mastering the process.

Your coach has probably already told you a couple times about the need to master the process. About why you should focus on the day-to-day grind of becoming a better swimmer.

Today I am going to quickly show you why the process is critical to improvement. How it’s been proven (with actual research) to produce better overall results and even make training more enjoyable.

If you are serious about wanting to crush your goals in the water, you need to start by mastering the process:

Master the Process, Master the Pool

What is the crux of mastering the process?

It’s taking what looks like an almost impossible result or situation, and breaking it down into manageable chunks.

It’s taking that Olympic gold medal and separating it into months, weeks and days of what your training is going to look like.

It’s taking the goal time you have for the mile and boiling it down into measurable, actionable things you can do to improve your technique, conditioning and lifestyle.

Seems easy enough, and yet, so many swimmers seem to struggle with it.

I surmise that this is because a routine is harder to measure. As swimmers we live and die by the pace clock, and a routine isn’t always as clear-cut as the cold, hard digits on a scoreboard.

And our routine also isn’t—for a lack of a better word—all that attractive.

The results we want bring us immediate satisfaction and glory. The very word “routine” doesn’t exactly inspire excitement. And while it may be tedious, or boring, it’s actually the thing that truly drives performance in the pool.

After all, here are some of the things becoming a process-driven swimmer does:

Reduces stress.

When we get lost in the process we remove the uncertainty of the results. Put more simply, by doing the things we can control we remove the anxiety that comes with thinking about the things we cannot control.

“Stress comes from the uncertainty of the outcome,” notes Marv Dunphy, Olympic gold medal winning volleyball coach.

Whether it is in practice or in competition the effects are the same. Stress has a way of melting off when we focus on the next step in our preparation and not what the swimmer in the lane over is doing.

You actually live the goal instead of chasing it.

Instead of “becoming” a champion swimmer on a specific date via a specific goal, you build and encapsulate the processes and routines of a championship swimmer.

Records and gold medals are won a thousand times in practice before they are captured in a fleeting moment at the big competition.

Confidence comes from the process.

As much as we like to think otherwise, we don’t have much control over our results.

Other swimmers are going to swim the way they are going to swim. The meet conditions will be what they are. There are things you cannot control, but your effort in mastering the process is something you can.

Whether you show up today at practice and give a great effort is wholly on you. This internal focus is empowering, develops self-esteem and of course, promotes better and faster swimming over your career.

You’ll end up working harder and enjoying the work more.

Goal setting is important, but when we stay focused on our goals it ends up detracting from the inherent pleasure that comes with working towards something we care about.

And more strikingly, being goal-obsessed actually ends up hindering performance.

A study performed by researchers at the University of Chicago and Korea Business School found that when a hundred students at the university gym were split into two groups, with one asked to describe a goal (“I want to get in shape!”) and the other to describe the experience of what they were about to do (“I am going to loosen up, and then run on the treadmill”) differences quickly emerged.

On the one hand, the “I want to get in shape!” group intended to run for longer on the treadmill than the experience group. Only that wasn’t the case.

The experience group crushed average time on the treadmill, lasting 43 minutes compared to the goal group’s 34 minutes.

Not only that, but those who were focused solely on the goals or results of working out reported feeling more winded and gassed after the exercise.

When it becomes about enjoying the experience versus hoping for results the participants both worked out for longer and spent less effort doing so.

How Build a Routine for Success in the Water

Okay, so by now maybe it’s starting to really sink in that you need to spend more time working on your process.

But where to start?

Here are five suggestions for building yourself into a process-oriented swimmer:

Have a plan.

While your goals start with a written representative of what you want to achieve, mastering the process starts with having a plan.

What does your ideal week of training look like? Your ideal day of training? What is the routine that is going to get you to where you want to go with your swimming?

When crafting your plan stay in the realm of things you can control. This means not focusing on times that you want to perform in practice, and instead think in terms of mastery of effort.

Have measurable things to do.

Swimmers have goals. Times they want to perform when it comes time to stepping up on the blocks.

If pressed a little further, they might even be able to tell you what they need to do to get there: improve my start, better turns, higher level of conditioning.

But for many, that’s where it stops.

If you need to improve your start, what is a measurable thing you can do each day at practice to better your start? If you need to improve your conditioning, what is something you can do each day or each week to make this happen?

The profound power in the process comes from taking what looks like an almost impossible goal and breaking it into manageable and measurable chunks.

Celebrate the little wins.

We are conditioned to only stop and celebrate the big, momentous occasions in our swimming career.

The record. The gold medal. The team championship.

Positive reinforcement and celebration doesn’t need to be limited to these occasions. Recognizing that you gave a 10/10 effort that day in practice makes you want to do it again tomorrow.

Take a moment to recognize the small wins. I can understand wanting to brush aside these little victories as not being significant enough to warrant being noted,but they are.

Small wins beget more small win, and in our relentless push to achieve excellence the more mini-wins we accrue the better.

Make your goals effort and consistency.

You can’t always control how you are going to feel in the water on a daily basis. There are times I slip in the water and I feel utterly unstoppable, while on others I feel like I am swimming through molasses.

Regardless of how the water treats me that day, I am going to give the same effort.

Invest in the work and effort, the results will spring naturally from them.

Get feedback from your coach.

You shouldn’t be waiting until race-time to find out if things are working in training or not. Regular feedback is critical. Here’s an example.

In 2011 Katie Ledecky and her coach Yuri Suguiyama were having some communication issues. Suguiyama knew there was more to be gleaned from his young protégé, but for Ledecky, who is naturally reserved wasn’t offering much.

The answer?

Suguiyama had her write out her workouts plus her thoughts in a training log.

At the end of each week he would add his own notes and thoughts, creating a regular evaluation that included feedback that reinforced the things that were working, while giving both athlete and coach a more open line of communication.

Feedback better informs the process, so sit down with your coach regularly in order to tweak and improve your routine and swimming.

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Two Words Stopping You From Swimming Faster

By Olivier Poirier-Leroy

How many times have you been standing on a cold pool deck, looking at the nine-paragraph- long main set that coach is scrawling on the whiteboard, the sets and intervals trailing off into the bottom corner as he is running out of space for it all, and thought to yourself…

“No way. No chance. I can’t.”

Over the years involved in the sport I have caught myself saying it from time to time, and have certainly heard it from fellow swimmers. 

You might be familiar with some of the greatest hits of “I can’t”:

• I can’t beat that swimmer; they are too fast.
• I can’t do that interval; I’ve never done it before.
• I can’t be early to practice; I have too much on my plate.
• I can’t do that set; it’s way too hard.

And on and on. 

Unchecked, those pesky two words end up dictating how we react to a lot of the stuff that comes our way without the giving ourselves the benefit of trying and actually seeing for ourselves. 

Look, the sport is hard, it’s tough, and the rewards come with a real investment of time and energy. I get it.

Getting there is hard enough without having those two little but not-so-little words rattling around the back of our mind every time adversity breaststrokes down the middle of our mental lane. 

The effects of I can’t’ing are real:

It leaves you feeling helpless. Just like that, the situation is now impossible and out of your hands. And you know what happens next: a deep, salty feeling of helplessness. And nobody likes that feeling. I’d rather get kicked in the mouth by a breaststroker. But hey, that’s just me.

What you are really saying is “I won’t.” When you say that you can’t do something, you are telling yourself that it is impossible. So no need to feel guilty about giving up, right? By labeling it as impossible, we can find a sense of comfort in knowing we never had a chance, and that it would have been pointless to try in the first place. 

It means fewer results. The most real effect of I can’t? It becomes much harder to accomplish anything! If you approach everything that is difficult with the attitude that it can’t be done then, well, nothing gets accomplished. Look, I’m not saying you can be Batman (and my parents said I could be anything I wanted, pfft) or that you will swim a :10 second 50m freestyle one day. But there is a massive gulf between the things you can’t do and the things you won’t do.

How to Combat Chronic I Can’t’ing
You probably already knew that telling yourself “I can’t” all the time isn’t the greatest habit. Maybe you’ve tried to curb your limiting self-talk in the past, or tried forced optimism on yourself (which I find often has the opposite desired effect – you know more than anyone when what you are saying is disingenuous). 

From personal experience, “I can’t” is not something that ever completely goes away. Sure, it can be softened with experience (“I’ve done sets way harder than this already and I was fine!”), but it will always be there. Quietly waiting to pounce when you are feeling weak and unsure. 

The 1MR Trick
This is a little piece of mind judo I have been using on myself for years (shhh, don’t tell me that I’m doing it) to great effect. 

And it works like this: thinking about the sum total of something can feel overwhelming. We look at the totality of what is facing us and get discouraged. 

10x400 free on a tight interval? 5 morning workouts this week? Doing a 2000 for time?

Instead, concentrate on literally only the very next thing. Nothing else. The mental approach is to promise myself to do one rep and that’s it. 

Just one more rep.

Commit to doing the first 400 free and that’s it. Commit to that first morning practice and that’s it. Commit to the first 200 of that timed 2k and that’s it.

Something funny happens after you start… It gets easier. Well, maybe not easier, but doable, and less impossible than you initially thought it would be. You’ll even likely find yourself wondering why you resisted so much to begin with.

My brain hasn’t caught on to this little mental trick, and so I use it pretty much every day, whether it is doing laps at the pool, running, writing, or watching Netflix (“Okay, just one more!”). 

Over the past couple years I have received countless emails from swimmers and coaches who have found remarkable success doing this. They are often blown away by how something so simple can work so well.

After all, thinking about doing a whole set or workout is crushing and fosters a sense of “I can’t.” 

But doing just one rep? Just one effort swim? 

That isn’t so bad. With the pressure off of our shoulders suddenly it isn’t “I can’t”, it’s “I probably can.” 

And often enough, that’s more than you need to get you started and carry you through that set or workout you once thought impossible.

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Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer. He is a regular contributor of Splash Magazine and also writes over at YourSwimLog.com, where he shares swim sets from coaches and swimmers across the country.
He is also the publisher of YourSwimBook, a ten-month log book and mental training skills guide for competitive swimmers.

8 Questions Every Swimmer Should Ask Themselves

By Olivier Poirier-Leroy of swimswam.com

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. — Voltaire

To get clarity with our swimming goals – and in life in general – periodic reflection and evaluation can be immensely powerful. After all, although we tend to think otherwise, we often get wrapped up in the expectation of others, unrealistic comparisons and wishful thinking. Regular reflection can help you see things with more clarity, and to remind ourselves to focus in on the things that matter most.

Below are 8 questions every swimmer should be asking themselves on a daily basis. The questions are split into AM (the first one) and PM (the other 7 questions)–

1. What am I going to do today to make myself the best possible athlete?

Some people wake up and chase after their goals with everything they have. Others wake up, tell themselves they don’t feel like it, or that the timing isn’t right, or that tomorrow they’ll get after it.

Each morning set yourself up for the rest of the day by asking yourself what you are going to do to give yourself the best possible chance at unlocking your full potential. This simple question – and it’s partner questions below — will lead you into the direction of better life decisions.

Once you have had time to wind down from your two-a-day, and crushed an over-sized pot of pasta and are ready to zonk out in anticipation for tomorrow morning’s work-out, ask yourself these seven questions before bed–

2. Did I do everything I could today to achieve my swimming goals?

The simple act of asking yourself this every night will condition you to behave in a manner over the course of the day so that you can give yourself a big “Hells yes!” as you lay in bed.

The question will float around in the back of your mind during your daily activities. It will be there, giving you a snug reminder when you slow up on the last repeat of a set, when you are tired and your arms are dragging and you need that little jolt of a reminder to finish strong.

3. Why not me?

By believing that only a privileged or lucky few are capable of achieving their goals – and not you – you are performing a type of self-sabotage.
The opposite form of this question generally sounds like—“Do I deserve it?” or “Why me?”

4. What are three things I am grateful for today?

The odds of us being here, right now, right at this moment in time are so mind-bogglingly tiny that it stings my melon just to think about it. Whether you are religious or not, being here, present, in this moment is something to be cherished.
Pick a couple things that you are particularly grateful for today. It could be a great set you banged out, your folks, your coach, a teammate, and so on.

Being thankful and grateful can only make us happier people for it reminds us to cherish and value the things we do have, as opposed to wishing and pining for things we do not have.

5. What would I regret not fully doing?

This question will help you keep you focused on the big picture goals. Sometimes scaring ourselves with the eternal fear of regret can be just what we need to push a little further.

6. Did I do anything today to help my fellow swimmers?

This one can be a little more challenging, but it is not impossible. Helping a younger swimmer with a simple correction tool, giving a teammate some well-timed encouragement, being a good listener to someone having a bad day.
When you open up yourself, including your experience, knowledge, and simply your time, it enriches the swimming experience many times over.

7. How do I function best?

Hacking yourself and figuring out the way you function and perform optimally is an eye-opening process. Finding the patterns that produce successful results gives you the opportunity to replicate them at future meets and practices.

Some things will be painfully obvious. Like sleeping 7-8 hours a day. Or staying hydrated. Or eating a well-balanced diet. Simply thinking about them, and how they affect your performance, may be enough to make some small changes here and there.

Get your guinea pig on and learn how you function best.

8. What does success in the pool look like to me?

On the surface this looks like an easy one, right? After all, success is generally measured in minutes and seconds in the pool. A best time. A record. A gold medal. Tangible, measurable, even physical things.

There are other ways to generate success that aren’t visible on a scoreboard. Things like helping out a fellow swimmer. Mentoring youngsters. Volunteer coaching. Cheering on all your teammates – even the ones you don’t necessarily like or get along with.

The answer to this question will be wildly unique with each of us, and truthfully, your definition of success tonight may be significantly different from the answer a
week from now.

As Voltaire smartly said, the important part is in asking yourself the question, and not necessarily the answer.

Take the Podium

Can you think of any other questions you would add? List them in the comments below.

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Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.

Swimmers: Why You Need to Learn to Love the Struggle

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy of yourswimlog.com

It’s not technique. Not your coach. Not the pool you train in. It’s your willingness to embrace the daily struggle of improvement in the water. Here is why learning to love resistance and struggle will make you the best swimmer you can be.

Improvement happens at the point where we meet resistance.

• It’s that descending interval that we just barely have enough time to gasp a quick breath before pushing off again.
• The final few reps of the set where we are supposed to hold on for dear life to race pace.
• It’s showing up for early morning practice at 5 in the morning in the dead of winter.
• It’s showing up even when there is no guarantee that things will get better.

Resistance and struggle is a fundamental and unavoidable component of getting better. Just as critical as your bathing suit, if not more so. After all, your ability to meet struggle head on dictates whether you get better or get the same.

Here’s how to embrace the struggles and become a faster and better swimmer as a result.

REFRAME RESISTANCE AS OPPORTUNITY.

When things get hard we tend to start thinking about the bad stuff that *might*–but rarely ever does—happen. If we come up short we fear that we won’t be able to recover from it. Or that our teammates will make fun of us if we don’t swim fast enough. Or that people will judge or care.

As a result of allowing others to dictate how much effort we put towards our goals we often end up apologizing for the goals we have in the pool.

Instead of viewing those moments in terms of fearful outcomes (“What will my teammates think of me if I fail?”) reframe it as an opportunity for growth (“How will this challenge make me a better swimmer?”).

IMPROVEMENT DOESN’T COME WITHOUT STRUGGLE.

Struggle is inherently struggley. It’s unpleasant. Not always very pretty. And so we avoid it. Nobody likes having a hard time with something. Not being good at a drill, stroke, or being a bad kicker isn’t outwardly pleasurable.

But it’s a necessary price of getting better. It’s a fundamental part of improvement.

It’s a cycle that you should be familiar with: you want to do something, you struggle to learn it, and you eventually master it.

Whether it’s a drill, an interval, a new group—the process is the same.

Sure, it would be nice if we could get better at something without having to be uncomfortable or be stretched. It would be fun to skip the second step in the little improvement cycle. But that’s wishful thinking. Understand and remember that struggle is essential to getting faster in the water.

WELCOME AND SEEK STRUGGLEY MOMENTS.

One of my favorite reader-submitted questions was from a young swimmer who was stressed out because she had just gotten leveled-up a group, and now she was the slowest athlete in the lane. I countered that this was a blessing—being surrounded by faster swimmers would only encourage her to become a better swimmer if she chose to welcome the challenge.

When we actively go out of our way to challenge ourselves we are repeatedly inflicting stressors that encourage improvement and increases the limits of what we think is possible.

STRUGGLEY MOMENTS BUILD RESILIENCE.

When we learn to welcome trying circumstances into our swimming we are also charging up our ability to be more resilient.

Resilience is a defining character trait of champions.

• It’s what separates the swimmer who has a bad swim at the beginning of the meet and allows it to ruin their whole weekend from the athlete who bounces and back and crushes a best time later that evening.

• It’s what convinces one swimmer to keep working hard at the end of a really hard set while the next one succumbs to thoughts of doubt and gives up.

Resilience is something we learn from experience. Some swimmers may appear like they are naturally mentally tough, but there is experience and choices they’ve made that are backstopping that confidence and trust in themselves.

THE TAKEAWAY

I get it–hard work is, well, hard. It’s filled with moments of self-doubt, of setbacks, of moments where you feel like your best efforts are going unrewarded.

But if you are serious about wanting to get better in the pool, regardless of how ambitious you are with your goals, you need to open yourself up to those moments of discomfort and struggle.

It’s exactly there–in the chasm between what you know you can do and you think you can do that improvement and faster swimming is developed.

See Also

• When Things Go Sideways, Top Swimmers Rely on Mental Training. The fastest swimmers are the most resilient swimmers. Here’s how spending a few minutes a day getting your mind right can help you stay calm and focused in the face of adversity.

• At What Age Should Swimmers Start Mental Training? Coaches and elite swimmers talk about how the difference is often mental when it comes to performance. Here are some thoughts and suggestions for when swimmers should start dialing in the mental side of the sport.

Road to Rio is Paved in the Dark

By Mike Kraeuter

With the Olympic trials finishing up and the Olympics starting I pondered with a friend how some athletes rise to the pinnacle of their sport while others don’t. What does it take to reach that high level of performance? It takes quite a lot actually. There are so many things that go on behind the scenes that people don’t see. We only see the final performance, which, for most has taken a majority of their lives to achieve. Just like a great movie, it wasn’t achieved on the first take. Muhammad Ali once said;

“The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

This message was reiterated in the Michael Phelps Under Armour commercial entitled “Rule Yourself” where at the end you saw; “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light.”

We live in a world of convenience and right now attitudes a “microwave generation” but as I tell the kids I coach, we all know that microwave food stinks, a good meal takes time and patience and in the end you enjoy it more. There is no instant gratification in what those people are doing to represent the USA at the Olympics it has taken a better part of their lives to achieve a vision that most just dream about. It has taken failure upon failure. It has taken a team of people to achieve that vision. Not one of those athletes has achieved that level of performance on their own; heck anyone that had the opportunity to swim at Olympic Trials didn’t achieve it on their own. They can thank their parents, friends, coaches, teammates, doctors, therapists, etc… just to be able to swim at that prestigious level of competition.

Achieving Excellence

After all this hard work, dedication, time, effort, etc…making the Olympic Team is not guaranteed. So I guess the question we should be asking is; “Why do people do it?” They do it because they love the process; they do it because they have a vision to be the best at what they do, too achieve excellence.

Does this type of process sound familiar? Not everyone may have an Olympic dream but we all have visions of becoming the best at something and we do much of what these athletes do. Whether it is a dream job, attending a dream school, a dream adventure, etc…None of this happens overnight. Achieving excellence at anything takes time. Achieving excellence seems like a daunting task and that is why most people quite before they even get started.

See Your Vision Now

Imagine that you want to climb a mountain; that can be considered a daunting task. Most people start at the bottom and look up and only see the obstacles they may encounter. Now, let us change our perspective and imagine ourselves already at the top of the mountain. What do you see now? You may imagine seeing the outstanding view from high above, which gives you a feeling of accomplishment.

Which perspective sounds better?

I vote for the view from the top. If you embrace the vision of already achieving your goal, when you embark on your journey you no longer see obstacles you only see what could be the wonderful view from the top. All the obstacles you encounter are just on the way to accomplishing your vision or reaching the top. You know you will get around them because you know the outcome of reaching the top of the mountain. Obstacles are no longer obstacles but opportunities you encounter along the way of achieving your vision.

Let’s apply this perspective to a dream you may have. Imagine yourself already accomplishing the goal you have set forth. Now make a game plan to achieve this goal. Any obstacles you may encounter along the way only become opportunities which allow you to become the person that can achieve the vision you have set forth. Some advice when coming up with your game plan:

• Remain flexible in your plan because most things don’t turn out as planned so keep your mind open.
• Enjoy each moment and leave expectations behind. Achieve excellence every day.
• Make smart choices as there are no good or bad choices just good or bad consequences.
• Finally never stop learning, continue to practice life learning from every struggle, setback and failure.

Being Olympic in our everyday lives!

As you watch and cheer on these Olympians achieving their lifelong goal of competing at the world’s biggest athletic competition ask yourself how you can be Olympic in your life’s quest for excellence.

A Note to BLUE WAVE Swimmers On Preparing For Championship Meets

I wanted to reach out with a friendly challenge to all of our swimmers.

We are currently 3 weeks (JR/SR Champs) and 4 weeks (14&U Champs) from major championship meets for our TEAM, and beyond what you have all put into the water so far, I want you to try something a little different than normal for the next few weeks and at those meets.

First off, what I am going to ask starts now (today), in order to be prepared for the upcoming meets. Any time you think of swimming and your races coming up, I want you to try to think in the terms I ask for below, instead of what you normally do.

1. Forget about the “times” or “cuts” that you are going for at the meet.

Let those things come along the way. If we put them in front of us at meets, we often times fail to race the way you have trained to race. We set  specific expectations of ourselves, which then leads to us having more pressure to perform. Take those expectations away at meets. The time to use them would be workouts, but we can discuss that later.

2. Commit to your best races every time you are on the blocks.

Too often we assume best times to be the only marker as to whether a race was good or not, and that’s just not the case. Not only is a non best time swim not necessarily a bad race, but a best time doesn’t mean that you did your best race on that day either. Instead I want you willing to give your absolute best “focused effort”  each and every time you are in the water to race.

By “focused effort” I mean that you are willing to race the way you and your coach have worked to get you ready to race. So it has to be more than just effort, as we see people “over-swim” races all the time, but there’s no focus when that’s done.

All you can and should expect of yourself on that given day is to do your absolute best, on that day. If you can allow yourself to do that, then your times will be as fast as you are prepared to go on that day. From there, then it’s time to adjust what’s done daily to be better, but for now, adjust what you can and be ready to give your absolute best “focused effort” in each and every race.

3. Forget about how you “feel” at the meet.

Instead go back to all those times you didn’t feel good in practice, yet you pushed yourselves to fast swimming. Just remember the goal, “focused effort”, and paying attention to how you feel should have no impact on your effort, unless you let it.

4. Push the second half of races beyond what you currently believe you can do.

In short, get out of your head when that pain starts to set in (and yes, if you are racing correctly that pain will set in) and push yourself to give the absolute best efforts you can. You are capable of more, accept that you have that control and learn how to push to new levels by just letting yourself go.

As part of this finishing push, commit to attacking your walls. Too often when we get tired, we also let our turns slow down, but they don’t have to just because we are tired. They don’t take nearly as much energy as swimming, yet because of that we treat them as rest. Be different, be better, and attack those walls to beat people and be that much faster than you were last time in the water.

5. Focus on the efforts, be confident and above all else, remember to have FUN.

I put this one last because I think it’s the most important piece. Don’t get me wrong, I am as competitive a person as I know, and this may seem to go against that piece, but it’s actually how you will perform your best and yet still get the most out of this sport in and out of the water.

Focus on your efforts - In the end that all you can do, and guess what, there’s not a single person reading this that can say they gave it their absolute all every single time they did something. It’s just not that easy. That said, effort is the greatest focus as that is what you have control over. You don’t have control over the clock, that’s for sure. You never know how fast someone else will swim, that’s a huge mistake to judge success off of someone else.

Be true to yourself and push yourself to the best efforts you can give. When you are done you will then know whether you actually gave it everything in the pool or not, and you may also come to know that you gave it everything, had a great race without the results you wanted, and it may be time to take a look at what you do every day in workout, but that can all be done after the meet is over.

Regardless the result, remain focused on your effort every single time you step up on the blocks.

Be confident - It’s such an easy thing to say, but so hard to find when it’s not there for you. Just remember this when you start to get nervous. Do you consider yourself a better swimmer right now, than you would have when you went your best time? This doesn’t mean that things needed to go perfectly all season to be better. This only means you believe that you are a better swimmer now. Maybe it’s by training, or stroke technique, or knowing better racing strategy, or better mental game, or maybe just even the fact that you know you are more willing to push when it gets hard than you were before. It could be anything, but you have to believe that you are ready.

HAVE FUN! - Here’s the deal, this whole thing is a process, and the earlier and better we can learn to truly enjoy the process, the better. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be “fun” all the time, but you can enjoy it all the time. It also doesn’t take anything away from the competitive drive, it only reminds us that this should all be fun.

Don’t let the scoreboard determine if you enjoy this sport.

This sport is much bigger than times. It’s about learning, challenging yourself to the end of your limits and recognizing just how much that means when it’s all over. So don’t get so caught up on times that you lose the bigger picture. Focus instead of challenging yourself to push harder, learn more and improve yourself along the way, and the crazy thing is, I’m willing to bet your performances will be even better than you may think possible right now.

Thanks all and let’s go have some fun!

GO BLUE WAVE!

We are challenged everyday to change ourselves to become the person we want to be!

FAMILY - DEDICATION - MENTAL TOUGHNESS

Why I Coach With Mindfulness

By Mike Kraeuter

I view coaching as more than just coaching the sport of swimming, coaching swimming is a vehicle for teaching life. I coach to develop character, perseverance, patience, dedication, mental toughness, and teamwork. I coach to inspire others to challenge themselves to accomplish what they don’t believe possible.

How I teach these things is something that has evolved over time. In learning from other coaches and swimmers, reading books, watching videos, listening to experts in all fields; I have found an interesting correlation between all the various sources, delivering essentially the same message, albeit many different ways, and that is mindfulness.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

A disconnect?  Or an opportunity?

Unfortunately, emerging trends with accountability, narcissism, bullying, lack of empathy and compassion are negatively impacting young athletes on a larger, more magnified scale today due in large part to helicopter parenting, social media, and unchecked technology. Issues, that arise not from a lack of awareness or perhaps even good intentions, but rather, are mainly due to mindLESSness that limits our personal potential.

Coaching is the perfect venue for teaching and cultivating mindfulness. In Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson writes that by bringing mindfulness to his athletes, he was able to reach a group of selfish, ego driven stars and unite them in a common goal to become some of the best teams the NBA has ever seen. Teaching mindfulness allows an athlete to develop the mental skills needed to pay attention to what matters most.

What really turned me onto this type of training was the mental training we started to do with our older athletes a few years ago. A lot of the training was based around meditation, which, at the time I did not understand. What does focusing on your breath have to do with swimming? Believe it or not, it has everything to do with it!

Slow down to speed up!

We live in a fast paced world and it can sometimes feel that if you are sitting still you are falling behind. In a ‘right now society’, multi-tasking is seen as the only way to be successful. So, we develop ways to keep an athlete’s attention instead of teaching them how to pay attention. Unfortunately, our brains are not designed to function this way and as a result we disconnect. Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior really opened my eyes to what mindfulness is and how meditation allows you to reconnect.

There is a point in the story where Socrates encourages Dan to “practice everything”. What does it mean to “practice everything? It means to purposely pay attention to whatever you are doing at the moment. If you are talking to someone practice listening, practice conversing with that person.  When you are washing dishes, practice washing dishes instead of wishing you were doing something else.

Solutions are everywhere

Carol Dweck has done a lot of research into what she refers to as mindset. In mindset, she begins with a study of school aged children. Half of the children were told they did well because they are smart and the other half were told they did well because they worked hard. Success!  The inevitable twist occurs when the students are offered a more difficult follow up test. The majority of the students who were told they did well because they were smart, chose not to challenge themselves any further.  While the ones praised for their effort viewed the follow up as a challenge and accepted more readily. This is mindfulness; those praised for effort were guided to paying attention to something in their control and those praised for their intellectual prowess were guided to seek attention for an ambiguous talent outside their control. One of the secrets to becoming a great swimmer is having what Dweck refers to as a growth mindset.

Why do I coach?

To quote Gandhi, I coach to “be the change I want to see in the world”. Coaching mindfulness through the sport of swimming allows me to prepare my athletes for something far greater, the world outside of the pool.

If you want to start cultivating your mindfulness I recommend watching the Peaceful Warrior. To help you start your meditation journey, put your technology to good use and try CALM. Most simply, start purposely paying attention more, one breath at a time. Thank you for the opportunity to coach you, now pay it forward and be the change you want to see in the world.

The Bad Habit That Drives Swim Coaches Crazy

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy. Join his weekly motivational newsletter for swimmers by clicking here.

There’s a bad habit that drives your coach crazy.

Something that you don’t think is a big deal. Something that seems innocuous and harmless. Something you do that is louder than words.

In fact, it drowns out anything you might say.

It can be the thing that keeps you from improving, can have real physical effects on your body, give the opposition a jolt of confidence, and even perpetuate the beliefs you have about yourself.

Your coach ribs you for it. Your parents give ya heck for it. And even your teachers make sure to point it out.

It’s bad body language.

You know what I am talking about…

The crossed arms. The sighing. The grumbling under your breath. The rolled over shoulders. Eyes to the ground. The grouchiness.

But you might not realize how much of an effect this kind of body language has not only on you but on the team around you.

What poor body language ends up saying about us:

• We aren’t on the same page as the rest of the group.
• We don’t believe in the workout, don’t feel like doing it, can’t be bothered, or all of the above.
• We don’t mind dragging the rest of the group down.
• It tells the competition every thing they need to know about whether or not we are going to swim fast.

DOES BAD BODY LANGUAGE REALLY MATTER?

As it turns out, the way we present ourselves in terms of posture not only does a great job of showcasing our displeasure about something, but it actually makes things worse.

In a study done by researchers at Columbia and Harvard sought out to see if the way that we carry ourselves had a measurable physiological impact.

One group was instructed to hold a “power pose.” Think Superman. Hands on hips, shoulders back, chest forward. Not only did this group feel more confidant, but experienced elevations in testosterone (by 20%), decreased cortisone, and increased tolerance for risk.

The other group was asked to hold a series of “low power” poses. Head down, arms crossed, shoulders rounded forward. You know, the grouchy and grumpy look you see from a young swimmer being asked something they don’t want to do. As you can guess, this group experienced the opposite reaction as the superhero group, with decreased levels of testosterone, increased cortisone (the stress hormone), and a decreased tolerance for risk.

On top of all that, our bad body language motivates the competition.

In another study a group of competitive tennis table players were asked to watch videos of their competition. In each video they displayed various types of body language, and the players were asked to rank their confidence in whether or not they would be able to defeat the opponents.

Unsurprisingly, confidence was low when viewing the players who exhibited positive body language. On the other hand, they felt pretty good about their chances at beating the players who showed negative body language.

It’s easy to dismiss gamesmanship or “psych-outs” as something reserved for other swimmers, but the effects of your body language are real and will have an effect on the competition, whether it’s at the big meet or simply the swimmer in the next lane at practice.

THE TAKEAWAY

Does this mean you need to roll around the pool deck with excessive amounts of swagger? That you should force yourself to appear 100% positive and upbeat at all times?

Not particularly. Especially if that’s just not the way you display confidence.

But it should be a check for you to roll back those shoulders, pick your eyes up, and take a big, deep, “Hey, I got this” breath.

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4 Messages for Today’s Teenage Swimmer

By Annie Grevers, Swimming World Staff Writer (reposted from swimmingworldmagazine.com)

Photo Courtesy: Sue Borst

The teenage years are not necessarily one’s most selfless stage in life. Your own swimming career grows ever more important and your swims can begin to dictate how you treat other people. It’s not that teenage swimmers are incapable of being selfless, contributive, caring for those around them; it’s just that many times, they have no idea how much of a ripple effect their actions and reactions have on those around them.

In the American Swimming Coaches Association’s most recent newsletter, a presentation from the 2015 World ASCA Clinic entitled “Cultural Headwind” was documented. Don Heidary of Orinda Aquatics gave the talk emphasizing the importance of character in shaping the culture of his club team. Heidary took a comprehensive look at what technology and public figures are doing to our youth.

I jumped on the Heidary wagon as soon as I read this– “Kim Kardashian. Worst offense: promoting appearance over achievement….She teaches kids that it is not what you do that makes you important, it is how you look and how you leverage those looks.” Social media was another of Heidary’s talking points. He quoted a “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine” film critic– “We stand in a crowd, staring into a glossy screen, scrolling into oblivion, lost to ourselves. Alone.”

I’m guilty of getting sucked into my phone. It’s not just a teenager thing. Many of you have seen the second most watched TED Talk in history on power poses (if you haven’t, watch it!). Amy Cuddy, who gave the talk, was recently interviewed on NPR. Cuddy said she can watch her son transform as he gazes at his phone for prolonged periods of time. He slinks down into his chair, hunches over, and shuts down after seeing something that makes him feel like less of a person.

We see other people’s highlight reels on social media, which sometimes evoke feelings of envy and shame. It’s a platform that magnifies the importance of people based on aesthetics. How many people have become Instagram famous? I don’t want my team’s swimmers to idolize anyone’s Instagram account or the Kardashian lifestyle. The return on that is discontentment, upside down priorities, and a completely self-centered world view. A swim team should have the exact opposite effect.

“For three hours a day, teenagers are fully engaged, with no use of cell phones, no social networking/selfies/posts/tweets,” Heidary said. “They are not worried about their appearance, their makeup, clothes. They are not drinking. It is the healthiest environment possible for kids [Yep, he’s talking about swim practice]. The life classroom. The mental and physical nature of sports magnifies the most critical things in life: work ethic, sacrifice, humility, resilience.”

What kids do in these hours truly will shape who they become. Here are a few things I’d like today’s teenage swimmers to think about:

1. Your Instagram fame will never be enough.

But the support of your teammates and your support of them will pay dividends! I have seen Instagram photoshoots in “super cute” practice suits go on for way too long after a taxing swim practice. The double taps on photos may be thrilling momentarily, but it’s never going to elevate your confidence for as long as you’d like. Invest in encouraging and building up your teammates with more than a “like.” Show that you appreciate their effort in practice, their positive outlook, their new stroke technique. Show you care…in reality.

2. Stop vocalizing every ache and pain.

Photo Courtesy: Chucka NC

Each time you groan, give the stink eye, or try to negotiate a set, you’re permitting other people to flush mental energy down the drain. Think before you word vomit every thought you have about the main set. Maybe it’s not your favorite type of set, but survey your thoughts before you vocalize them. You know those people who are sometimes obnoxiously positive, but they tend to make your work harder? Be obnoxiously positive in your own head. It will help you. It will help your teammates. It can revolutionize your team culture.

3. Embrace the group challenge.

Photo Courtesy: Kenneth Chung

One of my favorite things about swimming was when something impossible was thrown at the group, and rather than seeing sulking expressions, there were faces of anticipation and excitement. The workload was seen as an opportunity. Something thrown at the team, not to break us, but to build us. A hard set can be an indication of trust. If your coach made the set for you, he or she trusts that you can handle it.

4. Find the true heroes.

Yes, we are fortunate enough to be in a sport with an incredible stock of fast swimmers to look up to! Then there are millions of heroes walking among us doing things to better the lives of others who go unappreciated. If you’ve never watched the CNN Heroes tribute, you should. Heroes are everywhere, and they typically aren’t the people drawing the attention of tabloids.

I stood beside legendary University of Texas men’s head coach Eddie Reese last weekend. He’s one of my heroes. I watched as his Longhorn men came up to him after their races, waiting for a few words from the sage to latch onto or even saturating Eddie with a wet hug. They adore their coach. Because he leads them to win more NCAA titles than any other college team in history? Nah. Because he cares about them and would never dare credit himself with the success they have had or will have. The heroes in this sport, in this world, are those who pour all of their love and energy into others.

Heidary challenges his team to ask two questions, “How can you help?” and “Who can you help?” Having those questions as the cornerstone of your team culture will make for an intoxicatingly positive, encouraging, safe team environment. Who doesn’t want that?

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AUTHOR: ANNIE GREVERS

Annie (Chandler) Grevers is a staff writer for Swimming World. She swam for the University of Arizona, winning the 100 yard breaststroke at the NCAA DI Championships as a senior in 2010. She was also a member of six NCAA Championship relays during her college career as well as a member of Arizona’s NCAA Championship title in 2008. She represented the United States at the Pan Pacific Games in 2010 and at the Pan American Games in 2011, where she won the 100 breaststroke. She is married to Matt Grevers and resides in Tucson, Arizona.