Backwards Thinking

I think about this at times, and I have thought about blogging on it before, as I see it normally in the summer and early fall, but I never got around to blogging it. I don't know why it came to mind now, but I thought it was a good time to post a blog about this way of thinking that always seems to pop up.

Parents sign their kids up for our team, and I hear the comment, "I thought they were going to swimming more laps," or "I think my child needs more of a workout." This is common, as some parents put their kids into our program for reasons of fitness in the beginning because they don't realize the value of what can be learned through attending swim meets. Our younger groups do dryland and they do get a short good workout there, and the fact that they aren't great swimmers, it doesn't take mush for them to get their heart rates up and get a good workout in the water. This is the time though that we develop the fundamentals and construct the makings of strokes. The next group would be to develop good stroke technique through demonstration, explanation, and various drills. No where in that focus is work them out for fitness, even though through warm-up and a small set that they do does provide a decent workout for kids.

Then, when the kids get a little older and begin to get fast, it is amazing how swimmers and parents alike begin to worry so much about stroke technique. Even the kids who are really fast, at times obsess over there strokes and don't consider concentrating on the speed and consistency that they have at practices.

Parents who had once asked for their kids to swim more laps are now asking for their kids to do more stroke work. This is the backwards thinking of how to approach swimming. Strokes are developed at younger ages as they are less likely to have bad habits and can create proper technique. Endurance means nothing at this time, and most 10 and under swimmers don't swim longer events anyway. (Note: I do encourage sprinting and speed though, as learning how to move limbs at a fast rate can be harder when they get older). A 10 and under can swim a 500 freestyle not because they have great endurance, but because their strokes are good enough that it isn't hard to swim 20 laps of freestyle (We make swimming easy, that's the point in teaching 10 and under swimmers).

Breaststroke

This is the stroke that I have spent a great amount of time on over the past five months. As a swimmer it was by far my worst stroke, and there are concepts that I had and have a hard time realizing. I have produced some decent breaststrokers, but I believe most of them have been natural breaststrokers, and I knew that I wanted to better understand this stroke. This is what I have began to do with breaststroke.

Separation Drill: This is big for the swimmers not to tie the arms and legs together to a specific timing. Once they learn the skills separated, then you can move the kick and pull to create correct timing. In separation drill the swimmer will begin in a "pencil" (arms straight and legs straight). The swimmer will then do arm stroke back to pencil, followed by breaststroke kick back to pencil, and they will repeat the pattern. This drill makes them feel really funny, but it really gets them to break the stroke up and learn the two motions separately.

I now use the phrase, "Pull with the arms and drag the needle, and then kick and push the needle." The needle you pull is the legs with feet together, and the needle you push is the arms with hands together.

Breaststroke Kick: I realized that a swimmer can push water with the bottom of the feet in a breaststroke kick. For a long time, I felt like the inside side of the foot pushed the water. Now after watching good breaststrokers, I see that some people can actually turn their feet and propel themselves by pushing with the bottom of their feet. Using a buoy and doing Baby Breaststroke kicks have helped my swimmer begin to realize this. Baby Breaststroke kicks are when the legs stay straight and they rotate from the ankles to make a sweep with only their feet. This is extremely hard for some people, where some kids can do it very well.

Breaststroke arms: There are so many different ways for breaststroke arms. The out-press and release method; the out-press, down press, and then in scull; and the out press, down press, and sweep in press. The main thing I concentrate on is trying to not have the swimmers pull their elbows back during the pull, but instead keep the elbows in front of the torso.

Body Position: I think that body position can be one of the biggest factors to breaststroke, but many elite breaststrokers would argue because they don't have great body position and are very good at their stroke. I still concentrate quite a bit at maximizing the time spent in a "downhill" (shoulders lower than hips) and minimizing the "uphill." If the hips don't sink during the pull as you drive the hips forward, a swimmer can quickly get to downhill and not need to hold a glide very long because they hips are already up. If the hips do sink a little, the lungs being lower than the hips and body position on the "center of buoyancy" and not "center of gravity," then the hips should float towards the top with the assistance of the oxygen in the lungs. If a bad body position is held the lungs will rise and the hips will just sink lower.

The hips: So, those great breaststrokers who don't have great body position, they are able to do this because they have such power in their arms and core that as they go to "uphill" they probably actually rise their hips above the water  by their own strength. The hips then drop to the surface, but never sink to low, thus making it that they don't need a great "downhill" position. It may actually be a waste of time to spend the time to get to "downhill" for a sprint if you are able to push your body and hips out of the water, but that takes a lot of strength. (looking at our top breaststrokers bodies though, this does not surprise me that they are capable of this.) Hips are the key. The hips stay on the surface and always moving forward. That is the key to breaststroke.

Since most of my swimmers are young and are incapable of lifting their bodies and hips out of the water; I concentrate on the "downhill" position, and also direct the on-coming water to go above the body rather than below, as we don't need a down force to help our hips drop (it is hard enough to get them rise without a down force created by fast moving water under the body.)

In my coaching mind with observations at meets

This is a little late as this is what I did a couple meets back. This is an example of what I do sometimes while observing meets. I do look for what the results are because the swimmers and parents are always looking at the objective result of the performances. A coach also needs to look at more than just the time on the clock, and more than just split times to see if they swam it properly. Sometimes we don't even time a race, but just sit back and observe as we look for other aspects of their stroke or race skills.

At our Holiday Meet I noticed our turns were a little awkward. Some of them were still pretty good turns in regards to how they competed with those in their heat, but I noticed that there was some hitches in the execution of the flip turn. I noticed a lot of swimmers abruptly making a flip turn with very little fluid motion. We had a bad problem with gliding and slowing down into the walls, so I tried to reduce the glide, but now it has left no fluidity in the flip turn. So, what to do next?

I began to think if the problem was the gliding or the body position in which we were gliding. I tried to solve the problem with the idea that we were just gliding too much, but now I am rethinking the problem that maybe it wasn't the glide but the body position.

So then, I did a workout where a portion of the practices our focus was to make a powerful final stroke of trying to press into a "downhill" position. The turns seem to flow much better. There was a glide, but with the head and hips in a slightly "downhill position the glide did not seem to lose speed as it did before with the glide in the turn. It is still something I need to spend more time on, but I feel like the new concept will help many of the swimmers with the turn as the shoulders will make no upward motion on the final stroke to the wall which will actually make the so called flip, even less of a flip because of the lead into the wall.

Coaches do a lot more than just take times and splits. It is the observation of performance that can be very powerful. At practice it can harder to see subtleties that the swimmers tend to do at fast speed, so then you observe and then take it back to practice. This is also why I personally don't try to teach too much at meets, as I want to to see what I need to do more of at practices. Not all coaches have this approach, but it is what I like to do to help me serve the group at hand, and not just the group by theory.

The Important Motivation

We just finished the Winter Age-Group Championships in Las Vegas. It is meets like this where many of our transitioning athletes have an opportunity to learn more about developing as a higher level swimmer.

There are all sorts of motivation in a child's life, and it is the same for the young swimmer. I was told once that 10 and unders are most strongly motivated by pleasing their parents and the other adults such as teachers and coaches. After this stage in life, they begin to try to develop some form of independence. Then comes the part where they try to develop their own autonomy, and fight against all who try to tell them how to do things. This seems to be similar in the developing swimmer.

The most important motivation for a swimmer needs to be within themselves. The coach is there to try to assist that motivation and steer it in the right direction. Most coaches care deeply about the success of their swimmers, but when the coaches motivation is greater than the swimmers it seems to be formula for failure. This also works with parents as well. When the parent tries to be the main motivating factor at the older ages it seems to work in the wrong direction.

Coaches do put perspective to many things, and provide motivation through various methods, but many times it is indirectly motivating, and not always through the rah-rah speech.

In the end, the swimmer will make choices, and those choices will show in the results. These choices will be: How much will I listen to my coach? How much will I push outside my comfort zone at every practice? Will I eat correctly to be best prepared? Will I get enough rest so that I am best prepared? Will I warm-up and cool down enough to be best prepared? Will I try to execute a smart game plan? Will I race to beat others in my heat? Will I execute disciplined skills on a regular basis at practice?

Coaches and parents can yell at their kids all they want, but it will ultimately be up to the swimmer.

I think that if you look at the motivating factors for a child, it makes a lot of sense when certain things begin to not work with kids when it comes to getting them motivated in swimming. (Of course, maturity differs from kid to kid, so the exact age is different in all swimmers). The most successful swimmers that I know have this amazing inner drive inside of them, and so many swimmers I have seen have tried to rely on everyone around them to motivate them through, only to lose focus and desire for the goal at hand. It is vital that the swimmer is allowed to learn to motivate themselves, and at about 11 or 12 they need to start finding that inner desire, and not need someone else to create that motivation.

Swimmers: You need to start asking yourself about how you train and how you prepare to perform. It will be your inner desire that will ultimately take you to your potential.

Parents: You will not be there motivation as they grow older, and they begin to try to develop their own autonomy. Try to allow them to make choices, and have to deal with the results of those choices. Let them not want those results repeated and they then motivate themselves to better their practices and preparation. It is easier to learn this at ages 11 - 13 than it is for someone 14 and over.

Coaches: If you coach 10 and unders you will make a big impression on the swimmers. You must be positive with these swimmers. The older they are the more you need to direct them to have the desire to accomplish goals, and talk to them about being prepared. Allow them to make mistakes, but explain to them about bad performances that are result of lack of preparation. Hope that they will learn from bad performances. Older swimmers will see more bad performances in-season, so it is better to teach this during the time that they are making a lot of improvement.

Good luck to Everyone on developing that inner motivation in our swimmers.

Goal Setting, Important, but don't let it overtake you

Goal setting is a very important aspect towards being successful. It is taught at many different levels of life, and with swimming I try to teach it as well. Sometimes there is a kid who is tired of hearing learn this and learn that at school, and will learn the process better at a sport, which they can then apply later once they realize the power in it.

I have written before that there is a time and place for goals. It is the beginning of the season, and remembered throughout the practices, as it can be the one thing that they can hold on to when the practices get tough. Goals are not a place for swim meets though. This can make a swim meet even more pressure filled, and soon this pressure makes swim meets not fun, and the swimmer begins to dislike the meets. Meets provide enough pressure and stress for the swimmer, we don't need to add on to their natural pressure moments.

The next part is to understand about short and long term goals. It is important to have both. Make sure that they are reasonable yet challenging at the same time. A swimmer that doesn't have a B Cut shouldn't make their goal to have a National A Cut as a short term goal. If you are using the national motivational times, then say the goal is a B Cut, then reassess (a part of the process that is also good to learn) and make the next cut a BB Cut, reassess again, and then have the goal of a National A Cut. A National A Cut could be seen as a long term goal, and the other two cuts are short term goals on the way to the long-term goal.

Understand there are other goals that can be made for a swimmer. The goal of not getting DQ'd in the 100 IM could be a goal. Time is not a factor here, but it is a great goal. A goal could be that you want to have a meet where you have great streamlines off every wall of every race. The times may or may not be faster, but the goal is very good as it will be part of getting better in the long run, and towards a faster long term time based goal.

Not achieving a goal in a specified time is not something that a parent or coach should get mad over. The swimmer should care about there goals enough that it bothers them. They need to know that failing to miss a challenging goal is part of the process. They need to look at there attendance, their effort at each and every practice, their attention span of each and every practice, and the amount of other socializing they mix into practice that could be a distraction from them putting directions together. It's a tough sport, as life is also tough, and learning how to deal with failure is something that they need to learn to cope with.

As a coach it is hard to not see your swimmers achieve their goals, as it is probably hard on the parent as well. As a coach I constantly go over in my head the yardage, the intensity, the amount of stroke work, the amount of attention to detail; and wonder if it all was enough. Did I balance it all out well enough this season for it all work. I get caught up in looking at results on a meet to meet basis, but that is not a good thing to do. I catch myself many times, and tell myself that you need to follow through. In the end, you look at a seasonal analysis of the progression. Was it there? Last Spring compared to Early Winter is normally what I like to look at as we get ready for WAG's. It is always nice to see how much the swimmers have improved. Sure we always hope that they achieved more, but to see the progress is very good. Even a swimmer that is struggling in this span of time normally can see some kind of turnaround or breakthrough times.

Now if you are looking at Senior Swimmers, this may be very different. Senior Swimmers truly only swim fast four to five times in a year. This is due to the Mesocycles of training that consist of rest to work ratios dictating  their performance ability, and a Microcycle of seasons that allow for peak performance really only once a season. This training is to get peak performance from the swimmers. "In Season" meets are dress rehearsals for the meet that they prepare for at the end of the microcycle. OK, gone too much on a physiological tangent here.

Goal Setting is very important, and can be very important tool to achieve full potential. Understand that is also provides some hard times as goals can add pressure to the swimmer. Understand that goals are setup to be a ladder if done properly, and that only have one big goal, can become very difficult on the psyche of a child.

Lift Force Part 2, What, How, Why

I realized that I might have jumped the gun for some people on the concept of lift force. So I am going to go a little bit more on how it works.

Essentially if you look at air and water at the molecular level rather than the chemical level the difference is the density or the amount of molecules in a given area. An airplane takes off when the wings flaps shift downward and block the air from going under the wing. This creates fast moving molecules going over the top of the object and slow moving molecules on the bottom part of the object. This makes the object actually move in a direction perpendicular with the object that it is moving across. This can also be seen for helicopter's as the propeller is angle to fight against the air to force the air over the surface and thus lifting the helicopter. A Propeller on the front of the airplane demonstrates that this can also be used to move in a horizontal direction as well.

So, back to swimming. The arm and hand is created with soft and harder surfaces. The palm and the forearm are softer surfaces that allows for more give, that enhances the ability to hold water. The natural curvature of the hand also creates a great area to catch the water as well. So, when a swimmer catches water the swimmer holds water and doesn't allow it to move., so it creates a way that sculling can work to propel a swimmer forward.

Many people watch sculling or even do sculling and doesn't realize how it can work. Many choose that it can't move them forward and then begin to pull instead, only for their coach to tell them to stop pulling. The hands catch water and then move out and in to create a fast moving molecules of water on the back of the hand, and moves the swimmer forward without actually push against the water.

When I try to get swimmers to understand how it works I have them front scull two different ways. First with the palms down and fingers downward, and they can see they can move forward. Don't make them do the full 25 yards as they get tired of moving so slowly and begin to cheat. Six sculls and stop. They should have moved a little bit. Then I have them face their palms forward with fingers up for about six sculls. They move backward because the palm still catches water in that position and the water moves faster on the back of the hand. The propulsion will move in the direction of the fast moving water which is backwards. Now I have showed them that you go forward by sculling with fingers downward and backwards when sculling  with fingers upward. Swimmers really don't need to know about lift force, but I throw it in efvery once in awhile and talk about how an airplane takes off and how their hand create the same force, but I know that only a fraction of the kids really get it. Some kids like the reinforcement on why something is going to work, and they're more willing to try it.

Breaststroke and Freestyle I focus on lift force the most though. What I am doing with butterfly is different now, and I am still thinking about how I can use the information about lift force to make it more effective. Backstroke is another one that I don't use too much lift force due to the upside down body position. Again, I gather information, and then try to put it to use. Although I continue to make kids good at these strokes, I am still looking for ways that I can enhance it. Not sure if Lift Force will be the tool I use to continue the development of these strokes, but I do have it my "tool belt" to possible try to create a way to enhance a stroke down the road.

One note on Free and Breaststroke with Lift Force. The faster the molecules move over the surface the more force created, that's why planes have to pick up speed before they lift works to lift it up. The better freestyle kick the more effective the lift force will be. Breaststroke will be most effective at the last power push at the end of the kick. My group has many who keep fingers down and as they finish the kick the lift the fingers, AHHHHH! The most effective part not being taken advantage of by the swimmer. Continual reminding. Change is hard and habits are hard to break.

Swimming Science, Part 1 of Lift Force

So let's start with the fact that most of this is things that I have researched to create a foundation, and used observation as a key tool to come up with most of this stuff. Coaches from earlier generations didn't have the luxury of having science research and other forms of communication to talk about the science, but rather used their own observations to conclude many of the concepts. I am not going to say my thoughts are correct, but I can say that I have done a lot of observation and relating physics to come up with this stuff.

Let me begin by saying that the dominant source of propulsion is by resistance force. The hand pushes against the water to push the body in the opposite direction. The feet also push against water to create propulsion. This is the intuitive way to create propulsion, it is also the most important and taught form of creating propulsion.

When I was a young coach, I sifted through Ernie Maglischo's book, "Swimming Fastest," (I say sifted, as if anyone has seen the book, you'd understand why a college student may not try to delve into reading the entire book). This is the first time that I came across the idea of Lift Force in regards to swimming. Since then I have fought with myself how it came into play, but I always played with it in my head. In later interviews, Ernie did explain that in the 80's he might have put too much emphasis on the Lift Force Propulsion. I think that although Resistance Force is the main form, that Lift Force is something that shouldn't be ignored, but it does create some counter-intuitive ideas in regards to Drag.

Let's go into an example. Think about a car, a swimmers lead extended hand is like the hood of the car and the body and head is like the cabin. As an observer of a car being tested in a wind tunnel you see that the majority of air flows of the car to make more aerodynamic. In a car though, it needs some air to go underneath the carriage to create some down force to keep it on the road.

Now a swimmer doesn't need the down force, so water flowing over the body can then create some forward lift force, and reducing the moving air under the body actually reduces the down force (which we don't want in freestyle, fast swimming is swam high on the water.) The counter-intuitive aspect is the idea that a swimmer wants to push the top of the arm forward to feel the water up the back of the arm rather than slce the hand through the water fingers first. I watch so many adult lap swimmers while lifeguarding, and this is probably the most common problem. This makes sense though, as resistance force makes so much sense, and the idea of lift force isn't really thought about.

If the hand slices the hand and arm through the water not disturbing the path of the water, the water is still going to hit the head and shoulders. Back to the car example, slicing the hand forward would be like making the hood of the car needle like, and the first part that the wind will hit would be the big mass of the cabin. You can't escape some drag of the body to the water, so you might as well direct the water for positive effect.

This now blocks some water from moving under the body, and creating an area where there is slower moving water under the arm. This actually benefits the swimmer also as they make the catch and pull they will catch more water, as it is more powerful to push against slower moving water. So not only are you increasing your lift and propulsion during the extension, but you are creating a great path of slower moving water, so that your pull will push more water (increasing the resistance force).

To prevent the blog posts from being too long, I am going to stop there, and post more on science later in more posts.

Forbes Carlisle

"Our aim is not to produce champions, but to create an environment where champions are inevitable."

This quote is from the Australian Coach Forbes Carlisle. It eventually becomes the ultimate goal of all good swim clubs. This mentality is hard to build though, as it is hard to except what it is saying. It is saying that we aren't going to make one person and bend to their every need to make them fast, but rather create a atmosphere and culture of how to do things. If you join the team and you follow the guidelines and buy into the program, then you will succeed.

As a team develops this culture it is becomes the swimmers who allow it to happen with the direction of the coaches. Some good questions that swimmers should ask themselves, What have I done to helped create a good training environment for my team? and how have I contributed to inhibit my team from becoming better.

Sometimes it is the little things that matter when creating a culture. Do all the swimmers contribute to get the pool and group ready to get in as soon as possible. Does a swimmer become a distraction to their teammates or of their coach. Do swimmers only respond to personal input, or do they try to learn with the group. Do the swimmers only do things that are important to them in their minds, or do they focus on everything that the coach delivers to them.

Ever wonder why most of the elite teams in the nation are large teams? Because they have created a culture where you must learn in the group setting, and that you become better because everyone in the group strives to better at each and every practice. The large teams have the luxury of not moving swimmers up because they don't possess the mindset to achieve more, but rather they are asked to continue to develop in their swimming, and when they demonstrate that they possess the correct mentality, then they can move up.

The other thing that Forbes Carlisle really stressed as important is creativity in coaching. If you only do what others do you put a ceiling on yourself, as you can only be as good as the other guy. On top of that, that person probably coaches to their strengths, so then as every person is different, you will never be as good as the person you are emulating as you aren't focusing on your strengths. Coaches must think outside the box. Although you must learn from all that came before you, you must analyze what you take in and then put your own spin to it. This is one the main things that Coach Carlisle believed was what made great coaches. You study and learn, but you must learn to also incorporate it in the way that you can best execute that knowledge.

Swimming Officials

This last Wednesday we went to a Coastal Section Committee Meeting, and we went through the meeting. It is really encouraging to hear about the changes that the committee is going to be working on to improve the section, and I look forward to being a part of the process to make the sport better for the swimmers in our area.

One thing that was mentioned was that our team, CSSC, was one of the few teams that had the number of officials to be able to put on meets on our own. We are the team other teams have to rely on to get their meets ran. It is really cool to be recognized as one of those teams that provide for the section.

Officials are a critical aspect to our sport. The are required for times to be official for USA Swimming. Could you imagine you go to meet that doesn't meet the requirement of officials, and your swimmer makes their very first Junior Olympic Time, only to find out that all the times at that meet aren't official because there wasn't the appropriate number of officials?

Today, Friday, our swim team is going to be hosting an intrasquad meet with only a 1650. We are doing this because the meet we had planned to attend, and the meets this season didn't provide an opportunity to swim this event. We are able to run this meet without the assistance of outside officials (which we would have to pay for their services). We can do this because of great volunteers who have done the training so that we could provide this for our swimmers. Other teams without this support of the parent volunteers would need to beg and plead (and possibly have to pay) for outside officials to come for the times at the meet to be official.

I write this blog to shout out to all of those individuals who officiate. You are so important to our sport. I also write this to try to explain to people that anyone can become an official (well, unless you have a criminal record). Teams can always use more officials. The more officials your team has the less the load becomes, and we wouldn't need everyone all the time. I strongly encourage parents to consider joining the ranks of officials. Our team just lost two this last year because their swimmer graduated, and our current officials won't be around forever. Help us create a great pool of officials so that we can continue to be self-reliant to provide opportunities for our swimmers, your children, and all the children who participate in this sport.

Backstroke Tip to Work on Relaxing

I was a backstroker when I swam. My father was my coach. Away from the pool though, we never really talked about stroke technique or race strategy, or things that I needed to work on when we were at home. Home was not the place for the coach, but a place for the parent. We only talked about swimming when my brother and I began a conversation about swimming, which actually happened a lot. My dad would sometimes join in at times, but they mainly were my brother and I just talking about swimming. My mother also stayed away from coaching us, and allowed our coaches to coach us. My mother though did say things at times, not to tell us what we had to do, but more things that she concentrated on when she swam.

My mother was a world class backstroke swimmer, who was part of the lost generation of fast swimmers who peaked in time for the 1980 Olympics. I remember her talking about how a concentration of hers was to learn how to relax your face muscles while swimming backstroke. I tried it, and I found that this allowed me to relax my neck, and also relax upper back muscles. It created me as a 12 year old swimmer with a backstroke that many complimented me on how pretty the stroke was. The new relaxed stroke probably had something to do with backstroke being the first stroke that I got fast at when I was young.  I learned that the relaxed stroke was so fast, and I was able to do events that I didn't think that I could do. I only liked the 50 back, but now the 100 back was easier, and the 200 back was possible. This concept of relaxing my swims would lead to progressing in all my strokes later in my swimming.

I talk to my swimmers the other day when working on backstroke to concentrate on relaxing the face muscles, neck, and back. They had a hard time, but many relaxed enough that some of the rigidness in their strokes became less. They all told me that it was hard, and many began laughing as they tried to relax their faces. They said it felt really weird. It will continue to be something that the group works on.

I preach that relaxation is the key to speed. Here was a skill that I used to try to reinforce that concept. The swimmers in the group continue to struggle with the idea, but it is one of those aspects that I continue to push to my swimmers. It may seem counter-intuitive, but relaxing really is what makes swimmers really fast. This is why the fastest swimmers make it look so easy; they're relaxed.

We do what's necessary, and a little more about the blog

First thing, Last night we did a 5000 yard practice for a group that has done between 4000 - 4500 on hard nights, and we started the night off with running a mile. Not everyone made the whole workout, but many tried very hard to make as much of it as they possibly could. I could tell that many were doing their best. I ended the night talking about what is necessary.

"You don't achieve the best that you can be by just doing what you want to do. You must do what is necessary to be the best that you can be." I have talked to them before about going beyond their comfort zone, and last nights workout was one of those workouts in terms of yardage. The intervals weren't that tough, but I also didn't include a whole lot of talking or explanation. It was a "Meat and Potatoes" workout. Freestyle at an aerobic level, and for a good amount of time. We did some breaststroke and backstroke as active rest between the interval sets, but it was pretty much freestyle.

With every talk I give, it is with the aim of creating a culture. It is one of the main things that I must do in my position. I am developing athletes to understand the culture and work ethic that is going to be necessary to be able to succeed in our two senior groups. That means I need to develop their strokes, develop race skills, develop aerobic foundation, develop character, and develop the right mentality to make the transition and time in the senior groups successful and enjoyable. Yes, training can be enjoyable if they understand what the training is aimed towards. Swimming doesn't have to be the sport that you have to hate to succeed. Many do succeed despite not enjoying the sport, but there are others who can actually enjoy the challenge of practices, and enjoying the challenge of attending every practice. The sacrifices made aren't seen as sacrifices anymore, they are seen as commitment to something that they love to do.

Now to the second part. This blog can be informative to many people, but there is some information that many in the swimming world already know. I don't take claim that all of my information is mine and/or original. I have studied many, I have stolen terminology, and borrowed many ideas. I may spin them in a different way, but most of them are from somewhere else.

For the coaches who follow this blog, think about where can someone get some of the information I include in this blog. You can get it from a mentor coach, coaching books, and other swimming resources that normally you have to pay for. One thing I heard recently is the belief that the young coaches don't really know what they are doing, and that there aren't a good amount of new good young coaches out there. So, it is the responsibility for coaches to teach those trying to come into the ranks. Again, I don't see myself as a guru for coaching swimming, but I have some knowledge that some may be able to take a few tid bits from, and build from those pieces that they take away.

For the young coaches, always be willing to listen. I watch and listen to my Head Coach. We are the same age, but she has experiences that I haven't had. I watch and listen to my younger coaches, yeah they have little experience, but that doesn't mean that they won't come up with something clever. I watched and talk to my old age-group coach as he had experiences that I didn't have, and had ideas that were very different than mine. I sat down at the senior meet at Rancho-Simi and talked to the Senior Coach for Santa Barbara Swim Club and senior coach from Sun Devil Aquatics, and I took in what they had to say. 10 years into swim coaching, and I continue to try to learn more to be able to spin into the way I do things.

This blog is just a compilation of my thoughts and ideas. About what I am doing with my swimmers, and things that I try to accomplish with them. As I said almost a year ago, I am putting my thoughts and information out there, if someone takes something from it, that is awesome.

I hope that every enjoys reading the blog, and I get kind of excited that so many people are that interested in what I have to say (or type). Going to be at 4500 pageviews soon, with well over 1200 pageviews the last two months. Never thought I'd get this kind of following, but it is really cool. Thank you to all of you.

P.S. Don't be afraid to leave comments. I am more than willing to respond or answer any comments that are posted.

Special Olympics Team and Growing through experiences

I began researching and looking into beginning a Special Olympics Team back in September, and now it is beginning to come together. It is exciting to be able to begin a program like this, as it is great to reach out to other people who I may not otherwise be able to reach, and it will give me experience with the Special Olympics Movement.

One of the biggest things that I look forward to, is being able to provide volunteer opportunities to my club swimmers to assist others in learning the sport that they spend so much time and effort towards. I saw this last summer as I had so many of our athletes help coach our summer league teams, and help operate the summer league swim meets. Some did it because they felt like they needed to, but a good amount of them seem to really enjoy the experience. I think that working with Special Olympic Athletes will give even more to my athletes.

It is one of the core concepts that I want to promote in my athletes. The concept of giving to others, and realizing that you really can touch a persons life in the process, and rewarding that moment can be. Volunteerism and giving of oneself is a great virtue, one that our swimmers can see their parents do for them and our swim club, and now will be able to experience it through a program like the one I am trying to organize.

I hope that with this team, the Special Olympic athletes put forth extraordinary effort to learn to swim, and I can only hope that the athletes can watch, and realize that it is hard work that is required to achieve.

So many different possible things can be learned, and it will vary between the experiences, but I feel like it will be a great growing experience for all of those who choose to volunteer, including a growing experience for myself, as it will be a new experience for me as well. Going back to my view of always trying to grow through my studies and my experiences. This will be another that will allow me to grow to be a better person.

The Survivor Set

I believe this is also called another name, but I kind of liked the idea of a Survivor Set. The set consisted of 20 x 100 Freestyle. It was designed with a set of two 100 Freestyles on the 2:00 minute, followed by a set of two 100 freestyles on the 1:55, and then two 100 freestyles on the 1:50, and so forth. The last two 100 Free were going to be on the 1:15. Once a Swimmer missed an interval they were out of the set, so only the strong survive.

When I came up with the set I knew that the fastest 100 Free interval we had done up to that point with this group was on the 1:20, and I had a few of the swimmers who were able to do that interval. This set would go just barely past that, but yardage wise, way beyond when they are normally doing the 1:20 interval. I knew that this was the kind of set that would open swimmers eyes, and allow them to see what they could do when pushed. (Of course most of my swimmers didn't want to be left out of the set. If the swimmers slack, then they could just pull up and sit out a bunch, and not be able to reap the benefits of this set.)

Oh, the majority of the swimmers surprised me. I had four kids make the last two on the 1:15. One being a young boy that just moved into the group in August. I had six make one of the 100 Free's on the 1:15, and barely missed the last one by 1.5 seconds or less.

I hope for many of these swimmers they are capable that not only can they go a long way, as shown in the 3000 for time, but they can go fast even when tired. I think this sets it up that I can make even more challenging workouts, and with some confidence now, they can probably do them, even though before they might have been hesitant, and would fail mainly out of fear of the set. The 1:15 may not seem as impossible for some of the swimmers, and maybe now I'll need to try it out.

It's great to have a practice where the group surprises you. It is almost like a wake up call. "We are better than before," and actually they maybe better than even my good Blue Group last fall, even though last year they were on average older than this years group. These Groups continue to redefine our Groups of our program. The Senior 2 Group seems to be much more developed than the group was last year, and the Blue Group seems to be more developed than last year as well. It is really exciting, and I really look forward to how the swimmers respond at the meets coming up with this new level of training and confidence.

Freestyle Commonalities

There are many different kinds of freestyle out there. Some have huge rotation, some have little rotation. Some have straight arm recovery, some have high elbow recovery. Hand patterns are different, and turnover rates are different. Even hand entries are different from swimmer to swimmer. So what are the things that I see as being common in good freestyles.

Recovery: Elbow leads and hand relaxed

The Catch: Hand gets below the elbow, and fingers are not outward (deep catch fingers tend to be down and more shallow catch tends to have fingers pointed inward).

The Pull: Hand doesn't cross mid point and hand tends to lead the push (not the elbow)

The Finish: Hands push past the hips.

The Kick: Balance press with feet (directionally) and only a slight bend in the knees with the motion deriving from the hip flexor.

Through the various freestyles I have seen these seem to be the things that are in common. Swimmers find the comfort stroke as long as they do the main concepts of good freestyle. Have the commonalities, and then the rest is dependent upon the swimmer, as not every swimmer can swim alike. Watching a swimmer and trying them to emulate that swimmer is not always the best way to teach swimming, as a stroke concentrating on perfection normally is very mechanical and not always the fastest.

I am still a newbie when it comes to coaching (yes, 10 years is still a newbie), especially with as little as I knew when I began coaching. I could have missed things, or have something that may not be common in all high level freestyles. But to this point, this is what I have seen.

Working on the Kick

I have been doing a lot of kick development lately. It is the foundation of all strokes, and a huge emphasis for all of our younger groups. Our kids have developed better kicks, which in turn has led to better strokes as doing slower strokes is easier once they can kick. After a lot of observation of younger groups and swimmers in my group that aren't as good at kicking, I have realized something that I haven't focused on enough, and that is the up kick. The down kick is a focus as it teaches them how the ankle flexes and how to push the water downward, and that is probably the best place to start, but the up kick is what provides that consistent propulsion and a quicker kick as it keeps a disruption of the water tension on the surface of the water.

I have tried to emphasize lately, trying to feel the water with the bottom of the foot, and bring deep water to the surface. The foot will then break the surface of the water with toes at an upward angle, as then it is prepared in a propulsive position for the down kick. Warning: don't let the foot rise too high out the water as then they are bending the knee and creating resistence, and creates the majority of the down kick to be kicking air rather than water (have you ever stood on a skateboard and tried to move by pushing the air with your hands and arm? Pushing air isn't that propulsive).

Breaking the surface tension and keeping moving water at the feet is important. The leg doesn't have to work so hard to enter the water and the force can be used to push water downward rather than forcing down to break the surface tension. This allows for more propulsion and a quicker kick.

The up kick creates a faster kick and more consistent propulsion, it is very important in both the freestyle and butterfly kicks. Backstroke it is the down kick that is the focus as the body is turned over. Feeling the water with the bottom of the foot will also help as they learn the breaststroke kick as learning the pushing of the water with the bottom of the foot.

We want to develop better kicks as it is very important for long term success in the sport. Kicking isn't the only important part, but it is very important aspect to swimming.

Blog for the swimmer

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Although this poem has been read many times, it remains a great poem that many use to teach a great lesson. How does this apply to you the athlete, you the swimmer.

Many people are active in the sport, and only go through the routine of a swimmer, this being the path that many have traveled and there are many great things about this path, but there is another path that is what I try to get swimmers to first see, and then choose to go down on their own behalf.


This other path includes many aspects to it, and I will include them below:
Have Pride in yourself: I learned this a little late, but I learned it never the less. It is the pride that can be taken from putting forth great effort. Despite the result, there is great pride in the knowledge that you put everything in to what you put your mind to. In the case of swimmer, that is putting forth a great effort at every practice and every meet. Again it is not the result that ends up giving you the pride, it becomes the effort that you put forth. This applies to all pursuits in life.


Respect your competition: If you respect the fact that your competition works hard and puts a great deal of time into succeeding, then it gives you drive to do the same. If you don't respect your competition you can lack some of this motivation. This is why good sportsmanship is a great value to have, as when you treat the opponent kindly and humbly, then you begin to develop respect for what they do, and what can help push you even farther.


Respect your Parents: If you are in swimming, then your parents care quite a bit about you because it is quite a time consuming and expensive activity. You may think they are crazy and over-bearing, or they are the parents that seem like they are dis-interested because they allowing your coach to provide the leadership. Either way they are the people in your life who love you unconditionally (no matter what), and believe me, if they didn't, you wouldn't be given the opportunity to swim on a USA Swim Team.


Respect your teammates: Your teammates are the ones who can help be a tape measure for you. A teammate who is slower than you is beginning to beat you at practice, it is only time before they catch your times at meets. If you you use your teammate as motivation you begin to work harder at practice to stay in front. The slower swimmer attends practice to strive to swim at the level of a teammate, so they work hard to catch them, thus helping them work harder. You are teammates, help each other become the best that you can all be. Cheer for them at meets, as they get faster that means you have a faster training partner which can ultimately help you down the line.


Represent your team: Understand that every performance and every action is a reflection of the team. If a swimmer doesn't try on an event, they represent the team badly, and these bad efforts become a cancer to a team. Don't be the cancer. Act appropriately, even the use of a bad word, or negative self-talk can become contagious. Don't be the bad seed to a good team, and begin to tear it down from the inside. Try to be the great representative that promotes character, pride, respect, and work ethic that your team is trying to create as a culture.


Sure you can go down the path of many and just participate in the sport, or you can go down the path less traveled of being a great person and representative of what there is in swimming. I talk about challenges all the time. Here is the challenge swimmers, go down the path less traveled. It isn't the easiest path, but it is the path to the most successful swim career.

You Can't Out Talent

This was the talk to the group tonight:

As I was growing as a coach, I spent a lot of time talking with my father and Phil a lot. Here is one of those things that picked up from Phil. His basic message was this: I'd rather have a group of hard working swimmers with little talent, than a group of swimmers with a lot of talent who didn't know how to work. The more I coach, the more I see this concept be so real.

I told the group, "You can't out talent the other swimmers. The only thing you can do is out work them." As a swimmer you have no control over your talent (sure the Talent Code gives a way you can develop ability, but natural talent a swimmer has no control over.) It is the work ethic that separates swimmers from one another. Sure, you get those few who are able to succeed for no real reason at all, but the odds are that you aren't that person. Early on swimmers develop fundamentals, and then the years between 11 - 16 are going to set the table for the work ethic that is developed. When work ethic is created during this time with well developed fundamentals, then as a age-group coach you have set your swimmer up for future success.

Does this have to be monitored though, yes. Too much too soon can be detrimental to a swimmer, and their path in the sport. So, a group that still reinforces fundamentals, but also takes the time to challenge the swimmers is what is great for this period of their development. You don't need to push, push, push, but intermix the push with some easier drills and skills like things. It is not easy to do though, the balance between developing work ethic, and going to far with developing that ethic. Coaches have different ways of going about it, and we all try things from season to season. It also helps that no year is the same within a group which allows interest to stay for those who are in a group for 2 to 3 years.

In the end, it is those who work for it that achieve success (whatever that may be for the swimmer). Talent takes you to certain point, and if it has come easy up to that point, then it is hard to accept that you haven't worked hard to achieve what you have, and the idea of working harder is very difficult. The idea of working hard should be a theme of their effort. Not that they need a harder practice, but work harder with the practice that is given to them. If a swimmer becomes the best in an area, they need to look for faster competition, so they have a reason to push harder. Growing up, this is why RCA came to SoCal so much, was to find the swimmers that were the fastest, and realize what we were striving to achieve. Not to be content with being the best in our little area. Coaches often look for a way to make a super star swimmer lose, so that they can keep that motivation, and understand that they still have a lot of work in front of them.

Remember, don't rely on talent, because it is the work ethic that will take a swimmer to their potential.

Transitioning the focus, and maintaining what you have built

As I wrote in a previous post, the season began with stroke development, and lately we have been taking those developed strokes and trying to create power and feeling the strength used in those developed strokes. Although I do have a focus for the specific parts of a season, I do delineate from the focus to have reminders of the different phases that I cover, and not to make it seem like all we do is one concentration.

Today, we did a set where we did a combo of the phases. Freestyle set of 3 x 400 free pull. The first and third being with paddles where they are still focusing on the power aspect of the stroke, and the second 400 free pull without paddles working more on a fast turnover for the entire 400 Free. After the set we talked about what we have worked on, and what we need to do now with what we have previously worked on.

This phase is the speed phase of the season and it will occur right in time to for the swim meet. This will be the first meet where we have a covered the different phases, and the best performances of the season hopefully occur here. It is just the beginning of the speed phase so I do expect to still develop more speed as we progress through this phase, but at least this meet will be have some speed aspects developed at the practice.

Hopefully, most of the swims have already been done this year, so that I can check to see how the speed phase is working in the beginning of the phase. Some of the kids though haven't swam the event for quite awhile, so they will go faster, which is great, but we'll have to wait for Cerritos and Holiday Meet to evaluate what is happening with the practices having full effect on the performance.

Now to give an example of how I'd utilize stroke development in the speed phase of the season. You want to maximize the speed of the stroke, so there won't be a lot of altering the stroke with actual correction, but rather trying to create subtle changes through drills and quick reminders that I have created throughout the season, so the swimmers know what a short two to three word phrase means. With speed work, comes rest, as work to rest ratio needs to remain. With the higher intensity, it normally leads to more rest in the ratio because the extra work done in that short period of time. This gives plenty of opportunity to do drills, as drills should be done at a slower (rest) pace. Subtle changes won't effect the stroke too much, so it shouldn't cause a slow down in times.

Age-Groupers ages 11 - 17 still need to maintain the aerobic development. (This is one of the main reason why I made my group minimum age to be 11, or at least close to 11.) During this phase I will continue to provide the aerobic development sets despite the focus being speed, and mixed in with rest through drills. Stopping the aerobic altogether would develop the speed, as it is the focus, but would hurt the longer events, and begin to lower the base that you have built up to that point, which will effect them in the future seasons. (Building the Base is important, but keeping the base is also important. It doesn't take quite as much time as building it, so you don't have to dedicate as much time to it as the initial part, but maintenance should be continued throughout.)

3000 for time continued

When I decide what I do for practice there is purpose to every thing we do and every set that we do. It can be from set designed to get heart rate up, as I do in most warm-up sets. Some things I do are geared to concentrate specific aspect of a stroke, not normally the whole stroke. There are various reasons why I do things at practice, but going into practice I know exactly what each set or each drill is specifically designed to do. Even on those practices I come up with on the spot, I still go to practice knowing what I want to accomplish, but since I know what kind of sets and drills I use to accomplish these goals, then sometimes I'd rather watch and create the practice to what I see, while at the same time accomplishing the goals I set to accomplish.

The 3000 for time is no different. Many watch and just say it is the practice Kacy just wants to pay no attention to the swimmers, but in reality it is one of the most engaged practices I have as I try to keep a rough lap count down, and I look at splits on the running watch as I try to get a feel of how everyone is doing. I may not be as engaged to the swimmer, but I am very much engaged analyzing the swim.

Yesterday I spent about 5 to 10 minutes talking to the group about the different things they could have got from the 3000 for time. Their answers were the normal ones: Build Endurance and practice counting laps. Yes, they did get these from the 3000 for time, but there was some other things that I wanted to recognize.

First, the theme of challenging the impossible, even though it only relates to those who haven't done this before. Secondly, I wanted them to realize that they are capable of doing more that they knew they could. Many of the swimmers started off very conservatively, but picked up as they went on. They had no idea that they could still feel ok after 1000 yards of swimming. Thirdly, It puts other events into perspective. What is a 500 Free after a 3000 Free? They realized how much they had after 1000, maybe they can actually be a little aggressive when they do a 500, and they don't have to start off at a snail's pace.

Basically, the 3000 for time is one of those things that the kids really can take a lot away from doing. Other coaches use other Test Sets similar to the 3000 Free. I have heard JJ from SBSC talk about how his age-group group does the 1000 IM. He basically has the same justification as I have when it comes to the 3000 Free. I have always thought about trying the 1000 IM, but I haven't utilized it yet in one of my workouts.

I know there are mainly parents and swimmers who follow this blog, but if there is a coach out there reading these and want to do the 3000 for time, make sure you know why you are doing it. It can end up being just garbage yardage if not executed well. I believe any kind of mundane workout or set should have some reasoning that you can talk to your swimmers about, and for them to realize why they did the set besides just saying, "It's good for you."

3000 for Time Fall 2011

I normally do this twice or so per year. Tonight we did it and there are mixed reactions about it. The one's who have done it before are either eager or neutral about the Test Set, and the new ones (like always) are intimidated by it. Some are flat out reluctant, while others are looking forward to it, but are hesitant to be excited. I do call in to question a few swimmers lap counting as most of the time is the case, but I will post the results of the 3000 anyway.

(They were given 52 minutes to finish. Some stopped for extended breaks and some felt woozy part way through.)
*TT: 36:32
*NM: 37:57
AF: 40:36
DD: 39:32
*JL: 38:24
GB: 41:25
AM: 45:47
KLo: 46:14
KLi: 36:30
CP: 37:29
DG: 39:43 (did a 50 too much)
DT: 38:44
JW: 48:46
AG: 50:28
*KD: 45:47
CP: DNF
KW: DNF
DB: 43:44
EG: 47:42
MB: 47:45
KDee: 44:32
*RP: 50:34

Times are Minute and Seconds with no tenths as I was going off of a running watch.

The effort was very good for the most part. Most started off too slow, and after the first 1000 yards I saw many really pick it up. I didn't take splits but for the top times I'd say most of them came close to negative splitting by a decent amount. Everything got faster on the last part. Turnover rate, kick, and turns. Even from those who had done it before, they all began hesitant and really built it up.

As intended, most of the kids gained confidence in their capability of doing such a long swim as the swim progressed. Some of the kids though shied away completely throughout the set, and probably didn't get the most out of this 3000. Hopefully in future timed 3000 they are able to challenge the end of the 3000, and gain the most out of the set.

Physical and Mental toughness. You can see it grow as the swimmers go through the set. This was what I felt when I did this as an age-grouper. We were given 45 minutes to finish, and the first time I wasn't given the opportunity to finish, and the second time I gained a lot of confidence as I finished in the time that we were given. It really helped me mentally when I was a swimmer, and I hope it does the same for my swimmers.

The Wall

Yesterday after we ran our mile, we just sat on the grass and I had a talk with the group.

I talked about how most high level athletes, it doesn't matter for what sport, but high level athletes in general have all learned how to push past there own comfort zone. It is not easy, but that's also why they are in the top small percentage in their sport. You hear athletes talk about when they were athletes and that they played through injury. These tales are probably not just stories, but the truth, as many athletes could see some injuries as just part of the process, and they try to push through it. I mentioned also that that is why doctors step in now, and sometimes have to tell them to sit as they are injured.

I talked about one of my favorite movies when it comes to delivering a sports related message. Run, Fat Boy, Run. It is a romantic comedy at its core, but it has one part of the movie that delivers a funny scene, but when analyzed was a good message. It was the concept of "The Wall." This is when the body begins to tell you that you can't quite do anymore. He is running a marathon, and due some circumstances he is quite beat up at this time. The movie then puts an actual brick wall in the street, and you see the character go up to the wall, and contemplate just stopping at the wall. He decides that the wall is in his head and he continues to run the marathon, and the wall on the street disappears.

I talked about the message that most people don't realize what they are able to accomplish, and that they only are able to find out, if you are willing to push beyond "The Wall," or the Comfort Zone as I have referred to before. On the back of TNT Handbooks, Phil Black put it as, the "Extra" in extraordinary, as you must do extraordinary effort to have extraordinary results.

This ties right in to the Challenge the Impossible Theme. One does not know what is possible without trying. It is hard to realize that failing with trying is better than never trying at all. I have read many articles saying that this is what has made the rest of the world catch the US, as we have created a society where results are all that matter and that failure is a result, and a result that you should never have, but in reality failure is a step towards the result, and a success without failures along the way are simply success in the mindset that mediocrity is ok.

Practice pushing past your wall, as it is a mental wall. I find out what it feels like to reach that finish line despite what the result may end up being.

Essay by a former swimmer

I've dedicated some of the last posts about myself and about how I conduct myself as a coach. as kind of a continuation, it reminded me of an e-mail I got this last spring about a young man I coached on my high school team my final year at Selma High. This isn't the first time someone has passed along a school paper about how swimming has made an impact on them, but it is the most recent. So I am going to add this to me blog, but I want to say that this is not my writing, but I want to keep the source anonymous as I didn't really ask to put this on my blog.

The Most Influential Person In My Life

      "Heep, heep, go!" Those are the words every swimmer will hear at a swim meet under coach Kacy Ota. Kacy was not only the best coach Selma has ever had, he was also one of the most down-to-earth person anyone could meet. He never gave up on his swimmers and always knew what to say after an event. This is why Kacy Ota is the most influential person in my life.

      I opened the fenced door into my first day of swim practice. I remember the first person I saw was Kacy, he was sitting on a table, staring at the pool. He had long straight hair and a full beard. I said to myself "Wow , he looks like he just got out of prison for murdering someone who coughed in his pool. I feel bad for whoever's coach that will be." Now I was under the impression that Coach Manter was the Varsity coach. I learned two lessons that day, never judge a book by its cover, and second, seriously, never judge a book by its cover.

      It turned out the scary coach, who did not talk nor seemed to breathe, would be my coach for my first year of swimming. I was fresh meat on Varsity and after a workout that left me dragging myself out of the pool, Kacy asked me, "How was your first day of practice, (Edited Writer's Name)?" I struggled to reply, "It was awesome!" Deep down inside, I knew the only thing that was awesome about that day was practice being over.

      I had no idea how to swim. Kacy could see that. However, what made him the best coach was that he didn't care how well you swam; he would make you into a real swimmer and he never gave up on you. It had been a long season and I reached the point of peak performance. The Central Sequoia League swim meet was in a week. Kacy had me put my back against the wall and reach out my hand, then he asked me to use my shoulder to extend, "How much farther can you reach?" "A whole hand." I replied. Kacy said "With the length of the pool in a 200 yard freestyle, you can cut your strokes by about 9 or 10 if you use your shoulder." I also remember before practice, Kacy had given us a few words of wisdom. "You can't accomplish the impossible if you don't challenge the impossible." Nobody said qualifying for Division 2 was going to be easy. Nobody said placing first in your event was a sure thing. If I want something im going to have to work harder than anyone in the Valley to get it. I have lived by those words, and , at the final swim meet, Kacy had said "I am the next (Edited, another Former Swimmers name). He didn't know how to swim but with hard work and dedication he ended up a good swimmer." I was one second short of qualifying for D2, this was my last chance. I got on the dive block, and I remember everything slowing down. The only words in my head were "(Edited Former Swimmers name again)." The buzzer went off, and I swam my heart out; however, a bad flip turn ruined the race for me. I was two seconds slower than my top performance. I got out of the pool and I held in the tears, the hard work would not pay off my junior year. Kacy talked to me, calmed me down and told me what I did wrong. He put it in a way that made me feel good about that event.

      Kacy Ota is no longer the coach at Selma High. Most of the swim team can feel how different this year had been. I, myself, feel like I haven't learn anything. However, Kacy still coaches me through Facebook. He messages me tips and motivational words. He is still the reason why my times continue to improve. Kacy Ota has been and always will be the most influential person in my life, as a coach and as a friend.

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It is great to know I can do this by just doing my job and being myself. The greatest part is that there are so many swim coaches out there that have made an impact in their athletes lives, and I know that I fall into that category. It is not the reason I first began coaching, but it sure is a great reason why I love to coach now.

The Inconsistent 10 and under swimmer

As I finished a private lesson last night with one of the younger swimmers, I was chatting with the parents. I realized that we probably need to do a better job of doing some parent education. I may have to stop waiting for the board to tell me when this great time will be and just organize one myself.

I mentioned to the parents about what happens at times with 10 and unders when it comes to performance. Young kids are testing things out, similar to the way they typically test things out in the real world when they are very young. They learn things by messing up, and then learning from their mistake. You know, like eating grass or dirt, and then you watch as they spit it out and they realize that dirt and grass may not be made to eat. In swimming, the 10 and under is the time for this same kind of growth. It needs to be guided by a coach, as they need to learn from the mistakes that they make.

During this time you are going to see some of the biggest improvements and some of the biggest adds you will see in a swimmers career from meet to meet. I know any coach has watched their fast 10 and under dive in the water pop up and swim, and they ask themselves, "What is that? I have never seen that before." Many times this is in a bad way. Parents of these young kids are going to get frustrated. You'll hear all the time, "How did they add so much? I thought they were getting so much better after seeing the last meet." Hopefully you hear them say this when the child isn't around, as this would be completely against the supportive aspect of the parent that is needed for long term success in the sport.

It is the time of inconsistency. It frustrates parents and coaches alike. It can also happen with swimmers who are new to the sport and are older, and some 11 and 12 year olds who a maturing slower than their peers. Remember that the physical and mental maturation of a child kind span up to 5 years (according to studies, I think its more like 4 years). That means a 11 year old who matured really fast could have the physical and mental development of a 16 year old, there is little chance of any peer is going to be able to compete with this swimmer until they are 14 or 15 years old and they mature and the early bloomer doesn't mature as much.

When I told this to the parents they smiled, and said that that was exactly what was going on with their swimmer, and they really were wondering why. This made them feel better. Also looking at the progress of this swimmer, you can tell from year to year there was good progress, and that probably came from not getting to upset or frustrated over those few bad swims along the way.

If there are parents of 10 and unders reading this, prepare yourself, it is a bumpy ride, but when you look at the season progression there should be progress. Things to watch out for though: Swimmers getting upset about a single performance, Swimmers over thinking their technique, Parents adding their own critiques and thoughts on stroke and progression to the swimmer, and Swimmers feeling like they are letting their parents or coaches down.

Nice Practice Blue Group

Tonight the blue group did one of the longest practices that we have done before. It wasn't challenging in intensity, but it was long, and served as a great practice to build the aerobic base that will serve them later in the season.

The practice:
Warm Up: 300 Free
                 300 Free Kick w/ fins
                 300 Choice Swim
                 8 x 50 choice on the :50 (to get heart rate up on this portion of warm-up)
(1300)

Stroke Work (not much today, just going off of some observation from warm-up, not in the original plan for the workout):   4 x 25 butterfly launch drill (emphasizing Distance Per Launch and adjusting vision before the recovery).
(100)

1st Set:   4 x (4 x100); 1st 100 first 1st lap 25 fly, 2nd 100 2nd lap fly, 3rd 100 3rd lap fly, 4th 100 4th lap fly.
              1st round fly (on 1:45), 2nd round back (on 1:45), 3rd round brst (on 1:55), 4th free (on 1:40)
              Top two tiers of the group the interval was easy, the new tier had to work a little to make the intervals
(1600)

Main Set: 5 x 200 IM Continuous (Even ones reverse order) (Yes they did a 1000 yard IM, not quite as brutal as a true 1000 IM as they didn't have to do a 250 fly to start off the IM) (Had a talk about using their current strokes to develop easy strokes and strength trying to have DPS).
(1000)

Final Set: 500 Free Kick for time (They were still pretty good times even though we had already done a lot of yards. The fastest one was 7:50, and there was only two that I believe went slower than 10:00).
(500)

Talked about how much they did, and also did a good 500 Kick for time to finish off the workout. I think that felt good that they were able to do that much work and finish off strong. The cool down was a 100 Choice.
(100)

Total 4600 Yards

Professional Swim League

I always believed that there could be a professional swim league. The Dual Meet format that you see in College (and High School) is a format that can be very fun. There were just a few limitations. One being a well designed scoreboard that could keep up to date scoring as the events finish. DQ's happen through headsets, so they could quickly go into the system. The education of the spectator of how the scoring works would be part of the development of the sport as a spectator sport.

Americans watch the Olympic swimming more than almost any other sport, and other high level meets have gained in popularity as television has began to air them. What would it take though for a professional league to happen? Well, for tennis it began in the 1920's as a few high level players decided to put on their own exhibitions. They charged admission, and people were willing to pay to watch high level athletes in their sport. So, it would be a group of high level athletes to come together and create teams, and show off the dual meet format to the masses. Will they make a ton of money when it first begins? No, it will be a process of developing the professional sport because it is different than the sport so many know of as swim meets where young kids strive to improve themselves.

To my elation, there is going to be a professional swim league exhibition. Of course it comes from a place that understands the spectator friendly aspect that the sport can be, a college. University of Michigan will be hosting the dual meet with some top flight athletes. Check it out at www.proswimleague.com. Are these the highest level swimmers, not exactly, but they are some fast swimmers. It will be a lot of fun to see them compete in the dual meet format. Despite how the effort goes, I hope that they don't make this a one time event, but they see it as a start of something.

The next thing they have also begun. They have sponsors to help fund the event. Then they a charge a reasonable admission fee of $10 per ticket. They aren't going to make a whole lot of money, but it is a way to get the ball rolling with the affordable tickets. (Have you seen the prices of the Olympic Swim Tickets? They are one of the most expensive tickets available at the olympics.) Next phase is to get it televised. Start simple though, there are companies now that will televise any swim meet on the web. This may be a place to start, and then see how well watched it is, if there is a big audience you can use that to try to get a small cable company to pick a few events.

I've told my brother (also a swim coach) that this could happen, and the aspects that it needed to take off. Here is a group of elite athletes who have stepped up to front and begin this league. Hopefully they add the flare to the event itself with athlete spotlight in a program guide, the point system explained, a good way to display the up to date score, and a great announcer.

Good luck to all the organizers and athletes, and thank you for stepping up to do this.

USA Swimming Launches their newest program

I've read other blogs asking about what has USA Swimming done lately. Well last night they launched their new iphone app "Deck Pass." They had already changed "My USA Swimming" into the "Deck Pass" platform. This is great way for kids to track their times, realize accomplishments by achieving National Standards, see their friends progress in achievement, see their IMX score, and other aspects. For coaches, it allows you to hand out digital patches to your swimmers (I have already began to award patches for good practices). On the coaches site you can also see where your team ranks in the Virtual Club Championships.

I know people expect great amazing things from USA Swimming, but these small things can be utilized to help build our athletes. Deck Pass is a Facebook like program that kids can enjoy with modern technology. They also created IMR and IMX to help promote the idea of being a well-rounded swimmer, and to develop IMers (from previous post). Virtual Club Championships is a program that allows to see where you are as a team in your LSC, Zone, or the Nation. It is based off of having speed, but also rewards for being a bigger team and depth throughout the program. It is a way to judge performance at the whole club level for 18 and unders. Some may see these are just gimmicks, but these tools can be utilized to help motivate swimmers and teams.

USA Swimming also has established the Club Recognition program that can help teams develop a good foundation for a swim team. Club Excellence is a way to promote developing high level performers, and the new changes make it a even better program focusing on 18 and unders.

They are doing things for us as a NGB. Sure, they aren't perfect, but they are making efforts. I think that there have been some mistakes made, and some miss management of money within the organization, but they seem to be trying to improve the organization. A lot of bad headlines have come to light in the sport lately, and I hate that these incidents have happened, but it is good to shine a light on them because now we are getting rid of the few bad apples in our ranks. There is a lot of improvement that needs to occur, but at least the progress is being done.

I hope that coaches are able to utilize these programs, and take advantage of the programs in ways that they see fit for their team. We need to be creative, and look to catch the attention of the youth of our new age society. It isn't the same world from even 5 years ago, we need to stay ahead of the game and make the changes so that we continue to keep kids interested and in our sport.

Why I Coach

I got into coaching because I thought it was fun. I enjoyed coaching summer league, and my dad needed a coach. 3 days a week for 50 minutes a day. Not a lot of money, but it also wasn't a lot of work. It was perfect for a kid who was going to a Junior College trying to redefine himself academically. I was having a blast coaching, being a college student, and I was on the Dean's List. Things were great. I fell in love with coaching though. Helping others improve became addictive, and it got me hooked, and now I am a full-time coach.

As I continued to coach though I felt like I needed a purpose to my coaching, so I really began to think about what I did as a coach. I found that making kids faster at swimming, although part of the focus of what we did, it was kind of superficial. There had to be more. I began to research and talk with other coaches about the values taught in swimming; the life lessons that can be learned. I figured out that maybe because I wasn't fully dedicated as a young person as a swimmer, I didn't seem to learn all these lessons. Now as a coach though I began to realize that we did teach great lessons that helped kids as they go through life. I started to say certain things, and conducted myself in a certain way. I began to stress the life lessons in my coaching. Not only did my swimmers begin to learn them, but I myself began to learn them as well. Coaching has helped me become who I am.

Through the years I have gotten better at relaying my message to my swimmers. Some do take a little longer than others, but I stick to my formula and it seems to be effective. It is a challenge at times, as results begin to overtake swimmers and parents, and they have a hard time realizing everything that they can be taking away from the experience. Not to say our goal is not to make them fast swimmers because it is, but when I began to teach the life lessons using swimming as a vehicle to do so, my swimmers also began to achieve much more in the sport. As the lessons not only make them better people and students, but they become crucial in the continued success in swimming.

A few things that I try to get them to learn: It takes hard work for success; Deal with failure and use it as a step towards success and not a result; Time Management as swimming tends to take over and dictate a swimmers time; How to motivate teammates and use them to help motivate you to be better; I can't is just a way to say I am not willing to try anymore; Impossible is only something that I haven't tried to accomplish; and many others that can be learned.

It does take time to rehearse in your mind what you are going to tell your swimmers. It takes time to realize what you have taught so far, and what you still need to address. It takes time to evaluate previous season plans, and come up with that new ways that will not only achieve success, but be slightly different so that your athletes don't get bored with same old thing all the time. It is a daily activity to continue to look over the plan and then create a workout for the day that fits into that plan. Despite all that, it is a great job.

As mentioned in my coaching memory, it is amazing to be able to make a difference in one persons life. There have been more memories like when I talked a swimmer into continuing to swim despite going through a rough patch of swimming horrible. He only continued to swim to be a Valley High School champion, a scholarship swimmer for division 1 Swim Team, and an Olympic Trial Qualifier. So many instances like those, and now I am addicted.

I coach to make a difference and to help teach the life lessons that there are to teach with using swimming as the vehicle. Yes, I like to make swimmers fast, but there is a little more to it than that.

2500 Pageviews!

Wow, It hasn't even been a year that I have had this blog up. It started slow, and it definitely went through a down spot in the spring, but it really has picked up steam this summer, and really began to be read in the last two months. I had, and kind of still don't, have a true direction for this blog. It doesn't provide to a specific niche, but rather a broad audience of people in the area of swimming. With this broad base, I felt like it wouldn't be a blog where a lot of people would read a lot, but that it would get a pageview every once in awhile.

I am to the point now with this blog that I try my best to keep putting up something on the blog. Since the pageviews have skyrocketed, I think that I have become much better at keeping up with the blog. It seems that everyone who follows this blog seems to appreciate the fact that I do keep putting up entries. I know that not every blog pertains to each reader, but now as I am doing regular entries, I think that the reader will have something to read that may pertain to them within the numerous blogs that I do.

I will continue to post up blogs for all those who do follow this blog, and I hope that you continue to read and take something away from this blog. I think I slowed down because I felt like people weren't taking anything away from it, but now that I feel like I may actually be helping others, I am more inclined to continue to post.

Thank You to all who read, and I hope that I provide some information to all of you.

Trying to change the focus and this years season plan

I spend a lot of time understanding the swim strokes. The different types of strokes that are out there, and how to make sense of why a stroke is effective to propel the body through the water. The problem is that I feel like my swimmers catch on to how much I am dedicated to understanding strokes, that they begin to focus on the strokes only. So I did a practice today to get them to try to change their focus.

The set was fairly simple. 3 rounds of 5 x 100's on a descending interval. My main group tried to do 500 Free Pace on the 1:40 for the first round, then 200 Pace on the 1:30 on the second round, and finishing off with trying to make the interval on the 1:20. My other group was a +10 seconds to the intervals, but the same focus. They had to check the clock each time, and make it a goal to hit the same time for the entire round. The third round was focused on just making the interval as for the group that I coach 1:20 is a challenge.

This set allowed to focus more on their speed, and less on the stroke technique. We have done our period of time for the season that we concentrated on stroke technique, and the group will continue to have parts of workout devoted to developing the strokes further, but the focus of taking ones stroke, and trying to make it faster through other ways than correcting technique. I've seen many swimmers become so focused on stroke technique that they begin to only contribute slow swimming to bad technique, when there are other factors that come into play.

Through the season I have designated times where I work on different aspects. I normally start with conditioning with kicking (a lot of kicking) and drills that are leg driven. I then spend a period of time where I go over body position, hand patterns, and timing. I am entering the stage where the swimmers will focus on what they are actually doing in the water, and for them to make self-correction. (This is based on the idea of developing myelin in the brain as described in The Talent Code.) This is also the phase where I'll bump up the conditioning. The next phase will be more like the set described above, as we begin to focus on developing speed. Then I will go into a phase where I will concentrate on little things such as: starts, turns, transitions, and other race skills. This period of time is normally a spot where the swimmers will get rested as working on these aspects take away from the training time (so it is a form of resting). This is normally where we will go to a Winter Championship meet, WAG in Vegas for us this year. The next phase is where I'll be making my biggest adjustment from last year, as I feel like our JO Meet in February was sub par last year. I'll probably go right back to training and working on developing speed through the developed strokes rather than a stroke development phase as I did last year. I will again do race skills to begin to rest the swimmers, and then finish off with timed swims with long easy swims to go into the JO meet. The Stroke Development will begin after the JO Meet, and the Long Course Season will be very similar to the Short Course Season.

I will try to lose focus either. I feel like I slipped a little bit last week, as I focused more on racing skills rather than get the conditioning in as I had originally planned. I'm back on track though, and the set today was a good way to get back on track.

Constructing Butterfly

So I started coaching a Masters Group on Monday and Wednesday Mornings at the Simi Valley YMCA. It is not a big group, but it is a good group. I recently picked up a new swimmer who told me that he basically was trained by his dad who didn't really know a lot about swimming, but he enjoyed it swimming in high school when he was younger. He pretty much only knew freestyle, and it was a pretty decent freeestyle.

We did a butterfly workout the other week, and I only spent maybe about 20 minutes on the fly, and I taught it a little different. I've listened to Steve Haufler peak at about two or three clinics, and I've watched his videos, and I was always skeptical about his approach to teaching butterfly, but I decided to try it.

You begin by teaching the hand pattern desired, and the very relaxed and smooth recovery. No Kick, No Motion, No breathing while taking strokes (Snorkel is probably best, but my group didn't have snorkels). The main thing was to learn the hand pattern. Press down with the hands creating EVF (Early Vertical Forearm), then push the hands towards the belly button and then slice outward and back with pinkies first. With no motion they must rise their shoulders and bring their arms foreward very easy. They end up dragging some of the arm during the recovery, but that is ok. This is where I stopped. At a later time I explained that as the arms enter the chest is to press down keeping the arms near the surface. I watched as he lap swam and it looks like he can't swim butterfly, but if you watch carefully he has a very good pull pattern, and he had a revelation about what happens when you lean on the lungs and press the chest down. He still has no idea when to kick or when to breathe, but it will be a lot easier to get that timing down now that he understands the correct pull pattern, understands that press of the chest, and has realized how easy it is to get the hips to rise.

Butterfly is not to be swam with a big undulation, it becomes a small wave pattern. The hips rise just enough to allow the water to flow past the body.

From the regular spectator, they probably feel like he looks like a dying fish out there as he swims, but if you watch carefully he has learned very hard concepts. He was willing to do exactly as I said, and was willing to look silly and go slow, and because of that discipline he has been able to learn the beginnings of butterfly. He'll need to learn timing next, but at least he has the arm motion to allow the timing to become easier to work on, as now the butterfly he has has become effortless, and although he doesn't move fast, he'll be able to add the other aspects in very well because the normally forced parts of butterfly, he has figured out how to not make them so forceful.

Remember that relaxation is key to speed in swimming. If you can't swim relaxed, then the upside for your speed is very limited.

Observing at the meet

We just finished up a swim meet this weekend in Santa Maria. As it is a decent drive to Santa Maria, this is one of the few travel meets we have outside of championship meets. The meet was fun, the swims were pretty good. It is fun to also take a few minutes at meets to observe the different things going on with the swimmers.

I am so happy that CSSC is one of those teams that always seems to have people at the ends of the pool cheering each other on. It was like that with my former teams as well, but there are those teams that you see them cheer on occasion, but not too consistently. It's nice to see teammates cheer each other on. It is also nice to see swimmers stick around and help their teammates in the distance events. They lap count, they time, they cheer them on. This is done when there was no reason that they needed to stay beyond the fact that they wanted to support their teammate. This is a hard one as after a long day, you normally just can't wait to get out of there.

I know there was a little bit of a threat for this meet, but it was still good to see parents putting in their time to help the meet run properly. I don't think parents realize that without their efforts the times swam at the meet may not be official. If you don't meet the standards of timers and officials, the times are not official. Your time matters, and allows the meets to operate.

(Tangent about volunteering)
Many times once swimmers have gone to 2 - 4 meets they know what they are to do (well, at least for kids 9 and up). The swimmer becomes very independent at meets, and learn how to check heat and lane, do their warm-up and cool-down, check in with their coach, and show up to their correct lane. So, parents want to know what are they to do. First and foremost, always support your child and allow the coach to be critical. I have had times in my coaching career where I stop being critical for certain swimmers because I hear how critical their parents are, so I try to be supportive because the swimmer needs both sides (to bad the coach can't be critical to help them realize something that could be re-directed to practice). Volunteering as a timer is great way to support your child's sport, and prevent you from being too critical. I have actually seen this, as a parent couldn't help but add their critiques when the event had just happened, and they always realized after the fact that they didn't want to coach their child, so he opted to time the majority of the meet, and sometimes the whole meet, to prevent himself from doing these instant critiques. If timing is to away from the action for you as a parent, become an official. It puts you right into the sport, and you learn about the sport as well.

Taking ownership of the team. I think it makes the experience of swimming that much better. The swimmer develops an identity that they can bond with those they work so hard beside, and the parents become a part of the team as well, as they are a critical aspect of the team functioning. The triangle relationship between coach, parent, and swimmer become strong when all parties are involved and are all part of the team.

It was great to observe at the meet and see very few not trying to do their part as part of the team. Don't be the one that takes advantage of the program, be one of the people who helps enhance it.

Coaching Memory

I've been coaching for a long time. If you count the years I was an assistant for the Selma Aqua Bears, I believe I am on my 14th year of coaching. With so many years, I have many great memories, and memories of so many great people; swimmers, parents, and coaches alike. I have some very distinct memories that are some of my favorites though, and I am going to write about one of those great memories I have.

This story is not about some amazing swimmer accomplished something great, but when I felt like I really did make an impact.

First of all some back story, I coached in a small town of around 23,000 people, and it is a farming community. I grew up in this town, and I had become the Head Coach of the High School Team at the young age of 20 years old. One year a young man who was a sophomore joined the team. This young man could barely swim (most high school coaches know what I mean, literally, could barely make it a 25). My JV Coach took him and put fins on him to show just the idea of not kicking with your toes pointed to the bottom as if trying to walk in the pool. This young man though was never academically eligible his whole high school career, and my JV Coach told me that he probably wasn't going to be eligible this time either. Well, he wasn't and he wasn't able to swim on the team. He was allowed to participate in some practices that didn't interfere with tutorial after school. He continued to come 100% of the times he could. He went to every home meet and supported the team, and was a timer at almost every meet. At the end of the season, I talked to him, and he really wished he could have been part of the team. That summer he joined the summer league team and swam for me. He made a lot of improvement, but still wasn't all that fast.

He came out to the High School team again his Junior Year, and this time, for the first time in High School career he got a GPA above a 2.0. He was able to join. I always talked about working hard with the team, and don't expect things to just come to you. I talked about not settling for mediocricy, and strive to be the best that you can be. He told me that he took that same effort I talked about for the pool, and finally applied it to school. That was cool, but the story goes.

This Young Man didn't have a lot of money. I'd guess his parents were both farm laborers. He talked about that he lived his grandma, and I'd always see him riding his skate board from the pool. I don't know if his parents had a vehicle. He described his skateboard rides to morning practice, so I had an idea of where he lived, and that part of town is not a nice part, and it sounded like it was a dirt road to his house. No one in his family was educated, and I'm sure he was one of the first to graduate high school. He accomplished a lot during the time that I coached him. He joined the football team his senior year, and actually got some playing time even though it was his first season. He missed his goal of making Divisionals in swimming, but he dropped over 4 minutes in his 500 Free over the two years he swam for Selma, and he loved that event.

The best moment was after practice one day he told me that he took the Special Forces Test for the Navy, I believe. He told me that he was there with about 7 other guys, all of which were athletes, and there were some water polo players, but he was the only one that was only a swimmer. Only two of the eight kids were able to pass the physical test, and he was one of them. He told me that he was surprised how conditioned he was compared to the others.

It's funny, but that moment was great. To hear from a young man who when I met him he was pretty much not good at much, and who had been failing academically, and he could join a sport like swimming, and be motivated to change the way he did things. Maybe I did have something to do with it, but the sport was the vehicle. Swimming allowed him to achieve what he wanted to do, and he was able to go on and go into the Special Forces Unit. Hard Work made him become a better person, and a better swimmer. He didn't become national swimmer, but he took away from the sport. Would he have found the motivation without swimming, maybe he would have, but what did happen, was that the sport did motivate him to learn how to work hard.