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).
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
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.)
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.)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, December 12, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, December 5, 2011
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.
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.
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