Learning to relax with one exhale laps

This is something that I got from my brother, and then developed my own idea of how it can be very effective for the swimmers. I first began using this as a way to demonstrate how long someone can swim while breathing out slowly. This worked very well especially with my high school swimmers who had never swam in their lives. They learned the basic fundamental skill of air exchange, which they probably learned when they were 5 or 6 when they took swim lessons. Too bad they never applied this skill they learned to swimming.

Although I still use this drill for this reason, it has also become a great way to get my swimmers to concentrate on controlling their exhale in the water, meaning that they would have to relax and swim at the same time. This is a skill I try to teach my groups each season.

The drill is simple, swim 25 yards and they must exhale during the entire lap. Try not to hold your breathe, but exhale very smooth and slowly as you swim across the pool. After a few 25's then I'll have them try to do fast kick, slow arms. This is a little bit tougher as they use oxygen with their kick, plus they have to concentrate on an extra skill.

I remember sprinting and just holding my breathe, but then I some how figured out that I could go longer if I let out small amounts of air. When my brother came home and told me about this drill, I thought it was great and have used it ever since. The benefits of it has evolved from when I first used it though.

Relaxation and going hard at the same time is hard, but it is what I try to teach my swimmers. This I believe helps concentrate and relax, similarly to meditation. Meditation is where I believe I figured out the slow exhale as I began a meditation routine as a sophomore in high school. This drill now can take that skill and try to apply it to swimming. Relaxation is a core concept of speed.

02/22 Talk to the Group

"If your desire is to be the best, then you cannot only do what you want to do, but rather to be the best, you must do what is necessary to accomplish it." This is what I told to the group between dryland and getting ready to get into the water. I went on a little bit more about Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali mentioned that he didn't enjoy every moment of his training (I saw an Ali quote at the YMCA that made me aware of this). My assumption was that he loved to box and he wanted to be the best. He understood that the training may not be the most enjoyable moment, but the results were. He did what was necessary and not what he felt like he wanted to do.

Doing only what you want to do leads to mediocrity. Sometimes there lies this content with mediocrity in some people, but it is those who are willing to do what is necessary to be the best that they can be, that accomplish great things.

I heard on the radio the other day that most of the people who make up the 1% of our nation are those who work or worked in the past well over the average work week of 40 hours a week. Some did inherent their fortunes, but statistics have shown that many of the 1% who got there themselves worked beyond what most people see as the normal work week. They did what was necessary, and not only what they wanted to do and what was required of them.

Good luck to all of those who do the little extra and do what may be necessary to be great at what ever you strive to accomplish. Whether it make you rich, fast, or just makes you feel good that you are the best that you can be. I commend all of those who are willing to do what is necessary to the best, and to all those swimmers who accept that they must do more than just what they want.

Child Psychology

Now with CSSC, I am putting out monthly parent education articles. They range the spectrum of levels and issues that arise in our sport of swimming. This is one piece of the article that I wrote up and Lauren edited and added her point of view to it, so that it was more all encompassing. This article is about the child psychology aspect. This information I didn't come up with completely, but I did get some of my information through discussions with Phil Black.

          10 and under swimmers (and those as old as 13) have a desire to please those around them. This means that they tend to do things that make the adults in their lives happy. If the parent wants them to swim, then the child typically wants to swim. If a coach wants them to do well, they typically will work hard to perform better (this also depends on the athlete/coach relationship). In children who possess the desire to please (a coach/parent/teammate, etc), adults must be very encouraging and positive even during the experiences of failure and disappointment. Coaches are required to be critical, but normally in these hard times we even tend to be supportive. It is amazingly difficult for parents to hide disappointment as they want their child to succeed – this is often why some athletes fizzle out as they can't handle continuing to disappoint the adults in their lives.

The adolescent swimmer (no specific age given because it is said that it can differ by up to 5 years during/after the mental maturation of a child) begins to be motivated intrinsically – showing some autonomy and signs of taking ownership of their training habits/results. Sometimes an athlete isn’t prepared for autonomy, but he/she thinks they are ready. In this case the athlete will push against those that he/she once tried to please, as now he/she wants to do things to please him/herself. If swimming has been fun and not burdened with expectation, the swimmer’s desire to excel in the sport will prevail, whereas the swimmer who has been pressured to succeed by parents and coaches will likely retreat and have no reason to continue working/performing.

I (Kacy) coach younger swimmers in the hopes that I instill hard work and improvement not as an expectation of me and/or the parents, but as something that they want for themselves. I want to prepare the swimmer for a better senior swimming career which is the career that really matters.

I (Lauren) coach slightly older swimmers in hopes that I can guide and provide a real sense of autonomy and responsibility in the athletes I see daily. I am thankful that Kacy begins this process in the kids – the intrinsically motivated athlete is typically one who also does well in school, provides leadership by example, and can work through the disappointments to reap the long-awaited reward at the end of each season.

It can’t be easy being a parent, much less a swim parent. Take in this information and see if it can help you. We try not to be in the business of telling parents how to parent, but we do like providing information we have accumulated over the years that may provide a different perspective. Good Luck to all of you.

Freestyle Drills

Let's start with young new swimmers. I do like to teach a straight arm recovery and not high elbow in the beginning. I see way to many kids who have learned high elbow before rotation, and there are a lot of bad habits that are develop by doing this method.

Begin with Kicking on Side (the assumption is that they know how to freestyle kick from swim lessons). They need to learn to keep the bottom arm extended pointed forward and hand not in front of the head. Focus a lot of keeping their ear on the pillow (which is their shoulder). They never lift their ear off the shoulder.

Next it is Side Kicking with a rotating head. Moving in a "no" motion, the swimmer blows bubble in the water, and then turns head to take a single small breathe and then back into the water to blow bubbles.

Next is 6 Kick Switch Drill. The swimmer kicks on side for 6 kicks and then takes a stroke and rotates to the other side for the next 6 kicks, and then the process is repeated. Incorporating breathing becomes tough, and they shouldn't mind if they have to take more kicks than 6.

Next is 6 - 3 - 6 Drill. Here they will do 6 Kicks on one side, and then they will take 3 strokes, and then 6 kicks on the other side. Same concept as 6 kick switch except that the are three strokes instead of the one.

Now once they have done this for awhile and have developed some rotation, you can do drills that develop high elbow recovery.

Finger Tip Drag is a good beginning, but if they are having trouble with finger tip drag do zipper drill. Zipper drill is when they have a zipper on the side of the body and they zip up the zipper from thigh all the way up. It is essentially finger tip drag, but an emphasis on the hand being close to the body. This is big when they are still developing good rotation.

I also use Freestyle Touch Drill. This Drill includes touches at Thigh, Shoulder, Head, and then water back to a Superman Position. I normally talk about elbow rises tom move from thigh to shoulder, and then elbow moves forward as they go from shoulder to head. This up and then forward method goes well with the concept of rotating the shoulder forward.

I know coaches who don't like Catch-Up Freestyle, but I do like to use it while holding a Superman Position. Emphasize that the entry and extension is to superman, and not to streamline.. I like Catch-Up so the swimmer can focus on arm at a time and try to "set the elbow" or create a vertical forearm. A 3/4 Catch-Up can used greatly yo work on front quadrant stroke, which I do try to teach my swimmers. 3/4 catch can be a good tool to also work on rotation speed.

Kicking on side can also be done in Shark Fin (hand behind shoulder and elbow upward, not drooping down on their side), and in Sailboat (elbow slightly extended in front of head, shoulder rotated forward, and fingers pointed towards the lead arms wrist). Young kids do these with fins on. Stress good neutral body position.

We'll incorporate a 3/4 Catch-up with sailboat and a 6 kick switch with the sailboat. Emphasizing the rotation from one side to the next as quick as possible on these drills, spending very little time on their stomach.

I do refresh sometimes by do a straight arm recovery drill, and then a straight arm to sailboat drill (The straight arm recovery lasts until the elbow passes by the head, you can utilize some pauses at the top and sailboat positions as well to really get the emphasis on the positions. I use this for those who come to me with high elbow with bad rotation, and inability to finish through their stroke due to learning the high elbow to early. These reminders are also good maintenance for the other swimmers.

I hope that provides some ideas or some reinforcement for all of you out there. I do use other drills throughout the season, but the number of drills do get big, and I have drills designed for specific levels as I think that early on there are some things that need to be taught to develop good strokes for future success.

Freestyle

Freestyle all begins with the kick. A good kick leads to a good freestyle. Yes, the more propulsive the better, but even a not so great propulsive kick can still be a good freestyle. I really liked the kick article that was on USA Swimming, as it showed the importance of driving down the kick rather than just straightening the leg.

When it comes to develop the stroke though. Understand that you spend very little time on your stomach, but rather you spend a lot of time on your side, and then rotate quickly all the way to the other side. It was always told to me that the speed of the rotation helps determine the speed of freestyle.

Kicking on your side is very important, and developing proper body position by placing the head near the shoulder. Do not allow the head to lift off the surface other wise the spine wants to straighten so the hips will drop. Hips dropping will always cause slower swimming.

Another article off of USA Swimming was about rotating to the shoulder forward. This allows for a great reach. The longer you can make the extension of the body the better, as you increase surface area and increase buoyancy. You are on your side for speed reasons, so the length is the best way to increase surface area. We have a progression of drills for freestyle that I will go into more on the next post.

While working on kicking on your side though, be sure to concentrate on moving the head like with a nod as you are indicating "no" and not to nod the head like you are indicating "yes." Be sure that new swimmers and all young swimmers are practicing good air exchange with this head movement while kicking on their side. This is not a comfortable movement and needs to be develop asap, and the sooner the better. This will make swimming a lot easier later down the road. That is one of my main goals as a swim coach also, "make it easy." The best swimmers make it look easy because they have mastered the art of easy swimming, and then developed speed with that art. I teach easy swimming, and add speed as they progress.

More to come, but I have to get to practice.

flip turn arms

First of all  I want to apologize for the lack of posts. Things got busy with everything from swim team, work, and life. I hope to get back on track in the next few weeks.

There are many different ways that people teach flip turns. There are all kinds of methods, and many of them work. Last night I didn't work on how to execute the flip turn, but the concept of what to do with your hands. I have used this method for years, and it has seemed to work for me. I know other use a noodle method or push the hat descriptions, but I have found that this does work for me.

I have the swimmer hold two kick boards, one in each hand. They hold the board so the board is just floating on the surface and their arms are  underneath. They are on their stomachs with their hands by their side. They go to floating position, and then they kick (just to create some momentum) for 3 seconds and then execute a flip turn. The kick boards normally prevent them from using their hands to assist the finish of the flip turn and utilize just the core muscles to execute the turn.

I will normally repeat this a few times, and then talk to them about how a forced them to do a flip turn with out using their hands. "So, do you really need to use your hands and arms to do a flip turn?" I'd ask my group, and the response is almost always no. Ok, so we got it out of their heads that they need to use their arms and hands to even do a flip turn.

Now, we will do the drill again, but this time they need to end up on their back and they need to squeeze the boards together to block their vision of the sky. We do this a few times, and they get used to moving the arms inward during the flip to block their vision with the kickboard. Back to the wall, and we talk about how I want to come into the wall hands by side, and then they flip their body into Superman, then they'll move their arms in and stack their hands; push and rotate to their stomach. After this many (not all) are transitioning quickly from flip to push as now they don't have to waste their time to bring their hands up into a streamline before they push the wall.

It is a method I've used for years, and it has worked relatively well. There many great ways out there on how to teach this same thing, this just happens to be the method I use.