Monday Afternoon Practice Review (Feb 29 2016)

Monday afternoon is typically a "Threshold" training day for us.  

Most people took care of the set in the middle.  Jack took care of the left side.

This type of practice, and getting better at it, is the goal for all athletes. It doesn't matter if you are sprinter or a distance swimmer!  

If you look at the page (bottom of the post), you can see the zones I was asking for.  These zones were figured based off our 10x300 Freestyle set we did last week.  I plugged the athlete's average times into a program that I have used since 2006 (seen below) -- and that program spits out what we call "White, Pink, and Red" paces.  It also spits out Blue Paces and Purple paces.

Here's what it looks like.

I have a lot to say about this pace chart, why we use it, how its use affects sprinters and distance swimmers alike, etc --  but I'll save that for a video post.

So, the practice went well.  Most people "completed the assignment" -- which is how I look at this type of practice day (more on that later as well).

We will be swimming at 100-200 pace on Tuesday -- and for many of our athletes -- on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday as well!

Congrats to Rip

Congrats to Rip Lyster, who presented his Laureate review to his Instructors and Peers at Gulf Coast High School last week.

Rip's presentation is titled "3-D Printing: Let's think about its Future".

Rip is available for tutoring in all science-based courses.  Just let him know.  Way to go Rip!

Does anyone have any information of this sort that may highlight a T2 Aquatics National group member -- outside of the pool?  Please send me any info.  I'd like to spruce up this blog a little bit with some more news about the great things our T2 Aquatics Student Athletes do every day.

Video "Vlog" February 28 2016 -- "Log Books"

I have really enjoyed doing this blog.  I want to keep it going!  I am anticipating getting some more info on the blog in the form of videos, so keep an eye out for more posts like this one.

Videos take less time than writing, and my tone is easily conveyed.   My goal is that you can spend less than 4 minutes viewing each video, and get a lot of good information and inspiration.

I created a new youtube channel to make this happen, which will allow you to go back through the channel to find old posts if you'd like.  Here it is (2:27 in length):

Saturday Notes and Discussion on "Steering the Ship"

Both 6am and 8am Saturday practices offered plenty of opportunity for learning for the National group athletes.  

We had some great performances as well!  Our breaststroke group at 8am was very good, with Matt leading the way going lots of 34s throughout the set.  Wyatt and Alex were in the 35-37 range.  I remember when 37-39 was our normal range strong swims at practice, with an occasional 35.9-36.9 in there at times; now we’ve got a number of guys who can hold in the 36 second range with good-looking strokes.

How do we know the stroke is good?  Matt was doing his 50s at 28 strokes, which is a few under his 2^nd 50 racing stroke count (his best swim second 50 is 33 strokes).  So he is basically doing something equal to his best 2^nd 50 for his 100, and he’s doing it with 5 less strokes.  He is keeping one variable about equal to the norm (his time), but he’s moving forward on another equally important variable (his stroke rate) – by taking less strokes.  It would also be ok to keep the stroke count the same as it is in the competition, while going faster. 

Our 150s at the 6 AM practice were led by Jack, Paolo, and Cole.  Jack and Cole were going 136-137s, and Paolo was holding 138-139s.  Emma and Karen were holding between 144 and 140, which is great training for aspiring distance swimmers. 

I thought one of the best parts about the workouts was that we had a few athletes who didn’t start off very good, but figured out a way to get better and salvage a good workout.  Maybe not a great workout, but a good workout.  I’ve seen plenty of workouts thrown away in my coaching career and I can tell you that the poor workouts that turn into the good workouts are just as valuable as the good workouts that turn into great workouts.  Why?  The answer doesn’t reside in the statistics of the athlete (how many seconds the athlete improved for their 100s in practice); the answer is found in the athlete having turned their experience in a different, more effective direction.  This is important because we, as people and as athletes, are not capable of continually performing actions that are 100% inline with our own expectations, and at times we can eventually get to our goal if only we keep striving towards the goal.  We give up early too often, and sometimes we want to give up before we even get started!  We have to be able to abide by this key sport’s psychology rule: don’t look for perfection in your performance; instead be steady enough in your pursuit where you can feel the “bumps in the road” without letting those bumps convince you that you’re off-track. 

Consider Michael Phelps’ 200 Fly Gold Medal swim from Beijing.  Anyone who was around Michael during that time thought 149 was possible, based off his training, and even through he was winning there were people on the sidelines wondering why he looked so “off”.  Turns out, he had a significant goggle leak.  Not a problem for Michael.  He was tough enough mentally that although the leak hindered him, it didn’t stop him. 

Another great story was Dara Torres’ performance in the 1984 Olympic Trials.  She didn’t get off the blocks on time – I’d have to go the video but I think she was leaning in the wrong direction.  She came back to get second and make the team.  Apparently, to those who saw it – it was pretty incredible.

Check out this video of Jason Lezak talking about changing his mind state during the race in the 2008 Olympics, as he came back to touch-out the highly favored French team:  Jason Lezak talking about blocking about Negative thoughts during competition

This is called "Steering the Ship".  You simply won't have things go the way you've planned every time you hit the water.  Sometimes you will, but often you won't.  How big of a heart do you have?  When the going gets tough, can you respond?

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO if you have 1:29 and you want to hear an experience about exactly what I'm talking about!  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Saturday 6am practice

Here's what we've got for the 6am practice.  Get there!

8am people…you will have to be surprised.  Get there by 7:40 for some dryland work.

Friday Practice

It was a nice sunny Friday for practice at the Norris Aquatic Center.  I wish I had taken a picture!

Some of the day's highlights:

1. We had 6 people kick 29 or faster on a 50Y kick.  3 or 4 people were 2 seconds away or less.  

2. Our 4x100 Breast (150) at the end of the warmup was very good, particularly for Breaststrokers.  Matt was 108-107-106-104 and Jack was 108-107-106-105 if memory serves.  Wyatt was just under or just over 1:10s.  Jacob and Alex were 111-110s for the most part.

3. We had some strong 50s for just about everyone after the warmup (pre-set).

The main set (kicking) was solid all the way through.  I was psyched to see the lead athletes start with 4 or 5 under 2:30 for the first 200.  I remember a few weeks back at the YMCA…asking for people to get under 2:30 after doing a few 200s, and it was a struggle.  It was one of those days.  Today, without me prompting anyone to do anything particular, we had 3-4 people sub 2:30 to start the set.

Tomorrow AM's 6am practice will be posted soon, so check back!

Thursday February 25, 2016

Wednesday Practice Review

We went 4x200 Fly from a dive on Wednesday.  As I'm sure all the athletes will agree, it was a fun set!

We lined up in order of 100 SCY Fly best times (we used 100s instead of 200s because I thought it would be more competitive).  So the top 6 100 Flyers were in the first heat, then the next 6 were in heat two, and so on.

The most fun was had during the third round.  We issued a challenge: the top 2 athletes in each heat didn't have to do the final (4th) 200 Fly.  We saw people step up and challenge for the top two spots, and we also saw people fall apart and fade back on the third round.  So, while some athletes went 2-4 seconds faster (perhaps they saw they were close to moving into the top 2), we had other athletes go 2-6 seconds slower (their fatigue, coupled with their lack of motivation to get into the top 2).  It was a wild round!  

I'm not going to post all of our times.  Our top boys were Rip, Jack, Shawn, and Cole.  Rip went 2:00 3 times as our top performer.  Our top girls were Karen and Bean.   Biggest step-ups in the set probably came from these people, as well as Emma and Allie M….Emma had been going 217s (PR is 209), and Allie had been going 221s-222s.  Allie stepped up and challenged Emma for the 2nd place in the heat on Round 3….getting out fast and working the walls.  Emma responded and closed the gap.  With 4-5 athletes trying to call a winner (and me), we couldn't do it…it was a tie at the end.  They both ended up going 213 or 214 (I can't remember).  I liked the fact that Allie took it out and swam with a focus on being great and knocking off a member of our Junior Nat team.  Emma, to her credit, was able to respond in a positive way; after being a body-length behind she was able to come back and at least get the tie.  Both athletes had to go through the process of elevating their own personal self-belief…and then put that self-belief into action.   

This self-talk practice, and this practice of the ability to "DEAL" is more important that "what we did for practice"!!

Tuesday's Practice: 32x100 (130)

8x rounds:

3x100 Free (130)

plus

1x100 Back or Breast (130)

Monday 10x300 Report

We are lucky to train in Naples, Florida USA

On Monday Feb 22, we did our traditional 10x300 Freestyle set.  We do this on (330) with most of our sub 5:10 500 freestylers and on (350) with everyone else.  

The fastest we've had anyone average on this set is probably the 2:55 Shawn averaged the last time we did this.  We had three guys there today.  Here are some of the results:

Shawn 252.8 average

Jack 253.7 average

Jacob 2:55.6 average

Matt 2:58.6 average

Aaron 2:59.3 average

Emma 306.5 average

Karen 3:10 average

Bean 3:11.6 average

We had a number of other athletes who did very well on the set.  

I will use the averages we got on the set (as well as the averages from the group that went on 3:50), and I will put together sets like we've been doing recently…where we shoot for "pink" and "red" pace based off my "COLOR CHART".  I probably won't pull out the charts and hand them out because we would have 40 people or at least 18 people who are all supposed to hit a different time.  Athletes, you will see that I will continue to give you ranges to hold, and I will guide you into the range that is indicated by your set of 10x300 or your 3000 for time.  If you didn't do well on the 10x300, it's not a problem because I'm simply going to use my head and put you in a good spot to train.

I was looking at my program today (the "Color Chart" excel program many of you have seen), and on it is the leftover results of some of the Club Wolverine people who did these sets (Gold Medalists Peter Vanderkay, Klete Keller, and Michael Phleps).  

When I hit "SAVE" on my computer, I label our results "T2" so I keep some of the averages from the original program Coach Urbanchek gave me.

I've also got some of the averages from athletes I've coached in the past.  I'm generally hesitant to break out too much from my past, but if it can help us either 1) motivate or 2) get inspired and encouraged -- then I will share.  So here are a few from 2008:

Drew Cosgarea averaged 2:47.0 (went 15:25 and 8:04 LCM 1500 and 800 in HS, got down to 1:48 in the LCM 200 Free at Stanford last summer.  Recently made the 2015 World University Games Team)

Brennan Morris averaged 2:48.4 (went 15:33 LCM 1500 and then 15:15 in 2009 to make the USA World Championship team)

Austin Surfoff 2:53.3 (went on to win NCAA's for Texas in the 200 IM (2009) and make the World University Games team in the 200 IM in 2011)

Dan Madwed averaged 2:50.0 (4:19 500 guy in HS, Dan went on to win Gold Medals in the Pan American games, the World University Games, and the World Championships between 2009-2011…competing mostly in the 200 Free and the 400 Free).

Katie Hoff 2:49.3 (went on the set the American Record in each SCY distance 500 and up, as well as the LCM 400 Free).

Camryne Morris 3:02.0 (went 16:32 in the LCM 1500 and 8:43 in the LCM 800 in the summer of 2009 after going 16:25 SCY and 9:53 SCY the spring leading into it….National Junior Teamer at 14 or 15)

So these are some of the times I've seen in practices, and they are proof to me that they can be done by athletes who are in HS.  I'd say that we are moving into this direction of the above athletes on this type of set.  Keep in mind, it's only one type of set!  Dan Madwed, for instance, went 2:50 for his average, but he could also kick a 54+ for 100 yards IM and that sort of thing on a daily basis.  So there are different parts of training that affect performance and you want to have as many of those parts as you can have (more on that later this month). You can't just be good at one thing!

With guys like Shawn, Jack, and Jacob getting into the lower 250s, you guys can see that you can roll at this sort of practice with many people.  Michael Phelps went 2:46 average in 2007 or 2008, as another example….I've got the results on my program.  By going 252-255 average, it shows that you could at lease do the set with Michael and not look completely out of place!  

And it also shows that perhaps there is more coming down the line for our athletes.  We won't have everyone go on to make the World University Games team, etc…but perhaps someone will!  You never know.  Or maybe some of our athletes DO know, deep down, that they can compete with a USA Flag on their cap!  You have to know what greatness looks like, and you have to have on open mind about being great.  

And you have to build you training, going from one day to another getting better at one thing or more each day.  Let's get better at skills and focus on skills more often.  Skills affect the race.  Let's work on the first 2 pulls off the walls and the last two pulls into the walls.  We have to make those pulls count, and to do it we need to have discipline and focus.  We can be much better over all distances with improved focus in those areas.

Saturday Practice

We had a challenging practice on Saturday.  Our intervals were not very hard, but the set was the type of set where you had to be ready to rumble when it was time -- or else the set would end with you only getting to 85% of your effort.

Parents, please keep reading to the end and follow the link for some extra info on our training ideas here at T2 Aquatics.

The Saturday set:

3 times through:
4x100 Free (130) -- get the HR going
3x100 Free- Stroke x50 (140) *-- work it
2x100 Stroke (150) * -- work it harder
1x rest an extra 30
1x100 Stroke (2) *--- descend 1-3 to half 100 goal
1x400 Free IM (7) -- cruise

A few of our top performances:
Shawn 109s for the 4, 105-106 for the 3, 104 for the 2, 102 for the last one
Shawn's last round was more like 102 for the 2 in a row and 59.1 on the end
Jacob and Rip were 107-108s, 105-104 for the 2, 103-104 on the ends
Both Rip and Jacob were about 1 second faster in the 2 and 1 on the end…some 103s (Rip)-104s (Jacob) on the pair,  and 102, 103 for the single.

Jack and Matt did Breaststroke.  117-118 for the 3, 115-116 for the 2, and 113-114 for the 3.  Pretty good work and better swimming than the LCM racing we did last week.  We have to be sub 115 in practice to be sub 230 in a meet.  We want to get to the point where we can go 227-228 in a brief suit, at any old meet.  When we can do that, sub 220 may be available!

Bean did Fly and was going 112-113 for 2 in a row and 110-111 on the single 100s.  Flyers were allowed to do Free-Fly on the 3 and the 2, with a full 100 on the end of each round.  Good thing she didn't do backstroke (she tried but didn't get away with it).

Paolo led the backstrokers with 113s down to 109s.

Cole was our best flyer guy, going 106s on Free-Fly and 106s on the (full) single 100s Fly.

These guys have a good handle on how we want to swim this set, with the exception of begin able to swim moderate 1:08-1:12 100s…we still have a few guys who are not able or willing to do this.  I'm going to start putting up medium speed goals too so we can stay on track.

How will our backstrokers and flyers go from 106-109s or higher….to 102s and 104s like we should, when we can only swim the Freestyle 100s on 130 at 114?!   Easy 100s free should be 1:10s.  We don't want the Heart Rate to be sub 145 for 6 minutes (4x100), and then expect it to go to 162, 164, and 170 over the set of 3, 2, and 1?!  We want the 4x100 to set the HR closer to where it will be on the 3x100, or the 2x100.  The 30 seconds rest is so the HR drops a bit and some extra fast swimming can happen.  But much of the training happens going from a strong set of 4 on 1:30 (be at 150-156 HR), to a stronger set of 3 (be at 157-162 HR), to a set of 2 (get to 166 HR), and then after a 30 second extra break just go for it (HR will be over 166).   During the 400 Free IM the HR will probably be in the 140s (low to high depending on the athlete).

In everyone's defense, this set is much more challenging than a normal Saturday Am set (based on our last few Saturdays)….and it's the type of set we tend to not swim well on.  We are better at 12x200 descend, or 9x400 descend 1-3.  Or 50s straight up.

We have to be better at this type of LCM set.  100s LCM, and 150s, 200s, and 300s SCY.  Particularly with strokes that are non Freestyle (we are better on the whole with Freestyle sets of 150s, 200s, and 300s)….this is our next step.

We can't get away with swimming 50s well and also swimming hard aerobic sets well, but not swimming this type of thing well, or at least improving with it (after all, we've had good results swimming poorly on this type of set).   We must get better at the "in between" speeds and distances.  Remember, it's not who is FASTEST that wins, and it's not who is TOUGHEST and CAN GO THE FURTHEST that wins.  It's who can hit the necessary pace and STAY THERE THE LONGEST that wins!

I know that as a coach, it's part of my job to be able to adjust to my athletes.  Whether it's a "new generation" or just a different type of kid.

I'm doing that the best I can, but I feel dumb straying too much from the type of work I gave my athletes 2004-2009 because the results were very good for my athletes during those years.  So I have to balance these things every day!  This is a big challenge for me.

See my blog post, from another blog I posted years ago, to see more on this concept of training.  Blog Post RE Volume Vs Velocity  Athletes, there won't be a test on this, you've heard some of this before; but Parents, if you haven't read this and your son or daughter swims with us at T2 Aquatics, you should take the time to check it out….you'll learn more about the thoughts I have about training.   We are not a high velocity or a high volume team….the answer, in my experience, is right in the middle.  

Friday Practice Thoughts

I hope everyone can learn from Friday's practice.  For those who were not there, I'll describe what happened during the main part of the workout:

We had some group goals to accomplish, and by the strict letter of the goals we set we really didn't come close to getting them.  I had dangled the idea of reducing the final set of the day if we were to get the goals -- but we just didn't get them.  

It's not that the athletes didn't swim well.  I think the goals were a bit too tough, and asking for 12 people to be there just wasn't in the cards.  I though people did a good job overall, nothing amazing but I felt that people were swimming well with their strong swims (our 2nd thru 4th breaststrokers were going 111-110-109s and our second tier of 100s back was 106-108….we've been worse)…and we did it straight for 27 minutes.  On the downside, no one really broke through.  The really good job done by our people will either be a girl who is in the top 3 performers (we've had that before on this team girls), or a guy who wins the Back, and the Breast, and the Kick.  Whichever his worst thing, he still is winning it or in a tie for the win.

Jennah and I decided mid way through the set that we was going to offer another chance for the group to get out of the end of practice.  I really didn't think I put up a "reasonable" goal…and our effort warranted at least another shot at another goal….so we decided to challenge the athletes who were not able to make the intervals on the set.  

Basically, during the set I asked people who were NOT able to make all the intervals (1:30 for 100s of Back Swim, Breast Swim, and Free Kick) to simply skip the Back Swim and try to do 2x100 in a row of Breast Swim/Free Kick).  These athletes had tried to do the first 3 and then the next 3, and were unsuccessful, so after about 6 they switched to going for two in a row instead of three, and just sitting there resting for most of the third one, while their teammates were swimming).

So we had about 10 athletes, 9 from the Senior Performance group and 1 from the National group, do the set again -- just for 3x100 on (1:30).

The results were eye-opening.   Of the 10 people who couldn't make the set, 8 made the 3x100 on (130) pretty easily in front of the group with the end of practice on the line.  It was great, but at the same time kind of discouraging and indicative of our group's mindset as a whole much too often: we wait around watching everyone else, with each person looking for the other to take the lead much too often in our training.  

Granted, most of the people who re-did the set were in the Senior Performance group, but I think we all should consider how we do not find that place in training where we are hurting and then we keep hurting and keep going.  We should consider what it's like to feel the power of others dropping off while you keep going.  We should all consider how we can outlast the competition!

Where are we missing training?  Are we swimming but wasting our time instead of moving forward?  Let's make the most of the time at the pool.  You're results will eventually get better with improved practice focus!

Friday Practice

Let's get after it!

Thursday February 18, 2016

Picture taken at the OTC in Colorado Springs

T2 Aquatics athletes did one of two sets yesterday:

Set #1:  4x600 Free on (8:00) descend 1-4

                       

Set 1 bonus (this ended up being a goal for Jack on this day.  We didn’t have anyone else that is close.  We will keep throwing it out there!).  Here is how it’s done:

*Do the first 300 at 2:56-3:00, and then get to either 3:49 at the 400, 4:19 at the 450, 4:49 at the 500, or 5:19 at the 550.

*You can stop early if you get to the time!

*You can’t go out faster than 2:56 to do it.  It’s all about being good on the way, and amazing coming home.

*For any female athletes who can’t get the first one, I’d accept going out in 3:04-3:08, and getting to 4:03, 4:33, 5:03, or 5:33.  So, the female athletes have to go some 29s at the end to get the goal.  If they don’t do the 29s to finish, then they do the whole 600.

Most of our athletes are apparently not ready for these goals, at least not for yesterday.  I thought a few girls would have been closer, considering we’ve seen Emma and Karen average sub 408 for 3 400s in a row last week.  But to do this kind of set you’ve got to be very ready, and very energized, and even then it’s going to be tough.  It’s too difficult without high intensity and great focus…it’s a different type of mentality than a simple descend.  A strong descend is challenging, especially if it’s fast at the beginning and fast at the end, but it’s still not as physically-taxing as going 2:56 + 53.5 or 3:05 + 58.5.

Jack was able to get this set done in the way described above.  His first one he had no idea what he was supposed to do, and he simply went out at swam a fast 3:46.  However, his first 300 was a 2:50, and the rules of the set say you’ve got to go out in 2:56-3:00…and THEN find a way to get 11 seconds under :30 per 50 pace (3:49, 4:19, 4:49, or 5:19).  So if you think about it, Jack can really hit the jets and be done at a 400, or he can mildly hit the jets and be done in a 450 or a 500 or a 550. 

So, the first one, for the first 400 he went 3:46 (2:50 + 56) ….so he didn’t actually do the goal.  Normally he would have to finish the 600, but I took the time to explain the set to him again so that he could really get it.  To be clear, he went fast enough on number 1 (3:49 is the goal) but didn’t do it right (he went out too fast).

On number 2, he tried valiantly but failed, going 3:50.4 (257.2 + 53.2).  So he couldn’t stop at the 400, and because he took the chance to touch the wall and stop at the 400 for 2-3 seconds – there was no reasonable way he could make the goal for the 450, 500, or 550….so he had to do the whole 600.  Bummer.

On number 3, he got it.  3:49.8 (256.4 + 53.4).  He stopped at the 400 and could skip the lengths while everyone else was swimming.  He did 2x50s easy during the 4 minutes + he had on the wall.

On number 4, he went 3:49.1 (255.5 + 53.6).  I told him he could be 255 or so if needed, but not faster…I could tell he was holding himself back on number 3 to be only 256 or 257. 

I want to do 15x200 (230), every 3^rd Fast and Negative Split with a handful of guys.  I’d say Jack is ready to be 55.5-54.2 for some 149.7s, or faster, on that type of set.  I’d also like to do 10x300 and 3x1000.  Coming up soon guys!

Many of the athletes did a simple 4x600 descend.  Cole went 6:01-6:02-5:58, 5:58 – a very good set for him.  Paolo went 6:18, 6:08, 6:04, 5:55.  Karen was 816 and 812 on the end.  Those were probably our top times. 

Set #2 12x200 Free – we did one on (2:30), and one on (3:00).  The athletes had to do the first one well on 2:30, and then go fast on all even numbered swims.  There were 6 rounds on the set, but we told the athletes that they could get out of 1 or 2 of them by swimming fast.  So we put it out there that we wanted 4 of their best efforts, defined by this scale:

200 Free PR 1:49 or better: get within 10 seconds of your time

200 Free PR 1:50-1:54:  get within 9 seconds of your time

200 Free PR 1:55-1:59:  get within 7 seconds of your time

200 Free PR 2:00-2:04:  get within 4 seconds of your time

The times were good and often just under the goal.  Here are a few.

Davis (PR 1:49):        1:57, 1:47, 1:56, 1:56

Keiran (PR 1:51):     1:56, 1:57, 1:58, 1:56

Bean (PR 1:56):        2:03, 2:00, 2:00, 2:01

Matt (PR 1:49):         1:55, 1:54, 1:54, 1:53

Wyatt (PR 1:48):       1:57, 1:57, 1:58, 1:56

Rip (PR 1:42):           1:50, 1:51, 1:51, 1:51

Aaron (PR 1:48):       1:59, 1:58, 1:56, 1:57

Alex (PR 1:52):          1:59, 1:58, 1:57, 1:58

ProSwimWorkouts

I post workouts on proswimworkouts.com

Find out more about what we did (and why) last Sunday:
ProSwimWorkouts.com Practice Post -- T2's Sunday practice description 

Breaststroke Cord Work

Wyatt is doing a great job with this drill.  Check it out!

We have just started….we are striving to get many people looking like this.

More on Predictions

*Review of Wednesday evening will be coming at you tomorrow.  For now, more on the Scientific Method and its relationship on performance…..

We spoke about the times and the "predictions" before the races for many reasons on Saturday. 

One of those reasons was simply to get you psyched up for the event and go in with some heightened intent.  I wanted to make sure everyone had a goal in mind, because I was pretty positive that people raced the AM session with a "watch & see" attitude (i.e. "I'll see what I go in this race, and be moderately happy with my performance").

Another reason is because it provided some energy to the day and in that energy, I know I had fun and I think our athletes did too.

Another one of those reasons was to help you establish within yourself how intention works!  It's like Kanye West says, "I found bravery in my bravado"…you've got to have some swagger about you to be a great athlete.  You can't walk around the pool deck like you are only a pretty good athlete and really you are only there as fodder for the people who have been faster by only 3 measley seconds in a 200!  You've got to win the B final to become an A final swimmer and you've got to get second in the A final from lane 7 in a practice suit when everyone else is suited up.  We all want to blow the doors off the competition when it really counts but we can practice this mentality every day, not just on the days of the meets of our choosing.

The major reason we talked about predictions is because we need to practice what it is we do at the end of a season, or when we are going for cuts or wins at big meets.  We have to practice thinking about going a time, and then either going it and moving forward, or not going the time and figuring out the missing ingredient to actually doing the time.   Knowing and learning, through experience, is the next big step to repeating the positive aspects of racing and adding more positive aspects to our arsenal.

And it doesn't matter what event it is, whether it's a relay or individual -- and really it doesn't matter if we are racing or at practice.   Although its more directly effective at competitions, athletes should practice this predicting at practice as well -- every length of the pool.   

Every time you get in the gym or get in the pool, race somebody!  Go for your best every swims!  Get to the point where practices become pretty easy for the most part and you can basically just go hard the for the whole 2 hours!!  You get to that point, and how can you not go really fast?!  

Wednesday Free IMs

It's a Free IM Wednesday!

(see comments below regarding WHY we do Free IMs)

I've been asked many times, why do we do so many Free IMs?  Isn't it better to train regular IMs instead of these Free IMs?

For those that are not aware, Free IM is: Free, Back, Breast, Free (no Fly)

A Regular IM is: Fly, Back, Breast, Free

I was brought up on Free IMs.  Personally I loved doing them as a High School-aged athlete, and I am certain that the first team to do Free IMs was my team!  I felt like I could sprint everything when I did Free IM practices.

Michael Phelps' and I competed for the same team in Baltimore, MD.  During the year I spent assisting Michael's coach Bob, I watched Michael and his teammates swim somewhere between 60-70% of his IM training either Free IM or Back-Breast-Free IM.  He definitely did some regular IMs.  Not too many400 IMs, less than 12…maybe just a handful.  Not too many 200 Flys, just a handful of those too.  Lots of 100s, 75s, and many 50s and 25s.   

The training of the Top 2 18 & Under 200 IMers in USA history was heavy on the non-Traditional IM; both Elizabeth Pelton and Katie Hoff's training has always been 75% Free IM or Back-Breast-Free and 25% Regular IM.

T2 Aquatics has had some great history in the IM, and we've been doing lots of Free IM too!  Emma F was ranked in the Top 16 last year, after a huge drop in time, and she did probably 85% non-traditional IMs in practice.  Same for Junior National IMers Rip L, Bean F, and Karen L as well as Flags Champ Cole G. 

So, why does Free IM affect performance like this?  Why is it  these kids, and the athletes like Phelps, Pelton, and Hoff are excelling in not only the IM but the Fly as well?

Here are some reasons:

1- *Addition by subtraction: less Fly means less slow, sloppy Fly for many people.  It may only be a 50 Fly at the beginning of a 200, but if you are doing 16 of them, the last 8 50s fly are 1600-3200 yards into the set.  The type of fly we want in the 400 and 200 IM is a light, quick fly; the fly we see two miles into the set is not the same thing!  It could be argued that "it's not really fly".

2- *The Backstroke and Breaststroke get a lot better.  And it's not just that they get better for a 50 Back and a 50 Breast in the middle of a 200 IM.  It's that over a 3200 yard set of 16x200 Free IM, half of the distance is an 800 of Back plus an 800 of Breast.  That's a lot of Back and Breast during the IM set, and if it's 10% worse than it could be because of an increasingly taxing Fly to start every IM than that's a big deal and in my mind ineffective training when compared to the alternative.

3- *The Freestyle at the end gets better.  Same idea as the Back-Breast concepts.

Keep in mind, it's still important to do Regular IM.  Don't let me sell the Free IM so well that one forgets that we do train IM and we do expect athletes swim Fly with strength, rhythm, and focus when starting IMs in practice.  But those practices are 1 out of every 3rd IM practice, or maybe 1 out of every 4th IM practice.

Review of Tuesday February 16, 2016

The "Stroke Count" 50s went well today.

This is the stroke count goal for each 50 time (Breast and Fly):

:24 in 6/6, :25 in 6/6, 

:26 in 6/7, :27 in 6/7, 

:28 in 7/7, :29 in 7/7, 

:30 in 7/8, :31 in 7/8, 

:32 in 8/8, :33 in 8/8, 

:34 in 8/9, :35 in 8/9

Most people were within the ranges we were looking for (plus 1-2 over half goal time in Fly, plus 2-3 over half goal time in Breast) and the few that were not were within 1 second and 1 stroke cycle of the goal, so I expect we will be there within a week.

It ends up that the athletes are pacing faster than their second 50 of their 100, and they're doing it with 1, 2, or 3 less strokes than they use in a race.

During the warmup, Cole did his first freestyle in :24 seconds with 12 down/12 back (it would be the same to say :24 seconds in 6 cycles down, 6 cycles back (In freestyle and backstroke, a "stroke cycle" is two single arm strokes, while with Breast and Fly).  It was a neat sequence, because Cole was really close 4 or 5 times before finally getting it.  He went 25.4 or 25.3 for a few of them, all at 12 strokes down and 12 strokes back (so he's at 24 seconds but 25 strokes).  On one of them, he went 25.00 in 12/12, but needed another kick off the wall before swimming because his 12th stroke was followed by a big glide into the wall, so instead of 24.8 he was 25.00.  On the next one, he went 24.7 but had to take an extra stroke at the end to do it (12/13) -- which means he didn't get the 24.7 from making his strokes more efficient, he did the 24.7 by picking up his stroke rate.

(Athletes can go fast with a high stroke rate, for sure -- but they do it for only a limited time.  Once the stroke rate cannot be held the athlete "loses their stroke" and it doesn't matter how well they are holding the water -- they will slow down).

Finally, Cole did the 24.7 in 12/12.  He had to go fast, he had to kick off the wall, and he had to hold the water and kick for speed at the end.  All of the ingredients of fast racing are incorporated into the process of training for better stroke count 50s.

Many of the great athletes from decades past to today have done this type of stroke count work:  *Michael Phelps has done plenty of stroke count work, throughout his career.
*Tracy Caulkins did some stroke count work in the 70s and 80s -- when she had an American Record in each discipline (Michael's coach learned from working for years with Tracy Caulkins' coach from her HS years).
*Inge DeBruin, Gold Medalist in the 50 Free, 100 Free, and 100 Fly in Sydney's 2000 Olympics, did stroke count work on roughly 2/3 of the last 15 practices leading into Sydney (same coach as Tracy Caulkins).
*Former T2 Aquatics athlete and World Championship Gold Medalist Elizabeth Pelton, as well as NCAA Champions Felicia Lee and Austin Surhoff did this stroke count work in High School with me -- and they did a lot of it!
*and many others!

Check the video from the other day for more on Stroke Count swimming, on this post from last week:
http://t2national.blogspot.com/2016/02/wednesday-review-and-video-clip.html