By Dan McCarthy//National Team High Performance Team

Most swimmers go into races of 200 meters or longer with split goals; however without having a corresponding stroke cycle target, an athlete’s work is incomplete.

A perfect example of how focusing on just race pace can go wrong is seen every weekend at competitions around the country when the pace lane opens. An athlete swimming the 800 with split goals of 1:00.0 can achieve those splits with many different strategies; however, the only one that is going to work is if the athlete repeats the pace and cycle count they expect to have during the race. Practicing a 1:00.0 pace with two or three more cycles per 100 than they are able to physically maintain in a race will not properly prepare an athlete for competition. Additionally, holding a faster pace than an athlete’s goal with a high cycle count that they cannot maintain will have them all out of sorts during the race.

Race pace sets in training are the perfect opportunity to train not just the pace, but the stroke cycle count as well. Once the goal stroke cycle count has been established for an athlete, the set can be designed to make maintaining the goal split and stroke cycle count progressively more challenging, but consistent with the overall race strategy.

Below is an example set for an athlete with a pace of 1:04 per 100 meters and 40 stroke cycles per 100. Swim two or three rounds:

1 x 50 @ 1:00 hold :32 and 20 stroke cycles
1 x 100 @ 2:00 hold 1:04 and 40 stroke cycles
1 x 50 @ :50 hold :32 and 20 stroke cycles
1 x 100 @ 1:40 hold 1:04 and 40 stroke cycles
1 x 50 @ :40 hold :32 and 20 stroke cycles
1 x 100 @ 1:20 hold 1:04 and 40 stroke cycles

Dara Torres Dry-land

Following is a link of Dara Torres performing part of her dry-land routine.  I'd like everyone to watch it - not just for the exercises - but to see the intensity she puts into her training.  If everyone could commit to that intensity for 2 weeks, would we see a difference in meet performance?  We don't need to do the same exercises (we're progressing through a program designed to get more intense over the next year); but we do need to be focused on an end result.  Can you commit to two weeks of giving it everything you have?

Click on Dara's abs to watch the video!

If she ever coaches, I don't want to be on her team!

Breathing and your shoulders

The Shoulder: What every coach/swimmer should know – Breathing


Breathing Impairments

Breathing is an often over looked subject matter that can pertain to healthy shoulder performance. The way in which an athlete actually takes each breath can affect function at this critical joint. Breathing is easily over looked as it is mostly an involentary organ function -requiring no conscious thought by the athlete. However, we do have control over breathing, making it partially voluntary.

For various reasons, some rather complex, athletes sometimes rely on less effecient breathing mechanics. Many factors could play into why these altered patterns arise (less than ideal posture, pain, muscular amnesia, anxiety, stress). Consider that a adult or teen at rest has an average respiratory rate of between 17,000- 28,000 breaths per day. You can imagine the cascade of compensations that must occur when those breathes are less authentic.

Grrrrrr

Grrrrrr, a photo by bkyssr on Flickr.

Grrrrrr

Preparing for Events

The first meet of the season is here!  You may be a bit nervous about swimming at a meet for the first time in three months.  That's pretty normal.  You can make the most of your swims by being properly prepared for each swim.

Here are some tips to help you get ready - one event at a time:

• Make sure you're ready for the correct event!  I've seen quite a few swimmers (even high school and college swimmers) dive in and start swimming freestyle instead of butterfly or breaststroke.
• Know your heat and lane and check in with the timer.
• Talk to your coach(es) before you go behind the blocks.  Your swim may be a "strategy" swim and that strategy may change throughout the season.  Often, the strategy will be more important than the time.  Each event is a learning experience, not just a test of your speed.  Maybe we've been working on a particular technique for your stroke in practice.  Coaches are willing to sacrifice a best time to see a better technique that we know will pay off with a faster time later in the season.  Be willing with us.
• Think your way through your swim.  Swim the event in your head before you hit the water.  Remind yourself what you need to do when you hit the water, off the turns, length-by-length, what your stroke technique focus should be, your speed by 25 and 50, and your finish.
• Look at your time.  With everything going on, we may miss your time.  Sad, but true.
• Think about what you had planned to focus on during the swim.  Did you focus on your technique?  What did you do really well?  What did you do in practice that made it a success?  What do you need to improve?  What do you need to focus on to accomplish that improvement?

Swimmer's Shoulder

Some of you have been talking about aching shoulders (top, side, front, etc.).  Here's an article that might shed some light on shoulder pain causes and exercises.  Some of the exercises should look very familiar to you.

Swimmer's Shoulder