Distance racing: 500yrds and 1500m

What do you see when you watch a fast swimmer swim?

Katie Ledecky is a 16 year old Olympian (born in 1997).  She holds world records in the 800m (8:13.86) and 1500m (15:36.53) freestyles, American record in the 400m (3.59.82).  Maybe the easiest one for our swimmers to relate to is her National High School Record in the 500yd (4:31.38).  This video below is her swimming this time in March 2013.  Her first 100 yard split is 51 seconds!

What do you notice about her kick? Head position and breathing?  Stroke count per length? Turns and walls? Stroke rhythm and tempo?  Intensity?


 

 Now watch her 1500m swim at the 2012 Olympics where she sets a new world record by 6 seconds. What does she do differently? What does she do the same? How does your own racing stroke compare?  How can you find more speed in your races?    

Mindset

Fixed or Growth... what is your Mindset?

Do you believe that we are born with our talents and abilities and IQs and we really can't do much about that?  Do you avoid taking risks and  challenges and hard tasks because they might expose your weaknesses?  Do you tend to feel defensive and make excuses when someone gives you feedback?  This is the Fixed mindset perspective.

Do you believe that you can achieve anything if you want to and work hard?  Do you see mistakes and failures as ways to learn and get better?  Is your attitude "bring it on!"  and "let me try that!" when faced with something you've never tried before?  This the Growth mindset.

We all respond to things on a spectrum, from the fixed mindset to the grown mindset.  Neither is "wrong" or "right" but research has shown that people with a Growth Mindset will likely be more successful in life.  Watch this video made by Trevor Ragan, coach and creator of Championship Basketball School, to understand more about this critical concept.

http://championshipbasketballschool.com/2013/09/23/carol-dweck-mindset-new-psychology-success/

Core strength in the dolphin kick

Sharks, fish, dolphins have no arms or legs, they just swim with their core body.  We have arms and legs and so we think we can swim fast if we use them.... ah, yes, if we use them in coordination with our whole body.  We often talk about using the biggest muscles in our body nearest our core, our shoulders and back muscles instead of our biceps, our hips instead of our feet.

Here's Lenny Krayzelburg talking about the Underwater dolphin kick.... notice how still he keeps his upper body, generating power from his core and flowing through his legs.


And here's a video showing Hill Taylor, who is just kicking underwater, kicking 50 meters in 23.10 seconds, compared to backstroke swimmers on top of the water.



This video below is from the 2011 European Paralympian Championships.  It is the mens S4 50m butterfly event. S4 is the disability classification (the lower the numbers, the more severe the disabilities).  Athletes won't have the same disabilities but those of "equivalent" physical disabilities race against each other in classifications ranging from 1-10.  Blind and visually impaired swimmers compete in categories 11,12 and 13.  Swimmers with mental disabilities compete in 14.

Misty Hyman and Michael Phelps Butterfly

Misty Hyman will be at the Lander on November 30th!

I met Misty during our years of swimming in Arizona when she was graciously swimming in local meets as an Ambassador for USA swimming.  She is known for her beautiful butterfly, pioneering the underwater dolphin kick (I have video showing her kicking to the 15m mark on every length and taking just 4 strokes to every wall).  She has inspired swimmers for the last 13  years at least, since she won Olympic gold in the 200 butterfly at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  She makes it look easy, but we know, of course, there are many  many hours of practice behind her achievement.
For good measure, I've posted a short video of Michael Phelp's butterfuly.  Notice that he gets to the same chest press down, arms up over the head position, and that he has a beautiful monster underwater dolphin kick.
Watch, learn, take the opportunity to meet Misty and be inspired to fly!

Focus. The One Thing.

The One Thing

What is the one most important thing you want to accomplish today?

Find it too difficult to immediately pin it down to ONE single thing?

OK, make a short list.  Then look at the list and pick the top 3 most important.  Then of those 3, make yourself choose one.  

And do that one thing!  So that at the end of the day, you'll feel satisfied and happy that you achieved that.  

If you have time in your day, pick the next important one thing, and do that.  If the day's over, start again tomorrow with the same process.

You can bring this intention and focus to everything you do.

What's the most important one thing I want to make sure happens in this phone call?

In this meeting?  On this vacation?  During this swim practice?

What is the one thing I need to do now to make my dream happen?

and maybe.... What is the one thing I need to STOP doing now?

Gary Keller wrote The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, a book about radical prioritizing and simplifying to focus on the most important thing to do right now.  Then, after that one thing is done, what is the next important thing to do?  Sequentially, with clarity, like a line of dominos, accomplishing bigger and bigger things as you go on.  Instead of multitasking, FOCUS on one thing at a time instead.   

We all have so many things to do on our to-do lists.  We applaud the person who seems to do many things at the same time, the supreme multi-tasker, who seems so productive.  Actually, that person is a juggler, doing one thing for a little while, then switching to another thing for a little while, then another, and the switching is very inefficient and distracting.  Decide what is most important to do.  Concentrate, focus, do it, finish it.  Then decide what is most important to do next  Not only do you complete more tasks, but you've started with the most important tasks, and because you've approached your task with clear intention and focus, you will be happier and more satisfied, rather than just doing whatever thing randomly attracted your attention first.

"If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one."  (Russian proverb)

What does this idea have to do about swimming?  This is about pursuing excellence, living a life of purpose,  being productive, effective, efficient, happy.   Swimming is not just about swimming.  Pursuing excellence in swimming is like pursuing excellence in life.... conscious effort done with clear intention and focus brings satisfaction.  This blog is about pursuing excellence, just as the mission of the swim club says "to empower athletes of all ages to grow and achieve their personal best through excellence in swimming".

What about the 10,000 hours?

10,000?

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, made 10,000 hours famous as the number of hours of practice it takes for a person to attain a level of mastery that we would recognize as amazing.... Michael Phelps, Yo Yo Ma, The Beatles, Tiger Woods, etc.  In The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle also talks about 10,000 hours as part of the 3 factors that create excellence:  # of hours of deliberate practice, internal ignition or motivation, and great coaching/feedback.  (Fascinating reads, great stories, both highly recommended).

So what about it?  Do we keep track of the hours we train?  Should we expect mastery as we get closer to the 10,000?  (It's about 10 years of year round training).  Why don't some people who spend many hours not succeed as well as others who spend less?  What's so magic about the 10,000 number?  Are there any shortcuts to success?

The real principle is not so much the quantity of hours but the quality of them. It's about the power of focused, engaged, intentional effort.  It can even be about high quality "play", experimenting, fooling around, inventing games, competing, copying, like kids do when they're messing around on their own with a soccer ball or basketball, making up songs on their musical instruments, playing pick-up hockey for hours at the local ice rink, or playing in a pool all day just for fun.  Real learning doesn't always happen around lessons or coached sessions or carefully planned practice sessions.  Playtime actually increases motivation and inspiration and internal desire and enjoyment, which keeps you going for 10,000 hours.  When you add in great coaching with immediate insightful challenging feedback, then you really can learn and improve.

When we spend an hour in autopilot, just plunking away at a piano piece until our time is up, or reluctantly swimming back and forth because our parents made us come, that doesn't add to the magic of the 10,000 hours.  When we spend 10 minutes totally focused on learning a new skill, bring goals and intention to doing whatever we are currently doing (even when it is intense play!), THAT is the quality of practice that leads to mastery.

Beautiful swimming in the Lander Swim Club

We have many swimmers who are developing beautiful, efficient, balanced, technically gorgeous strokes.  This is what we strive for every practice.  This is what we coach for, train for, race for.   We see an incredible progression  in skill, comfort, ease and speed as swimmers go from Learn to Swim to the Age Group Lanes, through the levels of USA swimming competitions and middle/high school seasons.  We are so proud of the work our athletes are doing, every practice, every day.

Here is a 10 year old swimmer who has been working on freestyle, body balance, posture, line, and head position.  She is swimming 25m, the first half of the length the way she swam normally before (which wasn't exactly slow or bad, she swims a 50 free in :29) and the second half of the length is her "new" stroke.

Can you tell the difference?  Which stroke do you think looks more comfortable, like it could be super fast if she gradually put some power into it?  By the way, her normal stroke count per length was around 20.  Now it's around 15.  Her backstroke dropped to 13 strokes per length.  (Mostly due to controlling her exhale in the underwater dolphin kick off the wall).  Wow.