Coaches Corner | Tips from Jeff Miller June-July 2008
Parents and swimmers should be seeing excellent progress and performance from our Dolphin Swim Smart program. Early season success is the result of my belief that swimmers need to be physically and mentally prepared to swim well. Smart swimmers know how to perform in big meets. Smart swimmers also recognize that if you don't attend practice on a regular basis, you are not doing everything possible to prepare for weekend meets. Parents please help by reviewing these tips with your swimmers. Everyone will be happier. Trust me! Coach Jeff
Rest Before a Big Meet
It is important that swimmers get themselves prepared to swim to the best of their abilities for 2-day swim meets. This involves not only attending practice, but also getting enough rest right before big competitions. We feel taking a day of rest before big meets is a valuable way to get prepared. This not only means taking a day off swim practice, but also any other strenuous athletic activity. If a swimmer attends practice on a regular basis, he/she should have the essential training and technique to perform well at 2-day meets. The body needs extra sleep and rest to expect to maintain top performance for 2 straight days. We are not saying swimmers must stay inside all day before big meets and watch TV. We are saying that spending excess time swimming, playing soccer, running outside, or anything similar will affect performance in the water. Swimmers need to wake up the day of the meet and feel fresh.
Understanding the Summer Swim Season
We have specific techniques/drills/strategies/training for every practice throughout the season. On some days -- particularly weekday meet days -- the focus of practice is fine-tuning and race specific work (i.e. starts, turns, finishes). Other days we need to swim a little longer to get in shape to perform in meets.
Swimming the IM is not an easy task. If we only swim a few laps in practice each day and never practice for the 100 yard IM, there is no way the swimmer will be prepared to compete. While the focus of the LMYA swim team is to create a fun environment that teaches proper swimming technique, swimming is also a competitive sport. Swimmers should set goals they want to reach over the course of a season. Whether the goal is to learn how to properly swim all the strokes, or achieving a county time in all the strokes, setting goals is a huge part of achieving success. Clear swim goals is the foundation for the mental aspect of swimming. For a swimmer to perform at their highest possible level, it is important to understand the physical and mental aspects of competing. Parents should spend time before and during the swim season focusing your swimmer on goals - key time achievements or key events to master. Be sure to check the time standards for our team, which is a great way to reward goal achievement.
Good Tired vs. Bad Tired
Swimmers should be tired after they swim a race. Exertion and the adrelenine of a race will leave your tired. But, they also need to know there are two types of tired.
Bad tired is a swimmer who felt as if they could barely swim by the end of their race. They needed to take extra breaths to finish swim; their technique changed because they lost focus and got sloppy.
Good tired happens when a swimmer finishes their race, realizes they gave 100% in the water, and understands the whole process of getting mentally and physically prepared to swim. They may feel exhausted and short of breath, but they felt strong throughout the race. They should have no regrets or second guessing about their swim. They can look themselves in a mirror and say, “I did the best I possibly could. I am proud of the preparation I put in for this race, and proud of how hard I tried.” Swimmers also need to understand that if somebody else’s “best swim” is better than their “best swim” that does not take away from the time and effort they have put in. Good tired is smart swimming.
Good Nervous vs. Bad Nervous
It is natural to feel nervous before any event you have prepared for, trained/studied for, or dedicated time to. This includes swim meets, other sporting events, and tests in school. Nervous energy is motivational. However, there are 2 types of nervous.
Bad nervous is when your nerves overtake your emotions (excited, confident, pumped-up) and you are not getting yourself mentally prepared to perform at the highest level. If you keep telling yourself (and everybody else) how nervous you are, then you will lose focus on your goals. Being nervous is a sign that you care. If you didn’t care about your performance, you would have nothing to be nervous about.
Good nervous is energizing. Nervous energy can be focused in a positive way. You need to attack your races with confidence, and understand that being nervous is a positive part of competition. If you enter your races with the mind set of, “I have done everything I could to get myself mentally and physically prepared. I am ready and excited to swim this race,” then you have focused your nervous energy in a positive way. Good nervous achieves your goals.
Good Swim vs. Bad Swim
In a perfect world, swimmers improve their time each race. Unfortunately that is not possible. No body has total control over their bodies. Even though a swimmer feels great in the water and tried their hardest, they might not improve their time. Thousands of factors influence the outcome, including rest, nutrition, and mental preparation. Therefore there is no such thing as a “bad swim.”
If a swimmer only pays attention to the clock, they are missing opportunities to improve. Missing a pop time does not make it a “bad swim.” Swimmers should try to learn from every race.
When you pop a time, think about all the positive things that made the swim successful
When you don't get a best time, focus on what you learned from the race - how was my start, could my streamline be improved, did I push hard into the wall? Do not focus on what you did wrong.
Smart Swimmers treat each race as a lesson. Smart Swimmers do not let one race negatively affect their performances for the rest of a meet. If they have a swim they are unhappy with, they need to put it out of their minds and focus on their other swims going forward.
Swim Smart and Swim Strong.
Coach Jeff
June-July 2008
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