In part two we look at three great swimming tests designed to help you measure your improvement in Speed, Speed-Endurance, and Endurance.

Why test?
Testing provides valuable information to you and your coach on your progress of the effectiveness of your training program. It helps to identify areas of your program that need to be changed and modified as you work towards achieving your swimming goals.

Who to test?
Anyone can be tested. Some people shy away from testing early in their swimming career because they are afraid the results may not be very good. Actually the best time to be tested is early in your career because this is the time when you are likely to make you biggest improvements and progress is really motivating!!

When to test?
Generally the best time to be tested is when you are rested. This allows the test to measure your improvement without the influence of fatigue.

Which test to do?
It depends on what you are trying to measure. Let’s look at three popular and widely used swimming tests.

1. Test for Speed

The test:
2 x 25 metres push start on 2:30

You will need:

• 25 metre pool
• Test recording sheet
• Stop watch
• A friend to help you record the information

Test protocol:

• Start in the water.
• Push off and swim 25 metres at maximum speed.
• A friend or team mate records time and stroke count (and stroke rate if available).

Analysis:

• Time
• Number of strokes per lap
• Average of the two 25s
• Difference between the two 25s

What you will learn:
This test is a good basic test of pure speed. Taking the dive out means you are assessing swimming speed rather than diving technique.

As you improve:

• The 25s will get faster (improved speed)
• You will be able to swim at maximum speed with fewer strokes (improved stroke efficiency / technique)
• There will be little or no difference between them (improved speed endurance)
• You will be able to swim faster with fewer (ideally no) breaths per 25 (improved skill and tactical ability)

Variations:
Count breaths – we know that the best freestyle and fly swimmers in the world can swim at maximum speed with only two or less breaths over a 50 metre sprint.

2. Test for Speed Endurance

The test:
6 x 50 metres push start on 2:00

You will need:

• 50 metre pool (if possible)
• Test recording sheet
• Stop watch
• A friend to help you record the information

Test protocol:

• Start in the water.
• Push off and swim 50 metres at maximum speed.
• A friend or team mate records time and stroke count (and stroke rate if available).

Analysis:

• Time
• Number of strokes per lap / stroke rate if available
• Average of the six 50s
• Difference between the fastest and slowest 50
• RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion)

What you will learn:
The key to this test is to aim to swim at maximum speed right from the first 50. Then try to swim as fast as possible until you have completed all six. This is important because the test is trying to measure your “fatigue resistance” by looking at your ability to repeat maximum and near maximum speed swims.

As you improve:

• The 50s will get faster (improved speed)
• The average will get lower (improved speed endurance)
• The difference between the fastest and slowest will reduce (improved speed endurance and endurance)
• You will be able to maintain good technique and skills as you get tired (improved speed endurance, technique and endurance)

Variations:

• In fly try breathing every four or five strokes
• Experiment with underwater start distances (up to a maximum of 15 metres) to see what works for you.

3. Test for Endurance

The test:
7 x 200 Freestyle push start on 5 minutes

Aim to achieve a target pace of:
1st 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 35 Seconds
2nd 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 30 Seconds
3rd 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 25 Seconds
4th 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 20 Seconds
5th 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 15 Seconds
6th 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 10 Seconds
7th 200 – Personal Best Time Plus 5 Seconds

You will need:

• 50 metre pool (if possible)
• Test recording sheet
• Stop watch
• A friend to help you record the information

Test protocol:

• Start in the water.
• Push off and swim 200 metres at the target speed.
• A friend or team mate records time, splits and stroke count (and stroke rate if available), heart rate and other variables.

Analysis:

• Time
• Splits
• Stroke count on the final 50 every 200 repeat
• Heart rate at the end of each 200
• RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion)

What you will learn:
This test is pretty much a universal test for endurance. It is called a Step Test because the speed increases in “steps” and you measure how the body is responding at each step.

As you improve:

• The target paces will get faster (improved endurance)
• Your heart rate will be lower at the same speed (improved endurance)

Variations:

If you need more time to achieve the target pace of each 200, try 7 x 200 on 6 minutes.

Regardless of the test you use, remember the three Golden Rules:

1. Consistency: Make sure you control the controllables – do repeat testing at the same time of day, the same day of the week and with as many of the same conditions in place as possible.
2. Common Sense: Do tests that make sense. Don’t use the 2 x 25 to test for endurance or the 7 x 200 to test for speed.
3. Record: Write down everything. If it can be measured it is probably important!!!

And remember: No one wins the gold medal by having the best test!

Testing is simply a guide to give you feedback on the progress of your training and where you are in relation to achieving a specific goal.

Wayne Goldsmith

1. Am I getting fitter?
2. Am I getting faster?
3. Is my technique improving?
4. Will I be able to race well at my next competition?

The best way to answer all these questions is, of course, by “racing”!

Competition results and meet performances give you valuable information on how your program is going and how much you are improving.

However, coaches and sports scientists often use testing to determine the answers to these questions in training.

The Golden Rules of Testing

There are Three Golden Rules in Testing:

1. Consistency
If you test on a Monday morning this time after having the weekend off you have to repeat the test on a Monday morning after having the weekend off next time. If you test in a long course pool this time – it’s long course next time. If you dive this time – you dive next time. Everything – equipment, pre test warm up etc needs to be standardized as much as possible.

2. Common Sense
The test you use needs to make sense. If testing for endurance – 2 x 25 metres is not the right test to use. If measuring speed, a one hour swim is not the right choice. Decide what you are testing, then select a test which makes sense.

3. Record everything

• Time of day / date
• Warm up used
• Dive start or push start
• Test set details (i.e. repeat distances, number of repeats, stroke, time cycle)
• Time
• Splits
• Stroke count (the number of strokes taken – usually expressed as strokes per lap)
• Heart rate if applicable
• RPE – Rating of Perceived Exertion (a subjective measure out of ten to indicate how hard you found the test.)

A basic test recording sheet may look something like this:

Like any test, it you want to do well, you have to study.

In this case study means you need to learn how to do the test.

This is especially the case in endurance testing when errors in pacing can lead to poor test results which are not really indicative of the subjects actual endurance ability.

A good way to overcome this problem is to include some shorter swimming in the warm up at the target speed of the first repeat to be included in the test.

For example:

If a swimmer was aiming to complete a test of 10 x 100 freestyle on two minutes where the target speed of the first 100 metres of the test was at 1:20 pace, you might include a set like 6 x 50 freestyle on 1 minute holding 40 seconds, i.e. half distance at the same pace, in the warm up.

This gets the swimmer prepared to perform the test as required rather than starting out too fast and being too fatigued to complete the rest of the test correctly.

Example:

John Smith has decided he needs to assess his swimming fitness mid season. He decides that the right test for him is 6 x 200 metres freestyle on 5 minutes.

In of this article, we will look at specific tests for speed, speed endurance, technique efficiency and endurance.

Wayne Goldsmith

And there’s one other magical and mysterious experience: peaking and tapering swimmers.

But what is peaking and tapering?

Peak: Prepare Each Athlete’s Kapacity (capacity) to perform at their best.

Taper: Training Activities that Provide Excellence after Rest.

Peaking is about training swimmers to swim at their best. Tapering is ensuring that the swimmer’s can produce their best on a specific day following a period of rest, recovery and regeneration.

Let’s try to unlock the magic and mystery of coaching swimmers to perform at their best when it matters most.

Peaking

In the famous book Alice in Wonderland, Alice comes across a road which splits and leads off in several different directions. She is faced with a choice of which path to take.

She sees the Cheshire Cat in a tree and asks the cat, “Which path should I take?”

The cat smiles and says, “That depends on where you want to go.”

Alice says, “I don’t know where I want to go.”

The Cheshire Cat replies, “then it doesn’t matter which path you take.”

Swimming can be a little like this. Many swimmers and coaches are working hard – stretching, doing dry-land training, gym, etc – without a clear goal and without a clear time-frame.

Remember a goal is a dream with a deadline.

At the beginning of the season, two critical questions need to be answered:

• What does the swimmer need to be able to do?
• When do they need to be able to do it?

Ask each swimmer in your team to complete this sentence:

I want to achieve …………………. On ……………………….. (date).

For example:

I want to achieve a time of 60 seconds for 100m freestyle on the 15th May 2010.

Your job as coach is to plan a program which gives each swimmer the opportunity to achieve their stated goal.

Having the swimmer state their goal makes planning the program easy!

Tapering

There a lot of tricks, tips, magic and miracles written about tapering but there are six key principles that actually work:

1. Decrease the volume of training in the taper period

The single biggest improvement in performance during the taper period is due to a significant decrease in training volume. During taper, as training volume decreases so too does residual fatigue – meaning the swimmer begins to feel light, fast, energetic and strong in the water.

Hint: Decrease training volume between 15-20% during each week of the taper.

2. Maintain the INTENSITY of training in the taper period

Many swimmers and coaches are afraid to work hard during taper. In fact taper is a great time to work hard as the decrease in volume means that swimmers can often achieve race speeds easily during taper.

Hint: Include a small amount of specific race pace work at every session during the taper. This should include race specific dives, starts, turns and finishes and breathing patterns – race speed plus race quality technique and skills!

3. Maintain the frequency of training in the taper period.

One of the biggest mistakes coaches make when designing a taper is to decrease training frequency, i.e. fewer sessions. The motive is a good one – they want to allow swimmers the chance to rest, recover, maybe sleep in and regenerate.

However, allow swimmers time to sleep in and this is what generally happens:

• They wake up at the same time anyway and can’t go back to sleep.
• They stay up later at night knowing they don’t have to get up early and end up having less sleep than usual.
• Their body sleep / wake rhythms become unsettled leaving them feeling flat, tied and lethargic
• Once they experience a week or two of not getting out of bed at 5 am, they start to like it and may not return to morning training
• All of the above

Hint: Have swimmers attend all morning workouts during the taper period. If you like, give them an afternoon off for some free time / social time with team mates.

4. Make the taper swimmer-specific.

Everyone responds differently to a taper. Even swimmers of the same gender, the same age and competing in the same events will respond differently to a taper.

Hint: Practice the taper at a minor competition several months before the major meet. Encourage each swimmer to keep a “taper diary” throughout the “trial” taper recording how they feel, how they slept, if they experienced muscle soreness, was their energy level high or low and other relevant information. Use this to base the major meet taper upon.

5. Don’t introduce anything new

Another common problem is the desperate need for coaches, swimmers and parents to make the taper more than it is and to start adding new things at the last minute. Commonly this means changes to diet (e.g. adding a new super high performance supplement) or equipment (e.g. new pair of the latest super fast goggles). Keep it normal! Don’t introduce anything new during the taper – keep the environment as normal and simple as possible.

Hint: Don’t introduce anything once the taper has commenced – that goes for nutrition, gym work, technique, skills and equipment.

6. Don’t over-coach

The most successful way to coach during taper is the same way you usually coach! Some coaches feel the need to overcoach, by giving too many instructions too late in the preparation and only confusing the issue. Keep it simple.

Swimmers will often feel confused and stressed during taper and the lead in to big meets. What they want from you as a coach is the three C’s; Calmness, Confidence and Certainty. The best coaches demonstrate the three C’s regardless of the level of competition.

The closer you get to competition decrease the number of instructions and coaching interventions and practice the three C’s.

As a general rule during the final week of taper, give the same number of instructions as there are days before the meet, ie with five days to go, coach a maximum of five specific areas, with three days to go, focus on only three areas and on the final day on just one thing.

For example:

Butterfly

• Five days to go: Work on kick, arm pull, hand speed, hip drive and rhythm
• Three days to go: Work on kick, hand speed, hip drive and rhythm
• Final training session: Think Rhythm

One final comment: It’s not the taper that makes the difference, it’s every session.

The key to successful performance is consistency in terms of quality coaching everyday in all things. No matter how well you plan, prepare and prescribe your taper does not make up for months of poor technique and skills in practices.

Successful swimming is not an accident, it is the result of a carefully planned program implemented with quality, passion, enthusiasm and consistency by talented coaches and swimmers.

Wayne Goldsmith

• Physical: Fitness, speed, endurance, strength, power etc
• Technical: Technique, skills, dives, starts, turns and finishes
• Tactical: Pacing, strategies, racing skills
• Mental: Relaxation, self belief, attitude, focus etc.

Of these four factors, the mental side has the potential to make the biggest impact on overall performance because it has significant influence on the effectiveness of the other three!

Even physical training needs a significant mental component to be effective.

Imagine two swimmers are working on their speed development.

One swimmer stands lazily on the blocks, yawning and not really interested.

The other, stands relaxed but thinking about “exploding” off the blocks and controlling their breathing. They are thinking about making sure their streamline position will be long and strong and tight.

They are imagining how they will start accelerating their feet to top speed as they explode the surface and start their break out stroke.

Which one of these swimmers will get the most benefit from their speed development training????? If you said “the second swimmer”……………good work.

The influence of your mind on the performance of your body can never be over emphasised.

What are the essential mental skills for swimming?

1. Relaxation

Speed, endurance, technique, it all depends on staying relaxed. Tension leads to tightness and tight muscles can’t move fast. Tight muscles fatigue quickly. Tight muscles resist movement. Loose, relaxed muscles embrace movement – that’s what they are made to do – to move.

2. Self belief

Anything is possible. The motivation gurus say this over and over and over in books, on television and on CDs. Why? Because it’s true. Anything is possible.

But it’s only possible if you believe it is.

Think of it in reverse.

Can you imagine Michael Phelps or Ian Thorpe standing on the blocks thinking:

“I can’t do this. There is no way I can win this race. I can’t break the world record. I am hopeless” of course not. No one can achieve anything thinking negatively.

Self belief comes from confidence. Confidence comes from knowing. Knowing, you can, comes from preparing to the best of your ability every day, in every workout.

Preparing to the best of your ability means you can stand behind the blocks and say:

“I can do this. I work at this every day. I have not missed a workout for ten weeks. I have been working on my turns and I feel fast”.

Starting with “I can” leads to “I will” – the belief in yourself and the confidence it brings. Pretty soon “I will” becomes ”I did”.

Try this simple six word mantra, I can, I will, I did.

3. Resilience

One of the most common mental challenges swimmers face is to develop resilience; the ability to deal with difficult moments and disappointments and come out smiling.

Swimmers will aim to swim a PB time, miss it by one tenth of a second and then start “beating up on themselves”, i.e. “I am a loser”, “I am useless” etc etc and other similar negative talk.

This is pointless, destructive and does nothing more than make you feel even worse.

You are not one swim.

You are not a bad person because of a single performance.

You are a person who has trained hard, given their best and for some reason you did not achieve your goals on a particular day.

However, achieving or not achieving your goals is not a reflection on you as a person – it is a reflection on your preparation and it gives you clear direction on what you need to improve next time.

Use disappointments to drive you and to motivate you to work harder at training and the daily focus on attention to detail in your preparation.

4. Keeping Positive

Negatives: Negative thoughts, negative people, negative attitudes do not achieve anything.

• You can win wearing a hand me down swim suit.
• You can win if your goggles come off at the dive.
• You can win if you swallow a mouth full of water with ten metres to go.
• You can win if you get to the pool late and have missed your warm up.

People can win and have won regardless of the things that go wrong. But negative people can not win even if everything goes right.

No matter how well you plan, something can and usually will go wrong. In fact, at big meets you can almost guarantee something will go wrong. However you choose how something going wrong will affect your performance.

For example:

What happened? “I slipped on the blocks at the start”

Your choice:

Negative: I slipped on the blocks. I was so angry. My race was over. What a waste of time. All that training for nothing.

Your choice:

Positive: I slipped on the blocks. If I work my legs a little harder I can make up the time over the first 25. I have to be patient. No hurry – then I will work it home harder and finish over the top of them.

Same scenario, different approach, different result.

Win or Lose, You Choose!

5. Toughness under pressure and fatigue

Swimming fast hurts. There is no getting around this.

However, knowing this and learning how to deal with it are two completely different things. So what is being mentally tough? Every one talks about it – but what is it?

In swimming it is staying relaxed and concentrating on breathing, technique and skills under pressure and fatigue.

Why is this important?

Because whilst you can’t control pain – you can control your breathing and focus in your technique and skills.

The key to mental toughness is control! By focusing on your breathing, your technique and your skills you have more control over the moment – and when you are in control things like pain, fear and fatigue don’t seem quite so tough.

6. Focus on what matters

When you go to a meet and aim to swim fast there are lots of distractions. The trick is in finding a way of being able to focus on what matters and “screen” out all the other stuff.

Develop a critical focus question. A critical focus question is a neat way of helping you decide what is important and what is not.

Example:

Critical focus question: Will this help me swim fast today?

So if you are in warm up and someone says “Hey let’s go and get a soda” – you ask yourself your critical focus question – “Will this help me swim fast today”. If the answer is Yes – then do it. If the answer is No – avoid it – eliminate the distraction and go back to doing the things that matter. All things are important in their own way but learn to focus on what matters.

Train your body, train your brain: there are no limits to what you can achieve when they work together.

Wayne Goldsmith

Somewhere in the world today, the Beijing Olympic champion in your event got out of bed.

They were given the same 24 hours you were given. They saw the same sun and same sky you saw. But for some reason, they decided to choose to use today to prepare better than anyone else in the world in their (your) event.

My question is, why wasn’t it you who made that choice?

Choosing to prepare better than anyone else in your event is not about money. It isn’t about your coach. It isn’t about the facilities you haven’t got. It is about you making a conscious decision to seize every opportunity – training, eating, sleeping, recovering, resting, gym work, flexibility work, starts, turns, dives, finishes……….everything and do it better than anyone in your event anywhere in the world.

So again, I ask the question, why wasn’t it you who made that choice?

Tomorrow is another day. Make the choice. Seize the day. Choose to be a champion.

Championship Moments

95% of swimming is easy. Be honest. 95% of what you do day to day is easy. Your mom drives you to the pool. You do some training with your friends and other positive motivated people like yourself. You get to feel fit and healthy. You get to visit cool places when you race. Swimming – most of the time is a really enjoyable, fun activity.

What makes you special is your ability and tenacity in the other 5% – those championship moments when things get tough and when everyone else backs off.
You know the moments I mean. The 75-85 metre mark in 100 free. Or the last turn in a 200. Or the final 150 of a 400.

Great swimmers master these moments, they face and overcome the moments when pain, pressure and fear strike.

As you prepare for your next race, learn to chase these moments. Look for them in training and deliberately and purposefully seek them out. Embrace every opportunity to challenge yourself during these moments. Learn to love these moments.

Focus 95% of your efforts on mastering these 5% moments. Make your training more challenging and more demanding than any competitive situation you could ever face.

Why? Because you know 95% of your opposition wont.

Most people avoid championship moments. Most people hide from them. Most people go into a meet not knowing if they will succeed or fail because they have not faced fear in training and learnt to overcome it.

That’s why there’s only one gold medal for each event.

Master Championship moments!

Consistency

Let’s assume the performance you want at your next championship meet is a 10/10. You could be chasing that 10/10 swim at the Beijing Olympic trials to make the team and realise your Olympic dream.

You could be targeting a 10/10 swim to break the State record. Or you want a 10/10 swim to get that PR you have been working for.

A 10/10 swim at your next meet will come from consistency across all areas of your preparation, i.e. 10/10 nutrition, 10/10 mental preparation, 10/10 training, 10/10 gym work, 10/10 flexibility work, 10/10 recovery and so on.

A 10/10 swim cannot come from a program of 4/10 sleep, 5 / 10 recovery, 7 / 10 gym and 2/10 training.

Think about a formula one car. To get a winning result takes a commitment to consistent quality across all areas of the car – wheels, tyres, brakes, steering, engine, gear box, aerodynamics, suspension and of course a world class driver.

Just improving engine performance in isolation, will not make the car perform better. Winning comes from attention to detail and consistency in quality in the preparation of the whole car.

The way you do anything is the way you do everything. The 10/10 swim you crave at your next meet will come from the 10/10 effort you put into everything you do between now and then.

Summary

1. Choose to be a champion. Somewhere in the world today, the Beijing Olympic Gold medallist in your event chose to prepare better than their competition. Why wasn’t it you who made that choice? Make it now!
2. Championship moments. Chase championship moments in training and in lead up competitions. Challenge yourself – but more than that – embrace every chance you get to be challenge and learn to Master those moments.
3. Consistency – “the way you do anything is the way you do everything”

Wayne Goldsmith

The great Austrian philosopher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is reputed to have said, “Success comes from staying in close contact with your goals”.

Every swimmer has goals or dreams. For some the dream is finishing their first event. For others it’s an Olympic Gold. The challenge is turning dreams into reality.

Goal setting is one powerful method of staying motivated and focussed on the achieving of success. However, the actual setting of goals is not difficult. It’s a relatively simple matter to sit down, pull out a pen and piece of paper and write “I would like to beat Susie O’Neill at the Olympics”. The process of setting goals is much more than just writing down a list of things you would like to achieve this year.

The great news is that Psychological skills can be learned, can be trained, just like swimming skills, swimming technique and swimming fitness. Skills like concentration, imagery, self-talk, relaxation, motivation, focussing and goal setting are just some of the mental skills techniques that can be learned and mastered with a little effort.
However, mental skills are not magic – they are not a secret formula for turning ordinary performers into champions. Having a motivation session with a coach or psychologist the evening before a big event is unlikely to make up for months of poor training habits.

Mental skills, like any skills, need to be practised. Knowing about mental skills, but not actually practising them is the same as knowing that long swims increase swimming endurance but never doing more than 25 metres in training. How often have you heard a great athlete comment “Success is all mental” or “It’s 99% mental”? If mental skills are so important it makes good sense to practice them regularly.

Let’s focus on one particular mental skill- goal setting.
Goal setting is part of every day life. It’s the way our minds and bodies operate. We set goals, then do them. Goal – I want to eat that Tim Tam in the fridge. Motivation – I like the taste and I am hungry. Action – Get up and go to the fridge, open the door and get the Tim Tam.

Goals direct behaviour in a particular direction, and if we are motivated to act we move. There is a strong relationship between goal setting and motivation.

Psychologists today tend to talk more about Goal Management than simply goal setting. Goal management is the total process of using goals to focus in on a task and keep motivated in moving towards it.
Goal management is setting goals, evaluating goals, monitoring goals, chasing goals, reviewing goals and adjusting goals.

Having goals and dreams is one thing – being able to stay focussed and motivated to achieve them and work towards them every day is another.

One technique for staying motivated to work towards your goals is to give them a definite time frame.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
Having a target date for your goal also makes a commitment to evaluation – a time or moment when you will evaluate, review and if necessary adjust your goals.

For example:
Goal: I would like to be a better swimmer this season.
This goal has little direction, is very broad and is not precise.

Alternate Goal: By February 2000, I will aim to improve my freestyle. To achieve this I will have my technique corrected by the coach this week, work on my technique every session and commencing next Monday morning at 6:00 am I will start the day with 30 minutes of stretching and strengthening exercises. Each Sunday I will do an extra swim session and in December I will enter all the freestyle events at three meets race to evaluate my progress.

Same goal – but with more direction and with a clear process of achieving success.

Without doubt, staying motivated means concentrating on Process Goals. Concentrate on the process, the actions taken to actually achieve the performance rather than the outcome goals or performance goals.

For example:
Outcome Goal or Performance Goal: I would like to win the club championship in March next year.
This goal is focussing on the dream of “winning”.

Process Goal: I would like to win the club championship in March next year. My medley and backstroke are my weak events. I will concentrate on improving them by attending swimming sessions more regularly, working on my swim technique, improving my turns and stretching my hips and calves every day to improve my kick.
Same goal, but with a focus on the day to day process of success rather than just on the dream of a future victory.

Effective Goal management leads to confidence. It develops an attitude of “I can do”. Setting goals and achieving them leads to developing a self-belief that anything is possible.

An athlete needs to stay focussed on the immediate, not the ultimate. An athlete needs to have dreams but ask, “What can I achieve in training today?”, “What can I achieve in this training session?”, “What can I do right now to help me achieve my dreams”.
This immediate action to achieve an ultimate success formula is a powerful daily motivator.

You should concentrate on the process of doing a personal best, rather than the actual outcome (i.e. doing the time, winning, getting a medal). Focus on the controllable aspects of the performance like the number of strokes per lap swimming, how far you streamline, how aggressively you attack your turns and so on.
The goal of competing in a race may be to win – come first. However, in most cases winning is something over which you have little or no control. You have no control over the talent of the other swimmers in the race. You have no control over how much training the other swimmers in the race have done. You have no control over the commitment or dedication of the other swimmers.

The only thing you have some control over in terms of the race outcome is your own performance. Therefore it makes sense to focus on those things over which you have control to achieve the best possible result.

Swimmers will often worry about the outcome of a race and stress about winning or losing. By taking control of your performance and reinforcing the importance of concentrating on the skills and techniques you have learned in training, the “freak – out” experienced by many swimmers prior to a swim meet can be reduced. Of course the time to be working on swimming skills and techniques is at training. Getting to the meet and worrying about how to get that great performance is too late. The skills and techniques that will make the dream a reality are the things you practice as part of your daily training routine.

In training , make it happen. In racing on the day of the meet, let it happen! If you concentrate on doing the little things right in training all the time, you can make the success happen. If you just roll through training, not concentrating on great technique, missing out on sessions, don’t stretch etc, but then try to turn it all around on race day, it’s too late!
Make your success happen in training, then on race day, let the skills and techniques you have developed in training every day help you achieve your goal. Success means leaving nothing to chance.

Success means not relying on luck. Success means taking control over your performance by working on doing the little things right in training every day.

Nothing can absolutely guarantee success. But you can increase the likelihood of success by MAKING things happen through your own hard work, commitment and dedication.

Someone once said, “Life has taught me one thing about little things….there are no little things”.
Effective goal management and working methodically towards your dreams by implementing a plan of action and doing the “little things” right each day, will keep you motivated and focussed.
Set goals that are clear, precise and measurable sure, but most importantly, set into action the process of achieving those goals immediately and work towards them daily.

Be an achiever, be the athlete who achieves through careful planning and daily actions.

Wayne Goldsmith

1. Set your self a daily goal to improve by one tenth of one inch. Anyone can improve one tenth of an inch each day. Over a week that’s almost an inch. That’s about 4 inches a month. That’s about 3 feet a year…..and 12 feet every Olympic cycle.
2. If you are in a pace line (i.e. a line of swimmers) chase the feet of the person in front of you.
3. If you are leading the pace line, imagine the person behind you is a shark or crocodile and you need to make sure you stay ahead of them!
4. Promise yourself a small gift or reward for improving your skills and drills – reward excellence in technique – technique is the key to swimming success.
5. Encourage other swimmers, the better your team mates perform the more it will lift you and your performance “a rising tide lifts all the boats”.
6. Keep a training diary and write in it three things you improved each day.
7. Keep a PB record sheet on your wall. Watch how you improve over time.

	2007	2008	2009	2010
50 fly
50 back
50 breast
50 free
100 fly
100 back
100 breast
100 free
200 free
200 IM

8. Remember you are special. How many people are prepared to get out of bed at 5 am, train hard and balance school, swimming and life the way you do?
9. Link your seasons by making your short course PBs this season your long course PBs next season.
10. Make it your aim to have your 100 yard kick time no more than 10 seconds slower than your 100 yard PB swim time.
11. Reward PBs with things that will help you do more PBs. For example, if you do a PB, reward yourself with a copy of swimming world!
12. Understand what motivates you, not anyone else, what motivates you! If you are motivated by winning, then do everything in your power to prepare to win. If you are motivated by learning new skills and challenging yourself, do it. The key to motivation is knowing what it is that motivates you.
13. Make a Partner Promise. Find someone in the team who wants to swim fast and make a commitment to them. For example, make a commitment that you will help each other achieve your goals. Each session say something positive to each other, encourage each other, meet at the pool early and do some extra work together, support each other through the tough times. Sometimes knowing you have made a commitment to help someone else is a great motivator for you.
14. Play imagination games in training like imagining the final lap of every set is the final lap of the 2012 Olympic final and all you need to do is work hard for a few more strokes and you will win the gold medal and break the world record. These imagination games are great fun and very motivating.
15. Make up some unusual, fun and weird goals that mean something only to you. Like how many times can you say “sausages” on a single breath or what’s the weirdest stroke you can come up with. Having fun is the best motivation of all.
16. Find a fast beat song that you enjoy and play it before you get in the water. “Feel the rhythm” and the beat when you are swimming and feel it lift you when you get tired.
17. Do your favourite stretches that make you feel good – as you start to stretch, you will find you begin to relax into the right mind set for fast swimming.
18. Imagine you are finishing a race when you pass someone in the next lane. Thinking about it will ignite the competitive fires!
19. Think about how heavy you thought the weight was when you first started doing gym. How much heavier are you lifting now?
20. How many push ups, sit ups, chin ups do you do now? How many did you used to do? Be proud of all your success. Enjoy the journey.
21. Think of the other swimmers that you have beaten recently that used to beat you. Give yourself permission to be proud of your resilience, your toughness, your perseverance and your character.
22. Imagine how good you will feel when you go home, have dinner and curl up in bed tonight? – Now work hard so that comes quickly!
23. Challenge yourself to turn (or start or finish) better than ever. Before you know it you will feel better and motivated to train hard.
24. Think of each lap as an opportunity: an opportunity to improve in an area of your swimming, which will bypass you if you don’t take it. Remember, someone somewhere IS taking that opportunity.
25. Ask a top swimmer (or successful athlete in any sport) what they do to stay motivated. Learn from them. Copy them.
26. Work hard. Sometimes not thinking about it and just doing it is all the motivation you need.
27. Do the old never ending story routine. Make up a funny story and tell someone in your lane a small piece of it between repeats. See how long you can make the story. It really motivates you to get to the end of the pool fast (and start telling the “never ending” story).
28. Get some support!!! Talk to some friends about motivation and every day support each other, encourage each other and motivate each other.
29. Put some photos of Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and other swimming greats up on your wall. Imagine about what they would be doing, what they would be thinking and how they would be training each day.
30. Finish off one task every day. Nothing motivates you like finishing something! Might be something as simple as homework. Or a chore at home. Just finish something.
31. Shave down in training, no reason it just feels great.
32. Stay positive. Everyone has tough days, the difference is in how you allow the tough days make you feel. Tough times fade, tough people never do.
33. Say one positive, encouraging thing to every person in the team: coaches, swimmers, parents, pool attendants, everyone. You will be surprised how motivating others will motivate you.
34. Believe anything is possible, never, ever stop believing that.
35. Buy yourself a new, fast swimming costume.
36. Switch your brain on to something else. Focus on improving in another area of your life, school, music, another sport. Success breeds success.
37. Remember the three best things that ever happened to you. Just the thought of these amazing things will change the way you look at life.
38. Put up motivation quotes all over the place. Some good places are next to your alarm clock, on your swim bag, on the top of the bathroom mirror and in your training diary.
39. Get to training early and motivate some of the younger swimmers in your club. They look up to you and admire you the same way you look up to and admire older and more successful swimmers. Being a role model for others will trigger some really great, positive motivation messages in your brain.
40. Be the first. For example, get to the pool first on January 1st and be the first in the team to swim a lap, a mile, two miles, five miles and so on. Striving to be the first is a great driving force and very motivating.
41. Try a new sports drink, sports bar or a new all natural diet. Motivate your “inside”.
42. Do something everyday that is “impossible”. Try kicking 50 metres underwater at maximum speed. Or sprinting 60 metres on a single breathe. Or aiming to do a PR from a wall push off (i.e. no dive). Keep trying one impossible thing each day and sooner or later the impossible becomes reality.
43. Form a triathlon team with two friends at school who cycle and run and enter in a local triathlon.
44. Lead the team cheers at your next meet. Even better, get some of your team together and write some new team cheers and lead them at the next meet.
45. Allow yourself to be proud of you. Look in the mirror and take time to realise what an amazing person you are.
46. Do something away from the pool to help your swimming. Take an aerobics class to improve your fitness. Do a martial arts course to build strength, balance and confidence. Take up dancing to improve rhythm and co-ordination.
47. Play a counting game. Swimmers are great at these. Count tiles, laps, turns, breaths, strokes…you know the drill.
48. Have repeat or two in each set which is perfect. If you are swimming 10 x 50 always make the second, fifth, eighth and tenth ones perfect.
49. Challenge someone much faster than you to a race at the end of training. Nothing motivates like a real challenge.
50. Smile. It is impossible to smile and not feel better.

Wayne Goldsmith & Helen Morris

The eternal coaching question – how much speed is necessary for endurance athletes?

At the present time in world swimming there are many opportunities for swimmers who are capable of sustaining fast speeds over middle and long distance races. Particularly in woman’s swimming where World and Australian Records have stood for many years, the ability to be fast over 400, 800 and 1500 metres presents a great opportunity for the female swimmer prepared to do a little work and focus on these events.

There is no doubt that endurance is a key factor in these events. However, there is no question that competitive endurance athletes need some speed.

1. In close competitions the ability to sprint fast away from the opposition or to a point in the race is important. In open water swimming for example, a burst of speed might be important to break away from a pack of swimmers, to sprint to a turning buoy first or to sprint from one pack up to another.
2. The ability to explode off the start, in and out of turns and over the final five metres in a tight finish is also important.
3. Developing the ability to swim faster training repeat times over one season or many seasons is dependent on having improved endurance and being faster over a single effort.

In the preparation of middle and long distance swimmers it is important to balance the amount of speed with the amount of endurance in the training program.

For example:

Training goal = 24 x 100 metres on 1:45 Holding 1:10 (best 100 time in competition = 1:09)
In this training set, the swimmer is aiming to hold one minute ten seconds for each 100 metre effort. However, as the swimmer’s best time for a single 100 metre effort in competition is 1:09 it is unlikely that holding 1:10 for twenty four 100’s is possible to achieve.

The principles of Energy system specificity suggest that maintaining 100% maximum for longer than 6-10 seconds is not possible. Therefore, it is logical to say that in most sporting events athletes spend the majority of training and competition working at sub maximal intensities.

In reality most athletes have difficulty maintaining more than 90% of maximum for very long.

Should the swimmer’s best time for a single 100 metre swim be 1:02 – 1:03 and importantly they have done adequate endurance training to resist the fatigue of swimming many 100’s, then holding 1:10 is far more realistic.

This, then, is the challenge. To enable the swimmer to swim faster than 1:09 they need do have done some speed training to develop that speed. Yet, to maintain 1:10 over 24 x 100 metres also requires great endurance.

Speedand endurance are in fact two sides of the same coin. Both are needed if the swimmer is to achieve maximum potential.

For example:

If a swimmer’s 100 metre best time is 60 seconds, it is likely and logical that their best 50 metre time is around 27.5-28 seconds. To swim a 27.5-28.0 second 50 metre swim, it is likely that the swimmer can swim around 12.5-13.5 seconds for 25 metres. And to swim 25 metres in 12.5 seconds requires the development of genuine speed.

Three of Australia’s leading male middle and long distance swimmers in recent years are Olympic Gold Medallists Kieren Perkins, Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe. At a distance of 400 metres these three swimmers are able to swim around 3 minutes 45 seconds or an average time per 100 metres of around 56 seconds. In competition Perkins, Hackett and Thorpe have gone much faster over the first 100 metres (approximately 53-54 seconds) in middle and long distance races.

In order to go out at that speed they must not be at 100% or maximum speed or they would “blow up”. They must have a “speed reserve” and be at a relatively comfortable pace over the first 100 metres or their last 300 metres would be very slow owing to the level of fatigue, lactic acid etc.

When you consider that the 100 metres best time for the three swimmers is around 50 seconds it can be argued that they have a speed reserve i.e. traveling at 56 seconds per 100 metres is reasonably comfortable as it is approximately 6 seconds outside their best time.

In female distance swimming the benchmark is US swimmer Janet Evans whose world records set in the 1980’s still stand. Her world record marks in the 400 and 800 metres freestyle were seconds faster than the winning times for both events at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Her 400 metres freestyle world record of 4:03 is outstanding. Her 8:16 remarkable. Her endurance capacities are unmatched, yet, if her best 100 metre time was only 1:02, these fast times over longer distances would be impossible. Obviously she had the ability to swim fast and to sustain speed over 400, 800 and 1500 metres.

The Concept of Speed Reserve

The concept of Speed Reserve suggests that the limiting factor in Eliteendurance performance will be speed. This is not to say that speed alone is the key to endurance success.

Endurance training, long aerobic work and steady rhythmic sets are the core elements of the distance swimming program. However, in the end it is not so much the swimmer’s ability to swim long distances but to sustain high speeds for long periods that will win races over 400, 800 and 1500 metres.

A swimmer who struggles to break 1 minute for 100 freestyle, is unlikely to break 2 minutes for 200 freestyle or even come close to 4 minutes for 400 and so on.
However, a swimmer with a 55 second 100 and a solid endurance background has every possibility of swimming sub 2:00 and sub 4:00 because of the speed reserve factor.

Periodisation and Speed Reserve.

Over time, swimmers aim to swim their training sets at faster times.

For example:
Season one: Training Goal = 10 x 200 freestyle holding 3:30
Season two: Training Goal = 10 X 200 freestyle holding 3:20
Season three: Training Goal = 10 x 200 freestyle holding 3:10
In each season the swimmer is getting fitter, stronger, maturing, perhaps growing and improving.

However, swimming faster times in training sets is dependent on two key factors:

• The swimmer’s endurance ability is improving
• The swimmer’s best time is improving.

The trick is to combine the development of SPEED with the much needed ENDURANCE so that over time both improve allowing the swimmer to:

• Do more work
• Do more work faster
• Do more work faster with less rest
• Swim faster in single efforts

Coaching Implications:

Develop real speed in endurance athletes in addition to developing endurance. In the end, the limiting factor to endurance performance will be a combination of speed, enduranceand technical ability (swimming technique and skill).

The optimal conditions for speed development are:

• Glycogen repleted
• Hydrated
• Motivated
• Interested – focused
• Un-fatigued
• Low levels of lactic acid

Within these conditions, swimmers have the ideal physiological and psychological conditions to develop real speed.
These conditions are generally found at the beginning of sessions. However, there is a strong argument to do speed sessions at the end of workouts when race conditions are more closely simulated. That said, it is unrealistic to expect that speed improvements can occur in those conditions experienced at the end of workouts. The emphasis should be on technical proficiency and stroke control at speed when tired rather than on speed alone.

Speed development Workout Structure (Optimal Conditions)

• Warm up
• Stretch

Speed development

• Easy Swim
• Stretch
• Easy, relaxed swim session
• Swim Down

Speed Training at the End of Sesions(see T.U.F. Training)

• Warm up
• Stretch
• Skills / Technique
• Fitness / Main set

Speed training – emphasis on technique and distance per stroke

• Swim Down
• Stretch

The development of real speed is very much neuromuscular (nervous system and muscles working together). What type of training activities stimulate neuro muscular development?

• Short distances
• Long rests
• Limited reps
• Stimulating environment

Develop speedand relaxation at the same time. Young swimmers in particular tend to “tighten up” and tense their muscles when asked to go fast. “The faster you want to go, the more relaxed you have to be”.

The latest thinking on overspeed work, i.e. pulling or pushing swimmers at faster speeds than they can go under their own power to try and force an improvement in speed, suggests that technique should not be compromised for overspeed training. The old “spinning arms” drills for freestyle and backstroke should be abandoned!!!!!Overspeed training should not be more than 1% – 2% faster than the swimmer can travel under their own power as at faster speeds, technique breakdown is significant. In a race, swimmers win by maintaining excellent technique and stroke control at maximum speed.

When developing speed in age group swimmers, often the trick is to keep their attention and maintain some order and discipline during the sets. Speed development sets are by their nature (long rests, short distances, stimulating environment) an open invitation for age groupers to lose focus and misbehave. It is important to have a range of sprint games on hand to maintain control of the workout.

Active recovery is the practice of doing a slow controlled swim between fast efforts. For example:

10 x 50 as Explode the first 15 metres, easy recovery swim 35 metres on 1:30 is an example of a speed development set with a fast explosive effort (15 metres) followed by an active recovery (35 metres).

The active recovery allows the swimmer to break down lactic acid and blow off carbon dioxide and provides the opportunity for the swimmer’s nervous system to recover. Active recovery is essential when doing repeated explosive speed intervals to ensure that the swimmer is capable of producing maximum speed each time.

Mark short distances on the side of the pool (5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 20 metres). These are important short distances for speed development work. By having them marked on the side of the pool (or even better marked with colored tiles on the bottom of the pool if you have an understanding pool owner) the coach can standardise the distances of speed intervals so they can be accurately recorded and tracked over time.

Speed development training can start with relatively young athletes. We know that the physiology of the young swimmer is capable of learning to swim fast. At around age 10, most athletes will possess:

• An almost fully developed aerobic potential (i.e. the potential to handle aerobic training loads and easy, low intensity training)
• The ability to learn new skills and learn complex co-ordinated movements
• The ability to produce fast movements through the co-ordination of the nervous system and muscular system.

However at the same time, we know that children do produce lactic acid but have difficulty dealing with it!

In coaching practice this means:

• Kids can do easy aerobic work.
• Kids can do stroke development work, technique work and skills work.
• Kids can do short sprints.

Kids will struggle with long, sustained sprints and in practice training sets such as 6 x 100 at Maximum speed with long rests / 8 x 50 at maximum speed with long rests etc should be avoided in young swimmers.

Like all swimming training activities, speed development is multi disciplinary. Maximum racing potential is achieved when the swimmer:

• Has a great technique
• Has excellent skills
• Has an excellent distance per stroke
• Has a strong desire to succeed and the motivation to go fast
• Has done the necessary strength, fitness and flexibility work
• Has maintained a high performance diet.

Having the physiological capacity to produce speed without the skills, attitude, technique etc to support that capacity will not produce optimum results.

Ten Speed Development Sets for Age Group Swimmers

1. 10 x 10 x 10. (Ten times 10 metres in ten minutes). Swimmers have ten minutes to produce 10 maximum speed swims over 10 metres. These can be from a wall outward or swimming in towards a wall. (TIP: When doing explosive starts that end mid pool i.e. not on the wall, have the swimmer finish with a race type finish and pretend (visualise) finishing on a wall. Having no wall is not an excuse for practicing sloppy finishes.
2. 15 x 15 x 15 (Fifteen times 15 metres in fifteen minutes)
3. 10 x 50 metres as 15 metres explode start, easy 35m with excellent technique
4. 10 x 50 metres as easy 35 with excellent technique – 15 metres explode finish.
5. Odds and evens of above (i.e. on the odds 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th repeats first 15 metres are Explodes on the even repeats 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th Explode the final 15 metres).
6. Half way Hots – (short course) Explode to half way. Rest 45 seconds. Explode to the other end. Repeat x 12.
7. Jump starts – Stand at half way (short course). Sink to the bottom, then spring quickly and powerfully up and forward. Use the momentum from the jump to help pick up speed. Explode to the wall.
8. Nine stroke power swims. Swim nine strokes at maximum speed in free and back. Note where you finish at the ninth stroke. Easy swim back to the start then try again. Goal is to see how far you can go on nine strokes at maximum speed. (Teaches distance per stroke at speed). For fly and breast try six strokes.
9. Super speed with a friend. Have a teammate put on fins and grab a kick board. Side by side race to the 15 metre mark. Change over. On the way back to the wall, you use the fins and board and your team mate swims. Motivating. Develops team spirit. Develops fast swimming and fast kicking.
10. Dive explodes. Just as it sounds – dive in and explode for 10-15 metres. Swim slowly to the other end of the pool. Repeat x 8-12.

Speed Reserve Summary

Distance swimmers need to have a program that is based on endurance training and aerobic development. This type of training helps develop the physiological and biomechanical factors that lead to efficient movement. It also helps develop rhythm and relaxation – two crucial factors in swimming successfully over the longer distances.

However, the emphasis needs to be on endurance and speed. Being able to swim 100 x 100 metres at a speed 5 seconds off your best time does not in itself guarantee being able to swim well over longer distances IF your best time is not very fast.

The aim at elite level is to be able to swim as close as possible to maximum speed for an extended period of time. If maximum speed is not very fast, then all the swimmer can do is sustain mediocrity. A swimmer not capable of breaking one minute for 100 freestyle is unlikely to come close to two minutes for 200 freestyle or four minutes for 400 freestyle, etc etc.

Whilst it is difficult to develop enduranceand speedsimultaneously, all programs should include a logical mix of both.

My thanks to Track and Field Sprint Coach and Sports Scientist Adrian Faccioni and leading Australian Distance Running Coach, Sports Scientist and author Dr Dick Telford for their inspiration for this article.

Wayne Goldsmith

There is conventional wisdom surrounding competing successfully at any major championship which says, “In order to win one, you first have to lose one”.

In essence, this is suggesting that the difficulties of doing well at a major meet, mean that swimmers need to go to their first national championships or other major event, swim poorly, hopefully learn from the mistakes, then come back next year and do much better.

This belief has several flaws:

1. What if the swimmer qualifies for only one national championship and they only have one chance to get it right?
2. Considering the time, effort and money that goes into qualifying for and traveling to a national championship (unless it is in your home town) “losing one this year” to win one next year can be a costly exercise.
3. If the swimmer has a particularly bad experience at the “learning” nationals, this may leave permanent mental challenges to overcome at subsequent nationals.
4. What if the swimmer and coach lack the ability / capacity to learn from mistakes and come back the following year and make the same mistakes?

Clearly the smart thing to do is to prepare to do well the first time!

Why is it so tough?

Let’s look at the typical home / local meet environment and compare that with the typical national championships environment.

The reality: Perceived Challenge Versus Actual Challenge

The real reason why swimmers often fail at their first national championship lies in the difference between the perceivedchallenge that the inexperienced coach and uninitiated swimmer think the meet presents and the reality of the actual challenge the swimmer and coach face.

Example 1.

Perceived challenge 1: Swim a PB at national championships.

This implies a largely physical challenge to prepare the swimmer to swim a personal best time on a particular day.

Actual challenge 1: Swim a PB at national championships after eating a poor breakfast, having little or no warm up, dealing with the mental stress of the environment and without any friends or family support.

Swimming fast is not the issue. Not all gold medals are won in national record time. Swimming fast is largely the result of a consistent and thorough physical, mental, technical and tactical preparation and the coach’s skills in periodisation and planning.

It is swimming fast in a less than ideal environment, away from home and with little or no support that is the real issue.

Example 2.

Perceived challenge 2: Make it to a national age final.

Ostensibly, this means being able to physically swim fast enough to make it to the top 8 in a particular event in a specific age group.

Actual challenge 2:

Swimming a personal best time – maybe even state record time – early in the morning, completely recovering, coming back in the evening, swimming faster and at both swims dealing with compromised warm up and other inconveniences. This is even more difficult if the swimmer has more than one event in a session.

Also overcoming:

• Local swimmers who have the “stay at home” advantage.
• Swimmers who lift for nationals, i.e. swim far above themselves in the inspiring and emotional environment of a major championship
• Larger numbers of swimmers competing in each event than in most competitions

Success at national age championships is largely dependent on preparing effectively to meet the actual challenges of the competition environment rather than the perceived challenges inexperienced coaches and swimmers imagine they will have to face.

Strategies to prepare effectively for a successful Nationals:

Turning National Age into a National’s Rage

1. Prepare physically

There is no doubt that this is one of the most important aspects of competing successfully. If swimmers are not ready physically you are not ready! No one can expect to swim at their very best without doing the hard yards in training in the months (years) leading into the championship event. This is particularly true when preparing swimmers for multi round competition where physical fitness and physiological preparation plays a major role in the swimmer’s ability to swim fast heats, faster semi finals and even faster finals in one or more events and over several days.

The key principle is:

The physical preparation of the swimmer in Training should be more challenging and demanding than the physical demands of the competition.

In other words, training sets, workouts and preparation need to be tougher, harder, more challenging, more demanding and more uncompromising than the physical challenges the swimmer will face at national championships.

If the swimmer has prepared physically in this manner, there is no challenge or situation they will face at nationals that they can not manage, deal with and overcome.

Another critical aspect of the physical preparation is the taper.

The general rules of an effective taper are:

Maintains Frequency of Training

Whilst it is tempting to give swimmers morning sleep-ins during the taper period, this sudden and dramatic change in their routine is often counter productive. (The challenge is often to convince parents of this!)

Maintain Hard Work Throughout The Taper

Don’t be afraid to include some high intensity training during the taper period. It is important to continue to stimulate the swimmer’s nervous system and energy systems activity during taper.

Significantly Decrease Training Volume

Swimmers can get great benefit from a significant reduction in training loads over the taper period. Volume decreases of up to 60% during the taper period allow the swimmer the opportunity to recover from the hard training and to eliminate residual training fatigue.

In summary:

Training sessions during the taper should be conducted at the same times and on the same days as they were during the training cycle but they should be of lower volume and should include some high intensity work.

Ideally the swimmer and coach will practice the taper during the season at minor lead up competitions to refine the process and to determine what works best.

It is often the case that a swimmer will feel flat, tired, heavy and lethargic during the early stages of a taper which can be damaging to confidence, self belief and motivation.

A good general practice is to plan for rest / recovery training weeks to mirror the first week of the “nationals” taper so that the swimmer can experience what going through the actual full taper will feel like: knowledge and experience provides comfort, certainty and confidence for the nationals “debutante”.

2. Prepare Mentally

Without doubt, the mental aspect of achieving a successful result at a swimmer’s first nationals is crucial.

Many swimmers, coaches, clubs and parents build up nationals to something it is not. This increases the pressure and emotion and in this environment it is difficult for even the best physically prepared swimmers to achieve their goals.

The truth is…Nationals is just another event, surrounded by a lot of hype, expectations, media, fanfare and pressures – but basically it is just another event.

The pool length is the same as any other pool.

The water is still wet and made of hydrogen and oxygen.

The task is the same no matter where you live, where you train or what you wear.

That task is, to compete to the best of your ability as a result of a thorough physical, mental, technical and tactical preparation.

The fact that there are a few more people, a few extra flags and clubs and a bit more noise makes no difference: the job is a simple one: prepare thoroughly for the reality of the nationals environment and you can relax with the confidence of knowing you will swim fast when you need to.

3. Prepare Technically

Championship races are won or lost by fractions of inches / millimeters. The athletes who win at nationals will be those who have prepared to do the little things well under pressure by practicing to do them well in training.

For example:

• Not breathing inside the flags during starts, turns and finishes.
• Not breathing on the final four strokes in freestyle or fly
• Streamlining until feet go past the flags on every push off
• Learning to kick at speed under water in fly, back and free

At nationals……there are no little things. Everything can make a difference.

Under pressure, swimmers will do what they have learnt to do in training and will fall back upon their training “habits”.

If swimmers have been allowed to cruise through training sessions without an uncompromising attention to detail in their technique and skills, these bad “habits” will fail them under competition pressures.

If swimmers are to be successful at nationals, it is essential that their training “habits” be technically outstanding so that when the pressure and pain of racing hits them (usually around the ¾ mark in the event) their “good habits” help them achieve an outstanding result.

On the issue of technique, it is often the case that refereeing, starting and stroke judging may be stricter and different to local competitions. In the weeks leading into nationals, coaches should consider inviting a leading state / national level referee into a training session to report on rule changes and to “judge” the team in training. This simple action can save a lot of pain and frustration at the championship.

4. Prepare Tactically

Tactics play a crucial role in swimming successfully at Nationals.

There are many swimmers competing at national championships that the swimmer and coach do not know and have never raced against. Therefore it is likely the swimmer will face a wide range of tactical situations they have not faced before.

Tactical issues to consider include:

• Does the swimmer have a race plan?
• Is the swimmer able to stick to a race plan regardless of what the opposition is doing?
• Have they learnt to change gears (speed) when needed?
• Are they able to change breathing patterns in free and fly to meet the competitive situation?

Being full prepared tactically means having the skills and ability to deal with any competitive situation the swimmer is placed in. These skills can be developed in minor competitions and in training in the months leading into nationals by practicing and experimenting with a range of tactical options in different situations.

For example: Key event being targeted at Nationals – 100 Fly

Minor Competition 1:

Trial tactics:

• Pacing – Even
• Breathing pattern – Alternating breathing every stroke with every two strokes.
• Underwater technique and break out – 10 metres underwater (at a speed of 1.8 metres per second) then no breathing on first three strokes
• Finishing strategy: No breathing last four strokes.
• Stroke count: 20 (first 50) / 23 (second 50)

Minor Competition 2:

Trial tactics:

• Pacing- Go out fast – PB 50 metre time plus 0.5 seconds.
• Breathing pattern – Alternating breathing every two or three strokes.
• Underwater technique and breakout – 12 metres underwater (at a speed of 1.8 metres per second) then no breathing first three strokes.
• Finishing strategy: No breathing last five strokes.Stroke count: 18 (first 50) / 22 (second 50)

5. Prepare for the worst

If things don’t go to plan, swimmers should learn the skills to adapt to any situation and to deal with difficulties.

Can they learn to race fast without being fully warmed up… do they have contingency plans for late flights, long waits, buses not turning up, lane space not available, forgotten race goggles, lost bags……

A good exercise for coaches to utilize are the What If scenarios. Around a month prior to the national championships, have all swimmers intending to race at the meet sit together and raise issues that concern them. For example:

Swimmer A: What if we get to the pool and there is no pool space to warm up in?

Swimmer B: What if we get to the pool and my mum can’t find me?

Swimmer C: What if we get to the pool and my goggles snap during warm up?

Then the team works through solutions to these “what if” questions and solve the problems as a group.

6. Practice Preparation Strategies in Minor / Lead up Competitions

Swimmers do not have to go into every competition aiming to win! Some minor leads up competitions are the ideal place to practice the physical, mental, technical and tactical strategies that will be utilized at national championships.

For example:

Minor Competition 1 – Two Months before Nationals

• Practice dry land warm up
• Practice eating and drinking between races to see what works best
• Practice recovery techniques like stretching and warm downs
• Practice pool warm up

Minor Competition 2 – One Month before Nationals

• Practice pacing strategies
• Practice any new start or underwater skills
• Practice mental rehearsal techniques
• Practice swimming fast early in the morning
• Practice implementing race plans

7. Have Several Warm Up Strategies and Learn to Swim Fast Using Each One.

Whilst a good warm up can be important to achieve successful swimming performances, there are hundreds of stories about swimmers winning major events and breaking records after less than ideal warm ups. The key is to have more than one warm up strategy.

Warm up problem 1: Limited pool space due to large numbers of swimmers all warming up at the same time.

Solution: Coaches should also help swimmers prepare to deal with infamous over crowded warm lanes common at all age national championships by having all the team warm up at training in the one lane three times per week in the month leading into national championships. To take this further, to teach swimmers how to race fast after warming up in a crowded pool, have them “race” in training immediately after the all in one lane warm up practice.

Warm up problem 2: Can not access the pool for warm up.

Solution: At training and at lead up competitions practice dryland warm ups. This can include jogging, stretching, skipping and a range of general exercises.

8. Go to the Pool Prior to Race Day and Do Some Reconnaissance

Swimmers need to know where the marshalling area is, where they can access the warm-up area and find a good spot for stretching. They should be able to locate a private area for a little “quiet time” before the race. They need to know where the toilets and change rooms are. In short – they need to know the environment they will be competing in.

Confidence comes from knowing and being comfortable in the championship environment….and from confidence all things are possible.

9. Control the Controllable: Sleeping, Eating, Recovery – Manage Yourself

The ultimate responsibility for the performance belongs to the swimmer. Swimmers should be educated on how to implement an effective sleeping, eating and recovery strategy in the months leading into the major event.

Practice and rehearse effective recovery strategies like:

Effective Hydration Strategies, e.g. drinking 1500 mls for every 1 kg fluid lost

• Effective Refueling Strategies, e.g. Immediately post race try High GI Carbohydrates (15-50 gms) and Protein (10-20 gms)
• Learn to Use Hydrotherapies, e.g. Contrast Showers – 3x (3-4 mins at 40 C then 30-60 seconds at approx 11 C)
• Massage
• Mental Recovery Techniques: Learn what works for you and practice them.
• Learn How to Achieve Optimal Sleep Patterns: REM sleep!

Over the week long competition period quite often it is not the best swimmer who wins….it is the best prepared and most recovered swimmer that wins.

10. Learn to Enjoy the Experience.

Confidence at and enjoyment of the championship environment comes from knowing you have had a total and thorough preparation. Go to nationals knowing – that is:

• Knowing you have prepared to the best of your ability
• Knowing the competition environment and actual challenges it presents
• Knowing yourself
• Knowing your opposition
• Knowing the event
• Knowing you can overcome any obstacles or difficulties presented to you; you can relax and enjoy the experience.

Some challenges swimmers will face at Nationals and some strategies to overcome them

Summary:

1. The “lose one to win one” approach has been a popular way of preparing swimmers to succeed at major championships but it is inherently flawed.

2. Coaches should aim to prepare swimmers to compete successfully at the meet being targeted and to be able to effectively deal with the Real and Actual challenges the meet presents.

3. To do this, coaches should fully understand the environment and challenges unique to the meet and prepare effectively to deal with them.

4. Coaches should consider all the challenges – physical / mental / technical and tactical – of the championship environment rather than concentrating on the physical aspects alone.

5. Whilst swimming associations make every possible effort to provide a competition environment conducive to fast swimming, swimmers and coaches should expect the unexpected and learn to overcome any obstacles through prior planning and thorough detailed preparation.

6. Importantly, excuses do not win races. Looking back at a “lost” national age or championship meet and complaining that “if only I had a better warm up” or “if only I had better food to eat the night before” or “if only I would have had more rest” do not bring back lost opportunities. Get it right the first time by preparing to meet the actual challenges of the competition environment.

Wayne Goldsmith & Helen Morris

However, there are six specific factors that have been identified as being essential for peak swimming performance.

Over the past five years, the factors that contribute to swimming successfully at top national and international competitions have been systemically and scientifically analysed using a technique called “The Competition Analysis”. Developed by Australian Institute of Sport Biomechanist Dr Bruce Mason, the Competition Analysis is a process that breaks down racing into it’s various components.

• Start time – the first 15 metres, (from the starting signal to the time the swimmer’s head crosses the 15-metre mark from the starting wall).
• Turn time – a distance of 7.5 metres in and out of the wall, (taken from the point where the swimmer’s head passes through a point 7.5 metres from the wall into a turn and continues until the swimmer’s head passes through the same point 7.5 metres from the wall on the way out of the turn).
• Finish time – the final 5 metres, (from the time the swimmer’s head passes the 5 metre mark from the finish wall to the actual hand touch on the wall).
• Stroke Length- the distance the swimmer’s head moves during a complete arm cycle, (i.e., from right hand entry to the next right hand entry).
• Stroke rate (or stroke frequency)- the number of stroke cycles per minute
• Swimming speed (or velocity)
• Split times (each 25 / 50 metre segment of the race)

Looking closely at the Competition Analysis it appears that six factors are crucial to swimming successfully. These Six Steps to Greatness are:

1. Long strokes
2. Fast strokes
3. Great skills
4. Excellent technique
5. Maintain all the above when fatigued
6. Maintain all the above when under pressure

Step One: Long Strokes

At maximum speed, world class male and female freestyle swimmers are able to cover a distance of approximately 2 metres per stroke cycle. In other words, they can cover two metres per stroke cycle at a speed of 2 metres per second. The tables below show the stroke length of placegetters in the 1998 FINA World Swimming Championships male and female 100 metres freestyle.

Table 1

Table 1 showing stroke lengths for the first three swimmers in the final of the men’s 100 metres freestyle at the 1998 World Swimming Championships

Table 2

Table 2 showing stroke lengths for the first three swimmers in the final of the women’s 100 metres freestyle at the 1998 World Swimming Championships

Step Two: Long strokes and fast strokes

Great swimmers are possessed with great speed. The ability to move fast through water is what the sport is all about. The top freestyle swimmers in the world are able to complete around 50 stroke cycles per minute at top speed, WHILST maintaining approximately 2 metres per stroke cycle.

Table 3

Table 3 shows the average stroke frequency for the first three swimmers in the finals of the men’s and women’s 100 metres freestyle at the 1998 World Swimming Championships

Step Three: Long strokes and fast strokes and great skills

In top level swimming, events are won or lost on competitive skills like dives, starts, turns and finishes. Explosive starts, tight turns and powerful finishes are often the difference between finishing first and third in international sprint swimming.

Table 4

Table 4 shows start times, turn times and finish times for the first three swimmers in the finals of the men’s and women’s 100 metres freestyle at the 1998 World Swimming Championships

Step Four: Long strokes and fast strokes, great skills and excellent technique

Technique is a difficult thing to measure. Coaches can identify what constitutes a good technique and what needs improving through years of coaching education and experience. It is generally agreed however, that excellence in technique is a prerequisite for fast swimming and much of what we know about technical excellence we have learned from studying the movements of champion swimmers.

Step Five: Swim with long strokes and fast strokes, great skills and excellent technique when fatigued

Swimming fast is not the problem. Swimming fast when it really starts to hurt, that’s the problem!! Swimmers competing in major competitions are able to keep swimming fast when it gets tough in those last 25 metres and their bodies are screaming at them to slow down or stop.

Table 5

Table 5 shows times for the final 25 metres and finish times for the first three swimmers in the finals of the men’s and women’s 100 metres freestyle at the 1998 World Swimming Championships

Step Six: Swim with long strokes and fast strokes, great skills and excellent technique when fatigued and under pressure (in a race situation)

Think about the great Susie O’Neill at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. Last night of competition, she was tired from a week of tough racing, a tough event (200 metres fly) ahead of her and all of Australia watching in to see her break the long standing record for the number of Commonwealth Games gold medals won by an individual swimmer: in other words she was under great pressure.

Not only did she win the race, do a personal best, almost break the world record and break the Commonwealth gold medal statistic, she swam with technical excellence and control throughout the race despite the enormous pressure of the situation.

Now that we know what they are, how do you take the six steps to greatness?

• Work on keeping strokes long and strong at training. In every effort ask yourself “Could I do this with fewer strokes?” When doing skills work like drills aim for technical perfection, then technical perfection with the minimum number of strokes.
• Develop real speed by working hard during your speed work training and getting the best out of every effort. Train fast to Race fast.
• Every turn in training is a race turn, every dive is a race dive. Every finish should be completed on the wall with power and controlled aggression. Train as you would like to race.
• Drills should be completed with precision and with 100% concentration. Think technique first at all times.
• Challenge yourself to swim fast when tired. In training challenge yourself to jump up at the end of the session and swim fast. When racing, challenge yourself to swim fast when tired, to swim fast heats in the morning then faster finals at night, to swim as fast on the last day of the meet as you did on the first day etc.
• Learn to enjoy pressure situations. Being nervous is a sign that something great is about to happen. Your body is getting ready to do something brilliant. Learn to enjoy the pressure of competition.

We can’t all be Alex Popov or Michael Klim, but we can learn a lot about them by studying the way the race. Great swimmers are great for many reasons. The six steps to greatness are ones every swimmer, of any level and any age can take to help them achieve their swimming goals.

As the proverb says, “the longest journey begins with the first step”.

Take your next step towards being the best you can be right now.

Keep your strokes long and strong,
Move them fast, Keep them long.
To help you through the swimming test,
Make sure that your skills are the best.
Work on your stroke and swimming technique,
Every day, every month, every year, every week.
When things get tough and you get weary,
Keep fighting on and never fear.
When the pressure’s on you will pass the test,
If you’ve done it in training and believe you’re the best

I would like to acknowledge the work of Dr Bruce Mason and his highly skilled team at the Australian Institute of Sport Biomechanics Unit. Dr Mason and his staff have worked tirelessly over the past 5 years analysing swimming races and gathering information at major Australian and International competitions. They have made this information readily available to coaches, swimmers and sports scientists across Australia and contributed significantly to the winning performances of many of Australia’s top swimmers.

Wayne Goldsmith