1.  Work on Dolphin kicking off every wall.
2.  Be the fastest kicker in the pool.
​3.  Be faster than the person next to me through each turn.
4.  Always know what the set is and what I'm working on.

At one time or another your are going to experience a race that goes really well and a race that doesn't happen the way you had liked it too.  Often times the only difference between those two races is what happened right before or what your excitement level was.  The really important question to ask is how do I continue to repeat the good race and never have a bad race again.

The bell curve
Every swimmer has their own bell curve graph of arousal vs. performance

The idea is that there is a specific range of arousal (anxiety, scaredness, pumpedness, etc) that an athlete performs best at and all other levels they perform worse.  Once you have identified the level of arousal for your peak performance you have to find a method of reproducing that level for every race.

Here are some things that might help to keep your arousal low if that is the kind of athlete you are.  
  - Close your eyes and visualize your race being swam perfectly, confidently, easily.
  - Have a friend with you to talk to so your thoughts are not dwelling on the race.
  - Pick a skill in the race to focus on like streamlining the best you ever have, or kicking off the wall better than ever before.

Visualizing your Race
Visualizing can also help eliminate "brain fart mistakes" like swimming the wrong stroke, or one hand touches.  When you visualize your race make sure to use all five senses and be as detailed as possible.  This will increase the effectiveness of your visualization.

This post is meant to make you think about how we move through the water, and what makes fast swimmers fast.

Propulsion - This is the first thought for everyone.  If I pull harder, kick faster, push off the block or wall harder I will go faster.  This is all true.  Propulsion in water is generally linked to the size of the paddle (your hand) or flipper (your feet).  Other factors come in to play as well like the angle of the paddle, and the amount of force applied to the paddle. 

I've been asked by a few different people about what to eat for different circumstances so here are some general suggestions to help you achieve your goals.

Night Before a meet - Since the longest pool swimming race is under twenty minutes (the 1650) the sport of swimming is thought to be more of a sprinting activity and not an endurance activity.  So carb loading the night before is generally not helpful.  Athletes should eat a well balanced meal the night before a meet making sure to take in plenty of water.  But having some pasta isn't a bad meal just make sure you have protein and salad along with it.

The morning of a meet - Carbs are necessary but the often over looked ingredient to a good breakfast is protein.  Carbohydrates will provide you with the energy you need and protein will make sure that the athlete has a smoother energy profile.  That means that the protein will help keep the athlete from having sudden energy lows.

After workout, an event, or an entire meet  -   A general rule for all athletes is eat something as soon as possible.  One of the keys to recovery after an activity is to let the body know that it is ok to start the "recovering process"  the best way to tell the body that is to eat something.  Generally speaking an athlete would want to get carbs and protein in a 3:1 ratio.  Having said that this ratio changes based on the body type and duration of the activity but 3:1 is a good general rule.  The size of the meal depends on the event.  An athlete only needs a few bites between events, but an entire meal after workout or a meet.  Again water is very important, there is actually a specific ratio of water to "other stuff" that the body absorbs more quickly than just water or food alone.  So always be sipping water.

Gaining or maintaining weight - One of the problems some athlete's have is maintaining their weight during training.  Often times this can be solved as easily as having a sports drink to sip on during practice.  One word of caution about this.  Gatorade and other premixed commercial drinks are too concentrated for optimal absorption and can cause stomach aches.  This is because their main focus is to taste good.  Our general rule is to water down Gatorade - 1/2 water, 1/2 Gatorade, for optimal ratios.  Also, avoid high fructose corn syrup as the sweetener in a sports drink (and in life in general) it is not as easily processed or used for energy as other sweeteners.

Cramps at practice -  Everyone is different but generally speaking avoiding dairy or greasy foods before workout can help.

You are what you eat - Over the course of about 2 years most of your body has regenerated cells to take the place of the old ones.  Your body does this with the food you eat.  So remember that you body needs a variety of foods to cover all the different nutrients and vitamins to run perfectly.  So a good rule to follow is to much of any one food isn't good.  Keep mixing it up and stay away from candy, soft-drinks, and anything with Trans fats.

My disclaimer - I don't claim to be a nutritionist, in fact at all of the colleges that I have coached at our athletes used nutritionists.  So if you find that something here doesn't work for you that is ok.  Nutrition is often times a science of trial and error for each person, since each person is unique.

Oh great, that title caught your attention to get you to read this.

Entries for meets to the home team are usually due by Wednesday.  So any amount of last minute changes or absence updates that are sent to me after Wednesday at 5pm are pretty much giving the coaching staff something else to do in the 30min of warm-up. 

PLEASE record any absences or special exceptions (leaving early, might not make it not sure yet, arriving late, etc…) by Wednesday at 5pm.  It doesn't matter how ridiculous the information, "if you share, we will prepare"

Here’s another reason.  The swimmers that are at the meet are not all getting to swim relays, because we have to scratch them when people don’t show.  If we know in advance we can get more creative with swim-ups and get more athletes participating.

Here you will find helpful hints, healthy recipes and other great things from coach Joel!