ASCA NEWSLETTER AMERICAN SWIMMING COACHES ASSOCIATION 2012 EDITION | ISSUE 11 Think Like a Bumblebee TRAIN LIKE A RACEHORSE Ben Bergeron teaches a few CrossFit lessons learned from the animal kingdom. 20 Largest Teams in Omaha / 5 Pounded / 7 London Olympic 2012 Medals / 8 Kid, You are Not Special / 11 Reverse Leadership / 12 100 Years of Freestyle Swimming / 15 Retention Rates of Young Swimming / 21 Smart Track Girls-Offshore Boys / 22 Using the Finis Forearm Fulcrum / 27 Testers No Match for Clever Doper / 28 BY BEN BERGERON, CROSSFIT NEW ENGLAND One of the most powerful and motivating coaching mantras I have ever stolen (yes, I steal from other coaches) was given to me while I was a triathlete training for the Ironman in my former life. Joe Friel, a world-class endurance coach and author of The Triathlete’s Training Bible, has a powerful message he uses to get his athletes to stay focused and believe in themselves during the long training season. His message is “think like a bumblebee and train like a racehorse.” This message works as well, or even better, for CrossFitters as it does for endurance athletes. I have Do you think racehorses build up extra anxiety by comparing employed this message with every top- level CrossFit athlete I have coached, and I “their times or bodies with other horses? Racehorses, just believe it is enough to bring an athlete from like you as an elite athlete, have one purpose in their lives: good to great. to get faster and stronger, to be better. >> CONT. PAGE 3 ASCA NEWSLETTER ”| 2012 EDITION 10 1 ASCA Newsletter Official ASCA Sponsors Published for the American Swimming Coaches Association by the American Swimming Coaches Council for Sport Development. Board of Directors PRESIDENT Richard Shoulberg VICE-PRESIDENTS Steve Morsilli, Jim Tierney MEMBERS Jack Bauerle, Don Heidary, Ira Klein, Matthew Kredich, David Marsh, Tim Murphy, Eddie Reese, Gregg Troy, Bill Wadley, Chuck Warner EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Jennifer Gibson, Tim Welsh ASCA Staff EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR John Leonard CLINICS AND JOB Services Guy Edson FINANCE AND SALES Kim Cava SwimAmericaTM Sponsors MEMBERSHIP Services Melanie Wigren Certification Kim Witherington TECHNICAL Services AND WSCA Matt Hooper WEBMASTER Hiley Schulte PUBlications DIRECTOR Mary Malka SWIMAMERICATM AND ALTST Lori Klatt, Julie Nitti VOLUNTEER PROOFREADER Buddy Baarcke [email protected] GENERAL COUNSEL Richard J. Foster The Newsletter for Professional Swimming Coaches A Publication of the American Swimming Coaches Council for Sport Development, American Swimming Magazine (ISSN: 0747-6000) is published by the American Swimming Coaches Association. Membership/subscription price is $70.00 per year (US). International $100.00. Disseminating swimming knowledge to swimming coaches since 1958. Postmaster: Send address changes to: American Swimming Coaches Association 5101 NW 21st Avenue, Suite 200 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 (954) 563-4930 I Toll Free: 1(800) 356-2722 I Fax: (954) 563-9813 swimmingcoach.org I [email protected] © 2012 American Swimming Coaches Association. 2 ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 Think Like a Bumblebee, Train Like a Racehorse (Continued) Last spring when I was coaching the CrossFit New amazing things. You, as an athlete, need to have unyielding belief in yourself. England team to prepare for the CrossFit Games, this Don’t let your past, your peers, your family or your competitors limit your was a constant theme at every practice. The women performance. You, like the bee, can fly if you believe you can. on the team even got bumblebee earrings to remind themselves of this powerful message. Train Like a Racehorse Racehorses are just like other elite athletes. They know they are athletes, and Think Like a Bumblebee they know they are different from the other horses. Bumblebees are relatively huge, furry insects with tiny little wings that fly with incredible speed, accuracy and agility. They train with heart-rate monitors. They do intervals and lactate-threshold NASA scientists were infatuated with the bumblebee. How training. They eat a special diet designed to improve performance. They have could something that big and furry fly with such little wings? coaches, and they get nervous on race day just like you.The difference between So they studied the bumblebee. The thought process was racehorses and you is racehorses don’t second-guess their training program, that if they could replicate the physics of the bumblebee, their abilities or their coaches. Racehorses go all out when asked to; they don’t they could build aircrafts and weapons of similar ability. After extensive research, the scientists unanimously came to the same conclusion: bumblebees can’t fly. The physics You, as an athlete, need to have behind bumblebees simply say they are too large and too an unyielding belief in yourself. heavy. But here is the interesting part: No one told the Don’t let your past, your peers, bumblebee it can’t fly, so it goes right on flying. It flies even though the smartest people on Earth doubt it can. your family or your competitors limit your performance. Because the bee has ultimate faith in itself, it is able to do save something for tomorrow. You’ll never see a racehorse doing extra laps around the track because it felt like it should be doing more. Racehorses don’t look at other horses’ training programs and freak out because the other horses are doing double days. Racehorses just do exactly what is asked of them— nothing more, nothing less. How much extra energy do you spend examining the programming of other gyms or athletes? Do you jump from site to site, never letting the benefits of a single program take effect? How about comparing yourself with other athletes? Do you think racehorses build up extra anxiety by comparing their times or bodies with other horses? Racehorses, just like you as an elite athlete, have one purpose in their lives: to Racehorses don’t question their program, their coach get faster and stronger, to be better. or their training; they do exactly what is asked of them. If you are a strong athlete and have a good coach and live your life with a singular purpose with a singular focus on one goal, one mission, you will become elite. The take-home message is to have complete belief in yourself. Believing you are capable is the first and most important step in becoming elite. Second, you must train with purpose. If you are constantly second-guessing, you undermine your accomplishments and will never reach the highest levels. Think like a bumblebee, train like a racehorse. Ben Bergeron, along with his wife Heather, is the owner and operator of CrossFit New England in Natick, Mass. Bergeron has been coaching for more than 15 years, Live your life with a singular purpose and a singular is a member of the Level 1 Seminar Staff and coached his affiliate team to a first- focus, never questioning, never doubting. place finish at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games. ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 3 4 ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 The 20 Largest Teams in OMAHA at the Olympic Trials Ohio State University 36 Trojan Swim Club 20 Stanford Swimming 36 SwimAtlanta 19 SwimMAC Carolina 35 California Aquatics 17 University of Arizona 33 Penn State University 17 KEVIN CORDES, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA University of Virgina 29 Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics 16 Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com Longhorn Aquatics 26 Mission Viejo Nadadores 15 North Baltimore Aquatic Club 22 Aggie Swim Club 15 Athens Bulldog 21 Bolles School Sharks 15 Auburn University Swim Club 21 Indiana University 14 University of Michigan 21 Nashville Aquatic 14 Minnesota Aquatics 21 Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, SwimMAC, 100 free- style finals, 2012 US OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 5 6 ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 POUNDED By JOHN LEONARD Coach Laurel Liberty of Lake Forest Swim Club in Illinois, (Head Coach Maureen Sheehan and Michael Lawrence) said the following to her group of young swimmers a short time ago: “How does an ocean rock get so smooth?” Answer: “It’s been pounded against the bottom of the sea over and over again.” Coach Michael thought there was a good lesson there, as, obviously did Coach Laurel. But what is the lesson? We could all have our own interpretation, certainly. Mine is, beauty comes from constant application of energy, force, and to a certain extent, struggle and toil. Literally and figuratively, moving How to interpret this in swimming? Well first, if you want to be a “smooth” swimmer, through the water rewards it takes getting to practice, and doing a LOT of practice, to take off all the smoothness. Our “rough edges” rough edges we come to the sport slow us down and make us with. Literally and figuratively, moving through the water rewards struggle instead of flow. smoothness. Our “rough edges” slow us down and make us struggle instead of flow. Another thought is that racing with those around you, clarifies your technique, “smoothes” your strokes and makes you better. Racing, with a good heart and appreciation of the efforts of those with whom you race, is the ultimate “other rock” on which you pound. And finally in my mind, no rough rock tossed into a rocky sea bed stays rough long. It gets “smoothed out” (its edges reduced to graceful curves… or it simply smashes to bits. Thank you for teammates for helping to “smooth you out.” What’s your interpretation? Thank you Coach Laurel for the interesting concept and all it opens up, and Coach Mike for passing it along. JL ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2012 EDITION 10 7 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING PERFORMANCE AT THE 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: MEDALS, FINALS & SEMI-FINALS AUSTRALIAN PERFORMANCE M EDALS: F INALS: (75%) and 12 women’s events (75%).