How Your Swimmers Can Improve Their Times Without Swimming Any Faster
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How Your Swimmers Can Improve Their Times Without Swimming Any Faster By Coach Buddy Baarcke Impossible! Makes no sense! But let me explain… Without swimming at a higher rate of speed, a swimmer can go faster by: Coaches, get your whips out and make 1. Going straight. Too many swimmers swim in meets just everyone on your team consistently do as they do in practice: in circles. A 1650 swimmer who veers 12 inches off on each length will go these simple things to “improve their 66 feet too far. A potential time of, say, 17:00, will slow to 17:13.6. In a crowded practice pool, circle times without swimming any faster.” swimming is necessary. In a meet, with no one else in his lane, a swimmer must go absolutely straight. 2. Pushing off immediately. Many swimmers make fast flip turns but do not push off the instant the faster than a poor one, but right 1988 – With a perfect finish in the 100 feet touch the wall. Why? Because at the end of most races, even Fly, Anthony Nesty of Surinam wins by their hands are not ready: up by some 1650s, hundredths count. 1/100th over the USA’s Matt Biondi the head before the feet touch These are humans racing, not who slightly bobbled his finish. the wall. Our 1650 swimmer has machines. They are watching each wasted probably 1/10th of a other, keying off each other, and second per turn, and so with 65 so, many races are microscopically 2008 – Dara Torres of the USA loses turns the potential 17:00 has now close. A good finish is simple the 50 Free by 1/100th! Michael Phelps slowed to 17:20.1(17:00 + 13.6 + – really. A freestyler must quit wins the 100 Fly by 1/100th! 6.5). breathing four or five strokes out and keep his eyes on the wall. Viewing underwater film of Kieren Maybe the second-place finisher made Only by not looking away, by Perkins and Grant Hackett, both a “perfect” finish and still lost, but not breathing on those last few of Australia, racing in the 1500 probably not. Finishes need to be strokes, can a perfect touch be Free in the 2000 Sydney Games, practiced, not just left to chance. made. And proper finishes must it is immediately apparent why also be practiced for the other Perkins lost his attempt to win the three strokes. Too many coaches So, all of these things apply to all Olympic 1500 three times in a row: do a great job of training their distances – even the 50. he hesitates 29 times(!) before swimmers on all other aspects pushing off. Hackett’s hands were of racing but forget to work on up by his head and he pushed off finishes. Swimmers must go absolutely straight immediately each time. Perkins and must push off from turns the caught Hackett between turns instant their feet touch the wall. And, almost every time, but … REMEMBER THESE EXAMPLES to execute a great touch, freestylers FROM THE OLYMPIC GAMES: and flyers must quit breathing the last 3. The finish. How many swimmers, 1972 – Gunnar Larson of Sweden beats few strokes and focus on the wall. no matter what the length of Tim McKee of the USA by 2/1000ths the race, do a proper, big-time, of a second in the 400 meter IM. After Coaches, get your whips out and make “professional” finish? Maybe half of that the rules were changed to record everyone on your team consistently do them. A really great finish might times only in hundredths. these simple things to “improve their be only hundredths of a second times without swimming any faster.” 4 Volume 2010 Issue 01 | www.swimmingcoach.org 6789200490_10ascamagazine Size: 11” x 17” Folds to: 8.5” x 11” American Swimming Magazine Inks: PMS 186, Black Element: Volume 2010 Issue 01 Round: 0 Date: ASCA Online Articles Page 1 of 3 News & Articles Features Swim Links Speakers Bureau Contact Us Marketplace Clinics & Events FIND Current Articles Previous Articles On Doing Less...a story GUIDES Resource Guide by John Leonard Web Links List World Clinic Job Service Tools Once upon a time, in a swimming pool in the far north, near the arctic circle in upstate New York, I learned a lesson. There was a lane we called “the national team”. Some of these 8 or 9 bodies had national cuts and others TOPICS Membership just aspired to have the national cuts, and were close. They all thought they Club Assistance were special. They came early, they stayed later, they were “the National Certification Team”. Learn to Swim They weren’t the only ones I had in the pool during this time, and I moved from group to group, so periodically, I’d pass them by and say something like “Nice Job. You guys are working hard, keep it up, Good Work”. They improved when they went to swim meets and swam faster and faster. ASCA Official Sponsors One day as I walked past, I heard Lynn Scully say to Amy Richards, “hey, cut me some slack here, slow down, I can’t go that hard right now.” (for purposes of full disclosure, Lynn is a male, Amy a female) Amy looked at him in a quizzical way, and went hard again. I ignored it and walked away. The next day, I walked past, said “good job, Good work, makin’progress”. Lynn and two other male swimmers didn’t look me in the eye. Later in that practice, I heard Pete say, “Amy, I’m dyin’ here, give me a break hey?” and heard Lynn chime in, “Yeah, no need to go this hard”. And a third male say “Crap Amy, you’re makin’ us all work too hard to keep up with you!”. Amy slapped her hands on the water with frustration, gave up, stepped aside and moved to the middle of the lane to let Pete lead. FINIS Website Our nationals Sucked. Watch FINIS Technical Training I learned from this that we can be two kinds of people....the kind that Videos encourages everyone around us to work hard and achieve more, or we can Preview FINIS be the kind that says “we don’t have to work that hard to achieve more”. We Spring Collection each of us have both people within us. And everyone who has ever 2009 coached or ever swum or ever competed knows this is the truth. Send me a FREE FINIS Technical If just one person backs off, it lets the next weakest person do likewise. Its a Training DVD disease, and it spreads fast. Request a FINIS Catalog After that lesson, I always paid attention to the “lane talk” in workouts. And I’d talk to my teams about how to encourage each other to be achievers and how no one person in the group can achieve more than the group aspires to achieve. The group has got to get it right, and none can have the attitude that says “we don’t have to work that hard”. And if they didn’t want to be their personal best selves, they didn’t want to ASCA Corporate train with me. They could train somewhere else and float through with some Members other coach. Life, and this sport, does not reward those who “float through”...it rewards those that enjoy the work for its own sake. https://www.swimmingcoach.org/articles/on_doing_less.asp 12/13/2010 ASCA Online Articles Page 2 of 3 I would say for awhile that I was “amazed” at how much satisfaction the swimmers took from encouraging each other to do more than they thought was possible. Now, I look back and know it was not amazing at all. It was normal. Because, you see, we can all chose to be the person who says “lets do less” or the person who says “lets swim faster”. And once the team decides to only accept the positive input, there is nothing amazing about it. Its normal. Since 1974, that experience left an indelible mark on me. It marked me with the knowledge that just one person who thinks they can “do less” can ruin a team, or a group, or an office, because we all have the capacity to sink, or to rise to leadership. Think about that when your team is swimming up and down that lane. ABOUT ASCA Who We Are Become a Sponsor SITES TO SEE USA Swimming WSCA SwimAmerica ALTST FINA Athletes Alliance https://www.swimmingcoach.org/articles/on_doing_less.asp 12/13/2010 wimmers often Incorrect stretching to in- stretch with the idea crease joint flexibility just pri- S that they will in- or to swimming may make the crease muscle flexibility, re- shoulder less stable, increas- duce the risk of musculoskele- ing the chance of injury. Be- tal injury and improve perfor- cause it is made up of four mance. Stretching – especially joints that allow multiple shoulder stretching – is well planes of motion, the shoulder accepted by swimmers, and is inherently unstable. Shoul- advocated by authorities in the der stability is provided in two swimming community. ways – by dynamic stabilizers, There is little evidence to sup- which are predominantly mus- port the relationship between cles, and by static stabilizers, muscle stretching and a reduc- which include cartilage, liga- tion in injury, however. Studies ments and capsules. Jeopar- have found that stretching just dizing the integrity of the stat- prior to exercise actually can ic stabilizers may result in decrease muscle strength, re- shoulder pain.