...A Different Style of Workout

I've been thinking about how we, as coaches, think about training.  Too often we come up with a list of items for an athlete to do (any basic set or group of sets), and although maybe we recommend that the athletes hit a certain pace average/heart rate or something like that -- we generally take what the athlete gives on the set -- and move on to the next day.

So, this week I wanted to try something with my Senior athletes that I have tinkered with -- but really haven't made the focus of the entire workout.  The goal was simple: I wanted to see 50s freestyle at 26 seconds, in 26 strokes or less (SCY).....and I wanted to see it 250 times.  I decided that the 9 athletes I had on this particular day were going to accomplish this task, and then warm down.

I figured if 9 athletes were perfect 9 for 9 on 10 50s in a row, they would be at 90 50s.  Then there's only 110 more to accomplish!  I did give extra points for higher level efforts (5 points for 25 seconds in 25 strokes or less, and 20 points for 24 seconds in 24 strokes or less).

The workout was great.  We did a little less yardage than usual, but we swam with super effective strokes! 

I actually offered some extra incentive sets along the way during the warmup, to knock down the total number of 50s from 250 to 200....which was well-worth it.

Here's the actual practice:

A.  Warmup:  

6x400 (530) -- odds Free IM cruise; evens Free negative split + descend

Once we were finished with the first 3x400, I asked for my lane leaders to average 355 or better, all negative split -- to qualify for an "incentive".  They were 348-352-355-356, all negative split.  We were off to a great start.

After the 5th 400, I asked my lane leaders to be "at least as fast" on their average, while the 'slowest' 4 athletes had to achieve goal times I had put out for them (Some had to break 415, some had to break 405 -- all negative split).  I offered incentive: if the athletes could hit the times I asked for, negative split, then we would take the amount of 50s we were planning to do (later in the practice) from 250 to 235. We had a few great swims from these athletes to finish the warmup!  Our lane leaders continued to go faster as well....we had a 15 year old boy go 345 (154-151), while the others were 348-353-355.....all negative split.

...We moved on.....

B. Pre-Set:

5 rounds: -- 75 Free (1) -- breathe every 5th at 43-45 seconds
                   50 easy (50)
                   25 Fly (40) -- at 12-13 seconds in 6 strokes

All 75s had to be at the prescribed time, and all 75s had to be "every 5th".  If it wasn't right on the money, I gave them a "whammy".

All 25s had to be at the prescribed time, at the prescribed stroke count.  Not on the money?  Whammy.

I timed the final 3 rounds, and allowed for 14 "whammies" from the combination of all 9 athletes.  I think we got to 10 whammies, but were overall pretty good. 

The "offer" was: accomplish the goals, with 14 "whammies" or less, and I'll take the amount of 50s from 235 to 200.  The group was motivated to make this happen, and after 50 minutes of practice we had really accomplished some great stuff! 

C. Main Set:

50s SCY -- at 26 strokes and 26 seconds.  Each 50 done at 26/26 counted for one point.  Any 50s at 25 strokes in 25 seconds counted as 5 points.  Any 50s at 24 strokes in 24 seconds counted as 20 points (we almost got this one a few times, but not quite).

We left every 1:15 or so and counted points until we got to 200 total points. 

D. Swim Down 4x200 (R30) alternating pull and IM drill.

........The workout was a good workout because I "came at it" from a different angle when accessing its effectiveness.  There were a certain amount of "things" I wanted to see.  I imagine each practice repeat as having a certain value (like FINA points) -- and each time an athlete pushes off the wall, to me, is a chance to earn some points.  This is how I imagine practice going each day.  Everything counts, and the higher level performance counts for "more" to me (24 strokes in 24 seconds beats 26 strokes in 26 seconds any day).

I think we have to spend time as much time as possible in this particular mode when training.  The key is: you have to be able to work in this way when doing "pace" type training (like the practice above), and you have to be able to do it when training aerobically (Jon Urbanchek's color pace chart is a great tool to use), and you have to be able to do it when training components (Kicking, Pulling, Underwater work)....you have to figure out HOW to do what Talent Code author Daniel Coyle calls "Deep Training" -- and you have to do it all of the time!

Find our more about Daniel Coyle's writing here: http://thetalentcode.com/

Back from a blog break!

I've been pretty busy lately with typical springtime-stuff ....swimming related and family-related.  There have not been a lot of blogging on this site as a result!  I hope to turn that around over the next week or two.  Certainly I have a few subjects to discuss....I've been thinking about a few things over our scy championship season.

T2 Aquatics is back to training; and we are training hard and well.  Our workout this evening was really good- and  a bit different than the norm.  I'll post about it at some point soon.....because I really believe the style of training we employed this evening is the way we are going to go with our top age groupers -- to change the way they are swimming for the better.  It's all about accomplishing specific items every day.

More on that later.  For now, here's a link to proswimworkouts.com - and a workout we did last week with some T2 Aquatics Senior athletes.  I call it a "fountain" workout.

http://proswimworkouts.com/workouts/t2-aquatics-active-rest-fountain-set

Update from Senior Champs

Congratulations to all T2 Aquatics athletes for great performances at last weekend's Senior Championship meet. We placed 2nd in the overall team score, which met the goal we had for the competition. This is our best finish ever! It was a total team effort with points scored by many athletes -- and considering we placed 2nd by less than 20 points, every point counted. Special Congrats to Justine Mueller for winning 5 events and setting 4 US Masters Age Group American Records (400 IM twice in 4:19, 200 IM (1:57), 200 Back (1:58); to Erika Erndl for winning 4 events and setting 1 US Masters Age Group American Record (100 Free 48.03, which gives Erika a total of 7 events in which she holds a National Record); to Elise Haan for winning 3 events and setting a Florida State Record (15-16 Age Group) in the 100 Back (53.91); and to Ksen Golovkina for winning the 100 Breaststroke with a lifetime best of 1:01.8. In addition to these 13 event wins, our women's team won each of the 5 relays, all under the meet record time (with the four women mentioned above, and including Avery Mohring on the 800 Free Relay) -- including one (400 Free Relay) which broke the long-standing Bolles School record in achieving the All-Time Florida Swimming Record withj a 3:19+ 400.

As is our normal mode of operation, it is "on to the next one" for everyone on T2 Aquatics. Our Seniors are getting ready for a great summer of competition, and our Age Groupers are priming for their Championship meet -- which will take place next weekend in Sarasota. Let's go T2!!

The Value of Repeating What You Say

During a swim practice, swimmers can hear the coach's instructions when their ears are above water, but not when their ears are under water.  The percentage of time an athlete spends above vs under water depends on the practice (how much swimming is being done vs how much time is spent listening to instruction and/or resting between swims).

A unique thing about swimming practice is that we tend to swim 3-4 to a lane (sometimes more).  If I have 5 lanes, with 4 athletes in a lane -- that's 20 athletes I'm coaching at one time.  It's rare that all 20 athletes are present "on the wall" (not swimming) at the same time.  This issue can affect the effectiveness of our communication toward the group.

Oftentimes swimming coach have 4-8 people who are capable of listening to us (they are resting on the wall), while we've got 12-16 people who are swimming.  This type of thing happens during the majority of a two-hour practice.  As the first 4 atheletes depart from the wall, we've got a new set of athletes on the wall.  Over and over during the workout! 

As coaches, there are times when we need to communicate certain things to our athletes.  Sometimes those things are individual to a certain athlete, so we can find the time to get our thoughts communicated (making the time, here and there throughout the workout).  But there are times when we want each athlete to function in a certain way during the training set -- and we want everyone to think in the same direction.  How do we convey this type of universal message to everyone, when we don't have each of our team members listening at one time?

When I am doing a good job as a coach, I find myself repeating the same statement over and again, so that each set of 4 athletes can hear the same thing during the critical part of the set.   The first group hears "Launch off the wall in a tight streamline", and so does the second, third, and fourth group.  The first group hears "Two more smooth, then it's on!", and so does the second, third, and fourth group. 

Don't misunderstand my assertion.  First, there are plenty of times when I think a coach needs to shut up and let the athletes work and figure it out for themselves.  I'm talking about a better use of the "active coaching time" and spreading our knowledge equally among the group. 

Second, there are going to be plenty of times when the athletes who lead the lanes hear more verbal cues than the athletes who are going fourth -- after all, the athletes leading the lanes are going faster, and on any given time interval they are going to have more time on the wall to hear the coach. 

If we care about how well all of our athletes develop -- and not just the workhorses in the front of our lanes, then we have to make sure the athletes who are not in the lead hear the same verbal cues as everyone else.  I know I'm not alone in thinking that the kid who is going third in my lanes but is 2 years younger than the leaders may in fact be the best swimmer in the group in 16 months!

Age Group Sets

I like to allow our T2 Aquatics coaches to "figure it out" for themselves in terms of coaching athletes to improve.  I believe a huge part of becoming a great coach is "figure it out" part....getting athletes age 9-12 to swim well and go fast has very little to do with seasonal planning and everything to do with daily learning and daily success.  The coach who sees the athlete every day is the one who is in charge of figuring this sort of thing out.

However, I'm going to ask our T2 Aquatics staff members to do a few simple sets this week.  These sets are:

A.10x100 Free {on either 1:15, 1:20, 1:25, 1:40....depending on the training group}

B. 10x50 Stroke (1:10) {do this one time Fly, one time Back, one time Breast over the course of 10 days}

C. 15 Minutes (minimum) of "focused" stroke work each day (this is stroke work that is done in 25 yard increments, and is done with technical improvement in mind).

Each coach is going to record average times for each athlete.....which will give us an idea about how to design some sets next week that build off this week's results.
 

Leadership Tricks

Last week I spoke to a group of area business leaders.  The discussion was centered around "Leadership Tricks" that I have learned and applied as a coach.  Here are a few of the 'tricks'.

1. Motivate individuals over the group. 

To lead high performers, you have to talk with them one-on-one.  Motivate them with specifics.  Group talks should center around logistics and basics.

Leading an athlete or employee one-on-one enables you as the leader to be more specific with behavior change.  One-on-one motivation (particularly if the leader is being hard on the athlete or employee) prevents the group from gossiping and talking among themselves in the locker room or around the water cooler.  If you can speak with someone by themselves, there's less potential negativity and questioning in response to the discussion.

2. Praise preparation and intent over specific results. 

Results DO matter. The results are the only thing that matters. But to GET more great results, we have to motivate in a process-oriented way. Praising an athlete's preparation focuses the athlete on the process, which is the reason for success.  For instance, when someone has a great race, it's ok to say "Great Job" -- but I like to leave it at that and immediately focus on "What's next?".  Warmdown, get ready for the next race. 

If I'm going to say something positive, in addition to asking "What's next?", I might highlight the athlete's preparation and say: "Great job warming up well, today; you got yourself ready to go by getting to the pool early and going through your routine".  An athlete can take what I have to say and repeat it easily, which may create another positive outcome in the future.  It's tougher to repeat the result by simply focusing on another result (and ignoring the process).

In the workplace, a leader may highlight an employee's work ethic instead of results.  In this way, we can motivate an employee to continue their high level of effort and preparation.  Instead of praising the fact that the quarterly report looks great, a leader may give a verbal kudo to an employee that sounds more like this: "I like how you stayed late for three days last week to get this report done well".  The employee understands that they are getting praise because of the result, but the verbage of the praise is delivered with future high performance in mind.

3. Even the highest-achieving members of your organization need help with their motivation.

We tend to think of our highest achievers as robotic and highly self-motivated.  While it's probably true that the highest performers in our organization are self-motivated, it's also true that their level of achievement and expectation for themselves is also higher than the rest of the people in the organization.  For this reason, these people who are among the best we've got need to be treated differently, and they need to pushed, prodded, and coached in a different way.  We need to talk to the achievement-oriented athletes and employees like they are achievement-oriented athletes and employees -- and focus them on an even higher level of performance.

It's important to recognize that the high-acheivers are the ones who are going to take the organization to a different level of achievement.  Often a leader will spend too much time on the least performance-oriented athletes/employees, in an effort to "bring them up to speed".  This mentality is great for increasing an organization's level of mediocrity!  We can get our organizations to a higher level of performance by pulling from the top, instead of pushing from the bottom.









 

Pre-Race Routine Part 2

Last week I posted a "teaser" regarding Pre-Race Routine (Warmup at Meets).  Here's the link to the teaser: http://createperformance.blogspot.com/2013/01/per-race-routine-part-one.html

It's amazing to me how my athletes don't seem to "get it" -- even after 2.5 years of teaching.  I have a group of Post-Grads who tend to do a good job, but for them their Pre-Race Routine has been in place for years.  They know it's important to "time their warmup" (placing it properly before their swims), and they plan accordingly.

My 18 and unders did a little bit better last year.  I had better leadership, in particular from athletes like Elizabeth Pelton and Katie Hoff -- who I had the chance to coach and teach when they were 14 and under athletes (these athletes also got to see Michael Phelps and his pre-race routine -- which we used as THE example....and they did a good job mimicking all or (the main) parts of his routine).

I generally like the warmup to be 1:45-1:30 before the first event, and I like to see a second warmup 30-40 minutes before the first event.  The main wamup I like to see is: 800 Swim, 400 Kick, 600 Drills (3x200 IM drill is good), and then 4x50 descend or stroke count.  I've seen athletes have success with a 400-300-200-100 mixing swim, kick, drill, pull -- and follow it with 6x100 (maybe 1 Free, 1 IM, 1 Stroke twice), then a set of 3-4x50.....but for the case of my team at T2 Aquatics I've asked for the 800-400-600-4x50 warmup for the last two and half years.

Most people don't really do it.  I tend to not stand over them and ask for it, which has always been the way I've done it.  But more of my current athletes stop too much, talk too much, and generally skip out on much of what I ask them to do. 

I'm not even going to touch the warmdown in this post.  That's another issue.

SO...WHAT DO DID WE DO?

1. I gave them a worksheet, and told them exactly what I wanted them to do.
2. I made everyone warmup at the same time.
3. I put the warmup on intervals, and changed it so if was a little bit harder than it would normally be.
4. I wrote down on the worksheet exactly when their second warmup should be, based off their particular events, and the timeline.
5. I wrote down the "second" warmup (300 swim plus either 3x50 descend or 6x25 dr/sw), so they could all follow along and have something to shoot for.

Who knows if I'll keep doing this.  I don't like it, because I think it's ok for National-Level athletes to get in at different times depending on when their first event is on the timeline.  There's something about it....they are in control, and control is a good thing.  But you know what?  I don't have that many National-level athletes....so we are really developmental.  And they don't KNOW how to do it on their own.  Katie Hoff watched Michael Phelps, and emulated him; then Elizabeth Pelton watched Katie Hoff and emulated her.  My current 18 and under athletes do not/ did not emulate Hoff and Pelton the way they should, even though they got to see these great athlete's behavior up close and personal for a year.

I have a feeling that the athletes I have don't follow along because they don't see themselves as great athletes.  They don't think they could ever do what Katie Hoff has done.  So why mimick her?  What a terrible way to behave!  They don't think they could ever be REALLY good, or they simply don't know what REALLY good is.  What a terrible way to think!

My only thought now: I guess I'm going to have to drill it into them!  Maybe we'll get a good one (or three) at some point if I do. 

I'm interested to hear comments.