Thinking & Racing Don't Work Well Together

Well today was an off day for Nuna, so we went to a water polo game, visited the FINA water world and then we workout. Tonight we watched finals sitting with the Swedish contingent. Very nice people, as we all know from Coach Michael. Funny no one new him? He must be over 50.

But the highlight of the day was our own (USA) Miss Katie Ledecky. At the World Championships you have heats of the mile, followed by finals the next evening. This morning, Katie who was seeded 20+ seconds ahead of 2nd place swimmer, swam a World Record time, "without thinking about it". That was her coaches quote. He said, it's like a golfer, when having a great round, they get in the zone, everything feels easier and you play lights out. That's what she did. Katie could have gone 40 seconds slower and still made the finals.

What can swimmers learn from that? Well, when you swim relaxed and get into a good fast rhythm, that's when you swim your best. You trust the process that got you to thre. NO DOUBTS.

Wow, if only I could Coach that, I would be .......

Competition Day

Well it arrived this morning at 3:30 am for me, competition day. I was excited and a little nervous, so I woke up 2 hours earlier than normal. So a good thing occurred, I started to workout. First a brisk walk to say hello to all the security guards and then 56 push ups to match my age. Now I just have to keep that routine going and I could be a competitor in two years.

I met Nuna at 6:15am and we headed for the bus. Today, the bus was packed and we drove to the venue with all the Japanese and Chinese contingents. There was not much conversation going on. Did I mention Nuna is not a morning person.

The warm up went well, Nuna was the first in - very proud coach. She then changed into her racing suit at 8:45am and we did a little more wu with a few sprints. I have been coaching for 30 years and I can attest that every Championship meet warm up is the same. I said to Nuna, this is just like the State meet a few weeks ago, except a lot of different faces and voices.

Race Time
For every FINA international championship, there is a protocol that must be followed for every heat. They call the deck, a clean deck, because only swimmers and officials can be on it, during the competition. The coaches have to be in the stands to watch the races. At 20 minutes, before the start of your heat, you must be in the 1st call room. So, I said good luck to Nuna, it almost felt like she was going on a journey instead of to a race. She had to walk a good 400 meters to the 1st call room, that's where they check your suit, (must have a fina sticker), they check your goggles, they check your cap, all to make sure there is no advertisements to big on them, oh, and FINA approved. Nuna got a free cap, as Stingrays Swimming Cap, is not approved by FINA, apparently.

Nuna was in heat 1, lane 7 of the 100 Fly. They were the very first race at the competition. They marched all 10 swimmers out to music and they got ready for the start. Nuna swam excellent for her very first international competition. I don't know to many 15 year old, that have her composure at this kind of meet. We finished 8th in the heat and 67th out 75 overall. Great accomplishment and one we want to improve on too.

Link to Nuna's Race

The Competition Pool

As we drive to the competition poo, about a 20 min ride. We get an idea of how people live here. We don't see to many houses, but thousands of apartments. Apparently our guide in Moscow told us that people live in very small apartments, but the government gives them some land in the country and people build small houses there for the summer. No apartments or houses have air conditioning and you probably don't need either.

The first view of the competition site is a football stadium.

Wow its big and that's where the pool is. We drive closer and security is very tight. The bus stops and is checked, including in the luggage compartments and using a mirror to look under the bus. When we finally stop we get off to the next security check point. We must go through at least 20 times a day every where we go. There is never just one guard, but at least 5 of them. Our credentials are all bar code written, so we have to scan them to get in (and out?) Its a ritual that we are use to now, but the funny thing is Nuna's credentials, do not work on getting into the European food court. So each time the guards get confused, call some one over, they get confused and then decide to let her in. She has been a good sport about this every time.

Back to the stadium entry. As we enter the pool I say wow this awesome, Nuna is quiet, which is not surprising as I have found her not to be a morning person. I take pictures etc.. and then we walk to the other side of the pool. I then realise we are looking at the warm up pool, not the competition pool. Opps. Then double wow. It is amazing. I've been to Omaha twice (home of our Olympic Trials), but this has a stadium feel to it, absolutely amazing.

                    Nuna at the warm up pool

Pano of the competition pool

Finally we Stretch, warm up, do some pace, warm down, get dressed and head back to the village.

General Observations at first warm up session (a lesson from the Chinese) - Kazan, Russia

Well good news luggage arrived, never been so thankful for clothes.

So yesterday we went for our first swim at the pool, which is located in the village. I'll speak more about the village experience in another blog. Back to the pool. While Nuna warms up, I observe all the nations here. What stands out is that USA Swimming does not stay in the village, they have a hotel. Very interesting to find out that this is the first time for a World Championships to have an athletes village, maybe hey should have told USA Swimming.

Well the best thing I saw, except for Nuna doing her 8x50's BR - looking good I may add, was the Chinese team and coach. During a packed and I mean 12-20 in a lane, Men & Women, not Boys and Girls. He spread out 4 swimmers, in 4 lanes, to race each other in a set of 150's. One was Sun Yang. They were going fast, swimming all around the other swimmers, turning fast, swimming in the middle of the lane, (Nathon Burwick would have loved that), to my surprise no one got upset. After each repeat, the coach barked some times, instructions etc. and then yelled jhehfjhxxjwx, well that's what it sounded like and off they went on another 150.

They were not going to let anyone dictate their warm up, which I think is a good lesson for our swimmers. The Chinese were not bullying or being disruptive, they simply had a job to do and no one was going to stop them.

Getting to the 2015 World Championships

I have the distinct honor of travelling to Kazan, Russia and having one of our RAYS Nuna compete for her fathers country.

I'm going to write some thoughts and observations as we go on our 2nd, of many, I hope adventures.

Second adventure? Yes we went to Qatar in December, as the guests of FINA (Swimming's International Federation). That was a week long camp, with over 400 athletes from around the world, all under the age of 18. It was a terrific experience for both Nuna and myself.  I might blog about that separate experience one day.

Back to Russia. Well so far we had a layover in Moscow, so we had a guide for 8 hours that took us around the various sites in Moscow. What a beautiful city and very clean. Visiting Red Square was mine and Nuna's favourite place, to think of all the history that has passed through that square is unbelievable. After a nice Russian meal we went to catch our flight to Kazan, which is approximately 300 miles east of Moscow.

Great trip, but NO LUGGAGE! well my neighbor told me that would happen, so I was prepared.

Three Stages Of Athlete Development - Part 2

Part Two:
Phase Two: 11 to 14 Year Olds

The 11 to 14 year olds are the swimmers that start to swim for their coach. It is a well known fact that Age Group Coaches get more gifts at Christmas than Senior Coaches (just kidding, I love my group).

This stage involves athletes beginning to trust their coach and "buying" into what they are "selling". Normally great strides or time drops happen during this stage. We coaches would love to claim this was all our own doing, we have ego's you know. Actually the athletes growth along with a good technique base (not aerobic base) are the main reasons time drops occur. We have the Early matures and Late matures in this group of athletes and this is a whole other topic I hope to get to in a later T4L.

The 11-14 year olds start to understand teamwork and setting goals. They are very self conscience and want to be a part of something. I believe swimming is probably the only sport that has boys and girls together during training and competitions. To me that is awesome for our youngsters, to get to know and respect each other through our sport. This stage is often called the "learning to train" stage in athlete development. That doesn't mean swim more yards. It means we have to set the athletes up with the correct tools , so they can move into the next phase of their development.

I strongly believe that a successful athlete has to go through each of these first two stages to reach the senior groups, otherwise they will never reach full potential. The next stage is 15 & older, I'll write about that soon.

New things are coming to the RAYS Nation

Follow me on Twitter at @rayscoach, and let me know how I'm doing.

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Live Olympic

Special Guest Blogger - Becca Postoll - OTC

Becca recently attended the USA Swimming National Select Camp at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. Here is her blog. - Thanks Becca

Day 1

Quite honestly I didn’t really know what to expect when I was invited to the National Select Camp.  I told myself that hey this could be a lot of fun and it’s a great way to take that step that I need to move forward in the sport. I kept reminding myself that you worked your way to be at the camp so you should not doubt yourself.

After the shortest flight of my life we arrived in beautiful sunny Colorado Springs. Let me tell you it was HOT that first day I mean I had to change into shorts. Once we arrived on Campus Ian went one way and I went another. I was shuttled into a meeting about the campus and the honor code. After that meeting the speaker went into goal setting and leadership. I learned the 10 steps to creating a goal:

1.       Be decisive

2.       Stay focused

3.       Write your goal down

4.       Plan thoroughly

5.       Involve others that understand your goal

6.       Welcome failures

7.       Take purposeful action

8.       Inspect what you expect

9.       Reward yourself

10.   Maintain personal integrity

I also learned that 77% of all self-talk is negative. To overcome this you need to put yourself above everyone else. Your mental attitude is almost more important than your physical fitness.

One of the main speakers today was the head coach of the Olympic Team and the National team. He talked to us about how swimming is the most mental sport in the books, I mean staring at a black line for 3 hours isn’t something other sports do.. He told us that you have to focus all your energy on you and how to make yourself better, you can’t let your mind wander. He told us that “the pool is our sacred ground” and that the minute we step onto the pool deck that you come with the intent to do something. Swimming is a mental sport that has only one boundary: your own mental attitude. Swimming is the only sport that is an honest sport: what you put in is what you get out.

After a long practice we had a team meeting, the coaches talked about standard house-keeping things, but there was one quote that had me repeating it all night: “Be happy, but don’t be satisfied.” 

Day 2

Today the topic of discussion was motivation. Throughout the day you heard basically the same thing over and over again, but you heard it from different perspectives. I thought that these meetings were the most important of the whole camp. Talking about motivation throughout the day really made me analyze my team back home and how we motivate each other… I couldn’t think of anything.

During the 1^st practice towards the end of our main set the pain really started to kick in. The girl next to me picked up on it and told me to push through it and to keep it up. That made all the difference in the world, I sucked it up and pushed through the pain and finished the practice strong. I realized that teammates are just as important as coaches, and even though swimming is an individual sport that teammates are everything. 

The 3^rd meeting of the day was with a National Team Athlete. She told us that what you put into swimming is exactly what you’re going to get out of it. She stressed on the fact that when you are tired is when you should work the hardest, and when you are tired is the time when you improve the most. She really emphasized that encouragement is one of the most important thing if you want to succeed. She also told us that we shouldn’t get stuck in a routine and that we should spice it up a bit.

The next meeting really made me think. The meeting was based around how to deal with race day anxiety. He drew out a funnel and told us the when at a stressful meet that we have to “funnel” our thoughts. We go from stage 1 (The questions turn to answers) to stage 2 (find a focus), and to stage 3 (execute your SIMPLE focus). He emphasized to go simple, you have trained hard so your body already knows what to do, and your mental status is what gets you places.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten my butt kick as hard as it did today (literally). We kicked for half the practice. Boy do my legs burn!!!! I’ve tried to take time to think about what I will bring back to Stingrays and I have come up with these: motivation- we will encourage each other in practice no matter what, team goals- I think we do a really good job of this in the beginning of the year, but I think we need checkups on how we are doing so far, and last but not least have fun- I think we have done an amazing job with picking up the team bonding outside of the pool, and I think that this needs to continue for a long time. I have learned so much and look forward to this last day of learning and for hard practices.

Day 3

Today was an awesome day. We had an extremely hard (but really fun) practice that really tested me physically and mentally. Our meetings went well and my favorite meeting of the entire camp happened today. Aaron Peirsol talked to us at the first meeting (this was my favorite meeting). He asked us why we swam. This really made me think. I thought of all the funny answers like “I can’t do anything else” or “I have no hand eye coordination”, and then I thought about it some more and realized I haven’t done any other sport, and oddly I felt ok with that. I realized that I truly love the sport, it challenges me and the practices are different every day.

After we talked with Aaron they turned on the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Team videos. I lost it. I started to cry so hard. It made me realize that my goals and dreams are just within reach. The videos spoke to me in a different way; they made me realize that with hard work and the love of what you are doing anything can happen.