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.

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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.

Look Back

At the end of the year most people will make New Years resolutions, how about looking back this year instead of forward?

Learn from your past year, what was great, what did we learn. I look at what I accomplished accordingly to my personal philosophy. I live to help young people believe in themselves and help them grow in the right directions. This is my passion, some might say my calling, but I know it's why I'm here.

I also look at my friends and family. I want to make sure I'm there for them as best as I can be. Getting older does make you wiser, but it also teaches you that life is very precious and so are family and friends

Look back and learn, so moving forward will be an even better life experience

That's Why They Call It Trials

We are coming to the end of a terrific week of swimmimg in Omaha. There have been many ups & downs, many learning opportunities, many celebrations and comissirations.

Coach Pike said to me, that's why they call it trials. How true is that statement. That's what the swimmers and coaches have been doing here this week, trying ourselves, see where we are at and more importantly where we need to go.

Myself I know we do a lot right, but I don't think we were ready mentally to handle 8 days of competition and the mental energy we need to stay focused and relaxed. We have to prepare our athletes better. It's great to get into the meet, but now we need to learn to be in the meet at night (Finals).

We have 4 years to do that and I'm ready to go for it

Trials - USA will need this man

Well last nights finals had a cool story line. In the semi finals of the men's 100 Fr on Thursday, the great Jason Lezak was 9th. He is 36 years old and coaches himself (I don't recommend that for obvious reasons).
He is down and out, but wait Ryan Lochte scratches, so he is in.

Last night lane 8 he steps up, races and gets 6th, good enough to make the Olympic team. Some people just have that uncanny instinct to make the most of an opportunity.

Go back four years, the men's 400 Fr Relay at the Olympics. Michael Phelps going for 8 Gold Medals, he needs help in the relays. The French are overwhelming favorites for Gold in the relay, in fact add up their individual times they are almost 2 seconds faster than any team. As the race progresses the French have a body length lead going into the last swimmer. Up steps Lezak against the French champion. Well I hope you all know the outcome of the race. It was the best relay ever.

The USA need athletes like Lezak on the team. They bring leadership to the newbies and it's great publicity too.
But more importantly we should all learn to take opportunities when they arise and make the most of them. Most opportunities only come along once in a while, so always be prepared for them

Trials - Mistakes Happen

Well the highs and lows keep coming in Omaha. On a bright side we have started to relax and swim better. We had several solid time trials on Thursday.

Our lone swim was from Bryan, our most decorated athlete in our history. Well even a professional can make mistakes, at the wrong time and place. In the heats of the 100 Fr, they march the swimmers out in heat 8 and there is Bryan, ready to go. He tightens his googles and they BREAK. He has no spare pair, he can't go back and get a pair. So being this great sport of swimming, someone throws him a pair from the crowd. He rushes to put them on, gets on block, starts race and......... They come off when he dives in.

Bryan still swims within 0.5 of his best time, but fails to make the semi finals.

You would think he would be crushed, we were. But no he comes to warm down and says my fault, I made a mistake, I should have had a spare pair with me. This is the biggest stage of our sport, I should have been prepared.

That was one tough learning experience. I guarantee he'll have a spare pair of googles when he marches out for the 50 Fr later in the meet.

Mistakes do happen, but it is how we respond to them, that is most important.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Well Coach Ron's boy Charlie did it, he made the team, Wow was that a lot of fun. One tough swim, especially after his let down in the 400 on Monday night.

Watching finals last night made me think what goes into making this team, maybe there is one or two common threads. One that came to mind was all these Olympians go pass their comfort zone not on occasions, but every day. They have that uncanny ability to push past the physical, but more importantly at this level the mental comfort zone.

The legend Stanford coach Skip Kenney said "get comfortable being uncomfortable". Great words of wisdom for our athletes, but what about us adults?

When we were young didn't we try everything until we found something we liked to do? Personally now I'm older I very rarely do anything new, so I am very comfortable. As a goal for the future, I am going to do something that gets me out of my comfort zone, something challenging (not to much), but something I would not normally do. I challenge all that read this to do the same. It will be like reliving our youth.