2012 AT&T USA National Winter Championships

Very fast meet, although it is in yards. Check it out this weekend, from Austin TX.

Live Results
Live Stream of Finals Here (finals start 5pm CST) - bottom of screen, click on the session you want to watch.
Psych Sheets

Links of the day with Jocelyn Jay

9 Tips to drinking your 8+ cups a day - http://ow.ly/fE1QG

A humorous article by Mike Gustafson on What swimmers are thankful for - http://ow.ly/fE2gs

Optimizing feedback in the pool - http://ow.ly/fE2sY

This has been on Facebook for awhile, but it just popped up again today. NOTHING is impossible!  As Muhammad Ali said "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." - http://ow.ly/fE36a

Are You Likely To Swim Fast?

I had lunch with my financial advisor yesterday in Newmarket, ON and he showed me an interesting statistic: something like 80% of people who use financial consultants are much more financially comfortable post retirement and are able to retire earlier than people who do not. Therefore, you are made to think that using a financial advisor causes you to be more financially stable. This statistic was not rocket science to me and I believe the statistic is used to reassure customers that they are doing the right thing (using a consultant) during an unstable financial period. 

I am a pretty skeptical person, though. I'm not sure that this statistic speaks to the capability of financial advisors and I do not believe that this correlation points to causation. In other words, I'm not sure that these people are better off because they use financial advisors (Thank you very much, Freakonomics). Perhaps the correlation points more towards this: The type of people that are more inclined to use financial advisors are the types of people that are going to be okay in retirement anyway (they're clearly interested in their money and security... at least enough to contract an advisor).

That statistical thinking came back to me while driving home and reflecting on this past weekend's Canada Cup. It came back to me again, later in the day while watching some of my group go through their activation and dry land routines; in particular, the push up caught my eye. No matter how many times we discuss the importance of doing this exercise properly, I see a never ending rotation of people doing really poor pushups across the swimming community. I do not believe coincidently, many of the same athletes are also radically inconsistent in their racing and performance times. The same would likely be true for someone who does not pay attention to stroke count, body position, drill form, etc.

Does this mean that doing pushup improperly makes you swim slowly? No, of course not. But it could imply that the type of person who is not interested in doing a push up well (especially when it is part of an activation routine - getting you ready so that you can train well) may also be disinterested in putting that same level of interest into their racing and racing preparation.

What can we do with this thought? 

If you're in a good program with a good coach, everything that you do in your program is geared towards making better athletes. All the swimming, all of the drills, all of the dry land and all of the talking is meant to make you "the type of person that will swim fast". A running theme in this blog seems to be that swimming fast is a result of doing EVERYTHING well, not just performing. My challenge to you is to pay attention to what you're doing! If you are the type of person who does not pay attention to the details, you are not doomed; you can change. Make a conscious effort to plan how you're going to make something better, then focus on making it better (here's the tough part) daily. 

By the above logic, it's the type of people that focus on doing everything properly that are more likely to swim consistently fast, it doesn't mean that only the people that are good at those things are going to succeed. While something as boring and as uncomfortable as push ups may not feel like it's worth the effort, guess again. Its not necessarily the physical work of the push up that is going to make you better; it could be the mental toughness and focus you'll gain from forcing yourself to do it right that translates into your swimming. I know that it's hard to pay attention to everything all the time... but thats kind of the point... isn't it? 

Canada Cup 2012 - Etobicoke Olympium

Welcome to racing season, everyone. What if I told you that you could drive down to Toronto to see many of our Canadian Olympians from this past summer racing this weekend? Come down to Etobicoke and catch Friday or Saturday night finals; see some fast racing, see some of your favorite Canadian athletes and get a few autographs while you're at it. HHBF's own Kyle Haas and Matthew Fox will be competing this weekend against some of the country's best and your support is much appreciated.

Finals for both nights Start at 6:00pm. Arrive around 5pm to ensure that you can get seating.

Read my wrap ups over at SwimSwam.com:
Day 1
Day 2

Psych Sheets
Heat Sheets (Saturday AM)
Live Results

Ticket Information

All Session Passes (Heat Sheets included) $20.00 CAN

Preliminaries only $ 5.00 CAN

Finals only $10.00 CAN

VIP Lounge All Sessions

$40.00 CAN

Preliminaries $10.00 CAN

Finals $20.00 CAN

Please email all ticket requests to

eswimtickets@gmail.com.

Pick-up and payment for tickets will be at the door.

Links of the day w/ Jocelyn Jay

Dr. Allan Wrigley on underwater kicking and the "pause" ~ http://ow.ly/fo9cR

25 Ridiculously healthy foods - www.prevention.com/print/27166

What is Mental Toughness and why is it important? http://ow.ly/frNJi

#coachmikepodcast with Dr. Greg Wells on staying healthy in cold & flu
season, and when to pay the most attention to being susceptible to
getting sick: 

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Central Region Championship Qualifying Times

Even though I was informed on September 26th that the Central Region Qualifying Standards were going to be set as "D" standards - using the new Swim Ontario Age Group Standards - there was some debate from coaches whether this was a good idea. 

2 seasons ago, the Region held a meeting with coaches, where we decided the purpose of the meet and the standards. Since then, coaches voices seem to have taken a back seat to Central Region Board members, meet managers and Ontario Officials (after all, what do we know? We're just the paid professionals). Coaches wanted a higher quality meet and a true "championship" .  The people running the meet decided that there would be too much "unused pool time"and that the meet should be opened up to more athletes in order to generate more revenue and use more pool time. Coaches (led by former Olympian, Oakville's Laura Nicholls) pointed out that the drop to a "D" standard would create much longer sessions and worse swimming (waiting 3-5 hours to race a 400 or 1500, for example). 

A meeting was held this past Thursday (unfortunately, I was unable to attend personally). The final decision was that the Central Region Championships Qualifying Times would be set at a "C" standard + 2.5%. What does this mean?? Allow me to explain:

All of Ontario Age Group Championship standards are set using a formula. "B-E" times are set by adding 5% to the previous standard. IE: "B" time is the Age Group Standard + 5%. "C" Time is the "B" standard + 5% and so on. Adding 2.5% to the C standard puts the new qualifying times about halfway between a "C' time and a "D" time. Distance events (400 and longer) are set at "C" times to control the length of sessions.

Although it is unfortunate that many athletes figured that the times were going to be "D" times, the qualifying standards are still significantly slower than last season's times; which will result in many more athletes qualifying (I think, anyway). I'm not sure if these changes will have the desired effects, but thats a "wait and see" sort of thing. In the mean time, an explanation of what was happening is the best I can do - as far as I'm aware, no publicity has gone out about this decision. A little understanding and communication goes a long way*.

I still think that having this info available prior to many athletes doing their goal setting would have been more beneficial. I also think that if SNC can release their new standards before our Region can, there is something wrong. 

A PDF file of the Central Region Qualifying Times can be found HERE. Thank you Laura Nicholls for all your help!

*Irony - the big mark in swimming right now is "customer satisfaction" but SNC (for example) wouldn't communicate new standards until they were ready, even though they were well after the season started and later than they told coaches that they would be released - complete silence for a week and a bit. Lack of communication usually turns off customers quicker and more effectively than not giving them what they want. Conversely, Swim Ontario did a great job notifying membership of coming changes well in advance; members, coaches and parents had ample time to ask questions and get up to speed on all changes - regardless of how they felt about the changes.

5 Common Misconceptions In Swimming

I am sick and had to sit down (which I hate doing) for most of this morning's practice. As I was sitting and thinking, I wrote down some of the things that have been rattling around in my head for the last few weeks. What resulted was a very rough draft of the following post (it grew to 1200 words in the last few hours):  5 common misconceptions in our sport.

I'm Hard on Myself

   Are you, or do you just feel badly when the result isn't that you hoped for? I often see athletes upset after a disappointing performance (for them or their parents) but how many of those athletes feel the same way when they skip part of a set or short cut a drill or swim into the walls on kick sets? How many of those athletes got their goal sheets back to their coaches on time, keep a log of what they're doing and have attendance above 95%? How many of those athletes ask do do something in practice again because they didn't get it right the first time? How many of those athletes consistently swim fast and how many are alright blowing off a race when it "doesn't matter"? In my books, you only earn the right to say "I'm hard on myself" if your answer to the questions I just asked was "ME" several times. Being hard on yourself after a race that went poorly can mean "I'm hard on myself" I guess... but more likely it means "I'm more interested in the result than the process" or "I'm not being fair to myself".

Finished Product

   NO ONE is a finished product in this sport, yet it is not uncommon for a swimmer to get bored practicing a skill or a parent to demand that the athlete do more "work" and less skills. I have been in close touch with Ben Titley since he arrived in Canada and one of my favourite things that he has pointed out is that no one that it top in the world has poor technique. Can we apply that to an age group base? Of course we can. Are the people that are top in the province have good technique? If not, are they the top anywhere outside of the province? How about internationally? My point is that everyone needs to work on technique routinely. Until that is perfected, no one is a finished product! Ryan Lochte isn not even a finished product - he worked HARD for 4 years to win a Gold Medal at the Olympics (and presumably perfecting chewing gum and walking at the same time - kidding Ryan, you're  a good guy despite all of the fun I have at your expense). Remember when skill work gets tedious - working hard doesn't mean that your heart rate has to be at max all the time; sometimes it means working hard and focusing on doing stuff properly and getting better technically.

"My Coach Hates Me"

   I cannot speak for other coaches, but I don't hate swimmers. I think this misconception comes from the "bad cop" relationship most coaches have with their athletes. One thing that I do not feel is explained well (especially to emotional teenagers) it's that feedback on a race or on work or a stroke is not feedback on you as a person. Doing something incorrectly or having your coach call you out on putting forth a poor effort does not mean that you're a bad person; always remember that it is your coach's responsibility to point out when something is not going right and to hold you to a high standard; it does not mean that they do not like you as a person - they just may not like whats happening in the water.

Nutrients vs. Calories:

I blame the media for this (ironically, as I am clearly one of them) because of the cultural focus on low calorie, low fat, 100% of your daily intake of ____ marketing. Here is what you need to know:

Nutrients: A substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life. These include carbohydrates, fats, proteins (or their building blocks, amino acids), vitamins and inorganic chemical compounds such as dietary minerals, water, and oxygen.

Calories: The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C.

Although you're probably not interested in raising the temperature of water, calories are vital to an athlete because they need to replenish the calories (energy) that they used in a practice or a race. If they do not, the body gets energy by breaking down parts of the body (fat, muscle, bone) which is not usually ideal for an athlete. If you think of this in terms of a bank account, its a little easier to understand; if you get $100/week allowance from your parents and it costs $70/week to swim, that leaves you with $30/week for "other things". You need to buy food and shoes and other stuff so you spend about $40 on that and now you have -$10 in your account until you get you're allowance again... but since you have -$10 to start, you only have $90 in your account... and it costs $70 to swim so now you have $20 for other stuff... before long, this pattern will leave you in debt. And you can declare bankruptcy to an athlete's body; thats called injury or sickness... sometimes very seriously.

Athletes usually need to build, not breakdown which is why a diet rich in both nutrients and calories is crucial. Although you may have a diet rich in nutrients, you may not have one rich in calories (a simple salad, for example)... and if you eat Doritos and Ice Cream everyday after practice, you'll have one very rich in calories but very weak in nutrients. Although things like carbohydrates ARE nutrients, you need to make sure that you replenish what you use to avoid breaking down your body and stalling your development. Swimmers will use approx. 1000-1500 calories / 2 hour practice (depending on the intensity of the workout)... to put this into perspective, a banana is about 90 calories and a PB&J sandwich is about 160 calories (if it's made the way I make them).

Google is a wonderful invention; in my day, I had to go to a library or buy a book. Type the food you eat into Google and search the calories. Get an idea if you are eating enough.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is crucial for success; this is opposed to routine. Athletes are very good with routine, but it never fails to amaze me when athletes don't know what to do if something doesn't go to plan. For example; there isn't a lane rope in every lane or someone is sitting where they usually sit. Although some of this is confidence, I like to make my athletes think and figure things out as much as possible (which is funny to write because my math on a set is sometimes wrong or I've written something that doesn't make sense on the whiteboard in a hurry). Upsidedown-underwater breaststroke, breaststroke with eggbeater kick instead of whip kick, backwards freestyle all take the athlete away from the usual and force them to think. Although swimmers are usually amongst the smartest athletes (Ryan Lochte is the exception that proves this rule... sorry Ryan) I find that their comfort in routine can sometimes hurt their critical thinking skills. Mix it up and challenge them to use their brains.