The start of a season is a good time to review some of the basics. And the first one is the role of a swimming parent. I should warn you here that I'll be repeating some points I made in a similar post almost exactly one year ago. Before I start, I should point out… Continue reading 6 Rules For Becoming a Better Swimming Parent
Category: Coaching
Anything related to the profession of coaching that I care enough to comment upon.
Teens, Sleep Deprivation and Morning Swim Practices – Revisited
Very early last year I wrote a blog post about the above topic. Specifically, that research at the time showed some pretty bad effects on kids, and especially teens, of not getting enough sleep. You can read that blog post here. Basically, it referred to many studies that say teens need between 8.5 and 9+… Continue reading Teens, Sleep Deprivation and Morning Swim Practices – Revisited
How Hard Should We Push our Young Swimmers?
How many hours of training should we put our youngest swimmers through? How intense should training be? When should we ask them to give up other sports and specialize in swimming? These are questions that have been around for a long, long time. And while the swimming world claims to divided on this topic, in… Continue reading How Hard Should We Push our Young Swimmers?
Swimming By the Numbers: How Elite Men Swim the 200 IM
It's the men's turn this time. Last week we looked at the 200 IM for women, and determined that it was slightly more oriented towards distance than sprinting, all seem to have strong butterfly splits and much wider split variations for the other 3 strokes, and the fastest tended to have the fastest freestyle splits.… Continue reading Swimming By the Numbers: How Elite Men Swim the 200 IM
Swimming By the Numbers: How Elite Women Swim the 200 IM
After a long delay, this is the next instalment in a series that looks at how the elite swim the 200 by looking at their race splits. This time we're analyzing the 200 Individual Medley for women.It's taken me a long time to figure out how to analyze the 200 IM. When I analyze a… Continue reading Swimming By the Numbers: How Elite Women Swim the 200 IM
The Sad Legacy of East German Doping
Last post I discussed the rise of positive doping tests in the aquatics world (here), echoing the terrible doping decades of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Also, last week, Swimming World published an excellent article (here) about the problems and politics with the testing process. With this post I'd like to close out this unintended… Continue reading The Sad Legacy of East German Doping
Swimming’s Growing Problem
Swimming has a doping problem. And no, this isn't a history lesson about the notorious 70s and 80s. Or 90s. This is now, and its spreading. The issue came up most recently with a surge of recent doping suspensions of Russians, including world record holder Yuliya Efimova, former world record holder Sergey Makov, and now… Continue reading Swimming’s Growing Problem
Wrestling Trip to Hungary
I have to apologize for my blogging absence. Our season ended in early July, and I promptly headed off to Hungary to watch my son wrestle in the World University Championships. For those who are interested, I've now posted 4 of 6 posts describing my / our adventures. You can find these as follows: Part… Continue reading Wrestling Trip to Hungary
200 Freestyle: Sprint or Distance?
If you're aware of my series on the analyzing how the elite swim the 200s, you'll know that I've collected a lot of data on elite swimmers. So it seemed natural for me to use this data to answer (at least to myself) an age-old question. Is the 200 Freestyle more sprint-oriented or more distance-oriented?… Continue reading 200 Freestyle: Sprint or Distance?
9 Things to Keep in Mind Before the Big Meets
This is Championship Meet season, and many swimmers are gearing up for the year's big races. We know from experience that some will do amazing, some will be disappointed, and many will be in between. Here are a few things you should keep in mind to get those amazing swims. 1. Sleep, eat properly,… Continue reading 9 Things to Keep in Mind Before the Big Meets
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 