For the swimmer who overthinks tapering
(yourswimlog.com)
Taper.
For some swimmers, it is a six-pack of sweet relief.
For others, it’s a mystifying, infuriating, something else-ing process that cracks and shatters the confidence required to swim like a certified beast on race day.
- What if I didn’t work hard enough?
- But my last taper went better?
- But I was also training less?
- Why aren’t I feeling better in the water?
- Why are my teammates already nearly going PB’s in practice and it feels like I am trying to swim through moldy Jell-O?
A swimmer’s mindset unraveling isn’t uncommon during taper.
After all, the hard work has been completed. You’ve made the deposits into your training, and now it’s time to see what all that effort and hard work is worth! No pressure, right?
Ultimately, your taper is all about sharpening and resting.
The hard work has been cast, now it’s all about sharpening all that effort and training into a finely-tuned, super-fast performance.
You’ve trained like a champion, now it’s time to taper like a champion.
Soak up the rest like a cotton towel
Getting more sleep is something you should be doing anyway. As a high-performance athlete, tucking in and locking down lots of sleep should be at the top of your priority list when it comes to lifestyle.
Taper gives you a chance to really get on top of it. With a drop in volume you should find yourself with a shade more time each day to get the Z’s. Take advantage of it.
Getting more sleep is the best (and most enjoyable!) way to bring your hard work to fruition.
The improvement you will get from sleep extension is no joke.
(Some fun research at Stanford found that getting an extra 1-2 hours of sleep helped their swimmers drop half a second on their time to 15m over the span of six weeks.)
The supercompensation coming your way should be pretty dang awesome if you give yourself a chance to fully recover from the hard work you have done.
The problem with comparing this taper to your last taper
It’s natural to look back on previous tapers and benchmark yourself according to past performances.
- “By day nine, I expect to be feeling PB-ready!”
- “I don’t remember feeling this sore last time I was tapering…”
- “I know I was going faster at this point the last time we were headed into a championship meet…”
These expectations can be tricky, because your swimming, and everything that encapsulates it, is evolving.
You aren’t the same swimmer as you were a year ago.
The basis for this post was an email I received from a swimmer, in his first year in NCAA division 1 swimming, who was training significantly more than at the same time last year.
In moments like this it is unhelpful to compare specifics. How you felt a year ago and focusing on the specifics of what you were doing then doesn’t really matter.
Stick to the same general things that got you good results in the past—eating well, staying on top of schoolwork, sleeping lots, managing stress, and unplugging when away from the pool. Those things–the parts of your process–are what will push you towards maximizing your hard work. Not obsessing over past tapers and comparing times and how you felt at which point.
Comparing this season to last, or this taper to the last one, is problematic and basically pointless because your training and your body are different. I know, not comparing yourself to your past self is easier said than done, but remind yourself that it’s not a fair comparison.
Focus instead of maximizing your rest and preparation each day, of maximizing each step of the process of tapering, and the performances will take care of themselves.
If you still worry about over-thinking your taper on race day:
- Have a simple process for race day that includes performance cues that are simple and vague. “Easy speed!” for the first 25, “Accelerate!” on the third 25, “Hulk smash!” coming down the final home stretch.
- Unplug from the sport when you are away from the pool. Left to our own devices, we overthinkers tend to run ourselves into the ground mentally when the sport follows us home.
- Future journaling your anxieties and fears is another helpful tactic for lending perspective to what you are going through.
It’s a new taper, a new experience, and a chance for you to learn how your body will respond. Enjoy it and take the process one step at a time!
Australia’s Tiffany Thomas Kane, here celebrating her gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, is one of the stars of the Melbourne 2020 World Series ⒸFriedemann Vogel/Getty Images
Melbourne is hosting the season-opener for the second consecutive year and around 70 world-class Para swimmers from 16 countries will be in action until Sunday at Melbourne Sports Centre – MSAC.
Australia’s finest Para swimmers will feature in the tournament with the likes of recent World Champions Tiffany Thomas Kane (class S7 swimmer) and Lakeisha Patterson (S9) battling it out against their compatriots and international rivals for the top spot.
USA and New Zealand have the biggest teams among the visitors with the North Americans bringing London 2019 World Champions Leanne Smith (S3), Evan Austin (S7) and Robert Griswold (S8).
Nine-time Paralympic champion Sophie Pascoe (S9) and three-time Paralympic champion Leslie Cameron (S4) lead the NZ delegation. Pascoe has just received the Halberg Awards – the country’s most important sport accolade – in the Para athlete/team category.
After a fantastic 2019 with four gold medals at the World Championships and five at the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games, Mexico’s S3 swimmer Diego Lopez Diaz begins the new season as one of the stars in the water.
Another current World Champion making a season debut is Israel’s Mark Malyar (S7).
“This competition marks an important step on the calendar – it’s the first chance for our athletes to race against strong international competition in 2020, so they need to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Swimming Australia’s General Manager for Paralympic and Open Water Programmes, Olympic champion Adam Pine.
The Melbourne 2020 World Series is organised by Swimming Australia and Swimming Victoria in conjunction with World Para Swimming and Paralympics Australia.
Spanning five months from February to June, the World Series will travel to six countries instead of the initial seven – following the cancellation of the Singapore leg scheduled in May.
The best female and best male swimmers will be picked for the World Series awards at the end of the season on the basis of their rankings.
All athletes’ results at each World Series edition are calculated using a standardised World Para Swimming points system.
This ensures that the overall World Series winner will be the best performing athlete over the duration of the series, meaning that every performance counts.
Great Britain’s Alice Tai and Spain’s Antoni Ponce claimed the women’s and men’s World Series titles in 2019, respectively.
USA’s Leanne Smith secured the women’s S/SB 1-3 High Support Needs title while Chile’s Alberto Abarza took the men’s trophy.
Great Britain also won the National Paralympic Committee title and the junior female and male categories with Maisie Summers-Newton and Louis Lawlor, respectively.
Melbourne 2020 will be streamed live on World Para Swimming’s website.
Elizabeth Beisel (USA Swimming)
Olympian Elizabeth Beisel released her book, Silver Lining, on Feb. 11. Written with Beth Fehr, the book shares a raw and honest account of her journey towards becoming one of the best athletes in the world, and the successes and failures that came along the way.
Below is an excerpt from her book, in which she details the 2012 Olympic final in the women’s 400m IM. Silver Lining is available in paperback and for Kindle on amazon.com.
Sitting in the ready room, I thought about what Coach Troy had said. He was arguably the greatest coach in the world, and I was certain of what he said. If I could just touch first at the 300, the gold medal was mine. It had been a long road, but I had done the work and was finally ready to rise to the occasion when it came to my racing anxiety. Sitting there, minutes away from my event, I knew that my wildest dream was about to come true. The venue was jam-packed with people, and everyone was enthusiastically cheering and screaming, waving various colored flags and poster board signs. My entire family was in the stands. My brother Danny was sitting with the Olympic snowboarder, Shaun White, and even Bill Gates was watching. Once they announced my lane, I walked out and waved to the crowd. I was ready to dive in and show everyone that I could rise to the occasion, and make it known that not only was I the best, but I could handle that type of pressure. I went into that race the World Champion, but I was going to leave the Olympic gold medalist.
I stretched my arms out one final time before climbing onto the block. “Take your mark.” Lunging forward, I positioned myself for my dive. “Beep.” We were off. The first 100 of butterfly I paced myself and stayed towards the back, but the pack remained fairly even. Going into backstroke was where I would make my move. I made the transition and pulled ferociously, my arms cutting cleanly through the water, each stroke bringing me closer to the lead. By the end of backstroke, I had surpassed every swimmer except for Katinka Hosszu from Hungary who was in the lane next to me. I hit the wall, pushed off and during the first 50 of breaststroke I took the lead. When I realized I had secured the top spot, I revved up my pace and pushed myself as hard as I could. I made each pull concise and glided easily through the water, moving away from the rest of the competitors. By the time I touched the wall at the 300, I had a substantial lead. I was first, and I was sure that I was first by a lot. My heart skipped a beat when I completed that turn, knowing that I was about to be an Olympic gold medalist.
Once I hit the freestyle leg, a second wind came with knowing that I was about to do what I had dreamed about since I was a little girl. One hundred meters left, and I had accomplished the goal I had spent the last twelve years chasing. Despite that I knew I was first, I willed myself to go faster. I wanted to go as fast as possible, and I was literally thrashing through the pool doing everything possible to hold onto as much water as I could. Just a little farther and I was there. This was it. Olympic Gold. Finally.
Burnell aiming to make his mark in Doha
Jack Burnell is relishing his first test of the marathon swimming season in Doha this weekend – and he is keen to put a marker down ahead of an important few months ahead.
The Loughborough-based athlete is one of a five-strong British team heading to the Qatari capital for the opening leg of the FINA Marathon Swim World Series on February 15th, along with Toby Robinson, Hector Pardoe, Alice Dearing and Danielle Huskisson.
For Burnell, recently back from an altitude training camp in Arizona, it will be an early opportunity to push himself competitively in Olympic year and against what he expects to be a strong field, racing around the 10km Doha Corniche course.
And the 2016 Olympian is setting his sights high first up, as he looks to lay the platform for the rest of 2020.
“I’m going into this race thinking I want to get a podium place and I want to push back on to the results that I left off at the back end of last year,” he says.
“It was quite a tough World Championships for me (when he finished 12th in the individual event). A few things didn’t go right after a bad start to the year.
“So yeah, it’d be nice to get back to winning ways – and it’d be a massive confidence boost to go to Doha and do well, especially at the start of the year when that race will be stacked. Everyone in the world will be there, the same people that will be at the Olympics will be there.
“It’s good to test yourself, especially this early on in the season.”
Burnell’s mention of a “bad start” to last year is a reference to his work being hampered by a knee injury at the back end of 2018.
This time around, though, the Scunthorpe-born swimmer has had better preparation as one year ended and another began – including three weeks on the training camp at the Hypo2 High Performance Sport Centre in Flagstaff last month.
Burnell has become a regular on those trips with British Swimming during this Olympic cycle, with the benefits of training at altitude especially important for marathon swimmers.
It is unsurprising, then, that he feels in such a good place ahead of the Doha event.
“It was a really good camp, I think it’s a great platform for us to kick on with into the year,” he adds.
“I personally put a good, solid block of work in over the Christmas period, which I didn’t get to do last year because I had a fractured knee.
“But going into the new year off the back of that altitude camp puts us in a really good place going forward and into the race in Doha.
“It’s something I see a huge benefit and value in, putting ourselves in Flagstaff for three weeks. By adding that extra element of altitude in there, it gives us a big benefit, especially as distance swimmers, building that aerobic base – and it allows us then to come back from altitude and put in a really good block of three, four weeks of work where we get the gains from the altitude.
“It’s going to be interesting because I don’t think I’ve ever raced this close off the back of an altitude camp, and your body always reacts weirdly when you come off the back of a camp.
“Sometimes I’ll be back for a couple of weeks and be really bad in the pool, heavy and not feeling great – and then I’ll feel the benefits.
“To be honest, when Doha falls is usually when I start to feel a bit better. So I’m hoping that if that all falls into place like it usually does, I should be fairly on it when the weekend comes around.”
The race in Qatar is the next stroke for Britain’s marathon swimmers on the course towards May’s Olympic qualifier event in Fukuoka, Japan.
Whatever happens this weekend, that is the stage Burnell is refusing to look beyond.
“That’s my number one focus this year, to lay down the best marker I can there and cement myself on the team,” he says.
“From my point of view and my mentality and mindset, I don’t want to look past Fukuoka. I just want to really focus on that and make sure we get the job done there, rather than planning ahead. Then we will deal with what comes after that.”
First up, though, it’s the FINA Marathon Swim World Series opener. The Women’s 10km race, involving Alice Dearing and Danielle Huskisson, gets underway at 6am on Saturday (UK time), with the men’s race scheduled to start at 10am. Burnell, Toby Robinson and Hector Pardoe are set to be in the field for that one.
Christopher Reid (Supplied)
South African backstroke swimmer Christopher Reid is the “One to Watch” at the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.
In 2019, Reid was a part of the inaugural International Swimming League (ISL), where he competed for the New York Breakers, with Tina Andrew as the team’s General Manager.
In addition, Reid is one of the clinicians of the Fitter and Faster Swim Clinic.
He previously competed in the men’s 100 meter backstroke at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he made it all the way to the semi-finals.
Wishing Reid continued success on his quest to make yet another Olympic swimming team this summer in Tokyo.
To learn more about Olympic swimmer Christopher Reid, follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Janet Evans (YourSwimLog)
At the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, a 14-year old Janet Evans steps out onto the pool deck.
All 5’1” of her.
Maybe 90 pounds soaking wet.
Nearby, a group of Soviet swimmers laugh.
The year before that, at US Nationals, Janet Evans walks behind the blocks.
One of her competitors, Tiffany Cohen, a double Olympic gold medalist from the Los Angeles Games in the 400 and 800m freestyles, openly snickers.
There were stares and laughs when Evans swims too. With her skinny arms and legs she motors across the pool with a dizzying stroke rate, taking around 60 strokes per length to cover the length of a 50m pool.
Two years later, at the Seoul Olympics, Evans would decimate the world in the 400m individual medley and the 400m and 800m freestyles.
A “Windmill in a Hurricane”
Evans nuclear-powered windmill required a level ten work ethic, something that Evans never struggled with. Her swim workouts, and her appetite for all the meters, border on legend and myth to this day.
“The most important thing is her attitude toward training,” said her coach Bud McAllister. “You have to keep pushing yourself to go faster in training.”
Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas, there were very few days off, including Sundays.
Even though she was supposed to avoid the pool that one day of the week, when she took the day off she noted that her “feel for the water” wasn’t the same when she returned to the water.
“If I miss a day, my stroke won’t feel right,” she says.
Whenever people would ask her what made her better than the competition, her answer was simple: “Hard work.”
Along the way there was lots of doubters…
She was too small to beat the powerful East German swim machine…
(She would demolish them on the way to winning golds and world records in the 400 IM, and the 400 and 800 freestyles in Seoul.)
She would slow down once she grew.
(After growing from 5’1” to 5’6” the only thing that changed was her stroke rate: now she only took around 50 strokes to swim 50m instead of 60ish.)
Evans would race again in Barcelona and in Atlanta.
Defending her 800m freestyle title in 1992.
And setting world records that would go untouched until the super-suit era (her 1500m free WR lasted almost 20 years).
Along the way, her commitment to training carried her.
The work ethic and sense of urgency to make the most of every opportunity is best summarized when she said…
Janet Evans: Swim Practices and Training
Here are some of the workouts that Evans did during her storied career.
12×150 free as…
- 2 @ 2:15 – easy
- 1 @ 1:50
- 2 @ 2:10 – easy
- 2 @ 1:45
- 1 @ 2:05 – easy
- 3 @ 1:40
20×400 individual medley
One of the more epic sets that Evans did was during the early summer of 1988. The set was simple enough: 20×400 individual medleys, done long course.
The set had been Evans’s idea. 8,000m of individual medley swimming.
“Her time on the last 400 was good enough to qualify for senior nationals,” said McAllister.
IM Ladder Set
Ladder sets are common with middle distance and distance swimmers. Gregg Troy loves to use them with his swimmers, and Olympic distance king Kieren Perkins did them frequently in training as well.
With the following IM ladder set, which starts at a brish 2;45/200m, the interval gets harder on the way back down.
- 200 IM @ 2:45
- 400 IM @ 5:30
- 800 IM @ 11:00
- 600 IM @ 7:45
- 400 IM @ 5:10
- 200 IM @ 2:35
** Thank you to Bud McAllister for taking the time to share these sets.
Swim teacher Kyle Daniels recruits Lindt Cafe siege barrister to fight child sex abuse charges
Kyle Daniels worked as a swimming instructor in Mosman before being arrested. (AAP Images: Peter Rae)
The high-profile criminal barrister recruited by a Sydney swimming teacher charged with dozens of child sex offences has accused prosecutors of potentially delaying his trial.
Key points:
- Gabrielle Bashir has worked on several big cases and the Sydney siege coronial inquest
- Kyle Daniels was joined in court by a small group of friends and family
- Prosecutors were accused of being too slow to hand over documents
Kyle Daniels, 21, is accused of sexually assaulting eight girls, some as young as six, when he worked as a coach at the Mosman Swim Centre from June 2018 to March 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty to 26 child sexual offences and will stand trial later this year.
Gabrielle Bashir SC told a case management hearing in the Sydney District Court today that she had only recently “come on board” as Mr Daniels’ lawyer.
Ms Bashir is an experienced criminal barrister from Forbes Chambers and has appeared in several high-profile Sydney cases.
She also represented the family of Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson at the Sydney siege coronial inquest.
Gabrielle Bashir SC has been recruited by Kyle Daniels. (Supplied: Forbes Chambers)
Ms Bashir told the District Court prosecutors were potentially delaying her client’s trial by being too slow to hand over documents related to the case.
Mr Daniels, who is on bail, was present in court with a small group of family and friends but did not comment outside.
His alleged victims are aged from six to 11 and are expected to give evidence through pre-recorded interviews before his trial begins.
Mr Daniels’ charges include sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and intentionally sexually touching a child under 10 years.
He is currently under a strict curfew and banned from going near children as part of his bail conditions.
The matter will be back in court later this month.
Bert le Clos (Getty Images)
Swimming star Chad le Clos’ father, Bert, has made a plea to corporate SA to channel some financial backing towards swimming, as he firmly believes swimmers are being short-changed compared to their counterparts in other sports.
Le Clos senior was talking as he made an appearance at the 47th edition of the Midmar Mile in Howick at the weekend, where he was impressed with how the race has grown.
He was there as a representative of the Chad le Clos Foundation, which is in partnership with the Midmar Mile, but his son was not present as he is currently preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in Turkey.
However, in an interview with The Witness, Le Clos expressed his sadness at how swimmers were not getting the same recognition and respect as soccer, rugby and cricket players in spite of them bringing in more international medals.
“Corporate South Africa should get behind these guys; swimmers in this country don’t get the recognition that soccer players get, but they bring more gold medals than soccer and cricket put together,” he said.
“You know what rugby players get? Billions. Soccer players get more than millions and cricket players they get telephone numbers, too.
“Swimmers get nothing, their parents slave to get their kids into international swimming.”
Le Clos feels companies should be having a serious fight among themselves to sponsor an event such as the Midmar Mile, which has aQuellé as the title sponsor. He described the Midmar Mile as the pinnacle of swimming in the country.
“This is the greatest swimming competition in the world, this is the Comrades Marathon of swimming, the biggest,” said Le Clos.
“Look at the 8-milers and what they are doing, it’s fantastic what they are doing for charities. I take off my hat to them.”
Le Clos senior said his son’s foundation, which was launched in 2018, has already started to do some work in Cape Town and their goal to get kids from townships involved will soon become a reality.
Nathan Adrian (USA Swimming)
THE PROBLEM: One key mental understanding you need to grasp if you’d consistently like to swim your best when it counts the most is the fact that “races are always won or lost before the start!” That is, what you focus on the time leading up to your swims, including your warm-up and time behind the blocks will either make or break your race.
For example, if you allow your pre-race focus to go to the wrong things (anything related to outcome, cuts you need, who you’re swimming against or what people may think of you if you perform poorly), then you’ll get nervous, physically tighten up, lose your confidence and end up disappointed!.
Learning to control your pre-race concentration is absolutely KEY to your swimming loose and fast under pressure!
The heart of staying calm and composed pre-event, in the state that I call “good nervous,” (you’re excited about the swim and have a few butterflies floating around in your belly), comes from learning to use a set pre-race ritual in order to distract yourself from all of the distractions that could potentially get you too nervous to swim your best. In fact, out of control, pre-race nerves are one of the biggest causes of choking in this sport and are almost always driven by your concentration mistakes behind the blocks.
As I’ve discussed in other posts, your pre-performance ritual helps provide you with very specific things that you can focus on that will help take your mind off all the things that could potentially sabotage your race. For example, if I am completely focused on my stretching ritual behind the blocks and the feel of each stretch, then that will help me take my focus away from all of the last minute negative thoughts and doubts which are so common to racing under big meet pressure.
What I’d like to suggest you add to your pre-race ritual is a little physical technique you can use behind the blocks when you notice your nervous system starting to rev up into the “red zone.” The following technique will help you battle those last-minute nerves, so that you’re able to stay confident and in control right before you get up on the blocks.
Here’s how it works:
If you notice you’re starting to get too anxious when you get behind the blocks, first take a mental note about how nervous you are on a scale of zero to ten. (Zero being that you’re totally chill and 10 being that you’re freaking out). Shift your concentration to making a fist with either hand. Bring the tension in that hand and up and down your arm to about 90% of your strength and be sure that you place all your attention on the feeling of tension up and down your arm. Hold the tension for about 5 seconds and then deliberately and slowly allow that tension to diminish as you loosen your hand and arm. As you do this, be sure you keep your focus entirely on the feelings of your wrist and arm loosening up. Focus on this loosening up for about 5 seconds.
Next, repeat this same process, tightening your wrist and arm for 5 seconds, and then loosening for that same amount of time, focusing closely on the FEEL of first the tension and then the looseness in your hand and arm. Then check in with yourself to see if your nervousness “score,” (0 – 10) has changed in any way. Whether it’s come down a bit or stayed the same, if you have time, repeat this same process for one or two more cycles of tightening and loosening, being sure that all of your concentration is on the feel of what you’re doing and NOT on any thoughts that may be bopping around between your ears.
Don’t worry if you notice these kinds of thoughts. They’re perfectly normal. Just be sure that when they do pop up and try to get your attention, you immediately direct all your focus back to the feel of what you’re doing.
By deliberately tightening and loosening your fist whenever you’re anxious pre-race, you’ll find that with enough practice, you’ll get quite skilled at calming your nervous system down right before you get up on the blocks! However, keep in mind that to enable this technique to really work for you, you must practice it regularly on your own, long before you get to that meet. Sufficient practice will enable this skill to get into your “muscle memory” and thus be much more effective when it’s race time and you’re feeling nervous!
Fun for the whole family is guaranteed at the 96th Nelson Mandela Bay River Mile on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd February on the Sunday’s River. Photo Credit: Oracle Media
The 96th Nelson Mandela Bay River Mile – the oldest swimming event in Africa – is set to take centre stage of the Nelson Mandela Bay swimming scene later this month.
Hosted at the scenic Sundays River on 22nd and 23rd February the event will highlight everything good about Nelson Mandela Bay – food, crafts, sport and community family involvement.
“There will be no less than 7 events to choose from including four Mile swim disciplines, the Gravity Kids Across the River races and the Vodacom 5km Family Fun Run. Added to these events, there will be a variety of arts and crafts, food vendors and a Bridge Street Brewery Beer Garden.” said Zsports Events NPC Marketing Manager Niel Du Preez. “There will also be a large screen showcasing the results , our event sponsors and any other company wishing to advertise over the weekend.”
Once again the event will be giving away R10 000 to the school with the most entries over the weekend. Last year Collegiate Girls High won this incentive with 26 entrants.
Other than the schools competition, which is a great opportunity for a club or sporting program to raise money, there will be plenty of promotional and lucky draw prizes on offer. The River Mile festival area also offers the perfect opportunity for the entire family to come out and enjoy the beautiful and vibrant setting.
The 2020 event will get underway with one eye on the 100th edition taking place in 2024. Saturday morning will see a 9am start with the Vodacom 5km Family Fun Run followed by a local inter-schools events morning for 4 of the local schools. Thereafter the BluSmooth Wetsuit Mile will take place at 2pm followed by the Family Half Mile at 3pm and a great lucky draw prizes giving ceremony on the Vodacom stage. Sunday morning sees the Gravity Kids Across the River races for children 12 years and under starting at 11h00 and sponsored by Gravity Indoor Trampoline Park The Oracle Media Disabled Mile kicks off at 12h00 followed by the iconic Ladies and Men’s Mile at 1.30pm and 2.30pm respectively.
All festival and event related information can be found on the Zsports Events NPC website, www.zsports.co.za. Schools interested in qualifying for the most entry incentive can contact the Zsports office on (041)484-7860.
Zsports
