Swimming

Distance per stroke (DPS), or the length of your stroke (stroke length) interacts with the rate (speed) at which you move your arms. This combination determines the velocity with which you swim. If you think about different ways of walking, you can easily apply this concept to your swimming. One can walk with very tiny steps (DPS) or very long steps (DPS), or somewhere in the middle. One can also move their legs very slowly, or very quickly. Or, again, somewhere in the middle.

There are five main points to consider when thinking about your technique, and seeking to become more efficient

Find your balancing points in the water.  These balancing points include your head, both right and left shoulders, and both right and left hips.
With a solid core (your core extends from your belly to your back, just above the hip line and below the rib cage) begin to generate and coordinate rhythmic movements. These movements are generated from your five balancing points.
Transfer the power of your core strength to the power of your arms and legs.

Sometimes an often overlooked aspect for swimming greatness is the time spent underwater off of your start, and each of your turns. This is a huge mistake! Swimmers will never be as fast in the middle of the pool as they are when coming off the wall, or starting block. Why would this be? The answer is simple! You get to push first! In fact, coming off of the wall in a pool is the same thing as jumping off the floor.

There are times in all of our lives where our thoughts manage to get the best of us. Most of these times, I think we’d all agree, the imagined outcome of our given situation is not nearly as problematic as our earlier thoughts made them out to be. Yet, we continue to have these self-defeating thoughts as if somehow, this time, our preconception of how things are going to be is accurate. But it never really is. This can be particularly true for competitive athletes in crucial situations.

The most important thing we can do following any performance is endeavor to learn from the experience. In so doing we enable ourselves to come back stronger next time. Sulking or feeling sorry for ourselves following a disappointing outcome serves no purpose. Honest, non judgmental evaluation does. Remember, for any peak performance to occur all aspects of an athletes life must come together.

Can anyone expect more from an athlete than giving their best personal effort each and every day? How often do we see this occur in individual and team athletic events? Many athletes and teams believe that they do this, yet continue to fall short of their goals. Why would this happen? Don’t all competitive athletes want to win?

In achieving a peak performance effort all aspects of an athletes preparation must come together at the same time, including a well-developed mind-set.

Athletes at all levels experience the pressures of competition. Such pressure may come from parents, coaches, teammates, or from the athletes own expectations regarding their performance. While these pressures are quite common they are sure to limit an individuals level of competitive intensity. Rather than focusing on the task at hand many athletes report thinking about the “dire” consequences of a sub par performance.

Just as athletes conduct a physical warm up just prior to a practice or performance, so too should they consider developing a psychological or mental warm up in order to put them in the best frame of mind for a peak performance. This can be easily accomplished in just a few hours, and over time, can be continuously refined and individualized in order to enable them to “win the mind game.”

Planning

What frees you to perform your best? Think about a previous performance that you are proud of.