Once Inspired

Good day and welcome the final week of the second month of 2010. Thus far I have had much success with my new ventures which will be in full swing from 1 March 2010. If you’d like to know more about that read my previous post, Change and the Opportunities that Await.

Here is a little testimonial-ish piece from one of my clients, a masters swimmer who has made some drastic improvements. Please see below extracts from the emails which he updates me with following a gala.

This gentleman came to me with 1 major problem and several smaller ones. The major problem was that his one leg would give a huge thump of a kick every second stroke… and that was it as far his kicking went. So after 3 weeks this is how it goes:

Day 1 of 3 of WP Masters at UWC

50m Free (long course)

“Warmed up with lotza flutter kicking + then tried to keep focus on the kicking during the event.”

“Was in Heat 5 of 9 (pretty much in the middle of the range of all swimmers taking part) and was wanting to improve on my last gala time of 33.42 secs.(23.01.10)”

“Looks like I was able to take a second 1.05 secs off my last gala time and equal my PB of last year – 32.36 + 32.35 secs.”

Date	Course	Occasion	Time (secs)
24.01.09	Long	Paarl Gala	32.36
25.02.09	Long	UWC Gala	32.35
01.04.09	Short	Long Street Gala	33.39
05.12.09	Long	UWC Gala	32.44
23.01.10	Long	Paarl Gala	33.42
08.02.10	Short	NM Time Trial	33.60
16.02.10	Long	UWC Gala	32.37

And now for an even better part:

Day 3 of 3 of WP Masters at UWC

100m Free (long course)

“Did 4 X 50m length warm-up (in 2 X 100m slow sessions) and did manage OK to get the legs working in the warm-up.”

“Was in Heat 3 of 6 (pretty much in the middle of the range of all swimmers taking part) and was wanting to improve on my last gala time for the 100 m Free event this year of 1 : 17: 56 (23.01.10)”

“Looks like I was able to take 4.17 secs off my last gala time at Paarl-East last month (23.01.10) with a  1 : 13 : 39 and better my PB of 2009 by a bit.”

“During the event itself I could feel I was putting most of my energy into the upper bod and not as much as I should have into the legs.”

“Guess I just went back into the ‘old technique’ with the pressure of the competition itself.”

“The training we have been doing must have some influence on the time though – hence the new PB.”

“So am very happy with this.”

“The next frontier (with your help) on the 100m Free will be to break say 1 : 12 : 0 :”

Date	Course	Occasion	Time (secs)
24.01.09	Long	Paarl Gala	1 : 16 : 93
25.02.09	Long	UWC Gala	1 : 14 : 15
01.04.09	Short	Long Street Gala	1 : 14 : 51

05.12.09	Long	UWC Gala
23.01.10	Long	Paarl Gala	1 : 17 : 56
08.02.10	Short	NM Time Trial	1 : 16 : 00
21.02.10	Long	UWC Gala (Paarl)	1 : 13 : 39

So that’s how it goes. Many swimmers think that watching videos and trying to make improvements on their own will make the difference they’re looking for. Not so. And in other unfortunate news: If you have a bad technique you can train all you want, you will only be able to go so fast.

Get a technique coach. Learn the drills and don’t be afraid to substitute a hardcore session for “technique” session… especially when you’re tired.

Happy swimming. Oh and well done Pete. Proud to be of assistance.