contents · an understanding of what young people look for in sport helps us provide positive...

SWIMMING IN AUSTRALIA – September-October 2004

CONTENTS

FINA – Changes to FINA Doping Control Rules ..1 Australian Swimming 2nd Draft Junior Sport Policy (Len Yeats)...............................................2 Letters to the Editor ..........................................5 Maintaining Standards is Role of Anti-Doping Agency (Frank Shorter).......................................7 WSCA NEWSLETTER .......................................8

Working Swimming Abstracts – Altitude/Physiology (Brent Rushall) ....................................................... 8 The Athlete First (John Leonard) ........................... 11 Thoughts on THE PERFECT RACE (Allan Kopel) ... 12 Swimming with Randy (Jeff Grace) ....................... 13 Sprint Checklist (Bill Sweetenham) ....................... 16 Distance-Swimming Checklist (Bill Sweetenham) .. 17 Coach Fitz’s Management Theory (Michael Lewis) . 18

LEARN-TO-SWIM............................................27 Improving Freestyle & Introducing Bilateral Breathing............................................................. 27 Continuing Freestyle Breathing work, revising Breaststroke Kick & introducing Timing for Breathing & Kicking............................................. 28 Revising & Reinforcing Breaststroke Kick/Breathing Timing to develop effective undulation in Butterfly ........................................ 29 Introducing the Stationary & the Reverse Scull .... 30

NSW Swimmers are told that deep breaths can kill ..................................................................31 Are your Kids on Drugs? .................................31 MASTERS SWIMMING....................................40

The Ice Swimmer (Maureen Upton) ........................ 40 A Finny Thing Happened on the Way to Swim Practice (Nan Kappeler) ........................................ 42 Medications – Do They Affect Performance? (Jody Welborn)............................................................... 44 Stroke Consistency (Scott Rabalais) ...................... 46 Otitis Externa—or Swimmer’s Ear ........................ 48 A Build-Up Workout (Scott Rabalais) .................... 49 IM Transition Turns (Glen Mills) ........................... 50 Swim Training – Energy Systems for Dummies (Scott Rabalais) .................................................... 52 Suit Yourself? (Phillip Whitten) .............................. 54 A Quality Workout (Matt Rankin) .......................... 55

The Back-to-Breast ‘Bucket’ Turn (Glen Mills} .56 Swimming – Changing Times (Wayne Goldsmith)57 FINA AQUATICS WORLD ...............................63

The Open Water Team Physician Fighting the Natural Elements (Jim Miller, MD)......................... 63 WADA News ......................................................... 65 Doping News........................................................ 65 Motivating the Youth (Jennifer Pieper)................... 65 FINA Calendar ..................................................... 66 Fédération Internationale de Natation .................. 67

Book Review – Coaching Swimming Successfully 2nd Edition (Peter Ruddock) ..............................68 Talent Identification & Development (Dr. R. Richards) .........................................................69 Periodisation & Conditioning: A Contemporary Approach (David Pyne).....................................79 The Integrated Training Model (Dr Ralph Richards) .........................................................87

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M E M O R A N D U M TO: ALL FINA MEMBER FEDERATIONS FROM: FINA, Lausanne DATE: 6th September 2004 RE: CHANGES TO FINA DOPING CONTROL RULES Dear Madams/Sirs, On the 11th July 2003 in Barcelona (ESP), the FINA Extraordinary Congress unanimously accepted the World Anti-Doping Code. In accordance with the mandatory rules of the WADC, the FINA Bureau, at the meeting held on 12th August 2004 in Athens (GRE), has approved two minor changes as follows… DC 2.4 Violation of the requirements regarding Competitor availability for Out-of-Competition Testing including failure to provide required whereabouts information AND MISSED TESTS in violation of DC 5.4.4, DC 5.4.5 and DC 5.4.6. DC 10.4.3 For violations of DC 2.4 (whereabouts violations or missed tests), the period of Ineligibility for the first violation shall be MINIMUM 3 MONTHS up to 2 years. Subsequent violations shall result in a period of Ineligibility of at least 2 years.

THESE RULES SHALL BE ENFORCED AS FROM THIS DATE Please do not hesitate to contact the FINA Office for any additional information you may need concerning this issue. Sincerely yours, Cornel Marculescu Executive Director cc: FINA Executive, Bureau, and Standing Committees & Commissions


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AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING 2nd Draft Junior Sport Policy

Prepared by Len Yeats ([email protected]) Sport Development Manager

5th August 2004 “The purpose of this Junior Sport Policy for Australian Swimming is to assist in the provision of quality sport experiences for young people. It will encourage the provision of safe, enjoyable and accountable environments for everyone involved in junior swimming.”

INTRODUCTION Australian Swimming believes that Junior Swimming provides the foundation for a unique life skill and sporting experience in water, from the Learn to Swim Program through to a variety of programs and experiences within the comprehensive swimming club structure. There has to be a holistic developmental approach at all levels of the sport involving young people, coaches, Technical officials, administrators and anyone else connected to Junior swimming. As duty of care issues become increasingly important, providers of junior swimming must be familiar with, and put into practice, procedures to ensure young people have a positive experience in our sport. The health and welfare of junior swimmers must be central to all objectives, which include providing… • Fun experiences • Safe and supportive environments • Skill development, challenge and the joy

of achieving • Access for all to participate • A clear pathway for improvement • Equal opportunities for all young people. This policy contains guiding principles to assist in achieving the objectives. They are provided in the following key areas… 1. Getting Young People Involved for the

Long-term 2. Swimmer Development and Pathways 3. Forming Links 4. Quality Coaching of Junior Swimmers 5. Making Swimming Safe For the purposes of this document the policy covers ages 5-17 years.

1. Getting Young People Involved for the Long-term

Getting young people active is important because it is an integral component of a healthy lifestyle. Swimming assists in preventing lifestyle diseases and promotes physical, psychological and social well-being. Quality experiences in junior swimming provide the entry to a lifelong involvement in the sport for… • Enjoyment and recreation with

pleasurable social involvement • Fulfilling individual potential in sport An understanding of what young people look for in sport helps us provide positive experiences that encourage young people to remain active participants throughout their lives. Swimming provides an opportunity to develop physical, social and emotional abilities and therefore should be accessible to all young people. A wide variety of skills and abilities developed in swimming transfer to non-athletic careers and swimming influences social factors such as community pride, identity, and leisure. Marginalisation still occurs on the basis of disability, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, geographical location, Indigenous background, social class and socio-economic status. A less obvious factor that shapes participation, but one of growing importance, is the way young people perceive their body image. Recognising the difficulties from the perspective of young people, and the restrictions they have on being involved, allows swimming to meet the challenge of all the young people having the fundamental right to be involved in the sport. Meeting legal obligations related to equity of opportunity must also be considered.

Swimming wil l cater for al l levels of junior swimmers with f lexible and

appropriate rules and practices Proposed Strategies for Getting Young People Involved for the Long-term to include… • Enable equity of access to all junior

programs by coaches, officials and swimmers.

This strategy will include… • Recognising and addressing issues

associated with Ethnicity, Disability, Gender, Sexuality, Socio economic status, Body Shape, Ability and Geographically location

• Flexible membership categories • Affordable programs

• Provide equal opportunity for young people regardless of their ability

This strategy will include…


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• Appropriate and varied training methods

• Re-defined competition (across all spectrums)

• Recognition of all levels of achievement

• More flexible and varied competition programs to cater for all

• Establish an appropriate club environment

This strategy will include… • Family involvement and activities • Developing a club ‘culture’ • Promotion of healthy lifestyle • Re defining the role of the club • Utilisation of the National Club

Standard measurement system • Development of a New Members Kit

2. Swimmer Development and Pathways Years 5 to 17 are a time of tremendous development for young people on all levels - physically, psychologically, emotionally and socially. Planning for the progressive development of swimming skills in young people requires consideration of… • Identifiable stages of development • Different levels of ability • Different rates in gaining swimming skills • Different interests of young people in the

sport. It is the responsibility of all swimming leaders to manage the experiences available to young people so that activities and challenges are offered in a planned and sequential manner. Physical activity is essential for the normal growth and development of the child. However, there are potentially harmful effects for young swimmers through the impact of intense training. This can adversely affect the dynamics and timing of growth and physical maturation. Determining when children are ready for more intense training and competition is a duty of care required of swimming coaches. Growth is a complicated process because parts of the body mature at different rates, and periods of growth vary considerably between individuals. This differential growth of various body parts has a major influence on the performance of motor skills. Maturation is the genetically programmed series of changes leading to maturity. Tissues and systems mature at different rates and although every child passes through all the stages of maturation in the same order, there is great variation in developmental rates and the length of time taken to pass from an initial stage to a final stage. Chronological age is of

limited value in determining levels of maturity for children.

Junior swimming practices wil l ref lect the junior swimming development model Proposed Strategies for Swimmer Development & Pathways to include… • A clear development model for junior

swimmers This strategy will include…

• Developing a non-competitive/recreational model

• Pathways from Learn-to-Swim to Swimming clubs

This strategy will include… • Fostering relationships with learn to

swim programs and providers • National badging/certification

scheme for junior swimmers • Recruitment of new members • Define the progression of junior

swimmers using Table 1 • Create a clear development model for

young people as volunteers This strategy will include…

• Diverse roles and responsibilities • Create junior volunteer

model/pathways • Recognise and cater for Physical and

Psychological maturation This strategy will include…

• Education and policies addressing psychological burnout, eating disorders, growth, maturation and body image

Table 1 – Progression for Junior Swimming Broad

Experiences Progression Specialisation Recreational Participation

Ability Age Span Focus Considerations Individual Session Duration

Session Frequency

Session Contents

Approach to Conditioning

Competition Recognition

3. Forming Links Consultation and co-operation are essential for effective and efficient junior swimming participation. A number of agencies have responsibilities for organising and conducting sport including sporting organisations, schools, commercial and non-profit providers, government (local, state and federal), and non-government agencies. All of these are partners in junior swimming and their cooperation and goodwill is vital to the successful delivery of junior swimming.


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Consultation and cooperation provide many benefits including… • Identifying gaps and overlaps in delivery

and resolving cooperative approaches to them

• Consistency in the provision of junior swimming with regard to age groupings, competition rules etc

• Sharing resources. Participants in junior swimming potentially come into contact with, and are influenced by, a diverse range of people including: Young people, Parents and carers, Teachers, Coaches, Technical officials, Administrators and Volunteers. These people are an important resource in junior swimming because they provide the necessary infrastructure for its delivery. They also determine the social atmosphere of the sport. The importance of their contribution cannot be underestimated because of the close relationship between the quality of leadership found in swimming and the quality of the swimming experience for young people.

Swimming wil l have strong l inks and partnerships with stakeholders, kindred

organisations, schools and others Proposed Strategies for Forming Links to include… • Establish links with Kindred

Organisations This strategy will include establishing links with…

• Education/Schools (Active Australia School’s Network)

• Facility owners (private) • Other related sports • Government providers and state

bodies • AUSTSWIM • Other Peak bodies • Other sports and the opportunities

they can provide • Provide ongoing support for the people

who supply the infrastructure to enable junior swimming to happen.

This strategy will include… • Promoting the Codes of Behaviour • Regular communication to Young

people, Parents and carers, Teachers, Coaches, Technical officials, Administrators and Volunteers involved with Junior Swimming.

4. Quality Coaching of Junior Swimmers Understanding the learning process and the developmental stages in this process are

necessary for quality junior swimming experiences. Young people have preferences for how they like to learn, and their preferences might change depending on the type of task and their prior experiences. Some might like to watch, listen and experiment, and others may like to try an activity first and refine their learning through feedback. Young people typically learn more than one thing at a time. In the process of learning physical skills, young people also learn what behaviour is expected, how to work with others, and what they are good at. Recognising that learning is multi-dimensional is important. It highlights the complexity of acquiring skills and how broader social aspects of life impact on young people as they learn physical skills. People in leadership roles should plan for each session and the season ahead. Planning should address not only what is presented but also how it will be presented to optimise learning, safety and enjoyment.

Swimming wil l have a system that wil l recognise and support the

developmental coaches of junior swimmers

Proposed Strategies for Quality Coaching of Junior Swimmers to include… • Develop clear pathways for coaches of

junior swimmers (Professional development and recognition)

This strategy will include… • Development of a specific coach

accreditation scheme for Coaches of junior swimmers.

• Developing a junior coaching course content that emphasises the specific needs of Junior Swimmers

• Provide professional development of club coaches

This strategy will include… • Linkages with the Go Club

education program • Provide quality coaching for all levels This strategy will include…

• Develop a range of mentoring opportunities

• Talent ID and ‘Assistant coach’ role This strategy will include…

• Development of a talent ID program • Involvement of parents/youth

swimmers in assistant coaching roles.

5. Making Swimming Safe Swimming organisers have a legal duty of care to not expose young people to risk in any aspect of providing the swimming experience.


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Areas of concern for which advice, training and procedures (written where possible) should be in place include facilities and equipment, the environment, training and competition, infectious diseases, medical conditions, drugs, weight control and dealing with emergencies. To protect the welfare of young people in swimming, organisations must be aware of the relevant legal issues and put safeguards in place. By doing this you will be protecting both your junior members and the organisation. The legislation relevant to the safety and welfare of participants in junior swimming covers: Discrimination, Child protection, Drugs, Health and safety and Privacy. All of this legislation emphasises the serious obligations undertaken by any person or organisation taking responsibility for the care and/or coaching of children. The community and the courts have a high expectation that officers of organisations and members of management committees are aware of their legal obligations and taking steps to ensure compliance. Swimming wil l have standards, policies,

guidelines for safe junior swimming Proposed Strategies for Making Swimming Safe to include… • Ensure the MPP and its key objectives are

actively promoted throughout the swimming community

This strategy will include… • Promote a safe and harassment free

environment • Continued promotion of the MPP

• Ensure the swimming membership positively embraces the codes of behaviour

This strategy will include… • Development of a Code of Behaviour

Brochure • Promotion of the Codes of Behaviour

• Develop national guidelines for facilities and equipment

• Develop national guidelines for safe practices in training and competition

This strategy will include… • Development of Risk Assessment

checklists for running events • Development of Risk Assessment

checklists for running club training • Develop “National Safe Healthy” policy

and guidelines. This strategy will include…

• Psychological/physical, Overload, Nutrition, Parent Education Medical History, Drugs, Hydration and Sun Protection.

Letters to the Editor

RE: AUSTRALIAN SWIM CAMP

SCHOLARSHIP I am just writing to thank ASCTA for granting me the scholarship to attend the swim camp in Toowoomba in September. I really do appreciate this opportunity and will do everything possible to make the most of it. I have also enclosed an article from our local newspaper regarding the granting of the scholarship for your information. Once again thank you for your support. Yours sincerely, Vivienne Kennedy 5 Ballater Street Portland Vic 3305 Scholarship for Portland Coach Portland Swimming Club coach Vivienne Kennedy has been awarded a scholarship by the Australian Swimming Teachers and Coaches Association (ASCTA). The scholarship will see Kennedy travel to Brisbane from September 25-30 to attend one of several Australian Swim Camps. A number of high profile coaches will be at the camp to facilitate programs and mentor coaches. Among those attending the camp will be Olympic coaches Shannon Rollason (coach of Jodie Henry and Alice Mills) and Stefan Widmer (coach of Lisbeth Lenton and Marieke Guehrer). Kennedy is very excited to have this opportunity. “I am looking forward to working with coaches who are at the top of their field. Rollason and Widmer especially as they have


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been producing such excellent results with their female swimmers,” Kennedy said. The scholarship awarded by ASCTA will pay for travel, accommodation and meals and will provide an invaluable opportunity for Kennedy to further enhance her coaching skills. The coaching talent is not limited to those two with Vince Raleigh (coach of Victorian first-time Olympian Patrick Murphy) also attending. Murphy has improved rapidly in Backstroke events since moving from Albury to the University-based coach so Kennedy is hoping to pick up a few tips to assist Portland’s Backstroke swimmers. Michael Bohl, who was an Olympic coach in 1992, will also be attending. While not so well known he is the coach of Nicholas Sprenger who is making his Olympic debut in Athens. As well as the excellent coaching staff there will be several international level swimmers attending. Those confirmed to date are Patrick Murphy (Olympian for 200m Backstroke), Brenton Rickard (Australian record holder for 100m Breaststroke) and Briody Murphy (a member of the 2004 Oceania team). Kennedy is looking forward to seeing these swimmers in action. “It is always great to see elite swimmers in action. In this setting they will be performing drills and skills that all swimmers do in training. By seeing drills performed very well it gives a coach a good frame of reference when assisting their swimmers. When I attended the National Coaches’ Conference on the Gold Coast at the end of April we were treated to Justin Norris, Adam Pine, Antony Matkovich, Frances Adcock and Sarah Paton. To see these Olympians demonstrating drills and starts, turns and finishes was so good as I got a real understanding of how things should look.” The swim camp in Brisbane will have around 120 swimmers aged 8-17 attending so there will be lots of opportunity to work with swimmers, learn new things and get inspired for summer training.

There will be sessions on dry land for stretching and flexibility, nutrition and mental preparation. Each session in the pool will cover a different stroke with some sessions devoted wholly to starts, turns and finishes – these are very important and the place where many races are or lost. While Portland’s coach is away, Portland swimmers will be having a week off from their busy training regime. This rest period is being eagerly awaited by the swimmers as they have been training very hard with many kilometres swum each week as they complete the endurance phase of their training. This weekend, 17 swimmers from the Portland club will be travelling to Ballarat for the third night of the Top Five series. As well as competing for overall series trophies, swimmers are also looking ahead to Country Championships in January and are keen to add to their number of qualified swims or improve on the times already achieved. From Joanna Cowan PO Box 438 Strathalbyn SA 5255 Membership No. 7050 5th September 2004 Dear Sir, I am writing to let you know that I do not intend to renew my membership with ASCTA. I resigned from my position as Coach at the end of the 2003-2004 season after nearly 10 years association with my local club … seven of which involved coaching in a voluntary capacity. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the club but knew it was time to move on and concentrate on other interests that had been put on the back burner for several years. I thank ASCTA for your support and encouragement over the years and wish the Association well for the future. Joanna Cowan


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MAINTAINING STANDARDS IS ROLE OF ANTI-DOPING

AGENCY By Frank Shorter

This article appeared in San Francisco Chronicle 30th July 2004

Recent stories in The Chronicle detail how alleged steroid use by Olympic athletes puts pressure on officials with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to act before the Games start next month. Although one report quoted USADA legal counsel Travis Tygart … “The simple fact is we carefully gather and review evidence before bringing any drug allegations or charges against an athlete” … the stories miss important details about what the USADA does and how it goes about its work. The USADA was established by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2000 to oversee all aspects of illegal performance-enhancing drugs as they relate to Olympic sport in the United States. This includes testing, education, research and adjudication of cases. Think of USADA as having a permanent, irrevocable license from the USOC that effectively takes that committee out of the drug-testing business. For this service, the USOC, along with the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy, provide the agency’s funding. USADA is totally independent from any other U.S. administrative agency or sport federation. It has absolutely no conflict of interest and can operate on a completely transparent basis. Unfortunately, in the area of adjudication (sanctions/results management) there is at present major confusion in the eyes of the public, due mainly to the modern-day temptation to try cases in the press. The confusion comes from assertions that USADA has set its own arbitrary standard of legal proof at a level termed (comfortable satisfaction” – something akin to the American standard of “clear and convincing”. Attorneys for athletes now under investigation by USADA would prefer a standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt”. They seem to be arguing or implying that their clients therefore are being denied due process. This is not the case. All U.S. Olympic sport organisations and Olympic athletes have signed over all authority to USADA with their eyes wide open. This is because participation in the Olympic Games is a privilege and the International Olympic

Committee requires that in order to have this privilege, athletes must agree to oversight by USADA. This is a non-negotiable requirement. All one has to do to clear up this confusion is remember that USADA oversees and administers (enforces) the rules (legal process). USADA does not control the process. Once the legal wheels begin to grind, USADA has no more control. It does not make up the rules as it goes along. It, as well as the athletes, must abide by all decisions at all levels. An athlete under investigation deemed worthy of potential sanction, first has a hearing according to USADA rules that conform to the international standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The “comfortable satisfaction-clear and convincing” standard did not drop out of the sky. It came from WADA. The hearing is before an independent panel that is selected from an independent pool of people from North America. It is intentionally set up so that these arbitrators have no connections with USADA, except a willingness to give their time, effort and expertise. If the athlete loses the arbitration ruling at this level, the final appeal is in front of the international body of the Court of Arbitration for Sport – another independent body that is disconnected from USADA and has been universally upheld as fair and impartial. USADA is legally bound by all CAS decisions. Due process is a concept very dear to all Americans and therefore assertions that it is being denied should be given careful consideration. In this case, however, the U.S. athletes under scrutiny are arguing a denial of due process, even before the facts have been adjudicated. For example, you cannot sue someone because the individual may some day breach a contract. In a similar way, U.S. athletes cannot demand that international legal procedures be changed in situations where they have yet to be denied due process. The rest of the world’s athletes are being held to the same WADA standards of adjudication as those being overseen by USADA. As a past Olympian, I feel all athletes should be held to the same standards.


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WSCA NEWSLETTER WORLD SWIMMING COACHES ASSOCIATION

1st Floor, 461 Olive Street, Albury NSW 2640 Phone: (02) 6041 6077 – Fax: (02) 6041 4282

Email: [email protected]

WORKING SWIMMING ABSTRACTS Alt itude/Physiology

By Brent S. Rushall San Diego State University, April 2002

This article appeared in WSCA Newsletter Vol 04 Issue 1

On US Swimming’s promotion of Altitude

Live-High – Train-Low & Nitrogen Tent Recovery & Training Protocols

US Swimming recently circulated claims about three training and recovery protocols – altitude, the live-high – train-low (Hi-Lo) regimen, and nitrogen/hypoxic recovery tents. Contrary to implications of published research, the communication implied the environmental manipulations were beneficial for swimming performance and seemingly equivalent in effect. It claimed that altitude training in Colorado Springs was a good experience, but coaches were not embracing it. If such training was not possible, the next best option for a team would be to train at sea level and live at altitude (the Hi-Lo regimen). The other similar-in-effect alternative, but most expensive option, was sleeping in a nitrogen tent. One has to ask if this information is correct. Is this a responsible communication that explains how to produce benefits for swimmers and coaches? The initial part of the US Swimming communication was as follows… USA Swimming has an annual budget that pays for USA National Team members to come to Colorado Springs and take advantage of a great facility while improving their cardiovascular profile via adaptation to altitude. In 2001 not many swimmers took advantage of this budget and we used the excess funds to purchase two Altitude Sleeping tents from Hypoxico Inc. There is some anecdotal evidence in our sport that the tents are beneficial (Ed Moses), and quite a number of people in other sports are extolling the benefits of the system. There has always been a debate about the value of altitude training and although recent studies have shown the benefits of altitude (stay at altitude), or Hi-Lo training (stay at altitude and train at sea level), we still don’t have that many coaches/swimmers

who are pursuing the opportunity. (See related articles at this website for more information – www.usa-swimming.org/programs/template.pi?opt=news&pubid=2222.) The reasons are many, but a major one is the logistics of getting to a place where an athlete can use altitude adaptation as a part of the training program. The altitude tents remove the need to travel outside of your home training environment and bring the possibility one step closer. (Email sent by Jonty Skinner, February 06, 2002-6.38PM – Subject: Altitude Tent training opportunities.) Table 1 illustrates the six conditions that need to be considered when comparing or equating altitude, Hi-Lo, and nitrogen-tent living and training. The three recovery (living) and training environments are not equivalent or similar, which poses a question of why would they be similarly beneficial for training and performance improvement. The three different environments should not be expected to produce similar adaptations or performance effects, because they present different atmospheric conditions and durations of exposures to those conditions. However, until acceptable research is conducted in these matters, equivocal opinions will continue to permeate the topic. Altitude and sea level environments differ in atmospheric (barometric) pressure. It is low at altitude (hypobaria), low when living high, but normal (normobaria) when using a nitrogen tent. If what US Swimming says about the environmental equivalencies is correct, then barometric pressure cannot be important, and thus, that aspect of being at altitude is not an important factor for training or recovery. Altitude and sea level environments differ in the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the lungs. At altitude, the overall density of air is reduced causing less oxygen, and other gases, to be presented to the lungs with each breath. The partial pressures of atmospheric gases are lowered because of lowered atmospheric pressure. This condition can be termed environmental hypoxia-pressure, indicating hypoxia is produced because of reduction in atmospheric pressure. For performance, more breaths would need to be taken to supply a standardised amount of oxygen to circulating blood in the lungs. This condition exists for both training and recovery at altitude, but only in recovery in the Hi-Lo situation. The partial pressure of oxygen is lowered in the nitrogen tent circumstance but for a different reason to that of altitude. In the tent condition, the percentages of gases, mainly through the introduction of more nitrogen, are altered. Increased nitrogen causes the overall proportion of oxygen in inspired air to be reduced. This condition can be termed environmental hypoxia-concentration, indicating hypoxia is


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produced because of reduction in the concentration percentage of atmospheric oxygen. That is possibly a very different physical stimulus to the reduced partial pressures of altitude gases. However, research has not been conducted to assess the interaction effects of partial pressures of oxygen and atmospheric pressures. Until that is done, it is worthwhile to remain sceptical of claims of equivalency. The mixture of inspired gases during training and

recovery are not the same across the three training regimens. If what US Swimming says about the environmentally-equivalent effects on performance are correct, then the gaseous make-up of inspired air in either training or recovery cannot be important. Thus, being at altitude would not be an important factor for training.

Table 1 – A comparison of Recovery & Training Environmental Conditions and their effects upon Physiological &

Performance Potential in three situations Condition Atmospheric Pressure Oxygen Concentration Research Indications

Altitude Recovery

Hypobaria (reduced atmospheric pressure)

Environmental hypoxia-pressure (decreased partial pressure of oxygen due to reduction in atmospheric pressure)

Physiological changes occur

Altitude Training


Environmental hypoxia-pressure (decreased partial pressure of oxygen due to reduction in atmospheric pressure) and exercise hypoxia

Physical capabilities are reduced while some physiological changes occur

Live High


Environmental hypoxia-pressure (decreased partial pressure of oxygen due to reduction in atmospheric pressure)

Physiological changes occur

Train Low

Normobaria (normal atmospheric pressure)

Environmental normoxia (normal partial pressure of oxygen) and exercise hypoxia

Physiological capabilities are maximal while some physiological changes occur

Nitrogen (hypoxic)

Tent Recovery

Normobaria (normal atmospheric pressure)

Environmental hypoxia-concentration (decreases partial pressure of oxygen due to reduction of percentage of oxygen in inspired air)

Claims of changes

Normal Training

Normobaria (normal atmospheric pressure) Exercise hypoxia

Physiological capabilities are maximal and some physiological changes occur

Neither atmospheric pressure nor the nature of inspired air is similar across the three environments. Because of that, altitude training would not produce the same effects as Hi-Lo training and would be vastly different to those of the nitrogen tent condition. The body does respond to different environmental conditions in specific differential ways. For many years, altitude training has been promoted as an environment that stimulates greater than normal physiological adaptations that are beneficial for sea level swimming performance. That belief played a substantial part in the decision to finance a substantial upgrade of swimming facilities at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in the late 1980s. However, evidence does not support the benefits of altitude training on sea level performance in swimming (Rushall, Buono, Sucec, & Roberts, 1998). Even scientists at ICAR in Colorado Springs substantiated that viewpoint (Troup, 1990; 1991, 1992). One should not expect performance improvements

from training at Colorado Springs if previous training has been “sane”. Attempts to establish high-performance training squads and to conduct Games’ preparatory training camps in Colorado Springs have largely been unsuccessful. The highly successful USA 2000 Olympic Team trained and prepared at sea level. If altitude training was beneficial for swimmers, the following question would need to be answered with positive evidence… Why aren’t there a greater number of successful college and club teams that live and train in altitude environments? With regard to Hi-Lo environments, initial published results are positive, make some extraordinary claims, particularly with regard to the speed of physiological changes, but replicate the poor experimentation and pseudo-scientific work that plagued altitude-training research for many years. Until the standard of science involved with Hi-Lo environments improves, it is prudent to remain sceptical of the claims of benefits that have emerged in various


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publications and at conferences. This warning is given despite this writer being one of the original promoters of the concept of Hi-Lo environments for athletic development (Rushall & Pyke 1990). Researchers who “believe” Hi-Lo is beneficial are the most prolific at publishing positive findings, despite frequently acceptable research designs and particularly poor control of confounding factors. One major feature that has been considered in Hi-Lo is that the body is cyclically exposed to adapting to sea level and altitude conditions. It goes not adapt to altitude and ignore sea level conditions when in this protocol. Nitrogen tents are a money-making proposition. Their effects are confounded by infomercials, anecdotal evidence, paid testimonies from successful athletes, and particularly poor research. The basic question that must be asked of these tents is this… If physiological adaptations occur during 8-12 hours of hypoxia in the tents, why don’t those transitory adaptations readapt to normal conditions when outside of the tents (whether training or not) for a similar or longer period? The human body is not selective in its adaptations. It responds dynamically and continually to all environmental changes. As with Hi-Lo advocates, the implication of the tent-promoters is that the body responds adaptively in the tents and then waits for the next tent-experience to continue the adaptation. The training and daily living experiences of normoxia and exercise induced hypoxia are somehow ignored despite the exposure of athletes to that set of conditions, usually for greater periods than that spent in tents. The body will be just as aggressive at adapting to normal conditions as tent conditions, which alternate daily. It is absurd to advocate that tent-adaptations will only occur in that contrived environment and will be sustained despite greater exposure to “normal” environments. Until research is conducted objectively and properly, the effects of Hi-Lo and nitrogen tents, if any, will not be truly known. There are likely to be other factors not considered in these regimens that are beneficial to performance Increased rest and sleep in recovery re two that come to mind.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SWIMMING/SPORT COACHES?

If US Swimming’s advice has come merit, that is, that benefits for swimming are derived from altitude, Hi-Lo, and nitrogen tent habituation because they are in essence

interchangeable (similar), then contradictions are involved. 1. If altitude training is beneficial, then

neither Hi-Lo nor nitrogen tent environments are likely to be as beneficial. The constant hypoxia-pressure and hypobaria of altitude living/training does not exist in either of the other two protocols. In the Hi-Lo condition, only recovery is equivalent to that of altitude, and in the nitrogen tent, only hypoxia-concentration in recovery is somewhat similar. Both Hi-Lo and tent conditions have more difference than similarity to an altitude-training environment. It is incorrect to equate the three environments, let alone their effects upon physiology and, to a much lesser extent, performance.

2. If the Hi-Lo protocol is beneficial for swimming, then altitude training or nitrogen tent environments are not likely to be as beneficial. Altitude training promotes less quantity and more stress in training. Hi-Lo recovery is similar to that of altitude. The nitrogen tent only approximates the hypoxia or recovery. Both altitude and nitrogen tents have greater difference than similarity to Hi-Lo environments.

3. If the nitrogen tent protocol is beneficial for swimming, then altitude training or Hi-Lo environments are not likely to be as beneficial. Following with similar premises to those included in the two previous points, the nitrogen tent protocol only presents unique recovery hypoxia. It provides no experience of hypobaria, which suggests that altitude is irrelevant to an athlete’s adaptation.

Until appropriate research is conducted, one should be sceptical of US Swimming’s claims although those claims may have been made with the best of intentions. The human body adapts specifically and uniquely to minor variations in environmental circumstances. The atmospheric differences between the three conditions discussed are large enough to suggest that there could be as many differences between them as there are similarities. Confound that situation with the great range of individual differences that exist in the swimming population and the possibility of a claim of general effects on training and performance is even further removed. The implication of US Swimming’s stance on altitude, Hi-Lo, and nitrogen tent protocols is suspect and should be treated with caution.


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The most important lesson from this consideration is BEWARE! One could opine that another costly fad is being proselytised to swimmers and coaches. The true situation is not that which has been communicated. Wait until the truth is known before investing in another useless device touted as being important for swimming improvement. It is quite likely that this US Swimming proclamation will go the way of lactate testing, biopsies, and body suits – all expensive accoutrements that have little to do with improving performances in races that count. For the time being, swimmers and coaches could spend their funds better rather than follow this questionable assertion from US Swimming. References 1. Rushall B.S., Buono M.J., Sucec A.A. &

Roberts A.D. (1998). Elite swimmers and altitude training. Australian Swim Coach 14(4), 22-33.

2. Rushall B.S. & Pyke F.S. (1990). Training for sports and fitness. Melbourne, Australia. Macmillan Educational.

3. Troup J. (1990). The effects of altitude training on sea level swimming performance. International Center for Aquatic Research Annual Studies, 1989-90. United States Swimming Press, 1750 East Boulder Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA 80909-5770.

4. Troup J. (1991). The time course of physiological adaptations made during altitude training. International Center for Aquatic Research Annual Studies, 1990-91. United States Swimming Press, 1750 East Boulder Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA 80909-5770.

5. Troup J. (1992). Physiological time course adjustments to endurance training at altitude and tapering at sea level. International Center for Aquatic Research Annual Studies, 1991-92. United States Swimming Press, 1750 East Boulder Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA 80909-5770.

These articles appeared in ASCA Newsletter

Volume 2004 Issue 3 THE ATHLETE FIRST

By John Leonard Richard Quick,, three time USA Head Olympic Coach for Swimming, has a simple formula for success in any swimming endeavour … THINK OF THE ATHLETE FIRST! In brief, its focus is to make sure that high school swimming and club swimming both contribute optimally to the opportunities to

participate and excel for every athlete. This takes the form of different initiatives in different states. In Missouri, there is currently a bill in both House and Senate that mandates that after all “school responsibilities”(both academic and athletic), have been met, the student is free to spend their time out of school as they and their parents see fit. No longer could a state high school athletic association rule that an athlete could not participate in a club practice or swim meet on their own time. Essentially, it returns control of the student’s non-school time to the family, as it is with math students, music students, thespians, and band members. Sports would no longer hold some exclusive place where a government bureaucracy decides what is best for the child in non-school activities. At the same time, it’s critical to note that the Missouri legislation (and all comparable attempts), insist that the school retains the right to set all standards for attendance and participation of all its sports teams. The high school coach can demand 2-a-day workouts, 6 days a week if they choose to do so, for all their team members. The athlete must meet any and all requirements in order to participate on the high school team. Once those requirements are met, any additional training the athlete chooses to attend is their own business, and may not be prohibited by the school. The advantages of placing responsibility back in the hands of the parent instead of in the hands of a bureaucrat in a state association office are obvious. Now a child can choose to participate in all the wonderful aspects of high school swimming AND choose to gain the chance for excellence by devoting even more time and energy to their sport if they so desire. (And as is generally necessary for national/international level of performance.) Now comes the coaches’ part in this grand scheme. WE AS COACHES must recognise and seek the program that is most beneficial for the athlete. There will be disagreements among coaches of differing philosophies about “what is best” for the athlete. PUT THE ATHLETE FIRST! Club coaches, please don’t INSIST that they come to your practice or to your meets exclusively, except for the State HS Meet. That won’t work. Impossible. Most young people want to be a meaningful part of their own high school team. Recognise that. Allow for it. Make it part of your plan for their success also. High School coaches have the toughest job in the world of coaching. They can have Fred Smith, All-American and Senior National


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Qualifier in Lane 1 and Jo Jones, practically a Learn-to-Swim student, in Lane 6. How do you conduct training for a group like that? SOMETIMES you can excuse the All-American to train with his club team while you concentrate on Joe Jones for the day. On other days, you need Fred there to be the leader you need for your group. PUT THE ATHLETE FIRST. ALL coaches need to operate with a collaborative style in the interface between club and high school swimming. Collaborate with your opposite number in the club or school team. Focus on what is best for the individual swimmer. Don’t be opposed to ASKING the child what they think is important and using that as a guideline in making some decisions in this regard. Allow me to add a personal note here. I have coached 16 years’ worth of high school swimming and close to 35 years of club swimming. There are great coaches in both areas and there are coaches in both areas that we all wish would find a way to “improve themselves”. There are ego-maniacs in each field. There are wonderfully selfless coaches in both fields. Considering myself a “serious swimming coach” since the age of 23, I WRONGLY thought that high school swimming was “less important” than club swimming when I was younger. As I got older, I realised that for 99% of my athletes, nothing in our sport was more important than high school swimming and their good experiences there. Therefore, if I was to serve their interests rather than my own ego needs, I had to find ways to work cooperatively with each of their high school coaches, no matter how “resistant” I perceived them to be to my “assistance”. Once I learned to focus on what meant the most to the athlete, it all got easier. I would urge those of you reading this who are young, energetic coaches who question the “value” of high school swimming, to step back, truly seek to understand your athlete and what is important to them … and serve those needs first. High School and Club cooperation is imperative if the USA is to reach its potential as a swimming nation, both in participation and in excellence. Please reflect on that. In 2004, if we can’t ALL see ourselves as “THE AMERICAN TEAM”, then we’re wrong. It will take ALL OF US working together to reach our potential. Let’s commit to doing it. (In the lead-up to Beijing, which will be the greatest challenge to USA supremacy in our lifetime, I plan to write a lot

more about the need to be “THE AMERICAN TEAM”.) We are close, across the USA, to getting the “near-perfect” balance of Right to Participate-Right to Excel rules put in place in regard to high school swimming. Let’s demonstrate that the coaches in our sport are thankful for that blessing, mature and experienced enough not to abuse the new liberties for our own purposes – and wise enough to truly focus on what we are all here for … THE ATHLETE!

THOUGHTS ON “THE PERFECT RACE” By Allan Kopel

Whether in print, video or audio format, I could spend all day enjoying and reliving fantastic sports moments. I love the ESPN channel “Classic Sports”. I just read the terrific summary of the USA Men’s 800m Freestyle Relay victory at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. If you have not read this, you can find it at www.usswim.org. It is the most recent in a series of postings at that site under the heading, “The Perfect Race”. USA Swimming provides excellent race analysis. I am sure we all learn from this. Thank you USA Swimming. The article provided lots of data such as break-out time; break-out distance; splits for each 50; distance per stroke and stroke rate for each 50. The article recalled that Coach Don Gambril and his staff decided that since Michael Gross tends to take his races out particularly fast, that if the Americans could get a lead going into the anchor leg, perhaps Gross would take this tendency of going out fast to a higher level. If Gross went out too fast in order to make up a deficit quickly, perhaps he would over swim the race and not be as strong coming home. The American strategy and the resolve of our athletes with Bruce Hayes as the anchor proved correct. The Americans got the Gold! As I read the article and the data, five questions remained somewhat unanswered for me. This, by the way, does not suggest that the data and discussion from USA Swimming is not valuable. In fact, their work is not only tremendous and valuable, but it is perhaps only as a result of their great work that I was able to raise the following questions. I wish to preface my questions with the observation that successful racing seems to be predicated on efficient swimming and effective back half racing. I admit that I tend to emphasise easy or controlled speed going out in order to allow for excellent racing coming home. Race splits, stroke rate and distance per stroke may be the critical numbers to look at when analysing races. My questions are based on the belief that


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these numbers result from things each swimmer does in the race, and in one’s daily training. Perhaps my questions reflect the interesting interplay between art and science in coaching competitive athletics? My comments and questions, therefore, are… 1. What is the influence of breathing

pattern, especially early in a race? I rarely see race analysis that includes data on frequency of breathing. It seems to me that a Long Course 100 or 200 metre race is very demanding and, therefore, warrants that the swimmer breathe liberally early in the race. 2. What can we do to reach swimmers to

not only breathe enough, but to also breathe fully and in a relaxed enough manner each time he/she exchanges air?

When teaching relatively inexperienced swimmers, particularly swimmers who might be a bit anxious in the water, we often observe a shallow, rigid attempt to exchange air. Experienced competitive swimmers certainly know how to breathe while swimming, but I wonder if we should invest some time to address rigid air exchange in order to promote full, fluid air exchange? After all, relaxation seems to be an important component of swimming economically. 3. What is the role of the legs in race

strategy? This article noted that a number of swimmers (Michael Gross, Jeff Float, David Larson) struggled coming home in their race. I wonder if their quick early splits were the sole cause of their back half fatigue, or if the way they got to their fast opening splits played a role? Is it possible to get to a similarly quick first 50 or 100 with just a little lighter leg activity? Could “letting the legs” go along for the ride early on possibly set one up with a reasonable opening split and have the reserves for a stronger finishing kick (no pun intended)? 4. What do we do in daily training to

develop or teach economy of effort, controlled speed and back half swimming?

This is not meant to suggest that coaches all over America are not doing a terrific job teaching and training their swimmers. The question is simply intended to raise the discussion about what can we do on a consistent basis to help our athletes develop a feel and a rhythm that transfers to effective race management? 5. What can we do on a consistent basis

that lets us teach effective race management so that – come race time –

our athletes can trust themselves and their preparation and not think?

Thoughtful preparation is helpful. Let’s never forget, however, that racing and sports really are fun and that when we have fun we often do our best. Can we get so married to the numbers that we create paralysis by analysis? We should aim to do things correctly – but should we really aim to be exact or perfect? Let’s prepare well so that come race time, to paraphrase Coach Jack Nelson, our swimmers can simply wrap their toes over the front edge of the block and just race, baby! Thankyou for your patience. Perhaps these questions seem elementary but I, for one, believe I can look further for answers. My goal of course is not to create the perfect swimmer or script the exact race, but rather to discover positive, perhaps subtle ways to help swimmers race to the best of their ability. Best wishes for lots of fun and success. Once again, congratulations to Mike Heath, David Larson, Jeff Float and Bruce Hayes for their tremendous Olympic victory and the well-deserved nickname “GrossBusters”.

SWIMMING WITH RANDY By Jeff Grace

It was a morning after a night rain fell cooling the normally hot and humid Austin air that I arrived at the Circle C Ranch Community Pool. I walked on deck at 5:45am to find a man staring intensely down that pool. This is exactly how I pictured Randy Reese from the descriptions I had read in previous years and from his past swimmers and friends, a man extremely confident and extremely focused. I introduced myself to him, he said a quick “Hi”, and continued to stare down the pool – completely concentrated on how he was going to orchestrate the morning’s events. The swimmers began to come into the pool, walking out in the dark morning, gathering their equipment and their practice on single sheets of paper, which they soaked and placed on the deck behind their respective lanes. As soon as Randy began to describe the first set, the focus of the athletes turned directly to their coach for they knew the displeasure that they would experience if they didn’t. Randy gave his instructions and quickly shouted “We are going on the 45 minutes”, which was two minutes from the time on the clock. Each swimmer entered the water on time for, once again, it was an obvious expectation that no one was going to challenge. This was my introduction to the Circle C Swim Club, which has grown from a seven


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member team to a team of 175 and one of the premier clubs in the world coached by one of the premier coaches in the world. I spent the next week with Randy on deck for eight hours each day (Randy stayed on deck 9¼ hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays) in the hot Austin sun. At the end of the week I spent with Randy, we travelled to a meet at SMU in Dallas where we watched a great deal of swimming and a prize fight on TV that Saturday evening, Gatti vs. Ward III. Watching the fight with Randy can sum up the time and what I learned about his views on swimming and life. As we were watching one of the warm-up bouts between two heavyweights, Randy articulated how he felt about boxers and boxing in general, “I’ll tell ya something, this is the toughest sport there is. No sport tougher. These guys are the toughest SOBs in sport. Don’t ya think?” “No argument from me Randy.” “Head to head, they have to kick the crap out of each other. It’s not like swimming – if they let up they will hurt more. If a swimmer backs down they will only hurt less – there is no sport tougher – these guys are big time.” This would sum up how Randy feels people need to approach things in their life and swimming if they are to be successful … plain and simple … they need to bel “tough SOBs”. “Matt Cetlinski, now there was one tough swimmer, he left his heart in the lane after every set, gave you everything off every wall; he was big time.” Randy has a simple philosophy when it comes to swimming fast and achieving athletic potential … you have to learn how to be tough. The practices and the way that Randy plans are based on the premise that you can teach people to be tough. One of the most consistent pieces of equipment that Randy uses in his training is kicking and swimming with shoes. His philosophy of perseverance and toughness comes out when he describes why he does this training, “The shoes just kicks the crap out of them, you really have to bust your butt, get the feet kicking large and fast to get going. Everyone can make one minute per fifty that is about perseverance and toughness; they just need to learn to get it out of themselves.” He not only sells this philosophy to the athletes but he is up front with the parents in the club that this is something that each athlete needs if they are going to reach their potential in the sport. Randy is extremely upfront with the parents and they respect that. As his brother Eddie expresses, “When you get old you can say what you want to parents as long as you say it nicely. Randy is at a point where he

can what he wants however he wants.” In a discussion with one of the parents of an athlete whose attitude he described to the boy in the morning as “Your attitude is as bad as I think I have ever seen anyone’s,” he expressed “He just needs to bust his butt for three weeks, go through a lot of pain and once he gets through it he will feel the same paces that he thought were hard as easy; he just needs to be tougher.” Back to the main event now where ESPN is showing highlights from Gatti vs. Ward I and II. “These little guys have skill. This is the toughest sport in the world. You have to be an athlete to do this.” “Absolutely these guys need to be quick and are so skilled. I love watching the little guys fight (maybe because I’m little),” I responded. “I’ll tell you something – these guys are big time.” Skill and technical efficiency are two things that are at the core of Randy’s philosophy of swimming. He believes that the best performers will most often be the most technically as well. Through his personal experience he has seen that the best pick up on technique the quickest, which is a huge sign of their potential. “Tracy Caulkins was just amazing with it. You would tell her to put her hand in this way or that way and it would be done the first time. She would stay with the change consistently until we figured out if it worked.” The major aspect of Circle C’s technical training is the use of stroke drills. Randy believe believes that you must change technique through drills and that there must be a large focus put on specific drills. “To truly teach technique you must use drills a lot and consistently.” Randy will most often use a variation of drills in all of his workouts. The most common way that he uses these drills is to mix them with swims so that the athletes take the time to implement the changes that he is trying to make through each drill.

Randy’s Favourite Stroke Dri l ls Butterfly • Three kicks to each pull

Backstroke • Double arm • One arm • Spin Drill

Breaststroke • No breathing • Two up one down • Br pull with free kick

Freestyle • One arm • Catch up with stick

As Gatti and Ward were battling in the first half of the fight using creativity and skill, my mind switched to some of the creative thoughts on teaching technique Randy shared with me through the time I had spent with him. “Do you think if you were able to turn the lights off in


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the pool and use glow sticks so the swimmers could see the wall but nothing else that their feel for the water would improve?” When it comes to teaching technique this is only one example of how Randy has a large tendency to think outside the box and do whatever it will take to make sure that the swimmers are going to learn how to do things right. It is now in the 7th round of the fight. Gatti is continuing to dominate, despite hitting Ward in the hip with a right hook during the 3rd round re-breaking his hand. Randy inquires, “What do you think, is it age or fitness that is not allowing this guy to take advantage of Gatti’s broken hand and win the fight?” “Hard to say, Randy. To me it looks like the fitness is the major factor, but his age might have something to do with.” “Yeah, probably fitness. These guys are the toughest athletes out there. You have to be fit to be in this sport – a real athlete.” One of the things you realise when spending any amount of time with the group of Circle C athletes during their training is that they are one fit group. Randy believes in working hard and being fit, including endurance, speed and strength. When you ask him how he plans practices, his response is “I usually write out a whole bunch of stuff and then realise how hard it is and tone it down. It usually comes out to a point where they still think it is really hard.” It is incredible to see the intensity that the athletes train with day in and out. Randy judges the training by its intensity, since he feels volume can be looked at in many different ways, dependent on what components a coach feels important (kick, drill, swim, etc.). Since he feels that the amount of rest in a practice is a better indicator of volume, intensity is what he uses to determine the training overload each day. Randy uses this sustained intensity to build the endurance base which he believes is required in all swimming events. To develop strength and speed Randy uses a lot of creativity in his planning. One example of this is how he uses pulleys and shoes. Power workouts using this equipment are done 2-3 times a week in a short course yards pool setup. He uses both shoes and pulleys to develop both strength endurance and raw power, by covering distances from 25s to 200s.

Power Workout Example (a) Pulleys 6 x (4x50 @ 1:10 #4 max weight) 1. Kick 2. Kick with fins 3. Swim 4. Swim with paddles

5. Swim with fins 6. Swim with fins + paddles (b) Shoes 3 x (4x25 Kick Fly or Back @ 40 2 x 50 Kick @ 1:00 Free) 4 x 100 @ 2:00 as fast as possible Dryland training at Circle C is limited by their lack of facilities such as a weight room and storage for equipment. For this reason, the dryland is based on simple muscular endurance that has a mix of weights, abs, medicine balls and jumps. By having his dryland set up this way Randy also avoids one of the problems he sees with lifting heavy more than once a week. “When you lift heavy more than once a week, they start getting too big and too sore to swim properly.” These endurance-based dryland workouts take between 40-45 minutes and are performed before each afternoon practice. Once the fight concluded, Gatti had beaten Ward by a unanimous decision in a fight that the announcers felt would go down as another great showdown in the history books. “What do you think of the fight?” I asked Randy. “I didn’t think it was that good. I don’t know what the announcers are talking about. It wasn’t that good, but man this is the toughest sport there is.” Expectations are always high when you are around Randy. From doing sets correctly and taking pride in one’s work to expecting himself to get off his butt and get in better shape, Randy expects the highest level of effort from everyone around him day in and day out. Communicating these expectations in a formal way through team meetings is the best way that Randy feels you can get your point across, “I need to get back to having meetings again to explain my expectations and let them know where we are going. We need to do this at least once every two weeks so that the team can create an environment where everyone is buying in.” One of the things that many great coaches have been able to do is to convey high expectations on a daily basis and be extremely hard on their athletes, while at the same time letting the athletes know how much they care. “Once a swimmer swims with Randy for six months, they will lay on the railroad tracks for him. They will complain about him and his ways, but they will understand how much he cares and go to the wall for him.” This is how his brother Eddie describes the relationships Randy forms with his athletes. He does not smile much and very rarely, if ever, is he satisfied with performance, but it is evident in


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his interactions with the athletes that they know how much he care. Upon leaving Austin, I came to the pool once again at 5:45am to thank Randy for taking the time to share his thoughts and experiences with me. Once we said our good-byes, he went back to the same spot where I had first seen him … at the end of the deck on a dark and hot Austin morning, staring down the pool, contemplating how to make the group of swimmers in the water the most fit, most skilled and toughest athletes in the world.

SPRINT CHECKLIST By Bill Sweetenham

Editor’s Note: The following great checklist is from a new book by Coaches Bill Sweetenham and John Atkinson, called CHAMPIONSHIP SWIM TRAINING, published by Human Kinetics. It’s a very fine new addition to any coach’s library and we recommend it highly.

John Leonard • The senior sprint swimmer should

consider following a reverse periodisation macrocycle plan as outlined in chapter 12, pages 184-185.

• The swimmer should perform dryland training for 10-40 minutes before each swimming training session to a light sweat.

• The successful sprinter needs superior kicking ability, which he or she can develop by practicing fast kick sets.

• The swimmer should practice holding racing stroke rate with hand paddles and fins on 15-100m swims. The time, stroke rate, and stroke count should be recorded, and the swimmer should aim to match or beat all measures the next time he or she performs this type of training.

• The swimmer should regularly perform high-velocity overloads (HVOs) (400-600m daily). Refer to chapter 12 for more details on how many HVOs to incorporate.

• The sprint program should include tethered sprints with surgical tubing working against tension (speed-resistance work) as well as with tension (speed-assistance work) on a weekly basis. These sprints should take into account racing stroke rate and racing breathing patterns.

• The sprint swimmer can use turning drills as speed drills.

• The great sprinter needs to have strong abdominals and core stability (created by doing sit-ups and crunches each day). See chapter 15 for information about dryland conditioning. The younger developing sprinter can benefit by doing pull sets using long kickboards held between the

thighs, rather than pull buoys, so that core strength is required to keep the kickboard in position.

• The sprinter should not breathe bilaterally or breathe too much in a 50m sprint. The swimmer should know exactly how many breaths to take. Senior male sprinters may not need to breathe at all. The program of the sprint swimmer should include controlled-frequency breathing on all sprints of 50m or less.

• If in doubt when tapering a sprint swimmer, the coach should give the athlete more rest. (If in doubt, leave it out.) Swimmers should wear racing costumes only for major competitions, not for training or for meets they have not tapered for.

• The sprint swimmer needs to attain top speed in the first two strokes when sprinting. On racing-start practice, the swimmer should get the stroke rate from the breakout stroke to develop this skill. The swimmer must focus all concentration on the breakout stroke because the ability to reach top speed can determine success or failure. Performing starts using one hand paddle on the hand that the swimmer pulls with first is a good drill for improving the breakout stroke.

• The coach should ensure that the sprint swimmer practices HVOs on kick, pull, swim, and drill. HVOs can be included in warm-up and swim-down routines. A good strategy is to alternate the placement from one training session to the next. Speed in warm-ups develops speed. Speed in (pre) swim-downs develops specific race endurance and some speed.

• Sprinters should spend more time on resistance training, at speed, than other swimmers do.

• Sprinters should maintain a consistent training volume of 40-55 kilometres per week while manipulating the total intensity of each training week.

• Relay sprints are a great way to develop fast swimming as well as improve relay changeovers.

• Swimming across the width of the pool is another good way to develop speed, and this drill can include turns and finishes.

• Developing a water circuit session for the sprinter is a good way to enhance speed and power. This circuit could be scheduled once a week in addition to regular training. Surgical tubing sprints (assisted), tethered swimming (resisted), vertical sprint kicking, power sprint


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pulling (with buckets, sponges), monofin sprints, timed starts, and timed turns can form the circuit. Circuits are usually regulated by controlling the time at each station or the number of repeats performed.

• Coaches should insist on six-beat kicking on all race-pace and sprint sets during training. Many sprinters over kick, however, and these athletes can benefit from a reduction in kicking.

• Sculling drills can help the sprinter develop feel for the water. Swimming with the eyes closed or in darkness can help the swimmer develop feel for the water. Teaching the wrong way sometimes works very well.

• The better the swimmer streamlines, the less distance the swimmer has to swim. Swimmers should try to avoid rough water out of the turn by having great streamlining and distance off the wall, with speed. Butterfly kicks used off the wall are to maintain speed, not just distance.

DISTANCE-SWIMMING CHECKLIST

By Bill Sweetenham • All types of training will increase through

the cycle, and the training programs should be methodically planned. The percentage of aerobic and anaerobic training may not change, but the absolute volume of work done will change. See chapter 12 for sample macrocycle plans.

• Coaches need to have a 2-year plan as a minimum when coaching distance swimmers.

• Swimmers should work an overdistance swim at high intensity at least once every 2-3 weeks (above the anaerobic threshold level).

• Some speed work is important to distance swimmers. They must have an ability to produce speed at the back end of their races. This type of training should be conducted regularly throughout the year. An example is 20-30 x 50m on 1:30 to 2:30, at maximum speed, conducted as a main set once a week.

• Swimmers should develop a volume base before working race-specific sets at high intensity. The speed, intensity and volume of the set can increase after an aerobic phase. Males should work at 20-15 BBM heart rate and females at 15-10 BBM heart rate.

• A 5000m timed swim under 60 minutes should be the target for all distance swimmers.

• Distance swimmers should judge pace in their heads, not by always using a pace clock. The coach should switch off the pace clock occasionally to help swimmers develop this skill.

• Resistance pull sets are important for age-group distance swimmers. Hand paddles need to be only slightly larger than the hand for developing age-group swimmers. As with all aids, the rule for the swimmer should be 50% with and 50% without.

• Age-group and distance swimmers can do resistance pull training up to 20% of the total training volume. Two sets of band-only resistance pulls each week should be conducted.

• Use Backstroke as a recovery stroke for Freestyle.

• A physiotherapist should conduct muscular skeletal screening regularly (that is, each season). This screening will identify any potential injury risk and permit prescription of a preventive series of exercises if required.

• Light to moderate swimming enhances recovery more than complete rest does. Recovery days should be at the same or higher volume but performed at lower intensity.

• The distance swimmer needs to develop core body strength, but not necessarily from weight training.

• The distance swimmer requires sustained effort and speed sets, not descending sets. That is, the distance swimmer should do 6 x 400m on 5:00 holding 4:30 on each swim, not 6 x 400m descending one to three and four to six on 5:30. Descending sets may be a first phase before the introduction of sustained pace sets, and they can be used as a last phase into a race situation.

• The distance swimmer should develop the ability to sustain endurance-training loads. Being a distance swimmer requires a great deal of mental and physical stamina.

• The coaching stimulus must be positive. • The recovery skill of the distance swimmer

determines his or her training capacity for distance, as it does for all athletes.

• Use active recovery strategies such as contrasting showers, hydrotherapy, massage, spas, and controlled evaluated swim-downs.


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• Like all swimmers, the 800m and 1500m swimmer should train for a longer event at the start of the season. The first 20% of the season is a preparation phase, the next 40% of the season is spent training for an event of greater distance than the 800m and 1500m, and the final 40% of the season is spent on specifics for the 800m and 1500m. We believe that using the 12-week cycle in preference to the 20 to 24-week cycle has harmed distance swimming.

• Short-rest interval training, such as 30 x 100m Freestyle on 1:15 holding 1:04, is unquestionably beneficial for the high-recovery female athlete but has extreme limitations for the senior male with less recovery skills. Age-group male athletes should be trained as the females are.

• For female distance swimmers, 32 seconds per 50m repeat on Freestyle is the key to success. Every day, the female distance swimmer should swim some 50m repeats, at 32 seconds to feet on wall pace, in their training. They should aim at 31.8 to 32.2 seconds. For males, the target is 29.8 to 30.2 seconds per 50 in repeat.

This article appeared in ASCA Newsletter

Volume 2004 Issue 4 COACH FITZ’S MANAGEMENT THEORY

By Michael Lewis – March 28, 2004 When I was 12, I thought that when The New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote about the “struggle for control of the West Bank,” it meant the other side of the Mississippi River. I thought that my shiny gold velour pants actually looked good. I kept a giant sack of Nabisco chocolate-chip cookies under my bed so that they might be available in an emergency – a flood, say, or a hurricane – that made it harder to get to the grocery store. From the safe distance of 43, “12” looks less an age than a disease, and for the most part, I’ve been able to forget all about it – not the events and the people, but the feelings that gave them meaning. But there are exceptions. A few people, and a few experiences, simply refuse to be trivialised by time. There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child’s mind; it’s as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever. I once had such a teacher. His name was Billy Fitzgerald, but everybody just called him Coach Fitz. Forgetting Fitz was impossible – I’ll come to why in a moment – but avoiding him should

have been a breeze. And for 30 years I’d had next to nothing to do with him or with the school where he coached me, the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. But in just the past year, I heard two pieces of news about him that, taken together, made him sound suspiciously like something I never imagined he could be: a mystery. The first came last spring, when one of his former players, a 44-year-old financier named David Pointer, had the idea of redoing the old school’s gym and naming it for Coach Fitz. Pointer started calling around and found that hundreds of former players and their parents shared his enthusiasm for his old coach, and the money poured in. “The most common response from the parents,” Pointer said, “is that Fitz did all the hard work.” Then came the second piece of news: after the summer baseball season, Fitz gave a speech to his current Newman players. It had been a long, depressing season: the kids, who during the school year won the Louisiana state baseball championship in their division, had lost interest. Fitz grew increasingly upset with them until, following their final summer game; he went around the room and explained what was wrong with each and every one of them. One player had wasted his talent to pursue a life of ease; another blamed everyone but himself for his failure; a third agreed before the summer to lose 15 pounds and instead gained 10. The players went home and complained about Fitz to their parents. Fathers of eight of them – half the team – had then complained to the headmaster. The past was no longer on speaking terms with the present. As the cash poured in from former players and parents of former players who wanted to name the gym for the 56-year-old Fitz, his current players and their parents were doing their best to persuade the headmaster to get rid of him. I called a couple of the players involved, now college freshmen. Their fathers had been among the complainers, but they spoke of the episode as a kind of natural disaster beyond their control. One of the players, who asked not to be named, called his teammates “a bunch of whiners” and explained that the reason Fitz was in such trouble was that “a lot of the parents are big money donors.” I grew curious enough to fly down to New Orleans to see the headmaster. The Isidore Newman School is the sort of small private school that every midsize American city has at least two of – one of them called Country Day. Most of the 70 or so kids in my class came from families that were affluent by local standards. I’m not sure how many of us thought we’d hit a


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triple, but quite a few had been born on third base. The school’s most striking trait is that it was founded in 1903 as a manual training school meant largely for Jewish orphans. About half my classmates were Jewish, but I didn’t know any orphans. In any case, the current headmaster’s name is Scott McLeod, and, he said, the school he’d taken charge of in 1993 was different from the school I graduated from in 1978. “The parents’ willingness to intercede on the kids’ behalf, to take the kids’ side, to protect the kid, in a not healthy way – there’s much more of that each year,” he said. “It’s true in sports; it’s true in the classroom. And it’s only going to get worse.” Fitz sat at the very top of the list of hardships that parents protected their kids from; indeed, the first angry call McLeod received after he became headmaster came from a father who was upset that Fitz wasn’t giving his son more playing time. Since then McLeod had been like a man in an earthquake straddling a fissure. On one side he had this coach about whom former players cared intensely; on the other side he had these newly organised and outraged parents of current players. When I asked him why he didn’t simply ignore the parents, he said, quickly, that he couldn’t do that: the parents were his customers. (“They pay a hefty tuition,” he said. “They think that entitles them to a say.”) But when I asked him if he’d ever thought about firing Coach Fitz, he had to think hard about it. “The parents want so much for their kids to have success as they define it,” he said. “They want them to get into the best schools and go on to the best jobs. And so if they see their kid fail – if he’s only on the J.V., or the coach is yelling at him – somehow the school is responsible for that.” And while he didn’t see how he could ever “fire a legend”, he did see how he could change him. Several times in his tenure he had done something his predecessors had never done: summon Fitz to his office and insist that he “modify” his behaviour. “And to his credit,” the headmaster said, “he did that.” Obviously, whatever Fitz had done to modify his behaviour hadn’t satisfied his critics. But then, from where he started, he had a long way to go. When we first laid eyes on him, we had no idea who he was, except that he played in the Oakland A’s farm system and was spending his off-season, for reasons we couldn’t fathom, coaching 8th grade basketball. We were in the 7th grade, and so, theoretically, indifferent to his

existence. But the outdoor court on which we 7th graders practiced was just an oak tree apart from the 8th grade’s court. And within days of this new coach’s arrival we found ourselves riveted by his performance. Our coach was a pleasant, mild-mannered fellow, and our practices were always pleasant, mild-mannered affairs. The 8th grade’s practices were something else: a 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound minor-league catcher with the face of a street fighter hollering at the top of his lungs for three straight hours. Often as not, the 8th graders had done something to offend their new coach’s sensibilities, and he’d have them running wind sprints until they doubled over. When finally they collapsed, unable to run another step, he’d pull from his back pocket his personal collection of Bobby Knight sayings and begin reading aloud. This was new. We didn’t know what to make of it. Sean put it best. Sean was Sean Tuohy, our best player and, therefore, our authority on pretty much everything. That year he would lead our basketball team to a 32-0 record; a few years later, he’d lead our high school to a pair of Louisiana state championships; and a few years after that, he’d take Ole Miss to its first-ever Southeastern Conference basketball title. He would set the S.E.C.’s record for career assists (he still holds it) and get himself drafted by the New Jersey Nets – not bad for a skinny six-foot white kid in a game yet to establish a three-point line. Sean Tuohy had fight enough in him for three. But one afternoon during 7th grade basketball practice, Sean looked over at this bizarre parallel universe being created on the next court by this large, ferocious man and said, “Oh, God, please don’t ever let me get to the 8th grade.” As it turned out, 8th grade was inevitable; though by the time we got to it Fitz had moved on to coach at the high school. My own experience of him began the summer after my freshman year – after he quit the Oakland A’s farm system and became the Newman baseball and basketball coach. I was 14, could pass for 12 and was of no obvious athletic use. It was the last night of the Babe Ruth season- the summer league for 13-15-year-olds. We were tied for first place with our opponents. The stands were packed. Sean Tuohy was on the mound. It was the bottom of the last inning and we were up, 2-1. (These things you don’t forget.) There was only one out, and the other team put runners on first and third, but, from my comfortable seat on the bench, it was hard to get too worked up about it. The first rule of New Orleans life was that


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whatever game he happened to be playing, Sean Tuohy won it. Then Fitz made his second trip of the inning to the pitcher’s mound, and all hell broke loose in the stands. Their fans started hollering at the umps: it was illegal to visit the mound twice in one inning and leave your pitcher in. The umpires, wary as ever of being caught listening to fans, were clearly inclined to overlook the whole matter. But before they could, a well-known New Orleans high-school baseball coach who carried a rulebook on his person came out from the stands onto the field and stopped the game. He, the umps had to listen to: Sean Tuohy had to be yanked. Out of one side of his mouth Fitz tore into the rule-book-carrying high-school coach – who scurried, rat like, back to the safety of his seat; out of the other he shouted at me to warm up. The ballpark was already in an uproar, but the sight of me (I resembled a scoop of vanilla ice cream with four pickup sticks jutting out from it) sent their side into spasms of delight. I represented an extreme example of our team’s general inability to intimidate the opposition. The other team’s dugout needed a shave; ours needed, at most, a bath. (Some unwritten rule in male adolescence dictates that the lower your parents’ tax bracket, the sooner you acquire facial hair.) As I walked out to the mound, their hairy, well-muscled players danced jigs in their dugout, their coaches high-fived, their fans celebrated and shouted light-hearted insults. The game, as far as they were concerned, was over. I might have been unnerved if I’d paid them any attention; but I was, at that moment, fixated on the only deeply frightening thing in the entire ballpark: Coach Fitz. By then I had heard (from the 8th graders, I believe) all the Fitz stories. Billy Fitzgerald had been one of the best high-school basketball and baseball players ever seen in New Orleans, and he’d gone on to play both sports at Tulane University. He’d been a top draft pick of the Oakland A’s. But we never discussed Fitz’s accomplishments. We were far more interested in his intensity. We heard that when he was in high school, when his team lost, Fitz refused to board the bus; he walked, in his catcher’s gear, from the ballpark at one end of New Orleans to his home at the other. Back then he played against another New Orleans superstar, Rusty Staub. While on second base, Staub made the mistake of taunting Fitz’s pitcher. Fitz raced out from behind home plate and, in full catcher’s gear, chased a terrified future All-Star around the field. I’d heard another, similar story about Fitz and Pete Maravich, the basketball legend. When Fitz’s Tulane team played Maravich’s L.S.U.

team, Fitz, a tenacious defender, had naturally been assigned to guard Maravich. Pistol Pete had rung him up for 66 points, but before he finished, he, too, had made the mistake of taunting Fitz. It was, as the 8th graders put it, a two-hit fight: Fitz hit Pistol Pete, and Pistol Pete hit the floor. But it got better: Maravich’s father, Press, happened to be the L.S.U. basketball coach. When he saw Fitz deck his son, he ran out and jumped on the pile. Fitz made the cover of Sports Illustrated, with Pete in a headlock and Press on his back. And now he was standing on the pitcher’s mound, erupting with a Vesuvian fury, waiting for me to arrive. When I did, he handed me the ball and said, in effect, Put it where the sun don’t shine. I looked at their players, hugging and mugging and dancing and jeering. No, they did not appear to suspect that I was going to put it anywhere unpleasant. Then Fitz leaned down, put his hand on my shoulder and, thrusting his face right up to mine, became as calm as the eye of a storm. It was just him and me now; we were in this together. I have no idea where the man’s intention ended and his instincts took over, but the effect of his performance was to say, “There’s no one I’d rather have out here in this life-or-death situation.” And I believed him! As the other team continued to erupt with joy, Fitz glanced at the runner on third base, a reedy fellow with an aspiring moustache, and said, “Pick him off.” Then he walked off and left me all alone. If Zeus had landed on the pitcher’s mound and issued the command, it would have had no greater effect. The chances of picking a man off third base are never good, and even worse in a close game, when everyone’s paying attention. But this was Fitz talking, and I can still recall, 30 years later, the sensation he created in me. I didn’t have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do. At the time, this was a wholly novel thought for me. I’d spent the previous school year racking up C-minuses, picking fights with teachers and thinking up new ways to waste my time on earth. Worst of all, I had the most admirable, loving parents on whom I could plausibly blame nothing. What was wrong with me? I didn’t know. To say I was confused would be to put it kindly; “inert” would be closer to the truth. In the three years before I met Coach Fitz, the only task for which I exhibited any enthusiasm was sneaking out of the house at 2 in the morning to rip hood ornaments off cars – you needed a hacksaw and two full nights to cut the winged medallion off a Bentley. Now this


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fantastically persuasive man was insisting, however improbably, that I might be some other kind of person. A hero. The kid with the fuzz on his upper lip bounced crazily off third base, oblivious to the fact that he represented a new solution to an adolescent life crisis. I flipped the ball to the third baseman, and it was in his glove before the kid knew what happened. The kid just flopped around in the dirt as the third baseman applied the tag. I struck out the next guy, and we won the game. Afterward, Coach Fitz called us together for a brief sermon. Hot with rage at the coach with the rule book – the ball park still felt as if it were about to explode – he told us all that there was a quality no one within five miles of this place even knew about, called “guts,” which we all embodied. He threw me the game ball and said he’d never in all his life seen such courage on the pitcher’s mound. He’d caught Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers and a lot of other big-league pitchers- but who were they? A few weeks later, when school started again, I was told the headmaster wanted to see me in his office. I didn’t need directions. (My most recent trip, a few months earlier, had come after I turned on an English teacher and asked, “Are you always so pleasant or is this just an especially good day for you?”) But this time the headmaster had good news. Fitz had just spoken to him about me, he said. There might be hope after all. But there wasn’t, yet. I had thought the point of this whole episode was simple: winning is everything. I confess that the current headmaster didn’t clarify matters for me. Fitz had modified his behaviour – he was, the headmaster agreed, mellower than before – and yet his intensity was more loathed than ever. Anyway, his unmodified behaviour is the reason his former players want to name the gym for him. The school had given me a list of every player Fitz ever coached, most of whom I didn’t know. I called up about 20 of them to ask them how they felt now about the experience. Their collective response could be fairly summarised in a sentence: Fitz changed my life. They all had Fitz stories, and it’s worth hearing at least one of them, to get their general flavour. Here is Philip Skelding, a 30-year-old student at Harvard Medical School, who played basketball for Fitz… “I wasn’t a natural athlete – I had to work at it. It was my junior year – the first year we won the state championship – and no one thought we’d be any good. We had just finished second in the John Ehret tournament. When we got back to the gym, Fitz was pretty quiet in his

demeanour and jingling the coins in his pocket, as he always would. He had our runner-up trophy in his hand. ‘You know what I think about second place?’ he said. ‘Here’s what I think about second place: And he slammed the trophy against the floor, and we all flinched and covered our eyes, because these tiny shattered pieces were flying all over the place. The little man from the top of the trophy landed in the lap of the guy next to me. I loved that moment. We took the little man and put him up on top of the air conditioner. We touched the little man on our way out of the locker room, before every game. Second place: yeah, that wasn’t our goal, either ... I still think about Fitz. In moments when my own discipline is slipping, I will have flashbacks of him.” The more I looked into it, the more mysterious this new twist in Fitz’s coaching career became. The parents never confronted Fitz directly. They did their work behind his back. The closest to a direct complaint that I could tease from the parents I spoke with came from a father of one of the team’s better players. “You know about what Fitz did to Peyton Manning, don’t you?” he said. Manning, now the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts and most valuable player of the N.F.L. last season, played basketball and baseball at Newman for Fitz. Fitz, the story went, had benched Manning for skipping basketball practice, and Manning challenged him. They’d had words, maybe even come to blows, and Manning left the basketball team. And while he continued to play baseball for Fitz, their relationship was widely taken as proof, by those who sought it, that Fitz was out of control. “You ought to read Peyton’s book,” the disgruntled father says. “It’s all in there.” And it is. Manning wrote his memoirs with his father, Archie, and understandably, they are mostly about football. But it isn’t his high-school football coach that Manning dwells on: it’s Fitz. He goes on for pages about his old baseball coach, and while he says nothing critical, he does indeed reveal what Fitz did to him: “One of the things I had to learn growing up was toughness, because it doesn’t seem to be something you can count on being born with. Dad says he may have told me, ‘Peyton, you have to stand up for this or that,’ but the resolve that gets it done is something you probably have to appreciate first in others. Coach Fitz was a major source for mine, and I’m grateful.” Of course you should never trust a memoir. And so I called Peyton Manning, to make sure of his feelings. He might be one of the highest-paid


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players in pro football, but on the subject of Fitz, he has no sense of the value of his time. “As far as the respect and admiration I feel for the man,” Manning said, “I couldn’t put it into words. Just incredibly strong. Unlike some coaches – for whom it’s all about winning and losing –Coach Fitz was trying to make men out of people. I think he prepares you for life. And if you want my opinion, the people who are screwing up high-school sports are the parents. The parents who want their son to be the next Michael Jordan. Or the parent who beats up the coach or gets into a fight in the stands. Here’s a coach who is so intense, yet he’s never laid a hand on anybody.” It was true. Fitz never laid a hand on anyone. He didn’t need to. He had other ways of getting our attention. It had been nine months since I’d established, to my satisfaction, my heroic qualities. I was now pitching for the varsity, and we had explicit training rules: no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no staying out late. We signed a contract saying as much, but Fitz had too much of a talent for melodrama to leave our commitment to baseball so cut and dried. There were the written rules; and there were the rules. Over Easter vacation, half of adolescent New Orleans decamped for the Florida beaches, where sex, along with a lot of other things, was unusually obtainable. Fitz forbade anyone who played for him from going to Florida and, to help them resist temptation, held early-morning practices every day. Once, he discovered that two of our players had driven the eight hours to Florida and back, in the dead of night, between morning practices. He herded us all into the locker room and said that while he couldn’t prove his case, he knew that some of us had strayed from the path, and that he hoped the culprits got sand in an awkward spot where it would hurt for the rest of their lives. Graduating from Babe Ruth to the varsity with only the slightest physical justification (I now resembled less a scoop of vanilla ice cream than a rounder hobbit) meant coping with an out-of-control hormonal arms race. A few of our players had sprouted sideburns, but their players retaliated by growing terrifying little goatees and showing up at games with wives and, on one shocking occasion, children. I still had no muscles and no facial hair, but I did have my own odour. I smelled, pretty much all the time, like Ben-Gay. I wore the stuff on my perpetually sore right shoulder and elbow. I wore it, also, on the bill of my cap, where Fitz had taught me to put it, to generate the grease for a spit ball that might, just, compensate for my pathetic

fastball. Everywhere I went that year I emitted a vaguely medicinal vapour, and it is the smell of Ben-Gay I associate with what happened next. What happened next is that, during Mardi Gras break, I left New Orleans with my parents for a week of vacation. I had thought that if I was a baseball success – and I was becoming one – that was enough. But it wasn’t; success, to Fitz, was a process. Life as he led it and expected us to lead it had less to do with trophies than with sacrifice in the name of some larger purpose: baseball. By missing a full week of practices over Mardi Gras, I had just violated some sacred but unwritten rule. Now I was back on the mound, a hunk of Ben-Gay drooping from the brim of my cap, struggling to relocate myself and my curveball. I didn’t have the nerve to throw the spitter. I’d walked the first two batters I faced and was pitching nervously to the third. Ball 2 As I pitched I had an uneasy sensation – on bad days I can still feel it, like a bum knee – of having strayed from the Fitz Way. But I had no evidence of Fitz’s displeasure; he hadn’t said anything about the missed practices. Then his voice boomed out of our dugout. “Where was Michael Lewis during Mardi Gras?” I did my best not to look over, but out of the corner of my eye I could see him. He was pacing the dugout. I threw another pitch. Ball 3 “Everyone else was at practice. But where was Michael Lewis?” I was now pitching with one eye on the catcher’s mitt and the other on our dugout. Ball 4 The bases were now loaded. Another guy in need of a shave came to the plate. “I’ll tell you where Michael Lewis was: skiing!” Skiing, in 1976, for a 15-year-old New Orleanian, counted as an exotic activity. Being exposed as a vacation skier on a New Orleans baseball field in 1976 was as alarming as being accused of wearing silk underpants in a maximum-security prison. Then and there, on the crabgrass of Slidell, La., Coach Fitz packed into a word what he usually required an entire speech to say: privilege corrupts. It enabled you to do what money could buy instead of what duty demanded. You were always skiing. As a skier, you developed a conviction, buttressed by your parents’ money that life was meant to be easy; that when difficulty arose, you could just hire someone to deal with it; that nothing mattered so much that you should suffer for it.


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But now, suddenly, something did matter so much that I should suffer for it: baseball. Or, more exactly, Fitz! The man was pouring his heart and soul into me and demanding in return only that I pour myself into the game. He’d earned the right to holler at me whatever he wanted to holler. I got set to throw another pitch in the general direction of the strike zone. “Can someone please tell me why Michael Lewis thinks it’s OK to leave town and go ... and go ... and go?” Please, don’t say skiing, I recall thinking as the ball left my hand. Or, if you must say skiing, don’t shout it. Just then, the batter hit a sharp one-hopper back to the mound. I raised my glove to start the face-saving double play at the plate, but with my ears straining to catch Fitz’s every word. And then, abruptly, his shouting stopped. When I regained consciousness, I was on my back, blinking up at a hazy, not terribly remorseful Fitz. The baseball had broken my nose in five places. Oddly enough, I did not feel wronged. I felt, in an entirely new way, cared for. On the way to the hospital to get my nose fixed, I told my mother that the next time the family went skiing – or anyplace else, for that matter – they’d be going without me. After the doctor pieced my nose back together, he told me that if I still wanted to play baseball, I had to do it behind a mask. Grim as it all sounds, I don’t believe I had ever been happier in my adolescent life. The rest of that season, when I walked out to the pitcher’s mound, I resembled a rounder hobbit with a birdcage on his face; but I’d never been so filled with a sense of purpose. Immediately, I had a new taste for staying after baseball practice, for extra work. I became, in truth, something of a zealot, and it didn’t take long to figure out how much better my life could be if I applied this new zeal acquired on a baseball field to the rest of it. It was as if this baseball coach had reached inside me, found a rusty switch marked “Turn On Before Attempting to Use” and flipped it. Not long after that, the English teacher who had the misfortune also to experience me as a freshman held me after class to say that by some happy miracle, I was not recognisably the same human being I’d been a year earlier. What had happened? she asked. It was hard to explain. I hadn’t been to a Newman baseball game since I last played in one. On a sunny winter day this February, Fitz had arranged for his defending state champions to play a better team from a bigger school, 20 miles outside New Orleans. His hair had gone grey and he was

carrying a few more pounds, but he retained his chief attribute: the room still felt pressurised simply because he was in it. “I definitely have a penchant for crossing the line,” he said in his prison cell of an office before the game. “And some parents definitely think I’m out of control.” The biggest visible change in his coaching life was a thicker veneer of professionalism. His players now had fancy batting cages, better weight rooms, the latest training techniques and scouting reports on opposing players. What they didn’t have, most of them, was a meaningful relationship with their coach. “I can’t get inside them anymore,” he said. “They don’t get it. But most kids don’t get it.” By “it” he did not mean the importance of winning or even, exactly, of trying hard. What he meant was neatly captured on a sheet of paper he held in his hand, which he intended to photocopy and hand out to his players, as the keynote for one of his sermons. The paper contained a quote from Lou Piniella, the legendary baseball manager: HE WILL NEVER BE A TOUGH COMPETITOR. HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO BE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE. “It” was the importance of battling one’s way through all the easy excuses life offers for giving up. Fitz had a gift for addressing this psychological problem, but he was no longer permitted to use it. “The trouble is,” he said, “every time I try, the parents get in the way.” About parents, he knew more than I ever imagined. Alcoholism, troubled marriages, overbearing fathers – he was disturbingly alert to problems in his players’ home lives. (Did he know all this stuff about us?) Fitz’s office wasn’t the office of a coach who wanted you to know of his success. There were no trophies or plaques, though he’d won enough of them to fill five offices. Other than a few old newspaper clips about his four children, now grown, there were few mementos. What he did keep was books – lots of them. He was always something of a closet intellectual, though I was barely aware of this other side of him. I remember when I first met him; he taught 8th grade science and had a degree in biology. There were other clues that, as easily as he could be typecast as the Intense Coach, he had other dimensions: he was a devoted father. His wife, Peggy, was so pretty she made us all blush, and more to the point, she didn’t seem to be the slightest bit intimidated by her husband. He had friends who didn’t bite, and he even made small talk. Away from the game he had the ease and detachment of an aristocrat. But as a boy, I paid no attention to how he was away from the


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game. All I knew was that he cared about the way we played a game in a way we’d never seen anyone care about anything. All I wanted from him was his intensity. “What really happened in your fight with Pete Maravich?” I asked him. And he laughed. He never beat up Pete Maravich. (The truly brave thing he did was asking his Tulane coach for the job of guarding Maravich.) And though he did appear with Maravich on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he was guarding him, not throttling him. He never chased around after Rusty Staub either. Why would he be chasing Rusty Staub? He wondered. They’d gone to the same high school, though not at the same time; Staub was a senior when he was in the eighth grade. He never walked home after his high school team lost – they seldom lost – though he had once, at Tulane. (“I got to the parish line and thought, hmm, is this really a good idea?”) So where did they come from, these stories we told one another? They came from the imaginations of 14-year-old boys, in search of something even well-to-do parents couldn’t provide. In the corner of his office lay, haphazardly, an old stack of inspirational signs, hung by Fitz in the boys’ locker room and removed for the current renovation – the one that will leave the gym named for him. I picked one up and brushed the dust away: “What is to give light must endure burning. – Viktor Frankl.” He laughed. “I don’t think we’ll be putting that one back up.” Later, at the ball park, a few of the fathers who had complained about Fitz clustered behind home plate. On the other end of the otherwise empty bleachers sat another man. His name was Stan Bleich, and he was a cardiologist who had grown up in Brooklyn. Both details were significant. He wasn’t, like a lot of the dads, a lawyer. And he’d lived in New Orleans only 20 years, so by local standards he was an arriviste, an outsider. “I’ve had three kids go through Newman – I have 39 school years of Newman parent life,” he said. “And I’ve never once called the headmaster.” That changed last summer. One of the fathers, upset about Fitz’s speech to his son, called Stan to encourage him to join the group and file a formal complaint. Instead, Stan went to see the headmaster and make the case for the defence. “The story had gotten so exaggerated,” he told me. “One parent said, ‘Fitz called my kid fat.’ But all Fitz said to that kid was, ‘You promised me you’d lose 15 pounds, and you gained 10.’” Bleich said the parents told the headmaster that because of Fitz, the kids left with a bad taste in their mouths. “I

said: ‘Wait a minute, shouldn’t they leave with a bad taste in their mouths? They skipped practice. They didn’t try.’ The game when Fitz missed his grandson’s christening, three of the kids took off for Paris.” Stan said Fitz reminded him of a college professor he had – and was grateful that he had. “Ninety percent was not an A. One hundred percent was an A. Ninety percent was an F.” He motioned to the group of fathers on the other end of the bleachers. “A couple of those guys won’t talk to me,” he said, “because I defended Fitz. But what can I do? My goal in life is not for my son to play college ball. Fitz has made my kid a better person, not just a better athlete. He’s taught him that if he works at it, anything he wants, it’s there for him.” What was odd about this little speech – and, as the game began, it became glaringly apparent – was that Stan Bleich’s son was far and away the team’s best player. At last count more than 40 colleges were recruiting Jeremy Bleich to play baseball for them – and he was still only a junior. The question wasn’t whether he would be able to play Division I college ball; the question was would he skip college to sign with the Yankees out of high school? He was a 16-year-old left-handed pitcher with a decent fastball, great command, a big-league change-up and charm to burn. He had no obvious baseball social deformity, other than his love for his coach, but that fact alone, it seemed, alienated him from his teammates. Someone had recently pelted the Bleich home with eggs. The older kids on the team poked fun at Jeremy but, in keeping with the spirit of their insurrection, never directly. “I’ve never had anyone say anything to my face,” Jeremy told me later. “It’s all behind my back. Like, last year, they started calling me ‘J. Fitz.’ I’m 15 years old and the seniors are making fun of me. I had no idea how to deal with it. They don’t like me because I work hard? Because I care about it? I’m like, I can’t change that.” He never knows exactly what the other players might be saying about him, but he knows what they say about Fitz: “They think his intensity is ridiculous.” And maybe they do. Of course, one fringe benefit of laughing at intensity is that it enables you to ignore the claims that a new kind of seriousness makes upon you. An invisible line ran from the parents’ desire to minimise their children’s discomfort to the choices the children make in their lives. A week after my trip to New Orleans, two days before the start of the 2004 regular season, eight players were caught drinking. All but one of


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them – two team captains, two members of the school’s honour committee – lied about it before eventually confessing. After he handed out the obligatory school-sanctioned two-week suspensions to the eight players, Fitz gathered the entire team for a sharp little talk. Not two days before, he had the patience for a long sermon about the dangers of getting a little too good at displacing responsibility. (“You’re gonna lose. You’re going to have someone else to blame for it. But you’re gonna lose. Is that what you want?”) Now he had the patience only for a vivid threat: “I’m going to run you until you hate me.” The first phone call, a few hours later, came from the mother of the third baseman, who said her son had drunk only “one sip of a daiquiri” and so shouldn’t be made to run. She was followed by another father who wanted to know why his son, the second baseman, wasn’t starting at shortstop instead. There was always a question about whether Fitz controlled his temper, or his temper controlled him, or even if it mattered. In any case, the summer of 1976 was especially uncomfortable. Fitz had entered us in a new league, with the bigger, Catholic schools. Defeat followed listless defeat until one night we lost by some truly spectacular score. Twice at the end of the game Fitz shouted at our base runners to slide, and perhaps not seeing the point when down by 15-2 in getting scraped or even dirty, they went in standing up. Afterward, at 11 o’clock or so, we piled off the bus and into the gym. Before we could undress, Fitz said, “We’re going out back.” Out back of the gym was a surprisingly low-budget version of a playing field. The dirt was packed as hard as asphalt and speckled with shell shards, glass, bottle caps and God knows what else. Fitz lined us up behind first base and explained we were going to practice running to third. When we got there, we were to slide headfirst into the base. This, he said, would teach us to get down when he said to get down. Then he vanished into the darkness. A few moments later we heard his voice, from the general vicinity of third base. One by one, our players took off. In the beginning, there was some grumbling, but before long the only sound was of Fitz spotting a boy coming at him out of the darkness, shouting, “Hit it!” Over and again we circled the bases, finishing with a headfirst slide onto, in effect, concrete. We ran and slid on that evil field until we bled and gasped for breath. The boy in front of me, a sophomore new to Fitz, began to cry. Finally, Fitz decided we’d had enough and ordered us inside. Back in the light we

marvelled at the evening’s most visible consequence: ripped, muddy and bloody uniforms. We undressed and began to throw them into the laundry baskets – until Fitz stopped us. “We’re not washing them,” he said. “Not until we win.” Well, we were never going to win. We were out of our league. For the next few weeks – seven games – we wore increasingly foul and bloody and torn uniforms. We lost our ability to see our own filth; our appearance could be measured only by its effect on others. In that small community of people who cared about high school baseball, word spread of this team that never bathed. People came to the ball park just to see us get off the bus. Opposing teams, at first amused, became alarmed and then, I thought, just a tiny bit scared. You could see it in their eyes, the universal fear of the lunatic. Heh, heh, heh, those eyes said nervously, this is just a game, right? The guys on the other teams came to the ballpark to play baseball – at which they just happened to be naturally superior. They played with one eye on the bar or the beach they were off to after the game. We alone were on this hellish quest for self-improvement. After each loss we rode the bus back to the gym in silence. When we arrived, Fitz gave another of his sermons. They were always a little different, but they never strayed far from a general theme: What It Means to Be a Man. What it meant to be a man was that you struggled against your natural instinct to run away from adversity. You battled. “You go to war with me, and I’ll go to war with you,” he loved to say. “Jump on my back.” The effect of his words on the male adolescent mind was greatly enhanced by their delivery. It’s funny that after all these years I can recall only snippets of what Fitz said, but I can recall, in slow motion, everything he broke. There was the orange water cooler, cracked with a single swing of an aluminium baseball bat. There was a large white wall clock that hung in the Newman locker room for decades – until he busted it with a single throw of a catcher’s mitt. The breaking of things was a symptom; the disease was the sheer effort the man put into the job of making us better. He was always the first to arrive and always the last to leave, and if any kid wanted to stay late for extra work, Fitz stayed with him. Before one game he became ill. He climbed on the bus in a cold sweat. It was an hour’s drive to the ballpark that day, and he had the driver stop twice on the highway so he could get off and vomit. He remained sick right through the game and all


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the way home. When we arrived at the gym, he paused to vomit, then delivered yet another impassioned speech. A few nights later, after a game, in the middle of what must be the grubbiest losing streak in baseball history, I caught him walking. I was driving home, through a bad neighbourhood, when I spotted him. Here he was, in one of America’s murder capitals, inviting trouble. It was miles from the gym to his house, and he owned a car, yet he was hoofing it. What the hell is he doing? I thought, and then I realised: He’s walking home! Just the way they said he’d done in high school, every time his team lost! It was as if he were doing penance for our sins. And then something happened: we changed. We ceased to be embarrassed about our condition. We ceased, at least for a moment, to fear failure. We became, almost, a little proud. We were a bad baseball team united by a common conviction: those other guys might be better than us, but there is no chance they could endure Coach Fitz. The games became closer; the battles more fiercely fought. We were learning what it felt like to lay it all on the line. Those were no longer hollow words; they were a deep feeling. And finally, somehow, we won. No one who walked into our locker room as we danced around and hurled our uniforms into the washing machine and listened to the speech Fitz gave about our fighting spirit would have known that they were looking at a team that now stood 1-12. We listened to the man because he had something to tell us, and us alone. Not how to play baseball, though he did that better than anyone. Not how to win, though winning was wonderful. Not even how to sacrifice. He was teaching us something far more important: how to cope with the two greatest enemies of a well-lived life, fear and failure. To make the lesson stick, he made sure we encountered enough of both. I never could have explained at the time what he had done for me, but I felt it in my bones all the same. When I came home one day during my senior year and found the letter saying that, somewhat improbably, I had been admitted to Princeton University, I ran right back to school to tell Coach Fitz. Then I grew up. I’d gone back to New Orleans again. The Times-Picayune had just picked the Newman Greenies to win another state championship. The only hitch was that after the drinking suspensions, they didn’t have nine eligible ballplayers. It was a glorious Saturday afternoon and they were meant to be playing a non-league game, but the game had been cancelled.

Fitz said nothing to the players about the cancellations, but instead took them onto the field out back and began to hit ground balls to the infielders and fly balls to the outfielders. His face had a waxen pallor, he was running a fever and he was not, truth to tell, in the sweetest of moods. He was under the impression that he was now completely hamstrung – that if he did anything approaching what he’d like to do, “I’ll be in the headmaster’s office on Monday morning.” Nevertheless, a kind of tension built – what’s he going to do? What can he do? Until finally he called the team in to home plate. On the hard field in front of him, only a few yards from the place where, years ago, another group of teenage boys slid until they hurt, they formed their usual semicircle. Fitz has a tone perhaps best described as unnervingly pleasant: it’s pleasant because it’s calm; it’s unnerving because he’s not. In this special tone of his, he began by telling them one of Aesop’s fables. The fable was about a boy who hurls rocks into a pond until a frog rises up and asks him to stop. “ ‘No,’ says the boy, ‘it’s fun’.” Fitz said, “And the frog says, ‘What’s fun for some is death to others’.” Before anyone could wonder how that frog might apply to a baseball team, Fitz said: “That’s how I feel about you right now. You are like that boy. You all are all about fun.” His tone was still even, but it was the evenness of a pot of water just before the fire beneath it is turned up. Sure enough, a minute into the talk, his voice began to simmer. “When are you consciously going to start dealing with the fact that this is a competitive situation? I mean, you are almost a recreational baseball team. The trouble is you don’t play in a recreational league. You play serious, competitive interscholastic baseball. That means the other guy isn’t out for recreation. He wants to strike you out. He wants to embarrass you ... until your eyeballs roll over.” The boys were paying attention now. The man was born to drill holes into thick skulls and shout through them. I was as riveted by his performance as I’d been 26 years ago -which was good, as he was coming to his point… “One of the goodies about athletics is you get to find out if you can stretch. If you can get better. But you’ve got to push. And you guys don’t even push to get through the day. You put more effort into parties than you do into this team.” He cited a few examples of parties into which his baseball players had put great effort. For a man with such overt contempt for parties, he was distressingly well informed about their details – including the fact that, at some, the


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parents provided the booze… “I know about parents. I know how much they love to say, ‘I pay $14,000 in tuition, and so my little boy deserves to play.’ No way. You earn the right to play. I had a mom and dad, too, you know. I loved my mom and dad. My dad didn’t understand much about athletics, and so he didn’t always get it. You have to make that distinction at some point. At some point you have to stand up and be a man and say: ‘This is how I’m going to do it. This is how I’m going to approach it.’ When is the last time any of you guys did that? No. For you, it’s all ‘fun.’ Well, it’s not all fun. Some days it’s work.” Then he wrapped it up, with a quote he attributed to Mark Twain, about how the difference between animals and people, the ability to think, is diminished by people’s refusal to think. Aesop to Mark Twain, with a baseball digression and a lesson on self-weaning: the whole thing took five minutes. And then his mood shifted completely. The kids climbed to their feet and followed their coach back to practice. He faced the most deeply entrenched attitude problem in his players in 31 years. His wife, Peggy, had hinted to me that for the first time, Fitz was thinking about giving up coaching altogether. He faced a climate of sensitivity that made it nearly impossible for him to change those attitudes. He faced, in short, a world trying to stop him from making his miracles. And on top of it all, he had the flu. It counted as the lowest moment, easily, in his career as a baseball coach. Unfairly, I took the moment to ask him, “Do you really think there’s any hope for this team?” The question startled him into a new freshness. He was alive, awake, almost well again. “Always,” he said. “You never give up on a team. Just like you never give up on a kid.” Then he paused. “But it’s going to take some work.” And that’s how I left him … largely unchanged. No longer, sadly, my baseball coach. Instead, the kind of person who might one day coach my children. And when I think of that, I become aware of a new fear: that my children might never meet up with their Fitz. Or that they will, and their father will fail to understand what he’s up to. Michael Lewis is a contributing writer for the magazine. His most recent book, “Moneyball,” will be published in paperback next month. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

IMPROVING FREESTYLE & INTRODUCING

BILATERAL BREATHING

OBJECTIVES 1. Reinforce the importance of exhaling

underwater 2. Practise the smooth rotation of the head

to both sides 3. Coordinate the timing of breathing and

arm action WARM UP … IN LENGTHS … 7 MINUTES 1. Divide swimmers into 3 lanes according to

ability … swim 4x25m as… (a) ½ Freestyle ½ Choice • Start each length with a “Push & Glide” (b) ½ Backstroke ½ Choice • Reach forward – sweep under body –

sweep back to thigh (c) ½ Breaststroke ½ Choice • Keep the arms windmilling (d) ½ Butterfly ½ Choice • Reach forward as legs kick back • Arms reach over the water together and

sweep back together Swimmers leave at 5-second intervals, swimming up the middle of their lanes. When the last swimmer finishes, the first one starts again. KICK SET … IN LENGTHS AS ABOVE … 8 MINUTES 1. 4x25m as up Freestyle – down Backstroke • Loose, floppy ankles • Kick from the hips MAIN SET … 20 MINUTES 1. FREESTYLE BREATHING –

UNILATERAL 1. Unilateral breathing (a) Freestyle kick – turning head to

breathe x 2 widths


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• Start exhaling as soon as face goes into the water

• When needing to take a breath, turn head and breathe in quickly

In widths in partners (b) Freestyle kick – breathing and

pulling x 2 widths • Ensure that ear remains in water • Breathe in as arm starts to recover over

the water (c) Freestyle swim with unilateral

breathing x 2 widths • Check that elbow is bent as breathing in • As soon as breathing in … put face back

in the water These 6 widths make up a short “set”. Repeat the set 5 times with a rest of 30 seconds at the end of each set. In lengths 2. Transfer the set into lengths 4x25m as

follows… (a) Kick – turning head to breathe (b) Kick – breathe and pull (c) As (b) (d) Swim Freestyle (unilateral) • Check that elbow is bent as breathing in • As soon as breathing in … put face back

in the water 2. FREESTYLE BREATHING – BILATERAL Standing in shallow water 1. Standing practising breathing to both

sides • Keep both elbows high • Rotate head smoothly front-side-front-side • Breathe out – breathe in – breathe out –

breathe in 2. Standing pulling and breathing • Breathe in every third arm pull • Once having breathed … return face to

water 3. Walking as 2. In widths 4. Swim Freestyle with bilateral breathing x 2 widths In lengths 5. Attempt 2 lengths

TEACHER’S OBSERVATION CHECK • Even at this advanced level … ensure that

exhalation is taking place underwater • Practice Bilateral 1 is particularly effective

in teaching relative head and arm positions

CONTINUING FREESTYLE BREATHING

WORK, REVISING BREASTSTROKE KICK & INTRODUCING TIMING FOR

BREATHING & KICKING

OBJECTIVES 1. Encourage dorsiflexion and eversion in

propulsive phase 2. Encourage a glide 3. Introduce the concept of breathing before

every kick WARM UP … IN LENGTHS … 8 MINUTES 1. Swim up centre of lane at 5-second

intervals… (a) Freestyle kick, breathing to side 2 x

25m • Rotate head smoothly to breathe (b) Freestyle kick, pull and breathing 2

x 25m • Start turning head as arm starts to sweep

under body (c) Swim as unilateral 1 x 25m • Breathe every 2nd pull (d) Swim as bilateral 1 x 25m • Breathe every 3rd pull KICK SET … IN LENGTHS … 7 MINUTES 1. Backstroke kick 4 x 25m • Drive up with the “shoelace” surface of the

foot • Press down with the back of the knee • Kick from the hips MAIN SET … 20 MINUTES 1. BREASTSTROKE TECHNIQUE … in

double widths in partners 1. Kick revision – Breaststroke kick with

float x 4 • Turn feet out to kick back • Snap legs together and hold the glide 2. Breathing & kick timing… (a) Kick with float x 4 breathing before

each kick • Lift head to breathe


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• Drop face into water then bring heels up to seat and kick back

• Breathe out during kick back • Lift head to breathe towards end of glide

(b) Kick without float x 2 … arms extended, thumbs linked

(c) Full stroke x 1 • Pull, breathe, kick, glide when swimming

full stroke 3. These 7 double widths form a set … repeat

the set another three times with a rest of 30 seconds at the end of each set.

4. Transfer this “set” into lengths as follows…

(a) 25m Breaststroke kick with float (b) 25m as ½ kick no float, ½ swim full

stroke • Breathe every kick • Always breathe before starting to kick TEACHER’S OBSERVATION CHECK • Legs should be in glide phase as head

rises to breathe • Face should be back in water during

propulsive phase • As head drops after breathing, legs

commence to recover (heels up to seat)

REVISING & REINFORCING BREASTSTROKE KICK/BREATHING

TIMING TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE UNDULATION IN BUTTERFLY

OBJECTIVE

Work through various Butterfly kick practices and extend distances previously kicked. WARM UP … IN LENGTHS, WORKING IN CHAIN FORMATION … 8 MINUTES 1. Kick 25m Freestyle, R20 • Long legs, floppy ankles, pointed toes 2. Swim 25m Freestyle, R20 • Breathe every second arm pull 3. Kick 25m Backstroke, R20 • Press up with the toes and down with the

back of the knees 4. Swim 25m Backstroke • Keep the arms windmilling … holding

arms steady 5. Repeat MAIN SET … 27 MINUTES 1. BREASTSTROKE TIMING … in double

widths, in partners

1. Kick Breaststroke with float x 4 • Breathe in before each kick 2. Kick Breaststroke, arms extended x 3 • Keep arms stretched out with thumbs

linked as head is lifted to breathe 3. Swim Breaststroke, full stroke x 2 • Pull, breathe, kick and glide 2. BUTTERFLY KICK … in double widths,

in partners 1. Revise the following kick practices… (a) Kick, arms by sides • Water to crown, hips undulating (b) Kick on back • Drive lower legs up to surface • Toes break the water (c) Kick on front, arms extended • Squeeze arms against ears • Make body streamlined (d) Kick underwater • Take a deep breath, submerge and push

off • Feel the freedom of movement when

completely underwater (e) Kick on right side • Lie on right side with right arm extended

above head and left arm pressed against left side

(f) Kick on left • Keep legs together and kick to the side • Kick from the lower back and tummy In lengths … up centre of lane 2. These practices can form a short

technique set in lengths 4 x 25m as follows…

Note: only the first half of each length is a Butterfly practice … the second half will always be Backstroke kick. (a) ½ Butterfly kick arms at sides • Legs close together at all times (b) ½ Butterfly kick arms extended • Kick always starts in the lower back and

tummy muscles (c) ½ kick on right side (d) ½ kick on left side 3. Attempt 25m Butterfly kick with no float

… then climb out and walk back to beginning

• Choose whether arms are held at sides or stretched above head

• Skim the surface of the water as they wiggle

• Keep the water to their hairline


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In double widths … in partners 4. Full stroke Add arm action and attempt full stroke 4

x double widths, rest 10 seconds as follows…

(a) Over choice Butterfly kick practice (b) Back full stroke Butterfly • Two kicks to every arm pull TEACHER’S OBSERVATION CHECK • Undulation is central to effective Butterfly

– the swimmers should be familiar with these practices and must now extend the distance covered

• Ensure that each kick remains rhythmical

INTRODUCING THE STATIONARY & THE REVERSE SCULL

OBJECTIVES

1. Encourage smooth, even sculling with

face, chest and feet dry at the surface (Back layout)

2. Encourage correct arm action with thumb just under hips on in-scull

ARM UP … IN CIRCUITS … 7 MINUTES 1. Swim around the tank as illustrated…

Breaststroke

Breaststroke

Freestyle Freestyle

Start X

• Always start with a Push and Glide • Try to travel maximum distance/stroke KICK SET … IN CIRCUITS … 8 MINUTES 1. Kick 3 circuits of the tank as follows… (a) Up Freestyle (b) Across Breaststroke (c) Down Backstroke (d) Across Butterfly • Think of one point of technique for each

stroke and concentrate on these points as kicking round

MAIN SET … 20 MINUTES 1. SCULLING 1. Revision of flat sculling action … hands on

flat surface … e.g. pool side and then moving in water

• Sweep out, flip, sweep in, flip, sweep out, etc.

• Elbows stationary • Imagine waving to the pool floor • Aim for a whirlpool 2. Stationary Scull Swimmers lie in a line on backs … this is known as the “Back Layout” position … toes facing and touching wall. • Keep face, chest and feet dry • Keep palms facing the floor as hands

sweep in and out • Move arms from the elbows down Note: If some swimmers have difficulty maintaining the flat position due to sinking legs, a pull buoy should be used. 3. Stationary Scull & Standard Scull Divide class into groups of three or four. Ask them to remain in line at all times. Starting with the Stationary Scull, on the given signal, change to Standard Scull. The signal may be the teacher’s voice or hand signal – but music with a strong beat could also be used. • Watch the swimmers next to you at all

times and try to stay in line • Start sculling on the spot – palms facing

the bottom • On the signal, raise fingertips so palms

are facing the feet


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4. Review of two Sculls Wrap up by asking swimmers to show and tell you the key points of the two Sculls. • Move smoothly in a straight line • Keep face, chest, thighs and toes dry at

the surface 2. CONTRASTING SWIM 1. Return to Warm Up Swim & Kick Set Since this lesson has been high on concentration and low on movement. • Swim around the tank in the same order

as before. TEACHER’S OBSERVATION CHECK • When teaching Sculling, it is important to

emphasise mainly rhythm • Stress the importance of equal pressure

on the “out and in” sweeps • Check that swimmers understand the link

direction of travel and direction in which palms face

NSW SWIMMERS ARE TOLD THAT DEEP

BREATHS CAN KILL This article appeared in Occupational Health &

Safety Daily News Page 2 Wednesday September 8, 2004

Published by eNews, 11–13 Aberdeen Road, Prahran Vic. 3181.

Phone: (03) 9529 4314 Fax: (03) 9510 4733 Email: [email protected]

SYDNEY: The backyard swimming pool death of a champion teenage swimmer showed the widespread ignorance of the dangers of taking deep breaths before diving underwater, a navy expert said. Dr Carl Edmonds, officer in charge of the Royal Australian Navy School of Underwater Diving, said taking extra breaths, or hyperventilating, increased the risk of a hypoxic blackout and a swimmer losing consciousness. Just one deep breath increased the risk, he said. “This is a general public health problem. It is such a tragic incident and it does happen to really fit, enthusiastic young kids who are good swimmers,” he told the inquest into the death of 16-year-old Craig De Santis at Glebe Coroner’s Court.

ARE YOUR KIDS ON DRUGS?

Dicing with Death By Kristen Watts

This article appeared in The West Australian August 9, 2004

It’s every parent’s nightmare – a son or daughter stolen by drug use. How does it happen? What are the warning signs? Reporter Kristen Watts helps you answer important questions about the recreational use and abuse of illegal and prescription drugs. From amphetamines to the latest designer drugs, find out how they work and what signs so look for if you suspect your child is on drugs. Get expert advice on how to talk to your children about drugs and find out where to get help when you need it.

COMMUNICATION IS THE NUMBER ONE ANSWER

It’s never too early to start talking to your child about the dangers of drugs, experts warn. The single biggest thing parents can do to prevent children becoming involved in drugs is to communicate. According to Shelley Beatty, addiction studies lecturer at Edith Cowan University, resilient, secure children are better equipped to say no to drugs. “One of the most important protective factors a parent can give to their child is making them feel like they are part of the family,” she said. “The jargon word that people use is connectedness and children need to feel connected, not just to their family but to their school, their community and their friends. “You will often hear people say that children drop out of school because they use drugs but I think it is the other way around, kids disconnect from protective factors like school and family which make them more vulnerable to hazardous behaviours like drugs.” Dr Beatty said parents should start talking to children about drugs from primary school age. It was vital not to take the approach that drugs were an issue which could be avoided until high


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school. Tackling drug issues with younger children was about making it clear what parents wanted the child to do, rather than focusing on what they didn’t want them to do. “For example, if your child is walking up to a puddle, rather than say, ‘Don’t step into it,’ you should ask them to walk around and the same can be applied to drug use,” she said. “When children are younger, it is all about developing a strong bond — you know their friends, you know what they like and you are in touch with what is going on with them.” Building strong bonds and good communication would both help parents and children to deal with drug issues as the child became older. When children reached mid-primary school age, parents should be quite specific about drinking alcohol and smoking and the associated dangers. She said telling children that drugs were bad was not helpful. “The idea is to focus on the immediate short-term effects,” she said. “That involves saying things like ‘Smoking gives you smelly breath, it costs $10 a packet and it makes your clothes and hair smell’.” It was important to make it clear that only a few children smoked because being normal was important to most young people. Messages needed to be repeated and parents needed to check that their children understood. This involved returning to the conversation at a later date and asking questions to see how much of the previous conversation the child had absorbed. “It’s not an interrogation but parents do need to check that everything is understood and if the messages haven’t been absorbed no one is at fault — it just means that parents need to have another go,” Dr Beatty said. She suggested setting guidelines was also important. “It is important to give kids some developmentally appropriate freedoms but they shouldn’t be given absolute carte blanche,” she said. “It is well established that children who have no freedom are more likely to get themselves into trouble but those who have absolute freedom are also at greater risk because there are no boundaries. “The style that seems to be good is being a loving parent who is responsive and who sets rules but is not a sergeant-major.” Once children reached adolescence, parents needed to monitor behaviour carefully and if warning signs appeared, it was important to get help as soon as possible. “The tricky thing with teenagers is that most of the signs of drug use are also the signs of many other common teenage events such as

being in love, having a cold, fighting with a best friend. Wanting extra privacy or more pocket money, changing friends or appearance, being more sleepy or more awake than usual or more emotional are all signs of possible drug use but they are also signs of adolescence. “That is not to say these should be ignored but don’t jump to conclusions and it is also important to remember that experimentation is not the same as addiction. Experimentation is almost the definition of adolescence.” She said most parents would not want their children to become involved with drugs but if experimentation was going to occur, the next best option was to make sure they knew how to lower their risks. “If you do suspect that there is a possible addiction problem, you need to calm down and contact the parent drug information service,” she said. “You also need to approach the issue with your child but you need to choose an appropriate time and you need to make sure you are aware of all the issues because it is easy to lose your credibility with young people. “If you want to engage your teenager in discussion, you have to be non-judgmental. If you go off the deep end, the child will just reach for the volume control. You have to acknowledge teenagers want their own opinions and that doesn’t mean you have to agree.” Children would change their behaviour only if they wanted to. Talking about the problem and identifying both the good and bad things about their drug use was the best way to tackle the issue but she said this often needed to be done by a professional counsellor. “In the end it is about getting teenagers to accept consequences for their own decisions. Sometimes that might not be nice for parents but unfortunately that is the bottom line,” she said. More information about drugs and children can be found in the book, Drugs and Your Teenager — A Practical Guide for Australian Parents, by Martin Palin and Shelley Beatty (IP Communications, $21.95). SPEED IS THE WORST OF A BAD BUNCH Emergency department toxicologist Mark Little deals with a range of life-threatening situations during the course of his everyday working life at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. But the jellyfish stings and snake bites are not nearly as destructive as the recreational drug overdoses he is called to attend. “There is a huge amphetamine problem in Perth,” he said. “I’d say it is the biggest drug


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problem we have seen and we have been dealing with it for quite some time now, especially while there has been a heroin drought.” Dr Little said young people were increasingly injecting amphetamines – a practice which was extremely risky and could cause death or long-term damage. “The risks associated with injecting amphetamines are that it causes rage and occasionally it can cause an intra-cerebral haemorrhage. We see one or two people a year who have used Speed intravenously and as a result they have had an intra-cerebral haemorrhage and if it doesn’t kill them, then they are in a nursing home. “Recently, we have seen a couple of young people have heart attacks because they have injected Speed and a large percentage of people in Graylands Mental Hospital have psychosis due to Speed – they have fried their brains – and this is a real problem. We got a lot of acute speed intoxication where the patient becomes paranoid and aggressive and they often need sedation and are transferred to somewhere like Graylands.” Dr Little said young people also experimented with over-the-counter medication like anti-histamines or prescription drugs such as dexamphetamine, which is used to treat attention deficit disorder. He said it was not unusual for teenagers to take large doses of any pill they could get their hands on in search of some sort of high. There was also a significant black market trade in drugs such as benzodiazepines and heroin addiction treatments methadone and buprenorphine. “There is a lot of stuff out there but mainly the ones who are dying are the ones who are taking a few different things at once,” Dr Little said. “I deal with recreational drug overdoses on a daily basis — excluding alcohol problems. I would see up to five overdoses per day and that is just the tip of the iceberg.” He said the hospital always maintained patient confidentiality and young people should feel assured that if they sought help for a friend who had reacted badly to illicit drugs, the police would not be called. “I would send a plea to kids and say if you are using drugs, there are risks and, as a doctor, I would prefer it if you didn’t use but if you are and something goes wrong, please get an adult involved or see a health professional or come to the emergency department because our concern is preserving life and we won’t report you to the police.”

WARNING SIGNS • Loss of appetite • Sleepiness • Increased alertness • Mood swings • Changes in social contact • Reduced performance at school • Money going missing

WHAT TO DO • Seek help immediately • Keep lines of communication open • Choose an appropriate time to discuss the

issue • Consider asking your child to visit a

counsellor

REMEMBER • Don’t search your child’s room to validate

your suspicious – it will only cause more problems

• Don’t jump to conclusions – many of the symptoms of drug use are the same as those associated with being a teenager

• Calm down before getting into any discussions about the problem with your child

• Don’t panic if you discover your child is experimenting with drugs because this does not mean they will develop a drug habit

• Make sure you are well informed about drugs and their use because being alarmist or inaccurate will quickly cost you your credibility

• Start talking about drugs with your children from primary school age

• When trying to discuss drug issues, try to use open-ended questions so that your child is engaged in the conversation rather than just needing to answer yes or no

• Set clear boundaries and consequences about drug use and consider talking to your child about harm-minimisation issues

DEALING WITH A PARENT’S WORST

NIGHTMARE Every time paramedic Sarah Carter is called to deal with a teenage drug overdose, she is privy to the reality of a parent’s worst nightmare. Ms Carter says arriving at an accident scene to find a young person overdosed on illicit drugs


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can trigger emotions ranging from fear to frustration and nearly always she feels a deep sadness for the child’s parents. But she said her first reaction was to focus on the job at hand and often there was no time to think about the situation until after the patient had been delivered to hospital. “You think nothing, immediately, because you are so busy and your skills take over and you are just working to preserve life,” she said. “But later on it is sadness. It may be that whoever it is has just been involved in with the wrong group of friends and they may only experiment once but it only takes one experiment to die.” Ms Carter, who has worked for St John Ambulance for 11 years, said one of the most frustrating things about drug overdoses was that they affected the whole community, not just those who were directly involved. “The ones that annoy me are when we go to a car accident and the patient has had a shot and then they have driven. They are the ones that make me cross because it’s one thing to kill yourself but don’t take anyone else out with you.” She said there had been few heroin overdoses in recent years due mainly to a lack of supply and amphetamines had taken over as the most problematic illicit drug. “There are not so many deaths related to amphetamine use but we still get called to jobs where young people have taken it,” she said. “It can make people become totally irrational, totally argumentative and confrontational and it can be a really scary thing for the family. “It can take anything up to eight police and us to hold them down and get them into the ambulance because they have this amazing strength and when they look at you, it can be like the devil is looking at you.” She said amphetamines commonly made users violent and it was often difficult to explain to parents that it was not their child who had just hit them, it was the drug. Increasing numbers of young people were falling foul of poly-drug use, she said. “One of the big problems for us is that kids haven’t just had Speed … they’ve also had a downer and they’ve been drinking vodka and Red Bull. So to treat them you need to give them one thing for this and another thing for that and it can be difficult.” She said parents of teenagers should never let their guards down. “Don’t think drugs are something your kids aren’t exposed to,” she said. “Most will know where to get drugs or know who the people are they need to talk to to get them.”

Ms Carter urged parents to be open with their children and discuss drugs and their effects. Anyone who found an overdose victim should roll the person on their side and keep their airway open. “Rolling someone on their side and tipping their head back slightly is the most important thing you can do to help them alive until an ambulance arrived,” she said.

CANNABIS What is it? The most commonly used form of cannabis is marijuana but cannabis also comes in the form of hashish and hashish oil. The drug comes from a plant. What does it look like? Marijuana usually looks like dried herbs or tea. Hashish, or hash, comes in small brown waxy blocks. Hashish oil is a thick oil that is an extract from the plant.

How is it used? Marijuana and hash resin and oils are usually smoked in cigarette form or using implements known as bongs or pipes. All can be cooked into food. What are the general effects? Cannabis gives the user a feeling of wellbeing and often causes uncontrolled laughter. But it can also cause paranoia, impaired balanced, restlessness, confusion and hallucinations. What problems can it cause? Short-term problems associated with cannabis use include a reduced memory and ability to reason and complete complex tasks. Problems associated with long-term use include damage to lungs, reduced sex drive and reduced motivation. How much does it cost? $20 to $50 per gram. EXPERT OPINION (Bram Dickens, Manager of South Metro Community Drug Service Team) Cannabis is very much a drug that is used on the weekend, similar to the way alcohol is used. We know now it’s a very addictive drug. What happens with cannabis, if the use escalates beyond social, you come into what is known as amotivational syndrome where the use influences motivation? It can lead into an escalating cycle of more and more use. Some of the reports we get are that there are people who need to get up in the morning and have some cannabis.


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It might be two or three cones of strong cannabis from the flower part of the plant, which is known as head, and that is what they need to start the day. They may need two or three similar sessions over the day and possibly more. Some of the young people we see are in that position. This pattern of use has slowly changed. Some years ago when people smoked cannabis, they smoked the leaf but now they smoke mainly the head of the plant. There’s a myth around that cannabis is stronger now but that is not entirely true. It has more to do with the part of the plant that is being used. I would say heavy use interferes with people’s lives significantly and reduces their ability to work or continue any kind of study or meaningful activity. The way I would describe it is your life contracts around your drug use. There is a poster with a young person sitting in the lounge room by themselves with their smoking implement and that sums it up really. What we get is young people who recognise that smoking cannabis is all they have in their lives and it has become isolating, which is ironic because it is seen as a social drug when people first start. The other thing with cannabis is we do know it is associated with mental illness – it can bring on schizophrenia in young people who have a predisposition, it can bring on psychotic behaviour or mental illness.

AMPHETAMINE What is it? Speed refers to a class of drugs that include amphetamine sulphate and methamphetamine. These drugs are commonly referred to as amphetamines. What does it look like? It can come in powder form, tablet form, as a liquid or in ice form suitable for smoking. Substances sold as amphetamine are often mixed with others such as talcum powder, baking powder or starch.

How is it used? Amphetamine can be swallowed, injected, inhaled or smoked. What are the general effects? They vary from user to user, based on the type of drug ingested, the way it was taken and

the size and personality of the user. But in general it results in increased alertness and confidence, talkativeness, sleeplessness, anxiety, enlarged pupils, rapid heart and breathing rates and increased blood pressure. What problems can it cause? Long-term use of speed can result in the user suffering anxiety or becoming violent. Some users may become dependent on the drug. Users who inject the drug run the risk of bleeding in the brain and heart attack. Temporary psychosis may also result from taking a high dose of the drug. How much does it cost? $100 to $300 a gram, depending on the purity. EXPERT OPINION (Bram Dickens, Manager of South Metro Community Drug Service Team) Amphetamines are, by far, the most popular and available illicit drug on the streets of WA at the moment. They are commonly snorted or injected but more recently a more smokable form has been available. This is called methamphetamine or ice. The general pattern of amphetamine use is again recreational weekend use. Typically a user would start taking the drug on Friday night, continue through Saturday and Sunday and ease off during the week, particularly if they have to work or study and need to come down. A typical user would be active over the weekend and tired and sleepy during the week while they are recovering from the weekend and then ready to go again at the weekend. Speed is known to be very addictive and use can escalate up to daily and even several times a day. It is one of those drugs that can creep up on people. The important thing to recognise is it’s not the amphetamine that gives the increased energy. The drug actually manipulates the body to release brain chemicals and over a period of time the body’s natural supplies of those chemicals deplete. At the same time, it’s an appetite suppressant. Individuals who use will become malnourished and one of the early signs of problematic use is weight loss as well as irritability, anger and aggression. The biggest risk with excessive amphetamine use is mental illness. It can bring on a drug-induced psychotic illness but that usually resolves with the cessation of drug use. It can be very distressing for families involved because they are dealing with someone who has paranoia, hallucinations and very aggressive behaviour. It can get to the point where users need to use just to feel normal because the chemicals in


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their brain are depleted and the recovery period is long. Users can go through normal short-term withdrawal periods of about three to four weeks but at the end of it they may be drug-free but because the chemicals in their brain are depleted, it can take up to 12 months before they feel good again. Life is bleak for an individual who has just come off heavy amphetamine use.

HEROIN What is it? Heroin is a depressant and it belongs to a group of drugs known as narcotic analgesics or opioids. It is a strong painkiller and is manufactured from morphine or codeine. There has been a heroin drought in Perth for several years but experts believe availability may be increasing. What does it look like? In its pure form heroin is a white powder but the colour of street heroin varies from white to brownish beige, depending on what has been mixed with the drug. Paraphernalia associated with heroin use includes lighters, teaspoons and syringes.

How is it used? Heroin is usually injected but can also be smoked or snorted. What are the general effects? Heroin causes feelings of wellbeing and relieves pain. It can cause shallow breathing and sleepiness, known as nodding. What problems can it cause? Heroin is addictive and overdose can easily result in death. Other long-term problems include increased risk of pneumonia, chronic constipation and loss of appetite. How much does it cost? $500 to $1,000 per gram, with price greatly dependent on availability. EXPERT OPINION (Bram Dickens, Manager of South Metro Community Drug Service Team) A typical day in the life of a heroin addict would involve waking up and needing to source some heroin almost immediately. If they didn’t have any heroin, their whole day is focused on getting their next fix. Some say finding their next fix is like their full-time job. Depending on the level of addiction, they would need a fix regularly. If they have slept, it is almost certain they would need it immediately after getting up and if they didn’t get it they

would go into withdrawal, experiencing sweating, palpitations, nausea. That’s when they become driven to get it and you get cases of people getting themselves involved in dealing drugs, crime or the sex industry just so that they can feed their habit. When they do get the drugs, they would get themselves a fit pack, which is a clean syringe, and then they would cook the drug up in a spoon, which basically means dissolving the drug in water under a flame, and then they use the syringe to inject it into a vein. The effects are instant but the degree to which they are affected would depend on how much they took and their levels of tolerance. Generally, a hit would last for a few hours. Some people may be very sleepy and if they took a lot, they would actually die when their breathing slows right down. If they take a small amount, it can alleviate their symptoms and leave them feeling calmer and relaxed. I have worked in my role as a counsellor with heroin users who have just used enough to keep them going but it is very difficult to carry on with a normal life because they are so focused on getting big sums of money, which they need to pay for their habit, and they can’t get that amount of money from a normal job. For this reason, some people switch to using pharmaceutical opiates, such as the really strong pain killers designed for use by people with cancer and back pain. There is quite a thriving black market for that kind of medication.

ECSTASY What is it? Ecstasy is the name given to methylene-dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). MDMA’s chemical structure is related to stimulants and some hallucinogens. What does it look like? Ecstasy usually comes in tablet form in a range of different colours. Sometimes the pills will be stamped with small pictures of things such as doves, butterflies or lightning bolts.

How is it used? Ecstasy is usually swallowed but it can also be smoked. Injecting ecstasy can cause veins to block. When swallowed, the effects of ecstasy can take 20 to 90 minutes to appear. What are the general effects? Ecstasy makes users feel euphoric and carefree. It can cause talkativeness, increased confidence, teeth grinding, increased heart rate


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and blood pressure, high body temperature, paranoia, insomnia and sweating. What problems can it cause? Some research has shown that ecstasy results in brain damage and, in particular, can affect long-term memory and conscious thought process. It can also cause emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. How much does it cost? $30 to $50 a tablet. EXPERT OPINION (Bram Dickens, Manager of South Metro Community Drug Service Team) Ecstasy is commonly used on weekends by people going to nightclubs, raves or parties. It is known as the love drug because it brings about a sense of euphoria and the feeling of being at one with everyone. One of the big risks with ecstasy is the threat of dehydration and people who are using it tend to drink a lot of water and they tend to avoid alcohol. In some cases people can over-hydrate. We don’t have a lot of ecstasy users come to us for help because it is one of those drugs that doesn’t tend to be used excessively on a daily basis. But there is a theory that there isn’t much true ecstasy on the streets at the moment and instead it is just speed disguised as ecstasy. It would probably be hard to pick up if your teenager was using ecstasy, especially because so many of the signs of drug use are similar to those of just being a normal teenager. One of the interesting things about ecstasy, like most drug use, is that it starts out as a social event and it becomes increasingly isolating and, obviously, that means it can have a huge impact on relationships of all types. One of the highest-motivating factors for people to seek help with their drug use is relationship difficulties. Whether it be both people are using in the relationship and they no longer have any real communication or one person refuses to continue their relationship with the other until the drug issue is resolved or someone might meet someone who says they don’t want to get involved until the drug issue is resolved and that really forces people to make changes. The other thing is we get a lot of people who come in aged mid to late 20s and they have just had enough of using drugs because they realise there is more to life and they want to go out and have families, buy houses and enjoy their lives. Drug use just ceases to be fun for them anymore. These are the type of people who are usually highly motivated to make change and usually they do really well.

HALLUCINOGENS What are they? These drugs produce hallucinations and include LSD or trips. LSD is the most commonly used hallucinogen in Australia. What does it look like? LSD usually is sold on the street on small pieces of absorbent paper which have been stamped with some form of picture but it can also be sold on sugar cubes or in capsule form.

How is it used? LSD is usually swallowed and the effects start to appear within about 60 minutes. What are the general effects? LSD causes users to see things in a distorted way and causes intense sensory experiences. Colours, signs and sounds all seem magnified. It can result in a distorted sense of time and can also cause nausea, drowsiness, dizziness, tension, anxiety and panic. What problems can it cause? Some trips are referred to as “bad trips” because they cause intense negative feelings. Sometimes users can feel as if they are losing control or going crazy or they can become extremely anxious or paranoid. Long-term problems include the possibility of flashbacks, when a user experiences a recurrence of the drug experience even when they have not taken the drug. Flashbacks can occur weeks, months or years after the initial drug-taking. Other long-term problems include impaired memory and concentration and increased risk of developing mental disturbances for those people who have a predisposition to the conditions. How much does it cost? $15 to $25 a square of LSD-soaked paper. EXPERT OPINION (Steve Allsop, Drug & Alcohol Office, Acting Executive Director) Not a large proportion of people use them and those who do don’t use them often. The reason for that is a lot of people have negative effects. But it is important to stress that use on one occasion can still cause significant harm. The pattern of use would more likely be occasional and the main reason for that is that the more often people use, the more the euphoric effects decrease and the negative effects increase. You don’t really see daily use. This is a drug people are more likely to use once or twice a month. But there are a number of problems that can arise from a single occasion – for example,


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obviously somebody whose senses are distorted is considerably more at risk of harming themselves or other people. And if there is a vulnerability to mental health problems, the risk of these problems being exacerbated is substantial. You see with single use that people can become tense, anxious and perhaps paranoid, and these reactions can be prolonged or just for the duration that the drug is in the system. Something that is specific to hallucinogens is flashbacks. People can spontaneously and unpredictably have a recurrence of the effects of the drug even when they haven’t taken the drug. So, for example, you can take the drug today and then in a few weeks or months, some people can experience the effects all over again and essentially all of your senses can be moderately or severely distorted. The effects of these drugs can be highly unpredictable and when it is unpleasant, it is not just a case of some people feeling mild discomfort – it can be highly distressing and highly disturbing. People who use hallucinogens are more likely to turn up in emergency departments or mental health services rather than drug treatment programs.

DEXAMPHETAMINE What is it? Dexamphetamine is a type of amphetamine which is well known for its use in treating attention deficit disorder. What does it look like? It is a prescription medicine and comes in pill form. Most tablets are white and round.

How is it used? Dexamphetamine is usually swallowed but it can also be crushed and injected. What are the general effects? Dexamphetamine is a stimulant and works by increasing activity of certain chemicals in the brain. It can make users overly excited. What problems can it cause? Long-term or high-dose use can cause headaches, abdominal pain, blurred vision, weight loss, insomnia and nausea. High doses can cause aggression, insomnia, anxiety, excitement, irritability and depression.

How much does it cost? Black market price varies greatly but can be as low as 50¢ a tablet. EXPERT OPINION (Steve Allsop, Drug & Alcohol Office, Acting Executive Director) These are a version of amphetamines and problems arise not when they are taken as prescribed but when they are used in a way other than that which is determined by a doctor. Dexamphetamines are stimulants, similar to other amphetamines, and can increase alertness, suppress appetite and disturb sleep. Usually, people will take them in larger doses on one or two occasions rather than measured small doses. In large doses, they can mess with the cardiovascular system, increase the risk of arrhythmia, reduce appetite and cause weight loss. Obviously, taking one tablet, as per a prescription, won’t have this effect. If combined with other drugs like alcohol, they can cause an increase in the risk of accidents, especially on the road when driving can become aggressive and erratic. The long-term use in large doses can cause abdominal cramps, rapid breathing, nausea and perhaps vomiting and sometimes mental health problems. Dexamphetamines are much more likely to be used on weekends by younger people ranging from late teens to mid-20s.

TRANQUILLISERS What are they? Tranquillisers are sedatives that decrease activity in the brain. They are available as prescription medicine but are often sold on the black market. They are prescribed to treat mild anxiety, sleep disorders, muscle spasms and alcohol withdrawal. What do they look like? Tranquillisers usually come in tablet or capsule form and there are lots of different types. Common brand names include Rohypnol, Serapax and Valium.

How are they used? Tranquillisers are usually swallowed but tablets can also be crushed and injected. They are sometimes used by people who are withdrawing from heroin. What are the general effects? Tranquillisers cause drowsiness, sedation and relief from anxiety.


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What problems can they cause? Overdoses of tranquillisers can result in death or extreme sedation. Users can become dependent on tranquillisers. How much do they cost? The black market price varies greatly but starts at a few dollars a tablet. EXPERT OPINION (Steve Allsop, Drug & Alcohol Office, Acting Executive Director) Tranquillisers are depressants and some of the effects they have can be similar to alcohol – they slow down your central nervous system and people can develop a tolerance. The more often people use, the more pills they have to take to get the same effect. It is possible to overdose on these drugs. Basically, what happens is you take enough of a depressant that your respiration slows and that can, in turn, result in unconsciousness or a person going into coma or death. A particular concern about these drugs is that they can be mixed with other drugs such as alcohol or heroin, increasing the risk of accident and overdose. In fact, a significant proportion of fatal overdose has been associated with the combined use of drugs such as heroin and tranquillisers. We are much less likely to get tranquillisers used on an occasional basis. Instead they are more likely to be used by people who are using other drugs. They are most commonly used by people who are fairly advanced in their drug use. You will often find that most people who are involved in tranquillisers use other drugs as well, rather than starting on tranquillisers. They might be used as a substitute for heroin or to exacerbate the effects. Amphetamine users might use them when they are coming down. Withdrawal from tranquillisers can take quite a long time. For example, if you are dependent on heroin or alcohol, the peak withdrawal symptoms are experienced in the first three or four days but the peak withdrawal from tranquillisers can be over a couple of weeks. In other words, it can be a little more complex than managing some other dependencies.

COCAINE What is it? Cocaine is a stimulant which affects the central nervous system by speeding up activity of certain chemicals in the brain. What does it look like? Cocaine is a fine, white powder. Because it is quite expensive, it is often sold mixed with other cheaper drugs such as amphetamine.

How is it used? Cocaine is usually swallowed or snorted but it can also be injected or smoked. What are the general effects? The effects of cocaine vary depending on the body type of the person using it and the way it is used. Generally, it makes the user more confident and can cause sleeplessness, anxiety, aggression, hallucination, tremors and increased breathing rate, pulse and blood pressure. What problems can it cause? Long-term use of cocaine can cause paranoia, less of appetite, irritability and dependence. How much does it cost? $200 to $500 a gram. It is fairly difficult to get in Perth. EXPERT OPINION (Steve Allsop, Drug & Alcohol Office, Acting Executive Director) Cocaine is a relatively uncommon drug in WA at the moment. In fact, it was much more common in NSW than anywhere else in Australia but even in NSW there has been a shortage and we don’t really know why. A lot of the cocaine that is sold in WA has a substantial amount of amphetamines in it. Cocaine is a stimulant and the most similar drug in terms of effects is amphetamine. It is a very short-acting stimulant and therein lies one of its risks. If people inject cocaine and become dependent, they can end up injecting very frequently. If someone is dependent on heroin, for example, they might inject three or four times a day but if they are highly dependent on cocaine, they might inject many more times than that in one day and that puts a lot of strain on the vascular system. But cocaine is a drug that is more commonly used on an occasional basis, even though we do have a small number of more-dependent users around. It is possible to overdose on cocaine and this is because it has a combination of stimulation and anaesthetic qualities. One of the things that happens with cocaine use in large amounts is that you can have a substantial increase in blood pressure and increased risk of irregular heartbeat, particularly if you have something wrong with your cardiovascular system to start with. It is also possible to have bleeds in the brain.


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MASTERS SWIMMING

THE ICE SWIMMER Text & Photos by Maureen Upton

This article appeared in Swim Magazine May-June 2004

The human body cannot typically survive for more than 30 minutes in the 37-44 degree waters near Antarctica. Yet, 57-year-old Pedro Ordenes, in an effort to celebrate international peace and raise cancer awareness, successfully mastered these waters, swimming nearly 90 minutes roundtrip across the Beagle Channel – without the benefit of a wetsuit or swim aids.

Pedro Ordenes, at age 57, set out to swim the Beagle

Channel between Isla Navarino and the Argentine portion of Tierra Del Fuego – roundtrip- with no wetsuit or swim

aids. It was 7.45am in Puerto Williams on Chile’s Isla Navarino, 120 miles south of the South American continent. On this day, Pedro Ordenes and his crew would set records, launch a new international athletic organisation and celebrate the sport of open water swimming. Ordenes, at age 57, had set out to swim the Beagle Channel between Isla Navarino and the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego – roundtrip – with no wetsuit or swim aids. Only one roundtrip crossing had ever been recorded before by a 30-year-old swimmer. Despite a paucity of official swimming records here in the “Far South”, tales date back centuries, including one by young naturalist Charles Darwin. Aboard the HMS Beagle’s 1831 voyage, Darwin observed of Tierra del Fuego’s indigenous Yahgan people: “One dour and unpleasant task performed by the women was to tie up the canoes among the rafts of giant seaweeds that fringe the coasts and then swim ashore through the icy water – a dangerous undertaking; the men, apparently, could not, or would not, swim”. It was on this trip that Darwin collected the data that would lead to his revolutionary 1859 work, “The Origin of Species”. Aptly describing the forbidding Fuegian landscape surrounding

Pedro’s swim, Darwin wrote, “…the distant channels from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world”. Far South swimming will no longer be a mythical activity, in that Pedro’s swim marked the formation of the world’s first association of arctic swimmers, Mares del Sur Swimming Association. Mares del Sur will officiate future swim endeavours in the region and record results for use by the International Olympic Committee and other organisations. Already, several swimmers from the well-established English Channel Swimmers Association are planning arctic swims under the supervision of Mares del Sur. This day, January 29, was nearly the mid-point of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, yet the chilly wind required parkas, hats and gloves. Once in the water, Pedro wore only a regular swimsuit, a neoprene cap and a sticky coating of lanolin. The water in the channel was 42 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the captain of PM 2032, the Chilean naval patrol boat which was to escort Pedro across, carrying his wife, Marjorie Forman, a Navy medic and two crew members. Also accompanying him was a Naval Zodiac boat carrying two rescue divers, Chile’s famous arctic swimmer, Victor “Tiburón” Contreras, and myself. Born and raised in Chile, Pedro has lived in the United States for nearly 40 years and is now one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best-known open water swim coaches. His interest in open water swimming came from his father, who was the first swimmer to attempt the Strait of Magellan crossing in 1959. “My father’s favourite saying was ‘si se puede’ (‘yes you can’); he always encouraged us to go for our dreams, to believe that they were within our reach”, says Pedro of his father, who passed away in 1994. Thus inspired, Pedro accomplished the Strait of Magellan crossing in 1999, through 40-degree water and polar currents. PM 2032 headed east down the temporarily calm Straight of Magellan, toward the shore across from Punta MacKinlay, his destination on Tierra del Fuego. On the beach, Pedro set out on a warm-up run as Tiburón built a small driftwood fire to melt the lanolin. Pedro undressed down to his swimsuit as the crew shivered. His expression and the mood on the two boats and ashore suddenly became serious. Tiburón placed his hand on Pedro’s head and said a prayer; the rest of the crew climbed aboard the Zodiac, and we synchronised our watches. Pedro’s training had included bathing in ice and swimming year-round in the San Francisco


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Bay, which can fall to 43 degrees in the winter. According to Dr. William Keatinge of the University of London, one of the world’s leading experts on hypothermia – and Pedro’s medical advisor – cold water training can help condition blood vessels at the skin’s surface to contract and stay contracted in extreme cold. Without this training, the vessels can become paralysed and permit dangerously cooled blood to return to the body’s core, leading to potentially fatal cases of hypothermia.

PEDRO HITS THE WATER Tiburón’s whistle signalled the start, and Pedro hit the water. His initial strokes were abbreviated and stiff, but he kept moving, and they began to lengthen. “Reach and roll”, Pedro would always say to his San Francisco Bay swimmers as we encountered strong currents and fatigue. “Stay high on the surface.” Headed straight for the faro (lighthouse) at Punta MacKinlay, the Zodiac and PM 2032 flanked Pedro, and Tiburón’s whistle kept him in course. In a short 28 minutes, he approached the Fuegian coast, and crawled out of the water. Tiburón jumped ashore to walk Pedro down the beach and down-current, to begin his return trip. Although he seemed coherent, we would find out later that his reality had begun to diverge from ours.

Heading back, the water had become choppy, and according to the Naval crew, we were now facing a 35-knot wind and an overpowering eastbound current of 10-12 knots. Pedro would later report a perceived drop of at least three degrees near the Argentine coast, where polar currents pass unobstructed by Navarino’s inlets. “Cold winds can suddenly blow into the channel from the west, instantly cooling the surface by several degrees”, noted Dr. Keatinge, who had accompanied Pedro’s mentor Lynne Cox on her Beagle crossing. Cox, the world’s first swimmer to cross many of the planet’s most forbidding passages, is no stranger to strong currents. Describing her historic 1976 crossing of the Strait of Magellan in “Swimming to Antarctica”, she wrote … “The tide had changed – like a hose bent and suddenly released. The force was incredible –

choking – lifting my head to get air, I looked across the sea and it was chaos … green white-caps darkening to a threatening grey”. Pedro was being pushed increasingly east and a full hour after entering the water at Punta MacKinlay, he reached the shores of Navarino to ecstatic cheers from both boats. One rescue diver leaped off the Zodiac, seeing Pedro enter a thick kelp forest just as he approached the shore. Pedro swam right through it, emerged from the water with his arms raised in victory and shouted “Viva Chile!” He had swum a total of 4,200 metres in 1 hour 28 minutes. He became the oldest person – by a margin of 27 years – to cross the Beagle. He is also the second person ever to complete the roundtrip swim, with a four-minute difference off the first reported roundtrip time. Of the 10 swimmers to have completed the Beagle crossing, one-way or roundtrip, several have used wetsuits and other aids. On hearing the news of Pedro’s crossing, Dr. Keatinge said it was “quite remarkable”, given the fact he had never personally measured a swim of this duration in water as cold as 42 degrees. As for colder water, he remarked, “We don’t know what happens after 30 minutes in water under 40 degrees”.

Heading back to Puerto Williams in the minivan, we had Pedro sandwiched between us for warmth, since swimmers

are still in danger of hypothermia even when out of the water.

The “after-drop” in body temperature can continue for 15-20 minutes, as contracted vessels open and cooled blood returns to the core. Although Pedro had seemed completely coherent, we knew something was amiss when he asked, “Quié fue ese caballero?” (“Who was that gentleman?”) Marjorie and I exchanged


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sideways glances and asked, “What gentleman?” During his brief walk down the Argentine shore, Pedro had not recognised his good friend and coach Tiburón, and instead thought that an Argentine immigrations official had detained him. “I kept telling him, ‘My passport is in the boat’,” Pedro remembered. “People can’t register new memories when near hypothermia”, said Dr. Keatinge, recalling accounts of North Sea divers who returned from dives with no memory of the instrument readings they were meant to record. He presumed that Pedro “had a partial memory loss and then connected details to create a memory that wasn’t real”.

DUAL MISSION What moves a swimmer to undertake this sort of inhuman challenge? Pedro’s swim had a dual mission … to celebrate international peace and to raise cancer awareness. He scheduled the event to commemorate both the signing 120 years ago of the peace treaty between warring Chile and Argentina, as well as the new United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement (USCFTA), which went into effect in January of 2004. Perhaps symbolically, during his swim, there was no passport check by the Argentine military, as in his previous crossing of the Strait of Magellan between the two countries. On a more personal level, Pedro swam the Beagle to support and encourage fellow swimmers who have battled cancer, including several of his family members. He devoted this particular swim to fellow Bay swimmer Colleen Vojvodich, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Informed of his successful crossing, Vojvodich remarked from Ohio where she is undergoing treatment, “I was honoured that this swim was dedicated to me and pleased that Pedro’s crossing was safe and triumphant”. In September of 2003, Pedro launched the first annual Alcatraz Swim with the Centurions to benefit Marin Breast Cancer Watch. “Centurions” are swimmers who have completed the Alcatraz-San Francisco crossing over 100 times. Pedro broke the world record in December, upon completion of his 204th crossing. Maureen Upton is an Ironman triathlete, climber, diver, sailor and open water swimmer who lives in Denver, Colo. She has swum from Alcatraz to San Francisco six times (coached by Pedro), raced in 14 triathlons and travelled to 27 countries across five continents.

A Finny Thing Happened on the Way to Swim Practice

By Nan Kappeler This article appeared in Swim Magazine

May-June 2004 Fins can definitely help a swimmer swim faster, but determining whether or not Masters swimmers should train with these instant-speed devices has created a few waves between fin-wearers and non-wearers. More than 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin thought it would be wonderful if there were a device that would enable him to swim faster. He decided to carve two pieces of wood into what resembled an artist’s palate with a hole in the centre for the thumb. Thus were born what we commonly know today as hand paddles. “Competitive swimmers should use fins for speed work or to reach a particular time – such as doing a set of 100s on 1:20 with fins, versus 1:30 without them.”

—Mel Goldstein, YMCA Indy SwimFit Taken one step further, by putting “hand” paddles on the feet, thus were born “foot” paddles – just kidding! Today, they’re known as fins. And thanks to advances in technology, Masters swimmers today continue to benefit from Franklin’s invention. Most fins are now made of a lightweight, flexible plastic material. Available in sizes varying from a slight extension of several inches from the toes, to the extra long two-foot model, fins increase the power of the kick and leg propulsion – helping swimmers swim faster! But even as some relish the idea of instant speed, others resent the device, creating waves in the pool among fin-wearers, non-wearers and coaches who search to find the perfect middle water for the best time and place for fins in Masters practices.

GOOD FIN … BAD FIN “I believe there is a place for fins in a Masters workout”, says Brandon Seider, assistant swim coach at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Seider feels that if used during specific sets, fins can be an excellent tool not only for increasing speed, but also for increasing ankle flexibility, leg strength and power. However, Seider advises swimmers to limit their use of fins in practice. “Using fins too much isn’t good. Swimmers who tend to rely on fins can acquire a false sense of


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security about their speed. Since fins give them more propulsion, they may FEEL faster in the water even though they may have a poor stroke. In reality, the legs are doing all the work”.

—Brandon Seider, UCSB Sports Club Los Angeles-Orange County coach Matt Smith agrees that practicing with fins can be beneficial by allowing swimmers to increase their heart rate to a higher zone that can’t be reached with using just the legs. Other benefits include being able to maintain a higher time base and increased yardage. “But the downside for the person who becomes dependent on fins to swim faster is that the fins become a crutch”, says Smith. “People get stuck on them because they don’t want to give up the speed they’ve gotten used to.” Even though he doesn’t ban fins from practices, he strongly encourages swimmers to train without fins to understand their abilities better and to keep practice on the same level of work for everyone. Mel Goldstein, director of the YMCA Indy SwimFit in Indianapolis, also feels that swimmers can benefit from the use of fins, depending on the type of swimmer they are – and their goals. “Apply fins when you think they can help you accomplish your goals”, advises Goldstein. He says that competitive swimmers should use fins for speed work or to reach a particular time – such as doing a set of 100s on 1:20 with fins, versus 1:30 without them. A person whose goal is improved fitness may elect to wear fins to stay up with the group and get a good aerobic workout.

FIN RAGE While coaches agree that fins should be used at certain times during practice, Masters swimmers usually have the final say on when they use fins. Tempers have been known to flare in lanes when the “two types of feet” clash. During Masters practices, Seider feels that many swimmers have a real sense of pride. “When a person keeps the fins on for the entire workout, the others get upset.” Seider says when differences surface, he tries to get the swimmers to refocus on their own work. Smith says that egos may also come into play on both sides. Many fin wearers get a false sense of ability about their speed. The naturals claim that fin-wearers are only able to keep up in practice because they are wearing fins. Evelyn Maddox, a former swimmer at the University of Maryland and member of the Germantown Maryland Masters, feels that

wearing fins isn’t reality and it is often an inconvenience to keep adjusting the lane when the strokes change. “It bothers me because I feel a sense of accomplishment with my lane. That’s why you train with people. When someone with fins enters the lane, you have to work twice as hard to keep up with someone who isn’t even doing the workout.” Fin-wearer Laurie Peterson, a member of the Brophy East Masters Swim Team, says the key to surviving in the lane with non-fin wearers is to become familiar with those people and to adjust her speed while wearing the fins. As a relative newcomer to the sport, she says wearing fins has helped her make faster intervals, go longer distances and keep up with the faster non-fin-wearers when doing the strokes. “I know my speed and in my lane we can figure out what everybody’s speed is and in what order we should swim. When I wear my fins, I am in a different placement in the lane, and I know that”, says Peterson.

FINNY SETS UCSB’s Brandon Seider suggests incorporating the following over-speed drill – which focuses on short, powerful swims – into a swimmer’s workout before a meet… • 10 x 25 – focus on a smooth and steady

arm stroke – concentrate on driving the legs with a fast 6-beat kick.

• 5 x 100 – focus on an easy 6-beat kick, building legs to a fast 6-beat kick on the fifth.

For increased lunch capacity, Smith suggests an underwater kicking set… • 10 x 50 on 1:00 – focus on a streamline

underwater kick with no arms until you run out of breath or hit the wall – then swim back.

FINNY FOOT

John Homan, a board-certified sports medicine physician from Huntington Beach, Calif., says one of the side effects of using fins too much can be a sort of carpel tunnel in the foot, caused by tight fins that compress the nerves in the ankle. Training with fins all the time is a bad idea – but fins can be good when used in conjunction with other training methods. Homan suggests that fins not be so big that they fall of, or so small or tight that the circulation in the foot is restricted. He recommends that swimmers follow the coach’s workouts and that they


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alternate fins with other equipment to avoid overuse injuries.

THE FINNY WORD ON FINS If you have any question as to whether fins are helping or hindering your progress, Goldstein offers some simple advice for Masters swimmers. If you are reaching your goals and doing the best you can – then wearing fins is beneficial. Nan Kappeler, a free-lance writer and co-owner of ProActive Exercise and Rehabilitation, swam collegiately for the University of Maryland. Currently, she is a Masters swimmer at the University of California, Irvine.

This article appeared in SWIM Magazine May-June 2004

MEDICATIONS Do They Affect Performance?

By Jody Welborn Pete, a 60-year-old Masters swimmer, was having a good year, competing well at local meets, despite his recent diagnosis of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. His friend, a local internal medicine physician, was commenting on his swims when he noted Pete’s cough. On questioning, Pete said that the cough had been there for about six weeks and did not seem to be associated with a cold or fever. However, it was annoying and was starting to interfere with his sleep. A lot has been written about drugs that enhance performance, but what about drugs that adults take to treat medical conditions such as hypertension, heart disease or asthma? Do they enhance performance? Or do they inhibit it? Beta-Blockers Beta-blockers, such as atenolol or metoprolol, are a common class of drugs used to treat diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmias and even migraine headaches. In general, these medications are excellent in treating different medical problems, but they can impair athletic performance. Beta-blockers reduce the heart’s response to stimulation by the sympathetic nervous system, blunting the ability of the heart to respond to the stress of exercise. The sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and blood pressure with exercise, increasing the amount of blood pumped by the heart to the rest of the body. With the use of beta-blockers, the heart rate and blood pressure are decreased, and the cardiac output decreases as well. This results in

decreased maximal oxygen consumption and may limit the ability of an athlete to train, both in duration and intensity. The effects of beta-blockers are particularly undesirable for endurance athletes. Other side effects, including fatigue and depression, may also impact an athlete’s performance. Beta-blockers can impair the body’s ability to dissipate heat, and some athletes can experience a mild increase in blood potassium levels with exercise. The drugs can also mask the symptoms of low blood sugar in diabetic athletes. In addition, beta-blockers can worsen asthma or unmask exercise-induced asthma. Beta-blockers are actually on the list of banned drugs for sports such as shooting events, biathlon, fencing and synchronised swimming (among others) as the medications can reduce tremor and performance anxiety. Their use is permitted for sports such as swimming or track and field, but they impact performance negatively. If you are taking a beta-blocker, and are concerned that it is affecting your performance, it is important to speak with your physician about the reasons they are being prescribed. With hypertension, migraine headaches and even heart arrhythmias, there are alternative medications. With diseases such as coronary artery disease and heart failure, beta-blockers offer significant benefits for symptom relief and delaying disease progression not available from other medicines. It is important that beta-blockers should not be stopped suddenly. The dose should be tapered down in order to avoid a rebound in symptoms or an increase in blood pressure, and should only be done with medical supervision. ACE Inhibitors Another medication often prescribed for adults is the ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor such as lisinopril, enalapril and captopril. This class of medicine acts to block the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II, a powerful blood vessel constrictor. Since angiotensin is not produced, blood pressure is lower at rest and with exercise. In addition to lowering blood pressure, use of ACE inhibitors is associated with a slight decrease in heart rate, and an increase in the amount of blood the heart pumps with each heartbeat. ACE inhibitors have been an important treatment for both hypertension and heart failure for many years. More recently, the indications for use of these medications have expanded, resulting in an increase in the number of athletes that take them. Common


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indications include coronary artery disease, especially in people who have had heart attacks, and the prevention of diabetic kidney failure. Although ACE inhibitors are very well tolerated in active patients and are often the drug of choice in treating hypertension in athletes, they do have side effects, which may affect performance. The most common side effect is a dry, non-productive cough. The cough is one of the major reasons for stopping the medication and can be persistent and interfere with training as well as sleep. ACE inhibitors may also affect kidney function, potassium levels in the blood stream, heart rate and rhythm, and muscle function. Because of potential side effects, physician-monitoring is necessary when taking ACE inhibitors. Although blood testing can detect the kidney problems and electrolyte abnormalities associated with ACE inhibitors, active adults taking these medications should remain well hydrated. As well, they should avoid the dehydrating effects of caffeine and alcohol. If a dry cough develops and becomes troublesome, other medications such as Angiotensin Receptor Blockers can be substituted. Many of the side effects associated with ACE inhibitors are reversible when the medication is stopped. For most active adults, ACE inhibitors are an ideal medication because they do not interfere with exercise. They do not affect energy metabolism or maximum oxygen uptake, and have no negative effects on training or competition. They enhance performance by treating underlying medical conditions, allowing training and performance at an optimal level. Beta-Agonists Asthma is a common medical problem in swimmers. Just look around the pool deck at practice. Inhalers are intermingled with the kickboards and pull-buoys. For elite athletes, this is more than a problem with breathing because some of the drugs used to treat asthma are banned in competition and training without a medical waiver. Although there are several types of asthma medications, the class of medications banned is most commonly the beta-2 agonists, the kind found in many asthma inhalers. The most common beta-agonist for asthma is albuterol, and it acts to expand the breathing passages by relaxing the smooth muscle around the airways. Because of its quick action, albuterol can be used as a rescue medication for more sudden onset symptoms. However, the beta-2 agonists are on the banned list not because of their effects on breathing, but because of their anabolic or muscle-building properties. Clenbuterol is the

beta-agonist evaluated the most – partly because of its use in livestock to build muscle mass. The anabolic effects of clenbuterol (and some other beta-agonists) are approximately one-quarter that of the anabolic steroids, but builds muscle through a mechanism separate from steroids or growth hormone. These drugs are sometimes used to maintain muscle-building effects after steroid use is discontinued. Although albuterol may have some anabolic effects as well, clenbuterol is a long-acting beta-agonist with a presence in the body about six times longer than albuterol. The International Olympic Committee bans clenbuterol in training and competition; however, inhaled albuterol is permitted with a medical waiver along with medical documentation such as pulmonary function testing. Despite their prevalence, beta-agonists can have serious side effects that not only interfere with training and competition, but can also be harmful to the athlete’s health. They can cause a racing or pounding heartbeat, muscle tightness, headaches, tremors or dizziness. Blood pressure can increase – a problem in people with high blood pressure – and heart rhythm abnormalities may become worse. Patients with coronary artery disease may develop increasing chest pain. If inhalers containing beta-agonists are needed, they should be used after a careful medical examination and with physician-monitoring. NSAIDs Most athletes will use an over-the-counter pain reliever at some time – some right before a race. The most common pain medications used are the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and ketoprofen. These medications are not banned in competition, but have side effects that could potentially affect performance. NSAIDs prevent the body from producing prostaglandins, a group of hormone-like substance that promotes inflammation and pain (among other effects) in disease and injury. By blocking their production, NSAIDs can decrease both pain and inflammation. Aspirin, also classified as an NSAID, has similar effects. In addition, aspirin has unique properties, which contribute to its ability to prevent heart attacks and, perhaps, decrease the risk of colon cancer. Aspirin also acts as a blood thinner and can prevent blood clots in some circumstances. NSAIDs of all types are used to decrease the inflammation and pain in diseases such as gout, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, and are effective in treating the pain of migraine headaches, menstrual cramps, sunburn,


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tension headaches and tendinitis. They are also useful for the relief of mild-moderate muscle aches, as well as pain and swelling from injury. They have not been shown to enhance performance outside of their ability to decrease pain. NSAIDs are not specific and block all prostaglandin production, including those that protect the stomach lining. This can result in side effects like abdominal pain or cramps, nausea or, more seriously, inflammation or bleeding from the stomach. NSAIDs also block the prostaglandins produced in the kidney and can cause kidney damage or high blood pressure. Some of the NSAIDs, such as aspirin, interfere with blood clotting and can cause bruising or excessive bleeding. Aspirin is not without other risks and should not be taken by children under 16 who have chicken pox or flu symptoms, due to the risk of Reye’s syndrome. Because of their risks, when over-the-counter medications such as NSAIDs are used, label directions should always be used, label directions should always be followed and the recommended dose should not be exceeded. It is best to take NSAIDs with food in your stomach, and stop them if stomach pain or nausea develops. Maintenance of good hydration is important to protect kidney function. If you continue to require these medications for more than a week, consult your physician to ensure a more serious problem is not present. Performance Enhancing? Or Inhibiting? Pete remembered that his cough had started shortly after his blood pressure medications had been changed. His friend asked him if he was on a class of medications called an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor. Indeed, that was the new medicine that was prescribed. His friend explained that although this was an effective medication for hypertension – and well tolerated by athletes – one of the major side effects is a dry cough, which, if persistent enough, could ultimately interfere with his training. The friend recommended speaking to his primary care physician about changing to a different blood pressure medication. Many medications used by adults have a great deal of benefit, but they may impair performance, either due to the direct effects of the medication or the side effects. It is important for the active adult to be aware of how medications impact performance. Make your doctor aware of your exercise and sports activities, and discuss any problems or concerns you may have about the medications you are using.

Judy Welborn, M.D., is a cardiologist from Portland, Ore., and swims for Oregon Masters. In addition to being a member of the USMS Sports Medicine Committee, Fitness Committee and Planning Committee, Judy is also the Safety Chair for the Oregon LMSC.

These articles appeared in SWIM July/August 2004

STROKE CONSISTENCY Right Repetit ion Reaps Rewards

By Scott Rabalais In 1972, Mark Spitz, swimming for Indiana University, won his fourth consecutive NCAA title in the 100 yard Butterfly. On the first 25-yard length of the race, which included a dive start, Spitz took six strokes of Butterfly. On each of the three subsequent 25s, Spitz managed seven strokes of Butterfly. (Swimming aficionados may be well aware this was before the use of extended underwater dolphining.) As an impressionable 13-year-old, I recall tuning in to watch Spitz perform his Butterfly magic and swim away from the field. Curious of his distance per stroke, I counted every stroke of his race. At my next swim practice, I learned that not only did I take several more strokes per length than Spitz, but I was nowhere near as consistent in stroke count from length to length! Consistency in Sport Consistency in movement and in the application of power can be viewed as an important issue in almost all athletic activities. Golfers seek in earnest for the “perfect swing”, and then attempt to recreate it. Baseball pitchers aim for uniformity in their approach and aim to hit their target consistently. Our aerobic counterparts—runners—cover great distances with machine-like repetitiveness in their strides. Like Spitz, accomplished swimmers vary little in their execution—not only from length to length, but from stroke to stroke. Through many years of practice and the formation of precisely repetitive stroke habits, great swimmers have learned to find their best stroke and to repeat it dozens, if not hundreds, of times in a race. Consistency in Adult Swimmers It is not uncommon to find inconsistent stroke counts when viewing Masters swimmers at work. Particularly at meets or in time trials, when swimmers are asked to give their best effort, the efficiency of a stroke can easily break


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down during the course of a race. Particularly in distance swimming races, where efficiency of movement is vitally important, stroke counts can vary widely from the beginning to the end of a race. The Challenge of Consistency Why is consistency of stroke so difficult to obtain? If one gives study to the nature of the human body and mind, the answers are evident. The human body, albeit a machine, is exhaustible. As energy is spent, supplies are gradually depleted, bodily systems do not function to their potential, and results are less than ideal. Consistency in swimming is also tied to consistency of effort, beginning with the mental faculties of focus and concentration. As the mind wanders, the sense of control over bodily movement can decrease. Stroke consistency will produce a more uniform stroke count over repetitive lengths of a pool. Swim training may be viewed as a physical act that breeds consistency. With each stroke, physical habits are being reinforced and the more strokes taken, the more reinforced the stroke pattern becomes. This leads one to consider the importance of learning proper technique early in one’s stroke development, rather than later, when stroke habits are more ingrained. Mind and Body Deep ingrained stroke habits come automatically to a swimmer, allowing the accomplished swimmer to swim great distances with little conscious thought given to stroke technique. However, the technical abilities of a swimmer can be compromised due to physical fatigue and it is the mind of the swimmer that must convince and force the body to maintain a repetitive and rhythmical stroke routine. If a swimmer loses the ability to focus on stroke technique, efficiency is decreased and the swimmer typically loses speed. To gain consistency in your stroke (and approach the level of Mark Spitz!), engage in regular training that will adapt your body to repeating an efficient stroke comfortably. Runners will take millions of strides, golfers will take hundreds of thousands of practice swings, and pitchers will throw thousands of baseballs throughout a career in an effort to develop a positive consistency in their approach. Continue to refine your stroke with the help of a specialist as well as self-inspection, modifying your ingrained physical and mental patterns over time.

Count for Consistency One exercise that is most beneficial for maintaining stroke consistency can be included in any practice or swim routine. Over a specific distance, count the number of single-arm strokes per length and aim to hit the same number of strokes each length while maintaining a consistent pace through the swim. If counting is not your forté, ask a friend or coach to count your strokes for you. When counting strokes for Freestyle and Backstroke, make sure to count strokes on both arms, rather than just one arm, as a single-arm stroke increase or decrease can be quite telling. There is no right or wrong stroke count for you … start with your current abilities and work to improve. Here is a sample Freestyle set that you may wish to try on your next trip to the pool… 10 x 100 yard Freestyle, resting 20 seconds after

each 100-yard repeat Count your number of single-arm strokes on each length. Typically, the first length may be a stroke less than the other lengths due to the rest period preceding it, so do not be surprised to see a slight inconsistency in this regard. A common stroke count may be 16 Freestyle single-arm strokes (eight stroke cycles) on the first 25 yards, then 17 strokes (8.5 cycles) on the remaining lengths of the 100-yard swim. Experienced swimmers may take significantly fewer strokes. As the set progresses, aim to keep the same swim time on each 100-yard swim, while keeping the same or lower stroke count. Also, aim to keep the number of strokes on each length the same from one length to the next, or at least as close as possible. The End Result Many professional basketball players can step to the free throw line in practice and sink 25 consecutive free throws. That’s consistency! They do so only because they have developed consistency in their routine and delivery through years of practice. Swimmers are similar creatures and, while not throwing a ball in a hoop, they want to make it to the finish line with maximum speed and efficiency. Great swimmers may not hear the “Whoosh!” of the ball through the basket, but they will see better results on the scoreboard! Scott Rabalais is a collegiate and Masters coach in Savannah, Ga. He is the fitness editor for SWIM and serves as vice president of USMS.


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OTITIS EXTERNA—OR SWIMMER’S EAR

Otitis externa—or swimmer’s ear—is caused by water

that stays in the ear canal. Question: “I had a really bad ear infection after competing at a regional swim meet. It was treated, I stayed out of the pool during treatment, and it went away. Then it came back a few weeks later. It just doesn’t seem to want to go away. What should I do?” The most likely cause of your ear infection is otitis externa, a bacterial or fungal infection of the outer ear canal. It sounds as if you had a second infection that occurred after treatment with antibiotics. You may have had a relapse of the original infection if you did not take all of the antibiotics prescribed and the infection was not completely “cured”. It is important to finish a complete course of antibiotics if prescribed so that infections do not relapse and the bacteria do not have a chance to develop a resistance to the antibiotic. Swimmers are prone to otitis externa—or swimmer’s ear—because water in the ear canal is part of the swimming experience, and the warm, wet ear canal is a great place for bacteria and fungi to thrive. Some people also have problems with excess wax in the ear canal, which will not allow the water to drain completely, resulting in continuous moisture. Agents such as Dunburrow’s solution (a mixture of alcohol and vinegar) can dry the ear. Also, ear plugs can keep the water out. It is important not to use Q-tips for drying as they can irritate the skin that lines the canal, making an infection easier to establish. If you are having recurrent ear infections after swimming in the same pool, you may want to discuss the situation with the pool manager and check out the pool chemicals, such as chlorine, that are being used.

Jody Welborn, M.D. There is more than one kind of ear infection. The two most common types are otitis media,

an infection of the middle ear, and otitis externa, an infection in the external canal that leads from the outer ear to the eardrum. The most common type of ear infection in swimmers is otitis externa, since water that stays in the ear canal can cause irritation and breakdown of the lining of the canal, allowing bacteria or fungi to set up an infection. This causes ear pain—sometimes severe, especially with movement of the ear lobe. There may be drainage from the ear as well. Otitis externa is usually treated with ear drops that contain an antibiotic and may also contain a cortisone-like medication that reduces inflammation. To prevent recurrent episodes of infection, water must be kept out of the ear canal or must be removed after swimming or showering. Well-fitted earplugs help to keep water out of the ear. Over-the-counter swimmer’s eardrops—containing alcohol and a weak acid such as acetic acid or boric acid—can be used after swimming. The drops act to displace the water, with the alcohol evaporating to dry the ear canal further and the acid changing the pH level, to keep bacteria from multiplying. Similar ear drops can be made at home by mixing equal amounts of rubbing alcohol and white vinegar.

Jane Moor, M.D. The key to successful management of otitis externa is to recognise that all infections are not the same. There are bacterial, chemical and fungal causes that must be considered. In some cases, there may be a combination of causes. In this setting, I would treat your condition with a combination of antibiotic and steroid drops. The antibiotic is for the infection, and the steroid is to reduce swelling. Once the infection is successfully treated, I maintain the swimmer on a preventive treatment, while the canal recovers its protective lining. The easiest preventive is alcohol and white vinegar mixed half and half—three drops in each ear on days that the athlete has swum. The alcohol helps to dry the canal while the vinegar lays down an acidic base that retards growth of bacteria and fungus. If the original infection was severe, I recommend at least a month of the preventive measure. If you do not wish to make the mixture yourself, it is available over-the-counter. There is a prescription medication (Domeboro), which does much the same thing, but has acetic acid as the base. Finally, for complex cases, a fungal infection must be considered. A sampling of the ear drainage with cultures and evaluation under a


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microscope would be in order. Selective drops for fungal infection are also available and very effective.

Jim Miller, M.D.

A BUILD-UP WORKOUT By Scott Rabalais, Head Masters Coach,

Savannah Masters This workout consists of sets or swims in which the swimmer starts at low effort or slow pace and finishes with high effort or fast pace. Not only is the building of effort or speed through a set or workout advisable in physiological terms, it makes the task more challenging and enjoyable, with clearly defined goals along the way. Plus, you will encounter a variety of energy systems along the way, both aerobic and anaerobic. Have fun!

WORKOUT Group I Group II Group III

1. Warm-up 600 500 400 2. Pulling/ Hypoxic

2x (6x50) on :50

2x (5x50) on 1:00

2x (4x50) on 1:10

3. Backstroke Golf

8x25 on :45

8x25 on :45

8x25 on :45

4. Main Set 6x200 on 3:00

5x200 on 3:45

4x200 on 4:30

5. Fly Sprints w/Recovery

16 x 25 on :35

14 x 25 on :40

12 x 25 on :45

6. Warm-down 200 150 100 Total Yards 3,200 2,700 2,200 About this Workout 1. Warm-up: During this Freestyle warm-up,

gradually build the amount of kick in your stroke through the swim. This will gradually warm up the legs. In addition, gradually increase the distance you glide-streamline off the wall. With each 100, increase the intensity of your push-off and hold your streamline longer and tighter.

2. Pulling/Hypoxic: Using a pull buoy (paddles optional), start the set by taking eight breaths on the first 50-yard repeat. On the second 50, decrease by one breath to seven. On the third 50, take only six breaths. Group I will continue with this pattern until a maximum of three breaths are taken on the sixth 50. Group II will reach a four-breath maximum, while Group III will take five breaths on their last 50. Take a one-minute break and do the set again, only on round two the pace should be slightly faster.

3. Backstroke Golf: It’s time to keep score! Start this set by swimming a moderate-effort 25-yard Backstroke, counting your number of single arm strokes (left arm is one stroke, right arm is two, left arm is three, etc.). At the conclusion of the 25,

check your time and add it to the number of strokes taken, adding the two numbers together. For example, if you took 18 strokes in 20 seconds, your score is 18 + 20 = 38. On the next 25, try to lower your “golf” score by decreasing either your time or stroke count. Continue through the set, attempting to lower your score each 25. To keep the integrity in your stroke, begin swimming at the same point off the wall each 25, as in directly under the flags. By the end of the set, you are going fast with a very efficient stroke!

4. Main Set: Now that your mind is attuned to numbers, let’s use the clock to keep on pace during the main set. For this set of 200s Freestyle, the goal is to negative split each 200 and descend the set. A negative split 200 means that the second 100 is swum faster than the first 100. By descending the set, you will swim faster on each successive 200, with the last 200 being the fastest of the set. It may be challenging to note your time at the 100-yard split, so ask someone to assist. Or, take a glance at the clock going in or coming off the wall. Hint: In order to negative split a 200, take it easy going out and build with each 50.

5. Butterfly Sprints with Recovery: How about a little “icing on the cake”, finishing in style with a Butterfly set? On this set, the odd 25s are Butterfly, while the even 25s are Recovery Freestyle. Start the first 25 Butterfly with three underwater dolphin kicks before surfacing to swim Butterfly. After swimming a 25 Recovery, use four underwater dolphins to start the next 25 Butterfly. Continue to increase the number of underwater dolphin kicks by one with each 25 Butterfly. Group I will work up to 10 dolphins on the final 25 Butterfly.

6. Warm-down: You have worked hard and it’s time to take it easy before exiting the pool. So, instead of increasing the effort on the warm-down, let’s increase the length of our stroke. Swim the warm-down alternating a 25 Breaststroke and 25 Freestyle. On the Breaststroke, gradually increase the glide time between strokes as you complete the 250/200/150. By the end of warm-down, your breathing rate should be near normal and you should feel refreshed. Nice job!

TECH TIP: SWIM IN A SMALL CYLINDER When swimming Freestyle and Backstroke, keep in mind that your forward speed is determined in large degree by the amount of


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surface area you are moving forward in the pool. In other words, the smaller the surface area, the less resistance you offer to the water. A common flaw among adult swimmers is over kicking, which enlarges the “cylinder” in which we swim. Keep the kick fairly shallow and do not allow the kneed to bend excessively. Also, learning to swim by rotating on the long axis will eliminate lateral sway in the hips, which also enlarges the cylinder. TID BIT FACTS Top speeds in swimming, running and cycling, respectively, relate on a 1:4:9 ratio. The fastest time by a human for one mile swimming (1,760 yards), which is not a standard event, would be just under 16:00. Elite runners are now on the verge of stringing together four 4-minute miles on the track. Cyclists, based on current world records at 5K and 10K distances, would be able to cover 9 miles in seconds over 16 minutes. Coincidence or not?

IM TRANSITION TURNS By Glen Mills

Photos by Michael Aron Demonstrated by Joanne Malar

There are three ways of executing the IM transition turn from Backstroke to Breaststroke. Canadian Olympian Joanne Malar prefers the benefits of the box turn—especially the extra air and added momentum it gives her, which sets her up for a strong pullout and a smooth transition into a new stroke. Let’s face it. The IM transition turn from Backstroke to Breaststroke is special—and unique—among all swimming turns. At the halfway point in the IM, you are switching not only from one stroke to another, but also from one body position to another. You are switching from swimming with long-axis rotation on your back, to swimming with short-axis rotation on your stomach. This is a major jolt for your neuro-muscular system, and how well you handle it can make the difference between having a ho-hum IM and a spectacular IM. First of all, there are a few important USMS rules for the Backstroke-Breaststroke Transition Turn. You have to touch the wall while on your back and you must be at or past the vertical toward your Breaststroke when your feet leave the wall. In plain English, that means you can be on your side when your feet leave the wall (but to

be safe, you might want to be slightly on your stomach at the moment of push-off). As long as you comply with those rules, you can get turned around and on your stomach in any way you choose. There are three main ways to achieve this… • Standard Open Turn, in which you

touch, tuck and spin yourself around with your legs always in the water

• Box Turn or Turntable Turn, which is a faster and more effective version of the Open Turn

• Cross-over Turn, in which you throw your hand back for a deep touch, then tuck and flip your legs over and push off on your stomach

If you have tremendous lung capacity (remember, you are flipping into a Breaststroke pullout), you should go for the Cross-over Turn. If you need more air, you should try the Open Turn. But if you need air AND you want to add some valuable momentum to your transition, the Box Turn is the way to go. As you will see here, the Box Turn is easy to execute and is really nothing more than the old Backstroke turn that we used to do before the rules changed. Photo #1—The Touch

Joanne has counted her strokes from the flags and does not need to look back to know that she is in perfect position to execute a Box Turn. Her body is horizontal in the water, which means there is no resistance against her legs and she will carry ALL of her speed into the wall. Her legs ride high in the water, which makes it easier to get them up and OVER the surface of the water during the turn. As she sends her recovering arm toward the wall, Joanne makes sure that her hand is pitched pinky first and with the palm slightly DOWN. This ensures that her hand will be in position to grab the wall at the instant she touches.


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Photo #2—The Tuck

Getting the hand in position IMMEDIATELY is critical to the Box Turn. That is because Joanne uses that hand for leverage—to spin her head, shoulders, torso and hips OUT OF THE WAY of her legs, which will continue to move forward into the tuck. Joanne’s goal at this point is to get her feet to the wall with as much speed and momentum as possible. Sending the legs over the surface of the water is faster and delivers more momentum than dragging them through the water, so she tucks her legs into a box or “tabletop” position and sends her feet over the surface and into the wall. This tuck-and-turn motion is continuous. The head, torso and hips spin as one unit, aided by the hand on the wall. The feet never stop moving in their journey toward the wall. The spin of the body gives momentum to the legs and feet, and the feet coming up and over lend momentum to the body. It is a smooth and continuous generation of power. Photo #3—The Swivel

Joanne has swivelled her right hip from being up (Photo #2) to being down (Photo #3). Her feet are about to hit the wall, and her focus is not on getting her body into position for a powerful—and legal—push-off on her side. To complete the swivel and get fully on her side, Joanne will to let go of the wall. She will do this just before her feet hit the wall and she will bring her turning hand over the water, past her

left ear, and into position with her right hand for a streamlined push-off. Notice in Photos #1, 2 and 3 that Joanne’s trailing arm has not moved. She has used it for balance and to help get her legs up and over. In Photo #3, that trailing arm has become her leading arm. It will remain in position above her head for a streamlined push-off. Photo #4—The Drive

The drive—or push-off—is your chance to generate maximum power, so make sure you plant BOTH feet on the wall. Try to plant your feet sideways—not up and down—so that you push off on your side rather than on your back. As your feet leave the wall, use them to torque your body from a side-lying position (Photo $4) to a prone position, which is where you must be when you start the underwater pull.

One benefit of the Box Turn over the Open Turn is that your feet will land a little higher on the wall. This means you will head a little deeper when you push off. Use this to your advantage! One thing you do not want to do on the Backstroke-Breaststroke transition is compromise your distance or velocity on the underwater pull. A deeper drive will ensure that you do not come up too soon. Worried about having enough air for a good pullout? The Box Turn has benefits there, too. Take a look at how long Joanne’s head is above the surface during her turn. She will get much more air than with a Cross-over Turn and she will get the same amount of air as if she did an Open Turn. But … she is getting the added benefit of momentum by throwing her legs up and over toward the wall. With so many benefits, the Box Turn is worth perfecting. The extra air and added momentum can set you up for a strong pullout and a smooth transition into a new stroke. Glenn Mills is SWIM Magazine’s technical advisor. Check out his website at www.goswim.tv.


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This article appeared in SWIM Magazine May-June 2004

SWIM TRAINING Energy Systems for Dummies

By Scott Rabalais Freddie Finless showed up for practice, expecting a few easy sets. Instead, after a brief warm-up swim, his coach offered three timed swims to the team. (The following chart shows Freddie’s results.)

EVENT TIME RATE OF SPEED 25 yd Freestyle 15.0 15 secs per 25 yards 100 yd Freestyle 1:12.4 18.1 secs per 25 yards 500 yd Freestyle 7:24.0 22.2 secs per 25 yards Freddie’s energy expenditure in the three time trials followed three distinct pathways in energy metabolism. Let’s take a closer look at the work on the cellular level to determine how Freddie used his energy to complete his time trials.

ATP –WHERE IT ALL BEGINS ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, is the sole source of potential chemical energy in the body. When Freddie called his body to work, ATP decomposed into ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and phosphoric acid plus energy. There are various energy forms in the body that recycle ADP back to ATP, thus allowing for the further creation of energy to be used by the body. Physical energy is created primarily by the continual recycling of ATP, rather than an increased store of ATP, and how the ATP is recycled determines the swimmer’s ability to work. Basically, there are three ways that ATP is recycled (the three metabolic pathways)… 1. Creatine Phosphate – Short and Fast The process of recycling ATP from creatine phosphate (CP), which is contained in the cells, provides high intensity work, but has a short duration and low efficiency. In the 25-yard Freestyle, Freddie primarily used CP to provide energy for his swim. However, the CP system works for a maximum of only 10-15 seconds, and takes significant recovery time to restore itself. The use of oxygen was a minimal factor in this swim, and Freddie actually completed it in a single breath.

2. Anaerobic – The Middle Distance Metabolism

When Freddie swam his 100-yard time trial, he was forced into slowing his rate of speed due to the length of the swim. Instead of using CP to recycle his ATP stores, glycogen (glucose) was called into play to allow Freddie to complete the 72-second swim at his quickest pace. Like creatine phosphate, glycogen is stored in the muscle cells, but it recycles ATP at a slower, though longer-lasting, rate than CP. Even though Freddie took several breaths per length during his 100-yard swim, the metabolism that provided the energy for his swim did not require oxygen (anaerobic or non-oxidative). 3. Aerobic Metabolism – Going the

Distance The process of using oxygen to recycle ATP primarily from glycogen is called aerobic metabolism. Though the process is slower and creates less power than the CP and anaerobic metabolisms, it is very efficient and long-lasting. Freddie’s 500 yard Freestyle, which required the use of his energy for over seven minutes at a reduced pace, was made possible with the use of his aerobic energy system.

INCREASING YOUR CAPABILITIES An important purpose of swim training is to develop the body’s ability to metabolise in each of the three systems … CP, anaerobic and aerobic. Commonly, swimmers will specialise in either sprint, middle distance or distance events, corresponding to their ability to metabolise effectively in the respective system. Though rare, some swimmers do have wide-ranging, energy-producing capabilities that allow them to achieve great results in events from short to long distances. Swimming’s scientific community has identified various training zones that are defined by a number of factors. On the most basic level, there are two energy zones, anaerobic (sprint or speed) and aerobic (endurance). The anaerobic and aerobic levels can be further categorised into additional levels, with five and seven levels both commonly accepted. These levels are characterised by energy supply, duration of exercise, swimming distance, lactate amount and heart rate. The following table shows a summary of five training zones. The values shown in the chart are only estimates and may vary based on individuals’ genetics, training backgrounds, muscle composition and fatigue levels, among other factors. Also, there is no precise division or boundary between zones as displayed in the table.


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ENERGY

SYSTEM/SUPPLY DURATION DISTANCE LACTATE LEVEL

HEART RATE

PERCEIVED EXERTION

Recovery Various Various None to Low 60% max Low Aerobic 10 min. + 1,500-3,000 Low 60-75% max Medium

Mix Aerobic/Anaerobic 3-10 min. 100-200 Medium 75-85% max High Anaerobic 30 sec.-3 min. 100-200 High 85% max and higher Very High

Creatine Phosphate 0-30 sec. 15-50 N/A N/A High FACTORS DETERMINING ENERGY ZONES Duration and Distance Obviously, the longer the exercise, both in terms of time and distance, the more oxygen is called into play. IN the recovery and aerobic systems, the transport of oxygen to the cells is of paramount importance for the continual recycling of ATP. Lactate Level During aerobic exercise, lactic acid is produced in the cells in relatively small quantities, not enough to impair performance. As the work intensity increases and insufficient oxygen is supplied to the muscles, lactic acid enters the bloodstream (ouch!). The point at which this happens is called the anaerobic threshold or lactate threshold. Note in the preceding table that as the intensity of the swim increases (and duration/distance decreases), lactate is produced at a higher rate. Heart Rate A rule of thumb for calculating one’s maximum heart rate is 220 beats per minute minus the swimmer’s age. For example, a female, age 40, may have a maximum heart rate in the area of 180 beats per minute. However, various factors play into each individual’s maximum heart rate, and various stress tests can be used to determine a more accurate value. Again, note that s the swimmers move from the easier aerobic swims to the more intensive anaerobic swims, the heart rate correspondingly increases. At the CP level, the swims are so short that heart rate and lactate production are insignificant factors. Perceived Exertion This column shows the relative energy output in each zone. Aerobic swims, though challenging, do not have the same intensity of physical effort per duration as the anaerobic

(non-CP) swims. While the challenge of endurance swimming is to remain near the lactate threshold for long periods, the short, anaerobic swims demand a high degree of exertion and force the swimmer beyond the lactate threshold. Swims using the CP metabolism are typically of high exertion, though lacking in extreme challenge due to their short duration.

TRAINING APPLICATIONS Through the course of a typical swim workout, Masters swimmers are likely emphasising both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. The general warm-up at the beginning of practice and the warm-down at the end of the session should be recovery or light aerobic swimming. Short kick or sprint sets enhance anaerobic capabilities, as do quick turn sets with extended rest. Drill or stroke technique sets are frequently practiced at a moderate pace in the aerobic zone. Sets swum in a descending manner, such as 10 x 50 on 1:00, slowest 50 first, increasing pace through the tenth 50, may cover multiple energy zones. For swimmers with competitive aspirations, it is wise to identify specific events and distances for which to train. Then, devise a training plan that includes an adequate amount of training in the corresponding training zone to enhance performance ability. For example, if a swimmer desires to improve or excel at a 200-yard event, occasional training should be devoted to the mix aerobic/anaerobic zone. It is advisable to lay an aerobic foundation in one’s training before attempting the more strenuous anaerobic levels. While swimming with CP metabolism is not particularly taxing, swimming in the anaerobic or aerobic/anaerobic zones should be preceded with aerobic work in which gradually higher heart rates are experienced. Lap swimmers who wish to maximise their fitness benefits are advised to swim in each energy zone at least once a week, with an overall emphasis on aerobic swimming. Timed


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50-yard swims or a few 15-yard sprints not only raise the fitness level, but also add variety to the swimming program. So, not only is it healthy, it’s fun. Just ask Freddie!

SAMPLE SWIMS & SETS Recovery 2,000 yards at low exertion

Aerobic 4x500 yards with 1:00 rest at moderate exertion

Mix Aerobic/ Anaerobic 6x150 with 3:00 rest at high exertion

Anaerobic 4x100 with 5:00 rest at very high exertion Creatine Phosphate 12x15 with 2:00 rest at high exertion

SUIT YOURSELF? By Phillip Whitten, Editor-in-Chief

This article appeared in SWIM Magazine May/June 2004

It’s at that time of the quadrennium again. It seems that every four years – beginning in 1996 – the major swimsuit manufacturers have unveiled their latest high-tech swimwear, suits that are guaranteed (well, not exactly, because that would be illegal) to make you swim faster by reducing drag. Now, every swimmer worth his or her hand paddles wants to swim faster. But a study conducted in 2000 at Indiana University, casts doubt on the claims made by the swimsuit manufacturers. It found that times at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials were just what an extrapolation of previous Trials times would predict. Maybe so, but there can be no doubt that after a decade of stagnation, times have improved dramatically in the last few years. For women, all but six world records have been set – and reset – since 2000. For men, only the 100 Backstroke predates the new millennium – and that was set in 1999. In 2004, the swimsuit manufacturers are back with the next generation of product, along with more sophisticated – and more credible – claims. The problem for these companies is that FINA rules specifically prohibit suits that enhance performance or improve flotation. So

they can’t claim that the new suits – with all of the research and testing that went into their design – actually do either of these things. (Of course, for Masters swimmers, the suits can be very helpful, as they compress our less-than-perfect bodies into more hydrodynamic shapes.) Unfortunately, FINA has not established specific criteria by which to judge either performance-enhancement or flotation, nor does it have an advisory scientific panel or an independent testing agency. These are oversights that must be corrected as soon as possible to protect the integrity of our sport. Virtually all other sports have specifications for the costumes and equipment their athletes use, and they have procedures for determining compliance. We need to follow suit. In addition, at major events such as the Olympic Games, there should be procedures for evaluating the individual suits worn by the medallists, to ensure that their suits are in full compliance with FINA standards. FINA has taken a first step, specifying that it will not allow costumes that extend above the neck or below the wrists and ankles. This specifically excludes such items as suit suit-cum-cap, mini-fins, hand paddles and webbing. That’s a good basic start, but there’s a long way to go. Establishing clear and coherent standards is not easy task. Consider, for example, just the fabric used to make suits. Over the years, we’ve gone from wool to silk to nylon to Lycra to paper, to various high-tech creations. Unarguably, these suits have resulted in improved flotation and performance. How fast could you swim lugging around six or seven pounds of soggy, loose-fitting wool? So where do you draw the line? Despite the difficulty of establishing standards and testing procedures, I believe FINA can succeed. It is absolutely necessary for ensuring a level playing field in which an athlete’s success is not determined by the swimsuit he can afford to buy.


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A Quality Workout By Matt Rankin, Head Masters Coach, Brophy East Swim Team

This article appeared in SWIM Magazine, May-June 2004 This is a high quality workout in which you can focus on your specialty. It is also designed so you can work on sprints, middle distance and distance events. Workout Group I Group II Group III 1. Warm-up 400 your choice

8 x 100 with 10 sec. rest (alt.) sw-k-drill-sw by 100

400 your choice 6 x 100 with 10 sec. rest (alt.) sw-k-drill-sw by 100

300 your choice 4 x 100 with 10 sec. rest (alt.) sw-k-drill-sw by 100

2. Speed Drills 2 x 4 x 25 on :25 4 x 50 on 1:00

2 x 4 x 25 on :35 3 x 50 on 1:15

2 x 4 x 25 on :45 2 x 50 on 1:30

Round 1 25s are build-to-fast, finishing with the last 10 metres as a speed drill 50s are fast in-and-out of the turn Round 2 25s are 12-1/2 speed drill, 12-1/2 smooth 50s are descend to fast

3. Specialty, quality 12 x 150 on 3:00 Alt 2 fast, 1 easy

12 x 100 on 3:00 Alt 2 fast, 1 easy

12 x 50 on 3:00 Alt 2 fast, 1 easy

4. Loosen 200 150 100 5. Kick, quality 8 x 25 on 1:00

odds=build, evens=fast 8 x 25 on 1:00 odds=build, evens=fast

8 x 25 on 1:00 odds=build, evens=fast

6. Loosen 200 150 100 Total Yards 4,200 3,200 2,100 About this Workout 1 Warm-up: On sprint day or high quality day, it is best to warm up a little more than normal.

Those who do have better results; those who don’t may find they hurt more early on – and they do not have the ability to control the set; the set controls them.

2 Speed Drills: The effort achieved on a speed drill will be more intense than any effort done at race speed. Turnover, tempo, kick, body position and attitude are at their peak. In Round 1, we are looking to finish our 25s at faster than race pace. In Round 2, we want the first half of the 25 to be out of control and at a speed beyond race pace, ultimately an effort that can only be held for a short duration. For the 50s in Round 1, attack the turn with a vengeance and come out of the turn as if your life depended on it. The rest of the 50 is smooth. Round 2, the 50s are descended, treating the last one so that Mama would be proud.

3 Specialty, quality: There are a couple of different ways to attack this set. The top group does the 150s, intermediate group does the 100s and beginning level does the 50s. I like to open it up a bit. As long as the swimmer does three efforts at the same distance, I give them the freedom to change their distance after those three swims. The first three efforts might be 50s (two fast, one easy); the next round you may choose 150s (two fast, one easy). The swimmer who has sprint events as well as middle or distance events can cover both disciplines within the 12 efforts. Let the swimmer change his distance at will as longas he keeps the same distance for three in a row.

4 Loosen: Loosen down after a challenging series. It not only helps with the task at hand, but it will set up a swimmer for a better swim tomorrow.

5 Kick, quality: The workout has been challenging to this point. Putting the final touches on a gruelling workout is best, and attacking the legs is great practice for the finish of your race. Build the odds to fast, and put the hammer down on the evens. Legs should be screaming bloody murder at this time. It will pay you back later at your big meet.

6 Loosen: Loosen down before heading to the showers. It will help flush the lactic acid from your system and keep you from getting stiff.


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The Back-to-Breast “Bucket” Turn

By Glen Mills Glen Mills is Swimming World’s technical

advisor. Check out his website at www.goswim.tv.

Photos by Michael Aron Demonstrated by Curtis Myden

This article appeared in Swimming World & Junior Swimmer – August 2004

Curtis Myden is one of Canada’s most decorated swimmers. The 30-year-old native of Calgary has won 30 national championships and has represented his country in three Olympiads. In Atlanta (1996), he captured bronze in both the 200 and 400 IM. In Sydney (2000), he was Canada’s only podium finisher, taking bronze in the 400 IM. Here, Curtis demonstrates his winning form in what is sometimes called the “bucket” turn—the transition turn from Backstroke to Breaststroke in the Individual Medley.

LOAD THE SPRING As you approach the wall (Photo #1), keep kicking so that your body remains high and horizontal and you carry maximum speed into the wall. On the last stroke, let the hand cross over your centreline to form a slight “bow” in your body. This creates just enough tension (like bending back both ends of a spring) so that your body will “want” to snap back in line.

TUCK AND TURN

As soon as the hand touches the wall, your goal is to get your feet to the wall with as much speed and momentum as possible. Take the path of least resistance (Photo #2)! This means get your body into a tight, small ball (the tighter the ball, the quicker your rotation), and get your head and lower legs out of the water (less

resistance). Use the hand that’s on the wall to aid in this quick rotation. Tuck the legs toward your chin, and the chin to your chest. This will round your back—and turn you into a small ball—making it easier to rotate through the water. Tuck and turn in one continuous motion.

POISED FOR PUSH-OFF

Maintain the momentum of your spin by throwing your feet toward the wall (Photo #3). There is a moment—just before your feet hit the wall—when no part of the body is in contact with the wall. This is where you take the breath, release the turning hand and fall straight back, ready for an explosive push-off.

CONTACT!

As your feet hit the wall (Photo #4), your turning hand slices past the ear and gets ready for a streamlined push-off. Stay crouched in a ball and tight to the wall to maximise the power of your push. Let your body continue to fall back into the water, but shift onto your side to make sure your push-off is legal. Remember … you can be on your side when your feet leave the wall, but to be safe, you might want to be slightly on your stomach at the moment of push-off. You must be on your stomach when you start the underwater pull.


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SWIMMING – CHANGING TIMES

By Wayne Goldsmith

INTRODUCTION – WHY WRITE THIS ARTICLE?

In the past 15 years, I have worked with swimmers, coaches, sports scientists and administrators across Australia and around most of the world. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had these opportunities and I have met some outstanding individuals who I now call friends. These opportunities have also allowed me to develop a very wide perspective of the issues now confronting the sport. I usually write about sports science or testing or technique or coaching and do so with passion and enthusiasm. However, over the past few years, I have been having discussions with equally passionate and enthusiastic swimming people around the world that frankly disturb me. And it is the consistency of the message I have heard in so many nations and from so many people that disturbs me the most. So I decided to take a break from drills and heart rates and write a far more important article which has greater implications than anything else I have done in the past. I didn’t have to think much to write this article – I just wrote down the key points from the discussions I have had with swimming coaches, teachers, athletes, parents and administrators around the world since the early 1990s. THE FUTURE OF THE SPORT HANGS IN THE

BALANCE One could be fooled looking at the outstanding performances of elite swimmers around the world in the lead in to the 2004 Olympic Games that all is rosy with the sport. The reality is … it isn’t. There is no doubt that with the increase in funding and focus given to high performance sport over the past 10 years and the impact of sports science, coach education, recovery and training techniques that the elite end of the sport is looking fast and furious. But this represents about 1% of the sport. And if the other 99% isn’t going well, eventually, even this elite 1% will struggle. Numbers of registered swimmers are

generally down around the world. That is a fact. The common response from most national swimming administrations is to drive some form of junior development initiative with a focus on non competitive swimming, fun and enjoyment … e.g. “GET SWIMMING” “TRY THE WATER” “SLASH AND FUN” type programs. These programs have had some short term impact and I applaud the administrations for the effort. The programs are generally based on good intentions and logical thinking but the problem is greater than just getting kids into clubs to try the sport. The novelty factor of getting wet and splashing around with some friends in a non competitive environment soon wears off. Getting them into the water is one thing – the bigger issue is – what are we doing to keep them in it? What are we doing to create an environment which stimulates and entertains the kids and helps them develop a life long passion for the sport? To try and solve this issue, national associations around the world are putting in place some form of club development program: programs aimed at lifting the standards of governance, competition scheduling and athlete and family support at grass roots level. Again, great initiatives and only time will tell how effective these programs will be. So what’s wrong with the sport? We’ve all talked about it over dinner or over a few drinks or at meets or around pools over the past 10 years – let’s get it out in the open.

KIDS ARE DIFFERENT TODAY Talk to coaches in any country and they will tell you that it is becoming more and more difficult to “sell” swimming to kids. The traditional values that the sport embodies, although just as (maybe even more) important as they were in the past, are out of pace with “fast food” attitudes of kids and parents in this century. Start talking about commitment, responsibility, integrity, work ethic, selfless teamwork, sacrifice, dealing with pain and discomfort, learning to deal with competitive pressures and coaches find themselves communicating with the mirror – and no one else. The truth is – kids ARE different. The basis for that difference lies in the entertainment driven society we all face. From young ages kids are given a stimulating environment of television, video, DVD, computers, internet, video games, on line learning, Harry Potter, theme parks – it is a great time to be a kid!


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But take these kids and try to convince them that ploughing up and down a pool 20 hours a week for 10 years to become a national level swimmer is a pretty cool thing to do and see how far you get.

MEDIA FOCUS ON OTHER SPORTS In England and Scotland, the back five pages of the daily papers are football, (soccer). It’s the same France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. Buy a paper when you hit LA, turn to the sports section and you get basketball, baseball and football (gridiron). South America … football and nothing else. South Africa – Rugby and cricket. Central and Northern Africa – soccer. In Australia it’s football (one of the Rugby codes or AFL) or in summer cricket – cricket – cricket. We all love reading the sports pages but in terms of the future of swimming, what does this media focus on other sports do? How does it impact on swimming? 1. Talent Drain If you were a 12-year-old in Spain or Italy or Brazil or England who had great speed, power, flexibility and athletic ability, why would you choose swimming over football? If you were a 10-year-old – tall, explosive, lean and athletically gifted in Chicago or Detroit or Dallas or Los Angeles, why would you get out of bed at 5am six days a week to swim when you could be out playing basketball with friends after school and enjoy sleeping in? If you were a 15-year-old in Melbourne, Australia – tough, talented, determined, strong and a great competitor – why would you choose swimming rather than Australian Rules Football which offers 2-3 times per week training and a chance to make a good income if you are among the top 300 players in the game? The best athletes in the world are all playing football (or maybe basketball)! This is not to say that swimmers are less talented or less gifted than athletes in other sports but the reality is, the power of the media and the exposure football gets around the world when it comes to making decisions about which sport to choose, swimming is not the top choice for the majority of kids. Truth is, we are being out marketed, out promoted and out sold by football and to a lesser extent basketball in most parts of the world.

2. Sponsorship Many sponsors are true philanthropists. They have a genuine desire to help and develop young kids to achieve their potential. However, these are in the minority. The nature of business is cost – benefit, that is, if I spend this money, how does it benefit the business? Ask yourself this question, if you had a million bucks to invest in sport, what would you do? By reading this article, most likely published in a swimming magazine or journal or on a swimming web site you are in all probability from a swimming background and therefore have a degree of bias in making the decision. However, remove yourself for a moment from the sport. Stand outside and look objectively at the sport from the perspective of a potential sponsor. 1. The sport gets little or no publicity or media

coverage outside of major international championships.

2. The athletes, outside of the real superstars like Phelps, Thorpe, Hackett and Coughlin get little or no recognition.

3. The athletes look great and present a positive image. But outside of the few real superstars in the sport, who can improve the sales of my product/service if it isn’t swimming related … i.e. swimmers can “sell” swimming gear but what about cars, televisions, breakfast cereal, air conditioners and holiday destinations?

4. If I (the sponsor) put my money into football I get national television exposure on a weekly basis, plus the print media and ground signage, players’ team gear, playing equipment and so on.

Now make the informed decision on what to do with your million. And that’s the decision sponsors and potential sponsors all over the world have to make when swimming associations, clubs, coaches and athletes approach them for support. 3. Recognition Whilst in an ideal world, people would do things for the pure thrill and love of what they do and to strive for excellence because of an inner drive and determination to do so – this is not an ideal world. People are generally motivated by recognition – be that by parents, family, friends, colleagues, the public or the media. With swimming competing with so many other


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sports and news worthy stories for media coverage, recognition for all but the super stars is hard to achieve. That leaves a lot of very hard working, talented kids and coaches unrecognised, unheralded and generally unappreciated. So here’s the common response to all this. It’s the media’s fault they don’t promote swimming. “If the media got behind us and promoted swimming the same way they promote football and basketball we could solve all these problems” – is the common cry. Well here’s the news – they aren’t going to! The culture of football is so strong that in some nations it represents a significant portion of the national identity. The industry of football is worth billions around the world and thousands of media writers and broadcasters make their living promoting and commenting about football. It is estimated that of all sport televised around the world almost 90 – yes you read correctly – 90% is dedicated to soccer. That leaves 10% for basketball, cricket, rugby codes, motor sport, horse racing and swimming to fight over. No matter how great swimming is as a sport, as a life skill or as a life changing experience, we will not change the culture of professional sports dominating the media landscape. And as with any landscape that you can’t change you have to learn to work around it.

TOUGH QUESTION Now here the tough question – if you feel something is wrong with swimming and that things have got to change, what are YOU doing about it? This is not FINA’s problem. This is not USA Swimming’s problem or British Swimming’s or Australian Swimming’s problem. This is not ASCA or ASCTA or WSCA’s problem.

This is a problem for all of us – everyone involved in the sport.

This problem is bigger than political barriers between associations – between State and National bodies – between National bodies and FINA – between FINA and the IOC. This goes beyond the barriers between coaching associations and swimming associations – yes believe it or not they exist in every country around the world. It may surprise you to know that in every country, in every town, at every club, you hear

the same stories: 1. Numbers of registered swimmers are down 2. We can’t compete with the other sports 3. Kids all drop out of swimming when they

turn 15 to concentrate on school. 4. The local/state/national association is

backward. They run meets the same way they did 20 years ago and when you ask them why they say “That’s the way we do it here”.

5. It costs too much to get pool space and there’s not much of it anyway.

6. We need a heated long course pool for year round use and it’s the government’s fault we don’t have one.

Then you sit down with the people concerned and talk about solutions, about a positive way forward, about working together in the interest of the kids and the sport. Guess what the response generally is? “You don’t understand. It’s different here. Those things wouldn’t work here. This town (or country) is different” Well it’s NOT different. You are the same as everyone else in sport around the world and you want the same things.

You want more kids in the sport. You want them to stay in it longer.

And you want them to commit to all that the sport has to offer while they are in it.

Let’s be honest. The biggest limitations to the future success of swimming are now, as they have always been – PERSONALITIES AND POLITICS. It’s the same for all sports – for all companies and governments around the world. In swimming’s case, not only does the sport have to deal with limited resources, publicity, media promotion and now dwindling numbers, but we then add to the problem by arguing and fighting amongst ourselves over petty political issues. I have seen rivalry between swimming clubs or between other factions within the sport – in most parts of the world I am sad to say - bordering on the type of hatred usually reserved for the major religions or warring nations. Wake up – we are all about the same things. Get over it – the sport (and kids and families) is suffering because of it. If we can’t work together towards a common goal, how can we possibly compete against other sports and other activities that kids today are drawn to? Why not just give football and basketball the names and addresses of our registered swimmers and finish the job? SOLUTIONS – WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO

ABOUT IT?


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The solution to any problem can be generally stated from three different approaches… 1. Accept it – don’t do anything. This is fine. Keep doing what you are doing and don’t worry about the future of the sport. Just stop complaining about what’s wrong with it. 2. Leave it – get out of the situation and

away from the problem. Plenty of jobs in other sports and other industries. This is also fine as like an Ostrich, if you can’t see the problem, then there isn’t one. 3. Change it. Mad? Angry? Passionate? Determined? Enthusiastic? We want you! Read further.

WHAT HAVE WE GOT TO SELL? Think about that for a moment. What is it about swimming that we can promote as unique? Swimming is an outstanding sport. It is a pure sport – little or no equipment required. Just athletes, swim suits, some goggles and add water! Swimming teaches life lessons that create great people not just great athletes. Swimming teaches team work. It teaches confidence and self belief. Athletes develop goal setting abilities. They learn how to overcome adversity. They learn how to strive for excellence. They develop values and virtues like integrity, honesty, humility, courage and discipline. They learn about health, physical fitness and nutrition. Swimming prepares athletes for life. There is nothing – nothing a successful swimmer can’t achieve in life. Swimming saves lives – learning to swim can save your life and the lives of people you love. Swimming is non weight bearing exercise that is great for joints and cardio vascular fitness for all ages. So we all agree, it is a great product. SO IF THIS PRODUCT IS EXCELLENT, WHAT

NEEDS CHANGING????? WE DO!

Some suggestions to think about… 1. Not every kid has to be an Olympic

Gold Medallist Less than 1% of swimmers ever make it to a national team.

Fewer than 1% of those ever win a Gold medal at a major international championship. Only a very small number of those who win will become superstars and household names. Yet, we persist in selling the dream to every swimmer at every level that nothing less than an Olympic Gold medal is being successful. It’s like saying to everyone who ever held a job “unless you are a millionaire, you’re a failure”. It’s like telling every kid in school that unless they get a PhD they are an idiot. This is one of the biggest issues in swimming. We talk the talk about the other values and virtues swimming teaches; about developing team work and life skills and self confidence, but when it comes down to it, we are about medals.

We need to turn this upside down. We need to make a real commitment to the process of developing people – not just athletes. Medals do not make great people. Great people, with a strong sense of integrity, hard work, self belief, honesty and sincerity make medals. And then with more kids involved, kids who are developing a wide range of skills and personal abilities, kids who believe in themselves with parents who are sold on the positive benefits of being involved in this great sport, we can start thinking medals. And with this stronger platform, we can think about plenty of them. 2. Not every program has to be built on

two x two hour sessions six days a week.

Why do we persist with this twice a day/six days a week model? Because it has always been done that way! If this type of thinking persisted in all fields of endeavour we would still be driving MODEL T FORDS. I am not for one minute suggesting swimming is easy. I am a passionate believer in the importance of hard work and commitment and dedication to be successful. However, there seems to be an unwritten rule that every program is about getting the swimmers to swim twice a day, every day as soon as possible in their development. Most of the world is using the same model! Are there no other options? • Why not shorter sessions more often? • Why not longer sessions in the afternoons

mixed in with more variety in training options including homework or meal breaks as a team?

• Why not skip a full day mid week to give kids time to do other things, then go three


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times on Saturday and Sunday? • What about training twice a day for three

days, then a rest day, then another three days only training afternoons for three hours?

• How about putting whole family activities in place – workouts for parents, lessons for younger kids, cross training activities around the pool area and/or gym?

The people that we are alienating the most with the obsession of training early mornings and late afternoons six days a week are parents. The economics of the western world largely depends on both parents working full time. This means people who are tired, often under pressure and with no chance for their own personal exercise program have to commit to 5am starts six days per week and maybe even have to cut out of work early to make the afternoon pick up. Over the course of a season, we then have parents who are exhausted and the demands of the sport of choice of their children may influence their health, work performance and relationships. Swimming is a family commitment. Parents drive kids to training and meets at inconvenient times and pay for the privilege. Parents get roped into time keeping and lane judging for no money and limited recognition on weekends and at club nights. And still have to pay to get in! Twice a day every day might be perfect for fitting maximum training time in around school. It might be great for allowing maximum recovery time between sessions. But it is lousy for dealing with the realities of family life in this century. 3. Outdated competition schedules Think about what we do to kids. Imagine an 8-year-old girl looking to become a swimmer. They join a club. They train for a while and are encouraged to go to their first competition. Mum and dad, excited about the new challenges the sport has to offer, also commit to going to their first meet. So what do they see? The child (and their parents) sit and watch 31 heats of the 9-and-under 50 Backstroke, 18 heats of the 11-and-under 50 Breaststroke, 29 heats of the 12-and-under 50 Freestyle, then they (the child themselves) get to swim their own heat of the 50 Butterfly which takes all of 40 seconds. Then they sit in the stands while mum and dad get to watch another 44 heats of 7-and-under 50 Freestyle, etc., etc., etc. This goes on for two days. And we charge the parents for the privilege of sitting there.

This is usually done in an uncomfortable setting like an overheated indoor pool or BBQ hot outdoor pool in summer. Now think about what the family sees when they go to soccer, football, hockey, basketball, tennis, etc. • The child is constantly active and moving. • The game is over in 40-90 minutes. • They can usually watch the game from the

sidelines for nothing in the local park. • They only have to watch the one game –

the one their child is involved in. Again – put yourself in the parents’ position. If you would looking for a sport to choose to support, which one would you choose? Why do clubs, districts and states and even nations continue to promote outdated competition programs for swimmers? The answer is simple – time, convenience and money. Putting on all-day meets is easy because you pay one set of pool hire fees, organise one group of caterers, etc. … we do it because it is the easiest way to do it. • Why not meets for Backstroke only? Or

only distance events? Or only medley? • Why not meets for 6-9 year olds only and

only hold the meet for 2 hours at maximum with all kids swimming 5-6 times?

• Why not events for 16-18 year olds only? • Why not more fun events? • Why not events where the total results of

the team and club are the only ones that count?

• Why not encourage swimming more events by not counting any one event but only the combined total time from swimming in all events in the age group?

• Why not have the meet going all day, but 6-9 year olds in one two hour block, 10-13-year-olds in another two hour block, and 14 years and older in another block of time, so pool space booking is efficient, but everyone does not has to stay all day?

• Why not provide other activities and entertainment for families with more than one child attending the meet?

• Why not provide age-related prizes for competitors rather than just ribbons or medals to all age groups?

The actual meet format can be one of a million choices; the point is that unless parents and kids are presented with competition formats that are entertaining, innovative and less demanding on family time, we will have a battle putting together any types of meets in the near future.


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4. Outdated rewards systems So think about our 8-year-old again. Imagine she (and her parents) survive six or seven years of these two-day torture tests we call competitions. She is now a teenager with an enormous range of choices to make – school, boys, maybe part time work, other sports, other activities, etc. When she was eight and swam well, she was rewarded with ribbons and medals. Now she is a teenager and swims well, she is rewarded with the same ribbons and medals. And she still has to sit for two days watching 57 heats of the 9-and-under 50 Backstroke! Meanwhile her friends are out enjoying life, earning and spending money, spending time working on extra credits for school, etc. Is it any wonder most competition programs read…

EVENT 1: 35 HEATS 9-YEARS-AND UNDER 50

BACKSTROKE EVENT 2:

29 HEATS 10-YEARS-AND UNDER 50 BUTTERFLY

EVENT 3: 1 HEAT 16 YEARS 100 FREESTYLE (and there was only five in the heat so they combined it

with the next age group). Sound familiar? Coaches, clubs and administrators often ask, “Where do all the swimmers go when they get to 15 or 16 years of age?” Does the question really have to be asked? If you were designing another product … i.e. other than swimming … to sell to kids, would you design the same product for 8-year-olds that you also then hope to sell to 16-year-olds? Even if you designed the same product for both age groups, would you sell and market it the same way to both groups? Yet this is what we do. And we do it all over the world. And we all wonder, “Where are the kids going when they turn 15 – 16?” We blame school. We blame other sports. We blame hormones. We blame parents. Well guess what, It’s our (the world’s swimming community’s) own fault. We basically plan and conduct meets for our own convenience and not to meet the needs and demands of the people we are trying to attract to the sport and keep them in it … i.e. “you fit into our way of doing things or go somewhere else”. More and more people won’t (fit in) and they will (go somewhere else).

SUMMARY The easiest way to go insane or die bitter and angry is to hold on to your passionate beliefs, resisting all change and wait for the world to change its way of thinking to yours. If you believe something is wrong – do something about it. If you believe more needs to be done – do it yourself. If you want more media coverage of swimming – get to know local journalists and feed them good news stories. And if they say no ask them again ... and again ... and again. The “squeaky wheel gets the most oil”. If you don’t like the politics of the sport get yourself on to a committee and change things. If (coaches) your swimmers are leaving your program for another sport, challenge yourself to change your program to be a more stimulating environment – one that is more in touch with the entertainment driven lifestyle kids now face all over the world. Get behind your coaching association and help it drive forward. Take an active role in the decision making process and lobby them to get things happening. If (administrators) registrations are falling, challenge yourself to revamp and revitalize your competition programs and offer a “product” that is appealing and stimulating to swimmers AND their parents and families. Support your State and National associations. Lobby them, help them, give them ideas, help them with fund raising, and work with them.

FORGET THE PAST – OR WE HAVE NO FUTURE

Unless we – as in the entire swimming community from the coach of the outback under seven stroke development class in Australia to the President of FINA pull together and work cooperatively to come up with a solution and more importantly work with determination and commitment to put that solution into practice – sadly, in my opinion, the sport of swimming will be under serious threat within ten years. And here’s the scary final thought … every Olympic sport is in the same boat! If we don’t demonstrate a strong leadership role in this and take control over our own destiny then we will not only have to face the challenges of the major professional sports, but we will also have to deal with cycling, rowing, athletics and all the other sports as well as they come to terms with the same issues (and maybe act faster).

THE FUTURE IS YOURS – TAKE IT.


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Reproduced from June 2004, No.18

SPORTS MEDICINE

The Open Water Team Physician FIGHTING THE NATURAL ELEMENTS

By Jim Miller, MD Edited by Dr. Margo Mountjoy, FINA Sports

Medicine Committee Chairman Team physicians have many common roles and responsibilities. They must be sensitive to the requirements of their spot and be knowledgeable of the health issues that are unique to their athletes. Most importantly, they function as a bridge between the coaching staff and the athletes. Open water events present an opportunity to practice sports medicine in a setting that can challenge the clinician’s skills to a greater extent than many other sports and indeed, other aquatic events. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE TEAM PHYSICIAN The sports medicine practitioner’s foremost requirement is to attend to the individual athlete’s health, optimising performance and safety, in an environment of trust and privacy. Team physicians must know the medical resources in the area where the event is being held. A local contact becomes a true lifesaver in an emergency. As an example, a local practitioner is an important resource to care for an athlete or staff member who requires hospitalisation, diagnostic imaging, or complex medical treatments. Medical supplies are invaluable when stocks become low. A local practitioner is the connection to such supplies. He/she can also provide information about the prevailing illnesses in a region prior to a trip, allowing appropriate packing of medical supplies and drugs. The medical bag is a work of packing art. Not only is there a requirement for basic medical diagnostic equipment, but also for anticipated medications. Remember that the medical stock must be updated to adhere to the banned substances listed on the FINA Prohibited List. It is important to review this information prior to the event as the Prohibited List changes regular as scientific evidence of performance enhancement is reported. Documentation of the need for medication is also important. Most recently this has been highlighted by the

medications involved in the treatment of asthma, but other types of treatments are subject to scrutiny without adequate documentation. For further reference, please refer to the FINA Website (www.fina.org) to find all the documentation and information regarding the rules and regulations applicable to Doping Control. It is incumbent upon the team physician to investigate every drug and vitamin long prior to the team trip and to confer with the athlete’s private physician whenever possible. Up-to-date hot lines must be available for the inevitable overlooked medication that the athlete brings to the practitioner at the last minute. ISSUES SPECIFIC TO THE OPEN WATER TEAM PHYSICIAN In addition to the general considerations for team physicians, the open water physician must have a level of flexibility that would challenge the most stoic! The open water athlete is at the mercy of tide and weather. It is not unusual that events are rescheduled, rerouted, or moved up. The medical bag must be broader in scope in the Open Water venue to accommodate the needs that are unique to this particular competitive environment. It is the unusual athlete who is not challenged by stings, cuts, or bites. White vinegar in a spray bottle helps with the pain of these stings, while topical antibiotics and topical corticosteroids will enhance the recovery from jellyfish stings. Remember that topical corticosteroids require a Therapeutic Use Exemption from FINA or the National anti-doping organisation. The team physician must research the types of flora and fauna that call your venue home. This will significantly change what is packed. Be able to recognise the dangerous inhabitants of the open water venue. It is an important part of the role of the Open Water Team Physician to educate the team to recognise the difference between what is and what is not safe to touch. I follow two rules that have always served me well. 1. When in doubt – do not touch! Unknown

flora and fauna can potentially be a hidden danger.

2. The more colourful something in nature is – the more dangerous it is likely to be!

Preparation for laceration management is essential. It is recommended that you pack both a chemical bond as well as suture material. Exposure to coral, hidden objects in the sand, rough buoys, and like objects make wound closure more than a remote possibility. Probably the two most critical items in the open water medical bag are sun screen and


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water. While the literature may disagree with the importance of the level of sun protection beyond SPF 35 provided by different products, they all agree that frequent application and avoidance of peak sun exposure times is important. The gel/ointment versions of sun screens seem to adhere longer to the athletes in open water without other protection. Hydration is a topic, like sun screen, that must be emphasised to both athletes and staff. In many cases, those in a support role aboard boats or on the beach have as much exposure as the athletes. Checking with the entire team during training sessions will help to isolate those who need assistance with hydration. The simplest check is to have the team member report on the colour of their urine. If it is a dark yellow colour, there is an element of dehydration. If it is pale, then they are well hydrated. If the urine is colourless, be suspicious of over-hydration. Be careful if your athlete is taking vitamins – this can artificially darken the urine. Be aware of over-hydration also! Hyponatremia (low sodium in the body from drinking too much fluid) is very dangerous, thus intelligent, judicious use of water will avoid this potential disaster! The temperature of the air and water when combined with the wind and humidity offer challenges to the open water team physician that differ from the situation of athletes training and competing in controlled environments. Hypothermia resulting from exposure to cold is defined as a drop of the core body temperature to below 35 C (95 F). Hypothermia is divided into degrees of severity categorised as Mild (36-33 C), Moderate (33-27 C), and Severe Hypothermia (27-9 C). The signs and symptoms vary from shivering and confusion in mild hypothermia to hypotension (low blood pressure), cardiac arrest and seizures in severe hypothermia. The progression from one stage to another is not necessarily gradual, so those attending athletes and staff should be educated and prepared. The simplest re-warming techniques are those of passive external re-warming, such as warm dry blankets and hot water bottles. For the more severe cases, aggressive forms of re-warming should be done in a monitored environment in the hospital. Thus, in cases of moderate and severe hypothermia the emphasis is upon avoiding further heat loss and evacuation to a site that provides the necessary monitoring capability. Hyperthermia, heat related disease, is more common in the summer months and in warm climates. It also is divided into designations of severity termed Heat Stress, Heat Cramps, Heat

Exhaustion, and Heat Stroke. Heat stress is characterised by a mild raise in temperature associated with fatigue and restlessness. Muscle cramping is prominent in Heat cramps, which is thought to be caused by electrolyte (salt) imbalance. Heat exhaustion is defined by a core body temperature of <40 C. Its symptoms include confusion, profuse sweating, decreased urine output, vomiting, and headache. Heat stroke is more severe. The body temperature is >40 C and the symptoms progress to hypotension, coma and seizures. Prompt cooling and hydration are essential treatments in all of these conditions. The open water physician has a rare opportunity to serve an athlete who truly loves the sport. Open water athletes’ dedication is amazing. Forethought to the venue and advanced planning for backup systems is even more important than usual – due to the wide number of variables that are beyond anyone’s control. THE AUTHOR Jim Miller, MD has medical boards in Family Practice and Sports Medicine practicing in Richmond, Virginia. Currently Jim serves as a National Team Physician for USA Swimming, travelling with the Open Water team for the last three World Championships. Other positions include Chair of the Asthma and Diabetes Task Forces for USA Swimming, President of United States Masters Swimming, FINA Doping Control Delegate, and Chair FINA Sports Medicine Congress associated with 2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Indianapolis in October 2004. ABSTRACT Being a team physician for open water swimming expands the role of the sports medicine physician to the limits. It is important for the team physician of the open water event to be a specialist in hypothermia, hyperthermia, dehydration, travel medicine, musculoskeletal medicine, and infectious disease! Practicing medicine in a beach environment in foreign countries requires careful planning and preparation. In addition to the health aspects of your role, you must also be an expert in anti-doping policies. Despite the challenges of being a team physician for open water swim events … it is a very rewarding and stimulating medicine! KEY POINTS • Pre-event preparation is key • Make contact with the local medical

personnel and emergency supports • Know the risks of the event environment

and plan accordingly


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• Review the FINA Prohibited List of medications

• Prepare for hypo or hyperthermia depending on the location

• Monitor for sun exposure • Monitor hydration status • Be prepared for the unexpected! For more information on the treatment of hyperthermia and hypothermia please refer to … ACSM’s Essentials of Sports Medicine, Sallis/Ferdy, Massimino Mosby 1997.

WADA NEWS The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has announced that it has suspended the accredited laboratory in Seoul (KOR) from carrying out steroid analysis for six months. During this period of suspension, the Seoul laboratory will not be allowed to test for steroids, but may continue to test for other substances.

DOPING NEWS Provisional suspension to Ms. Julyana Bassi Kury (Brazil) On 31st May 2004, FINA received a report from the Brazilian Swimming Confederation regarding the positive doping control result for the substance Stanazolol related to Ms. Julyana Bassi Kury (Brazil). The doping control test was conducted on 9th May 2004 as part of the Brazilian Olympic Committee Out-of-Competition Testing Program prior to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. As per FINA Rule DC 7.1.12, the FINA Executive decided to provisionally suspend Ms. Julyana Bassi Kury from the 2nd June 2004 until a hearing before the Brazilian Swimming Confederation hearing panel can be made.

IN PREPARATION MOTIVATING THE YOUTH

Community Programs for 2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in

Indianapolis By Jennifer L. Pieper

Organising Committee Member The Organising Committee (OC) wants to make a splash in the community, as well as in the two temporary pools to be built in Conseco Fieldhouse. Certainly, the competition pool will be a spectacle in itself – and is sure to be the site of amazing victories during the Championships. But to OC member Raul Zaveleta, the vice chair for community programs, there will be big

victories outside the pool. Indeed, with the help of his committee members, a tidal wave of community programs will hit Indianapolis well before the first swimmer dives in for a warm-up lap. This summer, for example, the local host of the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), Indiana Sports Corporation, is providing funding to an expanded number of youth-based swimming programs through a giant program called CHAMPS. Many of these programs will provide swimming instruction to children, offering a valuable life-skill as well as generating interest and excitement for the upcoming Championships. Other programs are more specific – they include… WATER COLORS It is second nature for competitive swimmers to slip on goggles and swim caps before they dive into the pool. To them, they are tools of the trade, certainly not something you would find displayed in an art museum. But to an ambitious group of Indianapolis school children, those goggles just might be a work of art. The community partners of Young Audiences of Indiana and Indy Parks and Recreation will launch a hands-on art project for young artists in a program entitled “Water Colors”. Young Audiences of Indiana is the oldest and largest provider of professional arts education programs for children in the state, working with more than 100 artists and arts organisations to provide young people the opportunity to experience the arts directly. During “Water Colors”, the group will pair professional artists with children at after-school programs at Indianapolis Public Schools. Together, artists and children will dive in to create artwork depicting their own interpretation of swimming. As many as 11 original creations will be on display at Conseco Fieldhouse during the event. “We hope it will be inspiring for visitors to view the collaborative art created by the kids”, says Caroline Gleason Dutkanych, director of community programs at Young Audiences of Indiana. “While each group will be facilitated by a professional artist, the kids themselves will design and create each piece with swimming as the theme.” Creating the artwork is just the beginning. Approximately 500 children from the after-school program, including the young artists, will take a trip to the Fieldhouse to see their work on display and attend an evening swimming session during the Championships.


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SCHOOL IN THE POOL While the “Water Colors” kids explore the 7th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) through paints, clay and art palettes, another group of school children will be doing it through calculators and scientific equations. And when you are an engineering science or technology student, the opportunity to examine the record-breaking, lightning-fast construction of swimming pools inside a basketball arena may come but once in a lifetime. So, for a few weeks this fall, more than 200 Indianapolis Public School students will have their own “School in the Pool”. The “School in the Pool” curriculum will be part of Purdue University’s Science Bound program. The after-school program will focus on the technology and physical aspects of the construction of the pools. With notebooks in hand and construction hats on their heads, the IPS participants will also have the opportunity to visit the site during construction. The Purdue University Science Bound program is designed to encourage IPS students to enrol in classes and pursue careers in science, math, engineering and technology. CHASING THE CHAMPIONS More than 950 local and state swimmers will be able to test their Freestyles, Backstrokes and Butterflys against the times of the best in the world through the “Chasing the Champions” program. By participating in selected Learn-to-Swim programs, purchasing group tickets or sponsor packages, swimmers both young and old get a chance to chase the champions. With the world’s best time blazing on the scoreboard, swimmers will take to the blocks and take off for a 50-metre swim. Both Age Group and Masters swimmers will test their skill against the clock. But really, it’s not so much the time posted on the scoreboard that matters, but the experience of being able to swim in the same World Championships calibre pool swimmers from around the world will blaze through. “No one can wait to swim in that pool”, says Tina Mudd, Chasing the Champions committee chair. “Just to be able to swim in the same water as the world champions and to say they did it – it’s just great”. Along with the memory of the swim, swimmers will receive photos of their heats with the scoreboard recording the times and names. But the swimmers will leave with much more than that, because for a brief 50 metres, they too will be part of the 2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

FINA CALENDAR FIN A Championships , Wor ld Cups & Olympic

Games 2004

Oct 7-11 7th FINA WORLD SW CH (25m) Indianapolis USA

Nov 19-21 Swimming World Cup No.1 Durban RSA

Nov 26-28 Swimming World Cup No.2 Melbourne AUS

Nov 26- Dec 2

3rd FINA World OWS Champs Abu Dhabi UAE

Dec 2-3 Swimming World Cup No.3 Daejon KOR

2005

Jan 18-19 Swimming World Cup No.4 Stockholm SWE

Jan 22-23 Swimming World Cup No.5 Berlin GER

Jan 26-27 Swimming World Cup No.6 Moscow RUS

Feb 11-12 Swimming World Cup No.7 New York USA

Feb 18-20 Swimming World Cup No.8

Rio de Janeiro BRA

Jul 17-31 11th FINA WORLD CHAMPS MONTREAL CAN

2006 TBA 4th FINA World OWS Champs TBA CAY TBA 11th FINA Synchro SW. World Cup TBA JPN

Aug 11th FINA Masters World Champs San Francisco USA

TBA 10th FINA Junior Synchro SW. World Champs Guangzhou CHN

TBA 8th FINA World SW Champs (25m) Shanghai CHN

2007

TBA 12th FINA World Championships Melbourne AUS

2008 Aug 8-24 Olympic Games Beijing CHN

F IN A Meet ings

2004

Oct 12-13 15th FINA World Sports Medicine Congress Indianapolis USA

2005 Jul 13-15 FINA General Congress Montreal CAN Jul 13-15 FINA Technical Congresses Montreal CAN

TBA FINA Bureau Meeting Shanghai CHN

Cont inenta l / In ternat iona l Compet i t ions /o ther Games

2004 Dec 9-12 European SC Champs Vienna AUT

2005 Jan 6-16 20th Deaflympic Games Melbourne AUS

Jan 19-23 Australian Youth Olympic Festival Sydney AUS

Jun 24- Jul 3 15th Mediterranean Games Almeria ESP

Aug 11-21 Universiade Izmir TUR Dec 1-15 West Asian Games Doha QAT

TBA 4th East Asian Games Macao MAC

TBA 11th Games of the Small States of Europe TBA TBA

2006 Jul 27- Aug 6

28th European Swimming Champs Budapest HUN

Aug 17-20 Pan Pacific Championships Vancouver CAN Sep 8th African Swimming Champs Dakar SEN

Dec 1-15 15th Asian Games Doha QAT


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2007

Oct 14-21 4th CISM Military World Games Hyderabad IND

TBA Pan-American Games Rio de Janeiro BRA

FINA Bureau President Mustapha Larfaoui (ALG)

Honorary Secretary Bartolo Consolo (ITA) Honorary Treasurer Dr. Julio Maglione (URU)

Vice-Presidents

Gennady Aleshin (RUS) Hironoshin Furuhashi (JPN) Dale E. Neuburger (USA) Roger Smith (AUS) Chief Olatokunbo Thomas (NGR)

Members

Hussain Al Musallam (KUW) Abd el Rahman Amin (EGY) Rafael Blanco (ESP) Sven Egil Folvik (NOR) Eldon C. Godfrey C. A. (CAN) Manuel A. de Jesus (PUR) Nory Kruchten (LUX) Francis Luyce (FRA) Guillermo Martinez (CUB) William (Bill) Matson (NZL) Coaracy Nunes Filho (BRA) Pipat Paniangvait (THA) Sam Ramsamy (RSA) Qiuping Zhang (CHN)

Honorary Life President Lic. Javier Ostos Mora (MEX)

Immediate Past Honorary Secretary Gunnar Werner (SWE)

F IN A Technica l Commit tees

Swimming Chairman Carol Zaleski (USA)

Vice Chairman Michel Salles (FRA) Honorary Secretary Søren Korbo (DEN)

Members

Donald Blew (AUS) Ben Ekumbo (KEN) Shinji Higashijima (JPN) William McFarlane (CAN) Orban Mendoza (PUR) Kitty Orosco de Paluci (ARG) Woon Sui Kut (SIN) Rüdiger Tretow (GER) Andriy Vlaskov (RUS)

Bureau Liaison Roger Smith (AUS)

Open Water Swimming Chairman Alan M. Clarkson (GBR)

Vice Chairman Hans A. Beijer (NED) Honorary Secretary Shelley Taylor-Smith (AUS)

Members

Valerius Belovas (LTU) Flavio A. Bomio (SUI) Jaime Cardenas (COL) Stephen A. “Sid” Cassidy (USA) Dr. Mohie Wahid Farid (EGY) Tomas Haces German (CUB) Dennis Miller (FIJ) Vladimir Srb (CZE) Ronnie Wong Man Chiu (HKG)

Bureau Liaison Nory Kruchten (LUX)

Synchronised Swimming Chairman Stefanie Haeberli (SUI)

Vice Chairman Lina Rosa Becerra de Devonish (VEN) Honorary Secretary Virginia Jasontek (USA)

Synchronised Swimming

Members

Danae Christou (EGY) Sue Edwards (NZL) Miwako Homma (JPN) Igor Kartashov (RUS) Diane Lachapelle (CAN) Ulla Lucenius (FIN) Stefania Tudini (ITA) Min Ja Shin (KOR) Cristina Villicana de Gonzalez (MEX)

Bureau Liaison Gennady Aleshin (RUS)

Masters Chairman Victor Nogueira (POR)

Vice Chairman Zvi Ruttert (ISR) Honorary Secretary Frantisek Stochl (CZE)

Members

Rose M. Cody (PUR) Edward Evelly (CAN) Dr. Daniel Garcia (URU) June F. Krauser (USA) Tarja Liljeström (FIN) Lyall Mortimer (NZL) Virendra Nanavati (IND) Mohamed Salah Redouane (ALG) Ivan Wingate (AUS)

Bureau Liaison William Matson (NZL)

Sports Medicine Chairman Dr. Margo Lynn Mountjoy (CAN)

Honorary Secretary Dr. Eide Lübs (GER)

Members

Dr. Khwaja M.S. Aziz (BAN) Prof. David Francis Gerrard (NZL) Dr. Mohamed Kouidri (ALG) Dr. C.R. van den Hoogenband (NED)

Bureau Liaison Manuel de Jesus (PUR)

F IN A Commiss ions

Athletes Chairman Janet Evans (USA)

Honorary Secretary Alexander Popov (RUS)

Members

Francesco Attolico (ITA) Gustavo Borges (BRA) Melissa Cunningham (AUS) Penelope Heyns (RSA) Tian Liang (CHN) Fernando Platas (MEX) Karine Schuler (FRA) Miyako Tanaka-Oulevey (JPN) Irina Vyguzova (KAZ)

Bureau Liaison Gunnar Werner (SWE)

Coaches Chairman Peter Daland (USA)

Honorary Secretary Alan Thompson (AUS)

Members

Osvaldo Arsenio (ARG) Leif Carlsson (SWE) Juan Jane Giralt (ESP) Imura Masayo (JPN) Shaozhen Zhong (CHN)

Bureau Liaison Abd el Rahman Amin (EGY)

Cu l ture & Olympic Educat ionLic. Javier Ostos Mora (MEX)

Chief Olatokunbo Thomas (NGR) Sven Egil Folvik (NOR) Manuel de Jesus (PUR)

Francis Luyce (FRA) William Matson (NZL)

Development

President Mustapha Larfaoui (ALG) Honorary Secretary Bartolo Consolo (ITA) Honorary Treasurer Dr Julio Maglione (URU)


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Development

Vice-Presidents

Gennady Aleshin (RUS) Hironoshin Furuhashi (JPN) Dale E. Neuburger (USA) Roger Smith (USA) Chief Olatokunbo Thomas (NGR)

Executive Director Cornel Marculescu

Marketing President Mustapha Larfaoui (ALG)

Honorary Secretary Bartolo Consolo (ITA) Honorary Treasure Dr Julio Maglione (URU) Executive Director Cornel Marculescu

Swimming World Cup

President Mustapha Larfaoui (ALG) Honorary Secretary Bartolo Consolo (ITA)

Honorary Treasurer

Dr Julio Maglione (URU) and one representative from each Continent where the FINA Swimming World Cup Series meets are held: AMERICAS: Chuck Wielgus (USA); ASIA:Jin Zhi (CHN); EUROPE: David Sparkes (GBR); OCEANIA: John Devitt (AUS)

Managing Director Mike Unger (USA)

FINA Legal Commission

President Gunnar Werner (SWE), FINA Immediate Past Honorary Secretary

Members Roger Smith (AUS) and Chief O. Thomas (NGR), FINA Vice Presidents and Coaracy Nunes Filho (BRA), FINA Bureau Member

Press

Chairman Camillo Cametti (ITA) Honorary Secretary Jean-Louis Meuret (FRA)

Members

Chaker Belhadj (TUN) Gregory Eggert (USA) Javier Lopez (COL) Russell McKinnon (AUS) Nick Thierry (CAN) Elena Vaitsekhovskaia (RUS)

Bureau Liaison & Spokesman at FINA Events Sam Ramsamy (RSA)

F IN A Doping Pane l & DCRB

Panel

Chairman Harm Bayer (GER)

Members

Bemard J. Favaro (USA) Ben Belkacem Farid (ALG) Peter Kerr (AUS) Jean Lob (SUI) Toshio Ueyanagi (JPN)

Doping Control Review Board (DCRB)

Chairman Dr. Andrew Pipe (CAN)

Members

Dr. Larry D. Bowers (USA) Dr. Brian Corrigan (AUS) Prof. Winton Arthur Hawksworth (RSA) Prof. Willem L. Mosterd (NED) Prof. Moutian Wu (CHN) Prof. Jordi Segura (ESP)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Cornel Marculescu

BOOK REVIEW COACHING SWIMMING

SUCCESSFULLY 2n d Edit ion

Author: Dick Hannula Publisher: Human Kinetics

Reviewed by Peter Ruddock Dick Hannula has had great success coaching – he holds the record of the longest undefeated in 323 consecutive meets. He has coached from High School to Olympic level. His first book had many wonderful tips but this 2nd Edition is even more valuable to Coaches and Teachers. The book is very easy to read with large print, large headings and easy to understand diagrams and pictures. The book is divided into the following sections…

COACHING FOUNDATIONS COACHING STROKE TECHNIQUE

COACHING MEETS COACHING EVALUATION

By writing the book in this format, coaches at all levels could easily pick up the book and read any section. It is interesting to see that Dick refers to the great Australian Coach, Bill Sweetenham, and his drills in many places in the book. I feel this is an excellent book to have in your library, as it is a great source of information filled with helpful coaching tips.


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TALENT IDENTIFICATION & DEVELOPMENT

By Dr R. Richards Presented at 1999 ASCTA Convention

INTRODUCTION

“Many great coaches are discovered once they have uncovered a talented swimmer.”1 Whilst the goal of every coach is to improve the performance capability of his/her swimmers, the innate ability of each swimmer to adapt and respond to the training program will greatly influence the end results. Therefore, every coach should seek out those athletes with the greatest potential to succeed.2 What can the coach do? TALENT – IDENTIFICATION OF FACTORS Much of what we consider to be talent is actually the degree to which each swimmer possesses certain physical, physiological, or mental attributes that may contribute to performance. Many of the physical characteristics of the swimmer are controlled by his/her genetic profile; that is, they are beyond anything the coach may do in the training program to change these characteristics. The mature height of a swimmer and other anatomical characteristics (these are commonly known as one’s somatotype) are not easily altered.3 Therefore, many TID4 systems have focused on anthropometric variables. Studies of elite swimmers have been used to identify what general physical characteristics are common to successful (versus their less successful peers) swimming athletes.5 The general premise is that a swimmer’s morphology influences the horizontal components of lift and drag and thereby affects the potential to generate optimal propulsion and to minimise resistance forces.

1 Paraphrased from coaching myth (no known author). 2 This does not mean that Talent Identification factors should ever be the sole criteria when decisions are made regarding the time and effort a coach “invests” in a swimmer. 3 There is some scientific evidence to suggest that physical training (in the years before and during biological maturity) may in some way shape the course of this development. 4 TID will refer to any systematic selection procedure, i.e. “Talent Identification”. 5 Carter, L. and Ackland, T. Kinanthropometry in Aquatic Sports: A Study of World Class Athletes HK Sport Science Monograph Series, Volume 5 Human Kinetic Publishers, 1994.

The typical profile of elite swimmers’ features these general characteristics… • Tall (i.e. greater than average height) • Wide shoulder girdle and narrow hip

width (Note: Wide and narrow are relative terms, the respective ratio will determine if the relationship is favourable.)

• Long arms (Note: The arm-span taken from the extremities of the outstretched arms should be equal to, or greater than, one’s standing height.)

• Favourable ratio of long-bone development in the legs (Note: This means that the leg-length is greater than trunk length.)

• Large hands and feet There are also some inter-stroke variations that have been reported in the literature. For example, male Breaststrokers tend to be slightly heavier in their body build and larger feet. Freestylers and Backstrokers tend to be the tallest and have the longest legs (i.e. relative to body size). However, the overall differences between elite swimmers in the various strokes are usually less than the differences between elite and non-elite swimmers. Body composition also appears to be a good descriptive characteristic of elite swimmers. As a rule, elite swimmers tend to have ectomorphic body types. That is, they are relatively lean (i.e. a low percentage of body mass is carried as fat tissue) when compared to the endomorphic body type. Muscularity would be described as lean muscled rather than the heavy muscled mesomorphic body type. The body shape is typically narrow and wide at the shoulder, tapering to a narrow waist (i.e. the torso tapers in a V-shape as viewed from the front). The amount of body fat is one factor that may be controlled. To a large extent, one’s body fat can be reduced through good nutrition practices and adequate aerobic training loads. Muscularity is also subject to the type and amount of exercise performed. However, ectomorphs tend to retain a lean muscular appearance without developing excessive muscle bulk. A second group of factors are related to one’s neuro-muscular control—these are much harder to measure but are no less obvious than more physical characteristics. Experienced coaches can easily recognise that some swimmers have a better feel for the water than others. This is evidence of the differences in the ability of individuals to sense pressure on the propulsive surfaces of the arms and legs.


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Talented swimmers are the ones who are quick to make adjustments to their movement patterns to continually maximise the fluid pressure applied. Swimming is a sport that relies upon feel (i.e. tactile sense) more than sight, sound, etc. The quality of sensory input also affects the swimmer’s ability to maintain a body position that reduces drag. Finally, a talented swimmer will possess a great sense of balance and body awareness in the water. The physiological characteristics that are advantageous in swimming will depend upon the type of event a swimmer intends to pursue (i.e. distance or sprint). Physiological factors are more susceptible to change as a result of the type and volume of training. Therefore, only the extremes on the physiological spectrum of endurance—explosive-power variables may be a useful guide to talent identification. In recent years Bill Sweetenham (Australian Swimming Inc., National Youth Coach) has advocated the use of recovery ability as a measure of physiological talent identification. Both sprint and endurance athletes will have a certain ability to absorb and recover from physical activity to a point where they can repeat the activity. This is one’s ability to recover. Last, but by no means least, are the characteristics associated with one’s psychological make-up. Like the technical aspects of performance, these characteristics are sometimes hard to assess by traditional methods (i.e. standard tests). Research has not clearly identified individual characteristics, but there are general traits that are worth considering when putting together a TID protocol. In general, successful swimmers have a well-balanced sense of self. That is, they have a healthy self-concept and belief in their own ability. They are usually the type of person who displays great determination and concentration to stay with a task to completion.

MODELS FOR TID In Australia there have been several TID models trialled on a mass scale. Some individual sports, such as rowing, have been successful in recent years. However, a sport such as rowing will identify potential elite competitors at a rather advanced stage of physical development (i.e. typically 15-18 years of age). Because swimming is a highly technical movement sport the development of skilled swimming technique must begin at a much

younger age.6 Other TID schemes, such as Talent Search (a Sports Commission program administered in schools across Australia) are too generic in nature. They fail to identify specific skill components associated with swimming. The work of Bill Sweetenham, David Pyne, and Bill Nelson at the Australian Institute of Sport in the late 1980’s produced a sport specific application of TID characteristics.7 The problem with implementing such a model is that without the proper sport infrastructure (i.e. support at several organisational levels) it’s impossible to test on a wide enough basis. Infrastructure also means that involvement from the Learn-to-Swim segment of the aquatics industry is paramount to a successful TID program. This would require a very large commitment; with no guarantee of a significant return (i.e. there is no way of knowing if additional talented swimming athletes could be supported through their development to elite level). Many factors influence the relative success of a TID program, these include… • The ability to identify potential athletes at

an early age (perhaps at 10-12 years of age)

• The ability to anticipate physical growth and development

• The ability to guarantee a positive support structure (i.e. from parents, peers, coaches, etc.)

• The ability to isolate the potential athlete’s interest to the sport of swimming (remember that a talented swimmer may also be a talented runner or netballer)

• The ability to provide a quality coaching environment (i.e. for example, if a potential swimmer lives 100km from the nearest swimming pool there is a real problem!)

It has been said that, “The best form of TID is mass participation”.8 The best way to identify talent is to have large numbers of young children exposed to quality Learn-to-Swim programs and then to keep them in the sport during the age-group years. This recognises that talented athletes will mature at different rates and some will be found as 13-year-olds and others will be discovered as 16 or 17-year-olds. Much of the success of TID in Australia relies on the educated-eye of the Swimming Coach. However, the educated-eye must act in 6 See comments on ‘Talent Development’. 7 A copy of the original TID model is reprinted in the Appendix. 8 This view has been expressed by Bill Sweetenham and others.


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consort with the professional knowledge of the coach with regard to Talent Development. A coach’s understanding of how swimmers develop and progress during their sporting lifetime is the cornerstone of talent development.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT There are numerous papers that have outlined the progression of sporting development (see references: Balyi, Touretski, Portier, and others). All models for sporting development must also embrace the principles of human growth and development (see Cahill & Pearl). It’s important for the coach to understand what children are capable of achieving and what aspects of their sporting development are most sensitive to change during certain periods of physical growth and development. The coach should also be aware that certain skills and physiological capacities interact with other factors at later stages of development. For example, stroke technique development during the early stages of training will affect the ability to swim efficiently or make stroke modifications during later stages of training. Physiological capacities, such as aerobic endurance, develop quite rapidly during the pre-pubertal stage of growth—this is a critical period of development. Other capacities, such as the rapid increase in muscle strength and power, require the attainment of a certain level of biological maturity before the full effects of training can be realised. It’s also true that every child will mature at a slightly different rate. Research on populations gives us normative information on the likely chronological age at which certain biological markers are reached. Two 10-year-old swimmers for example, may be 1-2 years apart in their biological ages. Research has also suggested that physical training itself impacts on some aspects of biological maturation (see Richards, also Borer). These points are made to emphasise the fact that variation between individuals must always be recognised by the coach when planning a training program. How then should a coach establish realistic training objectives and progressions for an Age Group program?

THE AGE-GROUP TRAINING MODEL We can first consider training as a function of age. A Multi-Year Age Group Swimmer Development Model helps us to identify important considerations (e.g. biological

maturity, progressive skill development, emotional and social maturity, etc.). An Age Group swimming program should target objectives that are compatible with swimmer’s readiness and ability to achieve. The age of swimmers who would typically participate in training activities within a period should not be taken as absolute. Swimmers may be ready for a specific level of training who are younger or older. To achieve the objectives within each training period will take approximately two or more years of progressive training (i.e. increase in training stimuli from one season or cycle to the next). Therefore, the coach should have a plan or vision of how training will progress over the next two years. Squad organisation and the application of training methods should reflect appropriate objectives. In addition, the coach should monitor the progress of individual swimmers to determine if adaptation to the current training stimuli is occurring. For example, a late maturing (i.e. slower than average biological development) 12-year-old girl might best fit into the training plans developed for a group of mostly 10-11 year-olds. Conversely, the 12-year-old girl who has completed her growth spurt and passed the age of menarche may be capable of meeting the training expectations of a more advanced training period. Individual swimmers may have mastered some of the objectives of the next training period; however, until they have mastered all (or nearly all) the objectives of their current training period they are not ready to undertake (on a regular basis) more advanced training programs. The coach must exercise considerable judgment in planning the long-term development of individual swimmers. Three important concepts should be incorporated into the coach’s planning. First, different training periods should have different emphasis in terms of training and developmental objectives. Second, it’s of paramount importance that both mastery and retention of lower level skills and fitness components are carried forward to the next training period. Swimmers must be able to maintain basic skills and fitness components (or quickly re-acquire these after a period of reduced training) before more advanced training methods/objectives are imposed. Third, training plans should be progressive (i.e. advancing in a logical manner) in their application. A general guideline for most types of training is that volume is increased first (within the limits of a swimmer’s ability to adapt) then frequency of training is increased (again within the limits of


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adaptation) then intensity of training is increased (again, to the degree which the training can be absorbed). Another way of looking at the development model is to think of a swimming career as three distinct phases. First, all swimmers must learn to train effectively. This involves the technical mastery of basic skills, but this concept may be extended to include every component of performance.

Second, most swimmers will progress within a system that begins to shift the focus from background training to specific competition training. Third, swimmers with the ability to successfully adapt to the first two phases will progress into a third phase of performance training.

Phases of Swimmer Development

TRAINING TO ACHIEVE THESE OUTCOMES

COMPONENTS TRAINING PHASE COMPETITION PHASE PERFORMANCE PHASE

Overall Training Objective

Learning the Basic Training Fundamentals

Progressive Build-up (volume then intensity)

Systematic High Level Training

Associated Stage of Physical Maturity

Prepubescent and Early Puberty

Pubescent and Post-Pubescent Physical Maturity

Movement Skill Development

Learn Fundamental Movement Skills

Master All Skills at Race Pace/Pressure

Consistent Skill Application at All Times

Technical Model Acquire Basic Skills in all Four Strokes

Advanced Skill Level in all Four Strokes

Maintain General Skills and Specialise

Knowledge “How To” all Strokes, Starts, Turns, etc.

Race Tactics & Pacing Strategies

Performance Analysis Strengths & Weakness

Sportsmanship Respect for Teammates and Coaches

Respect for other Competitors & Officials

Respect for the Sport (media, public, etc.)

Personal Interactions Work with Coach and Teammates

Support Club & Team-mates Demonstrate Leadership

Nutrition Understand Principles of Good Nutrition

Use Best Practice and Monitor Eating Habits

Maintain Body Weight and Health

Aerobic Conditioning Acquire Training Background

Increase Volume and Intensity of Training

Maintain/Improve Aerobic Fitness Level

Anaerobic Conditioning

Maintain Stroke Technique During Sprints

Increase Volume and Intensity of Training

Increase Quality of Training

Muscular Strength Core Body Strength and Muscle Control

Increase Strength – Balanced Development

Develop Specific Strength & Power

Flexibility and Range of Movement

Learn Swim Technique with Range of Motion

Maintain/Increase Joint Flexibility & Stability

Combine all Elements of Muscle/Joint Action

Recovery and Regeneration

Understand the Role of Recovery

Apply a Variety of Recovery Methods

Develop Individual Recovery Routine

Emotional & Psychological Development

Enjoy Swimming Experiences

Control Mental State during Competition

Develop Mental Skills to Meet any Situation

Medical Control (monitoring)

Check Growth, Posture & Structural Development

Apply Injury Prevention Strategies

Check Health Status & Apply Rehab Technique

(Adapted from “A Plan Behind the Dream”, Vern Gambetta, ASCTA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1)


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AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING INC. MULTI-YEAR AGE-GROUP SWIMMER DEVELOPMENT MODEL

AGE 8 ± 1 year 10 ± 2 years Girls 12/Boys 13 ± 1 year 14 ± 2 years TRAINING PERIOD 2 years 2 years 2-3 years 3-5 years

TRAINING POOL LAND POOL LAND POOL LAND POOL LAND TIME PER 2-4 Sessions 1-2 Sessions 3-5 Sessions 2 Sessions 4-6 Sessions 2-3 Sessions 6-10 Sessions 2-3 Sessions

WEEK 40min-1hr 15-25min 1-1¼ hr 20-30min 1¼ -1½ hr 30-45min 1½ -2hr 45min-1hr VOLUME/SESSION 0.75-2km 2-3.5km 3.5-6km * 4-8km * YEARLY TRAINING 24-30 Weeks 30-36 Weeks 36-44 Weeks 40-46 Weeks VOLUME (POOL) 75-250km 250-500km 500-1000kms 1000-2500kms

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Technique all strokes

Racing Skills starts, turns, pace

Aerobic Endurance

Sculling Drills Speed at 25-50m Simple Training Sets and Games

Flexibility General Body

Strength Movement

coordination Group Activities

Technique Racing Skills

Aerobic Endurance

Speed (<50m) & Acceleration

Greater mix of Training Methods

Increase Strength to Body Weight

Ratio Even

Development of all muscle groups

Flexibility Improve ‘core’ body strength

Technique Increased Volume

Racing Skills Speed (<50m) &

Acceleration Introduce some Intense Interval

Training

Musculo-Skeletal Assessment Body Weight Exercises & Simple Gym Equipment

Flexibility & Body Strength

Increase Volume and Intensity of

Training Integrated

Training Model Begin to Specialist Perfect Technique

& Skills

Periodise Strength Program

Transfer Power into Swimming Performance

Cross Training Activities

Maintain Flexibility

MOTOR LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Develop a feel for the water, the ability to make corrections in movement patterns.

2. Learn the technical skills of all four strokes.

3. Develop general body coordination and strength.

4. Learn good habits for maintaining and improving natural flexibility.

5. Learn to maintain correct technique on longer (submaximal) swims.

6. Learn to maintain correct technique on short sprints.

1. Improve stroke technique and learn race skills (such as turns, starts, pacing and acceleration).

2. Consolidate stroke development. 3. Improve conditioning components

of endurance and speed while maintaining stroke technique.

4. Develop simple race strategy and tactics.

1. Maintain efficient technique as body proportions change.

2. Accommodate increases in muscle strength to improve swimming efficiency.

3. Retain diversity of performance goals (compete in various stroke events and distances).

4. Improve body steady pace and sprint performance using ideal stroke technique (all strokes).

1. Adapt to diverse training methods. 2. Refine stroke technique during all

speeds and intensity of swimming. 3. Apply strength and power to

swimming performance. 4. Specialise in strokes and

competition distances. 5. Retain range of motion and

muscular coordination at all swimming speeds.

6. Refine race skills (starts and turns, tactics, pace, etc.

7. Learn to taper for peak performance.

KNOWLEDGE & ATTITUDES

1. Enjoyment of pool and land based activities.

2. Learn to function as an individual within a group activity.

3. Become familiar with rules and competitive situations.

4. Learn about stroke technique and training methods.

1. Enjoyment of pool and land based activities.

2. Become part of the club, team, squad culture.

3. Develop habits which support an active, healthy lifestyle.

4. Begin to function with less direct supervision and make positive decisions regarding training compliance.

1. Enjoyment of swimming activities and desire for personal improvement.

2. Broader knowledge of training methods and the resulting performance outcomes.

3. Improved personal management skills (balancing training, school and social objectives).

4. Develop self-discipline and increasing commitment to swimming

1. Enjoyment of the process (i.e. goal setting) and product (i.e. attainment of results) of sports participation.

2. Understanding and practicing performance management skills (such as good nutrition, recovery techniques, mental skills, etc.)

3. Independence (i.e. working with a coach and support personnel, but taking responsibility for self).

4. Improved personal skills (including education and vocational objectives).

COMPETITION OBJECTIVES

Have fun and learn to participate without anxiety or distraction. Personal improvement (in both performance and skill) and enjoyment should be recognised and reinforced.

Club level competitions leading up to State competitions (i.e. school or age-group). Skill development, improvement, and number of events swum are the most important goals.

Club and State level competition (age group). Performance goals should be evaluated regularly, as they apply to both training and competition. Each race opportunity is used as a learning experience.

State and National (age group) performance goals. Competition in ‘open’ events as ability improves. Selection of events begins to focus on stroke and distance. Race strategies and mental skills are perfected.

(* During some developmental stages girls will be capable of handling a greater volume of training than boys, due to an advanced rate of maturation.)


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References: • Balyi I. & Hamilton A. The concept of long

term athlete development. Strength and Conditioning Coach Vol.3, No.2 1995.

• Borer K. The effects of exercise on growth (review article) Sports Medicine Vol.20, No.6 1995.

• Cahill B. & Pearl A. (Eds) Intensive Participation in Children’s Sport Human Kinetics Publishers, 1993.

• Portier B. Planning for training, performance and talent development presented at the 1996 ASCA Convention.

• Richards R. Physical growth and maturational characteristics of adolescent female competitive swimmers Indiana University, USA (published by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1983).

• Seefeldt V., Ewing M. & Walk S. An overview of youth sports programs in the United States. Executive summary, published 18/10/91, by Youth Sports Institute, Michigan State University, USA.

• Touretski G. Long term swimming planning. From the Proceeding of the 1994 ASCA Coaches & Teachers Convention.

NATIONAL TALENT IDENTIFICATION & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR

SWIMMING Developed by Bill Nelson, David Pyne, Bill Sweetenham [using the resources of the

Australian Institute of Sport] for Australian Swimming Inc., September 1991

INTRODUCTION

It is acknowledged that a well-planned and organised Talent Identification & Development Program is essential to the successful development of every sport. Whilst research has identified a number of key markers of potential swimming success, there is no practical package of information available to coaches in the field. The proposed model has been developed from information collected at the AIS. It is put forward as a simple model for the identification and tracking of potentially successful competitive swimmers. Most swimming coaches do not have access to sophisticated testing equipment or support personnel in the sport sciences (physiology, biomechanics, psychology) or sports medicine. The first two stages of this TID package are grounded in scientific principle, yet practical and simple enough to be administered by coaches working from their home pool (or with

minimal technical assistance). The advanced stages (State and National) are limited by the resources allocated to any proposed TID project.

FOUR TIER SYSTEM The four tiers of the proposed system are… 1. SCHOOL (ages 10-14 years)

Simple anthropometric measures, pool based and running (i.e. as a general measure of fitness) tests. • General Information—Date of Birth,

Contact Information, Training/Competition History (if any)

• Physical Measurements—Height, Weight, Arm Span

• 1500m run for time, and 2x40m timed sprint runs

• 4x25m maximum effort swims on 2-minute cycle, and 4x50m maximum effort swims on 3-minute cycle

2. CLUB (ages 10-15 years) Tests from Tier 1 (running tests may be omitted), plus additional pool tests specific to competitive swimming. • 800m or 1500m maximum sustained

effort swim • Start to 10m • Turn, time –7.5m to +7.5m • 50m maximum effort kicking only (use

kickboard) and 50m maximum effort pulling (pull buoy and rubber band on legs)

3. STATE (ages 12-16 years) Swimmers identified at the second tier will repeat the preceding tests and add the following under the supervision of a State Coaching or Development Officer. • Sum of skinfolds (males 8 sites,

females 7 sites) • 6x200m at 90% of 200m best time

with 1-minute rest between • 1500m endurance swim (replaces

800m swim if used at club level) • 100m kick and 100m pull (replaces

50m kick and pull tests) • Laboratory Tests: bicycle ergometer

(endurance and sprint tests), vertical jump, sit and reach, hyperextension, lung function and capacity, chin-ups

• Nutrition Assessment 4. NATIONAL (ages 13-17 years)

Swimmers at this level have graduated from State level program and will attend Talent Development Camps under the supervision of State-National Coaches or Institutes-Academies of Sport.


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• Repeat anthropometric assessment (note changes in growth-development)

• Repeat pool tests and add a race simulation

• Repeat lab tests and add a swim bench test

• Specialist Tests: hand/wrist X-ray assessment of skeletal maturation, dietary analysis, psychological

profiling, musculo-skeletal assessment (using standard protocols) by a physiotherapist, biomechanical evaluation of swimming technique, haematology profile (i.e. full blood count and iron status), full kinanthropometric assessment

DESCRIPTION OF TEST PROTOCOLS

ANTHROPOMETRIC TESTS

Height Measurement taken on a stadiometer or other calibrated linear measure to the nearest 0.1 cm. (Note: field testing may use a metal tape fixed to a wall)

Weight Measured on calibrated scales to the nearest 0.1 kg. (Note: swimmers measured in their swimsuits)

Arm Span Measure full double arm span with subject in an upright position from the tip of the middle finger of each hand, to the nearest 0.1 cm. (Note: a metal tape measure may be attached to a wall at shoulder height)

Skinfolds Measured with Harpenden callipers by a trained technician at eight sites for males and seven sites for females and reported as a sum of millimetres. (Note: Standard test protocols as outlined by AIS)

GENERAL FITNESS TESTS (LAND BASED)

40m Sprints Using a marked 40m level running surface, record the best time in seconds (to the nearest 0.01 sec.) for two standing-start trials.

1500m Run Using a marked running track, record the time (to the nearest 0.01 sec.) for a maximum effort 1500m run.

Bicycle Ergometer

Two tests are performed on a calibrated stationary bicycle, (1) submaximal incremental endurance test until the heart rate reaches a target of 75% of the estimated maximum heart rate. Record power output, watt/kg body weight (Note: test protocol is described in detail by Telford, et. al., 1989), and (2) standing maximal effort 10-second power and work capacity test. From a stationary standing start the subject pedals at maximum speed for 10 seconds, record peak watts/kg and total work (kJ and J/kg).

Arm Crank Ergometer 10-second power test performed on the arm cranking ergometer to assess upper body muscle power. (note: see details of test protocol in the references)

Swim Bench

Used to assess upper body strength/power during a swimming-like movement pattern. The swim bench resistance is set to ‘zero’ and from a stationary start the subject performs 10 maximal effort double-arm pulls (i.e. butterfly movement), best of two trials reported in kg/m. (Note: the swimmer’s legs must be stabilised during the test)

Vertical Jump

Using a vertical jump board mounted on a wall, measure the distance from a ‘baseline mark’ (from a side-on position to the wall a normal overhead reach) to the highest position attained from a standing jump, nearest 1.0 cm. (Note: record the best of three trials, subject may use a crouched jumping technique with an arm swing, but may not take a forward step to execute the jump)

Sit and Reach

Use a purpose built sit and reach box to measure (nearest 1.0 cm) the distance reached by the fingertips beyond the feet (ankles at right angles, toes pointed up). This test is used to assess lower back and hamstring flexibility. (Note: allow subjects to perform stretching exercised before the test)

Chin Ups Maximum number of full chin-ups completed in a single attempt. The subject grips the bar with palms facing forward, arms must be fully extended before the next upward movement.


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SWIMMING TESTS (POOL BASED)

4 x 25m Speed Test From a dive start, record the time (0.01-sec.) and number of strokes taken to swim 4 x 25m swims on a 2-minute starting cycle. Record the average time and average stroke count. (Note: start time as feet leave the starting block)

4 x 50m Speed/Endurance Test From a dive start, record the time (0.01-sec.) on each swim performed on a 3 minute starting cycle. Record each time and the average time. (Note: start time as feet leave the starting block)

800m or 1500m Endurance Test

From a push start, record the time (0.01-sec.) on a maximum effort (even pace) swim. If possible, record the 100m split time and the stroke rate (i.e. strokes per minute from three full stroke cycles, taken in the middle of the lap prior to each 100m turn).

6 x 200m Submaximal Test

From a push start, record times (and stroke rate during the second 100m) on each 200m swim, resting 1 minute between swims. Swimmers are given a ‘target time’ to hold on each swim that is calculated to be 90% of their current ‘best time’. (Note: start time as feet leave the wall)

50m or 100m Kick and Pull Tests

Younger (under 12 years) swimmers should complete the tests using a 50m distance, other swimmer should use 100m. From a push start, the swimmer either kicks (using a kick board) or pulls (using pull-buoy and rubber band around the ankles) a maximum effort over the distance. Record the time (0.01 sec.) from feet-leave to hand (or kickboard) touch. (Note: to standardise the test do not allow swimmers to move either hand off the kickboard during the test, no paddles are allowed when pulling)

Start to 10m Test

This is a test that measures a combination of leg power and technique during a racing start. Record the time (0.01-sec.) from a feet-leave racing start (this eliminates reaction time) to a point 10m from the start (stop the time when the head crosses the 10m point). Record the best of three trials.

Turns (time -7.5m to +7.5m)

Measure the time it takes to perform a turn. The time (0.01-sec.) starts as the subject’s head crosses a point that is 7.5m from the wall and finishes when the head crosses the line after completing a racing turn. (Note: record best of three trials and note the stroke used)

Race Simulation

The most specific indicator of current swimming ability is race performance. The swimmer may perform at any race distance. (Note: swimmers should be well rested prior to the race simulation and given every opportunity to perform at/near their best time)

SPECIALIST TESTS & EVALUATION

Radiological X-ray of the left wrist (performed by a radiologist and evaluated by a trained technician) to estimate skeletal maturation and potential for future growth.

Psychological Profile Administration of psychological inventory (performed by a sport psychologist).

Physiotherapy Administration of the standard screening techniques (i.e. performed by a trained professional) used by Australian Swimming Inc. to assess range of motion and joint stability.

Biomechanics Full evaluation of stroke technique (from underwater and above water).

Haematology Full blood profile (Note: Blood sample must be taken by a qualified medical practitioner or medical technician).

Nutrition Evaluation of nutritional practice (performed by a Sports Dietitian) using a 3-day dietary assessment. Follow-up counselling and education is provided by the Sports Dietitian. During training camps there may be an assessment of fluid loss/replenishment.

Anthropometry Full anthropometric assessment to assess skeletal ratios (Note: protocols used during the 1991 Kinanthropometric Aquatic Sports Project conducted at the 1991 World Swimming Championships)

References • Telford R.D., et al Skinfold measures and

weight control in elite athletes. EXCEL Vol.5 No.2, 1988.

• Telford R.D., et al A simple method for the assessment of general fitness: the tri-level

profile. The Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol.21, No.3, 1989.

• Blanch P. Personal communication regarding physio screening techniques (Note: Since the development of the TID model the screening protocols used by physiotherapists have been established,


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see “The Swimming Machine”, published by ASI, 1997)

SUGGESTED STANDARDS FOR

NATIONAL TID PROGRAM SWIMMING

The data presented in this document was accumulated during training camps conducted at the Australian Institute of Sport during 1989 and 1990. Tier 4 screening protocols were performed on 35 male and 26 female swimmers between the age of 13-16 years.

The standards represent elite Age Group swimmers (13-15 years) and are appropriate for Tier 3 (State) and Tier 4 (National) comparisons only. A simple six-category scale has been used to report the performance standards; they range from below to well above the norm. Standards are not reported for all tests. The following categories are used…

1. POOR Lowest among State/National Swimmers

2. FAIR ⇑

3. AVERAGE

4. GOOD Mid-level categories are divided by equal increments

5. EXCELLENT ⇓

6. ELITE Highest among State/National Swimmers

Table 1—Skinfolds—Suggested Standards for Sum (mm) of 8 sites (males) or 7 sites (females)

1 2 3 4 5 6 Males ≥75 61-74 51-60 46-50 41-45 ≤40

Females ≥90 76-90 66-75 61-65 51-60 ≤50

Table 2—Cycle Endurance Test: Suggested Standards (watts/kg of body weight) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Males ≤2.2 2.2-2.5 2.6-2.8 2.9-3.3 3.4-3.9 ≥4.0 Females ≤2.0 2.1-2.4 2.5-2.8 2.9-3.2 3.3-3.7 ≥3.8

Table 3—10 Second Power Test: (cycle ergometer)—Suggested Standards (watts/kg)

1 2 3 4 5 6 Males ≤12.2 12.3-12.9 13.0-14.3 14.4-15.7 15.8-16.5 ≥16.6

Females ≤9.5 9.6-10.1 10.2-11.2 11.3-12.2 12.3-12.9 ≥13.0

Table 4—Vertical Jump—Suggested Standards (cm) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Males <38 38-41 42-45 46-50 51-54 >54 Females <26 26-29 30-33 34-39 40-43 >43

Table 5—Sit and Reach—Suggested Standards (cm)

1 2 3 4 5 6 Males < 0 0-4 5-12 13-18 19-24 > 24

Females < 5 5-8 9-12 13-18 19-24 > 24

Table 6—Chin-Ups—Suggested Standards (maximum number of full chin-ups completed) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Males <4 4-7 8-11 12-16 17-20 >20 Females 0 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 >16


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Table 7—4 x 25m Sprint Swims—Suggested Standards (average time in seconds) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Freestyle ≥13.0 12.5-12.9 12.0-12.4 11.5-11.9 11.0-11.4 <11.0 Butterfly ≥14.5 14.0-14.4 13.5-13.9 13.0-13.4 12.5-12.9 <12.5

Backstroke ≥15.5 15.0-15.4 14.5-14.9 14.0-14.4 13.5-13.9 <13.5 Males

Breaststroke ≥17.0 16.0-16.9 15.5-15.9 15.0-15.4 14.5-14.9 <14.5 Freestyle ≥15.0 14.0-14.9 13.0-13.9 12.5-12.9 12.0-12.4 <12.0 Butterfly ≥16.0 15.0-15.9 14.0-14.9 13.5-13.9 13.0-13.4 <13.0

Backstroke ≥16.5 16.0-16.4 15.5-15.9 15.0-15.4 14.5-14.9 <14.5 Females

Breaststroke ≥19.0 18.0-18.9 17.0-17.9 16.5-16.9 16.0-16.4 <16.0

Table 8—4 x 50m Speed-Endurance—(average time in seconds) 1 2 3 4 5 6




Backstroke ≥35.0 34.0-34.9 33.0-33.9 32.5-32.9 32.0-32.4 <32.0 Females

Breaststroke ≥40.0 39.0-39.9 38.0-38.9 37.0-37.9 36.0-36.9 <36.0

Table 9—Submaximum 6 x 200m—Suggested Standards (average time: minutes:seconds) 1 2 3 4 5 6




Backstroke ≥2.48 2.42-2.47 2.38-2.41 2.35-2.37 2.32-2.34 <2.32 Female

Breaststroke ≥3.15 3.10-3.15 3.06-3.09 3.02-3.05 2.58-3.01 <2.58

Table 10—1500m Freestyle, Endurance Swim—Suggested Standards (minutes:seconds) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Males ≥21.00 20.0-20.59 19.0-19.59 18.0-18.59 17.0-17.59 <17.00 Females ≥22.00 21.0-21.59 20.0-20.59 19.0-19.59 18.0-18.59 <18.00

Table 11—100m Pulling—Suggested Standards (minutes:seconds)

1 2 3 4 5 6 Freestyle >1.15 1.10-1.15 1.06-1.09 1.03-1.05 1.00-1.02 <1.00 Butterfly >1.25 1.20-1.25 1.15-1.19 1.10-1.14 1.05-1.09 <1.05

Backstroke >1.30 1.25-1.30 1.20-1.24 1.15-1.19 1.10-1.14 <1.10 Males

Breaststroke >1.55 1.50-1.55 1.45-1.49 1.40-1.44 1.35-1.39 <1.35 Freestyle >1.20 1.15-1.20 1.12-1.14 1.09-1.11 1.06-1.08 <1.06 Butterfly >1.30 1.25-1.30 1.21-1.24 1.17-1.20 1.13-1.16 <1.13

Backstroke >1.40 1.35-1.40 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 1.20-1.24 <1.20 Females

Breaststroke >2.00 1.55-2.00 1.50-1.54 1.45-1.49 1.40-1.44 <1.40

Table 12—100m Kicking—Suggested Standards (minutes:seconds) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Freestyle >1.40 1.35-1.40 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 1.20-1.24 <1.20 Butterfly >1.40 1.35-1.40 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 1.20-1.24 <1.20

Backstroke >1.45 1.40-1.45 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 <1.25 Males

Breaststroke >1.45 1.40-1.45 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 <1.25 Freestyle >1.45 1.40-1.45 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 <1.25 Butterfly >1.45 1.40-1.45 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 1.25-1.29 <1.25

Backstroke >1.50 1.45-1.50 1.40-1.44 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 <1.30 Females

Breaststroke >1.50 1.45-1.50 1.40-1.44 1.35-1.39 1.30-1.34 <1.30


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PERIODISATION & CONDITIONING:

A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH By David Pyne PhD, AIS

Presented at ASCTA 2001 Convention Good planning is one of the key elements of effective coaching and should be considered as a skill that must be learned, developed and practiced. Planning integrates the various aspects of training that contribute to swimming performance … swimming technique (skill), physical conditioning (fitness), mental skills training (psychology), as well as racing and training strategies.

The topics addressed in this article include … physiological models of exercise and fatigue – the division of the training plan into macro-, meso- and micro-cycles – and description of the various stages or phases of the training plan. One approach is to use a ‘top-down’ process by initially examining the end product … how fast do you need to swim to win?

COMPETITION & TRAINING SPEEDS The winning time for each gold medallist in the Freestyle and form stroke events at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games are shown in the following table. It is interesting to note differences between distances (in the Freestyle events), between events (in the form strokes) and between male and female swimmers. The average pace per 100m is also shown.

Event 50 Freestyle

100 Freestyle

200 Freestyle

400 Freestyle

800 Freestyle

1500 Freestyle

Male Time 21.9 48.3 1.45.3 3.40.6 — 59.2 Sec/100 43.8 48.3 52.7 55.2 — 59.2

Female Time 24.3 53.8 1.58.2 4.05.8 8.19.7 — Sec/100 48.6 53.8 59.1 61.5 62.5

Event 100 Butterfly

200 Butterfly

100 Backstroke

200 Backstroke

100 Breaststroke

200 Breaststroke

Male Time 52.0 1.55.4 53.7 1.56.8 60.5 2.10.9 Sec/100 52.0 57.7 53.7 58.4 60.5 65.5

Female Time 56.6 2.05.9 60.2 2.08.2 67.1 2.24.4 Sec/100 56.6 62.9 60.2 64.1 67.1 72.2

The percentage difference in average pace from the 50m to the 1500m Freestyle is approximately 27%. For example – the typical highly trained male Freestyle swimmer could complete 100m training intervals as slow as 80-90 seconds. The coach has the challenge of formulating training programs, which cater for all speeds between 50 (fastest race pace) and 90 (slowest training pace) seconds per 100m. ENERGY SYSTEMS – THE TRADITIONAL

APPROACH Metabolism … An understanding of the energetic demands of training and competitive swimming is an essential requirement for coaches. The mechanical action of the different swimming strokes requires the skeletal muscles to variously contract, extend or remain static in length.

This process requires the integration of neural signals from the motor cortex (nervous system) to the muscles. A chain of biochemical reactions within the muscle results in the transformation of potential chemical energy to the mechanical energy of muscle action. Energy metabolism is defined as the process of storing and releasing energy during exercise. Swimming training enhances these processes with improved fitness equating to MORE WORK – LESS FATIGUE. Coaches need to understand the different energy systems and their influence on the training-induced adaptations required for competitive success. Energy Systems … Energy metabolism is based on the concepts of fuel sources, fuel utilisation and contribution of different energy systems to various sporting activities. There are four basic energy compounds … the primary energy compound ATP (adenosine


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triphosphate), and the three secondary energy compounds of creatine phosphate (CP), glycogen (carbohydrate) and fat (see Figure 1). ATP is the body’s primary energy currency, however there is only sufficient ATP in the muscle to sustain a short burst of muscular effort (a few seconds in duration). Even in the shortest competitive swimming event, the 50m sprint, where performance times range from approximately 20-40 seconds,

depending on the age, gender, event and level of the swimmer, ATP must be constantly replenished from other sources in the muscle. These additional sources of energy are derived from foodstuffs with the principal substrates (fuels) being carbohydrate, fat and protein. ATP is the currency (energy) used in the cells of the body and powers all cellular functions including muscular contraction.

Figure 1 – Replenishment of ATP from different energy sources

Energy (ATP)

Aerobic Glycolysis/Lipolysis

Anaerobic

ATP-PC Anaerobic Glycolysis

Short term energy supply for high intensity exercise such as the 50m sprint events, are obtained from substances already in the muscle, without the need for oxygen. These energy supplies are consequently termed anaerobic energy and come from high energy phosphate substances in the muscle (the ATP-PC or ATP-Phosphocreatine system), or from carbohydrate stores in the muscle metabolised in the absence of oxygen (the Anaerobic Glycolysis or Lactic Acid system). The ATP-PC system involves a series of chemical reactions producing energy. The ATP in the muscle and another high-energy compound, creatine phosphate, collectively provide enough energy for 5-10 seconds of activity. This system releases a tremendous amount of energy but is exhausted within a few contractions. The ATP stores are rapidly replenished so that further energy is available within 30-60 seconds and stores are completely restored within 3-5 minutes.

The replacement of ATP requires oxygen and this is one reason underlining the importance of interval training (varying bouts of work and recovery) and swim downs. The anaerobic glycolysis system or the lactic acid system, involves metabolism of blood glucose and muscle glycogen in the absence of oxygen. This system is the dominant contributor to high-intensity exercise of 30 seconds to three minutes duration. However, the accumulation of lactic acid within the muscle can compromise muscle contraction leading to fatigue. The aerobic energy system involves the metabolism of carbohydrate (aerobic glycolysis) and fat (aerobic lipolysis) in the presence of oxygen. Exercise of greater than 60 seconds in duration becomes increasingly aerobic. This system produces ATP more efficiently than aerobic glycolysis and is limited by the availability of muscle glycogen, which equates to approximately two hours of continuous exercise.


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Figure 2 – A schematic diagram showing the generation of ATP via the phosphate, anaerobic

glycolytic and aerobic energy systems. Phosphate Energy System ATP → ADP + P + Energy

Creatine Phosphate + ADP → ATP + Creatine Anaerobic Glycolysis System

Glycogen

→ ATP

Pyruvate → Lactic Acid + ATP

Aerobic Energy System Glucose or Glycogen

Pyruvate

Fatty Acids → Acetyl Co-A ← Amino Acids

ATP ATP

Krebs Cycle

Aerobic or oxidative energy metabolism can be maintained at a submaximal level as long as substrates (fuels) are available. Oxidation of fuels occurs in the Krebs Cycle located within the mitochondria of muscle cells. As the intensity of swimming increases, the speed at which the biochemical reactions proceed also increases. The primary fuels for the aerobic system are carbohydrates and fats. Because carbohydrate is the main fuel source and its supply limited, the body adapts to using alternative fuels such as fat to protect the diminishing reserves of carbohydrate. This transfer from carbohydrate to fat metabolism is referred to as ‘carbohydrate sparing’. In training, a substantial proportion of work is completed at an intensity of swimming below the lactate or anaerobic threshold (i.e. the speed above which the blood lactate concentration starts to rise) and consequently is primarily fuelled by lipid or fat metabolism. Energy Contributions to Swimming Events: Short explosive sprints events such as the 50m events are predominantly anaerobic in nature. Middle-distance events (100 to 400m) are a combination of anaerobic and aerobic energy. Long distance events such as the 800 and 1500m and open water swimming are predominantly aerobic in nature. Table 1 shows the relative contribution of the three energy systems to the various swimming events.

Table 1 – Contribution of energy systems to

different swimming events Event %ATP-PC %Anaerobic

Glycolysis %Aerobic

50m 55 40 5 100m 15 50 35 200m 10 30 60 400m 5 25 70

1500m 0 15 85

PHYSIOLOGICAL MODELS – A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH

The preceding model of energy systems has been the conventional approach to understanding exercise and the planning of training over the last 30 years. However, the results of scientific investigation, combined with clinical, laboratory and field experience, suggest that this model has significant limitations and should be revised (Noakes, 2000). Noakes argues that the old idea that fatigue develops when the capacity of the cardiovascular systems to provide oxygen to the exercising muscles falls behind their demand inducing “anaerobic” metabolism is unsatisfactory. He cites four main reasons… 1. The heart and not the skeletal muscles

would be affected first by anaerobiosis. 2. No study has definitively established the

presence of anaerobiosis and hypoxia in skeletal muscle during maximal exercise.

3. The traditional energy systems model is unable to explain why fatigue ensues during prolonged exercise, at altitude and in hot conditions.

4. Cardiorespiratory (maximal oxygen uptake) and metabolic (lactate threshold) measures are only modest predictors of performance.

Noakes (2000) proposes a new physiological model to explain exercise performance and fatigue. This revised model consists of the original cardiovascular/anaerobic model and four additional models that regulate short duration, maximal or prolonged submaximal exercise. They are… • The cardiovascular/anaerobic model • The energy supply/energy depletion model • The muscle recruitment (central

fatigue)/muscle power model

• The biomechanical model • The psychological/motivational model


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The energy supply/energy depletion model is based on the concept that the availability (supply) of a substrate (oxygen) to muscle is a limiting factor in exercise performance. The second part of this model proposes that fatigue during high intensity exercise may result from the inability to supply ATP to contracting muscle at rates sufficiently fast to sustain exercise. This model is, therefore, consistent with the old three-energy systems model where performance in events of different durations is determined by the capacity to produce ATP by the phosphagen, anaerobic glycolysis, aerobic glycolytic and aerobic lipolytic systems. The muscle recruitment (central fatigue)/muscle power model provides an alternate view to the first two models and proposes that it is not the rate of supply of energy to muscle that limits its performance, but rather the processes involved in skeletal muscle recruitment, excitation and contraction. The central nervous systems play a key regulatory role in muscle contraction. Increased concentrations of the brain neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine increase the flow of neural impulses to the muscles enhancing performance. In contrast, reduced neurotransmitter concentration – i.e. reduced central neural drive – will result in fatigue and termination of maximal intensity exercise. The muscle power model holds that athletes with superior athletic ability have muscles with a superior capacity to generate force. The biomechanical model proposes that the greater the muscle’s capacity to act as a spring, the less torque it must produce and hence the more efficient it is. Those muscle fibres with greater elasticity and efficiency will enhance performance by slowing both the rate of accumulation of fatiguing agents in the muscle and the rise in body temperature. Another possible benefit is that elastic muscle fibres are more fatigue resistant and less liable to damage that develops during repeated contractions. The psychological/motivational model holds that the ability to sustain exercise

performance results from a conscious effort. Again, both sporting experience and experimental observations point to the importance of motivation and instances where this seemingly overrides any physiological limitation. This revised approach and concept of the combined physiological models is appealing on theoretical and conceptual grounds and merits attention from the sporting community.

BASICS OF PERIODISATION & CONDITIONING

Periodisation of Training … The process of periodisation is defined as division of the annual training plan into smaller and more manageable parts to ensure correct peaking for the main competition of the year. Periodisation of training was popularised in the 1960’s and 1970’s as coaching became more comprehensive and systematic. Authors such as Bompa and Matveyev popularised the use of periodised training in both team and individual sports. The annual plan is divided sequentially into the mesocycle (long-term cycle), macrocycle (multi-week training cycle), microcycle (weekly training cycle) and the daily training sessions. The combination of different training cycles within the annual plan will depend on the specific goals of the competition cycle. The Mesocycle (Major Preparation) … The mesocycle in the context of swimming refers to the preparation for a major competition. For age group swimmers, this usually is the summer season leading into district, state or national age group championships. For senior swimmers, the mesocycle refers to the summer preparation for the national championships (selection trials in March), or the winter preparation for the major international meet of the year (usually August/September). On this basis, senior swimmers generally have two Mesocycles per year. Figure 3 shows a typical mesocycle plan for a senior group of swimmers preparing for World Cup (Short Course) meets in January and February as part


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of the overall plan leading to the Australian Championships (Long Course) in March. The evolution of modern training methodology has lead to the development of terminology such as basic endurance, general endurance, specific endurance, preparatory,

quality, taper, competitive and transition phases. These phases form the basis of the annual training plan. Despite their widespread use, there is no common terminology for all these different phases of training.

Figure 3 – Typical 16-week Training Plan for senior swimmers preparing for World Cup races in January and ultimately for the National Championships in March/April

PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER PROGRAM

Date October November November December January January February

Meso-Cycle Preparation Competition Transition

Competition Local Meet Local Meet World Cup World Cup

Macro-Cycle Basic Endurance

General Endurance

Specific Endurance Quality Taper Comp. Transition

Micro-Cycle Week No. 1,2 3,4 5,6,7 8,9,10 11,12,13 14 15,16

The next step is to develop the training plan in terms of the training volume and intensity (Figure 4). The main features of the general phase are … a modest training volume to start the season … the volume increases in a gradual manner with small 5-10km increases per week … training intensity is low, and emphasis is placed on dry-land conditioning including flexibility, circuits, weight training and other games and aerobic activities. The main features of the endurance phase are … continuing increases in training volume; gradual introduction of higher intensity aerobic work to the level of the anaerobic threshold; and emphasis on skill and technique development before moving to the higher training speeds and intensities. In simple terms, training volume elicits improvements in general endurance fitness while training intensity develops the specific fitness required for racing and competitive success.

The main features of the specific phase are … increasing development of the anaerobic threshold, maximal oxygen uptake and race pace training capacities; ongoing manipulation of training volume and intensity to achieve continuing improvement; individualised training volume, intensity and recovery; ongoing development of skill, particularly at race speeds. The main features of the taper/competition phase are … a taper with reducing training volume and recovery to maintain basic fitness and develop race fitness; training volume is gradually reduced reaching about 20% of the peak weekly mileage at the time of competition; race pace and pacing strategies are finalised through use of descending sets, broken swims and time trials. The main features of the rest phase are … maintaining an active approach with at least three low-to-moderate intensity aerobic swims completed each week; specialised programs to target weaknesses in individual fitness profiles; and dietary control to prevent excessive weight gain.


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Figure 4 – A typical schematic plan for a 16-week training preparation for swimmers

The Macrocycle (2-6 week blocks) … the term, macro, is derived from the Greek term, makros, meaning large in size. In competitive sports, a training macrocycle represents a training block or phase of between 2-6 weeks (Microcycles). The duration of a macrocycle depends on the objectives and type of training used in each stage of the annual plan. In physiological terms, the macrocycle is used to develop or improve a specific aspect of fitness. The overall aim is to improve competitive performance as well as specific training factors. The classical structure of a macrocycle involves 2-4 developmental or accumulation Microcycles followed by a concluding intensification or tuning microcycle. The overall training load can be considered as the product of training intensity and training volume – i.e. training load = volume x intensity. There is usually an incremental increase in either training volume or intensity throughout a macrocycle. It should be noted that increasing the training load is achieved in a wave-like pattern with systematic changes in training volume and intensity. The usual practice is to increase training volume in endurance-oriented Macrocycles, but decrease the volume during the taper and competition Microcycles. In contrast, during speed-oriented Macrocycles training intensity increases as training volumes decline. In general, higher training volumes are generally achieved with lower training intensity, and likewise, higher

training intensity is achieved with lower training volume. Figure 5 shows a typical 4-week training macrocycle. This example illustrates a standard incremental build-up in training load, which could be either training volume or training intensity. Experience has shown that three weeks of increasing training loads represents the usual limit of positive adaptation. Beyond three weeks, increasing fatigue tends to limit the benefits accrued from training. In practice, small increments in training loads of approximately 5% are suggested – a common mistake is to increase loads too rapidly, which can lead to excessive fatigue, injury or illness. With increasing fitness, the training loads in recovery weeks (as shown in Week 4 in this example) can be maintained at higher levels than could be sustained earlier in the training season.

Figure 5 – a standard 4-week macrocycle with increasing loads and a recovery week

LOAD 1 2 3 4

High

Medium

Low

In contrast to Figure 5, the macrocycle used in Figure 6 is more typical of the taper or pre-competition when training volume and loads start to decrease. There is only a modest increase in training load from week 2 to week 3


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before a substantial drop from week 3 to week 4 prior to the competition. The aim of this sequence is to eliminate or reduce any residual fatigue and sharpen swimmers for subsequent competition. Figure 6 – a pre-competition or taper microcycle

LOAD 1 2 3 4

High

Medium

Low

The Microcycle (Weekly and Daily) … The term microcycle coming from the Greek term, mikros, meaning small, and the Latin term, cyclus, refers to a sequence of training that is repeated regularly. In the context of swimming training, the microcycle refers to the weekly 7-day training plan (Monday to Sunday). The microcycle is probably the most important and functional tool in the planning of training. The structure and content of the weekly microcycle determines the quality and nature of the training stimulus. Variation of the training volume and intensity within and between Microcycles is a fundamental aspect of coaching. In a given day, 1-3 training sessions can be completed in the pool with supplementary dry-land work to target specific and general aspects of conditioning. Similarly to the planning of Macrocycles, the training load of a given microcycle is determined by the combination of training volume, training load and recovery periods. Again the objectives of the microcycle will determine the specific nature of the training load. Various types of training Microcycles have been developed in swimming. Depending on the age and level of the squad, Microcycles need to accommodate from 5-20 training sessions (pool and dry-land) in a given week. Various microcycle structures such as 3+1 (three sessions on, one session off), 5+1 and cycles with one peak or two peaks can be used (Figures 7-10). Volume and intensity of sessions within a microcycle are based on the training zones or classification system used by individual coaches.

A certain degree of flexibility is required to account for variations in individual levels of fitness and fatigue.

Figure 7 – a simple 7-session training week (microcycle) for younger swimmers – this shows

the emphasis on a Saturday commitment to swimming leaving the priority to schooling

through the week M T W Th F S S

AM Off Off Off Off Off T Off PM T T T T T T Off

Figure 8 – a 9-session training week (microcycle)

for senior swimmers characterised by half-day recoveries and a 3+1 (three sessions on, one

session off) approach M T W Th F S S

AM T T T T T T Off PM T Off T Off T Off Off

Figure 9 – a 10-session training week

(microcycle) for senior swimmers characterised by a 5+1 (five sessions on, one session off)

approach M T W Th F S S

AM T T T T T T Off PM T T Off T T Off Off

Figure 10 – a specialised 7-day microcycle for

use by senior swimmers in specific high volume training camps – a 3+3+2 cycle is used for a total

of 16 sessions in the cycle including a full recovery day … this type of cycle is useful for

accumulating high training volumes (up to 100km per week)

M T W Th F S S AM T T T T T T Off

Noon T T T T T T Off PM T T Off T T Off Off

THE TAPER

The tapering strategy used by swimmers to optimise competition performance, has been defined as “a progressive non-linear reduction of the training load during a variable period of time, in an attempt to reduce the physiological and psychological stress of daily training and optimise sports performance” (Mujika et al 2001). The taper has been shown to elicit significant improvements in performance. These performance gains have variously been attributed to increased levels of muscular force and power, and improvements in neuromuscular, haematological, and hormonal function, and psychological status of the athletes.


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We conducted a study to determine the magnitude of the taper on competitive performance in swimmers at the 2000 Olympic Games (Mujika et al 2001). Olympic swimmers who took part in the same event or events at the Melbourne Grand Prix 21-28 days before the Sydney 2000 Olympics were studied. A total of 99 performances (50 male, 49 female) were analysed. The overall performance improvement for all swimmers was 2.18 + 1.50% (range –1.14% to 6.02%). A total of 91 of the 99 analysed performances were faster after the taper and only eight performances were slower. The percentage improvement with taper was significantly higher in males (2.57 + 1.45%) than in females (1.78 + 1.45%). The magnitude was similar for all competition events and achieved by swimmers from different countries and performance levels. This information provides a quantitative framework for coaches and swimmers to set realistic performance goals based on individual pre-taper performance levels.

MAKING IT WORK – PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE

One of the fundamental requirements of coaching is well organised and planned training to ensure the achievement of training objectives. A well-organised, methodical and systematic approach will assist the coach and athlete achieve a high level of training and competitive performance. Good planning is based on knowledge and experience of swimming and consideration of individual circumstances. At the elite level, long-term plans are usually based on the four-year Olympic cycle with the intermediate goals of the national championships and major international meets held annually. The annual training plan is based around a competitive season (for age group swimmers) or the build-up to a specific major championship (senior swimmers).

The aim of the annual plan is to produce the highest level of performance at the major meet(s) of the year. There are several features of planning common to all swimming programs … to develop the competitive level, the main training objective – e.g. endurance, speed, strength – must be established and developed as a priority; long term plans often have to be modified to achieve short term goals; and given the cyclical nature of the swimming action and the energetics of the competitive events, training is usually characterised by moderate to high training volumes and a rhythmical approach. Olbrecht (2000) divides the planning of swimming training into two distinct phases. The design phase involves preparation of the training plan by… 1. Analysis of each individual swimmer’s

current performance level and training background.

2. Setting of intermediate performance objectives.

3. Determination and design of the training plan.

The realisation phase involves the daily processes of execution and steering. This refers to the daily adjustments to the program and training sets to account for individual variation in adaptation. Coaches must continually monitor the responses to training to ensure that an adequate stimulus is maintained, proper technique is used, and fatigue levels kept under control. References • Olbrecht J. (2000) – The Science of

Winning: Planning, Periodizing and Optimizing Swim Training – J. Olbrecht, pp.203-241.

• Mujika I., Padilla S., Pyne D. (2001) – Effects of the taper on Olympic swim performance (submitted March 2001).

• Noakes T.D. (2000) – Physiological models to understand exercise fatigue and the adaptations that predict or enhance athletic performance – Scand J Med Sci Sports 10: 123-145.


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THE INTEGRATED TRAINING MODEL

By Dr Ralph Richards Western Australian Institute of Sport

Presented at 2000 ASCTA Convention Training plans evolve from general objectives through a series of stages to the most specific objectives. Each level of planning should fit into the next, providing a framework for key program decisions. It’s best to document … i.e. have a written outline … and review your plans from time-to-time to assess what progress has been made. Planning must take into account a number of variables, which may, or may not, be under the direct control of the coach. Considerations such as pool access, squad numbers and the characteristics of squad members will differ from one program to the next. However, the process of logically constructing both long-term and short-term programs remains the same. The realisation of those plans will naturally differ from one coach to another based upon individual circumstances.

OVERVIEW The coach should first have a basis for long-term program decisions … i.e. see ASI’s Multi-Year Age-Group Development Model. ASI’s Multi-Year Age-Group Swimmer Development

Model provides a good starting reference for long term planning. The model provides a general

reference for coaches to effectively plan training based upon age/maturity and desirable training

outcomes. However, it should be noted that considerable individual variation may exist from one

swimmer to another. The coach’s philosophy will shape decisions made at every level of planning, but it’s useful to have a reference guide for several of the major training parameters … i.e. number of training session, volume per session, age/maturation based training objectives, etc. Start with a yearly (or perhaps a 2/3-year cycle would be more appropriate) calendar and target the important competitions that your swimmers are training for. The coach may need to replicate this exercise for various age-groupings and/or ability levels.

For example… 1. Swimmers only interested in the social

and fitness aspects of sport, or… 2. Swimmers who are very young and still

acquiring the background skills/fitness necessary to compete, or…

3. Age-group swimmers with the potential to reach State qualifying times, or…

4. Age-group and open swimmers aspiring to compete at the National level.

Next, determine the long-term and medium-term preparation requirements for each training level. These requirements must satisfactorily address the following… 1. The background requirements needed for

swimmers to achieve their goals … i.e. skill, maturation, fitness, competition experience

2. The intermediate performance goals that lead up to the major objective … i.e. qualifying meets or performance targets

What improvements will be required to reach the major objectives? Are these performance improvements realistic for the age/ability of swimmers in the squad? Now, based upon the requirements of each training group, determine the single season objectives. A training season may be 6-7 months for some swimmers, or a complete year for others. The Training Season is sometimes called a MESOCYCLE. The beginning coach may find it difficult to estimate the amount of improvement possible during a season, but experience will help the coach in this regard. Within each season’s training there may be several intermediate objectives. The period of time a coach devotes to achieving these objectives (which have a fitness or skill base) is called a MACROCYCLE. For example, three fundamentals of every training program are improvement of aerobic fitness, improvement of speed, and improvement of swimming skill … i.e. technique. Attainment of these objectives allows the swimmer to train more specifically to competition objectives. Therefore, specific periods of time during the season must focus on these fundamentals. However, training must never focus so closely on one fundamental so that the others


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are neglected. Training is always a mixture of several things, usually with a primary focus and a secondary focus. The length of each macrocycle will depend upon the major training objective (some objectives take longer then others to achieve). There is also variation within any group of swimmers that determines each athlete’s ability to absorb and adapt to the training program. Various textbooks suggest that adaptation to specific types of physiological stimuli will take so many weeks to achieve. However, because most coaches work with a wide range of ages, maturation levels, and abilities, it would be difficult to suggest that one plan fits all squad members. The length of any adaptation period is also influenced by one’s training background. For example, mature swimmers who maintain high levels of aerobic fitness from one season to the next will not require a long period of general training devoted to improving this capacity. Within each macrocycle most coaches plan each week’s training as a measurable training unit or MICROCYCLE. Some coaches use slightly smaller units (for example, four days) or somewhat longer units (for example, 14 days) to fit their plans. Each microcycle contains smaller training units, such as individual training days or training sessions. Planning training programs within units of time allows the coach to control the application of the stress-recovery-adaptation sequence of events. Finally, the coach must plan each training session. Based upon the planning outline each training session will be structured to reflect the desired outcomes within that microcycle, macrocycle, and mesocycle. Every training session will contain these core components… 1. Warm-up activities that prepare the

swimmer for other types of training (these may also address fitness and skill related objectives)

2. Activities specific to one or two primary training objectives (these are training sets designed to achieve some physiological, psychological or tactical objective)

3. Activities that contribute to recovery (this may be the traditional swim-down or a set that contributes to primary or secondary training objectives if they happen to be recovery orientated)

The coach may also wish to include a secondary training set during some (or all) sessions. This type of training set addresses a secondary … i.e. minor … objective. Care must be exercised to construct secondary sets that contribute to the overall session, rather than detract from it. Training sets are constructed to define a specific training stress. Training sets that target primary objectives must be constructed to a specific intensity and volume consistent with the overall plan. Training sets designed to achieve secondary objectives are usually more varied in their composition and volume.

THE OVERALL FRAMEWORK The major questions every coach must answer (as reflected in the structure of the training program) include… • How long should the training season last –

i.e. mesocycle structure? • How many pool sessions are appropriate

and what am I trying to achieve with this swimmer or group of swimmers – i.e. macrocycle structure?

• How much training volume and intensity is appropriate to each session (microcycle structure)?

For example, an average 10-year-old swimmer can be expected to handle four pool training sessions per week (a range of 3-5 sessions is suggested in the model) of one hour duration (or slightly longer) and accomplish somewhere between 2 and 3.5 kilometres of training during that session. During the course of a season (that may last 30-36 weeks) this swimmer will accumulate 250-500km of training background. The various training outcomes, skill objectives, cognitive and competition objectives are all identified within the Multi-Year Age Group Swimmer Development Model. However, there may be variation based upon individual ability, maturation, or past training history. Some 10-year-old swimmers will respond more like an 11-year-old and some like a 9-year-old. A young athlete new to the sport may have great physical capacities, but lack the skill components characteristically acquired by others at eight or nine years of age. Therefore, the model is used as a sliding reference scale. It should help the coach identify which


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developmental areas are on track and which are advanced or behind. A recent extension of the Development Model has been proposed by National Youth Coach, Bill Sweetenham.

Bill has proposed the concept of “Break Point Volume” to conceptualise the long-term training

continuum. The concept links the training progression from Age Group to mature age training programs.

See References. The concept of break point volume refers to an optimum volume of training, performed at optimum skill level, achieved through participation in a maximum number of training sessions at controlled intensities. It recognises the fact that during the maturation years an increased volume of training can be absorbed by the athlete (providing the training intensity is controlled within certain limits). It’s much harder (although not impossible) to absorb similar training levels later in the swimmer’s career if the proper background training does not take place. The key ages are 13-15 years of age (±1 year), with girls generally responding at a slightly younger age than boys. According to the break point volume concept these five factors are critical to the nature of training… 1. Up to and through maturation the quantity

of training under aerobic workloads is more important than the quantity of training under high intensity workloads (although it’s recognised that all types of training are required in a well-balanced program).

2. After maturation the proportion of quality … i.e. at a high percentage of maximum … training with break point volume becomes more important to the overall success of the training program.

3. Recovery is always a major concern in the design of training programs.

4. Quality technique and application of skills are vitally important … i.e. at all training intensities.

5. The frequency … i.e. in terms of the number of session and the continuity of those sessions … of training stimulus is important.

The general observation by Sweetenham is that an annual training volume of 2000-2500km should be accomplished over a 42-46 week training season by the time a swimmer reaches his/her physical maturation. This

equates to a little over 6km per session over a training plan that averages 8-9 sessions per week. The yearly training volume will remain similar to this in the following years, although the composition of training will change. This concept of training fits within the Multi-Year Development Model that suggests 14-year-old swimmers (±2 years) should train between 1000-2500km annually over a 40-46 week season. This recommendation is based upon the assumption that all prior levels of fitness and skill attainment … i.e. progressions through younger age groups … have been satisfied.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES The planning process outlined above makes reference to training objectives at every stage. Successful planning incorporates all of the coach’s conceptual models … i.e. physiological, mechanical, and psychological. The greatest mistake made by swimming coaches is their failure to look at the total picture and keep that picture in perspective with the age (which includes maturation factors) and ability of their swimmers. Planning a training program for very young swimmers … i.e. most swimmers under the age of 10 years … is therefore very clear, because the primary objectives of training are very narrowly defined. Skill development, aerobic capacity, and having fun are the primary objectives, maintaining natural speed and developing race skills are the secondary objectives. The complexity of the objectives (or lack of complexity in this case) determines the amount of detail that the coach needs to plan. Young swimmers do not require large variation in the training plan form one cycle to the next because their training needs are simple. Good advice for coaches working with very young swimmers is to devote most of your planning to skills and general fitness. Also, learn how to construct many different training sets that may look different, but achieve the same physiological objective. During the years in which swimmers experience their most rapid physical changes … i.e. the growth spurt and puberty … the complexity of training variables changes. Consolidation of technique and continued increases in aerobic capacity are still the most


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important objectives, but factors such as muscle strength to body weight ratio, speed and acceleration, and training volume/intensity must also be addressed in the training plan. Yet, there are still training variables that should be held in reserve for older age-groupers and senior swimmers. For example, pre-maturation swimmers will probably increase their aerobic capacity more through growth and appropriate amounts of training at/near their anaerobic threshold than from frequent exposure to MaxVO2 training sets. Young swimmers will improve pure speed … i.e. distances 50m or less … by perfecting technique, neuro-muscular patterning, and core body strength. Large volumes (as a percentage of the total work accomplished) of high intensity … i.e. lactate producing … training sets generally wear the swimmer down. Coaches often overestimate the progress of swimmers from ages 10-12 (±1 year) and begin to train them like small adults; resulting in the application of an unrealistic program and possible loss of many swimmers to other sports. This is not to say that high quality sprinting is overlooked; all aspects of the program should remain balanced. Training objectives for most girls (approximate age 12-13) and boys (approximate age 13-14) begin to change dramatically because their needs are more complex. Provided that earlier training has given these swimmers the correct background … i.e. skills, aerobic capacity, neuro-muscular patterning … there are many new training objectives, which must be included in the coach’s plan. The emphasis on training volume and intensity, and how they interact, must be carefully reviewed at this stage of a swimmer’s career. Anaerobic capacity begins to take on greater importance and subtle changes are brought into the complexity of the training plan. There is still awareness that maturational changes are incomplete, very few 12/13-year-olds reflect the characteristics of senior swimmers. The coach must be able to recognise signs of maturity and adjust his/her program for both advanced as well as late maturing individuals. Planning training for most mid age-group swimmers of 14-15 years is closer that of senior swimmers, with the exception that recovery

mechanisms are still very robust for the younger swimmers. As a general rule, these middle age groupers (particularly girls) will be able to absorb large volumes of work. Planning the desired emphasis of training volume and training intensity becomes the greatest challenge for the coach. The more talented swimmers will now be getting ready to make the transition to higher levels of competition. At this time the coach must be able to assess if there are significant weaknesses present in the swimmer’s training profile. In fact, at every stage of a swimmer’s development the coach must assess the relative strengths/weaknesses and plan to fill the gaps left from earlier stages or correct potential problems … i.e. before they become limitations for a senior swimmer. Training complexity is again expanded because competition objectives begin to narrow. During the early years of a swimmer’s career there is relatively equal emphasis on the development of all strokes and most competition distances; from the mid-teen years the swimmer begins to specialise more. The coach must respond with more specific programs every year, this requires more detailed planning. The complexity of objectives in the training program for senior swimmers and/or elite swimmers is enormous. Higher levels of competition create different demands on the swimmer in every aspect of performance … i.e. nutrition, mental skills, strength/flexibility, physiological preparation, technical preparation, etc. Although most coaches (particularly beginning coaches) do not train elite level swimmers, the training plans designed for these elite athletes are usually the ones every coach wants to study and emulate. Learning from the success or experience of others is important, but learning why and how those results were achieved is perhaps most important. Almost every elite swimmer can trace his/her training history through a similar process of successfully achieving age related training objectives. Planning, and seeing the whole picture, is the key to a coach’s success.


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THE INTEGRATED TRAINING MODEL The coach can effectively plan training if he/she has a model to follow. The Integrated Training Model conceptualises five ways in which a swimmer’s individual abilities are affected by training. The model directs the coach to plan training activities with… 1. An ever-present concern for the

development and application of optimal stroke technique and competition skills … i.e. pacing, starts, turns, etc.

2. The realisation that energy supply comes from three metabolic pathways; each responds to different training demands and all three must be continually developed and maintained

3. A knowledge that the impact of physical and psychological stress is interactive, neither can be ignored or separated from the other

4. An understanding of the changes which occur within the body as a response to the type and amount of stress … i.e. volume/intensity interactions

5. The acceptance of two basic principles … (1) stress-recovery-adaptation sequence, and (2) progressive overload

EARLY SEASON OBJECTIVES

At the start of any season the training objectives are… 1. To build a solid physiological base from

which more specific work can be constructed

2. To develop or consolidate the techniques and skills which are appropriate for that age/ability swimmer

3. To assess a number of general strengths or weaknesses and plan appropriate training strategies

Stroke technique and skills will be a primary objective during every phase of training, but perhaps more emphasis is placed on these at the start of a season. Increasing aerobic fitness will be the primary physiological objective, with pure speed and race speed as secondary objectives. Therefore, the types of training used most often during the early stages of a season should be aerobic base, aerobic endurance, and critical

speed (primary objective); maximum speed and sprint capacity (secondary objectives). The early season phase of a program might consist of only one or two larger training cycles. For example, the first cycle might be a general training period consisting of six smaller … i.e. weekly … cycles of successively increasing training volume. A variation on this might be two weeks of increasing volume, one-week reduction in volume … i.e. recovery week … repeated. Once the majority of swimmers begin to show signs of adaptation to general fitness training a second larger cycle (lets call this one an endurance training period) would follow. The pattern of increasing the overall training stress during successive smaller units of time … i.e. microcycles … or using a build-up/recovery pattern is repeated. Although endurance remains the main focus of the program, the relative amount of each type of training will change to meet the build-up or recovery demands within that cycle. Therefore, in this example early season might be defined as 12 weeks of training. Naturally the length of any one phase of the season is dependent upon the length of the total training season and the rate of adaptation … i.e. swimmers having a high level of fitness at the start of the cycle may not need a long general/endurance preparation phase. How do we know if the primary and secondary training objectives are being achieved? Repeated testing of various physiological capacities and race times help us to monitor the training program. A practical and useful system is to administer Test Sets that are specific to the training objectives.

Refer to the publication, “Bill Sweetenham’s Test Sets for Age and Youth Level Swimmers”, published

by ASCTA. Documenting improvements in training and racing performance should give the coach and swimmer confidence that the training plan is working. The coach should also administer relevant tests for each of the secondary objectives. If performance characteristics of secondary objectives decline substantially (in this case of an endurance phase of training the secondary objectives are maximum speed and sprint


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speed), then the coach may have placed too much emphasis on a single type of training. However, it’s also unrealistic to expect top sprint performance when concentrated endurance work remains major focus of training. A swimmer’s speed will be depressed somewhat, but this should respond to the cyclic nature of the training program … i.e. variation in the amount of recovery and sprinting in relation to endurance loads. A simple test of maximum speed, such as 6x25m on a 3-minute interval (easy swimming between efforts), should be administered regularly (even during endurance training periods). Changes in maximum speed are evaluated on the basis of the average time as well as the best time; some coaches vary this test by timing six repeat swims and recording the best four times.

MID-SEASON OBJECTIVES Mid-season might be loosely defined as the second major phase of the season, consisting of one or more large training cycles. The key to a successful progression in the training program is to maintain all the performance gains of earlier cycles, while building performance gains in other areas. During this phase of the season swimmers will participates in regular competitions. Depending upon the season’s objectives, the coach must plan training around or through these competitions. The characteristic feature of mid-season planning is the way the coach manipulates volume and intensity within the training program. It’s very likely that the training volume from week-to-week is sustained at a volume that is somewhat less than the peak volume reached when endurance was the focus. However, the overall training stress during mid-season is usually greater because volume and intensity variables have shifted. The progressive overload principle has been applied by increasing the total loading … i.e. stress … from one week to the next through a period of weeks, and then allowing a reduction in the loading … i.e. a short recovery cycle … to facilitate adaptation. The number of the progressive loading cycles planned will depend upon the ability of swimmers to recover sufficiently on a day-to-day basis. Generally, 2:1, 3:1, or sometimes 4:1 loading patterns … i.e. load: recovery cycles …

are used as a basis for planning. Composition of training during a recovery cycle must be carefully planned. It’s inefficient to simply rest passively, unless recovering from illness or injury. As a general rule the volume of work during a recovery cycle is set at 50-60% of the volume of previous loading cycles, but the content of the program is such that residual fatigue … i.e. lingering fatigue from one session to the next … is greatly reduced or eliminated. The recovery week will contain fast swimming or quality swimming, as long as the overall amount of stress is reduced. Mid-season objectives are evaluated from competition results as well as test sets. It’s valuable for coaches to record more information than just an overall race time to assess progress in various technical/tactical areas. Race specific variables such as… 1. Time from the starting signal until the

swimmer’s head passes the 15m mark. 2. Stroke count and stroke rate during each

25m segment of a race. 3. Split times to judge pacing. 4. Turn time … i.e. as the head passes under

the backstroke flags until the head passes the same point on the return lap.

5. Time and distance underwater at the start and off each turn (this is particularly important for Breaststrokers).

6. Finish time … i.e. from the flags to the wall.

Because the intensity of training increases during the mid-season phase, the coach must be acutely aware of how day-to-day training objectives are programmed. There will be several concurrent types of training programmed into each session and sequenced into the microcycle. Some of the training outcomes will produce residual fatigue effects, and if repeated too often these high stress training methods may overcome the swimmer’s ability to recover. This is not to say that full recovery is always desirable from one training session to the next … i.e. the progressive overload principle must be applied. However, coaches must monitor short-term recovery while scheduling training loads that will stimulate adaptation to higher levels of performance.


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LATE SEASON OBJECTIVES Naturally, the overall focus of any season’s training is the performances achieved in the end. The final phase of a season consists of at least one larger cycle(s) to conclude the preparation. The final cycle of this phase is known as a TAPER, during which swimmers must be ready to perform to their full potential. The function of a taper cycle, which may include two, three, four or more weeks, is to allow the athlete’s body to over-compensate by… 1. Increasing rest and opportunities for

regeneration of muscle tissue. 2. Mentally focusing on peak performance. 3. Allowing adaptations to the mechanisms

involved in energy production. The physiological outcomes during the taper reflect complex training effects. As mentioned earlier, young age-group swimmers should follow a very simple pattern of training objectives. Therefore, it’s probably not necessary for the coach to plan a detailed taper for swimmers under the age of 10 years. During the rapid growth years (usually ages 10-12 for girls, possibly a year older for boys) the taper cycle may be more of a rehearsal for future years than a specific benefit to the current state of competition readiness. Swimmers at this age generally recover quickly and completely during a relatively short period of time … i.e. 1-2 weeks, for example. Long taper periods used on junior athletes effectively reduce the amount of training time available during the season. It’s better to use the available time … i.e. number of training weeks during the season … to lengthen either the preparation or specific training phases. Swimmers participating in the full taper process will require progressively more rest during each microcycle of the taper. The coach must be cautious that a reduction in total training volume does not represent the elimination of lower intensity aerobic swimming. Fitness must be maintained throughout the taper. Too great a reduction in aerobic loads may result in the proportion of high intensity swimming becoming too great (as part of the total training load). High intensity or quality swimming must remain in the training program throughout the taper; however, the volume of

this high stress work is gradually reduced and recovery between stresses becomes more complete. Although the coach has given detailed attention to stroke technique and race strategy throughout the season, these skills are refined during the taper. Some elements of the training program, such as specific strength training exercises, are eliminated during the taper because the affects of this training should already have been realised. Other elements, such as stretching and mental skills training, continue at the same loading. Key training sets involving high to very-high intensity are either reduced in volume or modified so that recovery between individual swims is enhanced. Swimmers who train twice daily usually progressively reduce (in each week of the taper) the number of training sessions attended. In most cases the early morning sessions are eliminated to allow more rest. This is a good strategy, provided the swimmer doesn’t compensate by staying up late at night or sacrificing the quality rest opportunity that a recovery morning presents. In the lead-up to big competitions it’s necessary to be able to swim fast in the morning heats and therefore, complete elimination of morning training sessions may be counterproductive. Because the objectives of a taper are so complex, there are numerous considerations that must be addressed by the coach.

Two excellent articles appearing in past ASCTA Journals are: “Leave Nothing to Chance” by Bill Sweetenham, and “A Model 14-Day Taper: The

Transition from Training to Racing” by David Pyne.

TRANSITION PERIODS At the end of a season or championship competition, a transition period exists. Current evidence suggests that complete rest … i.e. no swim training at all … is a less effective option than a specific transition-training program. The greatest stressors during and following a major competition are psychological, not physical. The physiological adaptations made during a season will gradually be lost if no fitness work is done. Therefore, the primary training objective must be to mentally refresh the swimmer while providing a sufficient training load. Remember that once a high level of aerobic fitness is achieved, the training load required to retain minimum race fitness becomes much less.


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During a post taper period the coach should schedule 1-2 weeks of low intensity aerobic work, mixed with sets of short sprints (the number of sessions per week being 50-60% of the peak season load) as a transition into the next training cycle. The psychological needs of the swimmer may also be satisfied by introducing novel and interesting alternative training activities. If swimmers require a more complete break from the pool, the coach may introduce cross-training as an alternative to limited pool training. Cross-training is non-specific training that includes a variety of sports activities outside the pool. In this context cross-training has two major objectives… 1. Maintenance of aerobic fitness 2. Increase in overall muscular strength Some caution should be exercised to insure swimmers protect themselves from potential injury in sports where they may not be highly skilled. Otherwise, active participation in other sports will help to refresh the swimmer mentally, and maintain the swimmer physically. EXAMPLES OF MICROCYCLE PLANNING

It would be impossible to illustrate every combination of training … i.e. based upon age, maturity, ability, and training phase of the season … suitable within a weekly plan. However, based upon the principles outlined in this article a few examples of weekly training plans are presented. The possible composition of individual training sets is infinite and therefore no specific examples are given. The key objectives relevant to training session design are presented as either a major or minor focus of each session plan.

The reader must look at the design concept of the cycle, rather than the literal illustration. For example, some programs may not have access to the pool on certain days or other programs may use Saturday

and Sunday more completely in scheduling sessions. Figures 1-9 illustrate various planning models typical of a particular training phase for different age swimmers. Note that examples having two rows indicate both morning and afternoon sessions on that day. Definitions of the individual types of training … i.e. Aerobic

Base, Critical Velocity, Sprint, Speed, etc. … may vary from one source to another, those used the examples are drawn from a general coaching reference. The types of training illustrated in the examples are

identified in ASI’s current textbook, Coaching Swimming – An Introductory Manual.

There are six basic components of training for young swimmers … i.e. Technique & Skills, Aerobic Base, Aerobic Endurance, Maximum Speed, Sprint Speed, and Race Practice … that continue throughout the training year. These variables will be manipulated somewhat during the season to first build endurance (using good technique) and then maintain that endurance with additional speed (using good technique). However, the basic model does not change too much. An additional session may be added during school holiday periods. Training is generally conducted once per day and in the afternoon, but individual circumstances will dictate the exact weekly schedule. The training components for 10/11-year-old swimmers are basically the same as for younger swimmers, except that the volume and frequency of training will increase. During mid-season the training program can be manipulated to incorporate race practice (usually on Friday night or during the weekend) as part of the regular schedule. As the end of the season approaches, the morning training sessions might be discontinued to allow additional rest. Afternoon sessions are generally more productive than morning sessions; however, if a full day of rest precedes a morning session, then young swimmers will be able to handle the accumulated stress better. During school holiday periods the frequency of morning training sessions may also increase. When competitions extend through Saturday and Sunday the Monday morning session will be rescheduled for mid-week. Remember that swimmers at this age have high energy levels and quick recovery ability, but school and other factors must be considered when planning the training program. There is little or no change to the weekly schedule during the lead-up to a major competition, except that some training volume may be sacrificed to allow more complete recovery between sessions.


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During the mid-season phase a pattern of training sessions (see Figure 5) allows two successive sessions … i.e. morning-afternoon of the same day or afternoon-morning of consecutive days … then a break … i.e. either a morning or afternoon’s rest … as the pattern repeats itself. Some coaches prefer to schedule training on the basis of a 10 or 14 day microcycle to allow this stress-recovery cycle to repeat several times. The number of sessions containing more intense work as a primary objective will increase if sufficient endurance is achieved during early season training. During a Taper Period it’s important at this age to keep the overall training volume at a reasonable level … i.e. probably not less than 50% of peak microcycle volume earlier in the season. Training sets that require high sub-maximal or maximal effort are shorter, while the majority of aerobic work is completed at moderate-to-low intensity. The number and complexity of training sessions increases for older age-group and senior swimmers. Those Age Group swimmers who may be slow to adapt to the program, or do not wish to commit to a full-on training load, will probably remain at seven sessions (±1) per week. It’s not unusual for late developing swimmers to delay the increase in total workload … i.e. as defined by the number of training sessions per week … and still continue to improve performance. From about ages 14-15 training sets that produce very high residual fatigue are introduced into the program. These key sets are always the primary objective of the session. It’s also desirable to achieve high velocity performance from secondary training sets, but the total stress must be controlled (otherwise it becomes the major emphasis of the session). Therefore, maximum speed and sprint training may be used effectively as secondary training objectives early in the season and primary objectives during mid and late season. The training patterns illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 will be similar to those used by elite swimmers. The sequencing of successive training sessions is used to build up an overload stress,

and then recovery work (or a different training emphasis) is used to reduce the stress and allow adaptation. Although eight or nine sessions per week appear to be a huge training load, it’s still part of a career training progression. Accomplished age-group swimmers will have higher training demands to meet when they aspire to elite level competition. Elite swimmers may train 10 or 11 sessions per week, and this does not include specialist gym sessions. As you can see, the complexity of planning appropriate stress-recovery cycles is enormous.

SUMMARY The discussion of planning has focused on the pool training elements of a program. However, many other elements of training and education must be added to the coach’s plan, these include program areas such as strength and flexibility training, mental skills training, self-management skills … i.e. recovery practices, etc. … nutrition and drugs education. Some of these program components may take place away from the pool environment and some will be constantly reinforced as part of regular coach – swimmer interaction. The coach must learn to plan every aspect of the program so that nothing is excluded or neglected. Beginning coaches usually know what should be done, but they sometimes fail to adequately plan so that all aspects of the program are implemented. References • Counsilman J. & Counsilman B. “The

Residual Effects of Training” Journal of Swimming Research, Vol.7 No.1, 1991 (reprinted in Swimming in Australia, September-October 1999).

• Pyne D. “The Specificity of Training – A Fresh Look at an Old Principle: Using Aerobic Training to Improve both Aerobic and Anaerobic Fitness” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.11, No.7, 1995.

• Pyne D. “A Model 14 Day Taper: The Transition from Training to Racing” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.11, No.11, 1995.


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• Pyne D. & Goldsmith W. “Speed Development in Swimmers: Total Condition Training” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.12, No.3, 1996.

• Richards R. “The ‘Aerobic Base’ Concept (the much talked about, but misunderstood basis for training prescription)” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.12, No.2, 1996.

• Richards R. “Training for Aerobic Improvements – training at MAX VO2 may, or may not, be the best methodology” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.13, No.3, 1997.

• Richards R. “ASI Multi-Year Age-Group Swimmer Development Model” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.13, No.1, 1997.

• Richards R. “Building Conceptual Models: Linking Scientific Principles to Coaching Practice” Swimming in Australia (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association) Vol.15, No.2, 1999.

• Sweetenham W. “Leave Nothing to Chance: A Model for Race Preparation of Advanced Age Group Swimmers” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.12, No.4, 1996.

• Sweetenham W. “An Endurance Training Progression for Maturation – Elite Level Age Groupers” Australian Swim Coach (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association) Vol.13, No.6, 1997

• Sweetenham W. “Break Point Volume” Swimming in Australia (Journal of the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association) Vol.15, No.4, 1999.

• Tanaka H. “Effects of Cross-Training: Transfer of Training Effects on VO2 Max between Cycling, Running and Swimming” Sports Medicine, Vol.18, No.5, 1994.

Figure 1 Microcycle for 10/Under Season Training (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Monday Tue Wednesday Thu Friday Saturday 1. Stroke Technique

& Skills 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Sprint Speed 1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

1. Race Practice Swims with Technique & Skill 2. Aerobic Base

Figure 2 Microcycle for 10-11 (+ 1 year) Swimmers Early Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Rest Day

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Stroke Technique & Skills 1. Sprint

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Aerobic Base

1. Aerobic Base 2. Sprint 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Max Speed

1. Sprint 2. Stroke Technique & Skills 1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed

1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed 1. Sprint 2. Stroke Technique & Skills


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Figure 3 Microcycle for 10-11 (+ 1 year) Swimmers Mid-Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Aerobic Base

2. Sprint 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Max Speed

Rest Day or

Swim Meet

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Stroke Technique & Skills 1. Max Speed

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Endurance 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Max Speed

1. Max Speed 2. Aerobic Endurance 1. Aerobic Base

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Base 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

1. Race Practice with Good Technique 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

Figure 4 Microcycle for Girls Age 12 and Boys Age 13 (± 1 year) Early Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Aerobic

Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Base

Rest Day

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

Technique Session at

various speeds


1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Base 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Max Speed

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed 2. Stroke Technique & Skills

Figure 5 Microcycle for Girls Age 12 and Boys Age 13 (± 1 year) Mid-Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Aerobic Base

2. Sprint 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

1. Max Speed with Great Technique 2. Aerobic Base 1. Sprint

Swim Meet

on some Weekends

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Endurance 1. Stroke Technique & Skills 2. Max Speed

1. Peak Lactate 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed 2. Stroke Technique & Skills

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

Figure 6 Microcycle for Girls Age 12 and Boys Age 13 (± 1 year) Taper Phase (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Critical Velocity

2. Aerobic Recovery 1. Speed

1. Skills & Technique 2. Aerobic Recovery 1. Sprint

Competition

1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Base 1.Skills & Technique

1. Race Simulation 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Base

1. Race Simulation 2. Aerobic Recovery 1. Max Speed 2. Skills


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Figure 7 Microcycle for 14/Older Age-Group Swimmers Early Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Aerobic

Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Stroke Technique

Rest

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base

1. Aerobic Endurance

Rest

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Base 2. Stroke Technique

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Sprint Rest

1. Max VO2 or Lactate

Tolerance

2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Stroke Technique & Skills 1. Max Speed

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Sprint

Rest

Figure 8 Microcycle for 14/Older Age-Group Swimmers Mid-Season (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Critical

Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Stroke Technique & Skills

Rest

1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Endurance Rest

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Max Speed 1. Aerobic Base


1. Sprint 2. Aerobic Endurance 1. Max Speed 2. Stroke Technique

1. Max VO2 or Lactate Tolerance 1. Aerobic Base 2. Max Speed

1. Aerobic Endurance 2. Stroke Technique 1. Max Speed

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Base 1. Sprint 2. Stroke Technique

1. Peak Lactate And/or Race Pace 2. Aerobic Base 1. Max Speed

Rest or Modify Saturday Program to Fit With Swim Meet

Figure 9 Microcycle for 14/Older Age-Group Swimmers Taper Phase (Primary and Secondary Objectives)

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1. Speed

2. Aerobic Base 1. Skills & Technique

1. Race Simulation 2. Skills 1. Aerobic Recovery

Competition

1. Critical Velocity 2. Aerobic Recovery 1. Skills

1. Sprint 2. Skills & Technique 1. Aerobic Base

1. Aerobic Endurance 1. Skills & Technique

1. Race Simulation 2. Speed 1. Aerobic Base

1. Speed 2. Aerobic Recovery 1. Skills & Technique


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AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING INC. – MULTI-YEAR AGE GROUP SWIMMER DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Age 8 + 1 year 10 + 2 years Girls 12/Boys 13 +1year 14 + 2 years Training Period 2 years 2 years 2-3 years 3-5 years

Pool Land Pool Land Pool Land Pool Land 2-4

Sessions 1-2

Sessions 3-5

Sessions 2 Sessions 4-6 Sessions

2-3 Sessions

6-10 Sessions

2-3 Sessions

Training Time per Week

40min-1hr 15-25 min 1-1¼ hr 20-30min 1¼-1½ hr 30-45 min 1½-2 hr 45min-1hr Volume/ Session 0.75-2km 2-3.5km 3.5-6km 4-8km *

(* During some developmental stages, girls will be capable of handling a greater volume of training than boys, due to an advanced rate of maturation.)

Yearly Training 24-30 weeks 30-36 weeks 36-44 weeks 40-46 weeks Volume (Pool) 75-250km 250-500km 500-1000kms 1000-2500kms

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Technique all strokes

Racing Skills starts, turns,

pace Aerobic

Endurance Sculling Drills Speed at 25-

50m Simple

Training Sets and Games

Flexibility General Body

Strength Movement

Coordination Group

Activities

Technique Racing Skills

Aerobic Endurance

Speed (<50m) and

Acceleration Greater mix of

Training Methods

Increase Strength to

Body Weight Ratio Even

Development of all muscle

groups Flexibility

Improve ‘core’ body strength

Technique Increased Volume

Racing Skills Speed (<50m)

and Acceleration

Introduce some Intense Interval

Training

Musculo-Skeletal

Assessment Body Weight

Exercises and Simple Gym Equipment

Flexibility and Body Strength

Increase Volume and Intensity of

Training Integrated Training Model

Begin to Specialise

Perfect Technique and Skills

Periodise Strength Program

Transfer Power into Swimming Performance

Cross Training Activities Maintain Flexibility

MOTOR LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Develop a feel for the water, the ability to make corrections in

movement patterns. Learn the technical skills of all

four strokes. Develop general body

coordination and strength. Learn good habits for maintaining and improving natural flexibility.

Learn to maintain correct technique on longer

(submaximal) swims. Learn to maintain correct

technique on short sprints.

Improve stroke technique and learn race skills (such as turns,

starts, pacing, and acceleration).

Consolidate stroke development.

Improve conditioning components of endurance and speed while maintaining stroke

technique. Develop simple race strategy

and tactics.

Maintain efficient technique as body proportions change.

Accommodate increases in muscle strength to improve

swimming efficiency. Retain diversity of performance

goals (compete in various stroke events and distances).

Improve both steady pace and sprint performance using ideal stroke technique (all strokes).

Adapt to diverse training methods. Refine stroke technique during all speeds and intensity of swimming.

Apply strength and power to swimming performance. Specialise in strokes and

competition distances. Retain range of motion and muscular coordination at all

swimming speeds. Refine race skills (starts and turns,

tactics, pace, etc.). Learn to ‘taper’ for peak

performance.

KNOWLEDGE & ATTITUDES

Enjoyment of pool and land based activities.

Learn to function as an individual within a group activity.

Become familiar with rules and competitive situations.

Learn about stroke technique and training methods.

Enjoyment of pool and land based activities.

Become part of the club, team, squad culture.

Develop habits which support an active, healthy lifestyle. Begin to function with less

direct supervision and make positive decisions regarding

training compliance.

Enjoyment of swimming activities and desire for personal

improvement. Broader knowledge of training

methods and the resulting performance outcomes.

Improved personal management skills (balancing training, school

and social objectives). Develop self-discipline and increasing commitment to

swimming.

Enjoyment of the process (i.e. goal setting) and product (i.e.

attainment of results) of sports participation.

Understanding and practicing performance management skills (such as good nutrition, recovery techniques, mental skills, etc.).

Independence (i.e. working with a coach and support personnel, but

taking responsibility for self). Improved personal skills (including

education and vocational objectives).

COMPETITION OBJECTIVES

Have fun and learn to participate without anxiety or

distraction. Personal improvement (in both

performance and skill) and enjoyment should be

recognised and reinforced.

Club level competitions leading up to State competitions (i.e.

school or age group). Skill development, improvement and number of events swum are the

most important goals.

Club and State level competition (age group). Performance goals should be evaluated regularly as they apply to both training and

competition. Each race opportunity is used as a learning experience.

State and National (age group) performance goals. Competition in ‘open’ events as ability improves.

Selection of events begins to focus on stroke and distance. Race

strategies and mental skills are perfected.

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