ASCA 2009 World Clinic Report _2_ - Scottish Swimming

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Coach 2 Win - 2 - Scottish Swimming

American Swimming Coaches Association

22000099 WWoorrlldd CClliinniicc Fort Lauderdale, USA ~ 8-13 September 2009

Chuck Wielgus (CEO, US Swimming)

Opening Keynote Address

This talk opened the conference and was introduced by George Block, a Past-President of

ASCA. George noted that when Chuck was appointed to US Swimming several years ago,

he was asked to deliver on three things: (1) develop a world class staff as US Swimming;

(2) focus on clubs; and, (3) get swimming on television. George concluded that Chuck

promised he could do it, but has actually over-delivered.

The Business of Swimming

• Chuck stated that we are currently living in a historic time for the sport of

swimming, a time that brings massive opportunities, but one where there are

also many big challenges.

• Swimming is now the premier Olympic sport, having gradually ascended to that

from 2000-2008 (overtaking athletics and gymnastics). Chuck expressed that the

morning finals issue in Beijing, whilst very unpopular in the rest of the world,

actually contributed a lot towards swimming’s popularity, particularly in

America.

• Chuck discussed the 2016 Olympics and the upcoming IOC decision in October

regarding the host. With America putting up Chicago, it will be expected that

Barack Obama will attend the voting ceremony, and will therefore be crucial in

determining whether USA will be successful. If Chicago does win, it will be a

huge boost to keep swimming on the up.

• Chuck explained that in his eyes, and the eyes of all of his staff at US Swimming,

coaches are the key component of the sport. He discussed that swimmers move

through ‘the system’ of swimming but how coaches are ‘the system’. He noted

that more support needs to be given to coaches and clubs because we must all

recognise that it is coaches (and clubs) who make athletes, not national

governing bodies.

• After Athens 2004, US Swimming started the US Swimming Foundation as a

charitable organisation which gets involved in learn to swim throughout the

nation. The Foundation raises money to support the teaching of swimming to

all, especially the minority groups who have very little opportunity to learn. He

was clear that the Foundation and US Swimming the NGB do not try to take over

or replace the organisations who deliver swimming lessons, but rather they


support them. So far the Foundation has raised $12m, including a $4m donation

from a single sponsor.

• The average number of competitive swimmers in a USA swimming club is

currently 106, up from 95 a year ago.

• The retention rate of swimmers in the sport is currently 73%, well above the

typical youth sports average of 60%.

• In the past few years, the ratio of girls to boys in the sport has been moving

closer to parity. It currently stands at 57% girls to 43% boys, which is a vast

improvement on 67% girls, 33% boys just a few years ago.

• US Swimming staff make a concerted effort to perform on-site club visits, at

which they meet coaches, staff, officials, parents and endeavour to help the club

achieve its aims. So far in 2009, they have conducted over 500 individual club

visits, and they typically visit 20% of all registered clubs every year.

• US Swimming now uses professional event organising companies to run its

national events and major swim meets. The objective is to create a

‘championship’ atmosphere, and TV coverage whenever possible. They also aim

to have a different main headline sponsor for each big meet.

• US Swimming obviously have their main website which is used for information

for members, but now also run a separate site (swimnetwork.com) specifically

for swimming entertainment for anyone interested.

The Future of Swimming

• A major fear in the sport for US Swimming is sexual misconduct of coaches and

teachers. Chuck noted that this issue cannot be ignored, instead it must be

talked about and addressed.

• Chuck is concerned but admits that we must accept that in the future, it is very

likely that more and more college programmes (especially Division 1 schools) will

cut their swimming teams, with men’s teams likely to suffer more than women’s.

However, the full effect of this may not be felt for 15-20 years. All current

college coaches need to be working hard right now to find the funds to support

and endow their programmes.

• Another threat to the sport is that high schools and park districts are increasingly

closing down pools, or cutting back opening hours.

• Clubs need to be clever and proactive with this in mind. It could mean additional

club mergers, increased public/private partnerships, additional links with

specialist business leaders, coaches sharing athletes winnings, improved and

additional ‘bridging’ programmes between learn to swim lessons and clubs, and

looking to successful sports club models in Europe.

• Chuck expressed that he believes clubs who will be successful in the future will

be ones who are funding their programmes through vibrant lessons and teaching

grass roots swimming.


This was an excellent opening talk for the conference, which we felt provided many

lessons to swimming organisations and governing bodies back in the UK. In particular,

the emphasis on NGB’s supporting clubs and coaches were paramount. This was the first

time we have ever heard an NGB administrative leader state that coaches are what

makes the sport exist. It was refreshing to see that the world’s leading swimming

organisation gives its primary priorities to clubs and coaching, something that we have

often found to be distinctly lacking in the UK.

Michael Bohl (Head Coach, St Peters Western, Australia)

The Preparation of Stephanie Rice for Beijing 2008

Michael Bohl was 2008 Australian Coach of the Year after coaching Stephanie Rice to

double gold at the Olympic Games. The presentation was aimed at providing

information in how Stephanie became the double Olympic champion, particularly in the

final 12 months prior to Beijing. It did provide a good insight into this, but some of the

information was more valuable than other parts, and there were several wasted minutes

that were largely irrelevant to the subject matter.

• So many things can go wrong when you are at the big meet. In the evening heats

for the 400 on day one in Beijing, Stephanie said she had a sore shoulder during

the warm-up. The morning finals the next day it was worse. During the 200

semi-final session, she got a tickly throat and stuffy nose. The next day two

hours before the final she was crying with the doctor. Michael couldn’t get her

to stop as she wanted to win and thought it was all going wrong.

• Stephanie joined Michael aged 15 as primarily a 100 fly and backstroke

swimmer, but Michael thought she should direct herself towards the IMs.

• Made continued progression from 05-08 in most of her events.

• At Melbourne 07 Worlds she learned that she needed to make a big

improvement in starts, turns, breaststroke and racing strategy. Hoff had a 3

second advantage over Stephanie in start/turns on the 400 IM, and a 6 second

advantage on the breaststroke split.

• Brs technique: hands did not press out enough and were too far apart during

recovery; legs were too wide on the outward arc.

Key points in 12 months to Beijing:

• Sept – Dec: Average volume was 70-75km per week (10 sessions). Plus 2 weights

sessions, 3 dryland workouts (med ball, body weight exercises etc), and 2-3 stair

runs per week. Recovery on demand, not specifically planned in.

• Jan-Mar: Average volume was 50-55km per week (9 sessions). Plus 2 weights, 4

dryland, and 2 running sessions (stair and flat) per week. Recovery on demand.

Running was done to keep her weight down – Sept to March she lost about 3 kg.

• Olympic Trials in March she broke the WR for 200 and 400 IM.


• April-August: Average volume was 60-70km. Competition strategy – 5 day

competition (length of time it would take in Beijing to do both 400 and 200 IM).

Swam Rome 7 Hills Meet and Mare Nostrum Barcelona Meet to get this 5 day

racing back to back, and did a very tough 9 day camp in France before this.

Typical Mid-Season Weekly Programme for Stephanie Rice in the year prior to Beijing

2008

DAY A.M. P.M.

Mon Descend set, e.g. 9x300 on

4:30 (7.5k)

Threshold (HR20-30bbm),

e.g. 4 (4x100, 1x200, 100

easy)

Tue IM set, 2.4k on 45 base

cycle (6k)

Lac Accumulation, e.g.

16x50 on 1:30

Wed Sleep in day Pull/Kick set, e.g. 30x100

Thu Stroke groups, mixed drills

(5k)

Lac Production/Removal,

e.g. 4 (4x50 on 1:30, 1:20,

1:10, 1:00, then 3x100 on

1:40, 200 easy)

Fri Swim, Kick, Pull (5k) Aerobic and skills (starts,

turns, finishes)

Sat Broken swims, e.g. 8x50, or

50, 3x100, 50 (7k) Off

Some other key points that contributed to Stephanie’s success:

• Alan Thompson (Australian NPD) who gave the support and logistics to do trips

and camps, and the support of the other Australian Team Coaches

• Support staff – massage therapists, physios etc

• St Peters Western training environment – other swimmers (boys) to race against.

• She has a great work and training ethic and is excellent at winning a close finish.

Michael Bohl (Head Coach, St Peters Western, Australia)

The Programme at St Peters Western

Michael was well rested and informative during his second presentation. He dealt

factually with the set up of his programme that is primarily a school programme with a

club programme running alongside but distinctly separate. The programmes are run in


two facilities situated about 150m apart on the school grounds. The junior section of the

programme is run in an 8 lane 25m pool and the senior section in a 9 lane 50m facility.

Michael felt it was very difficult to get the best out of his programme as he had to use

two facilities and could not therefore best utilise the senior role-models within the

groups.

Philosophy

• There are many ways to skin a cat.

• Seek out new information and ask of those who are experienced (successful).

• Understand Technique – Identify area for improvement – Implement change

early.

• (At this point Michael highlighted one of the upcoming stars of his programme

“Yolane Kukla” a young swimmer with a gymnastics background who he believes

will be one of the future stars of world swimming, she goes 55 for 100 free LC at

age 13.)

School Programme

• Primary – 4 to 12yrs

• Train approx 4-6months of the year (Sept - Mar)

• Compete in Primary/Interschool/District/Regional/Queensland/Australian

Champs – all run by Schools Association

• Secondary (Sept/Oct - Mar)

• Similar to Primary

• Pre-season camp (builds team unity)

• Friday night meets

St Peters Western - LTS & Junior Programme

• Head Coach – Russell Haug (58) has 30 yrs of LTS and junior coaching experience.

• LTS runs Nov-Feb in the 25m facility

• Junior Section has 40-50 swimmers

• 3 levels of development from 2 to 5 sessions

• Works on Overload Principles

• Technically based – focus on distance per stroke

• IM based

• Kick is a cornerstone to the programme (do it – do it hard – do it loads)

• Fun is key – Dryland training is essential

• Low Level Competition Focus

St Peters Western – Intermediate & Senior Programme

• Head Coach – Michael Bohl (47) 22yrs experience

• Assistant Coaches – Mike Palfrey (26) full time assistant, Louise Raven (23) part

time, Peter Dawson (29) part time.

• 2 Levels – more work (volume and intensity)


• 6 to 9 sessions per week

• Dryland training increases

• IM Training with a little more focus on own stroke.

Within the programme swimmers are brought up on the concept of self-regulation. This

means that they are responsible for the work they put in and the results they get out.

They are responsible for looking after themselves in and out of the pool, both at, and

away from the training environment. The swimmers are encouraged to take ownership

of their results and so invest themselves into the process of improvement.

• Michael believes that Imagination, Variety, Challenge, Explanation, Simplicity

and Hard Work = Success.

• His programme is operated by a very motivated and organised club committee

who are responsible for: Registration of athletes; Meet Entry Administration;

Fundraising; Club Clothing; Social Events; Club Night

• The club tag line is: SWIMMER FOCUSED – COACH DRIVEN –

ADMINISTRATIVELY SUPPORTED. It was very clear that the function of the

committee was to support the coach–athlete dynamic and not to interfere. A

point to which he laboured.

Michael spoke of a very common sense approach to running his programme. It was

interesting to note that the programme had 3 full-time coaching staff and a number of

assistants – this would be very unusual to see in a programme of similar size back in the

UK. Everything that was spoken about was punctuated with the mantra of HARD WORK

and this ethos seemed to pervade everything that Michael spoke of.

Eddie Reese (Head Coach, University of Texas)

Training: What types of sets stress each system

Eddie Reese coaches numerous world class athletes at UT, including Piersol, Walters,

Berens, Shanteau. He was keen to point out that 90-95% of their success is down to

themselves, and he, the coach, just helps with the remaining 5-10%. Whilst the topic of

the talk was about training sets for each system, Eddie seemed to focus in on how to

improve the aerobic ability of a swimmer. He included information for swimmers from

age group to senior level but kept moving between the two of these without clearly

explaining so. The presentation was delivered smoothly and energetically, but it would

have benefitted from a clearer structure and more specific information on what works

for each level of swimmer.


• There is a physical equation for success, of which the biggest component is

aerobic training.

• With young/beginner swimmers, everything you do makes them better. Fast,

long, slow, kick, just get in the pool. It’s not your programme that makes them

faster, it’s simply working out.

• Improving aerobic ability in seniors who have already developed a good aerobic

capacity in former years, requires a targeted improvement in stroke volume.

This means swimming at HR 160-180 with 10-15 rest over repeated swims.

Some swimmers will respond on 100s, others might need up to 200s. Different

swimmers need different amounts too.

• Eddie starts his seasons gently and builds up gradually, and likes to include a lot

of freestyle kick for everyone (for aerobic development) early in the season. He

likes to do 2000 yd kick sets in every practice in first 4-5 months of the season.

• Do what it takes to get better. Do more, do it better.

• Good aerobic set for kids: 5 min swim / 4 min kick / 3 min swim / 2 min kick / 1

min swim. Measure distance travelled, record and compare.

• Breath control in sets can give additional improvement to aerobic development.

Weber-Gale, 3 breaths per 25 in 100 yard free. Kizerowski, 1 breath in last 25 of

all his 100 frees.

• Something forever and for all: 100s in 20 mins, 15 secs rest, determine a

constant interval. Build up to 100s in 30, 40, 50, 60 mins.

• Aerobic development most improved in 12-15 age range, all swimmers should be

400 IM and 1500 freestylers during that phase, with a constant focus on

technique at all times. Workload should be increased each year.

• Don’t focus on race times in younger swimmers, and don’t be put off track with

your training plan due to someone going fast.

• Swimming does not allow you to make changes in the easier direction (apart

from some very short term gains), easier changes will not lead to sustained and

continued success/improvement.

Eddie Reese (Head Coach, University of Texas)

Strength: How to get stronger in each level.

This was a straight forward guide to training across the age ranges delivered amongst

some entertaining, if somewhat irrelevant yarns and anecdotes. The basic guide was a

useful starting point for developing strength over a multi-year programme.

10 & Under

• Sit ups, crunches, pull ups, drop downs, horizontal ladder (monkey bars)

• Safety first

• Technique essential

• Rock wall and running encouraged


11 – 12 yrs

• Swimming

• Tethered swimming (15-30seconds)

• Sit ups, push ups, pull ups, dips, horizontal ladder

• Safety first



13 – 14 yrs

• Swim with equipment (tubes, paddles, parachutes, buckets – whatever)

• Sit ups, push ups, pull ups, dips, rope climbs

• Safety first



15 – 17 yrs

• Swim with equipment (tubes, paddles, parachutes, buckets – whatever)

• Dryland and/or weight room

Requirements to lift weights

• 40+ good push ups in 1min

• 80-100 sit ups in 2 min

• 5-8 pull ups

• 12-15 dips

In the Gym

• Keep reps high (12-20) “Be Safe”

• Good Technique

• NEVER DO SINGLE REP MAX WORK

• Bench, Lat Pulls, Leg Press, Dips, Leg Extension, Curls, Horizontal Rows, Sit Ups

(Surgical Tubing)

Out of Water Taper

• Distance swimmers and most girls continue longer

• 3 wks or longer (up to 9wks??)

• Taper is shaped by length difficulty and consistency of practices over season

Eddie purports the values of strength training using a variety of methods. He maintains

that it is tough to do individually but is important and that it is important that

consistency is maintained throughout the season. Athletes’ strength may seem to

diminish as the water work gets more difficult but they are still getting stronger!!


Dr Dave Salo (Head Coach, University Southern California)

If I can do this anyone can...

Dave Salo’s philosophy on coaching has often been considered as going against the

conventional methods, in particular 20 years ago he was challenging the need for a big

aerobic base. He was viewed as a sprint coach initially but in reality has coached

Olympic medallists in a whole range of events from sprint to distance, from free to form

strokes. His swimmers have included Jason Lezak, Aaron Piersol, Ous Melloulli, Larsen

Jensen, Amanda Beard, Lenny Krayzelburg, Rebecca Soni and Keri Heyn.

• Clinics: Everything I learned about swimming I learned at the bar talking to other

coaches. Go to the bar, run with Jon, take a coach to lunch, hint hint! Validate,

motivate, inspire.

• All the coaches here have the ability to coach the next Michael Phelps, you just

have to be inspired and motivated to get the job done.

Training Principles

• Be innovative and interesting

• Train ‘hard’ and fast

• Be engaged

• Have ‘fun’ and care

• Ous Mellouilli has not done a straight 1500m in practice in the three years he has

been at USC. He has done lots of race pace, some 400s and 600s drilling, but no

long straight swims.

• Make your training so interesting that it passes before you know it.

Dave Salo’s Useful Reading List

• The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

• Team of Rivals – Doris Kerns Goodwin

• The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle

• Firms of Endearment – David Wolfe

• Tribes – Seth Godin

• How Soccer Explains the World – Franklin Foer

• Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

• Re distance swimming – Dave tells his distance recruits that they need to trust

him because his training methods will not be what they are traditionally used to.

• Believes you have to train at the specific race speed (e.g. Melloulli 58.0 to feet

reps).

• Thinks you have to listen to your (senior) athletes and what they want. Have

trust in your (senior) athletes as well as them trusting you.


• Coaching skill is motivating athletes who are motivatable.

• Dave much prefers short course training to long course as it allows him to be

more creative. Aaron Piersol broke his first world record in 2002 without having

been in a long course pool in the whole of that preceding season.

• It doesn’t matter where you coach, you can get it done!

• Still doesn’t believe in the aerobic base or over-distance training. Dave believes

age group swimmers should learn how to repeat the essential race and stroke

skills as a priority. Teaching the movement pattern, and eventually doing this at

race speed. Start training them at 13/14+.

• You can’t help but train all the systems, as you can’t have aerobic without

anaerobic, or vice versa.

• Doesn’t worry about how many yards are in a session. Just trains fast from day

one of the season, in sessions up to 2 hours long.

• Doesn’t write workouts down, and assistant coaches don’t know what the

session is going to be beforehand. Just goes with what he feels is right for the

swimmers on that day, based on his principles and the direction he wants to go

in. *

* It is important to note that Dave does this with a huge knowledge base - he has a Phd

Doctorate in Exercise Physiology and has worked with many of the great American

coaches over a number of decades of coaching experience.

Sergio Lopez (Head Coach, Bolles School, Florida)

What makes Bolles School successful

Bolles School is in Jacksonville, Florida and has consistently proved itself as one of the

leading school, age and youth swimming programmes in America. It attracts many of

the top high school swimmers in America, as well as numerous quality overseas

swimmers. The current Bolles Head Coach, Sergio Lopez gave this talk to provide an

insight into some of the reasons for their success. It was a somewhat dry talk with the

information generally being limited to factual data and philosophical view points. It did

not give me all the information I wanted but Sergio did provide several detailed

documents about his training programme by email. These are available on request from

Ian or Gordon.

• High School. 60 swimmers, 6 coaches.

• Late night programme. 73 swimmers.

• 7 full-time, 7 part-time coaches in the whole programme.

• School fees: day student $23,000. USA Boarders $45,000. International boarder

$55,000.


• Coaches are not allowed to recruit swimmers (Florida High School rules).

Swimmers have to apply to come to the school first.

• Philosophy: to teach each student-athlete to understand, appreciate and

develop their unique talent so they can be successful in the pool and the

classroom.

• Ultimate Goal: to give each swimmer the chance to go on to swim in college at

Division 1, 2, 3, or Junior College, so that they can enjoy being part of something

special.

• Season training cycle runs 1st

March to 28th

February. High School season

commences August but kids need to be ready to swim fast by then, hence why

the training cycle starts in March.

• March-July: build the base for the HS season.

• Aug-Dec – Swim FAST from day one and peak at FHSAA and peak again at

Juniors.

• Dec-Feb – keep the swimmers interested by having a short cycle and swimming

FAST again in short course meets.

• Believes the swimmers need a life outside the sport and at least 3-4 weeks break

in the summer, plus 10 days at spring break and 3-4 days at Xmas.

• 8th grade – no double practices (18 hours in the pool)

• 9th

grade – add Mon AM (20 hours)

• 10th

grade – Mon & Fri AM (22 hours)

• 11-12th grade – Mon, Wed, Fri AM (24 hours)

• All PMs and Sat AM are 3 hours long in the pool. Weekday mornings are 2 hours.

• However, in the summer (June-August), everyone does doubles every day (11

sessions, 27 hours), although the JO and Sectional groups only do this for the

first three weeks of summer.

• AM workouts: 10 mins stretch as a team. Dryland (running, gymanastics and

weights). Swimming – speed work, dives, resistance speed (cords, chutes etc),

total yds = 1.5-3k. Saturday AM is just swim (up to 8k yds) and no land wokr.

• PM workouts: team meeting for 5-45 mins. 10 mins stretch. 10 mins

meditation/visualisation. Dryland (med balls and cords,2-3 times per week.

Swimming – base aerobic, race pace, lactate, neg split, kick pull swim etc, total

yards = 5.5-7.5k.

• Believes you can establish a tradition in 15 months. Swimming is something

exciting and contagious. It grows quickly and is a state of mind.

• Excellence starts with the coach. Don’t look at what you don’t have. Utilise

what you do have to 110%. If you work hard, the swimmers learn by example.

• Passion. Everyone has passion in them somewhere. Let the swimmers share

your passion as a coach. Be true to what you feel and deliver your thoughts with

a purpose.


Kyle Goodrich (Head Age Group Coach, Ohio State Swim Club)

Our Championship Formula at Greater St Charles Prep

Although Kyle recently took a position at Ohio State Swim Club, this was a presentation

about his time at as the Head Coach at the Greater St Charles Prep High School. Whilst

the talk was from an American high school perspective, a lot of the points he made

about building a team are equally relevant for clubs or school swimming programmes in

Scotland and the UK. It was a well organised and confidently presented talk from a

coach who is not well known in the American coaching community.

Building our team

• Expectations and accountability:

• Coaching staff set the tone. Needed to change the expectations and focus for

the swimmers. Looked for a ‘tougher’ meet schedule. Set team and individual

goals for the year. Hold the athletes accountable to those goals by writing them

down for others to see (“ink it, don’t think it”).

• For the parents:

• Increased the number of volunteer positions. Delegated responsibilities

throughout the families, enabling them to take ownership of the team.

Encouraged parents to make their presence known at meets with a “sea of red”

in the stands. And held non-swimming social events for the parents.

• For the administration:

• Had to fight for more pool time. Gained permission to upgrade the pool with

benches, a trophy case, flags, lane lines etc. Encouraged teachers and school

staff to attend the meets. And promoted the team’s success and high national

ranking in GPA (Grade Point Average).

• Social Aspects:

• Held events such as: team picnic, water polo, Saturday morning basketball,

ultimate Frisbee, Friday night games or sporting events (spectate at other local

or school sports teams as a swimming team), hotdog night, lakeside campout,

and mentor/mentee programme. All these helped bind the team together and

develop a stronger squad of swimmers.

• Training:

• Immediately increased number of workouts, both in the pool and on land (only

had 5 pool sessions, took it up to 11). Set out mandated time in the weight

room. Educated swimmers about training cycles, nutrition and biomechanics.

Organised the coaching team to work to their strengths to provide different

coaching groups and variety in sessions.

Results

• National rankings:

• 2003 Independent School runner-up in Swimming World rankings.

• Won 2008 Ohio State Championships and runner-up in 06, 07 and 09.


• Numerous All-American level high school swimmers.

But more importantly than results and rankings, the young men at the school grow,

mature, and come to believe in something that’s bigger than any one person.

• The boys have learned how to be:

• Confident, handle success, set goals and work towards them, depend on others,

create and maintain a schedule, falling short of a goal with class and dignity,

bring out the best in themselves and their team-mates.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover

it.” Michelangelo.

Chuck Batchelor (Head Coach, Bluefish Swim Team)

Developing a youth athlete (Elizabeth Biesel)

Chuck was clearly somewhat nervous about doing this talk (his first ever at ASCA) in

front of perhaps a 1000 other coaches, and whilst he spoke confidently, the result was

too many anecdotal stories about his programme and Elizabeth Biesel, and not enough

technical or other valuable information that coaches would have found beneficial to take

away from it.

• Chuck bought the Bluefish Swim Team in the summer of 2005, at which point

Elizabeth was already a 2:15 long course 200m backstroke swimmer. According

to her mum, she could do a legal 100 yards IM at age 4, so she was always very

prominent and successful through the age group ranks.

• Elizabeth has a sincere joy, and deep intensity about life, characteristics that

Chuck believes help significantly to make her as good as she is.

• Over the past 3 years, Chuck needed to teach Elizabeth a lot about racing

strategies, as she was clueless on this, and tended to just blast everything she did

from the start, often resulting in good times, but times which were ascended in

terms of splits. It was a long struggle, but eventually she did grasp the concept

of negative splitting her events.

• In 2004, Bluefish had no qualifiers for the Olympic Trials. Chuck set a target of 10

qualifiers for the 2008 Trials, but in fact ended up taking 13 swimmers to the

meet.

• Elizabeth made the team for the 2007 World Champs in Melbourne, but through

her lack of maturity, did not really understand what being in the top two

swimmers in America really meant. She was on the team for the 200 back but

hated only being able to do one race. As such, Chuck later decided to target the

400 IM for international qualification as well as the backstroke.


• Elizabeth’s school day generally starts at 7:00am, and this is a 45 minute drive

from the pool, so the reality is that morning workouts are usually impossible for

her. Instead she does 2 hrs 15 mins every afternoon Monday to Friday, plus a 3-

4 hour pool workout on both Saturday and Sunday. In addition, she adds dryland

training for approx 1 hour each day for 5-6 days per week, as well as 3 further 1

hour weights sessions per week. Training is generally short course yards all

season (apart from any camps), racing is short course up to December, but long

course racing excellence is always the training and competitive focus no matter

what the time of year.

• Chuck tried hard to give Elizabeth the belief that she would make the team for

Beijing 2008, but without developing a sense that there would be an expectation

on her to do so.

Chuck Batchelor (Head Coach, Bluefish Swim Team)

Creative Coaching: Coaching a Successful Elite Team in a Small Pool

Chucks second presentation followed on from the initial talk with a number of anecdotes

and at times it was difficult to follow the thread of what he was trying to get across. The

underlying theme seemed to be fitting in as much hard work as possible whilst keeping it

varied and interesting.

Blue Fish Swim Team is based on a straight forward philosophy of hard work. Chuck

believes that you don’t get anything worthwhile without working hard for it. His high

school athletes work out in the water for approx. 20+ hours a week with 6+ hours of

dryland and weights work. He does not like to EVER go less than 4000 yards per hour,

even in taper.

• In order to swim fast you must swim fast (Sam Freas)

• Swimmers swim fast/hard every day

• Sets tend to vary in length from 3 – 10k at pace

Chuck seemed very imaginative in the ways that he got his swimmers working hard –

from pulling 5 gallon buckets in the pool to swiss ball surfing in the gym and from high

rep sets (60x100) to high volume single repeat races (5,8 and 10K). He emphasised the

need to be the leader within a programme like his and that it was key to sell the

concepts to the athletes as they were very likely to struggle at times.


Richard Thornton ()

Neural training v. Physiological training

Richard (the son of his more famous father and coach Nort Thornton) spoke about the

above topic. It provided some interesting and thought provoking points, albeit they were

not new concepts.

• Richard noted that he has coached since 1981, and in those early days the

thinking was yards yards yards, volume was good, more volume was better.

Programmes tended to focus on the 400 IM and 1500 Free, and most swimmers

finished in the sport by the time of college graduation or often earlier than that.

• As the 80’s progressed and into the 90’s, more quality type programmes started

to emerge.

• Neural Training – training the neuro-muscular pattern (the movements you’ll

make in a race, for the whole race).

• Physiology Training – getting in shape in the energy zones for your event.

• Coaches (especially age group coaches) need to come at the sport from both of

these angles. And think both in the present, and in the future of each individual

swimmer and what type of swimmer they should become.

• There is nothing worse than being in good shape, but swimming slow.

• If you pace it right, everyone should be able to swim a good race at double the

distance of your best race distance.

• 13/unders should focus purely on aerobic training and short speed work.

Anaerobic training should be added to this gradually as swimmers get older, but

should never replace aerobic work.

• How do you stay aerobic and still swim fast?

• There are 4 zones you should train in: (1) easy and slow work, drilling, balance,

technique focus; (2) HR 140-150 – base work; (3) HR 170-180 – typical threshold

type work, learn how to relax when doing it (swimming it) as it’s not all out; (4)

speed and race pace work.

• Be as fast as you can be at every HR zone.

• Train your goal race ‘rhythm’, i.e. stroke rate and count.

• In 2010, we will need quickly need to teach swimmers how to learn the balance,

position, and technique that the rubber suits have been providing for free the

past two years.


Matt Kredich (Head Coach, University of Tennessee)

The Development of Christine Magnuson

Christine Magnuson is no longer at the University of Tennessee but she swam with Matt

at UT through 2005-2009 during which she won numerous SEC and NCAA titles, as well

as an Olympic silver medal in the 100 butterfly in 2008. Matt’s talk was without doubt

one of the best presented and most valuable talks of the whole clinic.

• You just never know how good a swimmer is going to be.

• Matt identified the keys to Christine’s 2008 Olympic success to the following

attributes: physical, emotional and mental talent; the separate training blocks of

aerobic/anaerobic capacity and power; her mastery of fear; and her detailed

attention to technical development.

Physical

• Christine is 6’1” and 150-160 lbs. She makes physical adaptations easily and

quickly. She has a natural flat spine (which helps her ride high in the water) and

a very flexible neck (that helps her do side breathing on fly). She is very bright,

motivated, focused, loves to compete, and is a great team player.

Competition Evolution

• Her first college season was 05-06. Butterfly wasn’t really her event at that point

in time, she was primarily a 200 freestyle swimmer, with her 100 fly prowess

only beginning to emerge in the summer of 06. She was successful throughout

the year but struggled going from being the hunter to the hunted.

• 06-07. In this season, Christine changed her self-concept, enjoyed thinking about

winning and became hungry for more. She went to the Japan International meet

in the summer and was very excited about international representation and

racing.

• 07-08. She was the swimmer of the meet at the SECs (4 wins), and a good

NCAA’s. Made the Olympic team with a 58.1 fly (57 in heats and semis) – made a

mess of the final (nerves, spinning) but managed to get her hands on the wall

first. Didn’t handle making the team well, and messed up the heats of the 200

free the following day.

Training for capacity and power

• Matt referenced using the Jan Olbrecht book (The Science of Winning) and

advice he has got from Clive Rushton on the same topic of power and capacity.

• Parameters of capacity – time of work (volume), distance covered (volume),

number of strokes taken (volume).

• Parameters of power – Effort, Speed/Velocity

• Matt does a lot of what he refers to Progressive Parametric Training, whereby a

set is progressed in length or difficulty each week but with parameters like speed

or HR being held constant. Such sets need to be carefully monitored, especially

as it usually takes the athletes a couple of weeks to get used to the required

speed. Monitor: effort, technique/style (they must swim ‘well’), and

recovery/HR.


• Adaptation goals – lower energy cost for a given velocity, greater ability to

deliver energy at a given velocity, and coordination.

• Aerobic Power – goal is to maximise the percentage of VO2 Max (this training

actually goes beyond VO2 Max zone and into lactate tolerance/removal.

• Example sets:

3 rounds of: (100 dive on 1:30)

(100 push on 1:40) All swims at all out effort

(2x50 push on 50)

2-3 sets of: (8x100 Fc on 1:40 @ best average)

• Anaerobic Power – goal is to maximise percentage of V La Max (go as fast as

possible for as long as possible)

• Example sets:

3 rounds of: (1x50 dive on 60)

(4x25 from a turn on 40)

2-3 sets of: (6x25) alt dive/push on 30

• Anaerobic Alactic Power – power rack, 15m bursts, cords, resisted sprints etc.

• Technique Development – front of stroke: be forward and patient; back of

stroke: be deep and patient; end of race: be relaxed and forward.

Matt Kredich (Head Coach, University of Tennessee)

Break the Cord (Tips from the Tennessee Training Pool)

Matt was very clear and comfortable presenting to the group. He managed to engage

the audience with a mixture methodically presented facts and wry observations about

the content. Matt believes we all coach because we want to learn. Learn – How to, why,

and what our and others limits are.

Learning = Change

• In order to change we must challenge assumptions.

• In order to challenge assumptions we must change our understanding of the way

things work.

• This involves a degree of creativity.

Creativity sets you free

• Our level of achievement is completely within our control – deliberate practice

over time. As a coach, the engagement in each moment of this practice is where

creativity occurs.


• Balancing on the forearm.

o Centre of balance positioned on the arm as a result of the combined

vectors of force production.

o As the arm moves through the propulsive phase the force vectors create

force along a straighter (more forward facing) plane.

o Dropping the elbow cause the vector to shift towards the hand.

o Balancing on the forearm is developed through a series of exercises.

� Towel stretch on knees – hold body position whist holding onto

towel at fore arm.

� Progress onto Swiss ball – static onto roll outs

� Into pool – with PVC tubing / foam rollers

� Onto Pull up apparatus – hold straps on forearm

• Thinking about kicking (aiming to levitate)

o Working Planks – then with toe extension

o Then on kick board/matt/boogie board – holding hips out of water.

HIIT – Training on tether

3x 15secs on 60 + 2x25 on 60 then repeat after recovery.

• Even if it does not work – it is good work!

Matt was very clear that he followed sound mechanical principles when looking at

designing workouts based around developing proper technique. He was very passionate

that coaches do not limit themselves to just using the equipment and ideas that are

already available but that they develop, progress and invent a new at every opportunity.

Gary Hall Snr (Vice President, The Race Club) & Sabir Muhammed

(International Swimmer)

The Fundamentals of Fast Swimming

This was a Total Performance vendor presentation, but actually just focused on sprint

freestyle swimming with no product promotion at all. Gary and Sabir are obviously very

highly experienced swimming professionals and they both spoke extremely well, openly

and honestly about their views on sprint freestyle technique (Gary) and physiology

(Sabir). Some of their key points were well known fundamentals and common sense

matters regarding sprint freestyle swimming but it was very valuable and interesting to

hear their angle on it, and how they put it across.


Technique Focus (Gary)

• Training camps at The Race Club focus on technique development for 85% of the

time.

Three fundamentals of (freestyle) technique:

(1) Thick as a brick – physical laws of drag

• The human body is not a streamlined shape. It did not evolve in water. Even

with a great dive, a well streamlined plunge will come to a dead stop within just

a few (about 5) seconds. The rubber tech suits have emphasised just how

important drag is.

• Too many swimmers swim with their heads too high. High head increases the

angle of the body against the water. Getting the head down is easy to

accomplish but hard to maintain. If you can see where you’re going, you’re

lifting your head too high. Drills are extremely important to enable the strokes

to be done correctly. A snorkel and tennis ball in the chin are two good ways to

correct it.

• High elbow during the pull – the drag coefficient is much less than if the arm is

straight down. Net hand speed under the water is virtually 0m/s. In swimming,

our arm is our best friend, but also our worst enemy. High elbow pull reduces

the problem but does not eliminate it. Swim ‘over the cable’. Of top ten

priorities of what Gary teaches, high elbow pull is number 1, 2 and 3.

(2) Swimming with your body – physical laws of motion

• Use your body because it increases the power available. The body must spin

round from side to side, not turn like a rotisserie chicken. Survival swimming, or

on a surfboard is flat but it’s not the best way to generate speed. Does rotation

also reduce drag? Answer is not definitive yet.

(3) Swimming on the freeway – physical law of inertia

• Its better to sustain velocity rather than accelerate and decelerate. Keep the

velocity graph within a stroke cycle as close to straight/smooth as possible. The

speed/power comes from the front end of the stroke, not the back. Half of the

time it takes to take a full stroke is spent in the front quadrant (25% of the

space). Drill – freestyle with dolphin kick (one kick per arm entry).

What’s under the hood (Sabir):

• Most of the enhancements in our training (for speed) are made in the central

nervous system.

• If you injure one arm and can’t use it, you can still increase the strength of that

injured arm by up to 22% purely by training the other arm because of the effect

on the whole CNS!

• Circuit training has been shown to improve your VO2 max.

• In 2009, Sabir returned to swimming after a 5 year break. He returned for fitness

but ended up competing in summer nationals where he went a lifetime best of

22.0 in the 50 free. His training for that was no more than 5 hours a week in the


pool. He attempted to get as much out of every workout as possible and swam

no more than 1200 yards per workout.

• The more time you spend swimming slowly, the harder it is to develop strength.

• High intensity anaerobic resistance training develops the connective tissue that

allows the increased force from strength training to be applied.

• Hormone levels are elevated for 30 minutes post-high intensity work.

• Blood flow is actually reduced during resistance training. The hypertrophy

squeezes out the blood and lactate acid builds up. But it’s the return of the

blood after exercise which stimulates the hormones. Richard Quick and Misty

Hyman used tight bands on key muscles to restrict blood flow.

• Hypoxic training. After just 30 mins of hypoxic training, breath can be held up to

50% longer than beforehand. It increases lung strength and the density of tissue

in the alveoli.

Bill Furniss (Head Coach, Nova Centurian, Nottingham, England)

Producing an Olympic champion: Rebecca Adlington

The content of this talk may obviously be familiar to Scottish and British coaches.

However, the key points are all included below. It was an extremely good, well delivered

and highly technical presentation that was at least as good as the other best talks of the

whole clinic. Bill is very willing to share his information on Rebecca and his whole

programme at Nova and we would encourage any coach wishing to know more about

his fantastic success rate to make contact with Bill, or arrange a visit to watch his

programme.

Training Week

• 70k per week max (LC 3 times)

• 4 dryland sessions (traditional tough circuit workouts)

• Running sessions in the winter

• 6 quality workouts in each weekly plan

Last cycle to Beijing

• Improvement of stroke length

• All work done was negative split

• Very demanding – often close to breaking point. The hardest Bill has ever

worked a swimmer in over 30 years coaching. Meaning the extent of quality sets

rather than volume.

Taper

• 3 week reduction from 70-60-50k. Main sets down from 4-3-2k in length.


• Not in control – she got a cold which lasted 10 days (on holding camp),

responding to events at the holding camp, was still not fully recovered by the

time of the 400 in Beijing.

Conclusion

• Becky has a super hard work ethic.

• She has excellent attention to detail.

• She displays positive attitude and resilience.

• 2009 has been difficult but she still went 4:00.6.

• We haven’t seen the best of Rebecca yet!

Brian Brown (Head Coach, Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics)

Developing Power in Age Group Swimming

Brian’s talk was supposed to be about developing power in age group swimmers.

However, whilst it was well delivered with plenty of ideas, it really did not cover the

whole concept of power and how to develop it. The talk focused largely just on

resistance training, and several ideas and methods of how that can be developed in the

pool and on dry land.

• Many sports in our era have gravitated toward increased power through training

methods or equipment.

• A major difference between world class swimmers and others is that they

generate and transmit more power internally and externally, that is from within

one’s body, and to the water.

• Power can be developed in age groupers but endurance, speed and technique

must also be developed, often first.

• Components of developing power: resistance, flexibility, explosiveness, and

timing.

Resistance

• Hard water, soft touch. The holy grail of ‘fast’ swimming. The faster your

velocity, the more the water resists you (increased drag). The harder you press

against the water, the harder it becomes. Tension ruins everything - the skill is

not learning the motion, it’s being relaxed while you do the motion.

• Resistance considered: in-water, out-of-water, and amphibious.

• Stretch cords – 4 per lane, long and short sets, resistance and assistance.

• Power racks/towers/lines etc.

• Weighted swims – scuba/arm weights, t-shirts, shoes, parachutes, buckets etc.

• Flume swimming – against the flow, swimming tethered with the flow and

pulling against the force of the stream.


• Paddles – demonstrate limitless variations. Big, small, with holes, ridges, with

small weights attached.

• Neanderthal – holding bricks and stones.

• Dryland – stretch cords, med ball work, TRX

• Amphibious (resisted movement out of the water, then get in and do same

movement) – wall kicking, lilly pad kicking, under lane line kicking, using bands

on hands/feet both in and out of the water.

Mind’s Eye Point of View

• Imagination is empowering – what does a particular swim time look like?

• Dreaming is living

• Decisiveness is creative – teach athletes to make up their minds who and what

they want to be, “just be it”

• From a bird’s perspective, the horizon is much further away than from the

ground.

Richard Shipherd (Head Coach, La Miranda Armada)

Guiding the Age Group Swimmer to become a Successful Distance

Swimmer (specifically 11-12 girls and 13-14 boys)

This was a talk about promoting a distance swimming philosophy in age group coaches.

Richard discussed how US Swimming needs to create a new generation of successful

distance swimmers, as the depth and standard of it across the country is not as good

now as it was 20-30 years ago, even including the hi-tech suits. He put forward some

statistics about the current state of distance swimming in the US, and showed some of

the ideas and philosophies he uses at his club to develop a distance training mentality. It

was a good presentation but did not include anything special that coaches in Britain

don’t already know, and in fact I thought it actually lacked some of the modern ideas

that European and other nations are using in the 21st

century to produce top class

distance swimmers. Personally, I would recommend that aspiring US distance coaches

take a detailed look at what’s going on in Britain and around Europe, in particular, the

focus on more race pace training instead of volume and traditional aerobic sets.

• Motivation – Extrinsic, what’s in it for you? Intrinsic, there is no better calling

(Erik Vendt).

How to:

• Creating an environment

• Use of personal attention

• Importance of character development

• Have a distance mentality first, then distance volume after. Ask coaches of

11/12 years not to announce session volumes. Celebrate 500 free and IM


success, not 100 free. Defer taper until the biggest meet of the season then grab

the spotlight. Do plenty of over-distance work but ensure feedback during/after

them. Do plenty sets with repeats 25s to 150s, fast short rest swimming.

• Never lose the back half of a rep/set/session/race.

• Consider 6 beat kick v. 2 beat kick – diff kicks can be used at diff phases of the

race. However, at elite international level, a great 6 eat kick is required for

succees.

• Tempo and DPS are partners, start with DPS but tempo is the friend of the

distance swimmer.

• Develop a Personal Code and Become and Intense Competitor – holds a one

week character camp to celebrate promotion to the senior team. Builds the

stoic warrior. Greatest moment in sport is a comeback and underdog victory.

Find a way to make everyone a hero, and keep doing it until they believe they

are a hero. Career tracking and small group attention and coaching.

• Training plan reflects that 20-40% of the main work is IM. Dry land work reflects

IM emphasis too.

• Create legends and be a story teller. Have return visits of previous best athletes.

Establish a hall of fame and website promotion. Show your admiration.

• How much do you demand and control? Are workouts required or optional?

How many workouts per week? Where are you lines in the sand?

Dr K Anders Ericsson (Department of Psychology, Florida State University)

– the 2009 Counsilman Memorial Lecture

Deliberate Practice and the Development of Elite Performance

Anyone who has read Gladwell (Outliers) and Colvin (Talent is Overrated) will be familiar

with the topic of this presentation. Dr Ericsson has conducted a lot of research into how

people become experts in a performance area. This was a very detailed, interesting,

valuable and extremely professionally delivered presentation.

What factors separate gifted swimmers from less gifted swimmers?

• Skill acquisition is a process that goes through several phases. But some people

don’t manage to go through all the phases.

• Humans have modifiable and unmodifiable skills. The unmodifiable ones

determine the limits which people can achieve.

• Intuitive behaviour is a sign of expertise (Dreyfus). But stock exchange experts

have been proven to be no better at picking successful stocks than a random

process such as a monkey throwing darts.

• 10 years of experience does not automatically lead to superior performance.

Some professors of computing/physics/etc are outperformed by their students.


Physicians diagnosing diseases have been shown to be worse the older they get

(or the further away they are from their last training in the subject).

• There are problems with the traditional model of skill acquisition though.

Historically, expert performances get much better over time. What was great

100 years ago is very simple today. Expert performance can also last over

several decades not just a single limiting moment.

• For superior reproducible performance, extensive experience is necessary.

Physical performance like endurance running has been shown to peak in the 30s.

Chess players peak in their 40s.

• Even ‘naturals’ require extended experience. However, experience alone is not

sufficient to make it to the top.

• Those at the top do it differently: they typically do a lot of (deliberate) training,

they have a coach, they use feedback, and it’s generally difficult or not

particularly enjoyable/fun.

• There are no structural differences in the brains of world class memories and

matched control subjects, although some functional differences were identified.

• ‘Time to think’ is important, expert chess players make better moves when they

take time to analyse a situation on the board rather than using intuition or quick

moves.

• Expert chess players and musicians have been found that they spent many more

hours (over a period of 10-20 years) doing deliberate practice than less good

experts and amateurs. They study and learn from incorrect moves and mistakes.

• Running economy (metabolic cost at race pace) is a better predictor than

maximal capacity (VO2 Max).

• Skilled golfers and bowlers have better consistency of movement patterns than

less skilled players.

• Experts are not automated, there is a lot going on in their minds when they are

trying to improve or perform.

• How can deliberate practice change the body? Human bodies adapt to whatever

they are doing or whatever happens to them. Tennis players have thicker bones

and more muscle in their playing arm. However, the body resists change – it

likes homeostasis – so the body has to be pushed beyond its comfort zone.

• Cells and bacteria can change to improve functionality. Restricting oxygen to a

cell/bacteria activates over 2000 different genes to create adaptation.

• Are there limits to modifiability? How many consecutive push-ups can someone

perform without pause? A Japanese man has done 10,500 before a toilet break

was needed, but in a 24 hour push-up contest, over 28,000 push-ups have been

done. Similarly, over 8,000 one arm push-ups have been done, and over 250 one

finger push-ups. With sufficient training, physical limits are often well beyond

the typical expectation.

• However, there are certain developmental windows that will restrict how far the

limit can be extended. Human growth and physical development follows obvious

age related patterns. For example, flexibility limits are determined by what

happens during the 9-12 age range.


• To optimise training and performance a person needs to focus on mastery of a

single domain. There needs to be a long-term and sequential plan which has

goals and deliberate practice. Training duration and frequency must be

optimised, and there must be sufficient sleep and rest.

• Taking a nap after practice (as well as a normal night’s sleep) is something found

in more elite performers.

• 4-5 hours per day appears to be the limit of how much deliberate practice that

can be done without other problems occurring.

• Does perceived talent matter? The best age and youth sports players that get

selected for squads and teams tend to have birthdays earlier in the competition

year, i.e. they are only selected because they are older and have obviously gone

through greater physical maturation or spent longer practicing than later

birthdays.

Those interested in further reading about this topic should direct their Amazon page to

Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, or of course, any

of Dr Ericsson’s research papers.

Dr Kirin Shafazand

Sleep deprivation and the coach

Sleep Deprivation

• High levels of Cortisol

o Memory impairment

o Age related insulin resistance

o Impaired tissue recovery

Stanford Study Showed Increase in sleep volume (Time) over 6 to 7 weeks. Performance

was improved over 15mtr 0.51, reaction time 0.15 off blocks, turn time by 0.10

Perception of fatigue was reduced.

Biological Rhythm (24hrs Cycle)

• Hormonal Response

• Cardiovascular Response

• Bronchial Reactivity

• Kidney Function

• Imunal response

Swim performance from impaired 2:00am to 8:00am compared to all other times of day.

Peak performance comes at 11:00pm.


Jet Lag

Transient insomnia and/or excessive sleepiness due to crossing of multiple time zones

relative to the new time zone.

• Individuals travelling westward are phase advanced relative to the new clock

time.

• Those travelling eastward are phase delayed.

• North-South travel does not lead to jet lag.

Common Symptoms

• Nighttime insomnia disturbed sleep frequent arousals

• Excessive daytime sleepiness, diminished daytime alertness

• Non specific GI problems – regulation/constipation

• These issues realign approx 1 day per time zone

• Adjustment more difficult following eastwards compared to westwards travel.

Therapy

• Change sleep-wake cycle on day of arrival

• Appropriately timed exposure to bright lights

• Evening exposure for westward travel (30-60mins)

• Morning exposure for eastward travel (30-60mins)

• Administer melatonin – short acting hypnotic agents for insomnia (not

recommended for athletes) – caffeine to minimize excessive sleepiness (not

recommended for athletes)

Sleep Disordered Breathing

Sleep Apnea

• Repetitive collapse of the upper airway during sleep leading to arousals, low

oxygen levels, and increased sympathetic activity.

• Apnea is complete cessation of breathing

Sleep apnea is associated with increased risk of hypertension, cardiovascular and

cerebrovascular diseases. Neurocognitive disorder. More likely to lead to diabetes and

early death.

Factors

• Obesity (especially upper extremities – fat necks)

• Malegender

• Menopausal Women

• Craniofacial abnormalities

o Hard tissue – receding chin, small jaw, small head

o Soft tissue – large uvula, tonsillar enlargement, large tongue, long soft

palate


• Large, thick neck

• Alcohol and sedatives can aggravate problem.

History

• Snoring

• Sleepiness

• Physically restless sleep

• Night Sweats

• Morning dry mouth or sore throat

• Personality change

• Morning confusion

• Intellectual impairment

• Impotence

• Morning headaches

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

• Make sleep a part of your regular training regimen

• Extend nightly sleep for several weeks to reduce your sleep debt before

competition

• Maintain regularity of sleep wake cycle

• Take a brief nap (30minutes every day) early afternoon

• Consider presences of sleep disorders and seeking medical advice if fatigue and

drowsiness do not improve with good sleep hygiene

• HGH – is essential to body repair. Sleep deprivation causes reduction in HGH and

increase in Cortisol. Both of these factors reduce the bodies capacity to repair.

• Every 7 to 10 days a full sleep is essential (2 days consecutively) to avoid leading

to longer term issues. (This is if you function with 5 hours or less total sleep per

day).

• Falling asleep with ipod/tv etc on is not conducive to a good rest. External

interference can lead to increased arousal through night.

• Optimal room temperature for sleeping well is 19 to 20 degrees celcius.

• 3 to 4 hours usually required following exercise/food before sleeping to avoid

high body temp impacting sleep.

This was an informative talk with implications for the long term scheduling of training

practices. The ensuing discussion however focused primarily on the health issues that the

average coaching professional finds themselves faced with when dealing with their usual


work schedules. Dr Shafazand suggested that a more balanced work pattern or

scheduled rest days would benefit the long term health of the coach.

Dr Brent Rushall (Department of Psychology, San Diego University)

The Future of Swimming: ‘Myths and Science’

Brent Rushall has written a lot about swimming technique, drugs in swimming, body

suits, and swimming training methods over the years. He has often tried to challenge

some of the conventional thinking and advocated that training should be based on

proven research evidence.

• Brent stated that this presentation is deliberately controversial and he makes no

apologies for that.

• Armchair theorising – appeal to authority, self-evident truths, intellectual

tenacity. All pseudo-science that lead to dogma and dubious truths, or actual

falsehoods.

• Scientific method – verification by replicated objective data.

• “Distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason.” Christopher

Hitchens.

• Downside of the information age – web based self-appointed authorities, false

claims about research results, easily accessible.

• The incursion of poor sports science – standards have decreased, motives often

supplant the quest for truth.

• Evidence based research is the most valuable source of reliable information.

• Brent went on to discuss six myths that he finds prevail in the sport today.

These were identified as:

• Physiology/Conditioning – the use of specific physiologically identified training

zones is erroneous and not the most effective way to make physiological

adaptations.

• Altitude training – the scientific evidence to justify altitude training does not

exist.

• Lactic acid/lactate – many people misunderstand the meaning of the term ‘lactic

acid’, and that most lactate data is irrelevant to competitive performance.

• Pacing – many coaches/swimmers are not optimising performance by taking

races out fast. Better results can be achieved by even and negative split pacing.

• Whole arm propulsion – contrary to theory the upper arm has a propulsive effect

in strokes.

• Stretching/Flexibility – PNF stretching is effective but all other forms of

stretching/flexibility do not lead to improved strokes or performance and in fact,

increase the likelihood of injuries.


For further detail on this presentation please email Ian or Gordon for the full paper

written by Dr Rushall on this topic.

WSCA (World Swimming Coaches Association) Board Meeting

Ian attended the WSCA Board Meeting on behalf of the BSCTA. There are obviously

several appointed Board members (which included Mark Schubert, Alan Thompson, John

Leonard and Peter Daland among others) but the meeting was actually an open

invitation that anyone at the clinic was welcome to attend as an onlooker, or to make

comments (onlookers included Forbes & Ursula Carlile, Craig Lord, and Ira Klein). With

the Board members, and the visitors there were about 20-25 people at the meeting.

Some of the key issues that were raised and agreed are listed below.

• Michael Ursu (AUS) handed over the WSCA Presidency to George Block

(USA).

• The Board approved a motion to make WSCA membership free to join

(basically to establish a mailing list) in order to remove the limits for growth

around the world, particularly in third world countries where finance is a

significant issue, and other places where the culture negates paying to be

part of an association.

• There was a lot of discussion about FINA, its ineffectiveness over recent

years, and what should or can be done about it. WSCA is proposing to target

the national federations to make FINA change the make-up of their Bureau to

add 7 coaches and 5 athletes to the current 5 amateur sports politicians. The

coaches would be made up of 3 swimming and 1 from each of the other

aquatic disciplines. The three swimming coaches would be the national

coaches of the top three countries at the FINA World LC Champs.

• The swim suit issues were discussed at length. The Board expressed how the

whole process that FINA had gone through in 2009 about the suits had been

a massive sham and disgrace. However, eventually the pressure brought by

the media (largely through Craig Lord on SwimNews), WSCA, and coaches in

general speaking out, had persuaded the federations to vote for the banning

of hi-tech suits in 2010. This was explicitly against the wishes of what the

leaders of FINA on the Bureau wanted but they were left with no choice once

the nations spoke. WSCA now know how to get the federations on side, and

believe they can win other possible votes in the future on potential major

issues. Forbes Carlile proposed that the current plan to let knee length suits

stand was insufficient and allowed for continued skulduggery and

performance enhancement through suits. Forbes wanted WSCA to lobby for

no material to be allowed beyond the top of the thigh. Everyone seemed to

agree with this in principle, but felt it could not be tackled in the next year as

there is significant resistance to briefs for men in some countries from a


cultural point of view, and that FINA would most likely reject any further

changes at this time. It was agreed that this could be tackled in the future

through the panel of scientists that FINA has established to look into whether

future suits enhance performance or not. If the scientists can be persuaded

to say/demonstrate that knee length suits do or may enhance performance

then this will be in breach of FINA Rule SW 10.7 and they will have to ban

them.

• What FINA should do with the world records (given how the suits have

devastated them) was also on the table. Several suggestions were put

forward including establishing new ‘World Best’ times from 2011 onwards

after a settling of the dust in 2010, or doing likewise but using the times as at

end of 2007. Nobody was in favour of taking any world records away from

anyone who had set them in the past two years as they were all within the

rules at the time. However, it was finally agreed to take forward a proposal

that from the start of 2010, FINA should establish a set of FINA Standard

Times based on the world records as at the end of 2007. Once broken, the

new time would become the new world record, and wording would need to

be provided to show that in 2009, FINA changed the ruling for how world

records could be established, i.e. that hi-tech suits became outlawed.

Conclusion

This conference featured a range of presentations, on a wide variety of topics, and a

wide spread of coaches, scientists and swimming leaders. The quality of the talks varied

significantly, some presentations were first class, and others very poor. Some talks were

well presented but lacked useful content that the audience could take away, whilst

some poorly delivered talks contained valuable information. It was disappointing to see

that in this modern age of computers and the internet, many coaches are still struggling

to take full advantage of technology to enhance their presentations, and others simply

do not understand how Powerpoint works.

In trying to draw some general conclusions from across all the talks that could be useful

to the authors and readers of this report we have compiled the following list:

• Long course training is not required to become successful at the elite level, in

fact several top level coaches prefer to run short course (yards) sessions, even

though they have long course access as well.

• More coaches appear to be recognising the value of ‘high intensity’ or race pace

training in their programmes, although there is definitely still a place for the

traditional high volume hard work programme to achieve significant success.

• It is common for elite swimmers to be swimming upwards of 70km per week (in

mid-season heavy workload phases), in addition to daily land training sessions


which incorporate weights, circuits, medicine balls, core body work, and pilates

type work.

• US Swimming is concerned about its lack of success and depth in distance

freestyle events but is trying to address the problem at the age group level.

• US Swimming is a very well run governing body which puts clubs and coaches at

the top of its priorities for developing the sport. US Swimming recognises that

governing bodies do not produce swimmers, coaches do.

• It was clear that the majority of swimmers that the coaches were presenting on

were coming through the age group programmes as excellent athletes: i.e.

athletes with high level skills, and used to working hard.

• The emphasis from the majority of presentations was on refining technique, then

working those techniques at high intensities, often.

• The coaches mostly spoke about ‘low’ volume training programmes (50-70k+)

with high intensity but it seemed clear that the emphasis was really an issue of

time on task. By swimming for a period of time at high intensity the volume of

work automatically increases.

• Coaches should give consideration to whether there is any evidence based

research for the activities they set in their training programmes. Consideration

should be given to eliminating or reducing activities which are not backed up by

scientific study.

• Humans have limits to their talents but the most talented experts in any field are

almost always the ones who have spent the most hours (deliberately) practicing

in their chosen activity.

The conference was well organised and highly attended, with approximately 1500

delegates at the event. There was a large vendor representation, with many companies

clearly viewing the clinic as a valuable tool to promote their products. ASCA also had

many technical swimming books, DVDs, and previous clinic handbooks on sale. With the

event being held in Fort Lauderdale, home of the International Swimming Hall of Fame

(ISHOF), there was a useful link between the two, with delegates invited free of charge

to the ISHOF each evening from 9-12 where they could view the museum and have

complimentary drinks and snacks.

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks are expressed to Scottish Swimming, the University of

Stirling, Swim West Lothian, and the Coach 2 Win programme for their

encouragement and support towards our attendance at this event.

Ian Wright & Gordon Glasgow

ASCA 2009 World Clinic Report _2_ - Scottish Swimming

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Transcript of ASCA 2009 World Clinic Report _2_ - Scottish Swimming