Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! We're meandering our way back into the mental side of swimming this week with a new subtopic. Last week, we saw an opinion piece from Coach Justin discussing finding one's reason for swimming. This week, we start to put all of our puzzle pieces together that we have discussed so far. Unfortunately, swimming is a very unforgiving sport - you constantly have to give more than you might get in return. It gets increasingly easy to fall into the trap of complacency and...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! PSA - longer post today as it is an opinion piece It's 6am, you're groggy, scratching at your eyes. Your body is cold, the water looks colder, and all you can think about is how much you don't want to stare at the black line at the bottom of the pool. Sometimes it feels like that line is your only entertainment during the monotony of everyday practice. I know, I've been there. Lap after lap, stroke after stroke, we move up and down...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! After a week's completion of the young season, we continue to roll through the mental side of swimming. Last week, we delved into the preliminary discussion of the "growth mindset". Having a growth mindset is not just limited to swimming, but also should incorporate goals for school, work, family, life in general, etc. The supplementary information with Carol Dweck hopefully provided some insight on what it means to be open, proactive, and purposeful to achieve all that we dream of and more. This...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! Last week, we finished up our two weeks of visualization. This week, as we prepare to commence the new season, we should look to continue to improve our mental focus toward our swimming. Many of these topics can translate into our school and/or work and/or personal lives, because we should have goals in all facets of our life. Don't limit yourself to growth as a swimmer; create room for boundless growth as a whole person. If you'd like to recap from the beginning,...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! After an interim week break, we are back with the weekly posts. Just to jog everyone's memory, a few weeks ago, we started our series on the mental side of swimming with mindfulness for two weeks. Since then, we have shifted to visualization, and creating your own success in races within your mind. We conclude our two-week stint on visualization this week with a look at pro comparisons. Although this week doesn't solely highlight visualization on a swimming front, it does perhaps offer...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! I hope everyone enjoyed the last couple weeks' focus on mindfulness. This week, we are shifting over to a discussion on visualization. We've gotten the wheels turning on building a "mind palace" in our competitive journeys, and now it's time to move to the next steps. Consider visualization as the next stair step. Think about how many laps you swim in a given practice, how many strokes in a given lap, how many kicks occur off each wall. It is important for us...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! We are now in the waning acts of this current summer/Long Course season. As discussed last week, the goal with the coming posts leading into the early fall will be to improve the mental side of swimming. Being physically strong is only part of the battle. What makes the best swimmers - or athletes in general - is a mental edge, a competitive drive that fuels success. Examine Katie Ledecky, Tom Brady, or Cristiano Ronaldo, for example. These athletes have been at the...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! Last week, we had a little fun discussing the game of SWOLF and its link to better stroke efficiency. This week, we are going to take a trip down the mental side of swimming. Look for this to become a notable percentage of our blog posts going forward, especially as we move toward the inter-season period in August. When you take time away from the pool during this time, there are still ways to improve. The mental portion of swimming is certainly more...

FORE RIGHT!! Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! Today we're switching gears to discuss a little about stroke efficiency. In the swimming world, it is important to be fast; it is also important to take strong, effective strokes. Therefore, the key to intentional, fast swimming is finding a sweet spot between the two. That is where we introduce you to the game of "SWOLF". That is, swimming golf - low stroke count, and a quick(er) time. A more detailed explanation to how this works is in the video below:...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! We continue our series on the importance of always chasing better technique. If you missed our first weeks in the series focusing on Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Backstroke, click here. This week, we move on to Freestyle: Improve Your Freestyle PULL (Link) Found the above helpful? Share with a friend or family member! Try these eating habits to TRAIN BETTER in 2022 (Link) Found the above helpful? Share with a friend! Fact of the week: We are accustomed to looking at freestyle ABOVE the...