The Discovery Of A New Stroke

An interesting thing happened last year.  The swimmer on our team who held the fastest breaststroke times and records in both the 100 and 200 distances, who was his high school teams fastest breaststroker and record holder in the 100 breaststroke , suddenly could not for the life of him "find" his breaststroke.  His stroke felt a little off, and his times were not close to where they were the season before.  It probably didn't help his confidence to get his stroke back on track either, when one of his teammates suddenly "discovered" breaststroke and took over his position and records in the event.  His immediate response was pure frustration.  However, something spectacular come from the events of that season; he discovered a new stroke.

You see, this swimmer has always considered his best events the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM.  The 100 Breaststroke was the first event he qualified for JO's in.  The 200 IM was quick to follow.  They both were also the first events he qualified for Sectionals in.  Although he always swam all four strokes and the IM in meets, he excelled in breaststroke, and that was the stroke he focused on most in practice.  Of all the strokes, backstroke was his least favorite and the one stroke he was furthest away from hitting his senior cuts in.

Interestingly enough, another swimmer on our team who happened to go to the same high school as the other swimmer, became much better in the breaststroke events and started struggling somewhat with his backstroke.  The prior year he was our top backstroker and record holder in the 100 Back.  He was also his high school team's best backstroker.  However, for whatever reason, like the other swimmer but in a different stroke, he quite simply could not "find" his backstroke of the previous season.  This created quite the opportunity for the two of them.  Rather than continuing to struggle to "find" their strokes from the previous season, they started focusing on different strokes.

When their high school season started, they simply switched events; the backstroker became the breaststroker and the breaststroker became the backstroker.  They both worked very hard that season to refine their newly discovered talents, and the end result could not have been sweeter.  Because the swimmer who "lost" his breaststroke worked so hard on backstroke, he not only started getting pretty fast at backstroke, but he also began hitting some of his fasted IM times.  The same went for the swimmer who was now swimming breaststroke.  When their high school swim championships came around, both swimmers placed first in their "new" individual events, each hitting lifetime best times.  They both also set new records for their high school, with the new breaststroker breaking his high school record in the 100 breast, and the new backstroker breaking his school's record in the 200 IM.

Although I consider myself an IM coach and write our weekly workouts accordingly, focusing on all four strokes and the IM; the experience of this past year really emphasized the importance of having swimmers not only focus on all four strokes, but to especially focus on the strokes they think they might not be that great at.  Doing so their IM will assuredly get faster, and who knows, they might just surprise themselves and discover a new stroke.

How to be patient and persevere through difficult times

Quite simply, most swimmers who are not seeing improvements in their swim times most likely have tendencies of not coming to all the practices, showing up late, they don't stretch, don't do the prescribed dry-land exercises, are the last in the water, or do not put forth precise and deliberate effort to improve while swimming.  These are also the swimmers who make any and every excuse necessary to skip parts sets when the sets get tough.  They are also most likely the ones not taking care of themselves outside of the pool as well.  They simply just do not do what it takes to see improvements.  With them, the answer of why they are not improving and the solution to their problem is pretty straight forward.  However, what about your most dedicated swimmers who put forth the most effort?  What do you tell those swimmers when they are not hitting their best times?

The biggest obstacle I face every season with my older swimmers is trying to get them to understand they will not improve in every event at every meet.  With "seasoned" swimmers; those who are of high school age or older and have been training for several years, even the most dedicated, hard working swimmers may only see a time improvement in their primary event once or twice a year.  If you look at the top swimmers in the world, they may only see improvement once every quadrennial.  With the reversion back to "low-tech" swim suits, the worlds top swimmers who swam best times in the high-tech suits may not ever see a true time improvement again in their lifetime.

Swimming is measured by time, and not seeing improvement can be very challenging.  However, I believe one of the best assets of our sport is that it teaches swimmers how to be patient and persevere through difficult times.  Those who can withstand the trials of continuous effort with little to no improvement in our sport, will assuredly be rewarded at some point in their lives; if not with a best time, with the awesome power to overcome and work through many obstacles life will assuredly throw their way during their lifetime.  Working through challenges is part of life.  Keep working, keep pushing, keep believing, and things will happen.  As quoted from John Quincy Adams; "Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."

I find sitting down with a swimmer and showing them their past accomplishments and what it took to achieve those accomplishments is very beneficial.  Most often than not, they will see their best times were achieved at the end of the season at their most important swim meet of the year.  I believe having swimmers understand the process it took to achieve their best times will alleviate much of the tension of early and mid-season swim meets.  These early meets should be more about practicing for their season-ending championships than they are about trying to hit best times.  They need to understand the seasonal training cycle and how each phase will affect their performance at swim meets.  It is also important for them to understand their focus during most of the year should be based on technical and tactical improvements that will lead to greater accomplishments down the road; not time.  Focus on "process goals"; not "outcome goals".  Process goals are the goals that lead to the outcome; like not breathing into or out of your turns in freestyle, kicking out a certain number of dolphin kicks off each wall, holding a certain stroke rate, maintaining proper head position, etc.  Achieving or hitting your process goals should be considered a mark of improvement.  Getting swimmers to buy into this philosophy should allow them to stay focused on the task at hand and alleviate some of the pressure of continually trying to hit best times.

Just last year, two of my top swimmers, one male and one female, swam though much of the year with little to no time improvements in their various events.  It was a difficult season of constant reminders of "the process", being patient and continuing to push forward with relentless desire and determination.  Through their struggles and continuous effort came the most rewarding seasons of their and my lifetime.  Looking back, I am sure they will both agree it was well worth their struggles, and their feelings of accomplishment after achieving the best performances of their lives at their season-ending championship meet were much greater than they would have been had it been "easy".

What ORCA's younger swimmers like about swimming with ORCA

Coach Bryan's blog from MVN with a similar video inspired me to ask our own swimmers what they liked best about swimming with ORCA.  Thanks for the great idea Bryan!  It's not surprising that almost all of their responses had to do with the social TEAM aspect, and not about winning or even improving.  Similar studies from more renowned sources, like USA Swimming, have shown this to be the case in all youth sports.