This is my response to a young 11-year-old swimmer who had emailed me to ask how she could qualify for the regional level (4 minutes in the 200IM)
Dear Swimmer,
It is great to see that you are interested in qualifying for the next level and that you took it upon yourself to write and ask what you can do to achieve your goal!
Unfortunately for you there is no magical way for someone to get their time standard in swimming.
What I mean is that getting these standards is always a result of improvement due to hard work which really means pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone.
You can push yourself out of your comfort zone with the effort you put in when it’s time to swim fast.
You can also push yourself out of your comfort zone by the amount of attention and concentration you put on the details of your swimming as for example when you do your streamlines.
To be a faster swimmer, you’ll need to be able to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone even when you feel your body is in pain and when it feels like you can’t breathe and/or your muscles are on fire. Especially even when you feel like not caring anymore because it’s too such and such (complicated, boring, stupid, not fun or whatever reasons, justifications, explanations your Voice of your comfort zone invents) The more discomfort you can take in practice, the faster you’re likely be at the meet.
However, this is not enough by itself. You also need to swim efficiently. This means that the way you swim, move through the water is very, very, very important. We call that technique. Every time your coaches stop you to give you advice, they are in fact helping you improve your technique.
Sometimes you will feel like you are already doing what the coach is asking you to do, but then the coach will tell you the same thing again and again. This is a clear sign that you are not doing what your coach recommends even though it feels to you that you are doing it. In these times, the best thing you can do is trust your coach and tell him or her that you feel like you are already doing what he/she asks of you. Your coach then will be able to explain to you in greater details so that you can get what he/she is telling you.
A great rule to keep in mind is that if it doesn’t feel different/weird it means you haven’t changed the way you do the movement. When we do a movement differently, we always get the feeling that it’s weird at first. When we do a movement like we’ve always done, it never feels weird or different.
Here is a concrete example. I now know for sure that you know how to kick perfectly in freestyle. You can do it when I remind you. However, you still forget to use it sometimes. Make it your mission that no coach will ever tell you again to use your super kick when you swim freestyle. Challenge yourself to never hear a coach tell you to kick properly in freestyle. You could do the same with your streamlines.
You said you really care to get your standard times and asked for my help. Now I will see in your actions in practice how much you really want to make the standard. Our actions always speak louder than our words!
I wish you all the best and I will keep on supporting you in all your efforts.
Coach Philippe
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