“HOT Off THE BLOCKS” Rockingham Area Youth Swim September 2004

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are looking for contributions for our newsletter this season from the RAYS swimmers.   If your child would like to submit an inspirational or humorous story about a swimming experience, poems or words of advice for their fellow teammates please send it to me by e-mail @ janineb1005@aol.com.   If you are the parent of a college bound RAYS swimmer and you would like to share “what’s new” with them, please do.   

Thanks, Janine

 

Elements of Speed: How do I get better?
BY ROWDY GAINES

Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder Rowdy Gaines shares some tips that should help any swimmer reach his or her potential. Here, Gaines offers some advice for working on the mental side of swimming.

“There are two sides in the quest to becoming a better swimmer. The first, and in my opinion the most important, is the mental part. The second is the physical aspect.

Surround yourself with positive thinkers. The more negativity surrounding your space, the more likely it will affect you. My coach, Richard Quick, a five-time Olympic coach, would not allow us to use the “n’t” words – can’t, don’t, won’t, etc. All those words have a negative connotation.

Keep a positive attitude. Believe me, this is not easy. There were many times I did not want to wake up for that 5:30 morning practice, but these are natural feelings that you must accept and move on. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people just like me who had the same goals I had. They were also waking up at the crack of dawn to work out. It helped to know I was not the only one, and if I did miss it, that only meant I fell behind.

Communicate with your parents, coaches and teammates about what your thoughts are and how your training process is going.  So many people think of swimming as an individual sport, and in some ways, it is. But I think it is much more of a team sport than some ever realize. I won three gold medals. I gave one to my mom, one to my dad and one to my coach because I know in my heart I could not have won those medals without their love and support. We did it as a team.

Be consistent in your emotions. Don’t get too high after a great race, and don’t beat yourself up after losing one either. The champions I know from swimming are the ones who can live through the peaks and valleys. Life is like a roller coaster, and so is swimming.

On the physical side of swimming, consistency is the key word. We are in a demanding sport, but one that has so many rewards. As boring as these words sound – dedication, commitment, responsibility, teamwork, setting goals, hard work – they all involve being consistent.   Our sport demands consistency. Whether you are 8 years old and going to three practices a week, or 17 years old pushing eight to 10 practices a week, you need to be constant in going to those workouts.

The best people to determine the proper distance are your coaches. They should know what you are capable of doing because they are with you on a – here’s that word again – consistent basis. Age, sex, stroke specialty and what distance you swim, along with your physical makeup, are all incredibly important factors in determining how much yardage you should do in practice.

One thing I will tell you about the physical side of swimming that I think is very important – your physical makeup has no bearing on how fast you swim. So many successful swimmers have NOT met the criteria of a “perfect body.” It may help to be long and lean, but it is not the perfect answer to swimming fast. Brian Goodell is one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He won gold medals in the 400m and 1500m free at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He did not have a swimmers body. Standing at about 5’9” and not the slimmest guy in town, he had incredible technique and the heart of a lion.

The last thing to stress on the physical side is technique. The best swimmers in the world are constantly improving their stroke technique. Words like core stability, distance per stroke and streamlining are vital to becoming a better swimmer. Ask your coach about them. There really is no substitute for working on your technique.

In closing, I believe we swim for two major reasons – 1) TO SWIM FAST!!! and 2) TO HAVE FUN!!! And the amazing thing is these reasons are so intertwined. There is no way you will ever be able to swim fast unless you enjoy the sport, and I don’t think you will have much fun in the long run unless you see some success. But you’ve got to remember that success is measured in so many different ways.”

Jenny Thompson Becomes USA's Most Decorated Olympic Athlete with Relay Silver. -- August 22, 2004

By Stephen J. Thomas

Jenny Thompson, the 31-year-old veteran of four Olympic campaigns took a silver medal as part of the American women's 4 x 100 medley relay team.

Quietly, Jenny surpassed not only fellow American swimmers Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi to become the most decorated swimmer in history with twelve Olympic medals.

She also surpassed every other American Olympic athlete in every other sport.

Carl Lewis. Mary Lou Retton. FloJo. All of the gymnasts, figure skaters, speed skaters, volleyball players, basketball players. She has outdone all of them. Male or female.

Jenny Thompson -- with her 8 gold medals, 3 silvers and one bronze -- now stands alone as the most decorated American Olympic athlete in history.

Way to go Jenny!

 

 

 

Lesson 1 - Fueling Your Stroke, Buying and Burning Gas

Six 200’s descending on five minutes. Twenty-five 50’s on :58. Whatever your “favorite,” every set during every workout and dryland session requires energy.

Nutrients are the “chemicals” that supply the body with energy. Carbohydrate, protein and fat supply energy in the form of calories. These are your “Energy-Yielding Nutrients.” Vitamins, Minerals and Water don’t supply energy in the form of calories, but their presence is required in order for the body to access the energy provided by carbohydrate, protein and fat.

During exercise, the body gets its energy primarily from carbohydrate and fat. It likes to save protein for other things (building and repairing muscle tissue, hormones and red blood cells, and supporting the immune system). The only time the body uses protein as an energy source during exercise is when carbohydrate and fat are not present in sufficient quantities. This happens when the total caloric intake is too low over a period of months, and or the bout of exercise is so long that the body’s accessible sources of carbohydrate and protein become exhausted. Neither of these scenarios is desirable for swimmers.

Think about money. When you have lots of it, you don’t mind paying full price for things. But when money is scarce, or there is just too much you have to buy, you look for bargains. You’re not being cheap, just thrifty. Simplified to some extent, your body knows how to shop.

Now instead of dollars, think of your currency as oxygen. When swimming is “easy,” say during warm-up or your easiest sets, there is plenty of oxygen available to support the exercise. The body perceives itself as “rich” and doesn’t mind splurging on fat (1 gram of fat costs 9 oxygens). In fact, it automatically does so because it knows it might need carbohydrate at a later time.

When exercise is hard (we’re talking tough sets, definitely your hardest sets), oxygen is not plentiful. In fact, the body needs every bit it can get to support the exercise, but even that is often not enough, and the body is forced to derive energy in ways that do not require oxygen (i.e. anaerobic metabolism). In this situation, the body perceives itself as very “poor” and becomes very thrifty with its “purchase” if fuel. Since carbohydrate costs less than fat (1 gram of carbohydrate costs 4 oxygens), the body chooses to rely primarily on carbohydrate for its energy.

Keep in mind that this entire fuel burning process is never a case of “all or none.” In other words, the body is always using some combination of carbohydrate and fat, but the intensity of the exercise dictates which fuel source will be the dominant one. When swimming is easiest, fat is the primary fuel source. When swimming is toughest, carbohydrate is the primary fuel source. When swimming is about 50% of maximum effort, carbohydrate and fat contribute about equally.

Let’s face it – the majority of workouts are hard. Above 50% for certain. If you consider the typical swim workout, it’s pretty safe to say that the primary fuel source for swimmers IS carbohydrate.

USA SWIMMING. ORG WEBSITE

Check out the October issue for Lesson 2!

 

 

TOP 10 HARDEST THINGS TO DO IN SWIMMING!

10. That First Big Event – Whether it’s the 400 IM, the 200 fly or the mile, there’s always that event that has swimmers shaking in their boots when they do it for the first time. Once they pull it off, though, they realize it was easier than they thought.

9. Diving in for Morning Workout – That first brisk plunge is all you need to wake yourself up at 6 a.m.… if only you can throw yourself in.

8. Keeping Your Goggles on while Diving In – At any given meet, you’ll see countless age groupers swimming the 50 free with goggles around their necks. Heck, even some senior swimmers have problems with this one.

7. The Flip Turn – Think about the first time you tried a flip turn. You were probably either too close to the wall, or too far, and it took weeks of practice to do it right every time. Even today, you probably still miss walls and get water up your nose from time to time.

6. The Breaststroke – Who hasn’t been disqualified in the breaststroke? This stroke has about a million little rules to remember and requires a great deal of timing and coordination – no wonder all the top breaststrokers are such specialists.

5. Pacing – Whether it’s the 200 or the 1,000 free, pacing is the key to the race. Unfortunately it sometimes takes people their entire careers to finally get it exactly where they want it.

4. Making the U.S. Olympic Team – Of about 250,000 athletes registered with USA Swimming each year, only a maximum of 52 (26 men and 26 women) are chosen every four years.

3. Winning an Olympic Gold Medal – Of the millions of swimmers in the world, you have to be the best swimmer in your event on that given day. But hey, somebody has to win it.

2. Breaking a World Record – How tough is this one? Only three American men (Lenny Krayzelburg, Aaron Peirsol and Michael Phelps) and two American women (Janet Evans and Natalie Coughlin) currently hold individual long course world records.

1. Make a National Cut in Every Event – Only a handful of American swimmers in the history of the sport have been able to do this.

 

SWIM TRIVIA

 

Answer to Last Months Question:

The only woman in the world to break 1:00 in 100 long-course backstroke is NATALIE COUGHLIN?  She maintains that record today.

Natalie came in 1^st place for a Gold medal in the 100 meter back.  No surprise there.  She came in 3^rd place for a Bronze medal in the 100 meter Free.

 

 

 

FAQ

 

Q:  02. What is a novice swimmer? Why is my child called an “Age Grouper”?

A:  Swimmers who are new to the sport are generally called novice or development swimmers.

 They may also be referred to as “Age Groupers.” In USA Swimming swimmers have traditionally been grouped by age.

 “Age Grouper” is a common term to refer to those swimming in age classified competition verses senior level competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                  

Janine Bacigalupo