Heart Rate and Performance

As taper meets approach, anxiety increases.  In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink he discusses athletes performing optimally or being in the zone at a certain heart rate.  In the book, he states an optimal heart rate zone from 115-145 beats per minute.  Any rates higher than this and the body reverts to using the midbrain or primitive brain structures.  However, if you can maintain your heart rate before your race in this zone, you can enter an euphoric zone where high levels of concentration and performance optimization can occur.

GJohn

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Friday Interview with John Lohn

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers. Include how you got started in the profession, education, credentials, experience, etc.
I began covering swimming at the scholastic level in the late 1990s. I was in college at La Salle University in Philadelphia and had just started working as a football correspondent for the Delaware County Daily Times. The paper covers the four pro sports teams in the city, 11 colleges and about 30 high schools. After football, they were looking for someone to cover the swimming beat and, without knowing a thing, I accepted.


Well, I had to get up to speed in a hurry. Brendan Hansen was a freshman at Haverford High and we had to other elite high schoolers in the county - Eugene Botes (eventually a South African Olympian) and Mike Grube (No. 2 ranked 50 freestyler in the country as a senior behind Anthony Ervin). So, I threw myself into the beat and really fell in love with the sport. Myself, I was a baseball and tennis player, along with golf and hoops.


As time went on, I pitched a story idea on Hansen to Swimming World during his senior year. It was turned down, but Phil Whitten, the editor, offered the chance to do a story on the rising breaststrokers in the United States at the time - Ed Moses, Dave Denniston, Hansen, Pat Calhoun, Kristen Woodring and Kyle Salyards. This story went with a feature someone else did on Megan Quann.


After writing this story, Phil gave me the chance to write a feature on Curl-Burke and, pretty soon, I was doing a monthly piece, or close to it. Eventually, I started doing some Web site work and I've been the Senior Writer for four years now. I've covered several World Champs, the Beijing Olympics, the past three Olympic Trials, NCAAs and several Nationals. Don't know the number.


I actually left the newspaper business in December 2009 and returned to school to get my Masters at Rutgers University in Library Information Science. I'm currently the Media Specialist at Broadway Elementary in Newark, NJ, working with the students on writing skills, reading skills and doing the general duties needed in the library. I recently had a book published, The Historical Dictionary of Competitive Swimming, a reference book through Scarecrow Press.


2. How do you go about learning new information? Do you read websites, magazines, research journals, talk to colleagues, etc.?
I'm an avid reader of all articles in the sport, from high school to international. I love seeing what other people think about the sport and what opinions they may take, and how they differ from my own. I try to stay in touch with various journalists, coaches and athletes to remain up-to-date.


3. What aspect of coaching do you feel swim coaches do particularly well?
I think one of things coaches do particularly well is gear training to the specific athlete. If you look at Eddie Reese and Dave Salo - just to name two - they are working with a variety of different swimmers. Not only are they dealing with both college and professional swimmers, they have and have had top-flight swimmers in a variety of events and distances. They've geared what is done to the specific needs of a widespread crew. That's not an easy balancing act at all.


4. What aspect of coaching do you feel swim coaches don't do particularly well?
I know our athletes venture overseas in some instances, such as the Mare Nostrum Series, but I would love to see a little more encouragement from coaches to have our athletes travel abroad for more competition. It would make for intriguing in-season matchups, which is something that can only help the sport.


5. Who are your biggest 3 influences in the sport of swimming?
My three biggest influences in swimming is a pretty easy one to answer. The first is Phil Whitten. He gave me the chance to write for Swimming World and opened my eyes to the international level. He had faith in me to handle some pretty big assignments as a kid in his early 20s. That meant a lot. And whenever I had a question, he was there to answer.


Second would be Brendan Hansen. I remember the firts time I saw him race. I was still big-time naive about the sport, but he went a 56-and-change in the 100-yard breast in a high school dual meet and won the thing by nearly a lap. I said to myself, "This kid is special. You better figure things out in a hurry."


And the third person is a guy who I've become good friends with over the years - Tom Robinson. Tom is the coach of Radnor High in suburban Philly and has been at the school for more than 20 years. When I started covering the high school scene in Delaware County, he helped me along, giving me information and teaching me about the sport. His teams have won state titles in Pennsylvania and he has produced some quality talent. He always has time to promote the sport and the kids - his and others.


6. What do you feel international swimmers do better than American swimmers? Visa Versa?
I think American swimmers, thanks to Phelps and Lochte, are much better underwater than international swimmers. That gap has narrowed and will continue to narrow, but it was a groundbreaking approach that we really saw at the 2007 World Champs in Melbourne. Conversely, and I probably can be argued on this one, I think international swimmers get in more racing than American swimmers. I'm not trying to say that this is more important than training, but I'm a big fan of competition and getting in racing action as much as possible in a meet setting.


7. What projects are you working on now or we should anticipate in the future?
In terms of projects, I'm always working on something through Swimming World. I just finished my NCAA Men's Preview for the March issue and I'm responsible for a pair of Web site columns each month. I'm actually not allowed to tip my hand on upcoming features, but April is on a man who just made a big career move. I think a lot of readers will be able to guess who that is. Hopefully, I won't get in trouble for giving a hint.


Thanks John

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Hip Internal rotation

Many swimmers lack the flexibility to optimize breaststroke kick.  During the beast kick, oodles of hip internal rotation are necessary to achieve maximal propulsion. Male swimmers commonly have a lack of hip internal rotation causing poor breaststroke kick.  Multiple coaches have asked me for parameters to improve this range of motion to improve their swimmers breaststroke.  Honestly, I do not know if great improvements can be achieved.  I feel breaststrokers have a retroverted (increased external rotation at rest) femoral head allowing more internal rotation.  This adaptation is typically achieved in youth athletics.  A similar adaption can be noted in MLB pitchers who have been pitching since little league.  These structural changes are optimal for the sport, but can lead to injury risk if proper strength does not surround the excessive mobility.  Therefore, when coaches ask me what they can do to improve a collegiate IMer with poor breaststroke, I often tell them to work on their undulation.

GJohn

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Master's swimmer flexibility

Many Master’s swimmers are inflexible.  This steel deposition is not advantageous in the pool.  These limitations are primarily impeding swimming speed and potentially causing injury.  If a Master’s swimmer is continually hinging from the same segment in their lumbar spine because they lack range of motion in their thoracic spine, then the risk of lumbar instability and low back pain is high.  This high risk for injury is disastrous to the swimmer, health care and membership for your Master’s club. For this reason, initiating a proper dynamic warm-up and prehabilitation program out of the pool, encompassing flexibility and strengthening into the workout and encouraging adequate warm down and stretching following workout is essential.  These simple steps can make a world of difference for health and longevity in the sport.

GJohn

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Race Time

As taper meets approach, coaches will try numerous methods to simulate race conditions. This preparation can help the swimmer prepare for the situation.  I suggest finding an early timeline and projecting when certain races will occur.  A coach can use the exact race time to train each swimmer, hopefully, focusing them more during important/tough times of training.

“Caroline I can’t wait to see you break 4:40 in the 500 next Friday at 7 pm!”

Everyone strives to be specific with goal writing, but what about specificity in visualization?  The mind is a powerful tool coaches can manipulate.  What tools do you use to simulate race conditions during taper?

GJohn

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Friday Interview with Garrett McCaffrey

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers. Include how you got started in the profession, education, credentials, experience, etc.
I'm Garrett McCaffrey, I'm a web producer, reporter, and talent for SwimmingWorld.TV. I graduated from University of Missouri with a degree in broadcast journalism. After I graduated I helped start Floswimming.org and worked there for two years before working with SwimmingWorld.


2. How do you go about learning new information? Do you read websites, magazines, research journals, talk to colleagues, etc.?
The main way I learn new information in swimming is talking to coaches and swimmers. It really has been a blessing to have jobs that allow me to pick the brains of the best minds in our sport. I also read websites, watch videos, and read message boards
What aspect of coaching do you feel swim coaches do particularly well?
Passion for the sport. I believe most coaches have chosen their profession out a real love for the sport. You don't get into it for the money. I feel like most coaches have a passion for the sport.


3. What aspect of coaching do you feel swim coaches don't do particularly well?
The biggest challenge to a coach in any sport is connecting with the athletes and making them believe. Most coaches know technique and a lot understand training, but only the best can make their athletes believe in what they're doing.


4. Who are your biggest 3 influences in the sport of swimming?
Sean Hutchison was the best coach I ever had. Roque Santos continues to teach me about the sport outside of the pool. Georgia Tech assistant coach Chris DeSantis is someone I learn from probably every time I talk to him.


5. This question is continually asked, but which ways do you feel swimming can become more "mainstream"?
Swimming needs year to year consistency to become more mainstream. The Olympics are our best friend, and our worst enemy at the same time. They boost the popularity of the sport to the mainstream sports fans during the Olympics, but rob the other three years in between of importance. We need something important those other three years.


6. What projects are you working on now or we should anticipate in the future?
My main objectives are covering as many events as possible, and pushing to new types of presentation for our sport when I'm not covering meets. That means new shows, better interviews, bigger names on all SwimmingWorld's video content.


Thanks Garrett

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Articles to Read

I'm going to start a weekly post that summarizes topics I've discussed in the past. Today I will be reviewing stretching.

Lecture on stretching, watch here. If you have the time, learn the difference between strain and stretching.

Static vs. dynamic stretching and performance, read here. Dynamic appears to be more optimal, but remember many people are different.  On a side note, is dynamic stretching muscles, nerves, fascia or improving blood flow to muscles?

Learn about post activation potential and performance here. Is it appropriate or optimal?

Stretching vs. strengthening in lengthened position to improve muscle length here. Read here for the stretch tolerance argument.

Postural syndrome and swimmers, read here if you have swimmers with injured shoulder.

If your swimmer has postural swimmer, consider taping their shoulder. It isn't that hard, give it a try! Read here.

Dynamic Triplanar stretching, read here.

Let me know what you think of a weekly topic review.

GJohn

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Power Training and Rest

Rest between sets in dryland, resistance training and test sets is an under researched and under appreciated topic. Many coaches only allow enough time for the swimmers to get to the next exercise during circuit training. This type of training can be useful to decrease body fat and improve endurance, but do swim coaches honestly think their swimmers need more aerobic training? Many programs swim for 2 hours a day (or more) for races a fraction of this time. Does a 50, 100, 200 swimmer need to improve their type I muscle fibers preference in and out of the pool? I argue these muscle fibers are optimally taxed in the pool and swimmers of all specialties need to improve their strength and power in the weight room. Wives tales suggest improving these areas will lead to bulky, inflexible, Arnold Schwartzenager (circa 1970) swimmers. However, if prescribed optimally power training can improve body compensation without adding excess bulk.

Many strength coaches recommend a 1:5 work to rest ratio (every second of work should allow 5 seconds of rest) to tax the ATP-CrP system, but debate surrounds this topic. Ben Johnson's strength coach suggested a 1:20 work to rest ratio! This may sounds extreme, but it will allow optimal effort for every race. Research does suggest the muscle cells replenish their fuel in 5-6x the effort of the event, but the nerve cells take 5-6x the muscle's cells to recover. If the nervous system is fatigues, faulty movement patterns are likely to occur.

Rest intervals are a part of training which can be manipulated. Remember variation is likely the best rest interval, but have a reason for everything you prescribe.

Gjohn

Table taken from Christian Tibaudeau's book, good read regarding strength training, but is more focused towards body building.

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Texting and Coaching

Technology is a resource to save time, expand knowledge and communicate globally. However, technology can impair communication, decrease respect and cause laziness. I feel technology can make a coach better, if use correctly. Technology should not replace communication, especially with swimmers. If a coach texts their swimmers, the swimmer receives the impression this simple, easy form of communication is acceptable with their superior. Moreover, it can lead to a decline in respect if used improperly. I've heard from coaches who allow their swimmers to text them if they are not able to come to practice. This policy allows the swimmer to take the easy way out, effectively disrespecting the coach. Understand the cost/benefit of technology especially with your swimmers.

GJohn

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Valentine's Day Post

Posted on the Athlete Village, read here. 

Reflect your love!

GJohn

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Weekly Round-up

1. Dryland with the Phoenix swim club, watch here. Got to appreciate getting a lot done with little space, my only question is do kids swimming 15 hours a week (just a guess) need an additional hour of aerobic dryland? I would have some more strength, power and flexibility training with a heavy focus on the posterior chain (glutes, scapular stabilizers, etc.).
2. Russ Payne goes over pullouts here.
3. William Broch discusses Tabata training here. Remember Tabata training research suggest benefits for increasing VO2 max.
4. Dr. Greg Wells discusses dream setting here. Quite similar to inception...
5. Anaerobic athletes and the paleolithic diet? Read here.
6. Dr. Greg Wells talks tapering here.   
   
   
   GJohn

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Friday Interview with Justin Pollard

1) Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education, credentials, experience, etc.).

Hi readers! My name is Justin Pollard and, as I think many of you know, I'm a pretty big college swimming fan. I graduated from Cal (also known as UC Berkeley) in 2009 so I do have a bias for the blue and gold, but in general I appreciate fast swimming no matter the location. I was fortunate enough to swim for the Golden Bears from 2004 through 2008 (the best 4 years of my life so far) and still follow the team closely (usually you can find me at both the Pac-10 championship and NCAAs).
Up until recently, I had no experience in web creation, programming, scripting, or anything computer related. However, when the law firm for which I currently work asked me to write a simple computer program for them, I took a great interest in the world of computer programming. I've read a couple books on the subject (usually stopping half way as I get caught up in the actual practice of the subject), but that's about it. My conclusion: anyone with a desire can program (or script as some purists may call it).
As a somewhat constant peruser of collegeswimming.com , I would often read gripes concerning the CSCAA poll, its subjectivity, etc. That led me to think "well if you all are so smart, then you do it!". Thus, theFastWater.com was born, allowing fans the ability to vote on which teams they thought were the best. Of course, I've also included an automatically created virtual NCAA meet to rank the best teams on how they would score at NCAA's if it took place today.

2) What is your goal of your website?
The goal of theFastWater.com from day one (which was last Tuesday I believe) was to allow fans to rank teams based on virtual dual meet match-ups. Simply put, to give fans the opportunity to create their own NCAA dual meet poll. Since day one, I've added some other functions, most notably the virtual NCAA meet. In general, theFastWater.com has evolved, and will continue evolving, into a site aimed at providing many different methods to rank the best swimming that the NCAA has to offer.



3) How do you feel swimming rankings (college and professional) compare to other sports?
Let's start with college. There are at least two different types of college sports: those that base their post-season on regular season rankings, and those that don't. As examples, I'd include football, basketball, and field hockey in the first group. In the second, I'd place sports like swimming and diving, track and field, and cross country.
In season rankings hold a very important and influential position in the first category. Indeed, it is the regular season rankings that dictate which teams will have a chance to compete for the NCAA title. For that reason, coaches need to balance hard training with the need for peak performance all of the time.
Swimming is different. Swimming is a sport that revolves around 2 meets per year: the qualification meet (either the conference championship or a mid-season taper meet) and the championship meet (NCAAs). That gives coaches and teams the ability to train at high intensity nearly the whole season long in the hope of swimming very fast at the end. Since different athletes respond to high intensity training differently (or different teams have different training strategies), this genre of sport doesn't lend itself well to in-season rankings; there's too much variability during the regular season. Instead we task the CSCAA to make educated guesses at which teams are the best (caveat: we task them with estimating which teams are the best at dual meets, not how teams will place at the NCAA championship in March).
In short, college swimming rankings don't serve the same end all, be all purpose as other ranking regimes do. I think a similar analysis can be applied to professional sports.

4) Do you think the NCAA meet format could be improved? If so, how could it be improved (adding 50 yard races, exclude diving, etc)?

Separating the swimming from the diving is the only improvement in meet format that I would like to see. Other than that, I love the NCAA championship the way it is now. It's such an exciting meet! It's a perennial showcase of some of the fastest swimmers in the world in a unique team atmosphere that is found nowhere else in the world. The other change I would like to see is allowing more fast swimmers to compete!
I also want to make clear that my characterization of the separation of swimming and diving as an improvement is in no way meant to discount the great respect I have for the NCAA's divers (actually my youngest brother is a diver in high school right now and will be diving in college).
Actually, I think this separation would be an improvement for NCAA diving as well. Then the NCAA diving and swimming championship wouldn't rely so much on the unrelated sport of swimming. Instead, the team with the best divers would win.


5) Do you feel collegiate swimming should have a dual meet championship?

No. A dual meet championship would diminish the quality of swimming overall.
First of all, as mentioned above, we'd have to base the selection criteria on regular season performance, meaning that teams would have to perform very well throughout the season (unless we just let the CSCAA choose the participants, which seems too subjective to me. Though NCAA basketball seems similar . . .).
Second of all, a dual meet championship would create a perverse incentive that would make it difficult to know whether the dual meet champion was actually the best team. If the 8th ranked team fully tapers for its match up with the top ranked team, and beats them because the top ranked team hasn't tapered, the top team would never have the chance to swim their fastest. The 8th ranked team, though they would make it further in the tournament, would be hard pressed to swim as fast towards the final dual meets.
There are possible variations on a dual meet championship that might be fun to watch (perhaps just take one dual meet at the end of the season between the two top ranked teams), but I don't think a tournament style dual meet championship would work very well.

6) Do you feel the current CSCAA does a poor job with current rankings? If so, how can they improve the rankings?


The CSCAA does a fine job with their dual meet poll. It isn't meant to predict the outcome of NCAAs and doesn't do that. I think we can generally agree that the ordering of teams is accurate. There may be some quibling over whether Cal, Stanford, Texas, or Auburn should be in the top spot, but most of us can agree that those teams are four of the top 6 or so teams in the country. I'd say that's the sign of a pretty good poll.
If the swimming community had the desire, I'm sure a more statistical method of ranking could be developed that took into account how teams have historically improved at the end of the season, at what phase of training teams are, etc. but I'm not sure that it's worth it. At the end of the day, we'll know who the best team is: the NCAA champion.

7) What projects are you working on now or should we anticipate in the future?

Ooo, that's top secret! Well, at least some of it is. What you can count on is that I will continue to try to perfect theFastWater.com (in fact I've just added women's data to the site). I'll also let the readers know that they can look forward to a fantasy NCAA championship this coming March. I hope you'll all participate!

Thanks Justin

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Dependency

The swimming coaching is close knit, but there seems to be a lack of communication amongst coaches.  There are limited resources online where a coach can find advice and talk to other coaches (theathletevillage.com, collegeswimming.com, isosc.org, and this website). These resources need to improve to allow aggregation and dependency.  Dependency is not a bad thing, the more dependent you know, the more you can get done and learn.


GJohn

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The Catch

The catch phase of swimming is the most propulsive portion of freestyle. I commonly see swimmers who are utterly lost on the subject. Whether they've been indoctrinated with an “s” curve, cross over or pull too wide, each swimmer insist they have recently been told these are the correct biomechanics in swimming. The catch is commonly made too complex. Simple video footage and the correct knowledge can accelerate and improve this phase dramatically. I try to simply the catch phase by teaching swimmers to keep a high elbow at the first part of their stroke and pull straight to their ipsilateral hip. That's it. You'll be surprised how simplicity can improve a complicated movement.

GJohn

Look How Narrow his catch is, do you feel this is too narrow?

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Freestyle Flip Turns

How much knee flexion do you recommend for your swimmers?  Many coaches prescribe 90 degree knee flexion, similar to a squat for freestyle flip turns.  However, research suggest having a knee flexion angle of "100-120 degree provides more favorable peak forces to generate impulse.  

Are you providing optimal feedback to your swimmers?

GJohn

References:

1. Araujo L, Pereira S, Gatti R, et al. Analysis of the lateral push-off in the freestyle flip turn. J Sports Sci. Sep 2010;28(11):1175-1181.

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Stroke Analysis The Athlete Village

Read my recent article at the athlete village here. 

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Weekly Round-up

1. Need a variation in your core exercises, read here.
2. Post workout nutrition, read here. Supplements are listed, don't get Jessica Hardyed.
3. Friend of the blog Dr. Greg Wells posts the abstract from the International Society of Sports Nutrition regarding caffeine ingestion and ergogenic effect, read here.
4. If you've been watching some of Ryan Lochte's training videos you've noticed he does a lot of World's Strongest Man lifts and carries. Read here for some ideas to outdo Lochte.

GJohn

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Neuroendocrine Respone

The neuroendocrine system is essential for success in any realm of life. Whether Donald Trump is making a billion dollar deal, Frank Busch is accepting a new job, or you're sitting behind someone at a red light, refusing to turn right with more daylight than Rashard Mendenhall will see Sunday (prediction Pit 21 GB 17)...does this make anyone other than Adam Carrolla and myself insane...the neuroendocrine system is a player. This system regulates testosterone, cortisol and many other hormones. During overtraining this system malfunctions and hormone levels can be devastative, but training and controlling the firing rate of this system can optimize athletic success.

Optimizing release of specific hormones is not a new area of research, in fact the highest testosterone/cortisol levels have been noted in the early evening. Coincidently, swimming times are suggested to improve 3.5% for 100 m. and 2.5% for 400 m later during the day than in the morning. Many argue having a higher testosterone/cortisol ratio improves performance. If this is true, training this system would improve performance and success. What ways do you use or can you think of that would improve this ratio?


GJohn


References:
Atkinson, G., & Reilly, T. (1996). Circadian variation in sports performance. Sports Medicine, 21, 292-312

Kanaley, J.A., Weltman, J.Y., Pieper, K.S., Weltman, A., & Hartman, M.L. (2001). Cortisol and growth hormone responses to exercise at different times of day. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 86, 2881-2889

Baxter C, Reilly T. Influence of time of day on all-out swimming. Br J Sports Med. Jun 1983;17(2):122-127.

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Dynamic Triplanar stretching

Stretching is essential for swimmers of all age. Many coaches do not know the underlying results of stretching, specifically no one knows the true results of stretching and performance. Often times stretching improves stretch tolerance not rearranging of muscle fibers. Moreover, are your athlete's stretching muscles or nerves? If muscle fibers run in various directions within a single muscle, does it seem efficient to stretch a muscle staticly in one direction?

Multi-planar stretching is using the idea of stretching muscles in all planes of motion, similar to a sporting event or dynamic movement. Little research has been performed on the efficacy of this form of stretching. Personally I feel it will show power production directly prior to exercise, but until adequate research is performed (and sometimes when adequate research exist) trial and error can be invaluable.  

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Arm Pit breathing

Check out my latest article on The Athlete Village here.

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Flip Turns

Turns are an important aspect of swimming, especially in the short course season. Turns can make up to 20% of a race, but often times swimmers perform broken hip, sloppy turns. It is essential to preach, but not nag swimmers to practice these terms, to mimic race conditions. Providing optimal, non predictive feedback is essential for swimmers to listen and maintain excitement in the sport. Provide more specific feedback to each swimmer and I guarantee better results. Remember not to compare the swimmer to their peers or provide non specific instructions, like “turn faster”. It may be more helpful to provide the suggestion of bringing your thighs to your chest or time the athlete's turn and discuss how much time can be improved with turning throughout a race.  

GJohn

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