Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sept 14, 2008 - Coach Talk, Consistency
Little things done consistently well are better than the spectacular.
For example, you always keep your head down until you touch the wall. If you lift your head before you get to the wall, your head works like a plow your hips sinks and your body slows down. Michael Phelps won the 100 M Fly by a hair. Cavic from Serbia had been favored, but lost. Coming to the wall Cavic raised his head and that may have made the difference between winning gold and silver.
Cesar Filho won Gold in the 50M Free this year. He swims for Richard Quick at Auburn. He was not expected to do so well. How did he do it? He worked on swimming like a pencil. Perfectly streamlined with no sideways motion. It’s a little thing, but made a difference.
Another example, at Michigan, Jon Urbancheck believes that you only swim fly as long as you can hold your stroke. If you start “survival fly”, he believes that you should stop. Why? Because he believes that you should consistently practice good stroke technique and not bad stroke technique. Practicing bad stroke technique will lead to bad stroke technique during a race. He believes that there are other ways to build endurance. Michael Phelps practiced 50 and 100 fly, but did not do 200 fly until he raced it. He would do repeats of 50 and 100 fly, but they would be perfect fly.
For you the results may not be as dramatic, but it is still as important. I had a friend miss qualifying for Ironman Hawaii by 17 seconds. Perhaps some small thing could have made the difference.
For example, you always keep your head down until you touch the wall. If you lift your head before you get to the wall, your head works like a plow your hips sinks and your body slows down. Michael Phelps won the 100 M Fly by a hair. Cavic from Serbia had been favored, but lost. Coming to the wall Cavic raised his head and that may have made the difference between winning gold and silver.
Cesar Filho won Gold in the 50M Free this year. He swims for Richard Quick at Auburn. He was not expected to do so well. How did he do it? He worked on swimming like a pencil. Perfectly streamlined with no sideways motion. It’s a little thing, but made a difference.
Another example, at Michigan, Jon Urbancheck believes that you only swim fly as long as you can hold your stroke. If you start “survival fly”, he believes that you should stop. Why? Because he believes that you should consistently practice good stroke technique and not bad stroke technique. Practicing bad stroke technique will lead to bad stroke technique during a race. He believes that there are other ways to build endurance. Michael Phelps practiced 50 and 100 fly, but did not do 200 fly until he raced it. He would do repeats of 50 and 100 fly, but they would be perfect fly.
For you the results may not be as dramatic, but it is still as important. I had a friend miss qualifying for Ironman Hawaii by 17 seconds. Perhaps some small thing could have made the difference.
# posted by gladorca's blog @ 9:07 PM 
