Monday, 4 May 2015

#Tmacswims 'Links of The Week' May 4th

Another Monday, another Links of The Week with Tyson MacDonald.

An excellent inspirational video I first saw on SwimSwam regarding the 2015 Pan Am Games. These Games will electrify the GTA and enhance sports in Ontario as well Canada. Thanks to the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games many facilities have underwent extensive renovation or brand new facilities have been built which will serve different sports for years to come.  It’s going to an exciting summer to watch sports on TV, don’t miss a second of it!

We can all benefit from a faster start in a race. The worst thing is looking at results and finding out your reaction time off the blocks was over 0.75 and you think if I was 0.65 or even 0.70 I could have went a best time in the 50. Here are some tips on how to have a faster start. The most important goal is to be working on race quality starts often in practice, because whatever you do in practice reflects your performance in a meet.

Here is another technical link for everyone to consider. Flip turns are another excellent spot to save time and clean up technique and like starts it’s a technical unit that is overlooked by 95+% of clubs because meters take place of technical work. Another one is coaches will argue swimmers do hundreds of turns a practice. My question to those coaches is “Are all your swimmers doing international quality turns on every single wall during a workout?” The answer is likely no. The next time your coach wants to work on turns make sure they are fast and efficient as well try to work on them often, even if it means taking 2-5 minutes out of warm up to practice fast spins in the mid pool.

As the season continues on and some people are finding it tougher and tougher to get in the pool or the weight room here are some tips to help put things into perspective. We all have to understand whatever we put into performance in practice is what shows in a meet. If you’re holding 30 seconds for pace 200 50s then it’s likely you will go 2:00 in a meet. It’s important to think about your performance before reacting to it. I’ve scene a lot of swimmers over the years have meltdowns and arguments with coaches (I’m included in this) and it’s unfortunate it has to happen. I’ve learned to take the performance into consideration, where I’m at in the season, and how it lines up with my goals. This has helped me a lot this season as I’ve been dealing with shoulder injuries.

Looking for a massive time drop in your sprint 50s? This link gives you 5 tips on how to take time off. A 50 is a race where you can’t think about anything and if something goes wrong like a start, under water, turn if it’s short course, or a finish can put you first or tenth.

The weather is finally getting warmer and it will soon be time to train outside. I love training outside, you get sun, you can breathe fresh air, and it’s just all around better than inside. Many championship meets today are outside and having the opportunity to train outside makes competing easier as you are used to it. Training outside allows for different types of training, you may train in sun, cloud, rain, wind, fog, or yes even snow. Next time you swim outside work hard but enjoy the change in venue. 

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