by Coach Mat | 10 Nov, 2018 | Fear, Mental Training, Motivating Swimmers, Muscle Tension, Overcoming Fear, Recommended Reading, Survival Instincts, Training Psychology
The Polyvagal Theory developed by Stephen Porges, describes the way the internal body states influences the brain and perception of the environment, and the environment (especially the social environment) influences internal body states. In my own words, there are...
by Coach Mat | 3 Nov, 2018 | Attention/Focus, Boredom, Distraction, Kaizen (Continual Improvement), Mastery Process, Meditation, Practice Examples, Student Stories
Finding Acceleration Again The other day I was helping one of my students, whose challenging life circumstances in the last few months had regretfully kept him away from the pool too much. He was in need of tune up on some skills that were progressing previously, but...
by Coach Mat | 28 Oct, 2018 | How To Train?, Immobility, Injury, Injury Management, Injury Prevention, Swimming Physics, Training Theory
This continues from Part 2 of One Stroke Technique For Everyone? In the previous part I discussed how we might allow a swimmer to make compromises away from the ideal because she has limitations in her body that are unimproveable or there are other reasons that stack...
by Coach Mat | 20 Oct, 2018 | Aging and Improvement, How To Train?, Injury, Injury Management, Injury Prevention, Martial Arts, Mastery Process, Motivation, Swimming Physics, Training Theory
This continues from Part 1 of One Stroke Technique For Everyone? Improve What Is Improvable Let’s consider some of the features that could be improved if an athlete were motivated to do so: soft-tissue and joint immobility low flexibility low strength poor...
by Coach Mat | 13 Oct, 2018 | Aging and Improvement, Discomfort, Injury, Injury Prevention, Internal Feedback, Pain, Physiology, Training Psychology
Continued from Part 2… Emotional Resilience There is a level of grit – technically known as ’emotional resilience’ – that is good for each of us to develop, when the pain can’t be reduced further. It is really tough to train for...
by Coach Mat | 6 Oct, 2018 | Competitive/Performance Training, Fitness Training, Kaizen (Continual Improvement), Martial Arts, Mastery Process, Physiology, Swimming Physics, Technique Theory, Training Theory
Let me give you a short answer to the question in the title of this post: Yes, there is a technical ideal we are aiming for, for every standard-equipped human swimmer. And, yet we recognize that there is so much variety in bodies that some compromise is often...
by Coach Mat | 29 Sep, 2018 | About Mediterra, Attention/Focus, Distance Training, Fitness Training, Food & Hydration, How To Train?, Open Water Training, Swim Camps
As I write this I am sitting on our ‘command boat’ in the sea next to the peninsula in Kaş, Turkey. 30 minutes ago our swimmers begin the first strokes of their challenge swim on this final training day of our open water distance camp. The weather is...
by Coach Mat | 22 Sep, 2018 | Discomfort, Injury Prevention, Internal Feedback, Pain, Physiology, Recommended Reading, Stress
This discussion is continued from Part 1… The Aging Dilemma For those chasing medals and records and recognition – a reward now – it is acceptable, even required it seems, to take some risks with injury. The risks are much higher when there is a...
by Coach Mat | 15 Sep, 2018 | Discomfort, Injury Prevention, Internal Feedback, Pain, Physiology, Recommended Reading, Stress
What is pain? We all know what it is, but yet it’s a hard word to define both precisely and broadly enough to cover all the ways we experience it. There is good pain and bad pain. There is physical pain and mental pain and emotional pain. There is tiny annoying...
by Coach Mat | 8 Sep, 2018 | Balance Skills, Core Control, Drills For Skills, Sinking, Student Stories
We have a student working through our Pool Comfort lesson series. In this series we guide people through a gentle process of removing the anxiety and stress they’ve felt in the water, which has previously hindered them from making progress in swim lessons, or...
