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...
by Coach Mat | 2 Sep, 2018 | Butterfly, Competitive/Performance Training, How To Train?, Lessons From Elites, Mastery Process, Plateau (No Progress), Speed, Speed and Pace, Strength Training, Student Stories, Too Slow, Training Theory
Even if you do not practice the butterfly stroke, you may appreciate this approach to solving the not-getting-any-faster problem… Coach Jamee and I have been working with a mother and three kids (10, 12 and 16) on a swim team who came to us to work on freestyle...
by Coach Mat | 25 Aug, 2018 | About Coach Mat, Nutrition, Nutrition, Poor Nutrition, Weight Management
Continued from Part 1… Why Bother Emphasizing Vegetables So Much? In this post I am not urging you to become a vegan or a vegetarian. I am simply advocating that you eat A LOT MORE vegetables than you are. If you are anywhere close to average, you are not coming...
by Coach Mat | 19 Aug, 2018 | About Coach Mat, Nutrition, Nutrition, Poor Nutrition, Recommended Reading, Weight Management
Need a reason to eat more vegetables? How about improving recovery after hard athletic efforts? You may look up these Foods to Improve Athletic Performance & Recovery. on NutritionFacts.org. I’ve been running a lot longer distances this season. With two or...
by Coach Mat | 11 Aug, 2018 | Food & Hydration, Metabolic Training, Nutrition, Nutrition, Recommended Reading, Weight Management
Continued from Part 1. Do You Need To Eat Less Calories? Or maybe you just need to eat better quality calories. Here are some ways you can go about it… Eat mostly plants. Fill up on them first. Leave animal products to the last and in the smallest amounts....
by Coach Mat | 8 Aug, 2018 | Food & Hydration, Metabolic Training, Nutrition, Nutrition, Recommended Reading, Weight Management
I want to make an argument for choosing food for what vital nutrition it supplies more than by how it pleases the taste buds or entertains you. But first, I want to acknowledge that meals are an important part of social bonding and a daily, centering activity in many...
