Preparing For Your Open Water Race

by Coach Mat | 29 Jun, 2014

How Do I Prepare For My Open Water Race? Would you like to make your next open-water race experience as pleasant and successful as possible? Here is a way to maximize your chances of that… Here is summary of my advice for how to prepare for your next open-water...

Metrics In Open Water: Measuring Improvement

by Coach Mat | 21 Jun, 2014

When training in open-water how do I measure improvement? The best arrangement is to set up two fixed points (as described in the previous post), and then measure 2 of the 3 variables in the Pace equation: Pace = SPL x Tempo More specifically, for calculating Pace at...

Metrics In Open Water: Measuring Distance

by Coach Mat | 18 Jun, 2014

Now that open-water season is more widely opened up in the Northern Hemisphere we should discuss some ideas about translating pool practice into open-water. It takes an adjustment in mindset to move from pool practice to open-water practice. When asked I let swimmers...

Getting Enough Breath?

by Coach Mat | 2 Jun, 2014

Q: I have read your articles on Metrics-Tempo, Pace, etc with a lot of interest. What I was wondering, if you increase your DPS [distance per stroke], that means your SPL [strokes per length of pool] goes down. If SPL goes down, doesn’t that mean you will take...

Metrics 103: Pacing Failure And Success

by Coach Mat | 24 May, 2014

By gradually increasing distance you will challenge your abilities to hold your chosen SPL x Tempo combination. It will get difficult and you will reach what feel like limits to your ability for that day. Yet ‘failure’ of this type is an important part of...

Accumulation Of Small Advantages

by Coach Mat | 16 May, 2014

At our mini-open water camp in Kas today one of my swimmers was expressing his delight with the improvement he experienced with one or two particular focal points. He kept jumping back in the sea to review it over and over. I was pleased of course, that he identified...

Metrics 103: Pace Construction

by Coach Mat | 12 May, 2014

Can we assume that two swimmers who achieve the same Pace are equal in efficiency as well (in both terms of physics and of physiology)? No. Because the same Pace can be constructed by different combinations of SPL x Tempo, and each of those different combinations...

Metrics 103: Pace

by Coach Mat | 5 May, 2014

This is a simple math equation we use in swim training to measure performance (in terms of time) in a test or race: Pace = Strokes Per Length x Tempo By counting strokes (SPL) over a certain distance and multiplying that by the Tempo, we can calculate Pace. Or we can...

Enemy Of Improvement

by Coach Mat | 20 Apr, 2014

When we consider the goal of continual swimming improvement what is or are our enemies to that goal? A body that doesn’t want to work hard? A mind that is afraid of pain? Boredom? A lack of talent? Not enough time? I suggest that these are the real Enemies Of...

Metrics 102: Fast Tempo

by Coach Mat | 8 Apr, 2014

Why swim at faster tempos? Here are three reasons (among more we might think of):   1. To Improve Speed In order for increased Tempo to result in increased Speed, the swimmer must maintain a certain amount of Stroke Length, or he will end up going slower while...