Psychological | Mediterra Swim & Run

Half-Over

by Coach Mat | 3 Apr, 2012

A TI swimmer friend of mine heard me speak last fall and recommended that I read Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I did read it recently and loved it. You might also. In this following passage from that book Murakami is...

Endurance

by Coach Mat | 18 Mar, 2012

Endurance. What does that word mean to you? What kind of images of athleticism does it conjur up in your mind? For me it used to mean: Tough. High threshold for pain in the body, and a high threshold for monotony in the mind. Now: Effortless. Focused. Thrilling. This...

Swim For Vision, Not For Fat

by Coach Mat | 21 Feb, 2012

Interestingly, my blog essay Does Swimming Burn Fat? draws a large quantity of search engine traffic. No wonder. I am from a country obsessed with losing weight. I recently returned from a 2 month visit to the US with my family. Because of my work and my athletic...

One Amazing Stroke

by Coach Mat | 2 Jan, 2012

When pursuing a new PR on my [insert your favorite distance here] why would I crank out more and more mindless yards, going harder and harder, hoping that improvement will magically appear one day? When does quantity ever lead to quality? My amazing 1500 (for example)...

Control or Adapt?

by Coach Mat | 13 Dec, 2011

One day last week I was in the community pool in 31 C (87 F) water. This was quite comfortable when entering and just floating. No effort needed to be at ease. But if I tried to move around at all it was anything but envigorating. Within an hour I had lost all...

Change Is Risk

by Coach Mat | 12 Dec, 2011

I’ve heard of this scenario a few times now- a swimmer comes to a TI course, realizes the physics and physiology behind the concepts, surrenders to the learning process, then begins to practice a new stroke skill with some success and growing excitement. Then...