by Coach Mat | 12 Dec, 2020
How do you speak to yourself in training or in your big event when you are having a hard time, making mistakes, not performing to your standards or expectations? Are you generally harsh in your attempt to motivate yourself to do better? Or generally compassionate...
by Coach Mat | 19 Oct, 2019
If you have been to one of our swim camps before, you may recall that we tend to wander onto topics that go way beyond swimming itself, when interest and opportunity presents itself among our students. We like to think about and work on: mindfulness body awareness...
by Coach Mat | 19 May, 2018
In the Positive Psychology realm, ‘engagement’ (Seligman) is another term for ‘flow state’ (Csikszentmihaly) which I’ve written quite a lot about in a previous series of posts. An aspect of this engagement or flow is being absorbed in a...
by Coach Mat | 15 Jul, 2017
What’s the biggest obstacle standing in the way of your reaching your swimming goal? Would you like me to tell you how to solve that problem? Well, I can’t address every individual problem there is, but I can point out the different categories you can...
by Coach Mat | 9 Apr, 2017
Three Kinds Of Hardship Like you, I love to hear stories of those who have accomplished amazing things in the realm of sports and adventure. I recently listened to Rich Roll’s interview with Kimberly Chambers, ultra-distance open water swimmer, who, in 2014, was...
by Coach Mat | 16 Aug, 2016
I want to keep confronting the false notion that fitness training and technical training are two separate activities in the pool. Fitness and Technique are truly inseparable, and should be regarded as such in every practice activity. All repetitive movement is...
