Metrics | Mediterra Swim & Run

Thinking About Pain – Part 1

by Coach Mat | 15 Sep, 2018

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...

What You Can Learn About Speed From Butterfly

by Coach Mat | 2 Sep, 2018

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...

How To Make Your Stroke Longer

by Coach Mat | 7 Jul, 2018

The universal speed equation is… Speed = Stroke Length x Stroke Rate If you want to go faster in the water you need to make stroke length (SL) longer without losing more than a calculated amount of stroke rate, or you need to make stroke rate (SR) higher without...

If You Want To Move Forward Quickly

by Coach Mat | 26 May, 2018

We most often think of water as a whole body or continuous substance. But really, from another viewpoint in physics, it is a soup of individual water molecules, or little electrical balls all jumbled, bumping and swirling together. And if you want to swim forward in...

Should We Use Tempo Or Stroke Rate?

by Coach Mat | 21 Apr, 2018

In swimming measurements, do you know the difference between seconds per stroke and strokes per minute? Or the difference between tempo and stroke rate? Or when to use one over the other? Don’t worry if you don’t know, or don’t care. But sometimes...

Adults Need Self Limiting Exercises

by Coach Mat | 4 Mar, 2018

I can’t emphasize this enough, because it is a cornerstone of our care for adult athletes: we train for superior technique because that is what is going to keep our body pleasantly functional into our oldest age . Taking off from the way it was said in the...