Specific Skills | Mediterra Swim & Run

For Those Who Struggle with Consistently Performing Well in Practice

by Coach Mat | 1 Jul, 2023

A concern I’ve heard from some of my longer-term students – those that have integrated the skills we’ve been working on – is that they don’t feel like they can consistently get into their best swimming from practice to practice. One day...

First, Build A Sufficient Fitness Tank

by Coach Mat | 7 May, 2023

I wrote last recently on the idea of having two fuel tanks, one for fitness activities and the other on reserve for survival. Using that analogy as a reference point, and linking to the concerns I raised in the essay last week regarding knowing when you are ready for...

How Do You Know When You Are Ready For Your Event?

by Coach Mat | 30 Apr, 2023

For the last two years, as a service to our local swimmer community, I have conducted private lessons as well as lake and river swimming clinics to help athletes in our area prepare for the swim leg of our local Ironman 70.3 Oregon race. In the Willamette River that...

How Are You Tapping Your Two Fuel Tanks?

by admin.mediterra | 23 Apr, 2023

Imagine that you, the athlete, have two fuel tanks, filled with resources that each of the performance subsystems (neural, muscular, metabolic, and mental subsystems) requires to function. The first fuel tank is the fitness tank, which has the capacity to support your...

What Is An Extreme Athlete and Can You Be One Of Them?

by Coach Mat | 26 Feb, 2023

While the word ‘extreme’ can refer to doing something greater than most others have done before, it can also simply mean doing something greater than you have personally ever done before. In this way, do you regard yourself as an extreme athlete, or aspire...

Why Some Swimmers Struggle With Swimming Better

by Coach Mat | 13 Feb, 2023

I’ve observed some differences between how one person can arrange their body to execute a skill in the water and create the desired effect – like forming the frame with their whole body and sliding it along the surface for meters – and another...