Swimmer Stories | Mediterra Swim & Run

Improve Your Weekly Practice Plan

by Coach Mat | 7 Sep, 2016

This week at swim camp in Kaş Turkey I was talking with one of our devoted swim practitioners. He pointed out an insight he gained from his recent work in our Training Plan 5K in the Online Coaching Program. Like every mastery-minded swimmer, he has many skill...

Appropriate Advice

by Coach Mat | 6 Feb, 2016

My last blog post Longer Length Or Faster Rate? attracted many thoughtful comments from regular readers. Those comments brought up many more enticing blog topics. I would like to lay out one of them in this post. Here is a scenario that seems to happen eventually to...

Pain And Peace

by Coach Mat | 23 Jan, 2016

Is there pain and suffering of some form in your training experience? For many, this is not only a common experience, this is the expected experience. After all, they say you must be tough to be a real swimmer, right? Perhaps. But what kind of toughness are we talking...

Relaxation Paradox

by Coach Mat | 12 Dec, 2015

Sometimes it seems like we have a paradox with relaxation in swimming – a dissonance between the understanding that speed requires power and power requires muscle tension, yet speed is restricted unless there is relaxation in the muscles. In Easy Strength the...

2015 Bosphorus Race Review

by Coach Mat | 28 Jul, 2015

I wrote some pre-race comments in Funky Current in the Bosphorus, and now it is time to review what actually happened in the 2015 (27th Annual) Bosphorus Cross Continental Race in Istanbul, Turkey. The morning started very calm and beautiful. There was a northern wind...

Funky Currents In The Bosphorus

by Coach Mat | 24 Jul, 2015

I am in Istanbul this weekend for the 2015 Bosphorus Cross-Continental Race. Previously, I wrote about the 2013 BCC race I participated in. This year we have several swimming friends and students converging from around the world – Netherlands, Russia, UK, South...