Psychology | Mediterra Swim & Run

What keeps you going, day after day, year after year?

by Coach Mat | 13 May, 2023

There are some questions I sometimes ask myself or others to reflect on what supports one’s longevity in athletic activity, or I could use them to explore what might be standing in the way of doing it more if they haven’t found that consistency yet. How...

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...

Endurance As An Agreement With Yourself

by Coach Mat | 8 Jan, 2023

A few weeks ago I did a 30-mile (50 km) point-to-point run with my good friend along the iconic Forest Park trail that has a lot of elevation gain toward the end. He runs this trail once or twice a year though this was to be my first time joining him on it. I had been...

Gaining Control Over Your Attention and Energy Flow

by Coach Mat | 15 Apr, 2022

The mind and the body develop together and where one goes the other is pulled along. If you are training the body to become capable of something extraordinary, are you training the mind for its role in this as well? There is a saying, most notably promoted by Daniel...

Trust Supports Skill… At Every Level Of Performance

by Coach Mat | 19 Mar, 2022

One of my favorite scenarios in coaching is to guide a non-swimmer from a tense and fearful relationship with water to a relaxed and confident relationship as a capable swimmer. With an understanding of what’s happening deep in the body’s autonomic nervous...

Accept What Is In Order To Change It

by Coach Mat | 6 Feb, 2021

Do you notice, as I do, that rarely are we the same person in the same condition in today’s practice that we were the day before? Every day presents the likely possibility that something is different in our bodies, in our minds, in our personal conditions, which...