Psychology | Mediterra Swim & Run

Live Well In Pool And Out

by Coach Mat | 13 Mar, 2013

Yesterday, Coach Terry shared with me a testimony from one of his students, a doctor from Sweden. I wanted to share with you a paragraph from that which I found particularly inspiring: [My wife] said a few days ago that I should try to feel as relaxed outside the pool...

Tune-Up Quick Guide

by Coach Mat | 12 Mar, 2013

Here is a more simplified guide on how a Tune-Up could be constructed: Distance/Duration: It could be from 10 minutes to 15 minutes for an already well-tuned swimmer, to the entire practice for an out-of-tune swimmer. I am very reluctant to lay out actual distance or...

How To Construct A Tune-Up

by Coach Mat | 8 Mar, 2013

So what exactly might a ‘Tune-Up’ look like? It is a sequence of steps I take to prepare my mind and body for the main task of the practice. It’s a series of steps, or a routine even, for bringing each essential piece into line so the swimmer (me)...

Definition Of A Drill

by Coach Mat | 5 Feb, 2013

A question raised on my last post: You point out that when our stroke breaks down, we asses where and why the stroke is not right and go back to drilling. What if we can not find the answer from the drills…..especially if self-coached, how would you suggest we “think...

Meta-Cognate

by Coach Mat | 19 Jan, 2013

Challenging situations are made up of repeating patterns… It’s very difficult to see these patterns when we first enter a challenging situation, but, over time we begin recognising them – or at least learning how to deal with them more effectively....

Break It Down

by Coach Mat | 17 Jan, 2013

Are you struggling and frustrated with something in your swimming? It may be too obvious to state this, but then again it may not… at least in the context of solving our swimming problems. In order to solve them, we take the complexity of our problem and break...