Competitive/Performance Training | Mediterra Swim & Run

Flow With Age

by Coach Mat | 21 May, 2016

It is possible I gained more of a mature athletic perspective a little early in life. I was injured at a young athletic age – first, both my rotator cuff tendons fell into severe chronic inflammation at age 16 which exiled me from the competitive pool for three...

When More Is Better

by Coach Mat | 16 Apr, 2016

When you can make time for more practices each week – with good design and focused effect, and in good balance in your other priorities in life – that is a very good thing. All things being healthy, practicing more often will give you a boost in...

Detecting Progress

by Coach Mat | 10 Apr, 2016

Some times, when discussing practice results with a swimmer, I get the impression that this person has a persistent expectation for improvement in one particular way, even if the practice set was focused on other metrics. Here is a common example: in the first stage...

Guidance For Using A Snorkel

by Coach Mat | 19 Mar, 2016

A reader recently asked about my perspective on using a snorkel in training, particularly to help set aside the concern for disruptive breathing for a while. My response… With any pool tool, if you understand what the tool can help you with, what it’s role in...

Your Potential At Other Distances

by Coach Mat | 27 Feb, 2016

This post is related to my 100 yard Sprint Improvement Project I discussed in the previous post. It is not common for swimmers – elite or regular citizen athletes – to train on both ends of the event spectrum – short sprints (like 50, 100) to long...

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...