What Is The Difference Between Strength, Endurance And Power?
As you may have noticed from my style of writing on this blog, I try to be careful with definitions of words and use them in technically accurate ways. I appreciate when someone sends me a kind note pointing out where I may have misused or misunderstood a term in its...
The Limitations Of Your Watch
In order to plan the next cycle of practices for a swimmer working towards a particular performance goal, I need to see various kinds of data from both their objective measurements and their subjective measurements. We are, after all, training the whole person to...
Moving From Novice To Expert – Part 3
Continued from Part 2… I’ve mentioned before that my wife, Gail, is an ‘occupational therapist’. Occupational therapists, as they are called in the US, help people learn (or relearn) how to accomplish daily tasks that their damaged brain lost...
Surviving or Comfortable or Competitive? Part 2
Continued from Part 1. How Much Is Enough To Be Comfortable? When someone asks me a version of this question, I need to know a few things to help guide them toward an answer that is more suitable to their personal situation: How do you want to finish this event:...
Surviving or Comfortable or Competitive? Part 1
I am often approached by swimmers thinking about preparing to swim a much longer distance than they have done before – like 3.8K (Ironman tri), 5K, 10K or 20K, or even 40K (for the English Channel). I receive this question in various forms, and it essentially...
Moving From Novice To Expert – Part 1
It should be well understood that there is a process, and usually a long process we must follow in moving from a novice to an expert in the fundamental skills for an art or sport. There is a process or a path to follow, but there is not a single ‘recipe’...
Moving From Novice To Expert – Part 2
Continued from Part 1… Stages Of Attention Control Not only is your neuromuscular (motor) control being trained, so is your attention, because the two are working together intimately in the development process. At first the attention is directed onto the part of...
Can You Increase Speed Without Increasing Power?
Can you increase speed without increasing power? Yes, and no. Or rather, it depends. To explain why the answer could be yes and it could be no, let’s look at the speed equation: Stroke Length x Stroke Rate = Speed (Velocity) In terms of training in the pool,...