Mindfulness In/Out Of Water – Part 3

by Coach Mat | 25 Oct, 2014

Continued from Part 2… Now I will move on to some practical suggestions. A few weeks ago one swimmer commented on my post Going Further From Inside: I have read and reread this article several times. Is there any way to incorporate this inner awareness...

Mindfulness In/Out Of Water – Part 2

by Coach Mat | 19 Oct, 2014

Continuing from Part 1… I don’t claim that Total Immersion  guarantees deliverance from these self-imposed emotional storms, but myself and so many others who I have met in the global TI community of swimmers have found our practice to greatly improve our...

Mindfulness In/Out Of Water – Part 1

by Coach Mat | 13 Oct, 2014

While reading through the post “Can You Rewire Your Brain In Two Weeks? One Man’s Attempt…” from the blog of Tim Ferriss] (The 4-Hour Workweek/Body/Chef dude) various observations and questions in my mind suddenly merged together into this realization...

Why Swim Symmetrical?

by Coach Mat | 11 Oct, 2014

Some weeks ago I had an email discussion with my TI Coach colleague Bernardo Blanco in Spain. We were discussing the asymmetry observed in certain elite swimmers, and whether we should imitate this asymmetry or practice a symmetrical stroke. Coach Bernardo was going...

How Much Drill Work?

by Coach Mat | 4 Oct, 2014

This question came up recently in the context of how we should go about training at home after swim camp (or workshop). So, I would like to elaborate here on the comments I made at camp… How much drill work should I do? Good question, but it is not easy to give...

Going Further From Inside

by Coach Mat | 20 Sep, 2014

I have a few students like this: they have been practicing faithfully for months if not years. They have the expected pattern of the stroke seemingly memorized. At first glance one might say, ‘Yeah, your stroke looks great!’. But these swimmers tell me...

Loosen Up

by Coach Mat | 30 Aug, 2014

I have kept this self-help idea in my pocket for a couple years since a TI Coach friend referred me to a masseur, who in turn recommended this home remedy to relieve some muscle knots that were developing under my shoulder blades from extensive sprint work I was doing...

Me Hot and Slow, You Cool and Fast

by Coach Mat | 23 Aug, 2014

I have had low swimming ambition this summer, but it was expected – August is now my hardest month of the year. I partly blame it on my (modest) obsession with ‘cool’ water swimming. For the last two years I have forsaken the pool and stayed in the...

Welcome to the new Smooth Strokes blog site

by Coach Mat | 22 Aug, 2014

I am posting this message to test that you are receiving these it automatically through your email subscription to my Smooth Strokes blog. I used a tool to migrate all of your emails to this CMS and now I want to test that you are receiving it. So, are you reading...

Better Motivation For Sinkers (And Anyone!)

by Coach Mat | 16 Aug, 2014

I want to follow up with the latest posts (Part 1 and Part 2) on Remedy For Sinkers to acknowledge that dealing with the body is not the only part of the sinker equation. It is obvious in many cases that overcoming the sinking problem is not just physically...