Wet Fingers

by Coach Mat | 10 Jan, 2013

I am fascinated by physiology, and I am guessing many of you are also. Here’s an article on ScienceMag.com that I caught wind of from Daily News Of Open Water Swimming: Wrinkles Help Fingers Get a Grip   Recent photo of Antalya Mountains-City-Sea by my friend...

Training Pace Perception

by Coach Mat | 7 Jan, 2013

It may or may not be surprising to you to learn that holding consistent Pace is one of the most important skills for any swimmer desiring to race or accomplish a particular distance goal for the best possible outcome. This applies to 50 meters sprints to 1500 meters,...

Body Composition For Swimming

by Coach Mat | 2 Jan, 2013

I was typing out some thoughts on how body composition affects swimming on a TI Forum thread and thought it would be good to share the same here… Perhaps this will also help explain why we make the search for “The Path Of Least Resistance” the...

Private Virtual Competition

by Coach Mat | 29 Dec, 2012

This is how a virtual competition (with Sun Yang or any swimmer in the world you choose!) might work: Pace is a simple calculation of Stroke Length (SL) x Tempo. We will use SL because it is a universal measurement – it doesn’t matter what length pool you...

Best Head Position?

by Coach Mat | 27 Dec, 2012

When I do childrens lessons I keep a 20m section of rope in my swim gadget basket. I tie a small loop in one end. Then I give that loop to a swimmer, have them get out in the pool to the end of the rope. I stand on deck ready to reel the rope in. They will lay flat on...

A Better Push-Off

by Coach Mat | 23 Dec, 2012

Experimenting with head position during push-off from the pool wall is a great exercise, as it will build the feel for which position is truly the most hydrodynamic. In pool training I have a regular habit of marking the 6m mark (just past the flags), either by noting...

Over-Training Children?

by Coach Mat | 21 Dec, 2012

Here is a response I gave on the TI Forums to a coach from SE Asia. I didn’t answer her question directly, instead I expanded the question to get her thinking (hopefully) about the traditional assumptions held under that question. I thought it would be useful...

Swimmer Dashboard

by Coach Mat | 14 Dec, 2012

Here is the basic TI Swimmer dashboard that I hold in my head. After sitting on my sketches for maybe a year I’ve finally built a diagram of it that I can share with you. I have some plans for using this in a workbook for swimmers eventually but I would like to...

Animal Brain

by Coach Mat | 13 Dec, 2012

Good comment on my last post! Thank you for sharing some thoughts with me on the topic… My problem is this. Despite the fact that I’ve gotten rid of the need to prove something for myself or others, that natural competitive instinct comes out when there’s...

Transparent Coaching

by Coach Mat | 12 Dec, 2012

How is your training going? I thought it would be helpful to just be a little transparent about what I am doing and thinking these days on a personal level in my swimming and coaching. The water and weather are gradually cooling. And it is gradually becoming a little...