A Natural Reward For Facing Fear

by Coach Mat | 7 Jun, 2011

I felt it was time to return to my swim route out along the cliffs. I start where the 40m cliffs that hold up the downtown part of the city, meet the Konyaaltı Beach stretch. Instead of heading West where all the bathers play, I headed East along these cliffs, where...

Critical Skills For Mastering Waves

by Coach Mat | 2 Jun, 2011

Here on the Mediterranean Coast off Antalya I have a mild selection of adverse open-water conditions – the coldest the sea gets, in February, is 16 C. By May it is up to 20 C, and by mid-August up to 29 C. The afternoon swells and waves, except during a storm,...

Cross-Cultural Coaching Pt 1- HOPE

by Coach Mat | 31 May, 2011

By invitation I’ve started to work with a local age-group swim club here in Antalya. It’s all in Turkish of course, which places me in a great language learning (stretching) situation. I am excited at this opportunity for many reasons, but most of all I am...

Muscles For Water And Rock

by Coach Mat | 22 May, 2011

I was reminded this weekend that swimming muscles do not translate directly into climbing muscles. Oh, my shoulders and torso can crank for hours, but above grade 7 climbing is all in the fore-arms (at least on the overhanging limestone we have here in Tky). Hours of...

Train Like Michaelangelo

by Coach Mat | 15 May, 2011

What has been so helpful to me in TI is that it provides a framework for examining a swimmer’s stroke and making corrections in the right order. The 3 TI Principles: (% emphasis is my interpretation) BALANCE – 60% of excellent swimming STREAMLINE –...

Swim Like You Kayak

by Coach Mat | 13 May, 2011

By invitation, I spent 2 hours in the pool last night observing my Turkish swim coach friends 15 swimmers, all around 9-12 yrs old. While all were working just as hard, stroking away madly, the most remarkable difference between the best swimmers in the lane and the...

Swim To Escape, or Swim To Face It?

by Coach Mat | 3 May, 2011

I headed to the Med this morning to release my internalized stress in the cool sea water. I have been feeling some stress the last couple days. All that tensive unchanneled energy collects in my chest just below the heart and I desperately needed to get it flushed...

Using A Tempo Trainer- SPEED IT UP!

by Coach Mat | 25 Apr, 2011

Using A Tempo Trainer – SPEED IT UP! If you’ve read the previous two lessons then great. Let’s procede. If not, I suggest you take a moment to go back to the Intro and see how those two lessons set the stage for this one. Speed = Stroke Length (SL) x...

Using A Tempo Trainer- SLOW IT DOWN

by Coach Mat | 25 Apr, 2011

Using A Tempo Trainer – SLOW IT DOWN! If you have not read the Introduction, I invite you to do so now to get an idea of what I’m trying to explain with these Tempo Trainer lessons. If you know your current normal SPL and SR for your targeted distance event,...

How To Use A Tempo Trainer- INTRO

by Coach Mat | 25 Apr, 2011

An Introduction To Using A Tempo Trainer First, a few definitions: Stroke Length (SL) – the distance your body travels forward in each stroke cycle (of each arm). For instance, Coach Mat is 1.76 meters tall and has a comfortable SL of 1.2 meters. For more...