“ To encourage improvement, I posted a chart showing what 3, 4, 5 and 6% improvement translated to in each swimmer’s events. I suggested a 3% drop to be a realistic expectation for anyone who followed my simple rules: be on time, bring your water bottle, pay attention, give your best effort, support your teammates. Almost everyone achieved 3% or better.”

As in the past two years, once again I’m happy to report to Total Swim readers about my high school swim team and how we succeeded this season. Rather than just talking about the many personal bests we achieved this year, I’d like to broaden my description of success a bit to better reflect how rich an experience high school swimming can be. To a great extent, our team succeeds when the majority of our swimmers improve their times during the season. Last year we achieved 225 Personal Bests; this year’s team was slightly smaller and was able to achieve 232 PBs.

Kids swimming at the high school level do so in an educational setting. I make it a habit to talk to my team each day about their homework, tests, projects, etc., to see whether they’re actively engaged in the learning process. Part of our definition of success includes academic achievement, measured by multiplying each athlete’s first quarter GPA times 25 and adding that number to their points towards lettering. The average team GPA this year was a credible 3.4.

Participation is an important aspect of high school sports. Every student at our school is encouraged to try out for swimming. Once they’re on the team, I put a premium on achieving 100% attendance; swimmers earn a 50-point bonus for not missing practice all season. Thus we also define success in terms of a swimmer’s commitment to the program, by giving a swimmer 5 points for “just showing up” each day, which, as we adults know, is “80% of success.” The vast majority of my team finished the season with perfect attendance.

Finally, the degree of group camaraderie plays a significant role in whether we can be called successful. One of the more compelling aspects of high school swimming is the narrow peer group from which high school swimmers come. This seems to focus the emotional tone of the whole team and deepen the bonds between teammates. Many of my high school swimmers have already swum together for 4 or 5 years as club swimmers by the time they enter high school. I’m happy to report, as in years past, our esprit de corps was very good this season.

Learning focus
This season’s group allowed me to develop my martial arts approach to coaching to a greater extent than any previous group I’ve worked with. We had 38 swimmers this season, a group made up primarily of 15 and 16 year old girls and one small group of 17-year-old boys. They embraced everything from deep breathing to treating each other with more courtesy.

For several years, we’ve started every practice with 10 slow, deep breaths, to help them slow down (physically) and calm down (mentally) after 6+ hours in school. Last year, we also included a practice called “single point” meditation. After 10 slow, deep breaths, the swimmers open their eyes and find a spot on the ceiling upon which to focus. The goal is to hold an unwavering gaze for two minutes. Try it if you think this sounds easy. We started the season with 15 seconds of single point concentration, and gradually increased our focus time.

Our new wrinkle this year was to add the practice of swimming with an “unbendable arm” as the main focus of certain sets. With concentration, swimmers can keep their hand, wrist, forearm, upper arm and shoulder very relaxed and yet with enough non-rigid strength to maintain the shape needed to effectively hold onto the water from catch to finish. (See below for more detail on the “unbendable arm.”)

Measure progress
The final change I made was to encourage a focus on measurable progress by posting a chart showing what 3, 4, 5 and 6% improvement translated to in each swimmer’s events. I suggested a 3% drop to be a realistic expectation for anyone who followed my simple rules: be on time, bring your water bottle, pay attention, give your best effort, support your teammates. Almost everyone achieved 3% improvement or better. Here are some examples:

One of our senior boys dropped from a 1:03.72 to a 1:01.63 in his 100 breast and was just “touched out” for the state title, finishing 2nd. That time represents a 3.2% improvement, which is good, although our young man was understandably disappointed with the outcome. He also finished 3rd in state championships in the 200 IM this year with a 2:02.38, a 1.8% time drop from last year’s state final time of 2:04.60. The week prior, at our regional championships, he led off our 400 free relay with a 49.56, a 3.2% improvement over last year’s best of 51.20. Like most of our swimmers, he finished the year improving in every event, not just his primary events.

One of our freshman boys won the Most Improved Male Swimmer award at this year’s team banquet by finishing with the following improvements: 9.4% in the 100 breast (1:09.25 to 1:02.77), 9.4% in the 200 IM (2:13.65 to 2:01.12), 8.1% in the 100 fly (1:02.42 to 57.38), 7.8% in the 200 free (2:06.15 to 1:56.30), 5.8% in the 100 free (55.11 to 51.90), and 1.8% in the 100 back (58.32 to 57.25).

One of our best sprinters had his sights set on achieving the U.S. Open cut at state in the 50 free. Though his 21.16 left him short of his goal, that swim represented a 4.8% improvement from his previous best (22.23). He swam a 53.45 in his 100 back (a 2.7% improvement from his previous best of 54.94).

Our best middle distance swimmers improved a modest 1.4% in her 200 free (1:54.75 to 1:53.25), though that may be just enough for her to earn All-American status in that event. She improved 1.3% in her 100 free (53.54 to 52.85). In dual meet competition this year she improved 1.4% in her 200 IM (2:14.37 to 2:12.54), which was just fast enough to qualify her for senior sectionals next spring. She also swam a 1:11.36 in the 100 breast (a 3.2% improvement over her previous best, 1:13.75). These are significant time drops for a 12-week high school season.

Our boy’s team was 8-0 in dual meet competition; our girls were 7-1. Our boys won the region title for the first time in four years; our girls won their 13th consecutive region title. Our boys won their first ever state title (after being close the last two years), our girls finished 2nd. Altogether, our boys and girls won 7 events at our state championships in 7 All-American times, and finished 2nd in six other events. Lathrop had swimmers in 19 of 24 finals. One of our senior boys was named the Male Swimmer-of-the-Meet (4 swims, 4 wins, 4 All-American times). Perhaps the most gratifying moment of the season for me was watching our boy’s team receive the Team Sportsmanship Award at the state meet. I’d call our season very successful.

On a personal note, like most of you, I do my best to practice what I preach. Naturally I want to start each practice session with the same sense of calmness and purpose as my swimmers. I usually sit at my desk and practice slow, deep breathing for five minutes before the swimmers arrive. I use a heart rate monitor to watch my pulse. My resting pulse at the beginning of most practices varies between 40 and 45 bpm. Yesterday I invested 8 minutes in slow, deep breathing and started practice with a pulse of 38. It’s such a pleasure coaching from a calm center while the energy of three dozen teenagers swirls around me.

I’ll close by reprinting a haiku I wrote for one of my swimmers this year.

Virtue
You were so patient!
Your reward: fast swims
in virtually each event

My haiku always celebrate some positive aspect of a swimmer’s character. Sometimes they’re humorous. They often contain a play on words. For instance, in “Virtue” I echo the title word in the last line of the haiku by using a form of the word “virtual”. The thoughtful reader will immediately realize these two words don’t have the same meaning, yet I’m connecting them in this poem. Patience is, of course, the virtue referred to in the title and is pointed up as a trait of moral excellence. The word “virtually” means “in essence”. What’s the connection between these words other than their sounding alike? Both “virtue” and “virtual” come from the Latin, virtus, meaning “strength”. In a sense, they represent the same concept. The first half of “Virtue” speaks to this swimmer’s strength of mind or spirit. The second half describes this swimmer as “essentially” strong, that is, so fundamentally strong that she shines in every event. The message is - being patient begets speed. This, of course, is just another way of saying The Mind Leads The Body.

Scott Lemley, the inventor of Fistgloves, has been coaching and teaching swimming for 20-plus years. He is currently head coach of the Midnight Sun Swim Team and Lathrop High School, in Fairbanks Alaska. His last contribution to Total Swim was “Warm Up Your Mind With Single Point Concentration” in Dec. 2002.