Recently I've been noticing a lot of coaches & blogs suggesting the "DPS" drill. DPS stands for distance per stroke.  Frequently I just see it written that way, like this recent set I recieved in one of my email subscrptions...

 

12x25 DPS.  How low can you get?

12 x 50. Pause completely sideways for 5 seconds after each stroke. Use a pullbouy for this

(600 of various fist drills)

12 x 25 DPS. 

Read More...

One of my regular swimmers, I'll call her Sophie,  is a beautifully minded 64 year old woman who drives 90 minutes every other week to take a lesson.  I think it's like therapy for both of us. She simply LOVES swimming, and is happy as long as she is in the water.   In the summer, after she swims with me, she drives home and then swims with her tri club (mostly 30 years younger than her) in their

Read More...

I can't wait to get into the pool today.  Two days ago I had what felt like a breakthrough swim.  Those days are so exciting and I hardly wanted to get out of the pool.  

I've made huge improvements in my swimming the past 2 years since being involved as a TI coach. But as always, I want to be better, and faster.   While speed isn't necessarily my primary goal, it's hard not to sometimes look

Read More...

Swimming in Open Water can be a nerve-wracking experience for some swimmers.  Even if you are a fantastic pool swimmer, the open water presents challenges that can be psychologically difficult to overcome unless you are prepared.  Learn to think about open water sighting in a new way and you'll find yourself more relaxed and confident in the water.   This is the first of a multi-part article

Read More...

I thought I'd share an email I wrote to one of my swimmers. Ironically, this swimmer has a beautiful stroke, very smooth, long, lean, streamlined and little drag formation.  But he's got two demons that possess his swimming.  His breathing and his kick.  (It would have been funny I'd written "his right side & his left side", or "his front half and his back half") But no, they are the common

Read More...

4 Stages of Learning (how to swim)

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist ahead of his time.  While his peers examined illness and abnormalcy, he chose to study aspects of health, wellness & peak performance.  He came up with a learning theory know as Maslow's 4 Stages of learning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow)

Unconscious Incompetence
The individual neither understands nor knows how to do

Read More...

I have been priveleged to work with two amazing women over the past 2 months.  They are busy, succesful driven ladies who want nothing more than to improve their swim stroke.  They both travel extensively for work and as a result, have not been able to practice routinely in between our lessons.

Each swimmer came to me with their own set of habits that need to be changed.  Because they've had so

Read More...

Last weekend I went to visit my nephews who are now 6 and 8 years old. I don't have any kids, so every time I visit them it's a whole new adventure in seeing how boys grow up.  They were so cute and little and precious as infants and toddlers, and to see them now with their own ideas and thoughts is mindblowing to me.

 In the past when we've gone swimming, one or both of them were usually hanging

Read More...

Taught a swim lesson tonight and was able to get in a few hundred yards before, during & after the lesson.

I've been having trouble focusing on my form...it's like I don't want to go back to basics, or when I try some of the basic focuses, my stroke doesn't feel smooth and connected...my breathing doesn't feel smooth and I get frustrated.

Tonight I decided to do a stroke counting set of trying to

Read More...

I just got back from a quick 5 day trip to San Francisco Bay visiting a friend and 2nd cousin. While I was there, we took a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you love the ocean, you really need to make this a destination someday. It's on the site of a former sardine cannery right on the pacific ocean. In fact, it's so close to the ocean that the aquarium pumps in water from the bay as part

Read More...