Author: Brad Burget

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Setting Goals

Every athlete wants to excel, but the will to excel is insignificant without the will to prepare to excel. Preparation is where many athletes fail. Most are willing to put in hours on top of hours of training, but almost no time is devoted to planning or record keeping. This planning (and tracking) is essential because planning is the first step to achieving any goal – including those accomplished in athletics. Your vision of where you want to be – your goal – is your greatest asset. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Knowing how and understanding why past training and peaking has influenced your performances (record keeping) makes attaining these goals a practice in reality.

Goals should be as objective as possible (measurable and performance-oriented), as specific as possible (performance and time-sensitive), and above all realistic to your level of athletic and competitive abilities. Keeping your season goals to two or possibly three major goals will help streamline your focus and simplify your training and regenerative efforts. The following goal is a specific example of what a season goal of a highly skilled athlete might look like:

GOAL

-Achieve a best time in the 50 yd. freestyle in competition by January 15.-
(Current best time of 20.10 in 50 yd. freestyle)

Write your goals down and put them in a conspicuous place, like by the bathroom mirror or on the fridge, so that you’ll see them often. Keep a copy in your training bag, as well, so you are reminded of your goals at practice. This will be a frequent reminder of your precise competitive desires, and as you’ll see below, of the how and why you planned on achieving them.

The methods and training objectives needed to attain your season goals are listed next. These again should be as objective, specific and realistic as possible. Methods listed can be complex or simple, just be sure to match your methods to your season goals. Daily training methods and objectives can vary greatly from day-to-day, but should also fall in line with your season goals. Training methods are the “how” to get to your goals. Training objectives are the performance markers on the road to your goals. They are the specific values, aspects of fitness, and/or the performances needed to achieve your season goals. The following are examples of two training methods and a training objective that supports the previous athlete’s goal mentioned.

METHOD

-Include max speed work in practices at a volume of 600m per week.-

-Include extra quality kicking each day to equal at least 1000 yds. per week.-

OBJECTIVE

-Swim 50 free in practice in less than 21 seconds by December 15.-

Motivations are the “why” you are doing the training and striving toward your goals. Again, this could be as simple as “To be the best in the State,” or a complex, layered, psychological explanation. It is most important that your motivation has meaning for YOU. Use your motivations to keep your training, regeneration, and competition efforts inspired.

Space is provided at the bottom of your goal sheet for your ultimate goal. Perhaps this is the same as your season goal, perhaps two or three years down the road – whichever, it will help you keep an eye toward the future and what you ultimately envision for yourself in your sport.

Daily training or practice goals are extremely useful in reaching your season goals and objectives. They are the “baby steps” on your way to your larger goals. Practice goals can vary from day-to-day, and are highly individual, so be sure that your practice goals are in line with your season goals.

 

Season Goals

1._________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________

Training Methods

1._________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________

5._________________________________________________________

6._________________________________________________________

Training Objectives

1._________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________

5._________________________________________________________

6._________________________________________________________

Motivations_________________________________________________

Have the attitude of a Champion.
Practice and behave as though you were already where you want to be.

Ultimate Goal______________________________________________

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Complexes Strength AND Conditioning with weights

Complexes are several exercises performed in a row, with no break in between. Complexes are really just extended super-sets where you don’t put down the bar or DB’s until you are through. A short example would be a row – clean – press – squat… 2 x 8, where you’d do 8 reps of rows, then 8 reps of cleans, then 8 reps of presses, then 8 reps of squats. Take a short break (1-3 min.+/-), and then repeat for set #2.

Barbell (BB) or Dumbbell (DB) complexes can be used to increase work capacity, improve total-body and core strength, and blast fat off of your entire body. Complexes might also make you feel like you’ll puke, and they for SURE will improve your athleticism. You don’t need a ton of weight to get a good effect, and you can use just about anything to do a complex with. General guidelines for weights to use would be 35 – 75 lbs. for ladies and 65- 105 lbs. for guys, and you can obviously adjust this up or down as needed. You can do complexes with a BB or DB’s, with a med ball, with a 45 lb. plate, or even with a suitcase or a cinder block! Whatever is available can work.

One of the keys to complexes, as with any resistance work, is to continually progress… so add weight, add reps, decrease rest between sets, and/or move faster through the complex in order to continually progress! Complexes are meant to be a hard effort, so if it feels easy, add progression(s)!!

At the end of a workout 1 or 2 complexes are plenty, and if complexes are your main workout, 4 to 6 total sets are the norm. Doing 6 or more complexes in a single workout is hard. Some example sets are listed below, and by all means, be creative and make up some of your own sets. And remember, you won’t be putting the bar down if you do these correctly, so a little chalk might be a good idea.

Good Luck!

UFC Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Bent Rows
High Pulls
Standing Press
Ski Squat
Lunge
Squat & Press
Stiff-leg Deadlift

WWF Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Snatch
Front Squat
Power Clean
Back Squat
Push Press
Stiff-leg Deadlift
Hang Clean & Jerk

Swim Complex – 8 to 10 reps each

Bent Row
Hang Clean
Front Squat & Push Press
Good Morning
Ski Squat

Track Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
Hang Clean & Front Squat & Push Press
Step-back Lunge
Bent Row
Un-weighted Jumps

Jumpers Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
High Pull
Clean & Squat
Standing Press
Un-weighted Jump Lunge
Un-weighted Jumps

Legs & Shoulders Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Un-weighted Jumps
Squat
Squat with :10 pause at the bottom (ouch!)
Standing Press
Push Press
Front Squat & Press

Pull Better Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
Deadlift
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning

Speed Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Snatch-grip Deadlift
Snatch-grip High Pull
Clean
Step-back Lunge
Push Jerk (split)
Un-weighted Jumps
Now be creative and make up some of your own below.

 

Name it:_______________________

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

etc..

Name it:_______________________

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer 
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Competition Nutrition

The most important thing about competition nutrition is to find and USE what works best for YOU. Having said that, here are some useful tips…

1. Stay hydrated. This should be in-practice throughout your training, so it should pose no real problem. 3L of fluid per day for 170 lb. athlete – adjust volume up or down by bodyweight.

2. Eat carbs to fuel activity. Avoid fats and overly processed sugar (sugar-cereal, pastries, etc) until after your competition on a given day. Eat high carb, moderate protein foods or drinks pre- and in-competition.

3. Eat a moderate to high calorie breakfast (or dinner the night before if early a.m. comp). DO THIS! It is the energy that FUELS your performance.

4. Stick to foods and drinks that you are somewhat familiar with. The day of your most important competition is not the day to find out that _____ gives you the cha-cha’s.

5. Be certain you have adequate sodium, potassium, and magnesium in your every-day diet. These electrolytes go hand-in-hand with proper hydration. V-8 or a like drink is an easy way to cover all of these electrolytes. Salted almonds + raisins work, too.

DO NOT complicate this! The training you have put in is ALWAYS the main thing. Stay fueled for competition by covering all of the basics first, and then fine-tuning anything else. Personally – for whatever reason – I train and compete well with a training drink (usually Metabolol II or Accelerade), Gatorade or Cytomax, and Snickers bars. This works for me (Why? Who cares?!?), so this is what I use… just be sure to use what works for YOU!

Easy Action Tips

– Drink plenty of fluids all week
– Eat breakfast every day
– Eat familiar carb foods/drinks around competition (and training)
– Drink V-8 or something similar during the week
– Eat to fuel your performance (usually more, not less) the day before

Again – this is not complicated, so just do it. There are no magic bullets – and should you need to fall back on something it will always be the training you have put in; not a drink, a pill, or whatever.

The above products I mentioned I trust – but mostly because they have worked for ME, they are from reliable companies, and they are readily available. Follow the easy action tips and fine-tune the rest to suit YOU.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer 
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How Strong is Strong Enough?

There are many types of measurable strength – maximal strength, speed-strength, strength endurance, relative strength, starting strength, etc, etc. – that can factor into your sport performance abilities. Training with weights or heavy objects is not the end-goal of too many sports; Power lifting, Olympic lifting, and Strongman being the main exceptions. Training with weights CAN, however, provide protection from injury, allow a greater display of force and/or speed in your sport performance, and improve your general conditioning (GPP) and work capacity. All of these factors lead to improved sport results, and can be improved upon through weight training.

So how do you best fit this into your sport training? Well, we’ve written a book on this and it’s included in the Faster Swimming Manual, so the following description is basic…Our Training recommendations involve lifting heavy weights, lifting moderate weights explosively, and lifting moderate weights for higher repetitions. Heavy lifting increases maximal and starting strength; explosive lifting increases speed-strength and force production; repletion lifting increases strength endurance and work capacity. Relative strength is your strength level in relation to your own body and is addressed in our program in the weight room (pull-ups, dips, hanging leg raise, etc) and in the dryland program – which also focuses on strength endurance, core strength, and to an even greater degree on work capacity and active range of movement. All of these methods will lead to some degree of muscle gain (hypertrophy) which further increases your capacity to produce useable force in your sport. One of the basic principles at work within all of this is that of progressive overload; you must continually and progressively increase loads (poundage and/or speed) to adapt to a higher level.

Injury prevention can also be addressed with weight training. Training with weights in a balanced program will lead to greater overall body-strength and control, which leads to more efficient and coordinated movement which leads to fewer injuries. Specific injury-prone areas for a given sport can also be addressed and strengthened as needed. Using swimming as an example, the shoulders are a frequent site of injury. Injury prevention can be addressed through specific exercises (Cuban press, faces pull, pull-ups, rack pull-ups, pullovers, etc) and through repetition and movement work with bands (internal/external rotation, distraction, etc.).

All of this can be fit into brief (around 1 hour) workouts, done 2-4x per week, to increase your durability and sport performance – which you can learn more about here (link).

So, back to the original question – How strong is “strong enough”? As long as weight training is not interfering with sport practice and/or competition, it is our view that you can always improve performance by getting stronger. Again – the end-goal is increased performance in your sport, and being able to display more force and speed while lessening your chance of injury will lead to this. Combine this type of weight training with appropriate and balanced sport training and you are on your way to improved performance!!

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Water or Gatorade?

This is a bit of a rant, so I’ll apologize up front.

I can not even come close to guessing how many times someone has asked “Shouldn’t I be drinking Gatorade?”. It seems that all of the commercials have worked – people (not just athletes) drinking Gatorade with meals, at work, before bed… the list goes on and on. So let’s get some things straight…

1. Gatorade is intended to replace water and electrolytes in HARD training lasting OVER 1 HOUR, and/or in HIGH HEAT training lasting more than 30 minutes. It’s proven – Gatorade can help improve hydration and hence performance… UNDER THESE CONDITIONS!

2. Gatorade is not “magic”. It is water with sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (another type of sugar), Sodium (salt), Potassium, and flavoring. Gatorade is mixed as a 6% carbohydrate solution to facilitate faster emptying from your stomach/gut to rehydrate you faster while providing fuel for working muscles. You could make your own similar drink with:

1 Liter of water
4 Tbsp. sugar (60 grams, equaling a 6% solution of carbohydrate)
_ teaspoon of table salt or 1 teaspoon of baking soda (Sodium)
_ teaspoon of “No Salt” (Potassium)
Crystal Light or Sugar-free Kool-Aide to taste

No magic added.

3. You may not need the extra calories. Training drinks (Gatorade) and recovery drinks (carbs + protein) are useful if you are in hard training, but on off days or easy days are simply extra calories. Generally speaking, you should be consuming non-calorie drinks most of the time – unless you are trying to gain weight. The extra calories that come from drinking Gatorade (or ANY calorie-containing drink) throughout the day may be adding to your waistline. Choose water or Green Tea most of the time.

Basic hydration comes from a basic practice that people have been doing forever… drinking water! Simple, effective, and true. There are effective training drinks, such as Gatorade, on the market – and during times of intense or prolonged training and competition they may be helpful. There are, however, no magic bullets. Hard, consistent training matched with solid recovery (nutrition, hydration, and sleep) will always yield results. Know when to drink water and when to use a training drink, and you may end up saving your waistline and your wallet.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer 
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Creating Goals for Athletes

Every athlete wants to excel, but the will to excel is insignificant without the will to prepare to excel. Preparation is where many athletes fail. Most are willing to put in hours on top of hours of training, but almost no time is devoted to planning or record keeping. This planning (and tracking) is essential, because planning is the first step to achieving any goal – including those accomplished in athletics. Your vision of where you want to be – your goal – is your greatest asset. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Not knowing how and understanding why past training and peaking has influenced your performances (record keeping) makes attaining these goals tougher than it needs to be.

Goals should be as objective as possible (measurable and performance-oriented), as specific as possible (performance and time-sensitive), and above all realistic to your level of athletic and competitive abilities. Keeping your season goals to two or possibly three major goals will help streamline your focus and simplify your training and regenerative efforts. The following goal is a specific example of what a season goal might look like:

-Achieve a top 100 World ranking in the 200m dash by August 1.-
-Three previous season’s average of 20.45 seconds.-

Write your goals in this manual and in another conspicuous place so that you’ll see them often. This will be a frequent reminder of your precise competitive desires, and as you’ll see below, of the how and why you planned on achieving them.

The methods and training objectives needed to attain your season goals are listed next. These again should be as objective, specific and realistic as possible. Methods listed can be complex or simple, just be sure to match your methods to your season goals. Daily training methods and objectives can vary greatly, but should also fall on a continuum of your season goals. The following are examples of two training methods and a training objective that might support the previous goal.

-Include max speed work in June practices at a volume of 600m per week.-

-Include extra mobility work for 30 min., 3x per week for the entire season.-

-Run 200m in practice in less than 21 seconds by July 15.-

Motivations are the why you are doing the training and striving toward your goals. Again, this could be as simple as “to be the best in the State,” or a complex, layered, psychological explanation. It is most important that your motivation has meaning for YOU. Use your motivations to keep your training and regeneration efforts inspired.

Space is provided at the bottom of your goal sheet for your ultimate goal. Perhaps this is the same as your season goal, perhaps two or three years down the road – whichever, it will help you keep an eye toward the future and what you ultimately envision for yourself in your sport.

Weekly and daily training goals head each log page under “Training.” Use these goals to help plan the incremental steps in your training leading to your season and ultimate goals. These smaller goals will keep you on track towards your larger goals and keep your intent at the forefront of your training.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer 
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Athletic Peaking

Athletic peaking, when you are in top shape, results in your best performances of the season. At this time fitness is at the highest level, while fatigue is at the lowest. This is the one time of the season that fatigue should in no way mask fitness. Your peak occurs when you are ready to perform at your best physically (fitness, skills, reactions…) and psychologically (strategy, focus, intent…). Peaking for sport is no accident, but rather the culmination of training, competitions, tactics and regeneration that has been planned for.

A peaking period can be as long as several weeks or as short as several days, so defining your peaking period and planning accordingly is critical. No new stimuli of any significant intensity should be introduced at this time, and training methods (psychological, physical, and technical) must be specific to the demands of competition. Complete regeneration of all required physical capacities; such as speed, strength, and power; is paramount. These levels should all be at their highest during a peaking phase. While volume most often drops significantly and rest periods increase during a taper, some portion of training intensity MUST remain high to facilitate peak performances. To maintain an extended peak, appropriate intensity must remain in your training at some level throughout the peaking period.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer
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Periodization

Periodization is defined by USA Track & Field as “The process of planning training in order to produce high levels of performance at designated times. There are three major concepts associated with the process of periodization:

1. Periodization and Planning. Planning is perhaps the most important step in insuring the effectiveness of the training program. Planning enables control of training variables and parameters in a manner that guarantees the best chance for success.

2. Periodization and Record Keeping. Record keeping is another crucial part of the periodization process. This enables monitoring of training loads accurately, and modification of training from season to season and year to year.

3. Periodization and Peaking. Peaking refers to designing training so that the best performances come at the most crucial competitions.”

When establishing a training year it is necessary to identify the most important competitions of the season and the peak requirements of you, the athlete. Reverse-engineering your season (or working backwards from the end of the season to the beginning) allows you to arrange periods, mesocycles, microcycles, and sessions using peak requirements as the season-end goal. So, to plan your season you need to understand the above terms. A session would make up what you are doing for a given training session or practice. A microcycle is usually based on a given week, or a 7-10 day cycle of training. A mesocycle is most commonly a 4 week cycle of training composed of 3 to 4 microcycles. A period is divided into one of several categories: Off-season or General Prep, Pre-season or Specific Prep, Early-season or Precompetition, and Late-season or Competiton & Peaking, and can contain multiple mesocycles.

Plan your season by targeting your important competitions to coincide with your athletic peak. The advice of an experienced coach can go a long way here, as planning so far in advance requires the understanding of how all training and regeneration factors interplay within a season and given sport. Each training period should build on the previous period, and each mesocycle should build on the previous mesocycle. Within each microcycle and training session there is a need for training variance to allow for adequate regeneration. An example of an established method for planning a mesocycle (or training month) would be placing the training load for the 4 microcycles (or training weeks) at 1.High – 2.Medium – 3.Very High – 4.Low. This would allow for a reduction in training load in week 4 (to deepen regeneration) and a return to a higher level of sport fitness in the following micro- and mesocycle.

Use of this Manual – specifically of the Training Log – will allow analysis of your periodized plan both during and after your season to help eliminate overtraining, undertraining, and inconsistent performances. There are no textbook answers for solving all of the variances and problems that arise in training, but access to past performances along with a detailed training log will go a long way in determining your course in the future.

Timing peak athletic condition to coincide with the most important competitions can be difficult. It is precisely this reason that the Training Log and all its detail follows – to give you the complete set of tools to achieve peak performance when the most important competitions are at hand. Use the Training Log at the very least during your peaking phase, in order to understand and document how all of your previous training and regeneration efforts influenced your most important competitions.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer
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Weightlifting Guidelines for Swimmers

These guidelines are taken from Section 8 of Faster Swimming. You can also purchase the Cross Training section from Faster Swimming here:

1. When the core of your training is aerobic you don’t need to lift aerobically. Lift for speed and strength.

2. Flexibility work is key especially after lifting. Stretching after lifting increases blood flow which aids in recovery. You must maintain your flexibility for swimming and retain full range of motion.

3. Large, compound, multi-joint exercises (i.e. the deadlift) should go first in a weight training program designed to improve athletic performance

4. Lift for improved performance, not to induce soreness. Unnecessary soreness will not only hinder general recovery but reduce power and speed in the water.

5. Maintain bar speed throughout your lifting.

6. Lifting is for total body strength, improved nervous system function and increased power and speed. Lifting must compliment your swim training and will improve your swimming performance.

7. Do not lift to muscular failure. It is old school to lift aerobically if you train 2-6 hours a day aerobically in the pool. You eventually reach an aerobic threshold and then the rest of your training is useless.

8.  Distance swimmers will gain speed and power from lifting. Lifting as prescribed here is a great form of cross training that will not only help your power and speed but help in recovery from all your slow twitch swim work.

9. You must remember the key ingredient to this whole program is based on training for the exact event. Lifting for speed and strength should be the basis of any lifting program. Most coaches don’t understand how weight lifting, body strength, speed and power work to help swimmers.

10. Weight lifting is one dryland component of swim training. Deck-based dryland, active stretching, yoga or any exercise regime that increases whole-body strength can be included in your complete training program.

11. Each person has a certain muscle make-up that helps pre-determine success for particular events and if a coach doesn’t try to recognize individual differences then true success or full potential will never be known. In short there are fast twitch and slow twitch muscles in everyone and each person has a different percentage.

12.  I have had a handful of swimmers that came from programs that over-trained and were in excellent aerobic shape but had no speed and power or ever trained for specific events. It took about 6-8 months to get these swimmers to train with speed and power (quality for each event). This can be accomplished through weightlifting.

13. Kicking drives speed and power comes from dryland. This needs to be a larger part of practice. Add slow controlled kicking while using correct body position without kickboards as an alternate way to kick in practice.

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Weightlifting for Swimmers – Example

Here is a recent swim team lifting workout. We are in a building phase, so we’re spending a little more time in the weight room right now (hence the total time and volume). This should take a little over an hour – there are no max or even near-max lifts here, so rest between sets – exercises should be brief. This follows the FasterSwimming workout plan and incorporates an extra effort exercise (push and total-body/pull) and a split speed exercise selection (push and pull).

Warm up as indicated, and include active and passive stretching (mobility) at the end (we did some stability, too!).

Warm up – 8 min

2 x 10 Hanging Leg Raises (pikes or tucks)

2 x 10 Overhead Squats (go deep)

Effort – 25 min

5 x 8 Bench press – slightly narrow grip (not on smooth)
two or three work-up sets for bench

5 x 8 DB Deadlift + shrug 2x at top of each dead
Chin up, butt down

Speed – 12 min

5 x 3 Push Press – light weight (speed…)

8 x 3 Pull ups – pull up fast & go down low

Density – 10 min

3 x 8 Mountain (15) and DB Snatch
Light DB’s – 15 Mountains @ bottom of each snatch
They should get thru each set quickly here taking time between sets
Again, chin up, butt down when snatching

Extra – 8 min

2 x 10 Cuban press – light & controlled
3 x 25 Push ups