AREAS OF FOCUS Every swimming workout entails an area of focus, whether: efficiency, speed or capacity. These three main areas don’t exist separate from one another but rather are interdependent. When you learn to blend these into your training and racing you’ll experience major improvements. Being solely efficient without speed or capacity is no winning formula; simply swimming pretty doesn’t win races. Using a huge amount of energy to go fast but not lasting long will hinder your performance. And being able to swim all day at a slow pace with poor technique will leave you at the back of the pack every time. Use the area of focus to “key-in” on what aspect of your swimming the workout is trying to improve upon. Master all three areas and you’ll have great performances and that’s what you’ll begin to do through your swimming program. EFFICIENCY This focus area is on using as little energy as possible to go through the water. This mainly entails using fewer strokes, less kicks and improving your streamlining ability. You may even focus on breathing in a more controlled manner between laps. You’ll learn to use less energy so that you can have more in your reserves to swim faster and farther at the end of a race. SPEED Another focus area is on increasing your maximal rate of travel through the water. This sometimes includes swimming much faster than you ever would in a race. This develops the top end speed and actually allows for more improvement to be made at all the sub-maximal speeds below. So even if your events are longer in distance it’s important to continually raise your maximal speed ceiling so that all of your lower threshold speeds have the chance to improve as well. The speed at which you can maintain and pace is always limited by your top speed. CAPACITY The last focus area is on maintaining your best technique and highest velocity possible, in combination, for a longer and longer period. Being able to maintain each of these areas will increase success in racing and practices. If you can swim all day it’ll put you in a successful position at the end of the race. Once you start to put all three areas together you feel and see the difference in your performance. Let one area suffer though and your performance and training will soon follow suite. IN-WATER WARMUP Your workouts will start with a warmup routine that will be used regularly – typically it’s the 4/4/4. This is done to help you understand and evaluate how your body is feeling by being very familiar with the warmup. Because of this you’ll be able to better tell how your body is responding and therefore know how to approach your workout. Use this as a tool for your success. The 4/4/4 warmup for example is 3 different sets so to speak. You want to descend the effort throughout the warmup as you move from the 400 to the 50s. The 400 is swum easy and smooth. For the 100s you start to pick it up a little. And the 50s are pretty strong, not all out, but pretty strong. After completing that you should feel ready to have a great workout. OUT-OF-WATER WARMUP Sometimes your warmup will actually start on land before you dive in. This is usually the case on SPEED days. Some swimmers really find this beneficial and want to warmup in this manner for many of their workouts. So if you’re looking for more of a warm-up prior to jumping into your swim check out the warm-up videos in the ATHLETES ONLY section. This can also be a great tool to use when you’re at crowded meets and don’t get a very good warmup in the water.

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VIDEO TECHNIQUE SESSION As part of your swimming program we want you to send us a video of you swimming once a month so that we can evaluate your technique and give you pointers to improve upon. The ideal way to share this video is upload it to Google Drive or use Dropbox and simply “share” the file with “[email protected].” Try and perform each filming session in the same manner for consistency sake. Follow this routine for filming each stroke and no need to film the rest portion, just the swimming starting a few seconds before you start & dive. 4x50FAST@2:00 50 UW – front view 50 UW – side view 50 above water – front view 50 above water – side view If applicable to your racing events and goals feel free to also film your start and turns specifically. Side and overhead or straight-on angles are best. DECIPHERING WORKOUTS Always read across and finish all the sets on the same line before reading below unless otherwise noted. If there is no specific stroke noted the stroke is your choice. Your workouts may be written in different formats, meaning sometimes on an interval, others may just be on “rest” or other may just focus completely on something else. So if you find yourself looking just for an interval and there is none written in the set you’re missing the point of the set. Go back and read the set again and figure out the area of focus and then perform the set with that focus in mind. Time is not always a factor. Be mindful of what you’re trying to accomplish in each part of the workout. Stick to the focus area for the day of that particular workout. You can’t improve everything at once. Narrow your focus to improve your success. EASY SPEED At times you’ll be directed to swim using “easy speed” or “ez speed.” This means that you want to be swimming at near top speed but not so fast that you really feel fatigued. This type of speed is the same that you should take most swim races out in. Being able to swim fast but use much less effort than you’re capable of is a valuable skill for not only training but also racing effectively. This usually takes a lot of practice so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it right away. GREEN / YELLOW / RED LIGHT Sometimes you’ll have a set labeled “G/Y/R” this refers to “Green Light / Yellow Light / Red Light” swimming. Here’s the definition of each of these: Green Light swimming = fast arms and fast legs Yellow Light swimming = easy arms and fast legs Red Light swimming = easy arms and easy legs It’s most important to learn how to swim at “Yellow Light” pacing. This is similar to “easy speed” in that you’re not placing as much emphasis on your arms or the pulling while swimming but rather there is more focus on kicking and your legs.

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ABBREVIATIONS

@ - on which the send-off time interval is (ex: 6x100@2:00, 6x100 on 2minutes) / - indicates a separate swim set #eaIMO – indicates how many in a row to do per stroke in IMO (ex: 3eaIMO = 3-FLY, 3-BK, 3-BR, 3-FR) #p – the pace/time of a certain race distance (ex: 200p would indicate to swim at your 200 race time pace for what distance is selected. If it was 50@200p and you 200 time was 2:00 you would need to swim the 50 in :30 to hit your 200p)

#RPE – rate of perceived exertion or effort scale 0=no effort 10=maximal effort (ex: 8RPE) #x[ - indicates how many times you’ll complete the set to the right of the bracket (ex: 2x[ means you’d complete the set 2x through before moving on) - if the set is listed below the bracket it indicates the whole set below the bracket is swum that many times (ex: below 2x[ 4x100 4x200

AFAP – as fast as possible or as far as possible, whichever is applicable BKdbl – double arm BK, when both arms move at same time through the stroke BO – where you break the surface from being underwater, transition from underwater travel off a turn or start to swimming on the surface, can also include kickout (KO)

Converting courses – to convert a SCY time or SC (stroke count) to meters just multiply by 1.1 D# – descend your effort or get faster by a certain number of swims, most of the time its D3 = 1-ez, 2-med, 3fast, learn to be able to switch gears how every many times is written

D3-# - descend by 3 (ez, med, fast) to the indicated speed or #RPE which would be the “fast” (ex: D3-7RPE, descend to 7RPE, or D3-med)

DocIMO – done an IMO but blended the way the famous “Doc” Councilman used to do with Mark Spitz and others, usually in sets of 7 reps: #1-fly, #2-fly/bk, #3-bk, #4-bk/br, #5-br, #6-br/fr, #7-fr

EAP – easy as possible, usually associate with a pace so use as little effort to hit the pace/time e or ez – easy effort (1-5RPE) ez-p – easy swimming but with perfect technique f or fast – fast effort (8-10RPE effort) faster< - faster than, indicates to be faster than what follows