C3H6O3

You did know that's the chemical formula for lactic acid didn't you?

Digging through boxes looking for something specific its amazing what else you come across which turns out to be much more interesting. I found a World War I autograph book from my Grandmother's first fiance who was killed in action and I found this! It's my 'thesis' for my ASA Senior Coach Certification 21 years ago. The certificate is rather grand;

Amateur Swimming Association
(Being the first Swimming Association in the world the English ASA steadfastly refuse to add a country designation to their title. I wholeheartedly approve of and support their belligerence and stubbornness)

C.RUSHTON.ESQ.
.. who has satisfied the ASA
as to his knowledge, ability
and experience of the coaching of
Swimming at the highest level
Senior Coach Certificate - Number 10

You have to admit, that's pretty grand.

Anyway, the presentation was titled, 'Individual training within a Club based on testing procedures.' so it was all about lactate testing, its analysis and interpretation. And, CONE fans, guess what the opening chapters were about? Stroke rate!!!

The photograph on the cover was taken at the start of the men's 100m butterfly at the 1984 National Championships. No-one was recalled for a false start (you were allowed two in those days) but I didn't complain because the jumping guy was one of mine and the guy in lane five nearer the camera was also one of mine and we got 1-2. We also won the team championship :)

Inside the document one of my assistant coaches did some cartoons for the inside front and back covers. Here they are.

Dry Water

This is interesting.

OK, I know I've been offline for ages but Fiji is just that sort of place; island time ... island time :)

The latest print issue of swimnews has comprehensive coverage of the Olympic results and an interesting graph showing when the current Canadian record would have been the world record. Its a game I've liked playing for ages; here's the New Zealand version.

Men's breaststroke and butterfly are the standout individual events while the women lag way behind. The only events where they 'lead' the men are 50 and 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 4 x 200 relay. Top of the list is the men's 4 x 100 medley relay which would have been the world record as recently as 2002.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation

PNF. Fabulous phrase if you learn to say it fast and fluently. This is a post from Tom to his club coaches:

First - check the Wikipedia articles on these topics so you know what I'm talking about;
Proprioception
Neuroplasticity
also here

I had an opportunity to work with the Regional group today, and it was great - I really enjoyed spending the time with that group, it's something I hope to be able to do more often this year now that we have Ben coaching Provincial. While I was watching them swim (we were working on underwater kicking) I was thinking about how they respond to teaching differently than the National group kids I work with most of the time.

As we age our brains change. They adapt themselves to the stimuli they most frequently encounter, they do this by first devoting 'space' in the brain to the specific activity, then figuring out the most efficient possible method to route the stimuli towards the required action. The simplest example I can think of is the DS game 'brain age' this is actually a marvelous application of this idea where your brain is trained to do things with increased quickness to get to the next level.

For the little kids most of you are working with the stimuli you are providing them with should be extremely varied. Verbal communication is important because it teaches them to come together and act as a well managed group. Quietly listening to instructions is an important skill they must learn during these periods. Utilizing visual cues is also important - whiteboards, models etc. are all vital because they provide continued reference and good 'story telling' ability for you. For the younger kids (JD and Regional), however, by far the most important stimulus they can interpret is kinesthetic - how does it feel to do a great streamline? What is it like to move FAST through the water? Discussing this in your groups is a great idea, but you must also provide them with ample opportunity to feel this. Get them in the water and keep them moving.

For instance, for my kids I might have them do a bunch of 25's for a teaching set. After each one I may provide them feedback as a group or individually. I think for the younger kids they need to move more than they are. If they swim across the dive tank they must then get a few words of instruction then head back... sitting listening for too long is boring! Plus they won't pay attention. What you want to do is encourage their brains to adapt to the feeling of moving through the water, specifically underneath it (for better streamline) and holding it (for better 'feel'). If you can teach them these two things in Junior Dolphins then you've provided them with the building blocks to succeed later on. The more movement based, feeling they get the better.

Of course you need to be on them ALL THE TIME about how to do it better - an example might be for the JD kids do 10 widths in the dive tank on underwater breaststroke swimming. Have a coach at each end who says no more than 5 words to the kids as they come in to the wall. Go over these specific word cues with the kids before they start - things like SNAP .... what does it mean when they hear that from the coach? Have them repeat it as a group after you say the word.

Underwater swimming I think can be the best thing for these kids. Underwater breaststroke, underwater kicking, breaststoke pullouts, freestyle, etc. can really help them feel what's going on and what to do.

Similar things apply to all the groups - we look to do a lot of underwater work with national group especially on the dolphin kicking and breaststroke.

Don't be afraid to make the kids swim a lot... just be on top of them and make sure they are doing it well... the more good swimming they do the better they will get. It's not about how fast they swim, but how they swim fast.

ASCA reports

Bob Bowman did a presentation on 'early Phelps practices' which everyone wished could have gone on forever.

The first practice MP ever did for BB when he was 11 years old and had just graduated to the 14-year group:

All short course yards so add 10% to the 'go'times for a rough conversion to metres.

3x
400 fr (negative split) on 5'
4 x 100 descend 1-4
1st round bf on 1:20
2nd round bk on 1:20
3rd round br on 1:30
400 IM on 5:30 (descend rounds 1-3)
4 x 100 fr
1st round on 1:15
2nd round on 1:10
3rd round on 1:05

24 swimmers in three 25 yard lanes; stop complaining about your conditions.

Excellent message for coaching age-groupers; 'Don't get excited about every success.'

Another example:
3x
4 x 200 fr on 2:40/2:30/2:20 (hold under 2:20/2:15/2:10 - MP went down to 1:54)
200 IM drill on 3:30

A good kick progression:

3x
5 x 100 kick on 1:40/1:35/1:30
Additional minute between rounds and move the intervals down over time to 1:10

'Janet Evans' set:
200 fr on 2:30
4 x 200 IM on 2:40
400 fr on 5'
3 x 200 IM on 2:35
600 fr on 7:30
2 x 200 IM on 2:30
800 fr on 10'
200 IM on 2:25

The fr is 'moderate' and the Im is 'best you can do.'

Fr and IM can be switched.


When MP was 13 the start of the season was planned thus:

Week 1 - 7 days at 3k/day
Week 2 - 7 days at 4k/day
Week 3 - 7 days at 5k/day
Week 4 - 7 days at 6k/day
Week 5 - 7 days at 7k/day
Week 6 - 7 days at 8k/day
Week 7 - 7 days at 9k/day
Week 8 - 7 days at 10k/day

After week 8 they reverted to 'normal' programming. Interesting they didn't start with, say, four days then move to five etc. - remember, frequency of training is more important than volume.

Micro-cycle design from 12 years of age through to Athens 2004:

USA weak, admits Schubert

Mark Schubert once again showed he is a class act as he gave a report on US Swimming's Beijing campaign at the ASCA World Clinic in Las Vegas. A famous Premiership manager once described a footballer as being 'D.K.; different Class.' and that's what Schubert is; D.K.

He said, 'If we have a weakness in the USA team it's that a lot of swimmers are not coached to be self-reliant.'

That's a marker for all nations, all programmes and all coaches. I'll post a synopsis of the Clinic next week.

Confirmation that Short Course is Bad for You

This article on Michael Phelps in the revered web journal The Onion confirms many coaches' suspicion about the value of short course training.

Good as Gold

Being as I'm in Canada you get a Canadian view of the world. Here's a good article about the Men's Triathlon.

TIME magazine

Two letters published in the NZ edition of TIME 18 August:

From Mississippi:
Your cover photo of swimmer Dara Torres would also make a great cover for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition. Best of luck to her in Beijing!

From Israel:
I showed my sweet little daughters your cover photo of Dara Torres and asked them to promise never to take up competitive swimming.

The Price of Success

In popular opinion SNZ seems to have been the beneficiary of a lot of money from SPARC over the past four years. It has amounted to around $1.2m per year which sounds an awful lot of money BUT, compared to our competitiors, it is derisory:

check out the article at sportsceience.com
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/08/beijing-olympic-medal-price.html

It is very objective: 'each bronze medal will set you back a cool Aus$15 million, while gold and silver will cost you about Aus $40 million!'

Further Thoughts

An interesting non-swimming view of the results from Beijing:

'So the records continue to fall in the pool, including the women's 200 m freestyle and 200 m IM, where Frederica Pellegrini (ITA) and Stephaine Rice (AUS), respectively, took gold. The reality is that when a gold is won and the record is not broken, we feel disappointed. Swimming finds itself in something of an "artificial" situation, where world records are meaningless "tokens", though of course swimmers will not see it that way! However, it's worth looking at the difference between swimming and other world record sports, and that's an analysis for later today.'

Post-meet Thoughts & Lessons

Technique and streamlining were outstanding across the board.

Underwater kick has come a long way.

It's never over till it's over - Lezak, Adlington (400) and Mister P.

If at first you don't succeed ... Pellegrini.

Stroke length - Phelps, espacially the left-hand upsweep on freestyle; truly outstanding.

Expectations are a stimulus not a pressure - Michael P.

Overwhelming superiority means zip in the Olympic cauldron - Liesel J.

There are no 'gimmees' for the world record-holder - men's and women's 50 and 100 freestyle.

Short course doeasn't count.

Australia - up and down.

USA - supreme but not invincible.

GBR - ten's of million of their British pounds but their success came from a 'regular' club.

Cameron Gibson - you never know how good you are until you forget how good you think you are and just go for it.

Post-Games Thoughts (1)

What were the IOC and FINA thinking by deliberately NOT inviting Mark Spitz to present the seventh gold to Michael Phelps?

How difficult was that for a sensible decision? I don't know what went on in the background but it was a HUGE mistake.

Projected Standards

These are the projected FINA 2008 standards after Beijing. I take no responsibility for their absolute accuracy until I've double-checked them against 'official' lists and they may change between now and 31 December as FINA use end-of-year rankings.

On March 2 I looked at the historical data back to 1988 and projected a 35 point increase for men and a 31 point increase for women by the end of 2012. The straight-line increase in standards had stretched across the DDR doping regime and the introduction of full body-suits in 2000.

We have a 35 point increase NOW! if anyone tells you the new suits make no difference, tell them to go jump in a lake.

Points Update; Final Answer!

Women's 50 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,046 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,034.7

Men's 1500 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,021 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,034.2

Women's 100 backstroke after the medley relay - the all-time top 10 average was 'monstered' and is now 1,056 to take the record of records. The average points across the board for events completed so far is at 1,035.

The men's medley relay didn't change the 100 backstroke which remains at whatever it was the other day.

So, a 35 point increase in standards.

First Man on Mars

That was Mark Spitz' assessment when asked what it weould be like to win eight.

There's an interesting article on Phelps on stuff which looks at physical and genetic differences in the big man.

It also points out, 'In his quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals, he will swim a total of 38.1 kilometres in heats, semis and finals in his nine-day Games program.' I have no idea where the author, Alex Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald, got the figure from but I calculate it at 3.1 kilometres of races plus around 1.5-2k warm-up and 1.5-2k swim down for each race (to keep going over nine days at that level there would have been no scrimping on either) that could be up to 70k over the nine days.

Remember that next time you're planning taper!

One Hundredth of a Second

The BBC website has a video titled 'Discovery of a new fish species.' I thought it was a spoof on Michael P but it's not; they really do seem to have discovered a new species.


Let's examine one one hundredth of a second. In 1988, at the Seoul Games, Adrian Moorhouse won the 100m breaststroke gold by 1/100th. after lying sixth at the 50m. I've watched the video hundreds of times and I still haven't seen him touch first. But he has the gold.

There's a film called One Hundredth of a Second but it's nothing to do with sport.

Light travels 1,156km or 1,860 miles in one one hundredth of a second.

Valerie's shot travels around 11cm.

Ursain Bolt (great name!) travels 10cm.

A relay swimmer travels 5cm off the blocks.

The Twins travel 4.7cm.

A butterfly swimmer travels 1.8cm into the touchpad.

A computer screen refreshes once.

That's how 'long' it takes.

The howstuffworks website defines it as:1 centisecond (one-hundredth of a second) - The length of time it takes for a stroke of lightning to strike.

Never give in, never; never; never; never.

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense” Winston Churchill, 29 October, 1941.

Watch incredible underwater video of the finish here.

This by email from Jerry Cosgrove at lactate.com:

'Phelps also must have inherited the lucky gene. He certainly needed it for the 4 x 100 free and the 100 fly. What are the odds of those two situations happening and favoring the same swimmer in the same meet?'

Points update

Women's 200 backstroke - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,034 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.5

Men's 100 butterfly - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,036 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.6

Women's 800 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,019 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.0

Men's 50 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,055! and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.9

Women's 50 freestyle after the semi's - 1,043.

Second Man on the Moon

OMG!

What a finish.

To quote Mark Spitz when asked what it would be like if Michael Phelps won seven? 'Like the second man on the moon.'

Wait until tomorrow.

Of course, he didn't break the world record so, if the USA don't win the medley relay (DQ?) he won't really beat Spitz because Spitz had seven golds in seven world records.

Points update

Women's 50 freestyle after the heats - 1,043.

Men's 1,500 freestyel after the amazing heats (14:50 not good enough for the final!) - 1,019.

Women's 100 backstroke (1,050) and men's 100 backstroke (1,051) don't change after the heats of the medley relay which see NZL go through for the first time in Olympic relay history.

Olympic spirit

My favourite restaurant critic, AA Gill of the Sunday Times, has this to say:

'The Olympics are missing an element of frivolity. It's all too much sport and not enough games. They should bring back extinct events. Cricket, for instance. This was first contested olympically in Paris in 1900. The French team included TH Jordan, R Horne, H Terry, W Anderson, D Robinson, WT Attrill, W Browning, A McAvoy, P Tomalin and J Braid. The more astute of you will have noticed that these names are not typically French. The entire Frog team was made up of Englishmen. What greater evidence of the spirit of the ancient Olympiad, and our own innate fair play, than to actually field a team for the opposition because they're useless. The final was between Britain and France, and for the first and possibly last time in all the Olympic games, all 24 players (yes, it was a 12-a-side game) came from the same country. Britain won by 262 runs to 104.'

Medley Relay

I sent this to Tom on 9 August:

.... the real dark horse is the M4x100MR, I think they could go 3:33.5!

54.5
59.0
51.5
48.5

not quite right but pretty close, eh?

Better than my apparent prediction for the women's 200 breaststroke; according to Luke Clark I said Jones was 'unbeatable' and I'd never heard of Rebecca Soni! I need to study swimming some more :)

Phelps; priceless!

VISA advert just released in the USA.

Points update

Men's 50 freestyle after the semis - 1,052.

Women's 200 breaststroke - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,023 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.1

Women's 200 backstroke after the semis - 1,029.

Men's 200 backstroke - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,036 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.3

Men's 200 IM - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,039 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.6

Women's 100 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,031 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.5

Men's 100 butterfly - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,035 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.5

Greatest Ever

This from the Beijing website page on Michael Phelps:

'Due to the especially long list of major performances for this athlete, some of the results are not displayed.'

FINA/swimnews - M200BF

FINA and swimnews reports here on Moss' incredible 200 buterfly final.

swimnews
The 200m butterfly, one of Michael Phelps’ favourite events, not only meant business as usual for him - winning the gold medal in a world record time.

It meant also something transcendent: in fact with this gold medal, the 11th he has won individually at the Olympics, Phelps became the most individual gold medal winner with 11 (no one has done better than nine), a tally that he is likely to increase through the rest of this week.

Phelps managed to win in 1:52.03, a new world record by 0.06 seconds. This was the 7th world record set by Phelps in this event in seven years. He could have swum faster if he had not experienced problems with goggles. He explained: “I couldn’t see anything for the last 100, my goggles pretty much filled up with water; it just kept getting worse through the race. I wanted to go 1:51 or better but for the circumstances I guess it’s not too bad”.

Image
Michael Phelps (USA)

Both the silver and the bronze medallists, respectively Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan swam an amazing race, under 1:53 and well under the Olympic record set twice (in both the preliminaries and the semi-finals) from Phelps here in Beijing with 1:53.70.

Cseh took the silver in 1:52.70, Matsuda the bronze in 1:52.97 setting respectively a European and an Asian record. Moss Burmester, of New Zealand, and Peng Wu, of China, dead-heated for the 4th place in 1:54.35: a new Oceanian record for Burmester. Pawel Korzeniowski (POL, 6th in 1:54.60) and Kaio Almeida (BRA, 7th 1:54.71) also swam under 1:55, confirming the excellent level of this final.

Cseh, who had been competing in this event only for the second time, was very happy with his achievements (“I’m surprised, I’m happy, I enjoyed it. I’m still lacking the experience but I had a good time and a good result. I believe I am reducing the gap between me and Phelps”).

Record breakout and comparison (in bracket Phelps’ former world record splits from Melbourne 2007):
- Phelps: 25.36 (25.26), 53.53 (53.62), 1:22.75 (1.22.87), 1:52.03 (1.52.09)
- Cseh: 25.58, 54.59, 1:23.39, 1:52.70
- Matsuda: 25.58, 54.41, 1:23.58, 1:52.79

Pellegrini -2 suits (update)

From swimnews:

'Federica Pellegrini (ITA), who wore two suits in the final and probably in the rounds too, settled the matter with a world recortd of 1:55.45. The suit underneath the bodysuit was more beach-wear/training suit than race suit. It was there for two reasons: in case her bodysuit split and all would be revealed; and because neoprene makes her skin blotchy so she wanted a barrier to her bodysuit.'

Points update

Men's 200 breaststroke - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,034 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.5

Women's 200 butterfly - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,023 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,032.8

Men's 100 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,047 and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.7

Women's 200 freestyle - the all-time top 10 average is now 1,042 after the relay and the across the board events completed so far is at 1,033.8


Women's 100 freestyle after the semi's - 1,031

Men's 200 backstroke after the semi's - 1,033

Women's 200 breaststroke after the semi's - only 1,015

Men's 200 IM after the semi's - 1,036

M = C + \alpha \ln N + \beta \ln \frac{Y}{N} + Host + Soviet + Planned

OK, I know everyone is frightened of mathematical equations but this one predicts how many medals each country will win at a Games. Check out the article here.

Points update

The last results have now been posted on the Beijing site:

Women's 200 IM - the all-time top 10 average is 1,034 and the across the board so far results is now 1,033.5

Men's 200 FR is 1,025 after the 4x200 relay (6:58.56! That's silly). Patrick Murphy moved himself into the top 10 but it wasn't a big enough drop to change the top 10 average.

TV NONE!

Believe this or believe it not! All the TV's in the Sports House crashed just before the 200 Fly final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pellegrini -2 suits

Definitely two suits for the final and a world record to go with it.

Points update

Women's 200 Freestyle - 1,041 is now the average of the all-time top 10. Across the completed events so far 1,033.3

Men's 200 Buterfly - 1,035 is now the average of the all-time top 10. Across the completed events so far 1,033.4

The official results aren't yet up for the W 200 IM or the M 4x200.

Men's 100 Freestyle 1,046 after semis.

Women's 200 Butterfly 'only' 1,014 after the semi's.

Men's 200 Breaststroke 1,031 after the semi's.

The Perfect Race

Mike Barrowman's 2:10.16 'perfect race' from 1992 was bumped off the all-time top 10 list in the 200 breaststroke heats in Beijing.

Questions, Questions, Questions

The Los Angeles Times has an article questioning how the swimming performances have advanced so far and so fast. It shows an interesting graphic illustrating the new suits and another analysing what's likely to happen in the M200BF. Their advice that Phelps should 'contend for a medal' seems solid enough to be trusted!

Bouyant Pellegrini

Laurel is pretty sure Pellegrini is wearing two suits. I'm sure Manaudou did that in Melbourne last year as her body position was so high. If you look at the video of Ziegler's 1,500 world record she may have been also.

Points update

Men's 200 Freestyle - 1,025 is now the average of the all-time top 10. Across the completed events so far 1,027.7.

Women's 100 Backstroke - 1,050!! Across the completed events so far 1,030.5

Men's 100 Backstroke - 1,051!! Across the completed events so far 1,032.8

Women's 100 Breaststroke- 1,030. Across the completed events so far 1,032.5

Men's 200 BF after semis - 1027

Women's 200 IM after semis - 1031

Zipper Malfunction

The Sydney Morning Herald has a good article here about the trials and tribulations of the 'ready room', and a follow-up article here.

US 4x100m Freestyle

Here's the video of that US 4x100m Freestyle.

Jason Lezak comment - "when I saw how far I was behind and he was the world's fastest I thought I am not going to make it - then in a flash thought, this is for America and this is the Olympic Games and I don't care how much it hurts"

Bringing it home

Last 50m splits from the women's 400 freestyle:

• Adlington 29.18
  
• Hoff 30.71
  
• Jackson 29.86
  
• Balmy 29.88
  

Now here's a little story - Joanne Jackson's sister, Nichola, was probably the most talented female swimmer I have ever seen. She was a member of the GBR women's 4 x 200 which won World gold and broke the World SC record. About nine years ago I was driving both sisters to training across the north Yorkshire moors in winter and remember saying to Joanne that she could be better than her big sister and she'd better start believing it.

Upside down swim meets

Jason Lezak; 46.06. Whatever happened to 'morning' swims?

TVONE commentary

John and Anthony have been rather 'overwhelmed' at times I think but John nailed the men's freestyle relay: 'The world record has been monstered!'

Points update

Women's 100 Butterfly - 1,022 is now the average of the all-time top 10. Across the completed events so far 1,027.5.

Men's 100 Breaststroke - 1,028, all completed events 1,027.6

Women's 400 freestyle - 1,031, all completed events 1,028.2


... and, beware; both the women's 100 back and the men's 100 back are already 1,048 and we haven't had the final yet!

Women's 100 bresatstroke after semis - 1,029 (no change in semis)
Men's 200 freestyle after semis- 1,018
Men's 100 freestyle, after THAT relay - 1,039

Everyone agrees that a major contributer to such impressive improvements worldwide is technology... so why not use it...

Which reminds me of something Sebastian Coe said in Auckland recently; he was watching the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch on TV and after the legendary 1,500 between Filbert Bayi and John Walker, his father/coach said, 'What you have just seen has changed middle-distance running forever.'
(1500 starts at 2'10" in the video)

Relay, Relay, Relay, Oi! Oi! Oi!

Craig Lord from Beijing on swimnews on the swims from last night: 'Suit? What suit? Anyone seen a suit fly by? No, me neither.'


Men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

Time to make the final in Beijing, Melbourne and Athens:

* 2008: 3:13.69
* 2007: 3:18.15
* 2004: 3:17.97

Impact of the Beijing heats on all-time top 20 - new entries 2008 time compared to nation's best in 2007:

* 1 3:12.23 USA 3:12.72
* 2 3:12.36 FRA 3:14.68
* 3 3:12.41 AUS 3:14.26
* 4 3:12.65 ITA 3:14.04
* 5 3:12.73 SWE 3:16.09
* 6 3:13.06 RSA 3:14.77
* 7 3:13.68 CAN 3:16.91
* 8 3:13.69 GBR 3:18.96
* 10 3:14.36 NED 3:19.36
* 12 3:15.41 NZL 3:21.73
* 15 3:16.16 CHN 3:18.94
* 16 3:16.80 SUI 3:19.22
* 19 3:17.28 JPN 3:18.83

That's 12th fastest all -time! After qualifying in 16th place on the last chance with an Olympic Trials time-trial, then having to wait until early June when William Benson hit his 'B' time, then nailbitingly waiting again until the final FINA deadline to ensure no-one else had bumped them off, the quartet excelled themselves last night by finishing 11th and breaking the NZ record by over 2 seconds.

Mark Herring 23.73, 49.73 (2007 flat start best 50.69)
Cameron Gibson 22.76, 48.07 (2007 flat start best 49.88)
William Benson 22.89, 48.65 (2007 flat start best 51.58)
Orinoco F-B 22.97, 48.96 (2007 flat start best 51.73)

Truly terrific. Cam's time was the 6th fastest from any team and bodes well for the medley relay.

Finals Day 1

Well, no Kiwi's swimming on the first morning of finals and semi's :(

Phelps is one for one and how! 4:03! Grandma Torres split 52.44! Quite fast really.

FINA points - here you go; for today's completed events the all-time top 10 average and the points score using the current tables is as follows:

• Men's 400 IM - old average 4:12.18, new 4:09.29, 1,035 pts.
  
• Men's 400 FR - old average 3:44.31, new 3:42.69, 1,022 pts.
  
• Women's 400 IM - old average 4:35.83, new 4:33.00, 1,031 pts.
  

So a 29 point shift across the three events; better look to some serious training plans and sets for the next 12 months.

Just hanging on at number 10 in the 400 FR is Kieren Perkins' world record from the Rome World Championships in 1994 - 3:43.80. Still on my list of all-time greatest swims, it changed the way people looked at 400 FR. Which reminds me of something Sebastian Coe said in Auckland recentle; he was watching the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch on TV and after the legendary 1,500 between Filbert Bayi and John Walker, his father/coach said, 'What you have just seen has changed middle-distance running forever.'

Furry Beard

Amanda Beard really knows how to do the media thing. Check out this.

Worst Pools in the World

swimwatch, a creation of David Wright and regularly updated by daughter Jane, has a current article on the worst pools in the world. Four out of the published five are in New Zealand! Everyone to their opinion I guess, but why is the top listed one called Clive?

Michael Phelps

... and one on Michael Phelps here.

Dara Torres

Very interesting article in TIME magazine.

Top of the table

Here's the official table of results in the FINA report from Mexico. Makes good reading.

We have a superb silver plate to commemorate topping this table; if I can get a good photo of it I'll post it.

Meety success

Well, it's started. people have started to trash the NZ results at the recent World Junior Championships. Understandable really as we only won five golds, making us third on the medal table. The trashing centres around the PB rate which was 57% and lays the 'blame' on allowing swims in non-qualified events.

The reaction raises important questions about how meets and team performances should be analysed. We've been through this before, starting in 2002 when I published the following:

2002 Commonwealth Games Results Analysis

There is no single, satisfactory way of analysing results from a major competition. PB’s, medals, records and rankings are each relevant but no single one of them tells the story of the individual and team performances relative to the opposition in any meet’s particular circumstances. Ian Thorpe won a series of events in Manchester but very few of his swims were PB’s. In the recent US Nationals Erik Vendt did not win the 400m IM but was under the world record in losing!

The CWG results were then analysed split into two parts – qualified swims and non-qualified swims. The qualified swims were those in which the swimmer achieved the SNZ/NZOC qualifying time for the competition and on which their selection for Manchester was based. The non-qualified swims are those events in which swimmers had not achieved the SNZ/NZOC qualifying time but were entered in order to ‘get them into the meet’, give them a chance in one of their other strong events or to keep them busy during the 6 days of competition! The analysis was split in that way because, although all events should have been swum purposefully, the team evaluation should be based on the ‘selection’ events rather than including events which have been added for strategic purposes. As an example, Liz Van Welie’s programme of selected events was:

Swimming day 1 200m IM Heats and Final
Swimming day 6 200m Butterfly Heats and Final
400m IM Heats and Final

Clearly this was an unsatisfactory schedule so the 100m Butterfly was added to Liz’s programme on day 3 (heats and semi-finals). Her heat and semi-final times were slightly slower than her entry time but so what? Liz’s outstanding success in Manchester should be judged on the way she prepared and competed in her selection events. The data from the additional ‘non-qualified’ swims was therefore shown separately so that a full picture of the team performances could be seen.

The main analysis was centred on the amount the NZ swimmers’ race performance attacked the GAP between a) their entry time and the pre-meet number 1 and b) between their entry time and the gold medal time. Those two statistics could well be the most important ones of all. Setting PB’s may make swimmers and coaches feel good but it ignores the possibility that we may be getting better yet falling further behind at the same time. The PB itself doesn’t give enough information and may be irrelevant to the evaluation – Thorpe doesn’t do a PB and wins, Vendt does a PB and doesn’t win. The average GAP attack for all qualified swims at Manchester in 2002 was 16.4% against the pre-meet number 1 and 12.6% against the winning time. The GAP attack of pre- to post-meet rankings averaged 20.9% (e.g. Pre-meet ranking of 7th means there are 6 possible places above that. If the swimmer finishes in 4th place they have moved 3 places out of the possible 6 or, in other words, closed 50% of the GAP.

New Zealand Records (NZR) and New Zealand Age Group Records (NZAGR) were indicated as appropriate. Two of the records in Manchester were set in the swimmer’s ‘last’ swim of an event whilst 5 were set in preliminary rounds with a slower performance following in the more important later round. This was a significant and worrying fact and still remains as a concern although major strides have been taken by some programmes. Following the 2002 Games SNZ Squad qualification at the short course Winter Championships considered only the ‘last’ swim in an event specifically because of this apparent inability to lift the performance above an already high level. Anything faster in an earlier round was not taken into consideration.

Brining this criteria into force for all selections may be a dangerous move as coaches may allow their swimmers to drift back into the 'heats are only for cruising' attitude we saw back then. Things have improved dramatically in that regard although there is still room for big improvement across the board.

As we move off of Beijing and start to focus on Rome, Delhi and London we need to have an agreed, accepted, common method of analysing results. It shouldn't be 'merely' PB's, it shouldn't be 'only' wins unless the meet is a pinnacle event at whatever age, i.e. World Juniors is a pinnacle event for 18 and unders and winning is important, Regional Championships are not pinnacle events and PB's are the thing. It has to be an agreed combination of factors which reflect the effectiveness of the programme, the preparation and the on-site execution.

Phelps WR count

Whoever predicted 1-3 for the world record count by Michael Phelps at the US Olympic Trials was surprisingly correct. I thought he would post quite a few more than that.

I have my suspicions as to who it was but, whoever, congratulations.

PB measures

Clive Power's report from the recent, very successful FINA World Junior Championships in Mexico will show a 57% PB strike rate from the New Zealand swimmers. John Leonard recently posted the stats from the US Olympic Trials.

The average from the heats was 44% and from finals was 74%, both significantly up from four years ago. That's more like it.

Speed through Endurance

The title of this post is the famous principle by legend Forbes Carlisle and I was reminded of it by an article on swimnews recently pointing out that Ryk Neethling had finaled in both the 1996 and 2000 1,500 freestyle events then gold medaled in the 4 x 100 in Athens 2004.

The example of starting in the distance events before developing into a world-class sprint star is not unusual. Tom Jager (pictured in what has to be the best ever picture of a power start) first held the world 50m record on 6 December 1985 and eventually reliquished it on 16 June 2000, taking it from 22.52 to 21.81. However, the first time he qualified for US Nationals he did so on the 1,500. Mark Spitz held the 400m freestyle world record twice. Ian Thorpe combined a 48.56 100m and a 7:39.16 800m.

It's highly unusual for a swimmer to be good at short and long distances at the same time, although Shane Gould managed to hold the world records at all distances from 100m through 1,500m during the 1970's (FINA did not recognise the 50m at that time), and Brett Naylor won the NZ Championships at every freestyle distance, 50m through 1,500m, but they are exceptional exceptions. It's not unusual, though, for swimmers to stand out at different distances as they develop and mature. In these cases the pattern is invarably long to short, giving substance to the 'rule' that younger swimmers should be given a substantial diet of aerobic-based work and lending evidence to the 'command' of Carlisle; speed through endurance.

The Magical Number Nine (or Twelve)

Mark Spitz' seven gold medals in seven world records in 1972 remains the benchmark of a perfect swim meet but it could all be history in a few weeks time.

In early March I posted a blog entitled The Magical Number Seven about the possibility of club team mates Kaite Hoff and Michael Phelps each going for seven and the possibility that Hoff may do it BEFORE Phelps. One or both of them may make it to the cover of Rolling Stone magazine like Spitz did in 1973.

The USA trials start this coming Sunday, 29 June, and run through to 6 July, mirroring the eight days of Olympic competition and while Hoff has entered seven events with the possibility of making at least two relays Phelps has entered a staggering nine events and will likely make all three relays. Apart from his usual 100 and 200 on both fly and free and 200 and 400 IM he has decided to have a go at the 400 free, 100 and 200 back. So let's have a poll on how many world records he sets.

Trendy Excellence

Nick Thierry at swimnews kindly provided me with the results of all Olympic games and World Championships back to 1988. They provide fascinating reading to anyone interested in the trends and progressions in our sport.

I've transcribed them into graphical display and also converted the actual times in each event to FINA points. Nick won't like that because he invented the IPS points and they each use a different formula to produce the results, however the FINA system is open source so its easy for anyone to duplicate it on their computer.

FINA will update their points at the end of each Olympic quadrenniel but I've used the 2004 calculations right through from 1988 to 2007 for ease of comparison. See this article for a look at the changes over the years.

An interesting point of the analysis is the lack of pattern in many events between 1st, 3rd, 8th. and 16th places. Another is the significant rise in standard across most events at the 2000 Sydney Games. That was when Speedo introduced the new racing suits. This year with the next generation of suits from all manufacturers we are seeing an even greater jump in standards.

During the recent SCAT Conference I showed the series of graphs and you can see and download the Excel file here.

Bear Necessities

Tom's club competed in a country carvival type meet last weekend on Vancouver Island. It seems a splendid time was had by all but the highlight was something you're unlikely to encounter in Godzone:

'Warmdown at the meet was running around the play area and park next to the pool, the highlight of the first day came during a game of catch which was interrupted by a young bear wandering through the park!'

Three Vital Components

The design of corporate tests has been a thorn in the flesh of the High Performance Group for far too long; no one can agree which tests should be used, how often, for which swimmers, who should interpret the results and who should see them. It's not just New Zealand, it's the same the world over.

I've recently had a few queries from coaches asking about testing - which tests, what do they show etc? There's no single answer of course, as usual, 'It depends.' It depends what you want to find out. Clearly identify that and a test will mysteriously appear as if by magic.

I was surfing the world wide interweb this morning looking for examples of swim race models and, lo and behold, I came across an article I wrote for Swimming Technique magazine ten years ago.

It appears I have changed my name to Clice in the intervening ten years, however, I think two parts still reverberate as good analysis. The first is the segmenting of the race (any distance) into four parts; start and early meters, mid-race part 1, mid-race part 2, end part. Obviously for a 50m race the mid-race 1 and mid-race 2 segments are relatively short but they do conform with the now common training design technique of using 'speedcharts' to target specific race segment speeds. In longer events the mid-race 1 and mid-race 2 segments take on a different significance.

The other interesting concept in the article is what I call 'The Three Vital Components' of sporting performance. These are, Endurance-the velocity during, predominantly, aerobic work. The lactic acid value at maximum effort and the power relationship between these first two components.

Testing for these three components will tell you almost everything you need to know about any athlete.

XLR8 Dual Meet Format: Rules of Engagement

Nevill Sutton and I have been discussing competition possibilities in the Wellington Region.

The purpose of the idea produced here is to provide a simple, easy to run format for inter-club, dual meet competitions. This solution allows direct comparison between different ages and standards of swimmers and even different strokes and distances if that is required.

The competitions can easily be run in 90-120 minutes including warm-up time and can utilize as few as two lanes although three, four, six or eight may also be utilized. Electronic timing is unnecessary and no computers are required to run the meets! The format of each competition can be agreed between participating clubs or they can adopt one of the standard templates available in this document.

Officiating
The number of officials required is set at a minimum as follows:
1 Starter who also acts as referee and meet director.
1 timekeeper for each lane who also act as turn and stroke judge.
2 recorders, one from each of two participating clubs.
1 scorer.

Events
Each standard template offers seven individual events and two relays for each round of competition. The individual events follow the XLR8 format and offer:
1 x distance freestyle event (400m, 800m or 1,500m)
1 x individual medley (100m, 200m or 400m)
2 x 200m events, at least one of which is on a ‘form’ stroke (back, breast or butterfly)
2 x 100m events
Plus a sprint event which is constant as 50m freestyle.

The standard template freestyle and medley relays each have four swimmers but any number of swimmers can be agreed between participating clubs. The only constraint is the distance swum by each swimmer must be 50m, 100m or 200m so that the tables can be used.
SNZ has calculated points scores for the events which are non-standard on the current XLR8 system – reverse distance events and 100m I.M.

Ages
Clubs can enter any age of swimmer in each event, e.g. Club A can enter a 13 year old in the 200m backstroke and Club B can enter a 16 year old. Because the scoring is done using the XLR8 system both swimmers are scored against their respective ‘norms’ for all New Zealand swimmers. Although the 16 year old may finish first the 13 year old may score more points. Clubs are, therefore, not disadvantaged because they have fewer or younger competitive members than their opposition.

The number of swimmers required and allowed varies depending on how many lanes are used and there are restrictions on the minimum and maximum number of events in which each swimmer can participate. Prior to the start of each competition clubs draw for lanes and keep the same lanes throughout all events.

Point scoring
SNZ will produce XLR8 point tables for each event and each age. The two recorders log the name, age and time of each swimmer and look up the related point value. These are then recorded on the master recording sheet and summed to produce each clubs’ event total. A running total is kept throughout the meet and publicly updated event by event by the scorer. This service is essential if swimmers, coaches, officials and spectators are to understand and follow the competition.

Relays are scored by taking each individual swimmer’s split time and allocating points according to the age of the swimmer with no allowance for takeovers. Relays can be comprised of mixed ages and even mixed gender if the participating clubs agree.

The total score for 9 events may be 12,000+ for one lane or 17,500+ for two lanes. The difference between an average swim and a sensational one may be 300 or so points, so one DQ of an outstanding individual could change the whole face of the competition. Relays are scored by individual splits so a DQ in a relay will create a disturbance in the force which alters all future history.

Team numbers
Each team must have seven swimmers. Each ‘team’ can use either one or two lanes to be agreed between participating clubs. If they use one lane then each swimmer must swim one individual event and at least one relay. If they use two lanes then each swimmer must swim two individual events and at least one relay (relays use one lane only for each team). Clubs can enter more than one team but they will be scored separately.

For example: scenario 1 - Club A enters one team, Club B enters 2 teams (B1 and B2). They use one lane each (total three lanes). Each swimmer swims one of the seven individual events, six of them swim one relay each and one swimmer swims both relays. One lane is used by each of the three teams throughout the competition.

Scenario 2 - Club A enters one team, Club B enters 2 teams (B1 and B2). They use two lanes each (total six lanes). Each swimmer swims two of the seven individual events, six of them swim one relay each and one swimmer swims both relays. Two lanes are used by each of the three teams for the individual events and one lane is used by each of the three teams for relay events.

Clubs can chose and agree to use male only teams, female only teams, mixed gender teams, both male and female teams etc. E.g. Club A can have a mixed gender team of seven swimmers, Club B can have team B1 as male and B2 as female or all three teams can be male and a second competition run with a separate group of three teams all female.

Test event
The format and system will be tested during June. If clubs wish to test on their own they will have to use the XLR8 calculator available on takeyourmarks as, due to the competition schedule, SNZ will not be able to produce point tables for distribution until a later date. All feedback, comments, opinions, ideas, changes, modifications, omissions, deletions, additions etc. will be welcome.

Proposed event schedule for a four-round series: (as usual click for ..blah, blah)

Ori, Ori, Ori; Oi, Oi, Oi!

The May/June issue of SPASIFIK magazine has a superb article on Orinoco.

'New Zealand’s latest swimming sensation ORINOCO FAAMAUSILI-BANSE-PRINCE proves that brown people can swim as he strives towards his Olympic dream in our cover feature.'

The Law Is A Ass

The phrase "The law is an ass" originates in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, when the character Mr. Bumble is informed that "the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction". Mr. Bumble replies "If the law supposes that… the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience."

I'm currently involved in a sports dispute tribunal hearing which is considering a case of non-nomination for selection to the Olympic team.

The process goes as follows: SNZ conducts Trials, SNZ reviews the results; SNZ agrees the qualified swimmers; SNZ nominates them to the NZOC; NZOC selects them.

The opposition lawyer has put forward a case that proposes selection can precede nomination.

In which case, the law is, indeed, an ass.

Case closed?

Lawyering seems not to be doing itself any favours here and promulgating the perception that it earns money irregardless of the case, the evidence, the facts, or the morals.

Thoroughbred Stock

In 1974 George Harrison released an album called 'Dark Horse'. Harrison's compositions get overlooked because of the attention paid to the Lennon-McCartney songbook. I've never been a fan of McCartney but John Lennon has always been a hero; he was rough, he tore the edges off things and he told it truthfully as he saw it (not as he politically wanted it to be).

A couple of years ago I bought the DVD of 'A Concert for George', the concert organised and directed by Eric Clapton exactly one year after George died. It is the best DVD of a music concert I've ever heard; poignant, evocative, sensational. When you see a band of seven or eight guitarists, two or three pianists and four or five drummers, one of whom is Ringo Starr you get into the swing of things (if you think Ringo's a bozo listen to the rhythms; they're amazing and The Beatles wouldn't have been half the band without them). Jeff Lynne, Paul McCartney, Joe Brown, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Jools Holland, Sam Browne, Jim Capaldi, Gary Brooker, Andy Fairweather Lowe, Jim Keltner ... it just goes on and on; the cast list is like a Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Buy the DVD.

What's this got to do with swimming and what's it got to do with the picture of Moss? he's identified by Swimming World magazine as a 'Dark Horse Medal Contender' in their April issue.

They got the last two words right.

Aerobic Sprinting? Yeah, right!

Last month I did a post about an article in the April edition of Swimming World magazine. This month there's another article by the same author, Dr. Daniel Carl of University of Cincinnati. He focuses on 'Maximising Aerobic Sprinting'; an interesting title and concept.

And, .. da-dah.., its reproduced here because, same as the April article, he references the book and posters.

Daniel is an clear writer, very focussed and precise, and he explains these things excellently.

swimformation

The Morning Swim Show published on swiminfo.com recently had an interview with Ernie Maglischo during which was asked what should we be considering in training research? His reply? 'We should look at how swimming training utilises the various muscle fibres.'

I'll send him a poster :)

MOMENTUM212

The MOMENTUM212 programme started in December 2006 so we're 17 months into the 67 month challenge to break every record in the country by the start of the 2012 Olympic Games - that's 11,152 records across the country! Getting information to us is obviously in the too-hard basket for the Regions but NZL is doing quite well, thank you.

We're at 273 as at the end of the World Short Course Championships. Some of the records have been broken more than once so the actual number of originally-standing records broken isn't that high. Of the 273, 179 have been age group and 94 Open. As there are seven age group categories the Open total is impressive while the age group total needs examination - not too many in the younger groupings and only 11 at this year's NAGs.

The big meets have been the most recent Nationals - 30 at last September's Spring SC, 36 at the December Summer SC, 39 at the Olym;pic trials, together with 30 at WSC.

Of the original 83 listed SC and LC Open records (one was jointly held) at the beginning of the challenge, 45 have gone including, of course, the oldest which was taken out by Kurt Bassett at the Trials. Danyon Loader's distance records look vulnerable but the women's distance records look very safe.

Quadrennial Standards

Just out of interest here are the SNZ Squad standards for 2000, 2004 and 2008. Three different systems were used to produce the times. Some interesting changes but also some interesting similarities.

When the 'old'system was changed in late 2001 for implementation January 1, 2002, there were those who said, 'No-one will qualify [at the World Class level].' There was one qualifier at the 2002 Opens and by the end of the Pan-Pacific Championships in August there were seven. So much for 'no-one' :)

Usual story; click for the full-sized version.

A Question of Balance

As the dust settles from the outstanding performances at the 2008 Absolute Insurance Olympic Trials, for most coaches it is time to take a deep breath and double the commitment to success at the next major meet. Getting the correct balance between the various, sometimes mind-boggling, intensities and modes of training categories is one of the keys to planned and predictable success.

The April edition of SwimmingWorld magazine has an article by Dr. Daniel Carl of the University of Cincinnati titled 'Balancing Aerobic with Anaerobic Swim Training.' The full version of the magazine is only available to Premium members but, as you'll see from the last paragraph, I feel OK in posting the article here.