Race Preparation for Age-group Swimmers

One year
You should plan your race targets each year.

For age group swimmers the planning can be general rather than specific; looking at something 10 or 11 months ahead is difficult when your body is growing at surprising and unpredictable rates and you don’t have years of experience of the planning process to draw on. Plans should use phrases such as, ‘Make QET for National’s,’ or ‘Beat club record for my best event.’

4-2 weeks
This is the time to start focussing on what you want to achieve in the upcoming meet; you can set your specific race targets. The big question to be answered is:

‘How is training going?’

Is it going ‘spiffingly’ (a.k.a. exceptionally well) or have you had major problems? Are you injured, sick, distracted, disinterested, discontented, dismayed, disenchanted, or are you vibrant, energetic, enthused, energised, enchanted, encouraged and engaged in the pursuit of excellence?

If it is going ‘spiffingly’ then you can feel confident in setting your race targets at high levels. These levels should be realistic but on the limit of where you feel you can be, come race day. They should be set by you, not by your Coach and definitely not by your parent(s). Your Coach has a long-term vision of how far you can go and at what speed but your Coach does not know how you feel now. Your parents have your best interests at heart and want you to be successful in your chosen sport (hopefully you chose it, not them?) but they have no idea how you feel and what training you have experienced in the preceding weeks; they cannot predict how fast you will swim regardless of how fast they want you to swim.

Your race target should be challenging and, no matter what the level of competition, it should represent a significant ‘step’ in your ‘career’ pathway; maybe it will be, ‘go under one-minute for the first time’, ‘win my heat’ (after seeing the psyche sheets), ‘make the final’, ‘medal!’ ‘break the age group record’, make the SEA AG team’, ‘swim a negative split sub-5:00.00’, ‘swim sub-60 with a second 50 under 30!’, ‘descend the last 3 x 50 of a sub-2-minute 200 freestyle’ even . Why not; it’s been done before, why not by you?

This phase of preparation is about psychological confidence; psychological confidence depends on the training attendance, training application and training attitude of the previous 12 months.

7-3 days
Now your thoughts and feelings should be focussing more and more towards the race. If it’s the pinnacle event of the season or a selection competition for the most important event then your race outcome depends on the previous 12 months of training and you had better have got it right! Getting the race right depends entirely on what you did in the preceding 12 months. Read that sentence again. And Again. And again. And again .....

This phase allows you to be very clear about how you will swim the race. You have complete decision-making ability and control over how you will expend effort, control stroke rate, apply technique (in the earlier parts of the race), how much energy, concentration, decisiveness and will-power you will put into the pursuit of excellence in the upcoming race. This phase is about psychological clarity.

Previous night
Early to bed, early to rise!

Prepare your competition bag before you go to sleep. Prepare it yourself. Do not assume, ask or encourage your parents to prepare your bag; it’s your bag, your swim, your performance. Take responsibility.

Good sleep patterns are essential to good training habits, and good sleep patterns throughout the year ensure energy levels are maintained at a high level. Getting a good night’s sleep on the night before the race is essential to best performance. Go to bed early and be confident in your preparation that you will perform to your expectations.

Morning of the race
Rise early.

Rise calmly.

Rise energised.

Rise with a positive mind-set.

Rise with a challenging target in mind and be energised about the opportunity to make it happen.

Eat a ‘good’ breakfast; ‘good’ means something that will help you towards your goal or target! ‘Good’ always means that. ‘Bad’ is something that hinders you in your pursuit of your goal or target, whatever that may be. ‘Bad’ always means that. Always embrace ‘good’.
‘Good’ breakfasts include complex carbohydrates such as apples, porridge (cereal porridge, not oxymoronic fish-balls!) and other things which will allow you to produce energy during the race. These complex carbohydrates release energy ‘slowly’ over a period of time whereas ‘simple’ carbohydrates such as sugars release energy quickly, too quickly, and are frequently responsible for subsequent low energy levels during a race because the body’s response to high sugar levels is to counteract them. Complex carbohydrates store energy which can be used whenever your muscles demand it, whereas simple carbohydrates introduce energy which has to be used now!

If you take food with you to the competition, jam or marmalade sandwiches are a good idea. And you can’t go wrong with bananas, bananas, bananas.

Two hours before
Arrive at the pool.

That’s two hours before you race not necessarily two hours before the meet starts. Sometimes you have no option but to arrive hours and hours before your race but if you have the option then two hours is a good time.

Your travel should be planned to get you to the pool so that you have no need to rush any part of your final preparation. Plan well. Expect the unexpected. Plan for the plan to be disrupted.

Do your socialising when you arrive because once you start your warm-up you should be focussing exclusively on your race.

Ninety minutes before
Do some stretching and some light to slightly vigorous exercises to stimulate your muscles and activate your brain.

Start your water warm-up sometime between 90 and 75 minutes prior to the estimated time of your race. If the competition does not have a separate warm-up/-down pool you may have no choice but to do your water warm-up three or four hours before your race but that is not the best thing.

Most successful swimmers do around 1,500m (+100/-200m) in warm-up but it is an individual thing. I’ve seen swimmers do 4km in warm-up then swim badly and I’ve seen swimmers do 450m in warm-up and nearly break a world record. I’ve also seen swimmers miss the team bus, arrive at the pool after warm-up has closed, get straight into their race ‘cold’ and beat the world champion. As I said, it’s an individual thing.

Warm-up serves a variety of purposes; it allows you to re-adjust to the ‘feel’ of the water, it allows you to try the starting blocks, it allows you to experience the ‘sight-lines’ at the turns, it allows you to recall your rhythm and coordination. Above all it allows you to focus on your race plan and ‘gather’ your psycho-physiological energies and direct them towards a successful outcome. Warm-up is not about your muscles or technique although they are positively affected by warm-up; warm-up is about your head and heart, your thoughts and emotions. Warm-up is about reconfirming your decision to swim fastest.

I have seen hundreds of world records but I have never seen a swimmer swim maximum in warm-up and then go on to set a world record. These swimmers may swim fast in warm-up but they will not swim maximum. They may swim very fast for short bursts in order to excite themselves and excite their nerve firing systems but they do not do ‘timed 25’s’. Middle and long-distance swimmers will do some ‘pace’ work where they swim a series of, say, 12 x 100 or 16 x 50 holding a particular time but that is so they remind themselves of the feeling of rhythm and tempo planned for their race.

Variety is important in warm-up. Drills are super-important in warm-up. A gradual build up, then some fairly vigorous swimming, then an easy relaxed finish are common ingredients in warm-up. You choose. But chose wisely.

Sixty minutes before
Plan to finish your water warm-up around 60 to 50 minutes before your race. Get changed into your racing suit or have your pre-race massage then get into your racing suit. Remember it could take 20 minutes or so to get your suit on; if it doesn’t take that long then it’s probably a size or two too big.

Thirty minutes before
Find a quiet area and concentrate. Bring all your focus onto your race plan. See and feel yourself swimming your race exactly as you have planned it. Take note of that; see and feel yourself swimming the race; don’t just play about with it in your head but feel your arms and legs working as they will during the race. Use this time to imprint on your muscles a ‘memory’ of a successful effort before you actually do it. Your muscles do not know the difference between an action which has actually happened and an action which has been strongly imagined; use this fact to help you produce a superior performance.

Fifteen minutes before
Make sure you have your cap and goggles ready. Make sure you have your spare cap and goggles. I have seen swimmers panic when their goggle strap snaps behind the blocks and I have also seen swimmers in Olympic finals calmly throw their first choice goggles away and pull their spare pair from the pocket of your tracksuit; it’s called preparation.

Somewhere around this time you will be expected to report to the tent with the rows and rows of chairs ready for marshalling. There are some competitions in the world where there is no marshalling; you are simply expected to turn up at the correct lane at the correct time. Imagine that. This is not a time to discuss the latest gossip from around the poolside with your opposition (and even if they are your best friend they are now your opposition; your job is to beat them); this is a time to continue ‘gathering’ your energies and repeating affirmations which help you apply your effort effectively.

Wish your opposition a great race, genuinely hope that they have the best race of their lives and that you beat then when they do.

Seven minutes before
Time to repeat some of the stretching and light arm swings you did before your water warm-up.

Three minutes before
Probably time to move from the rows of marshalled seats and walk towards your starting block. As you walk feel yourself growing taller every time you breathe in. Feel confident. Know you have prepared well and you are ready to perform. Of course, if you haven’t prepared well .........

Behind the blocks
Look down your lane. See everything very clearly and sharply. Don’t have fuzzy or unfocussed vision. Imagine yourself swimming at superspeed down the centre of your lane to victory.

Referee's whistle and 'Take your marks!'
Take your staring position and calmly wait; the starting signal will arrive. It is not your decision when and it doesn’t matter. When it does, you will be ready for it.

'Go!'
Just do it!

See, I told you the starting signal would happen; hips, hands, head – in that order. Terrific power off the block and knife into the water like an arrow – hands, arms, head, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, knees, ankles, feet all through the same hole. Fabulous underwater work and swim through the surface already ahead of the opposition.

And remember; It’s not about how fast you swim, it’s about how you swim fast!

Your performance and result here is entirely dependent on your ‘talent’ and ‘ trainedness.’.

Make sure you have trained at your best as often as possible then your talent will be most useful. A well-trained swimmer will beat a talented swimmer who has abused their talent by not preparing properly. A well-trained, talented swimmer is unbeatable.