#1 – The Year of ACL Tears

# 2 – The BEST Way to Train for Swimming

#3 – Drop Your Support

#4 – 8 Lessons from Euro Cup 2012

#5 – Get Smooth to Get Strong

#6 – Reflections on London 2012

#7 – The Prohibitive Favorite in Swimming

#8 – Lessons from the Super Bowl for Swimmers

#9 – 4 Lessons My Baby is Teaching Me

#10 – Stuck in the Middle

#11 – Laying Around

#12 – Train Like the Big Cats

In-between diaper changes and calming him down I’ve noticed a few things already that can relate to you in training, performance or just plain life itself.

1) Breathing dictates everything else
Where your breathing originates from directs your body’s response and state of being. Deep belly breathing promotes relaxation. Right before Bennett gets upset, every single time, his breathing shifts from belly breathing to short and shallow breathes from his chest and neck. I know that I’m making progress not when he stops crying but when his breathing finally shifts.

The next time you’re in a stressful environment or situation, whether training or competition think about where your breath is originating from and let your body stay in a more relaxed state.

2) You are flexible
Yes even you have the potential to be flexible. Why? Because you were a baby once and they’re really flexible! I’d be the first to argue against this point. I think of myself as much less flexible than others. But watching Bennett, who has half of my genes, be able to practically put his foot in his mouth has got me wondering where my flexibility has gone, because I was once that way.

I truly think it’s just about using your flexibility or losing it. And most of us live our lives in a manner that inhibits our flexibility over time and decades down the road we could never imagine being as flexible as we once were. It’s simply a matter of consistency to maintain or re-gain the flexibility that we all once had. Rolling around and reaching on the floor is probably the first step to re-gaining your mobility, Bennett seems to really enjoy stretching.

3) Wanting something narrows your focus
This is extremely evident when it’s feeding time. Bennett’s ability to not be distracted or amused by anything else when he’s hungry is pretty remarkable. I sure that all babies are like this but it’s the first time I’ve really had an up close view of this 24/7.

Yes I know that it’s one of the most basic and deeply rooted instincts but imagine what you could accomplish if you had that kind of focus. Not once in a while, but every day, every hour. What if you focused your energy in once direction and just went for it? You’d probably surprise yourself, even if you only did that half the time!

4) Floating in the water is fun
We’ve created the routine of giving Bennett a nightly bath before he goes to bed for the night. I really think this is his favorite part of the day; it may even rival feeding times! He looks so happy and content and sometimes he’d stay in there for hours if he could.

Remember we all first developed in water. It’s a natural environment for us. But much like our flexibility if we don’t revisit it, on a regular basis, we lose the connection and fun we once had. So treat yourself this week and go find a pool, lake, river or some body of water and float around and enjoy.

I never thought I’d be one of “those” parents that are always posting pictures of their kids everywhere but these were just too good to pass up. And he looks so athletic already!

Even though I enjoy all the sports and really do appreciate all types of athletes and their respective disciplines – swimming is by far my sport of choice. It’s the main sport I did growing up and coached as well.

Going into these Olympic Games the hype was that Ryan Lochte was going to supersede Michael Phelps as the best swimmer on the planet. While Michael hasn’t had the best training over the last four years he was still focused on going out on top and cementing his legacy.

Tonight marked the halfway point in the swimming competition and it’s definitely lived up to the hype. There are upsets and surprises every year but this year has come with extras. Both Phelps and Lochte failing to medal in some of their key events along with other upsets have really made for some interesting competition in the pool.

I just watched Michael Phelps swim the 200 Butterfly, his signature event which he hadn’t lost in 9 years – until tonight. I even knew the result because of following Twitter earlier in the day, but still as the race was going on I couldn’t believe that he was actually going to lose when it was over. And it wasn’t until the last stroke that Phelps did lose. Which was the exact opposite of his most memorable race in Beijing when he came from behind in the 100 Fly to win by .01 of a second.

Sport and competition can be cruel sometimes – especially at the highest level. The best part for me though is seeing how Phelps, Lochte and all great athletes respond after defeat. It’s been said that you see a person’s true side not in their victory but in defeat. I think that’s true and it’s the only time you really do see the heart of a champion.

Coming off of sub-par performances Lochte and Phelps teamed up for the U.S.’s most dominant event over the past few Olympics – the 800 Free Relay. And the dominance continued with Phelps capping off the anchor leg of the Gold Medal Relay and winning his 19th Olympic medal – more than another other athlete in history.

I think the circumstances of tonight in which he became the most decorated Olympian ever were fitting. He was proved vulnerable and yet bounced back as a true champion with the help of a great team effort.

I find myself watching sports more and more not for entrainment necessarily but for examples to point to when talking with my clients and athletes. Whether your goal is a Gold Medal or to play with your grandkids pain free you’ll probably have some setbacks along the way. In fact if you don’t your goals probably aren’t lofty enough. But remember in your defeats and setbacks is when your character truly counts.

When you set high goals be prepared to start a journey. Understand that you’re starting to create a legacy that may extend generations down the road. And when it gets tough, and it will, remember its not how you start your journey, or even how it’s going in the middle, but how you end it. In whatever journey you’re on make sure you finish strong. You may not be writing a legacy of the Greatest Olympian of All-time but you’re still writing your legacy. And in the end yours is what should matter the most.

As a young coach I would devour anything I could get my hands on to read about what other coaches were doing and how they trained. I remember distinctly looking up the first article that Dave Salo wrote in a swimming magazine when he used to have a column discussing research and swimming. His first big article brought into question the validity of the “high-volume” training philosophy of the day, which was widely supported by the great Doc Councilman. At the time Coach Salo hadn’t really done anything in the sport and Doc was coach of the powerhouse Indiana University Swim Team and a guy by the name of Mark Spitz.

Different ways of training swimmers to success aren’t new to the sport. I thought it was a great moment on the first night of the Olympic Trials, especially in the 400IM, which provided a great example of success from different training. The winner, Elizabeth Beisel swims at the University of Florida with Gregg Troy, who is unabashedly a “high-volume/traditional” guy. The other swimmer that qualified for the Olympics, Caitlin Leverenz swims with Teri McKeever at Cal Berkley, a very “non-traditional” program.

The 400IM is often seen as the most grueling event in swimming and I can say this from experience both in and out of the water. It just goes to show you that there are many ways to be successful as a swimmer, in all of the events.

To drive this point home even more look to the winner of the women’s 100Fly, Dana Vollmer. She actually went to swim with Gregg Troy her freshman year at Florida. But it just didn’t work out. She didn’t make the team in 2008 and transferred out to Cal and Teri McKeever for a different approach. I’d say that was a good change of scenery and training from her results of late.

It’s not that Troy is a bad coach and McKeever is a good coach because it worked that way for Vollmer. Troy’s methods are obviously working, out of the first six swimmers who qualified in the pool for the Olympics he coaches four of them. The difference is that some programs and ways of training reach different athletes. That’s where the success is from, how the athlete is actually receiving the training program, not the program or even coach giving the program.

In an interview prior to Trials starting Coach Troy and McKeever took questions as the two Head Olympic Swim Coaches of the Men’s and Women’s Team respectively. Coach Troy had a great line when the question did arise about the difference in coaching styles between the two of them. He said, “There are a lot of recipes for chocolate chip cookies, the important thing is whichever one you pick make sure you stick to the recipe.”

This reminded me of a post I wrote a while ago, The Art of Training “Inside the Box”. It’s not about using all the different ways under the sun to find success. Rather it’s about finding the right approach to take with an individual or a goal and then pursue after it whole-heartedly and stay on recipe. The success as a coach I’ve come to decide isn’t really on what “style” you use. Instead it’s about the choice of which style you’ll use to connect with which individuals and situations. And a great coach knows how to relate to their athletes with specifically tailored programs.

If you’re an athlete the good news is that there’s no “perfect” formula for success out there. Yes some methods may work better for you than others but rest assured that many athletes are finding success through many different recipes. And to the coaches out there make sure you continually ask people for their favorite recipes. Then tuck them away and marinate on under what circumstances and with what kind of athlete they’d be the best fit. Have options and more importantly know how to use them.

Check out a different recipe altogether that Ryan Lochte uses as part of his strength training. Definitely not a recipe for everyone.

Head USA Olympic Men’s Swimming Coach Gregg Troy and Women’s Coach Teri McKeever take questions from the press.

My first “real job” was actually as a soccer referee so I do have a special appreciation of the game. The games in the Euro Cup do look a lot different then the little league soccer games I officiated though. Mainly the absence of “magnet ball.” One thing that is similar is all of the crazy screaming adults, I guess some things never change – whether it’s your kid or your country’s athletes. That’s enough nostalgia; let’s get to the lessons you can witness from Euro 2012 and apply in your own training and performance.

Sometimes You Play for the Tie
That’s what England has in mind when they played against France in their opening game to a 1-1 tie. France was heavily favored so England played very conservatively and hoped that they could come out with a tie. In your training there are going to be days when all you can accomplish for the day is a draw, so to speak. You’re not going to kill it everyday. Recognize that, take what you can and move on to the next “match.”

There’s Always a “Group of Death”
I find it humorous that in every tournament, whether soccer or even in March Madness for college basketball, there’s always a group or region that is loaded with talent. This year in the Euro Cup it’s Group B (Germany, Portugal, Netherlands & Denmark). The teams can’t really control if they end up in the “group of death.” They just have to try and win as much as possible to move on to the next round. There may be times in your training or in a competition when everything seems stacked against you – and you probably can’t control it. So focus on what you can control – your reaction. Focus on what you’ve been training to do and try and execute it as well as possible and let the chips fall where they may.

Upsets Happen
With so many games being played there’s bound to be an upset. Unfortunately for the Netherlands they’re also in the “group of death” so it’s a double negative of sorts that Denmark got the win. But think about it from the underdog’s point of view for a moment. Denmark was supposed to be the worst of the four deaths in the toughest group. But they still came out fighting they ended up with a great result. Sometimes the odds aren’t in your favor but you shouldn’t just throw in the towel. Go at it with intensity and sometimes the ball falls your way.

You Can’t Score if You Don’t Attack
It’s about being aggressive – you only may score once or maybe twice in 90 minutes but that shouldn’t stop you from attacking and trying to score. When a team becomes more aggressive they also open themselves up to being scored on. They have to take a defensive risk if they want an offensive pay-off. You have to put yourself at risk to get better too. Maybe not physically, like increasing injury, but maybe mentally. You have to take a risk and extend yourself to have an opportunity at success. With that comes the possibility of failure. Some athletes can never really get over the fear of failing and therefore they never really get in a position to score.

It Works Better When You Work Together
I don’t think that there’s a much more beautiful scene in sports than when an elite soccer team puts on a fury of passes around the field. When it’s a great rally of passes it usually ends in a score. Soccer more so than other sports requires teamwork for success. No matter what you train for you need support to get the best results possible. Whether that’s a coach, trainer, partner to train with or even a competitor that brings out the best in you. Athletics is all about “striving together” and this is really when the best results come out – when it’s together.

“Play On”
In soccer the ref has a unique position in that they can allow the play to go on after a foul has occurred and call it back a few seconds later. The ref will also verbally yell “play on” if some people think a foul has occurred but he doesn’t believe it did. It’s supposed to push the players to keep playing and not wait for a whistle.

Now if you’re new to soccer you may not be aware that these athletes are some of the most dramatic actors out there. You think flopping in the NBA playoffs was bad? Poor soccer players can flop better than any basketball player. Many times a player will roll around on the ground, crying out in hopes that the ref will whistle a foul. Sometimes though you can see players get distracted arguing for a call or acting out an injury and the action continues by and the opposing team uses it to their advantage. Make sure that you never get stuck lying on the ground complaining about something you can’t control while the action passes you by.

You Never Know When It’s Your Turn
On the first day of competition this proved to be true. Poland’s goalie received a red-card and was therefore ejected from the game. So the team had to send in a substitute goalie, who had to immediately defend the penalty kick. But this substitute goalie was able to come off the bench cold, and then stop the kick! Poland ended up in a draw with Greece for the match. That substitute goalie made a save after coming off the bench and that has never happened in the 52 years of the Euro Cup Soccer Tournament. If you aren’t preparing yourself every day to perform there’s no way that you’ll be ready when your time to come off the bench and perform arrives. Train everyday as if you will be asked to come in and make as big of an impact as this substitute goalie.

You’re Never Too Old
Andriy Shevchenko proved that age isn’t a factor in performance when he scored two goals for Ukraine in their opening game. With that performance he become the oldest player to score two goals in a Euro Cup game.

Whenever someone brings up age as a factor for why you can’t do something I always laugh, because that’s not a valid reason. Shevchenko is proving it in the Euro Cup, Dara Torres is proving it in swimming. And my favorite example is the group of masters swimmers that I’ve trained for the last four years now and they keep getting FASTER even as they age – I’m not sure if they’ll ever slow down!

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A great time to “listen in” to what your body is saying would be right after a workout session. Find a quiet spot to lie down, maybe have a rolled up towel to put under your neck and low back to make it even more comfortable. Then just breathe and listen. You may be surprised how your body “settles” or moves during just five minutes of lying there.

When I’ve done this I usually notice that my hands want to automatically close. I have to actively engage muscles to keep my hands open with my palms up and it sometimes hurts just doing that. I took that as maybe I’m using my iPhone a little too much and doing too many fine motor skill activities in my day that my hands are always in that position and can’t relax. Better to learn that now and maybe make adjustments than to have early arthritis because I didn’t listen to what my body was saying.

Another thing that I heard from my body when I did this was that my shoulders tended to lift off the ground and my scapula wanted to be in an elevated position. I blame this on posture of sitting and writing at a computer and also my swimming past of thousands of yards put in – creating a thoracic kyphosis type posture. I still try and actively stretch the front of my body and strengthen my middle and upper back but listening to my body like this tells me there are still remnants that I have to address if I want to be fully functional and avoid pain or injuries.

It also reminds me that the muscles elevating my scapula are overactive (as most people’s are) so when my scapula is involved in a movement it’s important to depress it first so that I can re-teach my body the correct firing for muscles surrounding my shoulder girdle and shoulder joint. My scapula elevates to provide scapular and shoulder stabilization but that’s not how that stabilization is supposed to be achieved.

If I’m not listening to my body then I’ll probably miss these lessons. And these lessons can be very valuable for my training. The areas that I sense are tight by what posture I end up in from just laying there really can direct my stretching efforts and also what stabilization exercises I should incorporate to fully restore function.

Take responsibility for your body and value the most important thing you have – your health. You have more power over your health than you think. It just takes effort. Listening to what your body has to say and then respond accordingly to how you train, move and live.

What drives you……..

Is it intensity?

Is it pain?

Is it success?

Is it failure?

Is it pride?

Is it guilt?

What drives you through the hard part in training and competition?

What drives you through that wall for a breakthrough?

Know where your drive comes from. Training is about developing a better relationship with your body. This includes your mind. So take the time to examine what really drives you.

And if you have time an even better exercise is to go back through the questions above and ask………
“What hinders you?”

First let’s cover a general rule to go by and then get down to more specific cases that you might have questions about. My philosophy when it comes to supports and equipment that assists you is simple: only use it if absolutely necessary.

You body has hundreds of “built-in” supports for hundreds of movements and activities – most of which you might not even do on a regular basis. The problem comes though when your body has dysfunction or you haven’t trained a certain way and then try to do something that is strenuous and your body isn’t ready for that level of intensity.

Let’s look through some of the more common supports and how you can shift your training to allow your body to support you more then an artificial piece of equipment.

Weight-Belt & Knee Wraps

These tools can be valuable but only when you’re going for a maximum squat effort lift for just one or two reps. If you’re wearing wraps for anything other than that kind of effort I think you’re wasting your time. Your body was built to withstand sub-maximal stress and it actually gets stronger under an appropriate level of stress. Your natural supports that can replace this equipment at sub-maximal effort would be your deep core muscles along with hip stabilizers.

A great exercise that incorporates both your core and hip stabilizer muscles would be the Single-leg Box Jump DOWN – where the focus is on sticking the landing with great control.

Rock Tape / Kinesio Tape
If you have an injury or are trying to re-learn how to properly move and engage the correct muscles this is a great tool. This type of support is becoming more and more popular as more chiropractors and physical therapists are using this to help patients re-learn how to move and hold their posture. Your natural support that can replace this equipment would be improved neuromuscular communication through proper muscle sequencing and balance.

Most of the time when this type of assistance tape is used it’s to promote increased contributions from the stabilizing muscles in a movement. A common injury spot for many is the knees – because many people will have weak hips and weak ankles and the stress comes out at the knees. A simple exercise to promote better stabilization at your knees is to warm-up with Single-leg Alternating Hops. Focus on the control of your landing over how high or far you jump.

Supportive Shoes
Thankfully this trend is currently going back towards minimalism when it comes to footwear but for a while it was all about how much support your shoe could give you. However your foot and ankle complex is actually an amazing group of bones, muscles and ligaments all engineered for maximal support and performance. It really is built to take a lot of stress – if you’ve taken care of it throughout your life by being active and having an adequate level of balance. But the more that you run and force your body to rely on a certain pair of shoes the more that you handicap yourself in the long run. It’s always amazing to me how I can ask a client to take off their shoes and balance on 1-leg and they’re much worse then they were with their shoes on. And the client will often claim, “it’s because I’m not in my shoes.” They say it but they don’t realize what they’re actually stating – that their own body is so dysfunctional that they can’t even balance on 1-leg without artificial support. Talk about an injury waiting to happen.

Active Bows is a simple exercise that can help to improve your balance and the motor control from the foot through the ankle up to the knee and hips. The movement may not be at the ankle and foot but those structures have to stabilize in order for you to move other parts of your body and that’s a lot like running and other sports.

Knee Brace
This will be worn many times by people that have had a knee surgery or a severe knee injury. I’ve trained a few clients with ACL reconstruction and other severe knee injuries who wore this brace. They were still very active and would wear the brace regularly. I approached this piece of equipment from this standpoint: when we’re training together in the gym – in a controlled environment – I want you to not wear the brace in order to force your body to develop the strength and compensation that the knee is currently lacking. But when they were out and active, whether it was playing basketball or hiking then they’d wear the brace. I really think this is the best way to approach these types of supports.

An advanced exercise that I’ll use with a client that has built up strength around their hips and knees is the Hop to Jump. It’s a great way to simulate an action that they’ll encounter in a sporting activity like basketball or tennis.

The common piece of wisdom when using supports such as these and others is to make sure the support is absolutely necessary instead of treating it as an added bonus or convenience. Train your body to be your real support and know what to add when your body needs some help. And when it needs help and support, make sure to target your training to get that specific area better over time so that you have to use the support less and less.

The more that you train and push your body with artificial support the more you’re teaching your body to rely on that piece of equipment rather then training your body how to properly take and respond to loads and stress. I don’t see a lot of babies being born with artificial supports – somewhere along the way you may lose what your body naturally had. But you can re-gain and improve the amount of stress that your body can handle with a specific and progressive training plan.

Those three steps – treatment, prevention and improvement is how an effective and efficient healthcare system should function. The funny thing is that this probably doesn’t sound like such a foreign concept. You hear about “prevention” all the time. And everyone knows that you shouldn’t let any situation get worse before trying to fix it for the better.

Where the confusion comes is that everyone will say “prevention” but we’re not all using the same “language” to say it. It really comes down to either treating/preventing causes or treating/preventing effects. Is the emphasis placed on the root-cause of the issue or on the symptoms of the issue? This is where the different languages are spoken and if you’re not able to translate and differentiate between the two you’ll quickly get confused and led down the wrong road.

This is especially important by doing a self-analysis when you are sick or injured. Let’s say that you develop high blood pressure. The question that you should really ask isn’t “how do I decrease my blood pressure?” – but “why did it elevate in the first place?” They both seem like similar questions but this is when you’ll choose the road of root-cause or symptom-based treatment. And more importantly, you choose what language you’ll start to speak as you progress to fix the issue.

You have to understand that your body doesn’t just randomly decide to raise your blood pressure, forcing you to be on constant watch as to what your body will mess up next. It didn’t have a limited supply of medicine in it and now it’s out and that’s why you need to consume a drug. Instead your body’s blood pressure is rising simply as a response to something else that’s going on. Your body is trying to communicate to you that there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately the majority of people don’t really listen to their body or take much time to analyze why their body is responding in a certain way.

As a result of most people focusing on effects when it comes to their health the majority of our current healthcare system focuses on symptoms and the treatment for those symptoms. Now markets curve to the demands of the consumers. So you can’t blame this entirely on the healthcare system when the majority of its consumers in the healthcare market choose, deliberately or not, to take the road of a symptom-based treatment.

So the healthcare system is set up that if you come in with high blood pressure they’ll figure out something to get rid of the high blood pressure – because that’s what people will complain about. Which is only an effect, a symptom. The high blood pressure isn’t the cause of the issue – it’s the result, the symptom of a deeper issue. The high blood pressure is actually a sign for something that’s going on that needs to be addressed.

Another example is if you have a problem using your shoulder. In a symptom-based treatment they’ll try and figure out something to give you for the pain and maybe say you shouldn’t do certain activities as much to prevent the pain from occurring. They haven’t addressed the problem, but rather just taken out what they know will agitate the problem and use drugs to cover up your senses, dulling the communication you have with your body. Instead of looking at your biomechanics and assessing your muscle activity to see what is actually causing your shoulder pains.

An approach that focuses on symptoms makes about as much sense as when your engine light comes on in your car – for whatever reason – and your response is to cover the light with a piece of tape. It quickly takes care of the symptom of the light flashing at you – out of sight out of mind – right? No more worrying about what’s wrong with the engine. And chances are your car will still run fine for a while. A symptom-based approach would say that you’ve “fixed” the problem.

I would argue though that you’ve just fixed the symptom, you’ve eliminated the signal that something is going wrong at a deeper level. The root-cause of the light going off hasn’t been addressed at all, you’ve just “fixed” the symptoms of the deeper issue. You never know when your engine could just stop working when you’re driving down the road. Yes the warning signal – that annoying red light – is taken care of but is the cause of it really taken care of? Just because you effectively take care of the symptom doesn’t mean that you’ve fixed the root-cause of the problem in the first place.

The true meaning of preventative care is to retrace what caused the problem, or rather what produced the symptom in the first place. Your body has an amazing ability to regulate and heal itself. Your body wants to constantly maintain homeostasis as much as possible. If you cut your hand you don’t worry about how you’ll deal with it the rest of your life. Under normal circumstances your hand heals up in time and it’s back to its normal function.

Your body always wants to self-heal. The problem is that sometimes our bodies aren’t in a condition in which they can allocate resources to heal or fix a problem because it’s operating at less than optimal function. This decreased function is usually because of increased interference or inflammation. Your body only has 100% capacity to operate from. If because of interference or inflammation you’re only functioning at 60% then your body isn’t able to put resources to help fight disease or heal.

Your body was meant to last a long time and at a high level of function. When you eliminate the root-cause of the problem then that problem shouldn’t keep returning either – i.e., you won’t have to always take that medicine for the rest of your life to be rid of the symptoms.

The choice is yours – either cover up the problem or eliminate the problem altogether. Make sure to be an advocate for yourself and to give your body a fighting chance to fix itself. And always know what language you and your healthcare provider are speaking.

Check out this Freakonomics Radio Podcast that discusses a few of the other fundamental problems with the current healthcare system. It’s the 2^nd topic of 3 that they discuss on that episode – fast forward about 8 minutes into it to just listen to the healthcare topic.