Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. ~Chinese Proverb
Matt Kredich, the women's swim coach at University of Tennessee, gave an excellent talk at the American Swim Coaches Association convention I attended. There are many things I could expound upon from Matt's talk, but one thing he said about setting goals for dryland training rang especially true for me:
If we move the body through the RIGHT sequence of movement, the body learns something. ~Matt Kredich
That simple statement is a summary of what my partner Dr. Kurt Strecker and I emphasize daily with our Pursuit Athletic Performance athletes and clients in our Gait Analysis Lab. It is what I preach to the athletes I coach in regards to proper, authentic movement in strength training, and in all sport skills. This is how I see it:
- Moving authentically = quality learning = improving skills = more efficiency, economy and better production of force = more power = more speed!
- Moving poorly or not correctly = poor learning = less skill development = less power AND increased risk of injury = stagnant or lack of improvement, or worse, injury and burnout, mentally and physically.
I fully believe that my enthusiasm for what I do as a coach and athlete is grounded in the idea of continual LEARNING and growth, NOT in simply training hard and racing.
So I encourage you--this week, go out and LEARN something new about how you're moving! The year is new, and it's great time to do so. Since this post was inspired by a swim coach, let's stick with the sport of swimming. Here are a couple of suggestions that can help you learn about how you're moving in the water:
1. Find a coach in your area who is versed in training on the Vasa swim ergometer. (The Vasa is such a great training tool, and we'll talk more about that in future posts.) Being on the Vasa with someone who can give you appropriate feedback is a great way to LEARN about how you move when you swim. We have no reason when on the Vasa to NOT move correctly. Swimming or any other movement starts with executing some basic proper skills. The Vasa is great for this skills-based learning.
2. Videotape yourself in the water. Video work is essential! How else will you know what you're doing? And if you don't know what you're doing, how can you know what must change to improve? Start videotaping yourself, and do it routinely. Start now.
We spend so many hours training, yet so few of those hours are spent really trying to understand what we should do, vs. what we are actually doing. In my mind, that adds up to a fairly large amount of wasted time and energy.
Think it's time for me to schedule another swim clinic....
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