We have now collected nearly all the times for the virtual leaderboard and a big thanks for all who took part. It has been a worthwhile exercise and has provided us with valuable information on the areas which need to have some attention. The main advantage of this virtual idea is it gets you all back into swimming competition mode which is always a good thing.
As you will have noticed both Susan and myself have been spending a fair amount of time adjusting and helping you in areas where you consider you could be stronger so hopefully this will help towards your swimming goals. I have to say that the breaststroke coaching has improved a good number of you however there is still much work to be done especially on leg kick (I can hear the groans from some swimmers on that front).
Over the next couple of months we are returning to harder training sets to improve both stamina and your ability to delay the onset of lactic acid. A subject which I love to coach and swimmers hate to carry out in training however if you can master this then you will be competition ready which is totally the goal to be aimed for. It is never easy to keep your motivation particularly as we don’t know when the next competition will take place however it is my job to make sure that you are battle ready.
Someone said to me a long time ago setting up this team was not possible in fact several people thought it was not feasible however look what has been achieved and that is down to a fantastic bunch of swimmers, hard work by both Susan and myself and supportive parents. I think it was so called swimming experts said that nearly all of Michael Phelps swimming times were impossible however Michael was quoted as saying anything is possible if you are imaginative enough.
The greatest freestyle swimmer, in my opinion, of all time, Alexander Popov beat everyone on 100 free and looked as if he was swimming slow motion as a training swim so if you get the chance look him up on u tube the man was amazing.
Hannah Miley is a classic example of a brilliant 400 IM swimmer and she is tiny in comparison to other’s at international level but she has beaten them all at one stage or another in a glittering career. It just shows you what can be achieved by having the inner belief to win and also having coaches who coach swimmers slightly differently from others. Sometimes the weird and wonderful imaginative ideas can bring untold gains for those who thought that they could never achieve the personal bests set for them.
As to where we are at in training terms there is still a lot to be achieved and concentrating now on hard training sessions will get you to be exactly geared up for returning to competition whenever that may be. I think we are just about where we would want to be given the current COVID circumstances in fitness swimming terms but we cannot rest on our laurels and as you know we will not stop trying to get you all smashing your personal bests.
Finally for all of you who are not natural breaststroke swimmers do not despair if you carry on improving it will make a massive difference to your Individual Medley times as this stroke is a killer in an IM as you all know.
Any way enough from me just now just keep training hard and you will achieve great times of that there is no doubt.
Colin Galbraith Head Coach