News

The Problem
At meets on Island swimmers arrive late, get into the water late, get out before the warm ups is finished, in general they are poorly done. That said we do have some swimmers who do a good warm up and follow the procedures we adopt off Island but there is still room for improvement.

The Solution
In simple terms arrive early, get in on time and stay in till the end, in other words take advantage of and make use of every minute available. "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail". I am sure you do not revise for your school exams and then expect to get good grades?

What is a warm up?

• You are preparing your body for the exertion of racing.
• You need to warm up and stretch your muscles to prevent injury.
• You need to rehearse the strokes you will be swimming.
• Your heart, probably the most important muscles in your body needs to be warmed up so it can deliver oxygen carrying blood to all parts of your body.
• You need to build up the intensity of the warm up just like we do in training. BUT you don't have a long time to do it, we only have 30 minutes which is longer that at many meets, but substantially shorter then say at National events.
• You need to practice your start, check out the blocks, do a couple of sprints to check sharpness.
• Do a swim down.
• Get out when you are chased out by the warm up official.
• Be tough in body and mind, do what you know is right and don't follow the crowd.
• Re-hydrate and refuel.

What a warm up is not.

• A chance to meet and chat with your friends.
• To have a quick dip in the pool and then stand in the showers.
• To stand and complain that the pool is busy and you can't find space to swim, it's the same were ever you go.
• Do you only want six per lane? Then we go away and you cannot cope!
• To stand and pose poolside and flex your muscles.
• Hang on the lane lines and block the lanes having idle chat with other swimmers.
• Queueing up in the lane to practice turns, do this as you are swimming.
• What you do at this stage says a lot about your attitude to your swimming. You have spent hours training, why throw it all away now?

What do I do in a warm up?

• Prepare for the swims you have in that session.
• Be aware of the distance and strokes you are warming up for.
• How long after warm up is your first swim?
• Do enough distance to ensure you have warmed up your heart and body muscles.
• Ensure you reach the correct intensity and raise your heart rate above resting level.
• To state a specific distance is wrong, it depends on age, event to be swum etc.
• Generally if you are doing a distance swim you need to do as much as possible, building pace as you go through the warm up. Do some pace work over a series of 50m swims. Do one start to check blocks and then swim down. Distance events are 200m/400m events and above.
• For sprints, 50m and 100m swims you still need a good warm up and it should be specific to the stroke you are swimming. Then you need two 25m sprints sprinting the first 15m followed by a good swim down.
• In a warm up the ideal total length of swimming should be between 1800m and 3000m so as you can see you cannot do to much in a 30 minute warm up, you will not tire yourself out.
• Follow the advise of the coaches, they are the experts.
• Re-hydrate and refuel.

Finally

• Take responsibility for your own warm up, you are told when warm ups starts, do your flexibility and stretching before the water warm starts. You can talk to your friends whilst doing this.
• Try to relax, be confident you have done all you can do to get the results you want.
• Drink lots of fluids to stay hydrated; when you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated.
• Dehydration will have a dramatically negative effect on performance.
• Have some food available to refuel after each swim, something easy to digest and high in carbohydrates.
• Where possibly have a good swim down after each swim, again 800m to 1000m would be ideal.
• Have a skipping rope in your kit bag and if possible use it safely if a water warm up is not available throughout the session. It will raise your Heart Rate.
• Talk to the coaching staff for advise before and after each swim they have lots of experience to pass on and can help you with any concerns you may have.
• Parents should only be supportive and not be critical about a swimmers performance. Do not give technical advice this is the role of the coaches.

I want coaches, swimmers and parents to take on board the importance of warm ups, and whilst the above information is not a definitive list and circumstances mean a flexible approach has to be adopted the general guidelines still apply.

• Prepare well, be confident and swim fast.
• Winning comes in many forms
  • It can be winning the event.
  • Doing a best time.
  • Achieving a qualification time.
  • Getting the pace right.
  • Correcting a previous error that has cost you and medal, a final place or a personal best.
  • Developing racing skills and pace after illness, injury.
  • Enjoying being in competition.
  • Taking part and facing up to the challenge.
  • Doing your best.

Good luck. Remember come and talk, we are here to help.

Max Stewart,
National Coach