Preparing to Win

When I was 9 years old, racing In Mumbai, my coach told me that I would never get over the nervousness I felt on the starting blocks, no matter how many times I raced. I didn’t believe him at the time, but looking back over twenty years of competitive swimming, I think, I have to agree with him. I was as nervous for my first race at 7 as I was for my last one at 27!

Many swimmers do better in training, where there is little pressure, and end up clocking slower times at meets when it matters most. The best athletes in the world, however, figure out how to be at their physical and, more importantly, mental best when it really matters. Through my competitive career in the pool, though the nerves never left, I got consistently better at dealing with the stress of competition, the excitement, and the pressure that inevitably comes with it.

There are only two ways you are ever going to approach a competition. One is stressed and scared, and the other is excited and waiting to get up there and win! I tell swimmers that I train, that you have to consciously develop the skill, just as I did over a period of time, to recognize the nervousness, excitement and all the pressure of expectation that exists, and use that energy to drive you to do your very best on race-day. This is as important as the hours of physical training you put in to be your best.

I often joke with swimmers about how we train several kilometers through a training week, and come race-day, swim so little! So, we must love racing because it is so much less work. Most laugh and agree, and there are a few who admit that race prep and race-days are what they hate the most !

So to start the year, I’m going to share some thoughts on how you can prepare and deal with stress leading up to race-day to race better. My advice comes from what I’ve learnt through training with some of the best coaches in the world, observing what the world’s best did at big swim meets, as well as figuring out for myself, little ways and means of distracting from what isn’t good for my focus, and paying attention to what really is!

5 Tips to Swim a better Butterfly

There's a unique flamboyance in the butterfly stroke, that's not quite there in any of the other strokes, I think. Watch someone swim a butterfly lap in a regular pool and sure enough most heads will turn to watch. Especially if it's swum really well.

But butterfly is probably one of the hardest strokes to train for and to compete in. Most swimmers fear the 200 fly which was my event at the Beijing Olympics, and many more hate a fly distance set in training. However it's my experience, that training in this stroke will help you work muscles that don't get worked on quite as much in other strokes, strengthen your aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and make you a much tougher swimmer mentally as well. There was a certain arrogance with which I would brag about the huge fly sets that I did in training and it was also this confidence that I took to a race, knowing that being able to complete those sets meant I was supremely fit.

So here are five tips from me to help you swim a more efficient butterfly, which I believe will make both training and racing easier. And hey, even if you're swimming recreationally, why not swim this well and make those heads turn!

CHIN UP:

Your head position in all four strokes is of crucial importance. I've said this before as well; your body will always do what your head dictates!

Many flyers make the mistake of coming up too high to breathe because they feel they are struggling to swim the stroke and in that moment of exhaustion or panic overcompensate by pushing a large part of their upper body out of the water when they surface for a breath. Remember that the less effort you make to come up for air, the smoother will be your stroke.

I always tell swimmers to lift their head just enough for their chin to crest the surface of the water as they inhale, letting the water graze past, without allowing any more of their upper body to surface. This is a powerful stroke and using the right technique will help you conserve energy for where you need it most. When you tire through training or in a race, it's easiest to start making mistakes in your technique and I would use the position of my chin as a checkpoint for accuracy of technique, ensuring it seemingly rested on an imaginary cushion - the water -right through the in-breath.

5 Tips to a Better Breaststroke

Hello! This is the third in my series of blogs on stroke correction and I'm focusing today on breaststroke, a stroke many of us begin with.

Every swimmer is built differently, some have stronger upper bodies and some have stronger legs. Strength distribution through the body dictates how a swimmer swims breaststroke, and thus every breaststroker will swim in a slightly different way from his competitor. However here are a few key tips to swim a better breaststroke ! Hope they help !

High Elbows:

Making sure you pull through with a high elbow is most important. A lot of swimmers end up dropping their elbows through their pull, thus losing out on pulling as much water back as they possibly can. Dropping your elbows in breaststroke has a lot to do with weak rotator cuff muscles and I always encourage breaststrokers to do external rotation rotator cuff exercises as a matter of habit so they can maintain the high elbow pull with ease. Remember the higher your elbow, the more water you push back and the further you move forward on each stroke!

Head Position:

Each swimmer likes to exit the water at an angle he is comfortable with. I always have watched that most good breastrokers exit the water both upward and forward as well. By this I mean,they do not chest the water whilst coming up to breathe, an error that novice swimmers do often make. Your ability to hit the right angle can be improved by using your head and eyes as a checkpoint. One exercise that's helpful is to try exiting the water with your eyes still looking downwards at the pool floor.Through all the time you spend above the water, keep your eyes looking at the pool and time you spend breathing will be spent more efficiently, and helping you find just the right angle.

5 Tips for a Better Backstroke

Since I'm doing so much work with swimmers on stroke correction these days, the second blog in my series of tips on stroke correction focuses on getting better in the pool in backstroke!

Head position:

You need a steady head to go through life smoothly, and it's literally as important to have a steady head if you want to swim your backstroke in the best way possible. It's the most important part of your body in this stroke.The more steady you keep your head, the straighter you will swim. No one wants to swim more than the race distance and swimming crooked with an unsteady head will only slow you down, and yes increase distance. A steady head promotes rotating around your spine and avoids lateral movements. One drill that I always did to work on developing steadiness was to place my goggles on the centre of my forehead and swim laps, without allowing them to fall off. Remember, the less movement your head has, the more stable you will be in the water, and the faster you will go.

Rotation:

Learning to rotate around your spine in backstroke is key to swimming efficiently. I would always work on trying to get my shoulder to graze my chin and get it totally under my chin on each stroke.That way my body would be entirely on its side, with my pulling arm digging deep into the water for a better pull.The "six kicks on each side" drill was my favourite, as it helped strengthen my rotational power when done at speed and this also helped me swim better freestyle. In short, swim backstroke on your side, not on your back !

5 tips on how to Swim a great Freestyle

Olympian Swimmer and Arjuna Awardee, Rehan Poncha, often starts his SwimSmart clinics talking about the importance of looking good in the water. Whether you are a competitive swimmer or just swim for fitness or fun…here are 5 quick tips from the ace swimmer on how to swim a great free-style...

Hello! This is one of my favourite strokes and here are my top 5 tips on swimming a great freestyle.

1. KEEP A STEADY HEAD: Your body does what your head decides! In life and more so in freestyle. The steadier your head is, the more stable you will be in water. The dry-land exercises I teach in my clinics help to master this technique of keeping the head steady while rotating from your hips. People are often so worried about being technically correct with their arms and legs; they forget that in this stroke, balance comes mostly from two parts of the body - the head and the hips. So conserve your energy, work on developing stability of the head, eyes looking down at the floor of the pool, body parallel to the floor of the pool, head in line with the spine with the forehead submerged.





2. BREATHE EASY: Great swimmers look very relaxed in water. One common error I find during stroke correction sessions is that swimmers rotate their heads, very suddenly, to one side and also very high for inhalation. This not only destabilizes the entire body, it wastes a lot of energy. I like to ask if the oxygen up in the sky is different from that just above the water. Since its not, why make such an effort? When you do this, your body acts like a see saw, and your legs drop creating a lot of drag. Instead, turn on your side, and let your head rotate gently a little further until your mouth clears the water, and it's as though your head was resting sideways on a pillow. Inhale, and return to the head down position, where you exhale continuously underwater.