GOLDMINDS

BY WAYNE GOLDSMITH

LEARN HOW TO BE A RACER

It’s important to learn how to swim your event in such a way that you can perform to your potential in every possible racing situation, including different strategies for heats, semifinals and finals.

“There are two kinds of swimmers: PACERS AND RACERS. “PACERS can swim their event one way—usually all-out maximum speed. “RACERS learn how to swim their event in multiple ways and develop the racing skills to match and excel in every racing

situation they face.” —Alexander Popov (4x Olympic gold medalist, 6x world champion and multiple world record holder)

Which swimming event are you preparing for? 50 free? 100 back? 200 IM?

If you’re racing your event at a meet where you have to swim it only once, then you prepare to swim the event—i.e., the stroke and the distance—as fast as you can.

However, if you’re preparing to swim at a meet with a “multiround” format—i.e., heats, semifinals and finals—you need to learn how to race the same event...THREE DIFFERENT WAYS.

Multi-round swimming is about knowing how to swim your event—as Popov says at the beginning of this story—like a RACER.

SAME EVENT, THREE DIFFERENT RACES 1.Heats = Accurate Pacing

The most important competitive skill to develop for swimming in heats is accurate pacing. As a general rule, the accuracy level of pacing skills should be mastered according to the following Pacing Skill Guidelines: • Young age group swimmers (10-12 years of age) should be able to pace their heat swims with an accuracy of plus-or-minus 1.0 second. This means if their target time is 35 seconds, they need to be able to swim between 34 and 36 seconds.

minus 0.5 seconds. This means if their target time is 35 seconds, they need to be able to swim between 34.5 and 35.5 seconds. • Older swimmers (16 years and over) should be able to pace their heat swims with an accuracy of plus-or-minus 0.1 seconds.

This means if their target time is 35 seconds, they need to be able to swim between 34.9 and 35.1 seconds.

Accurate pacing is a critically important competitive swimming skill. Too many swimmers make the mistake of swimming too fast in their heat swim, leading to unnecessary fatigue and subsequent disappointments in their semifinals...OR...swimming too slowly, resulting in missing out on making the semifinal round.

2.Semifinals = Time Trials

The goal of swimming in a semifinal is very simple: MAKE THE FINAL.

No one gets to the final because they’ve got the best looking technique, the most colorful swim cap or the nicest smile. A place in the final comes from having one of the eight (or 10) fastest swim times swum in semifinals.

Therefore, semifinals are, in effect, time trials!

You can finish seventh in your own semifinal race, but still make the final if your time is one of the eight (or 10) fastest overall times swum in the two semifinal heats.

Semifinals are not about placings...or even winning, for that matter. It’s about swimming at your fastest to ensure you get a chance at a medal in the final.

3.Finals = Racing Skills, Strategies and Tactics

And once you’re in the final, it’s about WINNING.

Finals are won by the swimmers who can race—i.e., swimmers who have developed a wide range of racing skills, strategies and

PRACTICING TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN MULTI-ROUND SWIMMING

To be successful at multi-round swimming—i.e., when you have to race your event more than once—you need to practice a range of different racing strategies in training. • At training, challenge other swimmers to one-on-one races— i.e., “match races.” Offer handicaps—e.g., give head starts to slower swimmers, and ask for head starts from faster swimmers; • Learn to negative-split—i.e., racing the second half of a race at a faster speed than the first half; • When you’re approaching a wall at the end of a repeat in training, practice out-touching swimmers in other lanes.

Look for every possible opportunity at training and at meets to race, race, race and to develop a broad range of racing skills that are necessary to meet the demands of every racing situation you are likely to face. 

1.Mastering Heat Swimming: Learn to Pace Accurately

This is a relatively easy skill to learn, and you can incorporate accurate pacing practice into every set and session you swim during training.

For example, if your coach asks you to swim a set of 20 x 50 meters on 1:30, holding a pace of 42 seconds for each of the 50-meter repeats, you need to choose to swim this set with a high level of accuracy, focusing on swimming your target pace.

Ideally, your coach should be able to give you accurate times based on the level of accuracy you are working to achieve (refer to the Pacing Skill Guidelines discussed near the beginning of this story following the “Heats = Accurate Pacing” category). If not, then why not take responsibility for your own pacing skills practice by purchasing and wearing a sportswatch during training? Wayne Goldsmith has worked with swimmers, coaches, swimming clubs, swimming parents, sports scientists and swimming organizations all over the world for almost 30 years. He has contributed to Swimming World Magazine for nearly two decades. He is one of the world’s leading experts in elite-level swimming and high-performance sport. Be sure to check out Goldsmith’s websites at www.wgaquatics.com and www.wgcoaching.com.

2.Mastering Semifinals Swimming: Learn to Time Trial

There’s a great way to learn how to time trial: swim time trials in practice!

Look for opportunities to learn how to swim fast time trials whenever the opportunity arises—the start of practice, the end of practice...it doesn’t matter. Learn to get up and swim at your maximum speed whenever you choose.

One great technique for learning how to time trial is called a “cold swim.” This is usually done at the start of practice before you swim your pool warm-up (although you can stretch and warm up on deck). It is generally completed over a distance of 50 meters.

The goal of “cold swims” is to learn how to swim at maximum speed when and where it matters, and it’s a challenging and effective way to master the physical and mental elements of time trials.

Author’s Note: Do not attempt a “cold swim” if you have any pre-existing injuries or medical issues that may potentially be aggravated by completing the “cold swim.” Please discuss your concerns with your coach prior to attempting to complete any “cold swim.”

3.Mastering Finals Swimming: Learn to Race

The way to get better at racing...is by racing! There are many strategies you can employ to improve your racing skills, including: • Enter in races where you are competing against superior competition, and learn from observing their racing strategies and tactics firsthand; • Enter in races where you’ll be racing competitors you should be able to defeat, and learn to maintain a winning lead from the front; • Race in events you don’t usually race to learn how to change pace, how to manage your speed, how to “build” your kick over the final stages of races, etc.;

SUMMARY

1.There are two types of swimmers: those who learn to swim their event and those who learn how to race their event optimally in heats, semifinals and finals.

2.It might seem that all you have to do is learn how to swim your event really fast to win swimming races, but that’s a very simplistic way of thinking about the sport. When you get to multi-round swimming and need to swim heats, semifinals and finals, it is vital that you’ve practiced to swim your event the right way at the right time.

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Coach Megan Oesting

Head Coach SwimMAC Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina

• UCLA, B.S., mathematics, ’96;

University of Iowa, M.S., educational measurement and statistics, 2014 • Four-year NCAA All-America swimmer,

NCAA national champion water polo player, senior academic excellence and hardest worker honoree at UCLA

• National junior team member, 8x Washington state high school champion, gold (400 free relay) and silver (100 free) medalist at 1991 Pan

Am Games

• Nationally top-ranked 10-year-old age grouper in three events; later won three national junior titles • No. 1 world-ranked Masters swimmer, 35-39 age group, 50 and 100 meter freestyle, 2009-10 • Owner, Megan Oesting Swim

Technique (MOST); developer,

MySwimEars (wireless waterproof headsets for swim training) • Head Swim Coach, Iowa Flyers, 2010-12

• ASCA Age Group Coach of the Year, 2019

• Head coach, USA Swimming Southern

Zone Select Camp, 2019; assistant coach, National Girls Select Camp, 2018

Before becoming head coach at SwimMAC Carolina, Nov. 1, 2020, Oesting was the founder/head coach of the Eastern Iowa Swimming Federation from 2016-20. There she coached her swimmers to more than 25 Top 100 USA Swimming All-Time Age Group swims.

MEGAN OESTING

This past fall, Megan Oesting—business owner, team founder, USA Swimming select camp coach, empowerment speaker and national age group coach of the year—moved from Eastern Iowa Swimming Federation to SwimMAC, where she looks to continue the program’s Olympic tradition.

BY MICHAEL J. STOTT

Q.SWIMMING WORLD: How did you get started in swimming? A. COACH MEGAN OESTING: My parents joined a summer club in Seattle when I was 5. I was an asthmatic preschooler with frequent ER visits, so this was a great opportunity to be active and outdoors. In my early elementary years, I was frustrated in other sports because my body would just shut down. Swimming felt good to my skin, lungs and whole body. I could be as physical as I wanted in the water. With my driven nature, I could be myself while swimming.

SW: Any seminal influences regarding swimming and your decision to coach? MO: My age group coach, Craig Weishaar, gave us an ideal swimming experience. He was invested, had fun with us, and we enjoyed his humor and discipline. We knew he cared, and we had fun working hard and pushing ourselves. There really was no separation between the hard work and the fun. Being raised that way allowed me to flourish as a young person.

I started coaching at 14. I had been coming to practice an hour early to do push-ups and sit-ups on my own. A teammate was coaching the 5-6-year-olds, and I asked if I could help. I’ve been on the pool deck ever since.

Like swimming, it’s the most natural thing in the world for me. Many times I’ve tried to make the decision NOT to coach. I thought I had to get a real job, work in a high rise or do something academic. I come from an intelligent family with an academic and musical culture, so sport was way out of the box and not really respected. But for me, swimming is exactly like musical expression—the water was my instrument.

SW: How do you have a “conversation with the water?” MO: I ask swimmers to listen to the body sensations that the water is giving them. If you listen to the water, it’s very active, and you can hear it as if it were a piece of music. Only you can hear the music you are playing. The fundamental focus point, before the biomechanics, is the ability to listen with your body. We all come to that skill or “talent” differently. In music, some people have perfect pitch, others are tone deaf. No matter what your starting point, everyone can learn to enjoy musical expression. Likewise, everyone can learn to enjoy physical expression. Swimming is “playing the water.”

SW: How did having your daughter, a deaf child, change your coaching behavior? MO: Even before my daughter, listening was important to me. At my core, I am a listener. There’s information available all the time on what we’re doing and how to do it well. You just have to know how to listen.

When my daughter was born deaf, it never occurred to me that she couldn’t still “listen.” The way she listened was more like how I listened to the water and to life. It is not just with your ears. You listen with anything that can pick up information,