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Outline
This is the general outline for your Attention Practice:
- Tune-Up (a.k.a. warm-up) – your choice
- Main Set 1
- Main Set 2
- Review (a.k.a. cool-down, or wrap-up) – your choice
You will do one Main Set for each skill project assigned in the plan.
Virtually all the swimming sets assigned are whole stroke with focal points. Drills might be assigned as a form of active rest between repeats, but otherwise they are not specifically assigned in the main sets of this plan. Drills are tools that you may use at any time you feel your body position or movement patterns need them. You may incorporate them into your warm up.
If you would like to insert drills into your warm up, or into your main set, as needed, you may choose any of the activities below and use them to enhance your awareness and control during the set:
- 1 minute Visualization
- 2 minute Rehearsal
- 2 minute Drill
- 3 minute Drill + 3 or 4 whole strokes
- 2x ‘Drill + 6 to 8 whole strokes’ (about 25m)
While doing drills you may stop and stand when you need a breath, or use interrupted breathing. I highly recommend that you do the drills in short repeats (6 to 10 seconds at most) and give your brain quick reset opportunities with each break for breathing.
Instructions
Purpose
- To increase awareness of details which will improve your stroke ease and effectiveness.
- To increase control over those details.
Distance
Each main set may be about 600 to 1000 meters long, or at total distances appropriate to the event.
Skill Projects
A different skill project will be assigned to each main set. You will work on these same skill projects for the rest of the week, using the same focal points.
Location
These practices are most suited to the pool, or they can be done in open water, with stroke count intervals between two fixed points.
Metrics
In these practices you will use measurements of Strokes Per Length (SPL) in the pool, or stroke count between two fixed points in open water.
Because this course is preparing swimmers for open water racing, and many will be doing part of the training in open water, you need to practice counting strokes.
For practices in open water, almost all of the work requires setting up distance intervals that are measured in terms of stroke count, where 1 stroke is approximately 1 meter long. So, a 50 meter (or yard) interval will be measured as 50 strokes.
Pool Specific Instructions
In these practices stroke count will be the primary indicator of how your efforts with each focal point are affecting your stroke efficiency. Seeing your SPL go down, or finding that it feels easier to achieve the same SPL are signs of improvement.
Open Water Specific Instructions
If you have two fixed points within about 50-100 meters you can swim between, then you can use these as your virtual ‘walls’ and swim it a few times to establish a SPL unique to this swimming line. Then you may use stroke count to reveal improvements in stroke efficiency. If there are no two fixed points, then you may simply use stroke counting to measure the length of each interval, and use the subjective sense of ease to decide how the focal point is affecting your stroke efficiency.
Intensity
Work around RPE 2. The physical effort should be moderate, while the mental effort should be very high.
Complexity
The challenge level (the neurological complexity) is determined by the focal points you choose and the standard for quality you set for each of those focal points.
Skill projects will be assigned or recommended to you for each Main Set. You will choose the specific focal points for that skill project to suit your individual needs. You may choose 1 or 2 focal points for each set.
You may view the standard TI Drills and points on the Freestyle Drill Resource page, and view many more of from my collection on the 101 Focal Points page.
Level 1 swimmers may use one single focal point and practice the discipline of holding attention on that one focal point.
Level 2 swimmers may blend two focal points together and practice at that greater level of complexity. In addition, I urge Level 2 swimmers to practice counting strokes on much of their practice sets, to monitor the external effects of focal points. Make it a habit (that you can turn on/off as needed).
If the skill requires training one side of the body you may break the set into two rounds and concentrate on one side on the first round, then concentrate on the other side on the second round. This can make it easier to hold attention and build control.
Remember, your objective for these attention practices is to improve control, not accomplish distance. Choose quality over quantity every time.
Success Is…
- Holding your attention on the chosen focal point the entire time
- Achieving the control or improvement that you are aiming for.
Your quantity objective is to achieve the distances for each set. Your quality objective is to successfully achieve your focal point goal 70-90% of the drill or interval at 2 or 3 Star performance (see Rating System For Qualities).
If you are able to achieve the result you are aiming for more than 90% of the time you should consider increasing the complexity of that task to keep the system optimally challenged.
Failure Points
The main failure points to look for are:
- Your attention is wandering away from the chosen focal point
- You cannot achieve the standard for control that you expect
When you notice yourself failing to achieve the quality you expect in your focal point that is the signal for you to find the possible cause so you can make adjustments in your focal point or adjustment in your task complexity. If you start to do much better then notice what specific change you made to affect that improvement – then protect and memorize that change.
If you are not able to achieve the desired control with the chosen focal point, consider that this specific skill might be dependent on another skill which you should work on and strengthen first. Or you might need to switch to a different focal point which is more effective at helping you make the change you are aiming for.
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