Setting Goals, notes and things to help.

Things you need to consider.     Look at the “OFFICIAL”   time standards.    If your goal time is reasonably close, but not quite a qualifying time, lower it to make the standard.

 Set December goals so that you are on pace and with-in reach of your year end goals.

Goal Setting:

Goals need to be concrete and absolute.  They need to be specific and they need to have a deadline and they need to be measurable and realistic.  Wanting to make the Olympics is a great goals but unless you have a plan to make it happen it is just a wish and not a goal.   Set “PROCESS” goals first and then set “OUTCOME GOALS”.  They need to be set in the positive.  They need to be set in the “present” tense.   Daily goals should be set to help you past the tired or frustrating times.  They are important in making all other goals happen. Short term goals are the most important to set and pursue.  They leave you the least amount of time to accomplish them and will directly impact your chances of success with the long term goals.  Understand and set priorities to reflect your goals and your desire to accomplish or make them happen.  Also, evaluate them regularly and be aware that you may need to make adjustments at the half way point or due to not being able to keep up with the short term goals. Sickness, injury etc.  Be honest in your ability to follow through.

Concrete and absolute: When you set your goals you have to be specific and set them as real.  My goal time is…. Seconds, tenths, and thousandths.  I will swim my short term goal time at the December Championship meet this winter.  I will go 1 second faster in March.

Positive thinking: Goals need to be set in the positive. I will do this….. I will fix this….  Use the I will… or I shall…. In every case of setting your goals and then you need to believe that you can do these things.  You need to OWN your goals and OWN the process of making them come true.  Ownership means they are yours and they are your responsibility and your to take care of.  You must believe and see yourself achieving the goal.  Visualize yourself going your goal time.

Process goals: These can consist of things that you can do to make your outcome goals come true. The skills you will need to have to make your other goals happen.  Things that you will need to fix or do correctly in order to make your “outcome” goals/ times.  Ex> Technical goals: DPS, Stroke count, breathing patterns.  Tactical goals: Learn race paces and strategies.  Physiological goals: eating correctly, race weight, fluids/ water bottles, meeting sleep requirements, shoulder rehab,   Psychological goals: mental preparation work, staying focused throughout the whole race,

Daily Goals: Today’s objectives.  Set goals for each day.  Those things that you can do no matter how tired you are or how frustrated or how bad your day was.  I will work on my turns.  I will be the first one in the pool.  I will work on my breathing pattern.  I will work on my stroke technique.  I will listen to what coach says.  Add the phrase: “..so that..” to each one.  I will work on my breathing pattern SO THAT I can keep my stroke balanced through out my race.  Make sure you know what it is that you are trying to accomplish use “so that..: to help.  Today I will give 100% of what ever level of energy I have. 

Short Term Goals.  These are basically stepping stones for the year end or outcome goals.  What you will do today to make other goals happen. Set simple daily goals or objectives that you will work on daily as well as goals for the next few weeks or for the next upcoming meet. Ex. I will go a 28.50 in December so that I can go a 28.00 in March at the Spring Championships.  I will fix my dive now so that it will be automatic by March.  I will get in on time and I will do all the sets as to the best of my ability on any given day.  I will increase my weights by 10% by December.  I will lower my threshold time in time for Christmas training.

Outcome goals: These are the goals (in time) that you are trying to actually achieve.  They need to use all of the above to make them come true.  These are generally set in the terms of your times or paces.  They too need to be specific and have process goals attached to them to make them more likely to come true.

REVIEW: Goals need to be specific.  Long term goals need to be divided into short term goals with priorities and deadlines.  They need to be measurable to allow you to follow and examine your progress.  Saying that you will “work hard” is not measurable.  Saying that you will keep all EN3 sets at HR=28 or higher for 10 seconds is measurable.  Make them challenging but achievable.  Easy goals are soon ignored and too hard of a goal makes it easy to turn away from them.  You must believe in yourself and SEE YOURSELF REALIZING THE GOAL.   Write them down, know them and share them. Invest in them.  Use the phrase: “so that…” to help focus on your goal.  Remember to be *SMART about your goals.  (Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Realistic, Time-based) 

                                                       *Some of this was borrowed from www.mentalskills.co.uk as well as other sources.

 Pace. 

Why, how it can help, how to set it up and what it can tell you.

We do pace for several reasons.  One it should help you to set up your races better.  It should allow you to recruit muscle memory that will allow you to more easily go the right speed, right stroke count and breathing patterns in your race.  This will enable you to have a better race.  Swimming pace in warm up should help you swim the right speed on the first 50.  It should make you confident that you can hold that “pace”.  If your first 50 is the right speed, the other 50’s should be easier to hold at pace speed.  Practicing pace, pace tempo, (race tempo at practice), race breathing patterns and stroke counts should make it easier for you to get in the habit of swimming your races correctly.

 When working pace at practice in the early season you should be going pace for swims a little faster than either your current meet time, or ahead of last years current time of the same point in the season.  Once we start getting into our championships season you should be trying to go Goal Pace at practice.  At meets, early season you should be going paces for current times or ahead of last years time at this point in the season.  At goal, or Taper meets, you should be holding pace at practices and at the meet of your goal speed.

During practice it is important to try and develop a sense of pace that is comparable with the fast times that you are currently doing.  Remember that drag suits, lack of food, lack of sleep or a long week will impact your times.  That is ok.  When doing pace to set up a swim, keep that in mind. When doing pace to work on muscle memory and goal times tough it out….

Setting up pace:

Rule of thumb. 

A 50 is a 50, look at the percentage of time you want to drop more than the number size.

For a 100, double the 50 time and add 3 seconds.

For a 200, double the 100 time and add 5 seconds.

For a 400, double the 200 and add 12-15 seconds depending on endurance and   

The quality of your turns, and YOU can make your turns as good as you want them to be it only takes you working on them. 

For a 500, take your 200 splits add between 1.2 to 1.7 seconds per 50 to get.  Splits and then get your time from them. 

The 1000 or 800 is taken from your 500 pace or 400 and add .7-1.0 seconds per  50.

The 1650 or 1500 is your pace from you 500 or 400 and add 1.0 to 1.2 seconds Per 50.

Please know your paces for your goal swims.    You must hold these on anaerobic sets(En3 sets) of 50’s and 100’s to have a reasonable chance to swim them in a meet.

Figuring pace:

Take your goal time, or current time and add 2 seconds for backstroke and 3 seconds for all other strokes.  This is to allow for the advantage you get on the first 50 due to the dive start.  Then divide your race in the number of 50’s that you have.  Remember that you are dealing with a base 60, ( 1 minute = 60 seconds and not base 10 ).

 Example:

            500 free current time  6:35.00  add  3seconds = 6;38.00,  10  50’s in a 500

                       6 minutes x 60 seconds= 360 seconds +38”=      398    divided by 10  for 10 50’s     398/10 = 39.8 pace =39.8 seconds per 50

Example:

            200 fr current time  2;10,  plus 3” =  2:13.00 

                             2:13.00 seconds =133 seconds (2 minutes x 60 sec. +13)

                             133 seconds divided by 4   (4 * 50 = 200)  equals    33.25 seconds

 OR      200 fr =2;10, plus 3”  =2:13.00

                        2 minutes x 60 = 120  +13” =   133  divided by 4  50’s =  33.25

IM’s depend on your 200 paces of 200 strokes to come up with your pace time.  Figure that you should be able to hold pace of strokes for same distance race.  200 IM~ to 200 strokes.  Remember that fly is a dive 50 so will be faster and is usually 2 to 3 seconds faster than your freestyle leg.  

Good Luck and Set those GOALS…….