USASwimming.org nutrition contributor, Jill Castle, recently published “Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School” (Jossey-Bass publisher, 2013), and I asked her to offer her top tips for feeding teen swimmers. Many of our readers are looking for sound nutrition advice with practical tips for families of active swimmers and this book is the go-to source. 

With the summer championship meets just around the corner, a lot of athletes and coaches are working to finalize the details of their race-day plans. Nutrition, recovery and race strategy are all key elements in these plans. Another important race-day consideration is when and how to warm-up for competition. In a sport so focused on repetition and routine, I think a lot of athletes get caught up in going through the motions because it is what they have always done, or it’s what they are supposed to do. While there is something to be said about the calm and confidence that can be gained through following a routine, the ability to be flexible and adapt to situations is something that gives elite athletes an edge. 

The best way for coaches to avoid their athletes experiencing Overtraining Syndrome is to recognize when they have begun to overreach. In reality, few athletes are ever over-trained, but all athletes experience overreaching; and they should. Properly recovering from a period of overreaching results in improved fitness and performance, and according to research, monitoring the changes in heart rate and blood-lactate concentration are accurate means of determining if an athlete has overreached. 

The London Olympics saw eight different world records broken, including the men’s 1500m freestyle, in which Sun Yang dropped his own world record by more than three seconds. Only three men have swum a sub-14:40 race in a textile suit, and Sun Yang has done it three times. So how does he do it and what does is mean?

After looking at the split breakdowns for all three of his sub-14:40 swims, this is what I learned:

Our team is smaller than most in our area, around 60-70 swimmers total

What are some cool things your teams have done?

Movies
Breakfast/brunch at IHOP
Ice skating in San Francisco
Midnight bowling
Rockin’ Jump/Sky High
Pizza party 

A recent New York Times article (Looking for Fitness in a Glass of Juice, Reynolds) confirmed that a number of Olympic medalists benefitted from juice at the 2012 London Games; more specifically, Beetroot juice and Tart Cherry juice. The research on both is only a year old, but the findings seem to be positive for these natural and healthy foods. 

We say it all the time in these articles, but I think it bears repeating: There is no single “right” way to do things when it comes to swimming technique. We also talk a lot about the importance of good body line and positioning. With these things in mind, the following are some of my observations about butterfly breakouts.

The first time my coach said, “You’re swimming the 50 yard butterfly,” I cried. I don’t know why. As a kid, I was irrationally scared of the entire prospect of swimming butterfly in a swim meet. I had done it in practice, but neveragainst anyone. Never in a meet. As soon as my coach told me, my head began to swirl: What if my arms stopped working? What if I did so poorly I wasn’t allowed to swim anymore? What if they saw my horrible butterfly stroke and said, “Never let this kid swim butterfly EVER AGAIN.” 

Ongoing research has led to more concrete information regarding the timing of protein intake, the quantity of protein ingested and the best source of protein for hard-working athletes. The existing research is very sound; however, modern tools and methods have made evaluating the ability of skeletal muscle to synthesize protein possible.