Inspirational Advice
Advice | Aphorisms | The Five Expectations
1. Finesse - strive for the best technique possible. Pay attention to how you hold your head, shoulders, and hips in finding your balance and achieving the perfect streamline. Always use a high elbow underwater - in every stroke - as this puts your forearm in a position to push against the water. Do all drills with great focus.
2. Fitness - improve the 3 energy systems - endurance, power, and speed - to improve your "engine". You can keep going in aerobic sets (endurance) when what you really want to do is stop and catch your breath; you can keep pushing strongly against the water and keep kicking strongly (power) during anaerobic sets when your arms feel like they're going to fall off and your legs burn with the effort of fast kicking; you can keep your tempo up (speed) in sprint sets and maintain great form even though you feel you're on the edge of losing your technique. When the coach asks you to do "extra work" by swimming double practices, adding surgical tubing workouts to gain strength, biking or running, look at this as an opportunity to do more than your competitors might be willing to do.
3. Flexibility - stretch out lightly several times a day. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. Always stretch until you're just starting to feel discomfort - DON'T stretch so much that you feel pain. The best time to stretch is after you've warmed up or after you've finished your practice. Consider stretching out on deck for 5 or 10 minutes after practice. Only stretch when your muscles are warm.
4. Fuel - It is so easy to just "snack" instead of eating real meals. Consider eating 4 or 5 small or medium meals every day. We need to eat as much fresh, raw (uncooked) vegetables and fresh raw fruit as possible. Don't go for the convenient "processed" foods like packaged cookies or chips. They may taste good but they have very little nutritional value. Whole grains are very important - whole wheat breads, pasta, oatmeal, brown rice. Eat several helpings of these foods each day. Get into the habit of choosing vegetable protein instead of the "higher fat" animal protein by eating legumes - all kinds of beans (soybean products like tofu and miso, navy beans, pinto beans, etc), nuts, and seeds. When you do eat animal protein, make sure the source is a "lean" cut of that meat, leave off the skin of chicken for instance, choose fish like tuna and salmon, eat small portions of pork, etc. Drink as much pure water as you can throughout the day, breathe slowly and deeply several times a day (before practice, after practice, before sleep, etc). Increase the amount of quality sleep you get each night (you probably need 8 to 10 hours and perhaps even a nap during the day). You need to reduce the stress in your life so that your immune system can be at its best. Avoid caffeine, too much sugar, added salt, etc. Of course, smoking and drinking are both illegal and dangerous as well as counterproductive for athletes. Don't give in to the BAD kind of peer pressure that says alcohol and drugs are "cool".
5. Focus - Set medium and long term goals with very specific and achievable times and maintain a positive attitude about achieving your goals. Be patient with your own progress. Be thankful for the gifts you have (Have an Attitude of Gratitude) whether those gifts are mental, emotional, or physical.
6. Family and Friends - Serve others so that you don't get completely wrapped up in your own "story". Listen to your parents - they know you better than anyone else. Do what they ask in terms of chores around the house so that you begin to build a good "work ethic" from an early age. Choose your friends carefully; those around you can greatly influence your thoughts and actions. Listen carefully to your friends and learn what they value and what their goals are.
7. Trust - Listen to the suggestions of your coaches. They are some of the most influential adults in your life. At some point you may spend more time with your coach than you do with your parents. Learn everything they're trying to teach you. There are many lessons involved in our sport that will prove valuable throughout your life.
Hard training, easy combat; easy training, hard combat.
Marshal Suvorov, famous Russian General
Superficial goals lead to superficial results.
Attila the Hun
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch
excellence.
Vince Lombardi
To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know
of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all
kinds of inner doors.
Al Oerter - 4 times Olympic Gold Medalist in Discus
Part of the beauty and much of the moral seriousness of sport derives from
the severe justice of strenuous play in a circumscribed universe of rules that
protect the integrity of competition. Records are worth recording, and worth
striving to surpass, because they serve as benchmarks of excellence achieved
under the pressure of competition.
George F. Will
it's a dream until you write it down, and then its a
goal.
Anonymous
Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is aimless. Vision
with action will achieve.
Anonymous
You never fail, you simply produce
results. Learn from these.
Anonymous
Failure is the path of least persistence.
Anonymous
I have not failed 10,000 times. I have
successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.
Thomas Edison
When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to
do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in
more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That
doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem.
Emil Zatopek
Training is principally an act of
faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy; he must believe that through
training he will become fitter and stronger; that by constant repetition of the
same movements he will become more skillful and his muscles more relaxed. He
must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it.
Franz Stampfl
There are some who can run the fastest, jump the highest, or lift the
heaviest, but no one has the corner on ambition, desire, and hustle.
Anonymous
Belief is the thermostat that
regulates all success.
Anonymous
The desire to win is born in most of us. The will to win is a matter of
training. The manner of winning is a matter of honor.
Margaret Thatcher
Risk more than others
think is safe ~ Care more than others think is wise ~ Dream more than others
think is practical ~ Expect more than others think is possible.
Unknown
If you love what you do, you won't work a day in your life.
Unknown
Security is mostly a superstition. It is not found in
nature and children of man do not as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is
no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring
adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to
live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with the success unexpected in
common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride
and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the
rewards.
Paul "Bear" Bryant
There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide. You
will need to make a choice. Do you really want it? You will need to decide.
Rolf Arands
Habits are cobwebs at first;
cables at last.
Chinese Proverb
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who
hustle.
Abraham Lincoln
"We may affirm absolutely that
nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion"
G. Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge
which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
Plato, The Republic
That which we achieve too easily,
we esteem too lightly.
Thomas Paine
Everyone has the desire to win, but only champions have the desire to
prepare.
Overheard during the 1997 Boston Marathon
The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win
but to take part, the important thing in life is not the triumph but the
struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
To spread these precepts is to build up a stronger and more valiant and, above
all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.
Pierre De Coubertin
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though
checkered by failure . . . than to rank with those poor spirits who neither
enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not
victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
The heights which great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden
flight, They, whilst their companions slept, Were toiling upwards in the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There's No Easy Way
Allan Wells (1980 Olympic 100m Champion)
One shouldn't be afraid to lose; this is sport. One day you win; another day
you lose. Of course, everyone wants to be the best. This is normal. This is what
sport is about. This is why I love it.
Olympic Gold Medalist Oksana Baiul
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds wake in the day to find out it was vanity: but the
dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open
eyes, to make it possible.
T.H. Lawrence
Everything unpleasant is developmental
"Kaikki vittumainen kehittää" translated from
the Finnish
Progress stops upon satisfaction
"Kehitys loppuu tyytyväisyyteen" translated
from the Finnish
Mind is everything: muscle-pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of
my mind.
Paavo Nurmi
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Garry Herbert - 1992 Olympic 2+ rowing Finalist
If you race merely for the tributes from others, you will be at the mercy of
their expectations.
Scott Tinley
It is a sublime thing to suffer and be stronger.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It aint the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the
dog.
Author unknown
The view from the summit is worth the effort
unknown
We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and
cannot help ourselves. The more restricted our society and work become, the more
necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one
can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The
human spirit is indomitable.
Sir Roger Bannister
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his
goal, nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.
Thomas Jefferson
If a man does his best, what else is there?
George S. Patton
DO or DO NOT. There is no 'Try'.
Yoda
The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of
training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the
training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the
important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.
Herb Elliot
At the peak of tremendous and victorious effort, while the blood is pounding
in your head, all suddenly comes quiet within you. Everything seems clearer and
whiter than ever before, as if great spotlights had been turned on. At that
moment, you have the conviction that you contain all the power in the world,
that you are capable of everything, that you have wings. There is no more
precise moment in life than this, the WHITE MOMENT, and you will work hard for
years, just to taste it again.
Yuri Vlason
Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our
eyes off our goals.
Henry Ford
Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself.
William Faulkner
Life does not require us to be the biggest or the best, it asks only that we
try.
Author unknown
Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal.
Mike Ditka
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein
It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the
hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain
pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest men. When you
see 20 or 30 men line up for a distance race in some meet, don't pity them,
don't feel sorry for them. Better envy them instead.
Brutus Hamilton
A certain amount of opposition can be of great help to a man - Kites rise
against, not with the wind.
John Neal
Good judgment is the result of experience and experience is the result of bad
judgment.
Unknown
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts.
Sir George Picketing, often quoted by Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein
Significant problems you face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking
we were at when we created them.
Albert Einstein
Man cannot discover new oceans until he has the courage to lose the sight of
land.
Unknown
Man is not cut out for defeat. Man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Ernest Hemingway
We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, NOT
because they are easy but because they are HARD.
John F. Kennedy
Even the strongest have their moments of fatigue.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus I urge you to go on to your greatness if you believe it is in you. Think
deeply and separate what you wish from what you are prepared to do.
Percy Wells Cerutty
Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
The Dali Lama
There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested
in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're
committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
Art Turock
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to
excellence.
Vince Lombardi
Practice + Effortless Intention = Coherence of Function and Entrainment of Interactions
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach
a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be
able to climb higher tomorrow.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Use the talents you possess -- for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.
They can because they think they can.
Virgil
Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
William Feather
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy
The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
Epicurus
The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.
Thomas Kempis
Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
David Dunham
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Goethe
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Henry Ford
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Lao-Tsu
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably
will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work,
remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.
Daniel Burnham
It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
St. Francis of Assisi
Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be
confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.
Nicholai Velimirovic
There are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile.
The greatest revolution in our generation is that of human beings, who by
changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of
their lives.
Marilyn Ferguson
There are two rules for success. . .
1) Never tell everything you know.
Roger H. Lincoln
The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the
present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will,
created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one
we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of
making them, changes both the maker and the destination.
John Schaar, futurist
Courage conquers all things.
Ovid
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
Friedrich Engels
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The
prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will
always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to
methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man
who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries
methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
Emerson (1803-1882)
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of
strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.
Vince Lombardi
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly
because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have
acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but
a habit.
Aristotle
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
Arnold Toynbee
Whatever the struggle continue the climb it may be only one step to the
summit.
Diane Westlake
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
Roger Babson
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Buddha
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in
reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen
themselves by the practice and experience of them.
Socrates (BC 469-399)
Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the
consequences.
Midori Koto
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work.
Thomas Edison
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
Carl Sandburg
Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.
Anthony J. D'Angelo
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
The height of your success is determined by the depth of your belief.
Challenges are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength.
If you do not consciously form good habits, you will unconsciously form bad ones.
"The greatest service you can render someone else is by helping him help
himself. If you see an opportunity in his path, point it out, but let your hand
guide, not push him. Remember the risk is his, and that he who takes it must
make the decision."
Balthazar Gracian
Only those risking to go far will ever know how far they can go.
The road to success is always under construction.
If you can't describe what you're doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein
"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face . . . we must do that which we think we cannot." Eleanor Roosevelt
CONCEIVE - BELIEVE - ACHIEVE
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a
fire."
W.B. Yeats
Don't be afraid to take one large step; you can't cross a chasm in two small leaps.
Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
"The service you do for others is the rent you pay for the time you
spend on earth."
Mohammed Ali
"Even if you're on the right track; you'll get run over if you just sit
there."
Will Rogers
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
Confucius
Let those who would enjoy a good future, waste none of your present.
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through
experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition
inspired, and success achieved."
Helen Keller
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent
perspiration."
Thomas Edison
It's not how hard you fall, it's how high you bounce that matters. If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through Life's challenges.
How important is attitude? Remember this: your ability is what you're capable of doing; your motivation determines what you accomplish; your attitude determines how well you do it. If you want to swim well, you will need a great attitude to do so.
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
Albert Einstein
Everyone is self-made; but only the successful are ever willing to admit it.
"When you're courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you
sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."
Albert Einstein
That which is static and repetitive can become boring. That which is dynamic and random can become confusing. Balance is the key to all things.
Great athletes are people who can do their best at a time when they don't particularly feel like it.
Remember that we come to wisdom through failure. Don't be afraid to "fail". This is often the result when you attempt to achieve that which you have not yet mastered. Yet it is only through this continued attempt in the very face of failure that we will ultimately succeed.
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
Liberty is the right to choose. This is our one fundamental right. Freedom is the result of the right choice.
"Promise yourself - to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace
of mind. To talk health, happiness and prosperity to everyone you meet. To look
at the sunny side of everything. To think of only the best and expect only the
best. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and
too happy to permit the presence of trouble."
Anonymous
"To work for some high goal in the face of long odds; to keep on struggling for it in the face of certain defeat; to believe in it in the face of constant criticism; to keep spirits up in the face of disillusionment; to hold fast to it in the face of peril - this is the essence of an adventurous life. With such a spirit we can accomplish great deeds." Anonymous
Whenever you feel as if a door has closed in your face, quiet your mind and take a few deep breaths. Become more aware of your surroundings. You just might feel the breeze from the window of opportunity that has opened right behind you.
No pressure, no diamonds. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Remember - we all stumble at times, every one of us. That's why it's such a comfort to go hand-in-hand, to be part of a team. We can help each other up and continue on.
The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those which come from within, and one of the strongest of those is the joy that grows from knowing that you've just done something as well as you can possibly do it. This is called intrinsic motivation. The great Brandeis psychologist, Teresa M. Amabile said, "Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity" meaning that at some point you must follow your inner muse, your inner voice, to truly bring forth the sum of your creative powers. Ultimately, swimming, like all sport, is about creating the perfect form, becoming one with the perfect movement needed to go forward through the most dense medium humans ever perform in - water.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt
Persistence
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press
on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge
1. Arrive on time.
2. Bring your water bottle and drink from it often.
3. Pay attention
4. Give your best efforts.
5. Encourage your teammates.
As coaches, we have daily expectations for each swimmer. This is different from the short term goals we share with our swimmers that help define their season or the long term goals that give their career meaning. These daily expectations provide structure for each practice session and clearly show what our team values: punctuality, good health, the ability to focus mentally, a strong positive attitude, and a commitment to help others, especially those who we train with every day.