Here is the video of Claudia Doyle's 100 backstroke at Junior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio on December 11th, 2009.  The Junior Nationals meet is the very top meet for american swimmers age 18 and under.  Some 1,300 competitors from all over the country took part in this world-class meet.  Claudia is in lane 6 (6th from the top), wearing a blue cap with the red and white W print.  She finished prelims in 90th place out of 184 competitors.  Congratulations for a job well done and thanks for letting us share your race with the team!  

Race Analysis:

This complete race analysis is a fun and interesting read for swimmers and parents alike.  You will soon realize that some aspects of Claudia's race are very similar to some of the content of our age group swimmers' practices and the feedback we give them after a race.  Watch the race before you read the analysis and then go back to the video as you read.  You will notice new things every time you watch the video.

The Good stuff:

Claudia's final time of 57.93 is more than 2 seconds faster than her best time at the same point of the season last year.  It is a little more than 1 second off her life time best but a personal best was not a goal for this specific race.  She is currently in the middle of the training part of the season and only took 2 days away from her training to prepare specifically for this race.  It takes several weeks to prepare specifically for a season-ending championship race.  In this case, her goal time was 58 seconds.  She accomplished this goal time and it shows that she is well on her way in her training and preparation.

How did she do it?

1. Her swim technique is outstanding.  Her body position is excellent, so is her head position, hand entry, catch, pull, kick, and body rotation.  Having watched all the heats at the meet, I can attest that she is in the top 10% of all competitors in swim efficiency.  Her start is also very good.  Notice the quick reaction time, outstanding streamline position and high arched back.  (Side note: Her feet do not come out of the water on the start and she needs to work on that.)

2. This great technique did not come overnight but was developed over a long period of time.  Excellence comes from habits and habits are developed by practicing.  There are no short cuts to excellence.  For the past 5 or 6 years, Claudia has had the best attendance in practice.  Her excellent technique comes from years of developing habits during which she has been fully committed to this goal.  I recently heard a great college coach describe commitment as a black and white word.  You cannot be committed when it is convenient.  You cannot be committed on Monday but not so much on Tuesday.  You cannot be committed in January but not so much in July.  Claudia was committed when she was 12 and that work is still paying off today.  Every year, she is committed in the Spring and Summer to use that time to her best advantage.  Claudia is fully committed today and this work will pay off for years to come.  She is even committed in the short off-season when she takes the needed time to rest her body and mind and reload her drive to train and succeed.  Here is an example of her commitment: she has learned to manage her time out of the pool by anticipating school work to guarantee that she will be able to attend practice.  It was not an easy lesson for her to learn but she is doing it much better now than 2 years ago.  It is also important to note that not all practices are alike.  Every practice has a specific goal.  Swimmers train in 7 different training zones, some zones are for speed, some are for endurance training.  Both are needed for success.  If Claudia was to miss even 1 practice per week, she could easily miss 100% of the training in one of her 7 training zone.  This would greatly impact her results. 

3. Her race at Junior Nationals was her first participation in a national event and she handled the pressure really well.  She was not intimidated by the high level of competition.  You can see the swimmers who are intimidated.  They let others go by in warm-up.  They are not focused on themselves.  They pay more attention to others.  They act shy.  They feel and look like they do not belong.  It often leads to poor athletic performance.  There was none of that for Claudia.

4.  We often remind our swimmers that there has never been and never will be a perfect race or perfect preparation.  Swimmers need to learn to handle what we call "unpredictables".  Unpredictables are unexpected events that could derail our performance.  A broken goggle strap right before a race is a perfect example.  Swimmers can anticipate this unpredictable by bringing 2 pairs of goggles behind the block.  In Claudia's case, her unpredictable popped up early when she got to the pool at 7:30 in the morning and realized that she had forgotten her deck pass at home and would not be allowed on deck or in the pool.  Fortunately, her race was scheduled for 12:30PM.  We had planned for an early 2,000 yard warm-up at 7:30 and a second 1,000 yard warm-up at 11:30AM.  Our planned scheduled allowed plenty of room for such unpredicatables.  Her dad rushed home to get her pass and we were warming up by 8:15.  She never got flustered and she quickly put the experience behind her.  This great attitude also came from past experiences and preparation.  She handled it perfectly.

For all of the above, our warmest congratulations go to Claudia!

Now, the stuff that she still needs to work on:

1. Tempo.  Swim tempo is measured by the length of time that it takes to go through a full swim cycle.  In backstroke, we measure tempo by timing a stroke from when the hand enters the water to when it enters on the next stroke cycle.  Her tempo at mid-pool for each length was 1.3 second, 1.4 second, 1.4 second, and 1.5 second.  First, you can see that her tempo is going down during the race.  She is slowing down her arm speed and therefore she is also slowing down her body speed.  What is the ultimate tempo?  Olympic sprinters have been known to maintain a tempo under 1 second for an entire 100 backstroke.  Olympians racing the 200 backstroke swim the entire race at a tempo around 1.4 second.  She needs to keep on working on a high tempo.  A great drill for her is called the spin drill where she would do a length in a slightly sitting position with her her head slightly out of the water and just spin her arms like crazy.  She also needs to work on her fast twitch muscles.  There 3 kinds of muscle fibers: slow twitch, fast twitch and ambivalent.  Everyone has all 3 types of fibers but some swimmers have more fast twitch and make better sprinters.  Other swimmers have more slow twitch muscle fibers and compete better in the 200 and longer events.  All people also have ambivalent muscle fibers that we can train to be more fast twitch or more slow twitch.  There are an infinity of exercises and drills in and out of the water that Claudia can do to convert those fibers to her advantage.  To convert them to fast twitch, she will need to work on extremely short explosive 100% effort.  For example, if she were to perform her dryland exercises long and slow, this would be counter to her goals.  She would be converting ambivalent muscle fibers into slow twitch fibers.  She needs to be flashy and explosive, ALL THE TIME.

2. Walls.  Claudia's turns are by far the weakest aspect of her race.  She is in the top 10% in swim efficiency but her walls and under water efforts are in the bottom 10% (which places her smack down mid-field, 90th out of 184 competitors).  Unfortunately for her, the best short course backstrokers in the world spend only 30 to 35% of a race swimming.  The remaining 65 to 70% of the race is spent preparing for the walls (swimming past the flags), turning, under water streamlining, kicking out, breaking out, start and finish.  Claudia is spending 55% of her race swimming and 45% at the walls and under water.  She needs to stay under water longer and get much faster in that part of her race.  Go back to the video and notice that her tempo slows down past the flags.  On her second and third turn, her tempo slows down from 1.4 second per cycle at mid-pool to 1.7 second past the flags (more than a 20% decrease in speed).  Also notice that she flips slower than the competitors around her.  Look at her feet on the second turn.  They come over the top slower than the other competitors.  She is also the first one out of the water and swimming but the other competitors stay under water and kick right past her.  She needs to work on accelerating toward the wall.  She needs to work on her foot speed as she flips.  She needs to work on her body position as she pushes off the wall and streamlines (by use of underwater video).  She need to work on her push offs (through dryland exercises at all out effort).  Most important, she needs to work on her kickouts, the part of the race between pushing off the wall and breaking through the surface to start swimming.  She has tools to accomplish this goal.  On Monday morning, high school swimmers attach rubber bands around their waists to work specifically on kickouts.  Those exercises need to be explosive.  High school swimmers also attach parachutes around their waist to increase resistance and power.  She needs more powerful, explosive kickouts and has much work to do over the next 2 months.  Go Claudia!  Go Worthington!  Keep up the good work!  Your next goal at a national level: Finals at Junior Nationals!