Nutritional Health & Fitness Tips for Swimming at Peak Performance Potential:

(Click on the following links to read the articles or watch the videos)

​​​​​Failure on the field is often chalked up to a lack of mental toughness.

Dr. J of Mind Right Sports Psychology is back on the blog to help parents build up their child's mental toughness (on and off the field).

"Mental toughness is a constellation of trainable skills. These skills provide the ability to stay in control of the mental processes that drive high performance. This includes things like managing anxiety and emotion, minimizing distractions, and staying focused on the task at hand. Being mentally tough is about taking the next step, the next rep, and quieting the self-talk, which is trying to convince the athlete it’s okay to quit."

Learn the 4 C's of mental toughness! Article by: Dr. J, Mental Performance Coach; May 18th, 2023

 

  • ​This book, "Swimming Anatomy" has great information for preventing and treating swimming injuries. I recommend all swimmers take a look at this book. It is available on Amazon Kindle App and in Apple iBook Store. - Coach Marcel

  • See how to achieve stronger starts, more explosive turns, and faster times! Swimming Anatomy will show you how to improve your performance by increasing muscle strength and optimizing the efficiency of every stroke. Swimming Anatomy includes 74 of the most effective swimming exercises, each with step-by-step descriptions and full-color anatomical illustrations highlighting the primary muscles in action. Swimming Anatomy goes beyond exercises by placing you on the starting block, in the water, and into the throes of competition. Illustrations of the active muscles for starts, turns, and the four competitive strokes (freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke) show you how each exercise is fundamentally linked to swimming performance. You’ll also learn how exercises can be modified to target specific areas, improve your form in the water, and minimize common swimming injuries. Best of all, you’ll learn how to put it all together to develop a training program based on your individual needs and goals. Whether you are training for a 50-meter freestyle race or the open-water stage of a triathlon, Swimming Anatomy will ensure you enter the water prepared to achieve every performance goal.

  • "The Swimming Triangle": A Holistic Approach to Competitive Swimming is a unique, innovative, and essential guide to achieving superior mental, technical, and physical fitness in one of the world’s greatest sports. Whether you’re a coach or a swimmer, former Olympic coach Nick Baker’s wholly integrated approach can help you maximize your true potential. In this book Coach Baker offers proven, results- oriented methods for gaining—and keeping—a competitive edge, including: • 75 winning mental concepts to use in training and competition • 75 elite-level technical concepts • A complete breakdown of all starts, strokes, turns, and finishes • More than 100 stroke errors to avoid • 100 progressive stroke drills • 30 sample practices for novice-, junior-, and senior-level swimmers • Intensive dry-land training circuits • More than 100 strength and flexibility exercises

  • "The Ultimate Guide To Weight Training For Swimming": This book covers many aspects of strength and conditioning for swimmers including sport specific programs for pre-season, in-season, and off-season training designed to increase speed, eliminate fatigue, and prevent injuries. The author's goal is to maximize the athlete's potential in the water. I highly recommend athletes ages 13 & up to read and learn from this book to use in their strength, speed, and agility training as they progress through their development as young adult swimmers. - Coach Marcel

 

  • "Eat Right, Swim Faster: Nutrition for Maximum Performance" 

  • Eat Right, Swim Faster is the ultimate nutrition resource for competitive swimmers of all ages. It is a smartly written book of highly practical and very accessible information for swimmers interested in what food can do for them in their pursuit of maximum performance in the water.

    Rather than insisting that readers wade through a tangle of highly technical terminology, Eat Right, Swim Faster provides an abundance of sound, practical advice, in a straightforward, non-academic tone.

    Eat Right, Swim Faster draws on the very latest sports nutrition research as well as the very personal experience of the author-a registered dietitian, sports nutritionist, swim coach, athlete, and mother of three competitive swimmers. Readers can therefore be confident they're receiving the smartest, most up-to-date information on the foods and drinks that will serve them-and their swimming performance-best.

 

​Instructional Videos:

Olympian Chloe Sutton:

The Race Club:

Skills N' Talents:

Dryland Injury Prevention Exercises:

YMCA PreCore Exercise Equipment: