March is a very exciting month in the swimming community. It signifies the conclusion of the short course season with several meets for the athletes to compete in. Of course, when these types of competitions arrive it also creates stressful situations for the athletes, coaches and parents.

Dealing with the stress of championship meets is just another step in the development of an athlete. Too many times we see a swimmer who has prepared very well have disappointing results due to the anxiety created by themselves, or others around them. So what are some things all of us can do to help deal with this stress? Let’s take a look.

Coaches

The coaches will be spending a lot of time over the next couple weeks “fine tuning” the swimmers. We will be re-emphasizing starts, turns, stroke mechanics, race strategies, etc. We will prepare them psychologically for the job at hand, pain management, and performance anxiety. Simply put, we will be preparing the athletes for race day the best we can so the swimmers are as comfortable and confident as possible when we get to the meet.

Swimmers

The hard part is over. The weeks of preparation are behind you. The ups and downs of fatigue, both physically and mentally will be relieved for a while. The struggles of competing in mid-season meets have been dealt with. But these things should not be forgotten. In fact, you should remember it all well and fall back on it regularly. You have paid the price necessary for success. Use it to your advantage. If you start doubting whether or not you will have a successful March, remember all of the hours you have spent training. You have earned the right to swim fast!

The end of the season is also a time to be very careful and conscientious of what you are doing. I would estimate the 75% of all poor performances in championship meets are due to things happening AWAY FROM THE POOL! You must take care of yourself. You need to be getting proper rest. You need to stay off your feet. You need to eat properly and taper your caloric intake with the decrease in training. You need to stay hydrated. And this must start now! If you wait until a few days before the meet, it’s too late.

Finally you need to understand that even though you have paid the price for a good performance, it DOES NOT mean it will happen automatically. You are going to have to get up on those blocks and perform. You need to swim your races in your head 100’s of times. You need to prepare mentally for any obstacle that could arise. What are you going to do if you lose your goggles right before your race? What will you do if your suit rips? What if there is a long delay the heat right before yours? Be prepared for anything and everything.

Parents

Parents are the ultimate support group. The athletes look to their parents for encouragement and support. It’s important that you understand that your child is under a lot of pressure to perform due to the amount of time and effort they have put in since September.  You can help a great deal by making sure you are not placing any additional pressure on your athlete. Help by making sure they are getting the rest they need. Help by monitoring their diet. Remind them how hard they have worked. Your athlete is prepared to swim fast. They’ve improved their fitness, their skills and their race strategy. Make race day as comfortable as possible for them by recognizing their sacrifices and improvement.

While everyone involved would love to have 100% of the swimmers do well in 100% of their events, this of course doesn’t happen. Most of our swims will be good ones. A few won’t be. If your child has a poor performance, this is when you are needed the most. Stay positive. Your swimmer didn’t try to go slow. There is a reason for the poor performance that the coaches and swimmer will try to identify and correct. But your swimmer needs you at this point. You can help their swimming career by being even more supportive during the tough times than you are during the good times.

OCCS is going to have a wonderful March, I am very confident in the work we have done and the development of the swimmers. I’m looking forward to many fast swims and the rewards that come with them.

-- Coach Rob

Nutrition

Throughout the season of training, your swimmers burn a lot of calories and thus have the ability to really just eat whatever they want to replenish their fuel needs without fear of excess weight gain. Over the next month their bodies are in recovery mode and they will not need as much to eat. This means that a decrease of 10-30% of a swimmer’s normal calories is needed. Now, as a general idea, this does not mean to send your child to the shed and starve them… really all this takes is some encouragement of your swimmer (the coaches will emphasize this at practice as well) to not ‘stuff’ themselves at every opportunity to eat they get or even easier for most is to cut out the extras, switch over to water at practices, cut out desserts and extra snacks or soda.

In addition to the lower calories, up until 3 days before your swimmer’s first competition, proteins should be the focus of the caloric intake. Since the kids won’t need as much energy they don’t need as many carbohydrates as they usually have. Also, since the goal is to repair and recover their bodies from the rigorous training over the past months, their bodies need extra protein to help facilitate this recovery and repair of muscle tissues.

You can help your swimmer to perform well on race day by following this guideline for championship nutrition for the next days prior to their big swims:

· First of all, drink more water… on top of what your swimmer is already drinking; add another 32 ounces per day. This will help with the recovery of tissues and clean out toxins from inflammation more quickly.

· Starting now until 3 days prior to first day of competition – have the make up of your caloric intake be 40% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 20% fats

· 3 days prior – focus on eating complex carbohydrates (pasta, bread, potatoes, rice & other starchy foods) – this is known as “carbo-loading”. This change in food type intake will boost your swimmer’s energy leading into the meet and provide a good storage of quality fuel for their races and swim meet needs (warm up/ cool down, etc). So a makeup of caloric intake at this time should be 60% carbohydrates, 20% protein, 20% fats. (remember your training load is reduced – don’t gain wait by over eating)

· Within 24 hours – fuel for day (not just race), try to spread out meals to snacking all day

· Night before every day of the meet – after dinner (before bed) drink a full bottle (16-20 ounces) of Gatorade (or other sports drink) plus another 16-24 ounces of water.

· Breakfast – only about 200-300 calories 1 hour before warm ups, high carbohydrates (not high protein, no eggs or meat) plus 1 full bottle of water (16-24 ounces) a good example would be a toasted bagel with jam and a glass of juice (or Gatorade)

· Meet day meals & throughout meet weekend– think easily digestible foods (no high fiber, no high fat, no processed foods) 70% should be carbohydrates, 15% fat, 15% protein