This
month's message is from Jenna Johnson, who brought home the GOLD
in the 1984 Olympics...winning in the 100m butterfly with a time
of 1:00:19. Jenna is one TOUGH competitor. She swam her collegiate
career at Stanford, and coached the University of Tennessee's Lady
Vols swim team...how's that for a Tennessee connection? She swam
with and for the best, and now she's going to share a few secrets
with us that we can use on the Road to Indy!
Hi, Ron!
It
was great catching up with you a few days ago after I had to cancel
on your weekend awards ceremony with your Masters swimmers. I am
so sorry that things did not work out, but please give your Masters
swimmers a "congrats" on the 100x100s they did and a "go-get-em"
in their training for Masters Nationals in Indianapolis! I'll see
you and your swimmers at Masters Nationals in Indianapolis representing
AdvoCare at a booth there, sampling free product and information
from the best nutritional products on the planet!
You
know, Ron, the natatorium at Indy brings back so many fond memories
for me....qualifying for the 1984 Olympic team for one. And we had
several of our NCAA Championships there during my years at Stanford
University from '85-'89. Yikes! I am getting old! The pool has been
around a while, but it is still, I believe, is one of the fastest
pools in the U.S.! I love the feeling of the place. Now, as you
know, I was a sprinter--50 and 100 freestyle, and 100 butterfly
were my best events. I also had a pretty decent 200 free, but didn't
get to swim it as often as I would have liked. I have had the privilege
of knowing and swimming for some of the best coaches in the sport
. . . George Haines, Richard Quick, Guy Miller, Mike Chasson, and
Ed Spencer. I received some golden nuggets from some of my very
first coaches in the sport, when I was just a youngster, which I
still recall. Some of this stuff may sound crazy, but it worked
to make me faster! I'm going to focus on butterfly for now, since
it is on my mind at the moment.
One
of my coaches, Ed Spencer, whom you know very well, was a big believer
in perfect technique at the cost of yardage. For example, I could
not handle more than 150 of butterfly at a time repeatedly (i.e.,
10x150 butterfly on a tight interval with 15-20 seconds rest) and
still keep my technique intact. So his idea was doing less the right
way was more constructive than doing more the wrong way. He had
me do quality sets of butterfly. Rarely did I swim butterfly slowly
or even at a medium pace. I was going for speed and accuracy most
of the time. If I started to break down too soon, I'd throw on a
pair of fins and my stroke would stay pretty, my heart rate would
stay high, and I'd continue to gain strength and speed. And it worked,
as I ended up being the 2nd fastest butterflyer in the world in
1984! Ed was a smart guy.
Here's
another couple of tips for sprint butterfly. Do a TON of dolphin
kick WITHOUT a board, on your back, especially, and on your side.
Sprinters are always very strong kickers. The abdominals will get
a beating, but, for butterfly, you need your core to be the strongest.
Try swimming butterfly underwater COMPLETELY. This will strengthen
your arms like you wouldn't believe. You have to hold your breath,
of course. This would turn into a hypoxic set, no doubt--another
great thing for sprinters. Breathing is a waste of time!
Do
some dolphin kick with and without fins underwater and time yourself
for a 25. Keep your arms over your head in a tight streamlined position
(rather than down by your sides). Pay attention to how your time
gets faster in a 25 sprint dolphin kick underwater as you change
things here and there, such as your streamline position, the angle
of your knees as you kick, your depth, your undulation. And, yes,
do these from a dive off the blocks, even with fins on. (Your fins
have to fit very snugly for this drill.) Do 10 of these at the end
of practice 1 or 2 times per week and know what your best time is.
Challenge yourself to break that time even by one hundredth of a
second. Replace that set on some days with an unlimited number of
25s all out swimming with at least 2-3 minutes of rest in between
to give an absolute ALL OUT effort. Decide on the time you will
break and keep going until you do. My coach would challenge me this
way: He would reserve a good 20-30 minutes at the end of some workouts,
give me the time I had to break, and I would keep doing 25's all
out until I did it. The sooner I did it, the sooner I got out. That
was very motivating! Who wouldn't want to get out early after already
swimming for 2 and 1/2 hours straight??? (Our workouts were usually
3 hours in the water alone.)
When
I was coaching Masters for 5 or 6 years, my swimmers would ALWAYS
rave about practice afterward when we did pure quality swimming
sets. They felt that they had so little opportunity to work on the
little things if we did not set up a competition-type atmosphere
once in a while in the workout. Many of them would realize quickly
that they did not know how to dive without losing their goggles,
or that their reaction time was quite slow. Here are some tips on
speeding up your reaction time. Some people are just born with more
fast twitch muscle fibers and have a head start on you from day
one, but don't let that get you down! You long-distance types can
usually catch them on the finish! Okay, so stand in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder,
with your eyes closed, facing your coach. Have him say, "Swimmers,
take your mark, . ." and then he blows a whistle or shoots
a gun or beeper or whatever and you have to jump up into the air
as high as you can as quickly as you can. Your coach will, of course,
vary the amount of time so that you will be on your toes with anticipation.
This really works. It also strengthens your legs for those starts!
If you are a triathlete, and you don't use the blocks, you could
still use the training for pure strength and concentration!
I
am planning on coming to Hendersonville sometime in late January
or early February if possible to share some exciting products. These
products are formulated from the very best ingredients by the #1
nutrition company in the world. . . AdvoCare . . . for Olympians
and professional athletes. AdvoCare is the fastest-growing nutritional
company in the nation and has over 400 non-paid endorsers, who are
Olympians and professional athletes. If they are good enough for
the Tennessee Titans, they are good enough for me. I can honestly
say from an elite athlete's perspective, these nutritional products
have changed my life. I have more energy than I have in years, and
I finally got my old body back just in time for another pregnancy.
I know these supplements will keep me going strong for the rest
of my life. And I know they will help you to look and feel as young
as I am! When I come, I would LOVE to sample some of these life-changing,
cutting-edge products to your team. I know they will notice a difference
in their strength, stamina, concentration, and recovery.
Jenna Johnson |
