Author: mywaterworld

I am a masters swimmer based in Hobart, Australia
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Reaction Times and More on Pacing

How important and significant are reaction times?

Today we take a dive into the outcome of the Mens 4 x 50m freestyle relay at the World Aquatics Short Course Championships.

The margin between the 1st and 2nd placings was only 0.04 seconds – tighter margins are feasible, but not by much. Australia won this relay, not because it swam faster in the water, it didn’t, but because team members had better reaction times, by 0.09 seconds in total, than those of the Italians – and that was enough for the win.

Check out our story on the importance of reaction times and pacing in 400s.

FINA SC Champs 2022 Melb – Part 2Download
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Starts, Turns and Pacing

World Aquatics Championships provide a great opportunity to have a look at the difference in skills, and therefore the effectivness of the execution of race plans.

mywaterworld.life has put together this quick analysis of the Women’s 400 and Men’s 1500m freestyle events and the 4 x 100 freestyle relays.

FINA SC Champs 2022 MelbDownload

In none of the events were the diffences in reaction times and skills off the turns significant enough to affect the results in any meaningful ways.

The events featured are all longer events, or relays, but when you get down to the shorter ones (50s and 100s) , and especially as this is short coure racing, hundreths of a second make the diffrence between a podium finish and not even making a final. This equally applies in relays as there are multipel changeovers and corresponding reaction time. It is so important to make evey push-off and turn in training a skill development pririoty. And as for the starts and turns, try some box jumps and burpees.

Pacing for the distance events is critical so have a look at the tables and see how consistent the pacing needs to be – train that pacing.

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Plannning for 2023

2022 is quickly winding down so mywaterworld.life is turning its attention to a big 2023.

2023 will see the usual menu of club, state, regional and national championships and the, twice postponed, 2021 FINA World Masters Championships which are now back on the competition callendar commencing in Japan on 2 August 2023.

mywaterworld.life has just created a new 2023 Championship Preparation Planning page. That page provides masters swimmers with the entry point for planning their 2023 training and racing campaigns.

On that page, mywaterworld.life sets out the simple step (by contacting mywaterworld.life) that you can take to generate a season plan, based on your major and minor racing dates, and from where you wil be able to access to our 2023 resources.

For our Tasmanian friends, here is a snapshot of the initial high level level plan which you can download.

If you decide to print this high level plan, set your printer to print in “Landscape” mode.

TrainingPlan2023Download

Go to our planning page!

To keep up to date you can subscribe from here.

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Championship Preparation Help 2023

With only 7 weeks to go till 2023 the time has come to start serious preparations for the next competitive year.

mywarterworld.life is based in Hobart, Tasmania so our preparations and those of our other Australian swimming friends will slowly shift the focus to the 2023 competitive callendar.

In 2023, Masters Swimming Tasmanian will be hosting the Australian Masters Swimming Championships (18-22 April) in Hobart and, as a run-in, their own championhips will be held on 18 and 19 February, also in Hobart at the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre. The FINA World Championships are now also only 37 weeks away and there is a section on this website devoted to those championships.

In the meantime, and now is the time to start serious preparations for the 2023 competition year. If you would like some assistance in preparing you overall plan then just contact me, Maciej Slugocki, from here.

Let me know any competition dates and I will incorporate them into that overall plan.

TAS Training Plan FINA 2023Download
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Dry Land Training

Something to worry about? Well not now.

mywaterworld.life has now prepared an introductory dry land training program.

Its easy, straightforward and on day 1 will take you less than three minutes to complete. The program has a 15 second rest break between each of the exercises. On day one you will only need to do three – 10 push-ups, 10 squats and a 30 second plank. If needs must, then start with less repetitions. Consistency is your golden key!

Interested in finding out about the full introductory 1st 30 days then its all on the NEW Dry Land Training page. From the menu you can find it under Technical.

As always, check with your medical expert on the suitability of these exercises for you.

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LEN Masters Swimming Championships – Day 1

The LEN Masters Swimming Championships are now in full swing with racing on day 1 completed – the 800m freestyle for both women and men.

So how did they go?  Two LEN Records – one female and one male, a high standard of racing and great times across the genders and most age groups.

And now, turning to the winning times. The table below sets out the winning time in each age group. Times in Bold are the new LEN records.

An impossible task, to report on the results from 26 age categories, so here are the links to the downloadable results for each gender.

Results day 1 – including splits

FINA Point* comparisons

FINA points for age group winning times are a great comparative indicator of the standard of each age group competition at the championships. The benchmark for each age group and gender is the FINA world record for the event as at 31 December of 2021.

The table that follows sets out the FINA points achieved by the winning time in each age group.

The average FINA points for the winners in the age categories were 852 for the men and 784 for women. The FINA points for the LEN Record breakers are displayed in bold.

To get a better understanding of the quality of the results, a comparison to the 2022 Australian championships results may help.  At those championships, conducted at the site of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the average FINA points of the winners, with the events conducted in short-course mode, were 673 compared to 852 LEN for men, and 624, compared to 784 LEN for the women.   As one would expect, the standard at the LEN Championships was significantly higher and the points confirm that conclusion.

So that’s a bit of a look at the LEN Masters Swimming championships, Day 1.

Day 2 events are the men’s and women’s 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly. You can follow the results and the live stream from here.

* To avoid any confusion, mywaterworld.life points out that the downloadable LEN results include world record times (WR).  These are the WR times at the date of the LEN Championships. These may not be the same times used in the FINA points calculation, which, for Long Course events are the WR times at 31 December 2021.

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European Masters Swimming Championships*

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Pool Racing starts Sunday, 28 August.

If you are on the Australian east coast, remember the 8hr time difference. With racing starting in Rome at say 9:00 am, that equates to a 5:00 pm start on the Aus. east coast.

Five thousand competitors – now that is a sizeable meet so plenty of racing, starting with the 800s on Sunday. You can get the full racing schedule from here.

The championships are being conducted in two pools – the Centro Federale UNIPOL BluStadium di Pietralata and the Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto – takes some of us back to the 1960 Rome Olympics as that is the main site of the refurbished complex for these championships.

Racing is being live-streamed from both the competition pools.
Stadio Olympico – live stream and schedule
Stadio di Pietralata – live stream and schedule

Both pages have event and access to heat lists so you can follow your European friends or check out the form of your competitors.

If you spot something interesting that you think mywaterworld.life should share about these championships , please contact us.

*The image used in this post is from a screen capture from the official championship site.

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Stretching – benefits abound

Travelling around Europe poses a unique set of fittness challenges, especcialy if you are a swimmer and need a pool to train in effectively. While there are many ways of staying fit, finding and getting to a suitable pool can be very difficult and time consuming.

And once you find a pool there are the local customs and pool specific rules, “interesting” admission charges and associated time limits.

 Walking double or triple the distances you normally do on a daily basis and then the sitting around at airports, hotels, parks and restaurants, all have their additional impacts on your physical and mental wellbeing.  Not to mention the interesting effects when you have not hydrated sufficiently.

All these “experineces” lead to greater than usual levels of aches and pains, stresses and strains, and muscle, nerve, and joint “tightness”.

The remedy, on top of getting adequate rest, looking after your nutrition and hydration, is to adopt a stretching routine.  Stretching following a workout should be, some would say must be, integral to your state of wellbeing and ability to continue your exercise and training regime.

You could even do some basic stretching in the evening, after making sure you are warmed up. And finally, get that well-earned rest and let the overnight regeneration work its magic.

If you want to know more about the benefits of stretching here is a good article to read.  Benefits of Stretching after Workouts – Diversified Integrated Sports Clinic (disc-me.com)

Needless to say, to maintain performance the older you get, a regular stretching and flexibility routine is imperrative.

To put into practice your commitment to start stretching, you could try these from the Mayo Clinic guide.  Slide show: A guide to basic stretches – Mayo Clinic. Go on, just make it a habit.

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Travelling Smart

The vaccination rate for Australia’s population aged 16 and over has now reached over 80% fully vaccinated (two shots). On a whole of population basis, the rate has reached 75.3% (1 shot) and 68.2% fully vaccinated. Vaccination rates of increase in Australia not yet flattening out so the rates will improve even further.

As a comparison, the whole of population vaccination rates for Japan are 78.5% and 74.7%, while for France the rates are 76.1% and 68.5% respectively. Australia’s rates are now rapidly growing and scaling the world rankings.

With travel restrictions starting to ease, mywaterworld.life now includes links to Australian and USA Travel Advisory information on its Guide and Tips for Japan  page.

In recent days, new sections have been addet cover the Japan Rail Pass and IC Smart Cards.

As usual, if you find the mywaterworld.life news and information helpful, please subscribe and share.