I was watching the men’s D1 NCAA Championships this year and they had a quick interview with Bob Bowman. He was asked what is similar between Leon Marchand and Michael Phelps. His answer was the way they practice. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect that they are always at least an 8 in practice. Not always a 10, but at least an 8.
What did that mean? What does an 8 practice look like? How can I communicate this to your average swimmer?
I spent quite a bit of time thinking through this over the next couple of weeks and came up with the 30 Second Journal. A tool to help you understand what a good practice looks like and how to track yours without having to spend 20-30 minutes after a practice logging sets and times.
I had a test group try it for 6 weeks and the results were promising. Based on the test group, it was easy, it helped them mentally be more engaged and focused in their practices and they felt like they were able to get more out of their workouts. That’s the goal.
What you need: A notebook of your choosing and either a pen or pencil (or a phone)
Time commitment – 30 seconds per practice
What to do: For each practice, rate your practice attitude, effort, and execution on a 1-10 scale.
Scales: I’ll give you the low, mid and high to help guide you, but it’s up to you to pick your number 1-10
Practice attitude – How ready and present were you for that practice?
1 – Absolutely did not want to be there and was negative throughout practice
5 – I went because I felt I should and was indifferent towards the practice
10 – Woke up ready and excited for practice and was very positive throughout
Practice effort – How much of your maximum mental and physical effort to you put into your practice
swims?
1 – Mailed it in, sat out a few times, and didn’t really ever try
5 – I swam the sets as they were asked of me
10 – I tried to get every ounce of benefit out of every lap, turn, pushoff, drill, ect the whole practice
Practice execution – How well did you focus on the technical things you need to work on?
1 – Nope. I don’t even know what they are really and don’t care
5 – I did on drills but the rest of the time it was just focused on making the intervals
10 – Every single length of the pool I swam I was focused on something technique related that I know I
need to improve on
A couple of tips:
1. Be honest with yourself
2. Be consistent
3. It’s about what you did, not how hard it was or how fast you were
4. You are the only person that gets to see this. Not your coaches, not your parents, not your teammates. This is you rating you