Coaching Swimmers to ‘think not sink’ using process focused coaching Dr Julie Johnston

Outcomes of the Session Consider what we want to develop in our athletes Develop an understanding of how best to motivate athletes Consider what that means for the sorts of goals we set for athletes and the way in which we feedback to them Understand how to create a more supportive environment to foster psychosocial development

Task In pairs, ask them to discuss what they want to develop in their young athletes Get them to feedback..

What are the important athlete outcomes? Physical development Speed Power Strength Endurance Technical development Breathing Turns Streamlining Kick Pull Tactical development Pacing Even splits Back end speed Stroke rates Psychological development Motivation Self-sufficient Personal responsibility Reflective

Motivation: What is it? The drive to succeed at a particular goal What energies us to do something The ‘why’ question

What do we know about motivation? Environment Boundaries and expectations Feedback and structure sessions Foster relationships Goals that they set Environment which you as the coach create through the ways in which you create boundaries and expectations, foster relationships and feedback and structure sessions Each individual swimmer operates within that environment and the way you structure that environment will influence their beliefs about success and failure These beliefs then influence the types of goals that they set Beliefs about success Individual

Individual Beliefs about success Ability Entity Beliefs Incremental Beliefs Stable Natural Talent Mastery Hard Work

Individual Goals Incremental beliefs: Entity Beliefs: Task – self-improvement, mastery of skills, hard work Entity Beliefs: Ego – winning, superiority, especially with low effort

These orientations do not exist entirely Individual Goals These orientations do not exist entirely on their own Task High Low Ego High Low

Maintain Self-esteem / Ego Orientation - Beliefs Ego – Involved Response to Perceptions of Failure Maintain Self-esteem / Ego Denial (actual) Ignore outcome Wasn’t my fault Someone/thing else to blame Avoidance (perceived) Avoid failure situations Minimum effort Impossible tasks

Types of Goals Outcome Performance Process Winning and losing Goals in relation to self Process ‘How to’ goals But there are also different types of goals and the types of goals we set is the most important aspect of goal setting. Which goals are the most important do we think?? Why?? Controllability issues.

Types of Goal Outcome Performance Process

Setting SMART Goals Specific Measurable Adjustable Realistic Time phased

Task In small groups – take some time to think about your swimmers as a whole or about one or 2 specific swimmers – what process goals could you set for them?

Process Focused Goals Speed around the wall Distance underwater off wall Underwater fly kick on front Underwater fly kick on back Last stroke into the wall Catching the water underwater Fast kick Hips high Breathing pattern Fast off the blocks Good breakout Speed to 15m Backend speed

How can we work on these in training? Pick one of the processes Think about a common main set that you would do For example: Work on underwater kick in a set of 10 x 100 3 mins In a minute I want you to think about which of the processes you’ve picked is most important for you to develop right now. But let’s say it’s underwater kick - a common technical element that most swimmers need to improve – and a common set of 10 x 100 Ask them who gets in the water, the coach has asked them to go 5 kicks off every wall and they maybe do it for the first 10 minutes of the session or for the warm up but then they forget about it or think ‘it’s too hard’ so don’t do it? If they’re brave there should be a fair few admitting to that and that’s because it’s hard to do something like that for a whole 2 hr session when they’ve never done it before. So, if we want to improve technical elements think about working on those in the main set. The main set is a part of the session in which swimmers will swim as close to race pace as possible, it is when they will fatigue and when they are focused on swimming fast and possibly even racing the person in the lane next to them. This is the best time to practice skills so that they transfer from training to competition more easily. They practice holding good technique at speed and when fatigued.

Building your plan Practice going 5m off the wall for every turn in training Practice going 5m off the wall for every turn in prep set and main set 5 mins So if they want to improve underwater kick on a set of 10 x 100 – set a goal for training of going 5m (or 5 fly kicks) off the wall every time to get to the turn end for all 10 x 100 (you could suggest if that’s too hard to say for every other 100 and then build up to every 100) Then, once you can do that easily, you increase it to all 3 turns in the 100 Then, increase it to every turn in prep set and main set Then prep set, main set and warm up etc until you are able to do it for every turn in training Practice going 5m off the wall for every turn during main set in training Practice going 5m off the wall at turn end only during main set in training

LONG TERM GOALS TIMES GOALS FOR EACH RACE GOALS FOR EACH SESSION 5 mins These small things are your goals that you need to set for yourself every session – you need to go to every session with something that you want to work on to improve – it doesn’t have to be the same thing each session and is probably best if it’s not. Use the processes you have pulled out today to set some goals for the sessions you will do in your home programmes in the next few weeks. Ask then who sometimes gets to a race and stands behind the block and they know what time that they want to do but they don’t know how to make sure they do that time, they just hope that when they look at the clock they see the time they were looking for? Again, if brave, a good few hands should go up. Whilst we think a lot about times in swimming, what controls the time we swim in the way we swim the race and the level to which we execute our technical skills. Therefore, on race day, you need to think about the processes you’ve been working on in training and focus on getting them right in the race. Know that you’ve been working hard to improve them in training so feel confident that you can execute these technical skills well in the race. When behind the blocks – think about the key processes that you know you need to do well to swim fast. Close your eyes and think about them. These processes are what you should be focused on behind the blocks, not the time. The time will come as a result of how well you have executed the processes. After each race, think about the processes/skills/technical aspects that you did well and think about the ones that you could improve – work on those that you could improve in training before your next race and think about getting those right in your next race…setting and achieving lots of little goals like this will keep you moving closer to your long terms goals of getting on teams, getting in finals, and winning medals!! GOALS FOR EACH SESSION

Evaluation Whenever you do something, afterwards, do you think about how you did it? Wait Quiet Positive Improvement Moving Forward Compare So how do we know, really know, if we’ve achieved our goals, well we need to think about our performances after we’ve done them and analyse them a little to figure it out. This is really important if you haven’t achieved your goal to direct your training and efforts and tell you how you might need to do it next time to make sure to take some positives away.

What do we know about motivation? Environment Boundaries and expectations Feedback and structure sessions Develop relationships Goals that they set Environment which you as the coach create through the ways in which you create boundaries and expectations, foster relationships and feedback and structure sessions Each individual swimmer operates within that environment and the way you structure that environment will influence their beliefs about success and failure These beliefs then influence the types of goals that they set Beliefs about success Individual

Environment Boundaries and Expectations formulation of a team/club code of conduct that athletes have to agree to adhere to a team dress code for travel and for attendance at competitions compulsory training sessions and/or competitions that athletes must attend a cut-off time for entry to the training session if the athlete is running late, e.g., no admittance once the warm-up is finished. Group training and competition goals related to technical proficiency and standards e.g. 5 m off walls Anything else you can think of? Open question. These might also include - no stopwatches on a Thursday night session

Communicate these frequently Beginning of each season Reminders on club website/social media page Posters around training site Reflect on one or two of them within monthly blogs or newsletters Develop rewards related to them

Environment Feedback Give athletes time to self-reflect e.g. send them off to swim down and get out of their suit before debriefing them Ask them their evaluation of the race before giving them yours Younger athletes will need the pointers given – evaluation sheets could be useful which then link to goal sheets that are refreshed after each meet

Opportunities to Feedback Direct individual and group contact before and after training and competitions - how was that session? How do you feel? Provision of a paper or online log book with provision for athletes to provide feedback Text messages and emails for the older athletes One-on-one coach-athlete meetings should also be scheduled for regular intervals throughout the year but definitely at the beginning of the year

Environment Develop Relationships Providing athletes with opportunity to feedback will help develop the relationship Asking athlete how they are and encouraging them to share information about life outside of swimming is also important Provide athletes with a regular slot where they know how to find you if they need to discuss something important or personal By helping the athlete feel valued and cared for

Athlete Outcomes By coaching in this way you will develop athletes who are: Motivated Self-reflective More likely to take personal responsibility Higher levels of perceived sport competence Better able to communicate and resolve conflict Able to deal with success and failure more effectively

Any questions? julie@jpscience.co.uk Thanks for Listening Any questions? julie@jpscience.co.uk Thank you for listening – please come and ask me any questions you might have