Most serious swimmers practice pretty much the same amount every week. Why is it that only a few of these athletes make tremendous gains in their development while a large proportion of other swimmers only improve a small amount? 

The answer doesn't lie in how many practices you go to or how many yards you chock up over the week, the answer lies in what you put into those practices and yards. Specifically, what determines how much you'll get out of practice is the quality of your training. Make the quality of your training high and you'll overcome your weaknesses, strengthen your strengths and move successfully towards your goals. However, if you're unaware of the quality of your training, then you may be working hard, but NOT working smart! As a result, your development as a competitive swimmer will be seriously hampered!

What determines the quality of your training? Understanding and regularly using the concept of “perfect practice.” Perfect practice is the concept of integrating into your daily practices specific situations and skills that target your weaknesses whether they are mental or physical ones. Perfect practice focuses on the situations that you'll run into in races that in the past may have thrown you off track. By directly targeting your mental and/or physical vulnerabilities in training, you will be best preparing yourself to overcome them and turn those weaknesses into strengths.

Let me give you an example. Most frequently, mental mistakes will usually trigger physical problems in your racing. Let's say that whenever I swim the 200 and/or 400 Free, I tend to fall off pace on the third 50 in the 200 and the third 100 in the 400. What causes this slow down is that I start feeling tired as I turn into the third part of these races and then I start thinking about and focusing on my fatigue. I dwell on where in my body I hurt and how much badly I'll feel in the last leg of these events. When I start thinking about and focusing on how tired I am, I get nervous, my stroke shortens and I lose my grip on the water, causing me to slow way down.

Since going fast under pressure is all about staying focused on the feel of my movement, my task throughout the whole race, but especially during that crucial third 50 or 100, is to keep my concentration on the feel of my movement through the water. 

How would this work? Let's say that I'm the kind of swimmer who goes fast whenever I can feel how much water I'm pulling each stroke. Because of that, my job during my race and especially during that third 50 or 100 is to narrow my focus on each stroke to that feel of pulling a lot of water across my hand and down my forearm. When I do this, I will be able to distract myself from the pain and discomfort and maintain a good pace.

Knowing this then, “perfect practice” for me would entail looking for any and all opportunities during practice where I start to struggle with the pain and fatigue of oxygen debt. When I start to hurt and feel tired, I want to imagine myself in the third 50 or 100 of my race and practice focusing more intently on how much water I'm pulling. This would mean that I would practice being aware of the instant my focus goes to thinking about my discomfort and immediately “resetting” my focus on the feel of may movements. That way I can train myself to much more effectively deal with my repetitive problem of getting distracted and falling off the pace during that third 50 or 100!

Perfect practice is all about using your training sessions to “recreate” the problems you've been having in races and practice effectively managing them. It’s focusing on these specific details whether they’re physical or mental that will make your practices higher quality and therefore much more productive in helping you reach your goals!