Training of Young Swimmers: Does Intense Swim Training Cause Long Term Damaging Effects? Pt. 3

Aleks Fansler

Summary of 15 Sources

Coyle, D. (2009). The Secret of Talent. American Swimming, 2008, 5.

This article looks at how myelin and other neroulogical pathways are built by technique work and other activities. They look into one of Russia’s most recognized tennis training programs, and find that their little children are not hitting balls, but just practicing the motions. Working on their technique. That process develops myelin, which is like insulation around the nerves, causing the signals to send and receive faster. They also looked at the amounts of myelin in pro athletes, like Tiger Woods, and found that he has extreme amounts of the insulating myelin. As do almost all other professional athletes.

I can use this in my paper because it supports the importance of technique training, but it also supports what I have to say about dryland training and young age group swimmers.

Hogan, P. (1999). Phases of Athlete Development in an Age Group Program [Electronic Version], from http://www.swimmingcoach.org/articles/200006/200006_1.asp

This article is an outline and description of philosophies used by Pat Hogan at the Mecklenburg Aquatics Club. Hogan and I see eye to eye on many thing such as ages that kids in these programs, and how much intense work they should be doing. I don’t agree with some of the stroke and technique training philosophies he has. But Hogan’c comments can back up my opinions about what age kids should start intense training programs. He also states his ideas on what intense training is.

Taylor, S. E. (2006). Health Psychology (6 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

This is the book from my health psychology class. I am using it in the paper to talk about some of the psychological and physical effects that can occur due to overtraining and burnout. Things such as stress lack of sleep, and how these things can cause illness because it suppressed the immune system. Basically this source helps me define the harmful effects of intense training.

Clougherty, K., & Jonathan B. Smith, E. D. (2008). High School Swimming: Beyond the Points on the Scoreboard. ASCA Newsletter, 2008.

This article addresses the bigger picture in swimming, more specifically, high school swimming. Clougherty points out that the 4 year period of competitive swimming has a lot to do with how these kids view the world, each other, and themselves. He talks about the importance of not only seeing these swimmers as numbers on a scoreboard, but individuals that know they all contribute to the team.

I can use this in my paper when talking about the psychology of a training program. Not all kids can swim at high level. When you take over a program you have a large variety of ability levels. Some of these kids may never become a star or even above average swimmer. So it is important that the swimmers understand that it is not all about your result. It is about you as an individual, and what you bring to the team not just athletically, but emotionally, academically, and characteristically.

I still owe you two more Mark…

Journal: How to Get the Writing Done

Aleks Fansler
W233

Murray has presented many different techniques that he has used to write. Out of the ones presented there are a few that I have found that I already do. There are some that I feel would not fit well with my style, and there are some that I would try while writing my research paper.

His technique he calls "write now" I do not feel would help me. In most situations I like to have my thoughts organized, and this strategy has a very unorganized feel to it.

Everythig else that he has presented is a good technique. I like his idea of getting a writing habit a lot. When you find a way to writes efficiantly and comfortably, you should replicate that as often as possible, I really like that idea. Another idea that I liked a lot was the count words, pages, or hours. This technique is a self check that can keep me on task if things are not going so well.

The rest of the material that he talks about I do in either full or in some other way. But I think the most important peice of this article is in the first few paragraphs. Murray says, "Many of my strategies are contradictory, what works with one project will not work with the next. I have to keep trying new ways, retrying old ways, to produce effective writing." This shows the importance of not being stuck in one way of writing, and the importance of trying new styles when you hit a writers block.

Training of Young Swimmers: Does Intense Swim Training Cause Long Term Damaging Effects? Pt. 2

Summary of 10 Sources

Leonard, J. (2008). The Purpose of Athletics in the School Environment. ASCA Newsletter. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, ASCA. 8: 4.

Leonard writes about a discussion that he had with the president of the NCAA. He writes about how athletics correlates into education and how athletics is a must have in the education process. He says that there is no better place for a real world laboratory than the laboratory of athletic competitions. And the goal for universities is to teach real life situations and applications. This can fit into my article as an argument for why training of swimmers, intense or not, is a valuable life long asset.

Goldsmith, W. Recovery Based Training ASCA Online Volume, DOI:

Goldsmith presents an alternative type of training that has been used more and more frequently. You design workouts and training sessions around the recovery time of your athletes. In a large team setting I think that this would be very difficult to do, but for individual training it can be useful. This ties into my topic as a way to train younger swimmers instead of high intense work sessions. It can give a very good workout, but not tax the body of a younger swimmer the way a traditional workout would.

Edson, G. (2009). Dryland Training. FINIS Tenessee Vols Coaches Clinic. Knoxville, Tenessee.

This was a power point presentation that Guy Edson gave at the coache’s clinic. In this presentation he talks of the importance of starting young swimmers in dryland programs, not to build muscles, but to improve the neuro-pathways that help deliver the messages from the muscles to the brain. He points out that it was use to be thought that young pre puberty children should not be doing dryland because they do not build the muscle. Guy states that it may not build muscle, but help develop coordination, and the future building blocks of muscle development.

Training of Young Swimmers: Does Intense Swim Training Cause Long Term Damaging Effects?

Summary of 5 Sources

(2009). Coaches Clinic. Matt Kredich. Knoxville, Tennessee.

• Interviews with the head woman’s swim coach at the University of Tennessee.

Matt gave several lectures that dealt with topics about training swimmers. He coached Christine Magnasun the Olympic silver medallist in the 100 butterfly. Speaking about how he trained her to become the silver medallist gave a view of training swimmers that many do not have. His philosophies are derived around what the individual swimmer needs and has to focus on to become better. This ties into my topic because it is not an approach most coaches take with age group swimmers. Where young children are drilled in the pool, and forced to reach set distances for practices, Matt’s philosophy was not based around yardage, but formed around what was being accomplished, such as changing technique, focusing on certain parts of a race, and the feel that the swimmer experiences. This is a great source because it helps solidify my viewpoints on training age group swimmers. Where it is still important that they build an aerobic base and an anaerobic threshold, it can be done in a technical way, that does not always pound the swimmers.

(2009). Coaches Clinic. JT Trembley. Knoxville, Tennessee.

• Interviews with the head men’s swim coach at the University of Tennessee.

JT gave several lectures at the coaches clinic as well. One of his best talks was about motivation and motivating the team. He talked of the characteristics of motivation and how to motivate a team by motivating the individuals. This is an important topic for my paper because making a fun, motivated, and competitive atmosphere for age group swimmers is important in the development and training for young athletes. If you motivate a swimmer to be the best they can be and have fun doing it you are giving them the desire to continue swimming. Too often coaches can ruin a child’s desire to swim by not motivating them. On the other hand if all the motivation is on swimming fast and winning races, you may also be losing interest from age group swimmers because they are not having fun.

Daniel Gould, P. D., P. D. Russell Medbery, et al. (2001). "Sources of Fun and Motivation In Age Group Swimmers." Journal of Swimming Research 2001(15): 11.

• A research study on the motivation and use of fun with age group swimmers.

This is an article that I found that studied sources of fun and motivation in swimmers. They had swimmers of the club age groups fill out questionnaires to find what makes swimming the best experience for kids. They then uses the questionnaires to draw conclusions about types of coaching and the effects that it has on the swimmers. This is a very important topic for my paper because much of how swimmers view their coaches is dependant on if that child stays in the sport. It also shows the negative effects of coaching that occur. All of this information can be extremely helpful in trying to find ways to motivate and create a positive, fun, and still competitive environment.

Forbes, C. (2008). Training Distance Swimmers: Young Children in Hard Training. American Swimming. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, American Swimming Coaches Association. 2008: 4.

• An Article written on a debate in Australia on the training of young distance swimmers.

This article is very similar to my topic. Forbes focuses on the intense training of young distance swimmers, where as I am looking at all types of swimmers, meaning sprinters, distance swimmers, individual medley swimmers. The article first brings up a debate that was in Australia about the training distance swimmers. The article then goes on to talk about how there is not a damaging effect on young swimmers that are involved with intense training plans. I think it is a very good article, but it leaves out an important topic that I feel is what is the most important. It does not talk about the effect that the coach has on the swimmer. It only looks at the physiological and a few of the psychological factors that are results of the training, not the coaching. I agree with what the article says about training for the most part, but I also feel that a lot has to do with the coach, and how he/she interacts with, teaches, and motivates the athlete.

Leonard, J. and T. S. O. T. ASCA (1997). Level 3: The Physiology School. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, The American Swimming Coaches Association.

• A book on coaching involving the physiology of training athletes.

John Leonard has sections that he wrote about swimming and dryland training, and how it effects the body and what kind of chemical, physical, and psychological changes take place. The book talks about training swimmers to build lactate tolerance, anaerobic thresholds, aerobic capacity, and also nutrition. There are sections in the book that talk about developing training cycles and how those training cycles build swimmers. It is basically anything you would ever want to know about the physiology of swimmers, and how to train them.

Phelps, M. and A. Abrahamson (2008). No Limits. New Your, NY, Free Press.

• Michael Phelps’s autobiography.

Phelps autobiography tells a story of how he became the greatest Olympic athlete of all time. He talks about his relationship with his coach and family that developed from swimming. This is a good source for my paper because is tells a story about Michael Phelps as a young child, then becoming one of the worlds greatest athletes.