In Behind the Blocks: Training for Trials’ first blog posts, our athlete contributors voice their thoughts on the grueling holiday training period, staying focused, and gaining some perspective as they head into the next stage of their training. For two of them, the grueling NCAA schedule has already picked back up, and expectations for February and March are high.
At the beginning of a new year, people often become introspective, looking back at the year they just experienced, and looking forward to new goals they hope to achieve. For swimmers who find themselves in the middle of a demanding training season that starts in the fall and lasts through summer, the beginning of the new year is just another part of what can be a monotonous training schedule, broken up by the excitement of championship meets every few months.
Amanda Kendall and Bradley Phillips are beginning to focus on NCAA conference championships, where both will contend for individual conference titles. Women’s SEC Championships begin Feb. 15 at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, where Kendall will compete for LSU. Phillips and the U-Va. men’s team will compete for an ACC title at the Men’s ACC Championships, which begin Feb. 22, in Blacksburg, Va., at Virginia Tech. Both swimmers hope to advance to NCAAs, the fastest meet in the country outside of the US Olympic Trials.
Michael Flach decided to take an Olympic redshirt this year to focus on training for the Olympic Trials and so will not be competing for the University of South Carolina at the SEC or NCAA Championships where he has enjoyed a lot of success in his first two years. This means Flach won’t have these major competitions to measure himself with six months until the Olympic Trials, but he also won’t have to disrupt his training schedule with a mid-season taper like Kendall and Phillips.
Amanda Kendall: LSU / Mason Makos (Fairfax, Va.)
“Having another coach watch my strokes, someone who knows me really well, is always an added bonus to any practice. Plus getting to train more “yardage based” workouts is always a nice change from focusing on sprint workouts most of the time. One of my favorite things about being on a long break is that I literally get to eat, sleep, and swim. There is no worry about missing any school work or going to class…”
[Keep reading Amanda's blog post...]
Michael Flach: South Carolina / FISH (Annandale, Va.)
“As most of you who are familiar with the sport probably know, the day to day life of a swimmer can be exceedingly monotonous and sometimes downright boring. So instead of abrading you with my day to day training and putting you to sleep with my countless sets and workouts, I thought it would be more rewarding if instead I recapped some of the more exciting and meaningful events of my busy swimming week…”
[Keep reading Michael's blog post...]
Bradley Phillips: Virginia / Curl-Burke (Herndon, Va.)
“We have been practicing twice a day with a mix of swimming and weights/dryland sessions. Our head coach, Mark Bernardino, has spoken a lot about the importance of mental toughness during these practices. If we can focus and push ourselves to new heights, our team will be able to reach our goals we set at the beginning of the season. The constant mental and physical intensity of the onslaught of practices can be mind numbing…”
[Keep reading Brad's blog post...]
With six months to go until the start of Trials, the US Olympic Team is far from decided. Even favorites to make the team are hard to determine, outside of the sport’s most elite, which, at the moment, is a club consisting of Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. As one of the most emotionally and physically demanding competitions, the US Olympic Trials every year proves to be cataclysmic for many of the nation’s elite swimmers who may break under the pressure or miss their taper.
The athletes featured each week are all ranked in the top 40 in the country. Amanda and Matt McLean (not featured this week) have the best shot at making the 2012 team, in individual events and as members of a relay, but there is still a lot of training yet to take place. These are very young athletes, who have a lot of years of swimming left. Join us each week as they chronicle their journey to the Olympic Trials, and if they are lucky, beyond.
Tags: 2012 Olympics, Amanda Kendall, Behind the Blocks, Bradley Phillips, Michael Flach, NCAA, Team USA, US Olympic Trials
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