Blog 1643: Nutrition

It may seem I am banging on about nutrition alot these days but it is because I cannot stress how important it is to you as a swimmer. If you look at the physical developments of the swimmers in the Prestige squad who are filling in food diaries and taking on board the nutritional tips they are given it is beyond comparison, to those that are following the scare tactics of papers like the Daily Mail or even the latest Government findings. These findings are for normal people, you are not normal people, you are swimmers; the toughest sport you can do and this alone makes you super human, therefore you need a super human diet (Micheal Phelps 6000-10000 calories a day).

To simplify this you need to consider your body as a machine and food and fluid is your fuel. When leaving for a long journey do start with an empty tank? No you fill up first then drive. If you turn up to training on empty you will have no energy to complete the session correctly and therefore you will not develop. If you run a car low on fuel all the time it damages the engine, this is the same with the human body, dehydration causes cramp which can tear muscles, lack of minerals and vitamins cause untold damage to organs and a lack fuel from carbs fats and protein means the body cannot perform or repair itself.

Eat not because you are hungry but because you are a machine that needs fuel.

Blog 1642: Junior Progress

The 2nd round of the Diddy League marked what has been a very successful few weeks for the junior section of the club.

The A team competed at Bramcote, where there were many individual and relays wins on the night. Long Eaton were leading up until the final third of the gala and were just edged out into third in the gala, beaten by Bramcote 215, Worksop 195, Long Eaton A 193, Rykneld 139, Eckington 115, and Matlock 108. Considering the relative age of the swimmers competing for Long Eaton, it was great to see them competing so well against a club with the size and strength of Bramcote and staying with them almost the whole way.

The B team competed strongly at Sutton in Ashfield and gained some valuable racing experience. Overall winners on the night were Ripley, with Long Eaton finishing in 6th place, not far behind 5th placed Ilkeston. Skills were good from both squads, but what is noticeably lacking is our confidence or lack of race counting on backstroke in the final 5m of the turns and finishes. Make sure you know your stroke counts, and, if you are doing backstroke, practice it during the warm up to make sure. Our performances this year have been good, but we just need to make those little tweaks which will convert our 6ths into 5ths, and 4ths into 3rd and so on.. Work on those little things and the bigger rewards will come.

The Swadlincote Novice Gala took place in late April at Repton, where a team of very young and inexperienced swimmers competed against some top junior clubs around the County. There were some great swims and a few wins on the night coming from Bradley Evans, Jack Shaw, and Billy Seth Grimmett. Galas like this are good for developing experience and encouraging swimmers into the competitive side of the sport. It was particularly good to notice that the swimmers in the nine years and under section, and predominantly in the learn to swim/development squads are producing times that rivalled our A team a few years ago, and show what potential there is coming through the system at this club. Its great progress for the club that regardless of the squad swimmers are in, they can still compete well against other clubs. The final results on the night were…
Swadlincote A 205, Long Eaton 151, Coalville 146, Burton 119, Swadlincote B 111


Long Eaton sent over twenty swimmers to the Eckington Open Meet. This was one of two open meets going on this weekend, with the Derventio Excel Meet taking place at Sheffield. In what was a very well scheduled meet, there were many great swims and PB’s. For swimmers to build on from the success of the Rykneld Open Meet, and still better their times, was a great achievement. Our skills, particularly underwater, were the best on display, but there is still much more room for improvement.

At the Derventio Excel Open Meet, further Midland qualifications were added, with Esther Halford achieving Midland times in the 200/400 free, Sian James achieving a 100 free qualification standard, and Josh Beech achieving the 100m free standard. This raises the total to 5 age group Midland qualifiers, which is a massive increase on the one Midland qualifier from the 2012 season. Other swimmers were under a second off their Midland time, and Katie sloan achieved times on the 100 Free/Back within 4% of the National standard.

Blog 1641: Arena League dates

Here are some dates for your diary

Arena League dates

Please keep these dates free as this is the club's major league competition and we run 2 teams. The fastest teams possible are picked and times done at open meets will be looked at first when picking these teams. So keep entering open meets and updating your pb's. Remember this is swimming's version of the F.A. Premier League and it should be considered an honour to represent your club in this, and something every swimmer should wish to do.

Blog 1637: DX Open Meet

A fantastic meet for both Home programme and DX swimmers from Long Eaton S.C. with many National times being picked up and a few very close calls. Sian James, Esther Halford and Joshua Beech all achieved Regional Qualifying Times to take the number of Regional qualifiers from the Home programme to a record number of 20! Katie Sloan added 2 more Regional times and was only 2 seconds off her National times for both 100 Back and Free on the way to taking the Top Girl for the meet.
The club came 3rd Top Club with Andi Manley commenting on how well our younger swimmers did over the weekend. In a meet where international stars such as Liam Tannock (who did the 50 free underwater fly kick 24.00 - see it is quick so keep working at it)  were competing, it was very pleasing to hear the British Sprint coach James Gibson comment on what an amazing start Jo Parker has and with Jo just missing her national time by 0.07 on the 50  free he took time out from his swimmers to talk to her. I still think Jo beat Fran Hassal to 15m on the backstroke although James claimed it was a dead heat.

Blog 1627: Adult Swimprove!

Following expressions of interest, we are looking to make available the opportunity for adults to improve their swimming technique.
The Masters squad now swim at Ilkeston on a Friday evening 7:00-8:00pm, and there will be space available for anyone who wants to come down and receive feedback and development pointers from the coaching staff.
This will take the form of 3 sessions for the bargain price of £10.00, this limit is to comply with the ASA insurance conditions, and will be available until the end of the season (July).
If you are interested, please contact me on treasurer.lesc@hotmail.co.uk.

Helen

Blog 1625: Midland Youth Championships

A fantastic weekend for Long Eaton swimming club with swimmers competing from our home programme and under the banner of DX at the Midland Youth Championships. We had swimmers make 6 finals from the home programme Jo Parker x 2, Adam Freundlich x2, Kate Williamson and Hannah Cox who took Gold in the 50m Breaststroke. Gregory Cox took 2 first places in the Disability events and every swimmer PB'd in at least one individual. These first places ment we finished 10th in the table level with City of Derby (8th)and City of Coventry (9th) in terms of first places. This was our highest ever number of qualifiers as a club and our highest ever finish. Our relay teams did themselves proud with some gutsy swims and lots of times quicker than short course PB's on their individual splits. Having a big team helped us so lets keep up the hard work and expand on our qualifiers next year.

Blog 1624: Rykneld Open Meet

A large squad of swimmers travelled to Sharley Park on Saturday to take part in the Rykneld B Grade Open Meet. The swimmers included a number of younger swimmers who were competing in an Open meet for the first time, and these swimmers all acquitted themselves well, gaining valuable racing experience.

Overall it was another very successful day for Long Eaton SC, with numerous medals gained from top six placings, together with a number of  “speeding tickets”  gained by swimming faster than the permitted cut off times. Particularly pleasing was the fact that many swimmers achieved pb’s, especially at a venue that has a reputation as not being a “fast” pool.

Both Kaye and Bob were very encouraged by the skills shown by the swimmers, especially in terms of the finishes. Swimmers who finished strongly, not breathing in the final 5m clearly gained an advantage over swimmers from other clubs. However, there is still room for improvement in other aspects: speed of turns and carrying speed from the dive phase into the stroke phase being two areas that some swimmers need to address in their training sessions.

We would like to thank team managers Sarah and Debbie for all their hard work and parents for their support.

Bob and Kaye.

Blog 1619: Reminder and gentle hint

Just a reminder of what is needed to become an elite swimmer. Whilst swimming is progressing as a sport it is behind in many ways of training. We at Long Eaton are ahead of the curve in many of the things we do and are always looking at ways to improve. This is why we are focused on technique first, then intensity of training, correct rest and recovery and the last thing we look at is yardage.The major gains in our sport over the past few years have been in technique, nutrition, methods of training and, strength and conditioning.

Nutrition is a major factor on how we perform in training and in races. Recently a swimmer who vary rarely drunk during all day galas and had a history of performing badly in the afternoon and on the second day of competition, took our advice; drank 6 liters over the weekend and PB'd in all their races with no drop in performance. Prestige and some of youth and senior swimmers have been filling food diaries for a while now and whilst most have improved there are some areas that still require attention and I imagine this applies to all swimmers and not just those filling in the food diaries. So here are a few points from the nutrition talk we had.

Red meat; the studies that say red meat is bad for you are generally carried out on obese Americans who class burgers as red meat, eating steak or beef once or twice a week well provide you with much needed Iron and natural fats.
Oily fish like Sardines are vital at least once a week to provide you with Omega 3 essential to aid recovery and help the immune system.
Green veg a source of Iron once again and lots of vitamins and minerals.
If you are not getting these essential vitamins and minerals then use supplements.
Stay hydrated it will prevent tiredness and enable you to train better and improve quicker.
Most of the food diaries are carbohydrate high unfortunately a lot of the this is in the forms of sugar in bread or sauces and not in the more beneficial carbs like rice or humus etc.
A swimmers diet should be balanced of around 50-55% Carbs, 15-30% natural fat, 20-30% protein.
In an ideal world I would say avoid all processed food and cook fresh but I understand that is hard to do, so try and eat as little processed food as possible, make small changes Butter instead of marg, home roasts potatoes in natural oils instead of aunt Bessie fat smothered roasts, bigger portions of veg, larger breakfasts and lunches.
Check your Pee, if its clear you are hydrated if its orange drink more.
the government guideline of 2500 Kcal for a man is someone who does no exercise. A teenage female swimmer will need at least 2800 Kcal to just maintain her health, males of the same age 2500 Kcal.
If you would like a food diary to fill in and let me check drop me an email and I'll send you one.