Browsing Category 2012 Olympics

All 2012 Olympic Games and Trials.

Contador loses his Tour de France title

Posted on February 6, 2012 by swimmerjoe

The Associated Press reports that Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat.

The three-man CAS panel upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency, which challenged a Spanish cycling tribunal’s decision last year to exonerate Contador.

“The presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement,” CAS said in its ruling in Lausanne, Switzerland.

CAS backdated Contador’s ban and he is eligible to return to competition on Aug. 6. That ban means Contador will miss the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the London Olympics, but he would be eligible to ride in the Spanish Vuelta, which begins Aug. 18.

Contador becomes only the second Tour de France champion to be disqualified and stripped of victory for doping. The first was Floyd Landis, the American who lost his 2006 title after testing positive for testosterone.

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Try Florida Swim Network

Posted on February 5, 2012 by swimmerjoe

The link is here: http://FloridaSwimNetwork.com

They have live streaming for swimming, on demand replays, shows, specials, a great 2012 Olympic Hopefuls section, on and on! Give them a try!

CyclingFans.com

Posted on February 5, 2012 by swimmerjoe

Are you a cycling fan? This is another great site for live streaming. I watch this all the time. Check it out!

Site address: http://cyclingfans.com/

TriathlonLIVE.tv

Posted on February 5, 2012 by swimmerjoe

This is another great live streaming site for triathlons. Great filming a great stuff (that’s a Livestreaming term…ha)

here is the link for these guys! http://triathlonLIVE.tv

Ryan Lochte – Finally, “All-In”

Posted on July 28, 2011 by swimmerjoe

So maybe you’ve seen the dismantling. I have and I’ve heard about it too!

Being tired of losing will do that. Tired of second or third. Sick of it. Living with his talent wasn’t enough. Living with his incredible skills and gift in the water wasn’t enough. So he had to fix something. He was over it. A competitor that met the roadblock and kicked it aside to fix his issues.

What were they?

1. Eating! Being an avid fast food and especially McDonald’s abuser wasn’t doing the deal. The hamburglar yes, together with swimming, NO! He wasn’t getting the power and energy needed to control the world and own any event he trained for. Now he does—All-In!

From an article by Jason Devaney (Universal Sports) “Riddled with knee and groin injuries this year, Lochte decided to change up his habits. Gone are the days of constant McDonald’s runs; he’s eating better now. The Floridian also hits the weight room more and said he feels as strong as ever.”

2. More than weights! Yes, yes, working hard in the weight room with all the other swimmers is one thing, and even working harder than them is great, but doing more than the general population with innovative techniques and strength building is way over the top. What else does that type of training help? It strengthens the mind, the mental depth to succeed beyond the regular SwimmerJoe. I am a huge believer in this. Everybody I’ve coached with knows what I am talking about. Check this about Ryan Lochte–what a change, what a stud—All-In!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxQ6e1Quw_o&w=560&h=349]

3. Sharpened focus! Ryan was tired of getting second and third. I don’t blame him, I can’t stand it either. Tired of working hard but not having the “total package” to get the job done. So he focused on ALL the elements his body and mind needed to get the job done of being the world’s number 1 swimmer. AND it worked, plain and simple.

Good for Ryan. It’s great to see him put everything together. Swimmers, triathletes and weekend athletes like myself: Words to you! Go “All-In” for a training season, in the pool, at the food table, and in the weightroom. Secondly, train with an uninterrupted razor focused mission, move all energy, mentally and physically to your goal.

So what happened? Check it out the result of Lochte’s training-it happened twice this week at World Championships!

http://www.floridaswimnetwork.com/#1

http://www.floridaswimnetwork.com/#3

Next time, I will see you at your best!

By the way, free World Swimmng Coverage http://MyPremium.tv go to right column, click British Europort

Lessons Learned – Ryan Lochte / Josh Davis

Posted on April 4, 2011 by swimmerjoe

When I showed up this past Sunday for the Mutual of Omaha‘s Breakout Swim Clinic with Josh Davis and Ryan Lochte, I really didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think the kids did either.

I’ve seen many clinics, been a camp director, coached for years, and I was very impressed with the boys. Josh Davis was excellent speaker and tactician, who really engaged the young swimmers with his special ways of teaching. Ryan Lochte was a rocket ship who talked about certain things that kept him going, including his main point, “having fun,” which I agree!

Lessons Learned
150 young athletes listened to Coach Lochte and Coach Davis, swam for 3 hours, and ate mounds of pizza. What did they learn? They learned from incredible Olympic athletes and saw the way the big dogs do it. They saw starts (the launching pad!) and how to win it, streamlining, all four strokes and the drills that can make them great. The swimmers will keep this past weekend in their head forever. (Hey, I remember my first clinic….backstroker John Naber. It must have been 1978!)

Sometimes learning from the great athletes themselves comes across better than from their coaches. Haha!

What an experience for everyone involved! Hopefully some of the young swimmers will be in Josh Davis’s and Ryan Lochte’s position one day. I can’t wait to find out!

Here is the video.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uneZiCElz4A&w=640&h=390]

Learning From the Best

Posted on February 28, 2011 by swimmerjoe

Class Was In Session!

After two very long weekends at two fast championship meets, I have continued to learn as a coach and hopefully the young athletes did. I especially hope they were paying attention in the meet this past weekend with the likes of Ryan Lochte, Shaun Fraser, distance king Peter Vanderkaay, Omar Pinzon and many others in the pool. The ease at which these world-class swimmers looked and the distance per stroke they were getting looked incredible. Maybe I have been looking at the younger studs for too many years! However, these Olympians have honed their technique and turns over many, many years (literally practicing hundreds of thousands of turns, strokes, etc.) and the younger kids hopefully were paying attention.

Turns

This was probably the largest difference I witnessed this past weekend at the Senior Champs. The turns were extremely fast in and out and the speed and angle the elite swimmers came off the wall was much different from the less experienced athletes. Even the 16 year olds, who you would think would be proficient; however, the more horizontal the streamline, the less drag!

Another huge tip the younger kids could have picked up on was how the first 3 strokes off every wall were the elite swimmers’ best, being fast and efficient. Many times going into the turn the swimmers were even with the competition and coming off they were still even…until the first three strokes. (No breath by the way!) All of the sudden the four men mentioned above had a half a body length!

This just proves it’s paying attention to the details that make you faster and more efficient! Plain and simple.

I always tell my kids, “You are going as fast as you are ever going to go off of the start and turns.” My swimmers can recite this back to me whenever I ask them to… they just don’t always do it! Why would they “breath out” or not power up to keep that speed as long as they can? I guess it’s rocket science! haha

Strokes

Swimmers, this is easy. Listen to your coaches and do what they say! Do it when you are fresh, do it when you are tired…and hold the stroke, period! The minute you get lazy or lack in concentration, the “bad stroke gremlins” come in and try to dismantle your stroke! I’ve seen it for years. Balance your stroke, geez! How? Ask your coach. Work on high elbows in freestyle and distance per stroke…you’ll thank your coach later.

Starts

Before you even take a stroke you come up a half body length behind, don’t you? Streamlining is crucial to a great start, especially in the sprints. Work your leg strength and quickness. Plyometrics, angle entry and streamline! Come up in first place, not last!

For some great videos on all of swimming, go to http://GoSwim.tv and check them out!

Superman Pose

I actually saw Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay do the “Superman pose” behind the blocks before every event. What do you know? I guess it does work! Attitude is everything. If you think you are an “awesome stud” and you know you’ve put the work in, the rest is easy.

Try concentrating on the details this week!