Mike's Mailbag: Psyched Out by Psych Sheets By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent   Hey Mike!   What a lovely column you write each week! Thank you! I am swimmer who struggles mentally with psych sheets. It probably helps to know who else is swimming the meet and heat sheets are even more important to swim in the correct lane but looking at them gives me butterflies in my stomach. I start to doubt myself and my training and feel all weak inside. Do you have any suggestions on how to face the...

Wednesday Word: “Drag Suit.” By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent Definition: When a swimmer wears a bigger swimsuit to purposefully increase drag during swimming.  What “drag” literally means: “Pull something or someone along forcefully, roughly, or with difficulty.”  What drag means in swimming: Swimming is about decreasing drag. Swimmers want to decrease the amount of friction in the water, making movement easier through the water. The less drag, the faster and more efficiently you will swim. This is also why Shaq may not be an Olympic gold medalist swimmer. He has a lot...

Public Notification: Black Mamba Hyperrush Contains Hidden Drug Ingredients   The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising consumers not to purchase or use Black Mamba Hyperrush, a product promoted for weight loss. This product was identified by FDA during an examination of international mail shipments. Image of Black Mamba Hyperrush FDA laboratory analysis confirmed that Black Mamba Hyperrush contains sibutramine. Sibutramine is a controlled substance that was removed from the market in October 2010 for safety reasons. The product poses a threat to consumers because sibutramine is known to...

Florida Gators Pump-up Video: It’s Our Time   The University of Florida Gators are pumped and ready to attack on this, the first day of the 2015 Men’s NCAA Championships.  Caeleb Dressel, Corey Main, Mitch D’Arrigo and Dan Wallace are a few of the familiar Florida faces in the video we will see gunning for the top prize over the next few days.  Are you ready?   Click Here   to go to Gator Vision and the video.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING PROHIBITED DECK CHANGES BY SWIMMERS TO: LSC General Chairs, LSC Permanent Offices, LSC Officials Chairs – please distribute to all officials in you LSC, USA Swimming Club Contacts, USA Swimming Coach Members FROM: Jay Thomas, Rules & Regulations Committee Chair, Cecil Gordon, Safe Sport Committee Chair, Jim Holcomb, Officials Committee Chair, Kelley Otto, Athletes’ Executive Vice President Dan McAllen, Program Operations Vice President, Robert Broyles, Administration Vice President DATE: March 23, 2015 At the 2014 USA Swimming House of Delegates meeting, the House passed R-9 which changed...

Parental Athletic Dreams Can Become Youth Sports Nightmares By John O’Sullivan, Changingthegameproject, Huffington Post March 11, 2015 American pop culture loves to promote the great achievements of successful young athletes. We celebrate the accomplishments of Little League World Series stars and teenage Olympic champions. We have watched youth sports prodigies such as Tiger Woods and Serena Williams grow from child superstars to top professionals, and think, "Great, my kid can do that, too!" But can they? And what is the best path to pursue elite sport performance, while ensuring sport...

The Importance of Sleep for Elite Athletes By Christopher Winter, Martha Jefferson Hospital & NBA Sleep Doctor, Insight, March 13, 2015 Alongside working as the Medical Director of the Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center, he is known as the National Basketball Association’s ‘sleep doctor’ due to the large number of teams he works with. Currently working with Oklahoma City Thunder, Dr Winter has also worked with Major League Baseball (MLB), including the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Pittsburgh Pirates teams. In this video, Dr....

Wednesday Word: “The Swimmer Nap.”  Definition: When a swimmer suddenly disappears for 1-4 hours and you have no idea where he/she went, and then you go, “Oh, of course, they fell into the infinitely deep black hole otherwise known as ‘The Swimmer Nap.’” What is a Swimmer Nap? Maybe unlike any other athletes on Earth, swimmers seem to be the most tired. They’re constantly exercising, and they wake up earlier than practically any other athlete to do so. It’s easy to walk around and spot swimmers: They’re ...   Read...

2015 CVST Hosted Meets & Practice Schedules   Spring is here and that means CVST will soon be hosting meets at the Club and at Northshore Pool, in St. Petersburg.  It also means that summer is on the way and practice ties will soon be changing.  Below is a list of all CVST Hosted Meets and Practice Schedules. Click Here  to Download your copy.

15 Signs You Are an Awesome Teammate by Olivier Poirier-Leroy.   The bond that you develop with your teammates over the course of your swimming career is difficult to describe. You share a struggle that you cannot adequately explain to those who haven’t experienced the challenge and difficulty of training and competition in the pool.   During your swimming career your teammates will see you at your worst, see you at your best, and have your back. You’ll share an uncountable number of inside jokes, long car rides, and nail-biting...