Mind Over Matter

Jack Roach is a very knowlegeable coach who has a wonderful reputation behind him. However, when he approached me Thursday afternoon and told me of the kick set he had thought up for me and my roommate, Will Copeland, I asked myself…”Ummmm is this dude serious?”

Here’s the set…you kick an 800 a 600 a 400 a 200 and a 100. The kicks are on a base of 1:15 per 100. What this means is you need to finish the 800 kick within 10 minutes, the 600 under 7:30, the 400 under five minutes, the 200 under 2:30 and the 100 needs to be within 15 seconds of your best 100 freestyle time. This is all in a 25 yard pool.

I am a good kicker but even this seemed a bit daunting of a task. Between each of the kicks you get a break of five to seven minutes to kick easy, swim around, rest on the wall…whatever you desire.

So it began…I was approaching the 300 of the 800. I looked to my left and glanced at the clock. The clock read 3:40. This was not looking good. I was only five seconds under the time allotted and I was only at the 300. Jack was standing right above my lane, I looked at him. He peered down at me with an encouraging face. I wanted to shake my head and say no *&%*! way can I make this…. I kept pounding my legs. I got to the 400 and my legs were seriously screaming. To me, hard kick sets are the most painful thing you can do to me. I love them because they make me better and they will make the difference for me in the long run…that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt though:) At about the 450 I remember distinctly recalling the Navy SEAL instructors telling me, “It’s all mind over matter.” They explained how your body can do it so long as your mind decides it wants to. At that very instant I put my head in the water, yelled, cursed myself, told myself I was a *#@%$ and told myself I had to make it…I had to make all of them. I asked myself how bad do I want it??? I asked myself what the point of even coming out to San Diego was if I just gave up and didn’t do what I needed to do??? I fought through the pain and ended up making all the intervals. On the last 100 I went 55.8 which is within 15 seconds of my best 100!

“MIND OVER MATTER”