I WAS RECRUITED TO SWIM FOR COLLEGE!

sorry, too much excitement

Ask Natalie

1. Natalie, how much do you practice?

The number of hours I spend training changes depending on the day of week, time of season and phase in training. I lift weights, do Pilates, run and do other cardio in addition to my swimming. Those hours definitely add up!

I like to tell people whether you like it or not, you’re training 24/7. The choices that you make throughout the day (rest, nutrition, training, etc.) affect your training; therefore you’re training all day long!

2. Natalie, you inspire me! Swim it girl! I regularly do triathlons and love to swim, but have a hard time with my kick. I know my legs are strong yet my kick always lags. It seems I barely kick at all and it is a three beat kick. When I work with the kickboard it seems OK, I just can’t seem to incorporate it when I actually swim. I’m a lifeguard, too, and need those legs! Any tips?

I bet your problem probably lies in your flexibility. If your ankles are inflexible, they are not going to hold any water no matter how hard you kick. There are plenty of stretches to you can do to work on your ankle flexibility. It will take time and patience, but improving your ankle flexibility will greatly help your kick.

3. Natalie, you are amazing. Thank you for taking my question. Can you outline for us body position tips for freestyle (head position, flat shoulders vs. swimming on side, etc.)? Thanks!

Freestyle body position is simple. Imagine you have the perfect posture on land and that’s your position in the water (except you are prone). You want your head in line with your body, looking at the bottom of the pool.

One of the biggest and most common mistakes that I see people make is looking forward while they swim. Look at the bottom of the pool and use the black lines to see where you are in relation to the wall. When you swim freestyle you should rotate your entire body from side to side, from the neck down. The only time your face is not facing the bottom is when you rotate to breathe. 

Keys to Success with National Teamer Haley Anderson

1. Have fun. Don’t take things too seriously. Swimming is too stressful if you do. If you aren’t having fun with it, you won’t be successful. Having fun makes practices a lot easier to get through, especially with open water workouts.

2. Consider all your options. At first I didn’t have an open mind about open water swimming. I was like, “Why would I do that?” Once I thought about it, I decided, “I might as well.” Though there are a lot of differences, in the end it was really just like adding another event.

3. Make the most of each experience. When you go on trips for meets, you can meet a lot of people. In the open-water community, everyone knows each other. One of the big differences between pool and open water is that in open water we all talk about the race afterward. There’s a lot more dialogue among the athletes than when we go to pool events. And with the courses, water temperature, and crowded fields, there is a lot to talk about. So it’s a lot more exciting after each race sitting down with a big group and catching up on it all.

4. Always take care of your body. I am not always the healthiest eater, but as an athlete I have to constantly be aware of taking care of my body as much as I can. This includes knowing that during the season I have to get a lot of sleep, especially if I have hard classes that carry a huge workload. Actually, when you are at your busiest, that’s when it’s most important to pay attention to what your body needs, because the shape you are in can easily unravel.

5. Swimming is awesome, but so is the rest of your life. Keep some balance in your life. Going to college and getting an education is important to me. Being part of a college team has helped me develop skills as a teammate that will help me long after I am done competing. Stay close to the people who you care about, especially your family and friends, because when you see them again, knowing them so well you will be able to see how you have changed. Keeping that balance in your life, and realizing that swimming, school and friendships all work hand-in-hand is important so you don’t lose perspective

swim meet results

seeing the Olympic trials for diving gave me chills. Even though it’s not swimming, just looking at that pool excited me. I’m approaching my senior year and I really want to have my best year of swimming so I’m going to need to start focusing and cutting out the crap I eat.

Oh yeah, the swim meet!

The 200 free is usually my best race but this time I added 2 seconds :/

50 free -0.04 :D hey, still faster!

50 back -0.86 :)  won my heat

200 IM -1.72 :D  won my heat

50 fly -0.19 

100 free +2 :(

50 breast -1.23 :DD won my heat

so I performed well on most of my events!