WHEN THE SEASON GETS HARD

Late season practice. The kind where nothing goes quite right.

The energy was flat. The team was off. Athletes were drifting and mentally checked out. You could feel it on the deck before anyone even got in the water.

I've been there. Recently, actually.

I came across something Bob Bowman said not long ago. For those who don't know the name — he's the coach who guided Michael Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals. The man knows what he's talking about.

He said, "your vision must be engaging."

Simple sentence. But that day, it hits when standing on a pool deck watching a group of talented athletes slowly disconnect from the season they'd been building since September.

Here's the thing about late season. It has a way of sorting people.

Some athletes have already hit the goals they set back in the fall. They got the time drop, made the cut, earned the spot. And now they're not quite sure what they're swimming toward anymore. The finish line moved and nobody told them.

Others are looking up at a goal that feels impossible from where they're standing right now. The gap between where they are and where they wanted to be looks too wide to close in the time that's left. So they start to disengage before the season even ends.

Both of those athletes are struggling with the same thing. Not fitness. Not technique. Vision.

At a recent practice our head coach did something I won't forget.

He brought everyone together. He owned the disorganization on our end — straight up acknowledged that the coaching staff hadn't been as sharp as they needed to be. No deflecting. No excuses.

And then he turned it around.

He asked the athletes to stay engaged. To stay in their lane. To not let the chaos of a hard week become a reason to mentally leave a season they'd worked too hard to walk away from early.

It was honest in both directions. That's rare. And you could feel the energy shift in the room.

That moment is the Hybrid Phase in a nutshell.

In land based training terms the Hybrid Phase is where we pull back volume, hold our loads, and let the body consolidate everything it spent months building. But the same principle applies to the mental side of the season. You're not trying to build anything new right now. You're consolidating. You're reminding yourself why you started and what you're actually swimming toward.

At APX MVMT we follow the GAIN methodology developed by Vern Gambetta and Gambetta Sports Training Systems for the physical side of this. The guidance is straightforward — touch everything, overdo nothing. Keep your core work. Keep your explosive movements. Pull back the volume but not the weight and not the intention.

The mental side follows the same logic. Don't abandon the vision just because the season got messy. Pull back the noise. Keep the intention.

If you're a coach reading this — your athletes need you to be honest with them right now. About what's working, what isn't, and what's still possible. A clear and engaging vision from the coaching staff gives athletes something to swim toward even when the water feels hard.

If you're an athlete reading this — the goal you set in September hasn't expired. It may need to be adjusted. It may look a little different than you planned. But the season isn't over and you're not done yet.

Your vision must be engaging. Make sure you still have one.

APX MVMT draws on the GAIN methodology developed by Vern Gambetta and Gambetta Athletic Improvement Netwrok.

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