Planning and Delivery

Coaching Resources:   

Introduction     Planning and Delivery     Best Practices     Evaluation    Limiters and Fixes     Drills      Analysis     Workouts 

Planning

• There are many ways to successfully train a swimmer

• Change and evolve: take this foundation plan and make it your own

• Bring your own experience and beliefs, and use them

• What works for one coach might not work for another

• Research, study, learn, experiment (athletes love variety and so does the body)

• Workout: A typical workout would feature warm-up, kick set, drill set, main set, cool down

• Caution: A very complicated workout plan can result in a coach spending all their time explaining the set instead of observing and correcting the swimmers.

• Keys:

  • Fun (positive, social environment)

  • Effective (they must feel they are accomplishing something)

  • Welcoming (Coach must motivate and host the party)

Periodization

• • Bottom Line: Make sure they have the base of muscular fitness and proper movement patterns before excess load in terms of intensity and volume.

  • Sample Periodization (Geordie's)

    • Fall - Theme: Lots of fun technical work on all strokes that slowly develops strength, fitness and feel.

      • Start with 2-3 drill heavy weeks with lower volume to allow swimmers to ease in and avoid overload, especially the shoulders. Mostly freestyle but some back and breast.

      • Transition into technical work on breast and back while introducing dolphin kick. Lots of one arm drill slowly moving from flutter to dolphin kick (ie one arm fly). Main sets start and feature a mix of all strokes. Lots of work on turns for all strokes. Fall culminates with main sets that feature some 100IM with plenty of options plus a possible fun swim meet with 50 free, 100 free, 100IM, fun relays.

    • January/February - Theme: Wholly focused on freestyle technique with slow build of fitness and strength.

      • Keeping in mind loss of fitness over Christmas. Work through major technical elements of freestyle with main sets starting at 20' and building to 25', with higher intensity intervals starting to appear.

    • March/April/May - Theme: While always thinking about technique the focus is strength and fitness.

      • Drill sections slowly disappear in favour of longer main sets which move from 25' to 2 x 20'. This means it's warm-up, kick, main, cool down by May.

    • June - Theme: Practicing open water skills and fine tuning for endurance swims.

      • The same time split continues but main sets introduce open water simulation and skills. Swims feature some long/hard intervals to simulate open water racing.

    • A note on Race Tapering: If one of your swimmers approaches you to say they have an upcoming event and wants guidance regarding tapering for it here's what I say. Swimming requires a short recovery time compared to biking and especially running so one week of care in the pool is sufficient. The goal of a taper is to fully recover from all the previous training load. It's too late to gain fitness. The goal is to stay sharp with short efforts that simulate your race pace but do not fatigue the body. I recommend one or two short swims that feature a 5' warm-up, 5 x 100m at race pace, cool down. That's it! You're recovering so allow your body to do that but still stay sharp.

Delivery

• Swim Coaching: More technical = more development = more gratifying for coach and athlete 

• Collect Cues

  • There are many ways to communicate a correction, especially metaphorically – learn as many as you can since some will work on some swimmers and not on others

    • Visual Demo: Coach lifts elbow high as swimmer swims

    • Auditory: “Elbow to the sky”

    • Tactile: Fist drill – feel the water on forearm

    • Kinesthetic: Finger tip drag – forces pattern of movement

    • Metaphor: Reach over a barrel

• Number One Tip: Catch them doing something right

  • Build their confidence and self-esteem

  • #1 goal: get them to relax in the water

  • Many athletes dislike swimming due to the level of difficulty involved in doing it well

  • Many swimmers feel awkward and self-conscious, partly due to lack of clothing

  • For every correction there should be 3 times you give them positive feedback

• Correcting Swimmers

  • Never assume a level of understanding on the swimmer’s part – be simple and clear

  • First: Point out something they are doing well

  • Second: Communicate the correction

  • There can be more steps to this but time is short so that’s the minimum

  • If you have a well established relationship with the swimmer it can be correction only as long as it is done in a positive manner.

  • Correcting your advanced swimmers can be tricky. Try to learn if they are looking for correction or are just there for a workout. Ask them if there is something they are working on and, if so, you can help them watch for it.

• Engaging Without Correcting

• The most important thing is that you engage will EVERY swimmer EVERY swim but it doesn't have to be in the form of a correction.

• Ask them questions like: how did that feel, what is the hardest part of that drill, is there anything you're focusing on right now?

• Managing the Practice

  • On deck 5 minutes early

  • Greet and chat

  • Tell swimmers what equipment they will require so they can get it before entering pool

  • Observe warm up – call them in at end

  • All talks, with exception of first couple weeks, should be < 3’

  • Welcome and intro practice: news, recognize an accomplishment, joke, overview of practice

  • Introduce set 

    • Verbal and visual communication

    • Succinct but clear

    • Watch faces of audience for signs of understanding

    • Stand tall and pan your vision to all swimmers

    • Very rarely is a demo required by you – challenge yourself to explain it so well you don’t need one (If you know a swimmer knows the drill you can ask them to demo)

  • Observe set: 

    • First thing to check is that everyone appears to understand the directions. (Their eyes may be on you while you speak but sometimes ears and brain are off)

    • Second observe and correct – goal is perfection of drill