Workout Week#1--Getting Started

Workout Week #1

It is clear that there are various paths to successful age-group swimming, defined as improved: 1) practice and competition performances; 2) knowledge and enjoyment of the sport; 3) proficiency and efficiency of strokes; 4) knowledge/ability re race strategies; appropriate interactions with adults and teammates.

State age-group champions may train with teams that focus on high intensity, high yardage workouts; teams that focus more on technique and lower intensity, lower yardage workouts; teams that focus on high intensity, short yardage workouts; teams that focus on a mix of the above.

Controversy about training (skills) and conditioning (strength, stamina and heart rate, e.g.) continue unabated among coaches, swimmers and parents.

Consider the directly opposite views found at an ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) World Clinic; I attended two successive talks by coaches from programs that have produced national champions for many decades. Here are quotations from my notes:

Program A—“We work on one stroke per day. We like to keep it simple.”

Program B—“We work on all four strokes every day.”

One night, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, a group of coaches sat around informally sharing ideas and asking questions. Somewhat reluctantly (since there were many highly regarded coaches in the room), I asked:

“If you had to choose between having your swimmers swim a straight 500, or break that up into drills and technique—which would you choose?

A very wise coach of world class swimmers blurted out: “Who says you have to choose between those alternatives? Why can’t you do both?”

That rocked my mind. I decided to think for myself and not let others influence me unless what was being asserted helped my swimmers.

A program is shaped by coaches’ philosophies and experience; facilities; available pool and dry land time; traditions; trends in the sport; as well as talent.

This is true, also, of the practices and approaches found in the workouts below. I like to think that my coaching: a) requires swimmers to solve aquatic puzzles; b) encourages staying in the sport because of variety and fun ways of working hard; c) is eclectic: sometimes low intensity workouts, sometimes high intensity workouts; d) incorporates ideas from a plethora of sources—so long as they make sense!

HOW DO I START?

With 9-12s (my most extensive experience), here’s how I start:

1.      Some kind of hand clap rhythm. Without a word, I just start clapping the rhythm. They always join in, looking at one another, and then they smile.

2.      I teach them how to put on shoes and socks (in the a.m. or anytime).  Place shoes and socks on the floor next to one another. Lift your left foot off the floor and keep it there while you balance on the right; now, reach down, pick up and put on a sock, then shoe on the left foot; now lift your right foot up and keep it there while you reach down, pick up and put on a sock, then shoe on the right foot.

         Why? Well, it helps develop balance and strength and gets the day started as an athlete. Besides, legendary Coach John Wooden used to start the season teaching his UCLA basketball players how to put on their socks to avoid blisters.

        Have someone demonstrate. Pick out someone you are certain can do it successfully.

3.      I ask them to help me create four rules for our group. I write down the first four offered, ask if everyone agrees; over the first week we add to the rules, then publish them in a newsletter and post them on the pool wall.

4.      Since, at the start of the season we meet four times a week for an hour, then increase days and times over a two-week period until we at full schedule (usually Mon.-Sat. for approximately 90  to 105 minutes of pool time; 3 days per week 30-45 minutes of dry land)—we start with:

STREAMLINES

Go to http://www.spma.net/waynestreatch.htm, to see Jeff Rouse, world champion backstroker model the modern streamline. Dr. Marty Hull (Zoomer inventor) assisted in developing this modern streamline position.

Practice the streamline position standing and pone on deck; in the water practice on front, back, and later on the side.

What’s the best streamline?: the one that most quickly gets you to an optimal point for breaking out into full stroke. Thus, a stopwatch will answer your question. Coaches sometimes talk about implosion or stretching from toes to fingertips. The main idea for age-groupers is to fit through the smallest hole or “pipe” possible.

HOW TO PUSH OFF THE SIDE OF THE POOL EVERY TIME

This push-off assists swimmers re FL and BR turns and is non-negotiable.

Place left hand/fingers on the gutter edge, chin on that shoulder looking at the wall; right arm toward other end of the pool; surface of the water at lower lip level. Feet are not on the wall, but knees may be bunched up slightly toward the chest. Too many who coach 8-10 year-olds mistakenly have them start with feet on the wall.

Drop your head back into the water while sharply saluting the hand from the gutter close to and near the bottom of the ear, which snaps your feet up onto the wall. Half the head (goggles on the surface looking straight up) is under water (imagine a watermelon cut in half the long way). We will return to this head position when explaining BR and FL turns.

Push off (snap through the toes) with arms, hands, and legs in the position that Rouse demonstrates in the online picture (we often make copies, place in a plastic sleeve, and have swimmers tap it with an open hand on the way onto the deck at the start of practice).

Now try the other hand. Alternate left and right hands; e.g., right hand push offs on the south end of the pool, left hand on the north end.

The  sequence of drills to build strokes was learned watching: Coach Terry Laughlin (totalimmersion.net) at several weekend clinics, the Olympic Training Center and listening to him at ASCA Clinics; Stanford Coaches Quick and Kenney (for a week on deck at Stanford). I took 50 pages of notes; Bill Boomer over several days; Glenn Mills of Go-Swim who visited our team for two full days; as well as many clinic speakers. 

Total Immersion is the major contributor. Although Total Immersion has granted me permission to explain the drills and how we incorporate them for age-group swimmers, remember these important cautions:

1)      There is no substitute for observing and learning from Coach Laughlin for a weekend. He is an incredible teacher. At the least, I encourage you to purchase TI videotapes at totalimmersion.net.

2)      These are my interpretations of what I learned from observing the coaches mentioned.

3)      This drill sequence is one important component of success we have had with age group swimmers.

4)      Although Total Immersion drills are the bulk of drills used to build strokes, I also refer to many other coaches’ ideas.

5) Recently I spent five minutes with a group of 11-12s while consulting with a large team in a southern state. I taught the group one drill and linked it to full backstroke. Here's what the coach said: "I've been trying to get them in that body position for many weeks."