Reply To: Suggestions?
http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/bullets/47GUIDE.pdf
Scroll to the end for a schedule that may be helpful.
But I also want to suggest that what kills the most time is the mental aspect of it. So develop this aspect a bit– a curriculum even? Visualization, relaxation, breathing etc. That eats of a tremendous amount of practice time so you can “hide” a bit. It does have to be practiced A LOT. It takes a lot of practice from me too! I walk them through exercises and I can get rusty if we skip it for a while. Rushall has a .pdf of the mental development somewhere.
Also, great suggestion above to use the deck space to walk around the pool deck a bit. Once my swimmers got used to this, they enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s an odd thing for me to get used to encouraging them to walk around and talk to each other. But, really great for morale boosting. Added bonus, you can also split the group up with walker/recovers and active set doers for more room in lanes. Other added bonus, the traditional distance swimmers will REALLY hate you.
I find it difficult to get four sets of USRTP training in during a 2 hr session. Once we do skill work, strokework focus, and figure out appropiate lanes a half and hour per set cuts it close.
And while I realize you want to keep your job and not everyone believes this type of training works, YOU have to believe in 100%. If you are only doing in afternoons and drills in the morning, you seem to be wasting some opportunities there and sending a mixed message. The one thing I have noticed when I started this is that introducing EN2 sets or even long distances into the mix almost always ends in terrible strokes and sore shoulders. And for the record, I can’t get away from drills either. I try but that’s my fall back when I can’t think of how to focus on increasing DPS.
Also, is it important to track data for your team? I know its big in this forum. But I have the swimmers journal their previous days highs/lows/reps before practice and expect them to know where they are. I only cycle them up to their next best time so I don’t care too much about data. They either swim faster that day or they didn’t. I know, I’ll be shot here for that statement:} But they all have their current set cards and that’s enough data for me. They know when they’ve stopped failing 2times it’s time to increase.
The weights are a bummer. Perhaps remind him that muscle weighs more than fat and that they are just going to have to drag more weight through the water? Or could you talk him into YOGA? PILATES? instead. We do yoga. I know, it’s a dryland. But it’s about balance, breathing, movement, lenthening muscles. It’s more a seperate activity than dryland.
