Reply To: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions?
drpaul, I think your question of what to do between sets is good one and an important one.
To me these spaces are opportunities to teach as well as work on race skill like starts turns etc.
Rushall’s resistance to drills is mainly for elite swimmers. I think most of us have kids who can benefit from drills as a way to at least call attention to aspects of the stroke that you want them to work on at race pace.
Also slower swimming works as both a recovery and, again, as a way to try a skill under less stressful conditions before trying to perform it under the stress of their main set.
I agree with Rushall that doing stroke work at slow speeds and doing drills in the traditional way are not going to lead to stroke improvement at the desired speed. But they can set the tone.
I think it is a great time to do a lot of Boomer/Nelms kind of stuff as well. Let them work on qualities like
tone, torque management, breathing etc. that they will need to use instinctually when racing.
And, of course, there’s always my kids favorite…. the social kick! I always feel like I am giving up valuable time when I do that but sometimes it’s exactly what the kids need and is an opportunity to joke around with them a bit yourself.
