Underwater Kicking Work/Fun

 This morning we worked on a few skills in a fun way.  I have a few "toys" that we use at practices from time to time - these two I can used in many different ways.  First we have a length of stretch cord that goes across a few lanes with a large carabiner on the end of it.  You can also use a small one - or just tie a knot!  The carabiner is easier for the kids to hook and unhook themselves.

The other "toy" that we used were these orange hockey pucks.  I think I got them for a dollar or two online somewhere.  I have 12 of them and I have certainly gotten lots of use out of them.  You could use heavy cones as well - but those are big and bulky and difficult to store.  These pucks you can be seen easily and they fit nicely in a drawer in the pool office.  -Plus even the youngest swimmer is strong enough to bring them to the surface for me!

I coached two groups today and we did a few things with these together.  First, we put the rope under the flags (5 yards from the wall).  Then I threw the hockey pucks in the water about 6-7 yards from the wall.  You can see the rope and a hockey puck a little to the right in the picture below.

We can do many different things with the rope and hockey pucks.  In one group we did some 25's where the odd ones were Freestyle with a awesome streamline and breakout.  You have to go under the rope!  Once you make it to the hockey pucks, you know that you have gone far enough.  On the even ones we had the really fun ones.  Today we did a 25 choice where you had to dive under the rope and swim underwater the last 5 yards.  I encouraged our more experienced swimmers to do a streamline kick the last 5 yards.  Generally everyone would have to do that - but since we are in the first week of the season I am a little more relaxed with some of our activities.  Here is a picture of the set up and a swimmer going under the rope:

In another group that I had we did some 50's where we did a 25 Freestyle and then a 25 Butterfly.  We generally do them this way (or going 25 Free/25 Breaststroke with Fly Kick).  The distance from the wall the flags is the FAST STREAMLINE KICKING ZONE.  When you are in that zone, you are kicking fast! Below is a video of that.  

The possibilities of drills like these are endless.  You can make a game out of it if you want.  It takes a minute to set things up, but hey, it is something different and it is either fun or challenging for swimmers (or both!).  

Follow me: @t2aquatics

Now Go Warm Down

When I am coaching at swim meets there are always a million things going on.  Kids are racing, others are wanting to talk before their races, and others are wanting to talk after their races are over.  Often times there is a line!  How many times have I instructed "now go warm down" or "now go do a 400 easy"? With all the other swimmers in the pool hanging on the wall it can be difficult for younger swimmers to stay focused on the task at hand.

This year the groups that I am working with will have an "Official Meet Warm Down".  For one of my groups this is the warm down:
3x100 IM Drill continuous
3x50 "get ready" with :10-:15 rest
100 Choice

They jump right in and have a plan to execute.  The 300 should be a great start to the warm down - mixing the strokes and allowing all of the muscles to be involved.  Then they can move to something that will help them prepare for their next event.  They can work on some turns, finishes, breakouts, pacing, timing of race stroke - anything that will help them get ready.  They can finish it off with a 100 of their choice.  There is some structure in there - but also some room for personalization.

This is 550 yards and will be a great distance of warm down for swimmers ages 11-14.  It should take less than 9 minutes.  Swimmers should have time to do this warm down 95% of the time at meets.  Only rarely are their events so close together that they can not.  If so, they can shorten it how they need to.

Follow me: @t2aquatics

How to teach age groupers to work hard in a positive atmosphere?

In a recent discussion with a 9 year old boy I asked about his extremely subpar performance on a fast 25 Freestyle in the middle of practice.  His response:  “I didn’t want to waste all my energy”.  In my head I thought, “Waste? It isn’t wasting.  What is the problem anyway?  Do you have to plow the fields after practice?”.

As the saying goes, there is no fun like swimming fast.  Some think of that feeling, when you know that you have pushed it to your limit, given it all that you have, as the best feeling in the sport.  How can we teach our younger athletes to not only enjoy that feeling but to access it and enjoy accessing it more often?  Hopefully on a daily basis!

The first way is to praise positive actions and habits instead of talent and high performance.  Actions that are hard work.  Talent and times are important, but praising the athlete’s inner drive will result in it coming out more often.  If you have a swimmer who is talented and everyone says “you are so amazing” they will say to themselves “I am amazing and I was born this way.  I am just so amazing….” and go about their day.  If you have a swimmer who is obviously working hard or improving on their work ethic you can say “you are working so hard.  That will really pay off – you will see!”  Or “you are working harder than you were last practice – that’s awesome to see.  If you can keep this up until the next meet you will see it pay off!”

If you have an inexperienced younger group of athletes start small with a single challenge set.  A set where it will be easier to measure their success, determination and fortitude (which I realize can be very subjective).  I love kicking sets for this because you can encourage them verbally the entire way.  If they are swimming you can still encourage them prior to the send off or by waving your arms as you walk around the side of the pool, but with kicking they can always see and hear you.  There is not much technique happening with a 200 or 500 or 1000 Freestyle kick.  It is pretty much you, your kickboard and your “guts”.

By isolating a set you can recognize improved performance.  A kicking example:  For 8&Unders I like the 200 Freestyle kick.  For 9-10’s I like the 500 Freestyle kick.  For 11-12’s I like the 1000 Freestyle kick.  I keep results from year to year and I also have fake “time standards” made up.  The 8&Under time standards are colors (blue/red/yellow/green…) and are set at 15 or 30 second intervals.  Both 9-10 and 11-12’s have fake standards that are B, BB, A, AA, AAA, AAAA, and Top 10.  These are set at 30 second intervals.  The last time we did this I told the group that they needed these things to have a successful 1,000 kick (not a fast one, a successful one):  Toughness, Endurance, Power, Determination, and Guts.  Not one of the things is a good Freestyle kick.  These are things that a kicking test can measure in my opinion. 

For real motivation use intervals less and repeat average more.  Swimmers like to succeed in things.  Of course there is something awesome about making a set like 10x100’s on 1:10 for an age group swimmer.  I think there is a big place for things like that in age group swimming, but not everyone in the group can make that.  Sure they need to strive to get themselves into position to do that – but in the mean time, if you do that each session they will fail and fail and fail and fail at it.  A better strategy would be to do something that everyone in the group can do.  This is a slippery slope however.  If you do 10x100’s on 1:30 you do not want your top swimmers holding 1:20 (when they could be doing the 1:10 set I was talking about).  We need to teach and motivate each swimmer to hold what THEY need to hold.  Each swimmer can be successful this way.  Some swimmers need to hold 1:05.  Others need to hold 1:20.  Everyone can do this and succeed together.  Everyone can push themselves to another level.  This type of set and training will be much easier if you teach them this as a 9&Under.  Once swimmers settle into their ways…it can be difficult to get them to switch directions!

Make your training measurable.  Keeping good records on what swimmers can do will help you motivate them.  One great thing to do is to write on a dry erase board everyone’s set goal.  This could be something that the coach makes up.  It could be your 500 pace.  It could be the second 100 of your 200 Freestyle.  It could be results from the exact set done previously.  You held :45’s last time.  See if you can hold 44’s today by making your pullouts sharper..  Whatever it is put it in writing so that the athlete can see it.  This takes time and effort on the coaches part but the athletes will respond.  When they accomplish the set, they will have worked hard and they will feel good about their accomplishment.  If a swimmer is having a difficult time getting to their goal times it should be easy for the coach to recognize and then you can jump in there and try to help them out.  “Streamline tighter off your first wall.”  “Concentrate on exploding off the walls on this one.”  “Bring back the last 50 with a little better rhythm.” 

“Tell them that they can do it.  You have to raise the bar, get their imaginations going.  You do not have to be manipulative to do it, just tell them to flip a little faster, push off a little harder, be a little tighter.”  -T2 Aquatics Head Coach Paul Yetter

Follow me: @t2aquatics

T2 Hardcore Hopscotch

Just a little dryland at todays practice. HARCORE HOPSCOTCH!

Single foot hops, double foot hops, big jumps, twisting jumps, fast jumps, jumping jacks, squat jumps!  Everyone seemed to get sweaty after this one!

This is easy with sidewalk chalk at an outdoor pool.  You could also do this inside on a gym floor with some painters tape?

Enjoy!

Swimming In A Tech World.

There is so much information out there and so many cool things these days….  Things are seemingly at your fingertips!  (as long as you have a computer or a fancy mobile device!)  I am going to take a look at some websites and Apps that you may or may not have heard of before.

Swimming Websites:

We all know the usual ones - our teams or LSC's website where we get most of our information about the meets that most of our swimmers go to – but what about other websites?

UsaSwimming.org

There are tons of things that you can do on this website.  I will let you know some of my favorite things to do here:

·         Check out Best Times and Rankings:  Click on Times/Times Search.  From here you have three options. 

1.       Individual Times Search:  You can find all of your Individual Times in one spot.  You can search just this season, just last season, or all time!  From here you can see your “powerpoint” score (0-1,000) for each event.

2.       Individual Event Rank:  Choose your name and age then you can find out where you rank in USA Swimming for each event.  You can do that for this season, and last, and the one before that.  This is a great way to find out if you are “moving up” the ladder!

3.       Event Rank:  You can choose a particular event and age range to see who the top swimmers are in the USA!

·         Find Time Standards: For some reason I always find myself looking these up via usaswimming.org!  Click Times/Time Standards

·         IMX Rankings:  What is IMX?  Find out.  Click Times/IMX & Powerpoint.  Awesome Program and Ranking System.

·         Events:  I check out the bigger USA Swimming events that are happening.  There is always a Grand Prix or National meet coming up.  Many of these meets have live video streaming of the event.  If you click “Events” from the main menu you can see what is coming up!

·         Tips:  There are always tips being published on the website.  For swimmers, parents, and coaches.  Click on “Tips & Training” for them!

·         Member Resources:  From this menu you can find lots of information for whoever you are (Swimmer, Parent, Coach, Official)  One thing that I like to do is check out our Virtual Club Ranking by clicking Member Resources then Recognition Programs under “Swim Clubs”.  This is a ranking of clubs for swimmers ages 11-18.  

·         Deck Pass:  You don’t have one?  I am sorry to hear that.  Get one.  It is free.  Click “Sign In” at the top of usaswimming.org.  I normally do this on my phone though!  More about Deck Pass in the App Section.

SwimmingWorldMagazine.com

This is one of the best swimming news websites out there for fans.  There are always new things posted on this site.  Interviews, news items, meet results, and swimming tips.  They have many videos on the website as well.  They have a great segment called “Morning Swim Show” (also a podcast) which T2’s Erika Erndl and Paul Yetter have both been featured on!  Just search their names in the search bar to find them!  There is just a ton of information on this website to keep you busy for weeks.  (also an app for $3.99 which I have not tried)

SwimUtopia.com

This is a great up and coming swim website that targets ALL types of swimming (age group/college/national/international).  There are tons of cool videos on this website.  Several T2 swimmers and coaches have been featured here as well!

FloridaSwimNetwork.com

A great place to watch some swimming videos!  Some meets have live streaming!  You can also check out replays of the meets after they are finished.  They also follow Triathlons, High School Swimming, College, and Masters swimming.

FloSwimming.org

This website sadly has gone without an update for years but the fact remains that the videos on here are COOL.  When it was up and running it was one of the most popular, if not the most popular swimming website out there.  Workouts, Interviews, Races – you name it – it was on here.  Still tons of awesome things on here!

Swimming Apps

If you have a smartphone or an ipod touch or an ipad, you can enjoy all kinds of swimming apps!  Here are my favorites:

USA Swimming Deck Pass:  This is a new app from USA Swimming.  From here you can do so many cool things on the go.  Here are some of the cool things that swimmers can do!  (This can also be done on your computer as well)

·         Scoreboard:  Earn Virtual Patches for everything and anything.  USA Swimming can award you patches and so can your coaches.  You must have an account though!  You can also check out your IMX ranking, your best times,

·         Goals:  Set Goals for any event that you wish (or all of them!) and have them visible for you whenever you log in.

·         Friends:  You can be friends with some of your swimming buddies and check out what type of patches they are earning!

·         Log Book:  If you like typing in your results, this is the place for you!

·         News:  You can read all of the latest news from usaswimming.org

·         Times Search:  Search your official times from the USA Swimming database!  You can see your time standards and powerpoint rankings in this section.

·         What if I am a parent?:  You can create your own account and have it stand alone or link it to your child’s account to see what type of patches they are earning!

Meet Mobile (free) / Live Results (99 cents):  These are apps that make it possible to see results of a meet on your phone.  More and more meets these days make Live Timing available.  You can see the results on your computer or use these apps to make viewing easier!  Live Results does cost 99 cents but it will work with ANY meet that is doing live timing.  Just copy/paste the live timing URL into the app!

Splash Magazine:  The same magazine that you get delivered to your house as a member of USA Swimming.  Now you can get it delivered to you as an App!

Swim Star:  Ever play Track and Field on an Atari?  If you are over 30 years old you probably have!  Now you can swim virtually in this game app!  This is a cool app because you can swim different strokes and distances and the “techniques” are different.  (Tips:  “zoom” in on the race to get a better feel for your rhythm and sometimes using one arm is better than using both!)

Stick Swim Lite:  Similar to SwimStar but you can breathe!  You can customize your swimmer and do different distances in the Pro version of this app which is 99 cents.

Summer Games 3D Lite:  You can’t swim on the lite version but upgrade for 99 cents and you can (you can run and pole vault in the lite version).  This is just like old school Atari.  I suggest all swim parents get this thing and swim all you want in the stands during meets!  Don’t let the kids have all the fun!

Pace Clock:  Ever wish you could have a pace clock to stare at just like you do at swim practice?  Download the Pace Clock app and you will never be without a pace clock!

Go Swim:  This is an App that has tons of videos and pictures of all kinds of swimming stuff!

Days Until:  How many days until the next meet?  Use this app to find out! 

Map My Run:  Doing some running for dryland?  You can use MapMyRun to easily find out how far you are running, what your speed is, and you can even track and save your results if you wish!

Any Course Lite:  This is a stopwatch app that lets you time with splits!

Time Standard Central:  This is a free app that is great for viewing the USA Motivational Time Standards on your mobile device.  You can purchase tons of other standards to add to the app for 99 cents.  If you are interested in doing that I suggest you check out the app “Time Standards” for 99 cents.  That App is awesome for USA Swimming standards as well as Grand Prix, Nationals, US Open…. And more.

That is it for now?  Have any great ones that I am missing?

Follow me: @t2aquatics