Practice Video

Monday mornings are a fairly quiet morning for us as we get warmed up for the week and establish some good swimming habits for the week.  I take 15-20 minutes to video my team while they are doing the main set.  It is pretty simple as I just go lane by lane and watch them swim by for a few stroke cycles from the side.  I also stand at the end of the lane so they get a view from the front and back as well as their turn.

We use underwater video as well, but that is frustrating, because it is usually done on an individual basis and they know exactly when they are being taped and those bad habits you see on a daily basis, magically disappear and you can't show them what you were talking about the day before in practice.


I think it is important to show the team what they look like during practice.  Swimmers don't typically hurt themselves during competition, it's the long practices that add up, especially when you don't have good practice habits.  Most of my swimmers will see the video and say, "I look like that during practice?"  And I'll say yes, and see how your head is moving all over the place, keep doing that all season, and there are going to be some issues.

Show your swimmers what they look like during practice, and have them look for these things:

1.  How much does their head move.  As with most sports, the more the head moves, the more bad habits emerge.

2.  Head position:  Are they swimming with a flat neck, or at attention, or are they looking forward?

3.  Shoulder Turn:  How much shoulder rotation do they have?  Swimming flat leads to too much stress on the shoulders.

4.  Kicking:  My team is always surprised that they are not kicking as hard as they think they are.