Skill Building

I have been doing Yoga with my swimmers for 15 minutes on Monday-Wed-Fri this year as part of our dynamic stretching routine.  At the end of last week, which was 4 weeks into our season, I was amazed at how far the team had come.  The first week, there were athletes losing their balance, the posture and body lines were very poor, and their flexibility was below average.  After four weeks, we saw drastic improvements in all those area's and have started taking on new, more challenging poses.

As I was watching my team, I had a "what if" moment.  What if, we could improve our stroke technique in the same amount of time, and why don't we?   First, I think the athletes are thinking differently about yoga than they are about their stroke technique.  During our 15 minute yoga sessions, the mind was focused on learning the poses, figuring out how to balance, trying to perfect the body lines required in yoga and trying to figure out the puzzle as Daniel Coyle talks about in his book, "The Talent Code."

I don't think the mind is in the same place when we do stroke technique as much as it should.  How many times do we give sets of 50's drill/swim or 75's Kick/Drill/Swim, and watch our swimmers just go through the motions of one arm butterfly while just making the sendoff, and enjoying not having to work hard.  I think in order build stroke technique, we need to think about it a little differently and set it up more creatively for our athletes.

Starting last week, I am going to devote 30 minutes of stroke technique at least once a week and I am going to give myself different rules.

1.  It is not allowed to be part of warmup or warmdown.
2.  No sendoff's. (15 X 50 @ 1:00 drill swim does not cut it).
3.   It is going to be valued just as much as the main set.
4.  I am going to be high energy, high attention.


Set up a simple progression that includes the body position, the long or short axis rotation, and how the kick and arms go along with it.  You can add/subtract paddles and fins or any other creative equipment that you have.  Coach the set just like you would coach your favorite main set.  After one week, I like the results!

It takes good technique to swim fast!