The Practice Range

One of the things I enjoy outside of swimming is golf.  Believe it or not, I even enjoy watching it on T.V.  Recently, I have run across a show that has caught my attention, as a golfer, and as a swim coach. The show is called the Practice Range and can be found on the Golf Channel the night before a tournament.

The show has a live camera on the Practice Range at the tournament site and it looks at what the golfers are working on and what drills they are doing to improve a particular shot, or maybe fix something that doesn't feel right.  As the camera goes back and forth from golfer to golfer, the guys in the studio comment on what they are doing, why they are doing the drills, and what they are trying to fix.

As I was watching, my mind wondered to what our swim practices looked like.

First, if there were live camera's in our practices with commentators back in the studio making comments, would they know what is going on? when they watch swimmers do drills, would they know what we are trying to work on? Do our "drills" even look like drills or are they just filler, so we can say we did our % of drill work? Is the coach even paying attention?

Second, from a skill building stand point (I am a big believer that swimming is more skill building than any of the other big aerobic exercises), there are some differences in how golfers and other sports build skill that we don't see in the pool.

Here are some observations from the practice range:

1.  Not worried about how many balls they hit (reps).  Would rather do less, with the desired outcome.
2.  There is not a time crunch (sendoff).  Very laid back, time to talk, and think.
3.  They work on all their shots, not just their favorites (strokes).
4.  They work on the simplest things the most, like short puts.  (streamlines)
5.  They pay attention to the outcome.  What happens as a result of this or that (stroke count/speed).


The more I watch and think about my own practices, the more I am convinced that building skill cannot happen on fast sendoff's or just sticking drill/swim in front of a set of 50's.

We have to allow our swimmers TIME to stop and think, the ability to COMMUNICATE with coaches and each other, and take away the STRESS of sendoff's so they can pay attention to what things feel like and know the outcomes, rather than how much rest they are getting before the next rep.