Our USA Swimming team is starting swimming practices again starting this week, June 18th. We’ve been paying attention to the guidelines put forth by our state, Illinois, and have worked with our risk management agency to implement safe protocols for users and staff. My wife is immune compromised and I’ve been taking the social isolation … Read more
I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are healthy, happy, and safe. All of us are struggling with either stay at home orders or a reduction in hours and livelihood. Our businesses hinge on having people in the water. If we get more people we’re more successful. Moving forward the suggestion is that large … Read more
This afternoon you might be at a super bowl party or at your home nuzzling the chili cheese hotdogs you eat once a year. Maybe you’re suffering through the gameplay to see the commercials or maybe you’re a diehard fan. Personally I want San Francisco to win. Not because I know anything about them but … Read more
Aquatic professionals have a love hate relationship with lap swimmers. They show up at 5am thirty minutes before the pool opens. When you’re covering the morning shift for a guard that called in the night before at 11pm you’re not happy to see their expectant faces and scowls when you rub the sleep from your … Read more
I’ve always felt that one of the biggest impediment to using technology on the pool deck was getting it to work quickly. swimminglessonsideas.com has been an excellent resource and tool I frequent when I’m running swim lessons or training new staff. Recently I purchased a television and mounted it on wheels so that I could … Read more
I recently published the book, “How to create fun and effective Developmental swim practices.” I thought I could show you exactly how I write practices on a daily basis. It is super easy from my end and I’m curious if any would like to have access to the same bank of skills and software on … Read more
When you do streamline like a thousand times, a hundred thousand, then you forget that it can be difficult for beginners to do well. I work with kids that are transitioning from swim lessons into swim team. They don’t know how to push off in streamline. What comes naturally for me, now, is totally foreign … Read more
Introduce the “Flow” Dryland Yoga Flow for Swimmers: Created with Microsoft Fresh Paint PlankChaturangaPlankDown DogForward Fold / Lazy PuppetSoldierStreamline111 Freeother arm FreeBoth for butterflyRepeat. Set up your lane 1st person starts in the lane’s corner. Everyone else lines up along the lane line. #1 pushes off, does their activity, then moves over. Returns to the … Read more
Warmup A woman swimmer streamlines under water at the start of a race. What are the 3 things for streamline we’re working on? 1) Lock Thumb 2) Look Down 3) Squeeze Ears with elbows Standing on Deck, demonstrate and say it. https://videopress.com/v/RlDr1loj?muted=true&persistVolume=false&preloadContent=metadata Jump in and run or swim to 1/2 way in Mini lane as … Read more
I get the feeling sometimes when I’m coaching or teaching a swim lesson that I’m wasting time. Sometimes I feel like when parents see me doing “floats” with their advanced swimmers, or doing a challenge where they do a front float, flip, then do a handstand we’re playing games without a purpose. If you’ve followed … Read more
Warmup 100 IM Kick2 x 25 Position 11Split up into two groups: Set up your lane review. First person goes in the right hand side of the lane. Everyone else lines up along the opposite side of the lane, near lane line. When the first person takes their turn, wait until they cross the center … Read more
Warmup 100 IM Kick100 BKQuestion of the Day: How long is Deerspring pool, the big one? 50 meters.Y = 50 Choice, fly, bk, br, or frN = 50 FLY K no board4 x 25 on 1:00 FR K w/ boad Split up into two groups: Group 1: Group 2: 3 x SL + 2x (11, … Read more
Category: Distance swimming, Group Core Skill: Coach’s Choice, Reading the board. Name: Swim Subtraction WHO This game is for swim teams that know how to read the board a little bit. Some ability to read your shorthand, your practices, or some familiarity with your program is important. Do not play this game with beginners. We … Read more
Category: Group activity, Social Core Skill: Coach’s choice Name: Valentine’s Day Practice I like to do different things for the holidays. Most of the kids that participate on our swim team are in grade school or middle school. They’re somewhere between 5 years old and 13 on the developmental swim team. For Valentine’s Day I … Read more
Every year I get a few new assistant coaches that help me run my developmental swim practices. Once they understand the language that I use, the routines and habits for the different groups, and are comfortable with the flow and format of most practices I give them opportunities to take ownership of the groups. I … Read more
Category: Group Activities Core Skill: Reading the board, self-guided practice Name: Trick and Treat WHO: This game is for swim team participants or people that can be in the water without someone in the water with them. You could do this with lessons but would need a person in the water at each station to … Read more
Category: Group Activity Core Skill: General Swimming / Quiz Name: President’s Day Trivia This game is actually a trivia portion with a bunch of little mini-games inside of it associated with each President. Holidays are a good excuse to do something different or new. I remember inventing the baseball swim game for our swim group during the … Read more
At Swimming Ideas we’re all about ability, skill, and learning over endurance. I’d rather see someone swim well than swim sloppy for 200 yards. Perhaps I should say that we’re in the business of “fun and effective” swimming. In fact, I wrote a whole book about creating “fun and effective swim games.” Through our swim … Read more
Fall is over. The first season of the 2017-2018 swim year. Can you believe that it has been 14 weeks already? Fun fact, new research shows that repetition, doing the same thing every day, makes you perceive time moving faster. When you do something new and different you perceive that time moves slower. A good … Read more