The Next Phase of the Season

So far I have done some conditioning. Dryland has been concentrated on conditioning and strength building. The first weeks included a lot of me talking about what swimmers are trying to develop in this phase of their swimming. The main concentration has been some stroke technique. This Developmental part is very basic, and going over the motions by explaining what I want to see from them. Some kids get it in this phase, but a lot of it is establishing the idea of the motions, and a lot of the growth will happen as they apply these ideas to when we are doing stroke technique sets and drills.

What now from here?

Now I will concentrate on developing strokes utilizing drills, and correcting the drills to make sure that they are getting the most out of the drills. I will still pull kids to the side and give some one-on-one instructions as the group is doing stroke concentrated sets.

Now I will begin concentrating on Starts and Turns, and begin to train the swimmers. During sets, I will be using terms and phrases that I have established during the first three weeks to be able provide fast feedback during the sets. Hopefully getting a workout that is similar to what Wooden described as his workouts for UCLA basketball that were fast paced and a lot of feedback as they are working.

Looking forward to this season, as I plan to train a little more than last fall. I do have new kids to the group who need to develop and catch up to the group, but I really hope that motivation to be part of the group helps them. They seemed to learn a little more about feeling the water and a big emphasis this season has been concentrated on what the hips are doing during the four strokes.

Most of the group seems to be ready to do this new level of training that we are going to do this season. Excited also because Senior 2 seems to be working a little harder this year, and I have asked Red to continue doing stroke work, but not be afraid to push during the third phase of the cycle we set up for that group. White Group looks as though they are establishing some good strokes also, and also developing some of the more basic skills that we want our younger swimmers to do. I like where everything seems to be headed.

Also re-started CLU satellite and it looks like it may be a success beyond what we expected for year one. Almost 30 kids out there and mainly new members. Things are looking great as we continue to develop the team.