Taking the Time to Talk

This season I am back coaching little swimmers. It's fun; it's frustrating; it takes a whole lot of patience; and I am really enjoying it. Our practices with this group is only one hour, and we do a 10 - 15 minutes in the beginning to do dryland and put in lane lines, so we don't have a whole lot of time, but that is very normal for beginning groups.

It is overwhelming in the beginning because there is so much you want them to learn, and you know you need to teach them enough that the parents feel like they are getting something out of it. Let's face it, at this level it is winning over the parents as much as it is winning over the swimmer. To take some extra time away from the water can be very hard to do as a coach because you know you are already limited, but it something that can really help get practices running better.

So, we did our first six weeks, which were crazy for these groups. I began with fundamentals, which if viewed by a regular person, seem like I am not really teaching them competitive strokes, but really it is teaching beginning aspects that will benefit them later. Then I moved to stroke construction, along with skill work. Kids were joining throughout this time, and some even left in this short amount of time, so the group was very inconsistent. Now, I am starting this next phase with my new formed group, as I feel like I weeded out some that were never going to make it anyways.

First practice, after dryland I took the group and sat them down, and talked to them for 6 - 8 minutes. I talked about training and learning as group. Developing to become better can help those around you. Talked about how the worst thing they can do is distract from another person trying to succeed. It's one thing to not push yourself, but it is completely different to get in the way of someone else. I talked about leaving in the correct order, so that there is less people catching up to one another. (This is never perfect at this level, but the idea that it is better for them to leave in the right order at least makes it a little more organized.)

My group has swimmers as young as 7, but the talked was good. Practice has been a little less chaotic. Of course, there was a whole mess of kids who missed the talk, but I'll just have to do the talk again later (I'll probably only talk about one thing at a time in the future, so it takes just a minute or so). I know they are young, and they may not completely grasp everything we are trying to get across in a talk like that, but it may pay off a lot.

It is worth a few minutes for a more efficient practice in the future. They all understand now that I want them to know how to practice before they move up. One swimmer even asked about move-ups, and I explained that I didn't care how fast they got, if they didn't know how to practice, then there was no reason to be moved up. The few minutes was so worth it.