Many coaches are so excited to have their swimmers back in the pool that they forget the little things. Training before competition starts, or pre-season, gives swimmers two or three weeks to focus on the basics, get to know each other and decide what they want to accomplish during the season.
Focus on Technique
In the sport of swimming, there are two ways to get faster: perfecting technique and increasing strength. The pre-season phase of training is the optimal time to have your team focus on technique. There are many stroke-specific drills that you can have your team work on each practice. Another option is to devote one day of the week to each of the strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly) and spend the fifth day reviewing. To increase strength, include resistance training in all phases of the season. Use the pre-season to teach your team how to correctly perform your strength-training program. Make sure your team members also participate in some sort of aerobics program on land, as well, to help with endurance.
Determine Training Groups
It is important to take a step back and evaluate the natural ability and season potential of each swimmer. You can do this by having your team members swim for 30 minutes and record the number of laps each athlete completes. Now that you have a baseline ability for all the swimmers, you can group them accordingly. It is important to clearly communicate the importance of the test set to your team before they begin. Help them understand that their training groups for the first part of the season will be based on their performance, i.e., those who swam 75 to 100 laps will be group A and 50 to 74 laps group B.
Encourage fun
Although swimming is an individual sport, the ability of the group to have fun together and get along in and out of the pool is very important to the success of the team. To encourage teamwork and team excitement, have your captains or upperclassmen plan a team outing (e.g., a camping trip or a pasta party). Spending time together outside of the pool will build unity and allow the athletes to get to know the people they will be training with during the upcoming season.
Determine Team Goals
Teams who reach their full potential have a plan and action steps that will get them to their goals.The pre-season is an optimal time to sit your team down and discuss short-term and long-term goals for the team, as well as each swimmer individually. As a team, brainstorm what you want to accomplish, and then create a list of action steps to help accomplish that goal. For individual goals, encourage all team members to write down the times they want to accomplish at the end of the season, and then set up a meeting with the coaching staff so you are all on the same page.
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