Swimming fast in races starts with good practices; Good practices start with good training plans.
Ideally, you’d want to have your swimming practice plans ready at least a week before said practice. While this may not always be possible, at the very least, try to have them ready by the night before each training session.
Here’s why:
1. Swim practice tends to start REALLY early in the morning
It’s not uncommon for swim practice to start before the sun is even out.
But even when most of the world is still asleep at this time, mornings can still be pretty hectic.
Procrastinating on creating the swim sets will just be added stress for yourself - stress that is completely avoidable with a bit of earlier preparation.
Do you really want to be rushing around at 4am trying to write up the workout/s for the day?
2. Effective swimming practice plans are ones that have been well thought out. Not ones randomly assigned on the spot.
Preparation is key to productive practices.
No matter how long you’ve been coaching, preparing the workouts at least the night before practice gives you a much better opportunity to come up with a plan that would be effective in bringing your swimmers closer to their goals.
For swim practice to be effective, it can’t just be a random assortment of workouts.
Every swimmer has something unique they need to work on to improve their swim, and structuring training to address these needs will be crucial to their success.
Having a well thought out practice plan also helps prevent injury.
Practices aren’t separate from one another. When you create workouts in advance, you are able to see a bigger picture of what your athletes’ training load looks like on a wider scale. You have time to adjust accordingly before having the swimmers execute the workout.
This will be especially helpful if you have many different groups on your team, each requiring different types and levels of training.
3. It shows your swimmers that you are just as dedicated to their success as they are.
Swimmers knowing that you’ve given plenty of thought to every workout you ask them to complete keeps them motivated to put in their share of effort into the training.
It’s a good reminder that every swim set has a purpose, and that completing them properly takes them a step closer to their goals, helping them become faster swimmers.
Showing them this level of respect also improves your relationship with them, which can be a large contributing factor to their success. Swimmers will be more open to communicating, which means that not only are they more willing to ask for feedback, but they will be more receptive to them.
When swimmers are more engaged to their training, they improve better, team morale goes up, building a good foundation for your team to win the season.
