Skills IN the Set, Not Before It

About this episode

Wayne Goldsmith discusses the importance of integrating skills and drills into main sets for effective swimming training.

By Wayne Goldsmith Introduction: Every swimming coach does drills and skills work at the same time in their practices. We can do it differently and better! Three Critical Learning Points: * The typical structure — drills and skills first, main set second — means technique is generally practised when swimmers are fresh. * Skills that only work when rested aren’t race-ready skills. * The fix: integrate drills and technique work DURING your main sets, not before them. Time to Change! Here’s what I see at pools all over the world. Warm-up. Then drill work — catch-up, fingertip drag, six-kick switch, whatever your favourites are. Nice and controlled. Good feedback. Technical focus. Then the main set. Now it’s about fitness. Physiology. Pushing through. Technique? That was earlier. Here’s the problem. When your swimmers are doing their drills, they’re fresh. Rested. Focused. Heart rate is low. Breathing is easy. Everything is controlled. Then they get into the main set and all of that technique work goes out the window. Why? Because they’ve (we’ve) never connected those skills to fatigue. Skills that only work when rested aren’t race-ready skills. In a race, when does technique matter…

People in this episode

Host: Wayne Goldsmith

Topics covered

• swimming technique
• training methods
• fatigue management
• drills integration
• race readiness

Keywords

• swimming
• coaching
• technique
• drills
• main sets
• fatigue
• race skills

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