Aug 18, 2014 – T2 Aquatics – The Start of a New Season

The following is the first practice of our Fall Season. I have an inexperienced group in the pool, with mostly High School-aged athletes.

Two of our twenty athletes have Junior National cuts. The chances are that this group of athletes will rapidly improve their ability to train and race — and while I like to have an idea about what sorts of training phases I’ll do throughout the season, I realize that there is nothing more important than teaching these athletes the finer aspects of daily accomplishment.

Please read below the workout to understand the reasons behind our (Early) Seasonal Planning philosophy.

Workout

4x:
1×200 Free IM (240)
3×50 Drill (1) — Fly 2R 2L 3B / Back Vertical Catch up / Breast add-a-kick

10×100 Kick (150) Strong Average + 30 seconds after set

8×50 (50) Free-Stroke Drill + 2 minutes after set

10×100 Pull (115) Strong Average + 30 seconds after set

8×50 (50) Free-Stroke Drill + 2 minutes after set

10×100 Free (110) Strong Average + 60 seconds after set

8×25 (30) “Striders” — hit 13/14 seconds in 13-14 strokes on all 25s

200 easy with underwater turns

Workout Total: 5600

Additional Comments:
At T2 Aquatics, our Vision Statement reads: “Excellence is a habit of Champions; therefore, we aspire to rehearse Excellence every day.”

In this statement there is a powerful message, which indicates that it is the HABIT of being excellent (practiced each opportunity) that develops the focused daily determination to be great in our inexperienced athletes.

So, at the beginning of the season, we focus on these things:

  1. Developing proper habits. This includes getting to practice early, working on the prescribed dryland exercises before the water portion of practice, getting ahead on schoolwork, adhering to proper nutrition, etc. We talk about these things before and after practice, and we notice when we are doing these things well and when we are not doing them well enough.
  2. Kicking. We make sure that we lay a foundation of kicking speed and mileage. I like my athletes to kick 1200-2000 yards each day for the first 4 weeks of the season, at the minimum. The intervals will come down quickly, so by the end of the third week our kickers should be kicking on intervals they have never kicked on before. The legs can work hard while the swimming technique is unaffected — so even though it’s early in the season the athletes can get into the type of grinding training that develops them aerobically. Once the athletes are in great kicking shape, we can add some swimming to the workout!
  3. Fast Swimming and Moderate sized practices VS Slow Swimming and Longer practices: The beginning of the season will give the athletes enough of a boost aerobically, simply by getting back in the water — so we don’t need to overdo the mileage during the first 7-10 days. I plan to go a week of singles, then add doubles the second week. These are both natural “work” increases. I plan to wait until the third week to take the athletes up a bit in terms of work volume.
  4. If we start the season with some speed work every day, and two-three good speed sets per week, then we are going to allow the athlete to develop a good sense of “racing speed” right away. They have a relatively easy time doing this because at the start of the season they are not as broken down as they will be in October, so while they have some natural energy my goal is to teach them to use that energy. I plan to add aerobic training on top of speed, rather than start the season with a ton of slow swimming…and then hope to add the speed as we go. As stated earlier, it’s my belief that simply “working out”, and perhaps doing a 1800-2400 warmup 3-5 times per week, is enough aerobic work for the first 7-10 days of the season.Ride the wave of motivation. Although I’ve stated that I like to start the season with some faster swimming, that doesn’t mean we won’t grind, and because the athletes are motivated for a new season (and fresh off a week or two of vacation) — they will get into the grind.
  5. As you can see from the sets above (particularly the pulling and swimming 100s), the intervals are not easy and the set will be hard…but before the swimming gets sloppy, the set is over & we switch gears into another activity. The most important thing we do is talk about the season goals individually with athletes. This happens in “goal meetings” or more informally before, during, and after practice. Planning for success, visualizing success, and raising internal standards of behavior are the most important things to add onto hard work and ensure success at the end of the season.

This free workout was provided by T2 Aquatics Head Coach Paul Yetter.


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