AMERICAN SWIMMING COACHES ASSOCIATION (ASCA) SAN DIEGO CONFERENCE 2011 REPORT BY: KERRY WOOD HEAD COACH, STIRLING INTEGRATED SQUAD
The conference was an opportunity to listen and learn from some of the leading coaches and swimming practitioners. In addition to the daily presentations, the group meeting at the end of the day was an ideal forum to share and discuss initial thoughts on each day. This was the first time that I have attended a swimming conference on this scale and it served to refresh and increase my enthusiasm for coaching and I have returned to my home programme even more excited about this coming Olympic and Paralympic year. Todd Schmitz I attended two presentations by Todd Schmitz, Head Coach at Colorado STARS and was impressed by his enthusiasm and passion for sport in general and coaching. His first talk was entitled How to Build a Gold Medal Club Without Your Own Pool which outlined the situation in Colorado and how he uses all resources in order to run a very successful age group swim team and the second was a more general talk on his view on swimming. The STARS train at 6000ft are an IM based, training programme covering all energy groups per week. 1. Facilities Colorado STARS train in all pool distances 13m, 15m, 25yd, 25m and 50m. Use all resources available to you Operate a non-traditional schedule e.g. Sunday s are often good for pool time. During the winter time they run with 3 weekday mornings and swim over the weekend to give the swimmers time to deal with school and other pressures, but in the summer they have 9 sessions Mon- Fri and have the weekends off. (This includes 2 sessions on a Friday, SC 5.30-7am and LC 10-12) 2. Coaches They have 2 coaches on deck for most workouts at all levels. As Head Coach, try to be on deck during other levels of workout if possible. Cover other squads throughout the season Use your personal experiences to guide you. 3. Training Total volume is not the only thing that is important get what you want done rather than focus on volume. He does not operate a set programme each week the only day that is the same is Saturday if there is no meet and they will do lactate work. Use old suits to do fast work boys especially like this. Grinch Week between Christmas and New Year hard week of high volume and intensity training. Midweek am LC session then pm skins type sprint meet on 25 s, 50 s and 100IM s. 4. General points Think outside the box Run your team like a business because it is. Learn something new every day, swimming and your swimmers are evolving every season, do not be afraid of change.
Bob Steele Bob gave presentations on games, gimmicks, drills and challenges that you can use to make training more fun and challenging for swimmers. Although predominantly aimed at younger age groups swimmers, there are still plenty that can be adapted for senior swimmers. Key point physiological development in 13 and unders is the same from games and drills as it is from structured sets. The main reasons for adding in games to your training programmes are they are motivating, challenging, distracting, engaging and can encourage attendance. Games give you the opportunity as a coach to manage teams, have winners and losers, give rewards, suit all ages and abilities and are outcome based. Coach Steele went though the categories of Games; which can be used as warm-ups or fun activities, relays and interval training challenges. All the games, challenges and relays can be found on the website www.gamesgimmickschallenges.com Teri McKeever and Kathie Wickstrand-Gahen This presentation was on Team Dynamics and focused on how spending time developing your team can have a major impact on swimming performance. Although this is more applicable to the American Collegiate system there are still parts that can be applied to clubs and programmes. The main element of this presentation was that everyone on teams is different and hears things differently. It was interesting to have the stages of team development outlined and how this can fit round a swimming year. A couple of things that I would like to implement in my home programme are; The one small change principle which is to have your swimmers come up with one small change that they are willing to make in order to be better swimmers. This exercise teaches them how to be specific and make goals clearer. Get your swimmers to buy in and tell you how they are going to get the time/ get to Nationals / make the team etc, rather than you tell them how to do it. It was highlighted that weaknesses can be strengths and vice versa and that knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important. Teri McKeever puts a lot of emphasis on team dynamics at Cal and puts a lot of the success they have in relays and dual meets down to this. The culture at Cal is if you re on time you re late which all the swimmers are told / made aware of along with the other expectations of the team when they begin their freshman year.
Jack Bauerle on Swimming Coach Bauerle spoke about his experiences at World Championships and highlighted the need for team staff to get along, respect each other and to sort differences out in order to facilitate a successful team performance at major meets. Some key points that he made which I would like to implement in to my home programme and encourage the other coaches that work with me to do the same. It is important to have some fun, no matter the age of your swimmers. Do get up and swim fast swims at the end of workout rather than get out swims. Have your swimmers do a little bit more Expect your athletes to be tough the more you expect the better. Eddie Reese on Swimming and the Texas Programme Coach Reese gave an overview of the Texas programme and his coaching philosophy. He tries to get better every year and likes to ask coaches what they did different in order to see what he can use to improve hi s swimmers. The Texas programme is IM based and sprinters are not treated like sprinters. As a coach of collegiate swimmers he believes that hard, consistent work is what is needed. His swimmers are not gaining strength through physical maturation and his job is to prepare them to be the best they can be from where ever they start. Training examples Distance swimmers do 2.5 hours Tuesday and Thursday and one long swim a week in a 10 week block starting at 3K going up to 5K and back down again. 20x50 yds fly on 35 300 s and 400 s race pace for stroke 5x800yds on 8.30 The main principle behind his sets his that they are training the nervous system and fire more muscle fibres than in a race. He thinks that training SC is as good, if not more effective that LC and early season his they do 2 LC sessions. As a coach he feels it is important to have a positive atmosphere in hi s team and thinks that motivation is an everyday thing.
Misty Hyman Underwater fly kick Misty did a practical session explaining the reasons behind her underwater fly kicking using the Finis Foil Monofin. The underwater fly kick was a full body movement from fingertip to toes. Demonstrations were done at all speeds, with and without the monofin. It was likened to fish swimming and using the vortices created by the body to push the swimmer through the water faster. Key to being able to do this type of underwater fly kick was core strength and flexibility as the body bends on 4 axis shoulders, trunk under ribs, hips and knees. When Misty was training she would do +2 kicks off every wall i.e. if in a race the optimum number of kicks off the wall was 6 then she would do 8 in training. Some key sets to work the underwater fly kick 10x25 (yds) underwater breakout to 1 stroke fly on 30 Fish flop 20x50 (lc) on 60 dive 25 underwater 25 easy swim Misty did a lot of underwater work with the monofin and regularly used it to do longer repeat distances on fly. Dr Jan Prins High Speed Video Analysis and what this tells us about Freestyle Technique Filming Using camera speeds of 100 frames per second gives a really clear picture for analysis. Above and below synchronised cameras are slightly off synch so are not so good for analysis. Cameras should be stationary and fixed to the pool so they remain calibrated. In the films the swimmers wore LED s powered with a battery pack worn by the swimmer for automatic digitising. Looking at displacement, joint angles and velocity, with hip velocity being the primary variable - using arms and legs in a cyclic way to get the hips moving. Freestyle Technique - Bent v Straight arm pull Elite swimmers may not be choosing to hold arms at 90 degrees Looking at elbow bend midway through the pull it is more like 110 degrees Peak hip velocity during the stroke occurs during the middle third of the pull. We bend our arms when dealing with a fixed resistance to decrease the external torque but Dr Prins argued that a straighter arm is more effective in swimming as water is not a fixed resistance. The primary forces are propulsive drag forces with lift forces secondary.
As the hand is rotated further away from the axis the linear velocity increases. Dropped elbows cause the hip velocity to slow down. For optimal propulsion the hand velocity relative to the body should be low which results in a better hold on the water. For more information, look at the Journal of Swimming Research online. Luis Lastra SEAL Ethos An interesting, motivational presentation, on the Navy SEAL ethos, which had key points that could be taken out and applied to swimming coaching. It is all about trust v performance If you say you are going to do something then do it. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Demand discipline Expect innovation My training is never complete Never compromise your standards Nort Thornton Breaststroke Coach Thornton spoke in detail about the importance of the streamline position in breaststroke. Key points Undulation determines DPS and how fast swimmers go Need to eliminate bending at the hips Body dolphin with a breast kick Keep hands inside body line this way swimmers don t feel they are working so hard and are more streamlined Body surfing over the wave created by arm action create the biggest possible wave and dive over it, letting it push you forward. Modify paddles by fixing tubing at the bottom of each to stop arms pulling too wide. Don t pull just glide your hands across the water Consider not doing an underwater pull out as Rebecca Soni did in the 50m breast at World Championships. Enables swimmers to hit first stroke at full speed.
Bob Bowman Capacity versus Utilisation Capacity Improving performance and potential of the athlete. How good can they be? Long term general training Decide on essential ingredients of programme Sacrifices short term goals for long term goals e.g. is it more important that a swimmer goes 60 this season or 54 in two season s time? Improving systems especially aerobic capacity Promotes general fitness and swimmers do better across a range of events. Capacity represents the cup makes it as big as it can be, then you can fill it with utilisation training. Utilisation Improving the actual. What is absolute best performance right now? Short term and very specific, what are we going to do this season? Dynamic and variable training which operates at the edge of swimmer capabilities. A balance of both is best and need different proportions through a swimmers career and it all fits together in a long term plan. Charlie Hoolihan Core Stability, Why Swimmers Need Their Butts Off The Floor Core musculature works different in swimming you initiate the core by placing the hand in the water whereas on dry land it is by placing the foot on the ground. So the chest and back muscles become as important in swimming as the hip muscles are in running. Key exercises are ones that create stable and symmetrical rotation, an upright and straight thoracic spine, keep head shoulders and hips in alignment and bring shoulder blades in together. Crunches are BAD! They squeeze the organs. Principles of core work Lengthen Rotational stability and stability against rotation Hand, hip and foot drives in place Get younger swimmers to do fat man swimming to let them feel the importance of their core. Do wall exercises, plank exercises.
New concept in plank exercises is to do pulses as most core stability is needed in movement e.g. 2 minutes worth of 10 sec planks with 10 seconds rest. Go for stability over mobility Every muscle activity needs an equal and opposite activity. TRX suspension training is very good for swimming.