News
For
SWIM
PARENTS
Published by The American
Swimming Coaches Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309
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TRAINING VERSUS LEARNING
By john Leonard
Last week I was speaking to a young coach who
had just taken a new job.
His specific problem was that the coach that
was there before he was, had everyone “training hard” and had done a great job
of selling that concept. Everyone from 8 and unders to seniors was pounding the
yardage daily.
The new coach wanted to spend 6 weeks or so
concentrating on skills development, because in the first few days on the job,
he noticed that many of the swimmers were deficient in the types of stroke, turn
and start skills that would support them as they aged into older swimmers in the
program.
He’d laid out that plan to his parent group,
including cutting back practices from 2 and one half hours per day to just 90
minutes for the older swimmers and 60 minutes for the middle groups and 45
minutes for the youngest swimmers. This, consistent with today’s best advice to
dedicate oneself to “purposeful practice” of new skills if you hoped for
optimum learning….shorter periods of intense concentration, with little to
interfere with the concentration process.
He immediately faced rebellion.
Moms and a few Dads, called him to complain
that important swim meets were coming up and their little darling needed to
“train” in order to be successful. Interestingly, more than 70% of the calls
came from the parents of younger children. The coach asked my advice on
how to educate the parents on this issue.
Here’s my answer.
“Long practices, with high training volumes
will make all swimmers VERY good at what they are doing. Repetition builds
habit. Habit stands up beautifully under the pressure of competition…when in
fact, nothing else does….as the pain of competition effort removes all
traces of thought from the brain…..it becomes habit that the swimmer relies upon
to get him home to the finish.
“Unfortunately, if they are practicing poor
technique, that will be learned and habituated, just as well as good technique.
And poor technique makes you biomechanically inefficient at the time of greatest
stress. Hence you struggle more, go slower and your stroke collapses at the end
of races.
“This makes swimming a technique limited
sport. Your child will be severely limited by the degree with which they can
perform the strokes with good habits, instead of poor habits.
“Lots of training with poor habits will
make a very poor swimmer. A little training with good habits, will result in a
good swimmer and one that is “unlimited” in their future.
“Which one do you want for your child?
HINT: Get the strokes right FIRST instead
of purposefully practicing mistakes.
All the Best for Great Swimming Experiences!
John Leonard