News For
SWIM PARENTS
Published by The
American Swimming Coaches Association
5101 NW 21 Ave.,
___________________________________________________________________
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