Creativity In Drilling/Training

When I first started coaching, I was initially told that in order to coach developmental groups, you must stick to the basics in terms of drills and stroke technique work.  So there I was doing the same drill progression, deconstructing and reconstructing the stroke with the same few drills for each.  What I found was that the kids, once they got the gist of the particular drill, tended to stop putting the same effort and focus in completing them as when they were first learning them.  And it's not just with drills!  I found that if you train the same way consistently, the kids get used to that as well.  

To me, it seemed as if the P90x idea of muscle confusion applied to how kids viewed drills.  In the P90x workout training, muscle confusion is the basic premise that an athlete's body will get used to certain training techniques and thus making it less effective.  With my swimmers, once they got the basic premise of the biomechanics of the drill, they stopped putting the focus on what the drill emphasized.    

So I started to focus on the drilling aspect first and how I reconstructed the strokes.  I started to use drills in cycles and occasionally either re-introducing drills while cycling out other drills, combining drills, or simply making up new drills.

Re-Introduced Drills:  I was lucky enough to have swam for Debbie Real, one of the best stroke technicians in the country, for most of my swimming career.  One of the ways that she was able to consistently get the most out of us while building our strokes was her creativity within her practices.  We probably had close to 30 drills or drill variations per stroke...and I may actually be underselling her on this.  So having that kind of drill base was HUGE for me to be able to re-introduce drills.

So if I have 30 drills in my repertoire, I would have maybe 5 base drills like 12 kick switch or straight arm for freestyle that stay permanently in the rotation while maybe adding something that they hadn't done in awhile.  Maybe it's a drill that focuses on a particular group weakness that came about in watching the swim meet last weekend.

Combining Drills:  This is where I take a couple drills and combine them.  Using the drill examples I used above, maybe it would be 12 kick switch with a straight arm recovery.  With the added drills, there are added things to focus on.  Not only would the kids need to think about getting on their sides while holding their body alignment with 12 kick switch, but they will also need to focus on driving their hips and recovering up over their heads as well.

Making Up New Drills:  This one is something that I think is not as difficult as it sounds.  There is no need to necessarily re-invent the wheel, although you are more then welcome to try something brand spanking new.  There is plenty of help out on the interwebs.  Websites like www.goswim.tv is a GREAT resource to have as Glenn Mills is great at introducing drills, explaining how the drill is supposed to be done as well as explaining the finer points of the drill.

Also I have found that just talking to other coaches whose teams may do a particular aspect of their stroke well.  For example, I have to luxury of having CLASS Aquatics in our section and have a great rapport with both Steve Reardon, their Head Coach, and Kathy Duncan, their Head Age Group Coach, both of whom have probably forgotten more about swimming then I know.  Both are very open and helpful with everything from business administration to stroke technique and refinement.  I recently asked Kathy how she was approaching teaching the out-sweep and in-sweep on breaststroke and she gave me a few new drills and key phrases that she uses.  I have found that coaches are your best asset...you just have to have the courage to start conversations and ask questions.  I have not really been turned down for help from any coaches and over the last 12 years, I have talked to quite a few coaches.

Lastly, I occasionally will notice that I have a group problem that I need to address.  This stems from watching my kids at a swim meet and watching what is breaking down in their strokes.  So that typically motivates me to get into the water myself and start to play with my own stroke in order to see if I can't figure out a drill that may isolate the problem and get the kids to be aware of the problem as well.  This has been where I have mostly adapted drills we have already done and tweaked them to fully accentuate the part of the stroke I want the focus to fall on.

Training:  Because I tend to coach primarily 12 and unders, I am constantly trying out new ways to train kids and get them to do things that they ordinarily might not want to do.  For example, I posted a 200 race strategy workout (Main Set #1) on the Pro Swim Workouts website.  This workout is an example of how I deconstruct a race and base the main set around the race strategy we use.  For 200's, I will typically tell my kids to to build the first three 50's then race.  So I constructed a main set that emulated that strategy.  My kids could have done 10x200 or 20x100 but they would have been bored to tears and their focus and attention to detail is significantly less.

I guess, in conclusion, I try to write workouts and do drills that I would want to do myself if I were in my swimmers' fins.  Don't be afraid to be creative.  Some stuff will work just as you imagined, most will be a process, and occasionally some stuff will be terrible and sometimes not even be as practical as you may have wanted.  Regardless of the outcome, if it's new, the kids will get a kick out of trying it.