Great topic during my level 3 course we had to write a training plan for at least three athletes and it just didn’t work in those traditional cycles but to pass the course that was what was needed.
There was no monitoring of athletes just the “plan” so I quickly became disillusioned with the rest of the course content.
My thoughts were that I monitor the athletes I coach and when I look at the monitoring no two athletes are on the same level at the same stage of their development so what you said in this podcast made perfect sense to me.
Interesting topic. I am coaching a swim team of 18 competitive and 14 pre-competitive kids. I am talking about the age from 8 to 14 years old. We have just started going into more serious competitions this year (target to do around 4-6 in a year).
Do I need to worry about periodization? If yes how would I design a season workout plan could work for the athletes and not the other way round. Thanks
My view - no - don’t bother too much with periodization. Have an overall plan to systematically and progressively teach technique and skills - but make it fun. The only swimmer who doesn’t improve - is the one who is not there. If you make it all about training physiology - and it stops being fun, you’ll be standing on the side of the pool talking to yourself. Thanks. WG
Hi Wayne
Great topic during my level 3 course we had to write a training plan for at least three athletes and it just didn’t work in those traditional cycles but to pass the course that was what was needed.
There was no monitoring of athletes just the “plan” so I quickly became disillusioned with the rest of the course content.
My thoughts were that I monitor the athletes I coach and when I look at the monitoring no two athletes are on the same level at the same stage of their development so what you said in this podcast made perfect sense to me.
Interesting topic. I am coaching a swim team of 18 competitive and 14 pre-competitive kids. I am talking about the age from 8 to 14 years old. We have just started going into more serious competitions this year (target to do around 4-6 in a year).
Do I need to worry about periodization? If yes how would I design a season workout plan could work for the athletes and not the other way round. Thanks
My view - no - don’t bother too much with periodization. Have an overall plan to systematically and progressively teach technique and skills - but make it fun. The only swimmer who doesn’t improve - is the one who is not there. If you make it all about training physiology - and it stops being fun, you’ll be standing on the side of the pool talking to yourself. Thanks. WG
Much better idea. Fit the plan to the athlete not the athlete to the plan.