Coaching with Purpose

For most of you, the competition phase has begun and with that is competition planning. The importance of training like you want to perform really hit me today as I was training for the marathon I am competing in this June. Today, I wore a tank top and changed my deodorant.  Seems inconsequential, but in…

At seven years old I fell in love with synchro the first time I saw it.  My brain went crazy trying to figure out how the girls were able to stay on the surface of the water AND move foot first.  I could get on the surface okay, but travel foot first.  WOW!! After that,…

  I found the above photo on the swimswam.com website.  They started off their list by saying “besides food”…  So true of synchro swimmers. Well, I hope this list makes shopping for the synchro swimmer in your life a little bit easier. This list is in no particular order. I am not endorsing any particular…

I figured that many of you will have some free time for researching and reading over the holidays, so to fill some of the free time I have some websites you should check out. 1.  http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca This website has resources for coaches and parents.  My favourite two favourite articles are Sleep, Recovery, and Human Performance…

As requested by Sara here are some tips for coaching beginners. Coaching beginners can be scary, especially for new coaches.  After I stopped swimming I was fortunate to coach swimmers with lots of experience.  My first time coaching beginners was at a masters club.  Since then I have coached young beginners in aqua squirts, the…

As requested by one of my Facebook followers, Danielle, here is a post on some support drills to improve technique and height.  If you have any requests let me know. 1.  Support Scull with water bottles. You want to get two empty water bottles and keep the lids.  Place the bottles under the arm close…

It’s often said that synchro is a safe sport. Well, those people have never been in a pattern that was so close that someone got kicked.  If you take a close look at the photo on the left you can see the swimmers in wide eggbeater to avoid the kicks. Or what about the throw or lift…

This post will be a bit different from the usual technical post, but I had such a great coaching session on the weekend I could not help, but share it with you. I recently started working with a swimmer I had never worked with before. I kind of thought this might be a one off…

Synchronization is key to the success of every team.  If your routine is unsynchronized it is difficult for the judges to see and appreciate the choreography.  The list is in no particular order. Some suggestions are easy, others may cause resistance from some athletes. 1. Count in a language where the words are shorter. For…

When it comes to choreographing patterns for your routine I want you to consider my 5 suggestions: 1.  Plan Ahead   Plan out your patterns BEFORE practice.  Ideally, you would plan out all the patterns for your routine ahead of time.  Planning ahead will make your practice efficient.  You can even use the initials of…