Pattern Training

It has been much too long since I have posted anything here. I went to the pool on Monday night with the Nova Synchro Club and I got some great videos and photos that I can use in my blog posts.

At the end we played around with some pattern changes. They had a group of ten and my book only has patterns up to eight. What we did was break the group into two groups and gave them the identical pattern changes to perform.

A few neat things came out of this little activity:

1. The swimmers were challenged on their own to figure out the pattern change. This could be made into a competition or simply a team building activity.

2. Us coaches discovered that some of the five person patterns looked cool as a ten person pattern change, but we would never have thought of that combination. Often we think of patterns for the group we have, but you could think of lots of different equally great patterns if you thought of two groups of four pattern changing in a team of eight.

The video of the pattern change below is of the classic dice “5” pattern into a “V”. We had the team do it across the pool, but I think it would look equally as cool if they were in front of each other.

Now is the perfect time of year to experiment. Experiment with arm and leg movements in different patterns and experiment with different pattern changes. Always video your results to save for next season.

If you want to find out some more creative options be sure to sign up for updates and my email on the top right as I will be writing about it in my upcoming newsletter. Also if you are interested in purchasing my book click here.

Yours in Synchro,

Vanessa