5 Pattern Change Fundamentals You Should be Following

This month I have been working hard at getting my book ready to send to a publisher.  I have been immersed in all things pattern changes, so I thought I would share some gems from my book with you.

These are in no particular order.

1.  Discover the in-between patterns that can be checked as transitioning to the end pattern.

Now the intermediate pattern does not need to be held, but swimmers 8,1, and 2 need to maintain their spacing and be inline with 7,4, and 3 respectively at the same time before they click into the diagonal 2-line pattern.

2.  All pattern changes must be logical.  Swimmers must always swim to the position that visually makes the most sense.  Even if the pattern change is underwater.

I hope you are able to see that option 2 makes more sense.  Swimmers 1,2,3, and 5 move to the bottom right.  Option 1 is much more random.  All good pattern changes have a logical way to perform them.  Experiment until you find the solution or choose a new pattern change.

3.  Pattern changes must be well executed before the difficulty of the pattern changes increases.

Choose the easiest way to pattern change before choosing the harder way.  Use choreography to make pattern changes more difficult rather than using harder pattern changes.

In these two options, option 2 is the easier way to pattern change because swimmers 1 and 7 can easily see who they need to end up behind, where as in option 1, swimmers 2 and 8 have a more blind pattern change.

4.  Hide weaker swimmers on the out skirts of a pattern.

Take a line pattern, if the shortest swimmer on the team or the lowest swimmer in vertical is in the middle it is natural for the judges and audience to be drawn to the low spot.  The outsides of a pattern typically make lower or smaller swimmers less obvious.

Sometimes you have no choice where swimmers end up in pattern and in those circumstances you need to make the choreography highlight the strengths of your team.

5.  Patterns that are only understandable on the straight or across the pool should only be swum either straight or across the pool.

This pattern does not make any sense if it is swum on the angle.  Check your patterns to make sure you are only swimming patterns on the angle that make sense on the angle.

Do you have any pattern rules you would like to share?  Comment below or on my Facebook page.