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How to Make The Best Skill Strategies Better

Swimming can be a boring sport.

 

Swimming fast requires working on the same, critical skills that lead to fast swimming.

 

And there are certain activities that work better than others to develop those skills.

 

So, we tend to focus on those strategies because they work.

 

The problem is swimmers get bored doing the same thing repeatedly.

 

So, they stop paying attention, they stop engaging, and they stop learning.

 

That creates a real challenge.

 

If we keep working on what matters, swimmers will get bored and stop learning.

 

If we stop working on what matters, we won’t be working on what matters!

 

I wrestled with this problem for a long time.

 

I tried switching up the strategies I used to develop skills, but I just ended up using less effective strategies.

 

That approach never made sense to me.

 

And if I kept doing the same thing, swimmers got bored.

 

Of all places, the solution came from a Russian strength expert named Pavel Tsatsouline.


In the context of strength training, he suggested that variation is key.

 

The mistake, he explained, is that coaches and athletes change everything when training is about to get boring or stale.

 

You don’t want to do that.

 

You want to do the same thing, but different.

 

Rather than changing what you do, change how you do it.

 

Biceps curls are effective for building bigger biceps.

 

They work.

 

So, don’t stop using biceps curls. 

 

Instead change the TYPE of biceps curls.

 

That was a huge lightbulb moment for me, and I knew right away how I could keep swimmers engaged in the tasks I knew were most effective at improving skills.

 

With Pavel’s framework in mind, I realized it wasn’t what I did that needed to change to keep swimmers engaged and help them continue to learn.

 

The HOW needed to change.

 

I needed to use the same strategies but use them in different ways.

 

Simple and effective.

 

I started thinking about all the different ways I could change the HOW for any basic activity.

 

I could:

 

  • Change speed

  • Change breathing patterns

  • Change head position

  • Change leg action (i.e. flutter kick during butterfly)

  • Change arm action (require more or less straight recoveries)

  • Change propulsive surface areas

  • Create contrast between propulsive surface areas

  • Create variability within repetitions (i.e. alt 25 X/25 Y)

  • Use all sorts training equipment

  • Add resistance

  • Add assistance

  • Change the type of fatigue

  • Pre-fatigue specific muscle groups

  • Incorporate different types of dryland between repetitions

  • Use any and all of the above in combination

 

That’s just a starting point and there are essentially unlimited options.

 

Regardless of the context, these variations challenge swimmers in slightly different ways.

 

That means continued learning.

 

Let’s make it a little more concrete.

 

Let’s say the goal is to improve breathing in freestyle and we’re using paddle cap freestyle to get the job done.

 

It’s a powerful tool for improving the breath, so it’s one that makes sense to keep using when possible.

 

Instead of just having swimmers perform that drill over and over again, we could have swimmers do any of the following:

 

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every stroke

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 2nd stroke

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 3rd stroke

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every stroke with a parachute

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 2nd stroke with a parachute

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 3rd stroke with a parachute

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every stroke with a parachute and fins

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 2nd stroke with a parachute and fins

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 3rd stroke with a parachute and fins

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every stroke with fins and tennis balls

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 2nd stroke with fins and tennis balls

  • Paddle cap freestyle breathing every 3rd stroke with fins and tennis balls


And there are TONS more options.

 

In each case, they’re going to learn something slightly different.

 

With this approach, we can continue to challenge swimmers’ skills in ways that allow for continued learning and engagement.

 

And because many of the variations involve some serious work, we can help swimmers build their skills while training hard.

 

Take Action

 

1.     Identify the skills you want to improve

2.     Identify the 2-3 BEST ways to improve those skills

3.     Identify all the ways you can create variation within the same basic tasks

 

Once you know which skills to improve, and once you know the most effective strategies to improve those skills, don’t change what you’re doing.

 

Change HOW you’re doing it.

 

It makes all the difference.

 

If you’re looking to make this even easier, and you want to know which skills are most important to focus on and train, I lay out the key skills swimmers need to create speed in each of the strokes in Stroke Fundamentals. 

 

I also show you the exact strategies I use to help swimmers learn these skills. 

 

If you want to improve your swimmers’ skills, consider grabbing a copy here.

 

 

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