Top 3 Things Your Swimmer Can Do to Swim Faster This Year
It’s the start of the year, which is both extremely exciting and extremely important. The chlorine bleached hair and eyebrows have yet to set in, and a season of promise awaits. So how do you make the most of this time when your swimmer is enthusiastic and fresh instead of on Day 7 of Holiday Doubles?
Set Goals: Goals are a roadmap, and you wouldn’t start a 10-12 month odyssey without at least some directions. Setting goals gives you that direction. Start with the dream end goal (qualifying for Sectionals, winning States, or breaking 2:00), and work back from there. What will need to improve for you to hit that dreamlike result? How often will you need to go to practice? What kick and stroke counts do you need? What pace times should you be going? Those details fill in the rest so you have built scaffolding all around your desired result. Then you just follow the plan!
Watch elite technique: Coming off of the Olympics, elite swimmers are all over the place. Take advantage of this by watching them swim and taking note of what you can emulate. Marchand kicks to 15 meters on the last wall of a 400IM- can you find a way to do the same? Regardless of where you’re at now, watching and understanding elite technique can help set you on the right path strapped with technical goals at a time of year when your direction is more important than anything else!
Win the easy battles: The start of the year is a great time to set up the “easy” habits. Swimming is hard enough, you may as well win the easy battles. So figure out what your favorite and most effective after practice snack is, learn how to foam roll, and set up a consistent bedtime now, before school and swimming get far more intense. These habits are easy to maintain once they’re set up, and now is a better time than any to build them.
These three small steps can make this season the best one yet, and if you need help executing on them, get a mentor today with CollegeSwimConnect. Our mentors have been through this before and are excited to share their tried and true methods to become a great swimmer.
