When a child comes to swimming and has not been athletically active in their 5-7 years of life, Any and All Exercise IS GOOD! (Get the couch potatoes off the couch!)
Exercise is simply an increased heart rate, giving that muscle something a bit more challenging to do….making it stronger. And meanwhile, some muscle tissue is formed as required by the exercise, and the daily metabolism revs up to meet the energy needs of the exercise. All VERY good stuff for people of all ages.
This will continue for a couple of years in a young athlete's life. Then gradually, there is a shift…..the individual begins to grow into their adult height…..and their adult body, and for IMPROVEMENT to occur, it’s no longer enough to “just Exercise”.
You have to TRAIN.
“Training” is a planned progression of ever increasing stresses on the body. To complicate it, the stresses have to be specific to the needs of the body in races, if that improvement is to occur.
The key part of the paragraph above is “planned”. Randomly coming to practice 2-3-4 times a week will NOT produce improvement once a basic level of competence and fitness have been attained. Coaches spend a huge amount of time and effort Planning Training. Once athlete are coming to practice 4 or more times a week, that planning becomes the basis for success (and there is no “shortcut” around it….it’s not “just the work done”, it’s WHAT WORK is done, WHEN, and IN WHAT SEQUENCE and frequency.
Without a full coaches course in training the complexities of this are immense. As a “primer” here are basic rules for your athlete, once they are in the “Training stage.”
Don’t miss two days in a row. When you do, for every 2nd day you miss, it takes two to get back just to where you were. Don’t miss Saturday AND Sunday if you can help it…see the previous sentence.
Come to the number of practices that your coach ASKS you to attend, that’s a major part of the plan.
Don’t decide on your own to come some days and skip others, chance is, each day has a specific focus and when you miss that component, you’ve missed it for the week or cycle. GET TO PRACTICE.
The Two WORST days to miss, are Friday and Monday. (since Sunday is OFF most of the time on our team.
Coming late, means you miss the warmup, which means you are not prepared to benefit correctly from the main set or activity of the day. As the coaches say “WE DON’T DO LATE!” (for meets OR practice.) It's south Florida, we have traffic. Do all you can to be on time. (Not many of your 11 year olds drive themselves to practice we realize…)
Train with effort and focus all the time. This is a mindset. As a mindset, it can be gained by practicing it every day. A habit. Make it yours.
