Week 3: Feb 15- Feb 19

We're moving along guys! All my swimmers said that they were enjoying the project, which is great news because it's a known fact that you do better at something you enjoy doing... according to my lit review anyways.
My adviser/ coach  was able to observe me performing the project this week. This was extremely helpful because it's difficult trying to point out the things swimmers are doing wrong, especially in freestyle, because that's the stroke we use the most and are most likely to evolve to be more efficient.
In group 1, the individualized coaching method, each swimmer did an initial 50 freestyle (2 lengths) so I could see what each swimmer needed to improve on this week. Swimmer A has started to move their head too much. To help with this I had them do a drill I had the others do last week, where they held the board and did freestyle with it. Swimmer B isn't pulling as much water as they should, this leads to a less efficient stroke because more work needs to be done to move through the water. I didn't assign a drill for Swimmer B I just told them to swim big and pull through the water with a flexed wrist and cups. Swimmer C has been entering the water with their hand turned to the side, this also leads to a less efficient stroke because your hand just swipes through the water as you pull underwater instead of grabbing and pulling the water through with fingertips pointing down. To help Swimmer C I had them use paddles,which are plastics boards about the size of your hands that swimmers use to pull through the water with more strength. Swimmer C used the paddles with no straps, that you would usually use to keep the paddles from falling off, but to make sure the swimmer put her hand in the water correctly they had to hold on the paddles with their fingers and pull all the way through. The swimmers of group 1 each did 3 50's of their drills. After each drill I gave them feedback on their stroke.
For group 2, the grouped coaching method, the swimmers started with 6 kick switch, which is a drill where you kick on your side 6 times and then do 3 strokes and then kick 6 times on your other side. This drill helps with side breathing and rotating their freestyle, which is important for reaching out and grabbing the water to pull all the way through. They did 1 50 of that and they looked good so we moved to fingertip drag drill to help with their hand control as they enter the water, which they did 2 50's of.
This week the swimmers did another 50 freestyle sprint off the blocks.
Swimmer A's time was 32 seconds.
Swimmer B's time was 33 seconds.
Swimmer C's time was 36 seconds
Swimmer 1's time was 34 seconds
Swimmer 2's time was 37 seconds.
Swimmer 3's time was 38 seconds.