Week 4: Feb 22 -Feb 26

This week has been the best one so far! I have finally conquered my timing problem and was able to finish with time to spare and talk to the swimmers. I also finally learned how to time everybody correctly with the stopwatch, so that's exciting! Usually a USA swimming certified coach would be the only one who can coach the swimmers, but because the assistant coach, who is also USA swimming certified, helps me pick out what's wrong with the strokes and tells me different drills that can help, it's okay for me to tell the swimmers what to do.

This week group 1 did new drills to fix their strokes. Swimmer A has been swimming with their eyes up, to fix this we did Josh Davis catch-up drill, which is where the swimmer does three strokes and then kicks with their face in the water with their hands in a Superman position. This helps with head movement and introduces the feeling the swimmers eyes looking straight down. Swimmer B needs to stretch their arms out more instead of just diving their hand straight out. They needs to reach out by rotating and grabbing the water. To help with this we did six kick switch with one stroke, where they kick on their side for six kicks and then take three strokes and kick on the other side. This introduces the feeling of reaching on their side. Swimmer C is still entering the water with their hand turned, this loses the potential for pulling any water because their hand just swipes right through. To make their pull more efficient I had them do Josh Davis catch-up drill and really focus on their hand placement as they pull the water. 

In group 2 the swimmers seem to be crossing over. I mentioned to them the correct way to pull and why they shouldn't cross over while swimming. They did the fingertip drag drill to slowly enter their hand in the water above their shoulder rather than above their head. Pulling from above your head can create shoulder problems, which is like a bottomless pit of pain for swimmers. 

At the end they did a 50 sprint swim freestyle. 

Swimmer A went 33 seconds, last week they went 32.

Swimmer B went 34 seconds, last week they went 33.

Swimmer C went 35 seconds, last week they went 36.

Swimmer 1 went 34 seconds, last week they went 34.

Swimmer 2 went 36 seconds, last week they went 37. 

Swimmer 3 went 39 seconds, last week they went 38. 

This past weekend all of the swimmers went to Regionals, a three day swim meet in Phoenix, also Swimmer B's goggles filled up with water in their 50 sprint, this can cause unnecessary head movement. Swimmers are always faster at a swim meet because the adrenaline kicks in and you are their to do your business and go as fast as you can. Here are the personal bests thus far for the swimmers in my project.
Swimmer A's fastest recorded time, according to USA swimming, in a swim meet for a 50 freestyle is 30.01.
Swimmer B's fastest recorded time, according to USA swimming, in a swim meet for a 50 freestyle is 32.31.
Swimmer C doesn't swim the 50 freestyle time at a swim meet for their age group yet.
Swimmer 1's fastest recorded time, according to USA swimming, in a swim meet for a 50 freestyle is 29.93.
Swimmer 2's fastest recorded time, according to USA swimming, in a swim meet for a 50 freestyle is 31.84.
Swimmer 3 doesn't swim the 50 freestyle time at a swim meet for their age group yet.