As a new head coach of a program, i thought i would talk about season development. I’m finding as a coach you do so much more than just plan swim practice. You have to plan banquets, Keep track of swimmers, keep the parents up to date, You can't forget the development of swim gear, suits, and uniforms. All this takes a lot of hard work and dedication. So just know as high school coach. You wear multiple hats and play multiple roles with the team.

In this blog, i wanted to go over some thoughts about workouts and season planning. I know not everyone is a coach who is reading this. However, all of you have an interest in swimming and for the most part, seek to improve your skills. So I'm going to give you guys three tips on developing workouts for the season.

Yardage is important but it's not everything. When i say this i mean i have heard stories about coaches just piling up yards on their swimmers and never checking in with them about their stroke. The truth is adding yardage is important. But if you forget about how important stroke efficiency is then what kind of a coach are you. You have to focus on both aspects to be a good swimmer.
The second thing is seeing where you start from. Timing and crunching numbers are important. I want my swimmers to know how far they have come during the season. I do this through three things: meet times, test sets, and intervals as the season continues the intervals get shorter. I tend to start the season out with a test so they can see so far they have come. If you think about it meets are like quizzes they chose to do. Its all about progress.
Keep diversity in the sets that you give them if your swimming day in and day out doing the same thing over and over again begins to get a little boring. Change up the set by adding speed, distance, and tools.