UNDERWATER DOLPHINS TUESDAY

 

Today we spent a lot of time discussing our walls and the underwater dolphin kicks off the wall and into the breakout in the race.  We did this with all of our 9and overs just on a different scale for each group.

We had our seniors talk to them about how important the kicks are in a race and how you are more efficient if you can master the technique.  We explained that it is not about the distance as much as it is more about how fast you can cover that distance.   They needed to figure out the exact moment when they needed to go into their breakouts.

We explained how the hardest thing they needed to do was becoming comfortable being un comfortable u dear water.  With supervision we had them partner up and while one partner placed a hand lightly on the head the other partner would sit on the bottom and relax while exhaling through their noses. 

We also explained that young swimmers think the underwater’s originate at the knees and they don’t

realize they need to engage the core.  We used the baby pool for that and had them doing leg lifts while engaging their core muscles.  After a few minutes we turned on the mushroom to see if they could remain calm.  (Probably a mistake)  even with goggles on they had trouble focusing on core muscles.

Next we placed a cone in each lane had them put on their fins and they had 5 kicks to get to the cone while being timed.  We recorded times on whiteboards.  RULE WAS THEY COULD NOT TAKE MORE THAN 5 kicks.  Added up times for each lane and the lowest score got ice cream from snack bar.

This is what our 9-12 age group did with the blue squad in the big pool and the green squad in the trap pool (24 yards).

WARM UP

• 200 (50 free/50 back)
• 2x100 free (build off each turn) we are picking up the tempo
• 4x50 (25 free swim/25 back kick

5 minute kick with partners. Start out easy choice. ON WHISTLE FAST FREE KICK. NEXT WHISTLE back to easy. KEEP REPEATING.  LETS WAKE UP OUR SLEEPY LEGS.

SET

Work the underwater using cones and stopwatch. 

Finishing up we worked on underwater’s and free and fly breakout.   In fly they were not allowed to go for air on first stroke.  In free we had our older kids tell them how many breaths they took in free.  We started with our 10 and under’s taking 3 and 11-12 taking 2 on first 25. We placed cones on bottom to spots we thought they could use for getting air.   First 25 lots of them went with no breath.  I explained thats great for a 25  it at your age that won’t work for a 50.  We are trying to figure out where to get your air in the pool. 

After that they did a pretty good job.