The young man is a swimmer, and enthusiastically plays many other sports, including basketball, which he is on this :40 clip is from Coach Trevor Ragan's blog, Championshipbasketballschool.com, playing at a basketball clinic. Trevor uses him as an example of supreme engagement in an activity. I love it!
Here are questions for us, especially coaching young developing 5-10 year olds at practice, daily, for years:
-- Are our swimmers excited to come to practice?
-- Do they smile, pay attention, and swim with intensity at practice?
-- Are they asking "When do we go to the hot tub?" or do they say "Wow, is practice over ALREADY?"
-- Are we coaches excited to be at practice and how do the kids know that?
-- Do we expect the swimmers to come with their full energy and attention and do we give them our full energy and attention?
If our swimmers are misbehaving, messing around, have chronic excuses for getting out of practice, what if we saw this as a nudge to think about how to make it more engaging for them?
What is our "fun" repertoire? How many ways do we know to mix things up and do something unexpected and fresh?
Here are just a few ideas we use:
-- using different equipment and "toys" (fins, buoys, boards, balls, noodles, chutes, bricks, balls, clothes, water bottles, rings, mirrors)
-- mixing in water polo drills and synchro swimming
-- relays, sprint sets, starts and turns, challenge sets (timed swims), stroke count, heart rate, kick sets
-- partner swimming, calisthenics, vertical kicking, vertical floating, kookoo banana sets
-- swimopoly and other "random" workouts with playing cards or dice or stopwatches
-- personal, specific, positive feedback.... verbal, video, physical
What happens at your practice? Is it our intention to make every hour at the pool something we all look forward to and enjoy?
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