RESISTANCE MUST BE TAILORED TO THE LEVEL OF THE SWIMMER
ONESwim is owned and operated by year-around swim coaches. As coaches we develop and produce products that WE need for our team. Unlike other swim training product companies that only offer 1-2 sizes of parachutes and other ‘one-size-fits all’ products, we offer the FULL range of sizes because we know it matters. We offer over 6 sizes of parachutes and 7 sizes of Power Bags/socks. This is an essential issue before you read further about our approach and training philosophy for using resistance for kids as young as 9 years old. This conversation doesn’t work if you only think there is 1 size of parachute, 1 size paddle, 1 size Power bag, etc… With young swimmers you have to choose the resistance that matches their size and training level. Without a product company like ONESwim, the concept of resistance training for technique and power with swimmers as young as 9 years old is not possible.
NOTE: One thing to always keep in mind with Resistance Training with any group is to make sure you keep a high diversity of gear, yardage, drills, and timed sets. Just like everything else, you should not over-do or over-use any one piece of gear or stroke.
As a coach, you have to balance technique training, race training, strategies, and power development training. That ratio differs with each group you train, but it all has to be incorporated in the program with all groups. With young swimmers, typically technique is at the forefront of every coach’s mind and everything else is in the background. One thing to think about is how resistance can accentuate and help improve technique.
Resistance Gear for Technique Training
Technique training and resistance training should go hand-and-hand. With our program, we tested out this method of training first with my senior groups, but now we incorporate resistance for our younger groups as well. How this works relies on a couple of factors.
Typically, you have to have a focus for each stroke in your sets (i.e. focusing on an elongated flutter kick for Freestyle). Once you have a focus (per stroke), you can look at the gear you have that will improve their technique (i.e Power Bags over the calves while swimming a ‘6 kick switch drill). With the Bags over the calves, the swimmer FEELS their knees bending and they FEEL that they are not finishing the kick with a pointed toe. The Bags over the calves offer tactile feedback to the swimmer. When the swimmer kicks with long legs, they will move through the water easily and they will feel the change in forward movement if they bend their knee too much or bicycle kick.
No matter what the flaw or stroke you are working on, there are methods of Resistance Training that can be used to help magnify the tactile feedback of their technique with the added bonus of making the swimmers work harder and develop their proper muscle chains in the process. Since most of us are training groups of 4-24 kids in the same group, we have to create drills and resistance combinations that can help as many kids improve as possible, even though they all have different combinations of technique flaws. A simple, yet effective resistance method to simultaneously address different swimmers with opposing High Catch flaws is to swim with ‘knuckle wrap’ by using oversized flat paddles and grabbing the top edge of the paddle in a fist (no straps or just grab over the straps). This can help with swimmers that are swimming with a ‘dropped elbow’ at the same time as swimmers that are swimming with a ‘straight arm engagement’ in the same group. As a coach you can combine the use of ‘resistance’ (i.e oversized flat paddles as ‘knuckle wrap’) but with different drills to suit the needs of the group (6-kick switch, single arm strokes, Unco, etc…). Once you mix and match a resistant tool with different drills you can then start to work on multiple problems (i.e body position and catch technique) at the same time with the same drill. The drill can address a new area (kick, body position, etc…) while the resistance tool can create the tactile feedback to also be working on a second technique element.
For tactile feedback, ONESwim has a wide range fo junior size paddles designed to correct stroke technique flaws for 5-10 year olds. Our Glide Paddle includes fins on the bottom to train a straight stroke path from the entry to the exit. The paddle fits loose on the hand so swimmers can feel it moving side to side on their hand and they instantly stop sweeping out away from the body on across the underside of their body. You will see quick changes with their strokes… even with 5 year olds. Like all of our technique paddles, the Glide Paddles stays loose on the wrist to train them to finish their outsweep (or all of our paddles will lift off their hand as they life their elbow instead of finishing their stroke). Our Precision Paddle is a displacement paddle that is open on the back in order to force the swimmers to engage their fingertips, then wrist and their elbow on their catch. If they ‘drop their elbow’, the paddle will come off the front of their hand. We don’t recommend the Precision Paddle for swimmers that have been swimming less than 6 months or so.
Resistance Gear for Power and Speed Development
One of our favorite reasons for using resistance gear with our younger swimmers is to help them learn to engage their full muscle chain for their strokes or their kicks. Kids quickly learn to move through the water with the least effort possible (even though this often means they magnify their technique flaws). But when it comes time to race, they can’t really go any faster. For most kids in their first few years of training, the only way they know to ‘go faster’ is to move their arms faster. But moving their arms faster than their muscle chains will allow just means that they drop their elbows so they can slice their arms through the water quickly with less and less propulsion. Resistance gear such as small power bags on their arms, paddles, small parachutes, etc… will force them to learn to engage muscle. When you combine the resistance gear and drills, they are instinctively learning to engage their muscle chains as they work to fix their stroke technique.
Resistance Gear to Balance Different Skills in the Same Group
One of the most neglected and un-discussed aspects of swim team training is the fact that we all end up with swimmers that really are not ideally suited to be in the same group and/or lane. We have some that are far ahead of others in their group, while sharing lanes with some that maybe just got started and can not keep up with the average swimmers in their lanes. Resistance gear can balance these everyday problems and help ensure that all swimmers in a group are getting their optimum training level. Instead of trying to ‘speed up’ the slower, less advanced swimmers with fins, it is best to slow down the faster swimmers with resistance gear. The faster swimmers are the most ready for resistance training and will gain a lot by having to work harder instead of having to rest on the walls for long periods (waiting for their slower lane mates to finish their sets). The first tool for this is our Power Chute, which is a small chute that is worn as a belt on their back. It won’t impact their technique negatively but will slow them down some and will help train them to get their hips out of the water better, while forcing them to improve their power off their walls. The next options for balancing your groups is to use different size power bags in the same group. Our PB10 are really our glove size so they can fit on any of the slower swimmers. Our PB12 can be ideal for the swimmers in the middle of your groups and our PB18 or even PB25’s can be used on your fastest swimmers in the group. Our Parachutes offer a similar range of variable resistance, allowing you to use nothing or our 4” chute for the kids in ‘back’ our 6” chute for those in the middle and our 8” chutes for the fastest swimmer(s).
Summary
No matter how old your swimmers are, they will respond well to the use of resistance gear. When they see the older kids in their team using resistance gear, they will be excited when they are training in similar ways. Swimmers are always excited to be trying new things to break up the boredom that can easily creep into a program.
However, be careful when and how you use resistance gear as it can be discouraging if it is too much or you can’t explain the purpose and logic for it. If you use gear that is too large it will have no purpose as they will just swim slower and allow their technique to get worse. Use gear that allows them to swim ‘all out’ for short distances and not just ‘slog’ through endless yardage. And our last precaution is that you not overuse the same combination of equipment and drills. We like to keep the same 1-3 drills for each stroke for an entire season and changing the resistance gear is a great way to maximize the value of those limited drills. Keep things changing with at least small changes to your gear and drill combinations. Power bags are great on the calves for most drills but don’t overuse them on the feet. Be sure to only use them on the feet for a few short sprints (i.e 4×25 ‘all out’) before you remove them.
The bottom line is that resistance gear is a great way to improve your young swimmers’ technique, and power engagement. Use the appropriate sizes and gear for the age, size, skill and experience level of your swimmers. Just because 2 swimmers are both 9 year olds, does not mean they both need the same size gear. A swimmer that has been practicing for 4 years may be very different from one that just started 2 months ago. But regardless of their age and skill level, you have a lot of resistance gear options to incorporate into your program.