When you go home and begin to use new techniques
like Bill Boomer’s, you need to first teach your
swimmers and coaches the language of his program.
Teach vocabulary, teach the initial core concepts,
teach the basics, and don’t implement anything until
you have comprehension and acceptance by staff and
swimmers.
Use the same vocabulary for
swimmers of all ages and stages of development.
Prior to this time, terminology may have been
individualized: kids in one group didn’t use the
same language as the kids in that group. In my own
situation, this caused a bit of a commotion because
changing from one group to another meant learning a
whole new language. It’s preferable to use the same
terms whether Novice or National swimmer.
Core language (the basic
terminology in any swim program) is usually
determined by the person who coaches the level that
you are ultimately aiming your kids toward: Head
Coach. If you participate in one of these coaching
clinics or seminars and want to integrate new
concepts into your current program, sit down with
your Head Coach and discuss the situation first.
Tell him that you want to institute these new
protocols and new vocabulary, to use this word to
mean this instead of that. Sort of nudge your way up
to a new commonality of language.
You don’t have the right to
dictate to the larger groups, but you do have the
right to determine the language that will be used by
kids under you. And, you have the power of
persuasion! If the guy above you sees that you are
getting results, he may revise his methods and his
vocabulary because he simply won’t be able to
communicate with the athletes if he doesn’t. If he
refuses to make the adjustment, you have to accept
his policies or take the dreaded hike.
Start them out with the same
language they’ll use as elite swimmers. Changing
groups should not mean learning a new system; change
groups should enhance the existing system. For
example Mission Viejo has a huge number of practice
groups but graduating from Novice to Younger does
not mean joining a new swim team. It just means
expanding on the work done as a Novice. Each group
is built on the one before it. This system allows
leapfrogging where one swimmer suddenly becomes a
motor maniac and leapfrogs over two or three groups.
The kid can move into the new group and never miss a
beat.
Imagine the cacophony of
noises in this poor little Bosco’s head when he has
to change four groups in one year and learn four
levels of syntax. It’s no wonder when this kid turns
12 he can’t pronounce his own name. Standardizing
language from Novice to National makes learning
easier.
One recent December, our Novice
group walked by my group as it was doing drills in
the 50-meter pool. One kid asked, “What’s that?” The
answer better not have been Freestyle. The answer
better not have been “Oh, that’s a new exciting
skill called swimming.” Our goal is to have any
little kid walking by and older group saying, that’s
catch-up stroke, I knew that or, that’s progressive
breaststroke drill, I know how to do that.
Our goal is to have little
kids say, “I do what National kids do.” Not “What is
that?” Fear of changing from group to group
diminishes because little Bosco doesn’t have to
learn new skills. He already knows what catch-up is,
he knows how to swim left arm breaststroke, he knows
how to do the balance drill and press the line on
butterfly and breaststroke because he learned it as
a novice kid.
Commonality of language also
applies to commonality of skills being taught from
novice all the way up. If you are in a satellite
program you have to meet every 10 days to two weeks,
depending on the time of year. You need to get
everybody on the same page so they can go back to
their facility and continue the program you
established. Sometimes you should even bring in key
volunteers for these meetings to ensure that
everyone is moving in the same direction.
Taken from an edited
transcript of a presentation that Mike Lewellyn gave
at the National Age Group Coaches Conference in
April 1999. |