I have always wanted to create an all encompassing guide that has everything
you need to know about swimming. Faster Swimming will cover philosophy,
scope, mechanics, stroke analysis, race strategies, practice techniques (that are
used throughout a 23 week seasonal program), nutrition, weight lifting, dryland
and how all this makes you a faster swimmer.
If you wish to run as part of your cross training exercise we can help.
John Coffman and I have a combined 45 years of experience. We have collaborated our efforts to meet your training needs.
Swimming Philosophy
I would like to cover two main points that summarizes my philosophy toward
swimming.
• The desire to maintain high retention in the sport, which incorporates the
birth-death time line for swimming. I would like all swimmers to understand
that you can take lessons, swim competitively in age group/high school
swimming, swim collegiately and then swim masters.
• Mechanics vs. “cranking out” yardage.
Point One: Retention
Retention in swimming is the ability to structure training groups, practices,
meets so that you make swimming a good experience. Understanding how
children grow mentally and physically and communication with parents about
these stages are important for understanding the sport. Example: Rapid growth
in children will hinder coordination and body awareness in the water, which can
take the body over a year to regain strength and control. This will result in a
plateau of times (improvement) and takes work to get through mentally. Puberty
greatly affects girls and is a rough stage not only physically (because drag
increases in the water due to the changes many girls go through) but mentally
as well. You will see girls struggle and the ones who make it through this plateau
will succeed down the road.
Retention is also struggling with the balance of other sports and the decisions
made by individuals that affects athletic performance. Each person is individual
in their choices and you must understand and believe at some point an athlete
must make a decision about what sports they will participate. This decision
will affect their goals. I believe that an individual will achieve more internally by
being the best at the sport for which he or she is best suited. Work ethic, time
management, body awareness, self-esteem, learning what it takes to achieve
goals are all to be gained by striving to be the best you can be.
Swimming, as well as other sports at the top level, will take you all over the
country as well as the world. Choose a sport and go for it! Your rewards will
be plenty!
Point Two: Mechanics vs. Yardage
“Yardage, yardage, yardage” is the old school of thought in this sport and is still
used by some successful teams around the country. Improving over time is the
key to retention. The true test would be to study the longevity of the swimmers
who over train as a training philosophy and see if they continue to swim in
college and improve as well as reports on injuries that might have incurred.
Overtraining can result in bad mechanics, which leads to injuries and results in
less recovery swimming, which breaks down the athlete and trains all muscle
groups to work as slow-twitch muscles. Each person has a different level of fast twitch and slow-twitch muscles which makes certain swimmers better at sprints and others mid-to-distance events. One type of training will not maximize each swimmer’s potential and this is up to the coach and swimmer to determine.
Quality mixed with the right amount of quantity training, recovery and dryland
workouts can maximize a swimmer’s potential. Training with proper stroke
mechanics is harder to do and the benefits are twofold.
Coach John Coffman started his coaching career at Whetstone HS in Columbus, Ohio. He was the Head Coach of three Varsity sports (Swimming & Diving, Track & Field, and Cross Country) at Whetstone HS for just under 20 years. In this time John coached his teams to earn over 50 League Titles, a 12-year League Championship win streak in Swimming, and a 14-year league championship win streak in Cross Country. Across sports, he has coached multiple HS All-Americans, State Champions, and a State Record Holder during his time at Whetstone.
John was a Head Track Coach for his club team in the USATF for ten years and has coached for two USA Swimming teams; GCSTO as an Assistant Coach (5 years) and NAAC as an Assistant Swim Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach (8 years). It is through this extensive HS and Club experience, as well as a commitment to both learning and critical thinking, that John has developed his training philosophy that follows (in part):
“General Training Philosophy
* Sport practice and sport training is the main thing. Everything else is secondary to the sport training – strength, conditioning, nutrition, rest – everything.
* Training intensity is directly proportional to competitive results.
* Sacrifice high volumes of low quality work for low volumes of high quality work most often.
* Train as hard as possible, as often as possible, while staying as “fresh” as possible.
Swim Training Philosophy
* Swimming technique is the primary training factor; all other qualities are secondary.
* Quality kicking should be included regularly in every phase of training.
* Quality of distances covered at high velocities will determine training effectiveness.
Strength & Conditioning Philosophy
* S&C work should compliment your sport, and should be at or near peak levels
when heading into the most important competitions.
* Strength Means – Maximal Effort (ME), Dynamic Effort (DE) and
Repetition Effort (RE), Relative Strength (Total Body & Core).
Maximal strength is foundational to all strength qualities.
* Conditioning Means – Varied means which cause the greatest adaptation with
the least disturbance to sport. Systemic work capacity training with sport-specific and event-specific energy system focus. Core conditioning emphasized.
** Speed and Power are directly influenced by the above, and mobility and body awareness allow full expression of these physical qualities and most importantly your sport skill.”
