The Four Steps to Making Sure Your Swimmer's Skills Are Race Ready

By Wayne Goldsmith

Every swimming coach does some form of skills practice in their training sessions every day.

For the most part, coaches focus on learning and practicing skills — but rarely test whether those skills are actually race-ready.

The challenge is that there’s a big gap between doing a skill well in training and executing it under race conditions.

Here are four steps to bridge that gap:

1. Learn the skill — Understand the movement. Get the basics right.

2. Practice the skill — Repeat it. Refine it. Build consistency.

3. Test the skill — Add speed. Add fatigue. Add pressure. Can they still do it?

4. Race the skill — Execute it in competition conditions - both simulated racing in training and actual races in Meets. That’s the real test.

Most coaches live in steps 1 and 2. The best coaches make sure their swimmers get to steps 3 and 4.

I’d be interested to know — how do you make sure your swimmers’ skills are race-ready?

Wayne