Christmas Swim

One thing we did once was a follow the leader swim. The first person can go anywhere they want, switching lanes, getting out, jumping off the board, etc. The rest of the people have to follow like a line of ants. Kind of a conga line in the pool. You can also take the lane lines out and have them play water polo in the deepend with chairs as goals. Just be careful--even if you tell them to keep the contact minimal, it seems like it always gets a little heated. Still, very fun alternative to swimming back and forth and "staying within the lines." There was another thread somewhere that mentioned different peculiar meet ideas. Our masters coach sometimes does these relay races of sorts. Two swimmers square off. If you do a non freestyle stroke and win, you get 2 points. If you do a non freestyle stroke and lose, you get 1 point. If you do freestyle and win, you get 1 point. If you do freestyle and lose, you get no points. And finally, if you swim the whole thing underwater (we were doing 50s, but if the kids are young, you could do 25s), you get 2 points regardless of whether you win or lose. Complicated but kind of fun. You stop the "relay" after each pair takes off, then regroup. One final idea is the golf game. You swim a 50 free as fast as you can, count your total number of arm strokes, get the time for the 50, and add the two together. I think the best showing on our team was 42. Someone swam the 50 in 26 seconds, took 7 strokes on the first length and 9 on the second for a total of 16. 26 + 16 = 42.

One of my favorite activities as a USS swimmer was doing the goggle toss. Not sure how you'd want to work it in, but the swimmers throw their goggles and try to hook them on the flags. Whoever hooks their goggles (if any) either gets a prize or they get to get out early (or everyone gets out early).

The Secret Santa of Swimming Sets the17thman.typepad.com/.../the-secret-santa-of-swimming-sets.html

That sounds like SO MUCH FUN! :)

One of my favorites is the t-shirt relay. Gather an assortment of size XL t-shirts (nothing small, it won't be as fun). Start relay with first swimmer on deck with shirt in hand. On start, swimmer #1 dons the shirt, swims a 50, then must exit, remove shirt, and hand to next swimmer who puts on the shirt, swims a 50, etc. If your facility is cool enough (mine isn't), buy a $2.59 Santa hat and wear for the occasion.

Ya don't need to wait for a Christmas swim for this -- I do it every day. I've got lots of practice at it. And I have a handful of "hangs" in the bank for one of those cold, tired winter mornings.:bed: One of my favorite activities as a USS swimmer was doing the goggle toss. Not sure how you'd want to work it in, but the swimmers throw their goggles and try to hook them on the flags. Whoever hooks their goggles (if any) either gets a prize or they get to get out early (or everyone gets out early).

One of my favorites is the t-shirt relay. Gather an assortment of size XL t-shirts (nothing small, it won't be as fun). Start relay with first swimmer on deck with shirt in hand. On start, swimmer #1 dons the shirt, swims a 50, then must exit, remove shirt, and hand to next swimmer who puts on the shirt, swims a 50, etc. If your facility is cool enough (mine isn't), buy a $2.59 Santa hat and wear for the occasion.That's a great idea, if I can get the T-shirts. You can also take the lane lines out and have them play water polo in the deepend with chairs as goals. Just be careful--even if you tell them to keep the contact minimal, it seems like it always gets a little heated. Still, very fun alternative to swimming back and forth and "staying within the lines." Yeah we'll probably do something like this when we run out of things to do. Marco Polo too. That other stuff sounds too complicated XD The Secret Santa of Swimming Sets the17thman.typepad.com/.../the-secret-santa-of-swimming-sets.html Lol that sounds hard. My high school swim coach did something like this to us. We swam a regular hour and a half of practice, and before that we were in the weight room for half an hour. Then he decided to pull out the toughest set I can remember doing ever. 10 300s, your stroke, timed. ...my stroke was butterfly. But lucky for me I was able to alternate between free and fly.

Have you thought about something where the coach may have to get in and do something? Having that possibility always motivated any kids I coached. Last year, I attended a Christmas eve practice with the Blue Muppet's HS team. They had 12 different sets (12 days of Christmas) as possibilities to do that day. One kid from each lane got to toss a pair of dice, and whatever number came up, everyone did that set. I got to roll when it was the old farts lane's turn, and unfortunately, it meant a second consecutive round of 10x100 IM. I think we did 5800SCY that workout (most I've ever done to that point, or since) and I think that is partially to blame for how I ended up spending a good portion of Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning worshiping the porcelain gods rather than celebrating Christmas.

I forgot about Australian Relays! We did that once when I was in HS and practice ran about 20 minutes over (already a 2hour special!). He had the "teams" so evenly matched that it took about 10 rounds through (we were swimming 50SCM each) before one team was within 15m of the other, and then for the next several rounds, as soon as one got close, a fast guy would be up against a slower guy and we'd be back to 15m again. I think we were at it for 45 minutes.

My coach gave me this workout a few years ago: Workout #4 Dec. 23, 2004 The Twelve Sets of Swim Practice 1 x 300: choice 2 x 150: 50 drill/50 swim/50 kick 3 x 50: 25 dps/25 build (get heart rate up) (:15r) 4 x 100 free #1 – Cruise +:20 #2 - Cruise + :15 #3 – Cruise +:10 #4 – Cruise + :05 5 x 75 Indiana IMs (:20r) #1 – Fly/Bk/Brst #2 – Bk/Brst/Fr #3 – Brst/Fr/Fly #4 – Fr/Fly/Bk #5 – Fly/Bk/Brst 6 x 50 free (:15r) #1 & 2 - first 1/3 fast, 2/3 ez (work on fast start) #3 & 4 – 1/3 ez, 1/3 fast, 1/3 ez (work on fast turn) #5 & 6 – 2/3 ez, 1/3 fast (work on fast finish) 7 x 25: swim choice on :30 odd – 25 EZ even – 25 fast 8 x 50: kick choice (:15r) odd – 25 EZ/25 build even – 25 build/25 fast 9,10,11: 300 pull – 9 strokes build/10 strokes fast/11 strokes EZ 12 x 12 ½: ascending - start off fast, each 12 ½ slow down and make stroke longer Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!