Season planning

Are there good resources available somewhere that would lead an inexperienced masters coach through planning out a season? Hell yes. Theory and Methodology of Training, by Tudor O. Bompa (another proud Canadian professor). Principle of planning aren't that complex. It involves knowing in advance, what every single week (microcycle) of the season will be made of, before the first session. It should go down to the finest grain possible in term of level of details. Minimally, it includes: - Volume performed at each intensity level (probably expressed in term of minutes or hours) - Technical abilities learning - Dryland matters (including gym, deck etc) To me, the bible remains Bompa's works. As for the differences between planning for a squad compared to planning for a single individual. I'd say that you may want to create a few different plans (sprinters, mid/distance/triathletes) and treat every of these as if it was one swimmer. The rest, it's more lanes management and it is not part of the yearly plan per se, or so it has never been part of mine.

Thanks Solar, I don't have any Bompa in my personal library, and the only one in the NB library is strength training. I used google to find this set of articles on the topic: swimming.about.com/.../trainingplan_hs.htm If you know of other good online material please post a link! I'm pretty sure that none of my club coaches has been working from a season plan... Does anyone have opinions on splitting the pool season into two complete cycles (with open water being a potential third cycle) versus one cycle spanning the complete pool season? Up north here I don't thing we have well defined short and long course seasons. What sort of training do you fit the non-competitive swimmers into? Or do you just let them pick between sprint, mid-distance, etc?

Thanks Solar, I don't have any Bompa in my personal library, and the only one in the NB library is strength training. I used google to find this set of articles on the topic: swimming.about.com/.../trainingplan_hs.htm If you know of other good online material please post a link! hmmm.... this article is what. 6 page long? The 4th Edition of Bompa's bible is more around 300 pages long. And I insist. It's worth reading this book at least once. Can be ordered out of any site (chapters, amazon) for little over 50$. I'm pretty sure that none of my club coaches has been working from a season plan... I'm pretty sure too. Does anyone have opinions on splitting the pool season into two complete cycles (with open water being a potential third cycle) versus one cycle spanning the complete pool season? Up north here I don't thing we have well defined short and long course seasons. If I had been planning for the season 2009/2010, I would have make two cycles: One that leads to Spring Competitions (Provincials in April, Nationals early May) then a second cycle starting after the Nationals to cover summer casual barbecue competitions, which for a few distance swimmers include OW competition. Summer's cycle would probably be aimed at preparing triathletes to compete. What sort of training do you fit the non-competitive swimmers into? Or do you just let them pick between sprint, mid-distance, etc? If enough pool availability, it could be better to create a plan for these guys. The benefit is that psychological elements that can help them deciding to try competitions can be included. I remember when I was coaching masters in a University. My goal was to put a strong competitive team. For this to happen, you need all available resources. So my goal was to bring non competitive people to try a competition. With this in mind, it's even possible to write a Single-Cycle plan that ends with a very casual outdoor just-for-fun competition held somewhere in the summer.