I have been trying to come up with ways to con people on my team into racing more during practice. Would you fall for this con if you are typically adverse to getting up on the blocks?
Background: Once a year we have a relay meet and that meet easily has the highest participation of any meet with close to a third of the team entering. Leading up to this meet, I thought it would be easy to convince people to give this set a try since a lot of people attend the meet but have very little practice starting off the blocks and no practice doing relay starts.
The set:
* 4 person continuous relay for 10 minutes.
-- each person will be assigned a number from 1-5.
-- add up the numbers given to each member of the relay
-- the goal for the entire relay is to complete at least that number of 50s in the given time
The coach would assign the numbers based on how fast he thinks the swimmer can swim a 50 with a couple minutes rest. A 5 would be someone who is going to do 30s or faster ('t make achieving the goal any easier than a mixed relay or an all slow relay.
The order of the relay wouldn't matter, everyone should get at least 3 starts off the blocks, it is a good long rest sprint workout and it would expose non-meet participants to the joys of relays and may encourage a few more people to try the meet out.
Would this be fun or horrible?
Sounds complicated. Just tell everyone you are doing 5 minutes of relays at the end of every practice and everyone should participate, regardless of ability. Allow in-water starts.
I'm like you, don't much care for relays, probably because they don't offer the 4 X 500 relay very often.
Fun. But then again, I like racing! If I don't have anyone to race & no clock, I'll work on how fast I lap people!
Our agegroup team does this quite frequently.
Another way to incorporate starts into practice is dive 50's. It's great for those days when the water is cooold and you're trying to get your blood pumping! Four of each stroke on a tight interval that barely leaves you any time to get out and dive in, so you're hurrying the whole time (backstroke is just a regular back start - but a REAL one).
If your goal is to get "non meet" people to swim in the DAMM relay meet, then I would add more fun to the mix. Most "non meet" people don't realize that there are many skills (such as how fast you can switch equipment) that are required for fun meet. There are the traditional relays, but the fun relays are really why people enter!
You could do all the same as above, but insert a "coach's wildcard", so at random intervals, everyone has to start swimming backwards, kick only, get out and do pushups, etc to mix it up.
Former Member
We used to do something similar... but it was continuous 25 relays...
Coaches divided the team into 2 roughly equivalent teams time-wise.
The two teams started on opposite ends each swimmer sprints one length and the next does a relay start at the far end. If one team catches the other and finishes first, then the relay is over and adjustments are made. We would do this a few times and the coach would call random strokes every few swimmers.
Former Member
We used to do something similar... but it was continuous 25 relays...
Thanks FM. I think the way the pool is currently configured that we have blocks at each end, so we could do continuous 25s with relay starts. I think that would be a popular variation.
Former Member
Another way to incorporate starts into practice is dive 50's. It's great for those days when the water is cooold and you're trying to get your blood pumping! Four of each stroke on a tight interval that barely leaves you any time to get out and dive in, so you're hurrying the whole time (backstroke is just a regular back start - but a REAL one).
Hi Celestial, tight intervals and backstroke starts during a relay might be a bit much for my team. I can see the slipping and collisions now, but I am glad you would enjoy the set and I am not surprised that the idea isn't original from an age group perspective. This is probably a frequent set for the more competitive and fun oriented masters teams.
Former Member
Yeah... every team i was on always liked it. And you get like 2-3 min between swims because the teams are like 15 people or more depending on team size.
Former Member
If your goal is to get "non meet" people to swim in the DAMM relay meet, then I would add more fun to the mix. Most "non meet" people don't realize that there are many skills (such as how fast you can switch equipment) that are required for fun meet. There are the traditional relays, but the fun relays are really why people enter!
You could do all the same as above, but insert a "coach's wildcard", so at random intervals, everyone has to start swimming backwards, kick only, get out and do pushups, etc to mix it up.
My goal is mainly to get people to race in practice, and the relay meet is an excuse for them to get up on the blocks.
My coach is a wildcard, so I don't need to prompt him to try crazy stuff. It is the sane stuff I have to try to get him to do.
Do you really think people enter because of the fun relays? I dislike most of the fun relays, but I am a rather boring individual.
