Making Practices Competitive

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week was submitted by Jon Howell, head coach of the men’s and women’s swim teams at Emory University. Howell offers some advice on how to make practices more competitive.

Howell’s Tip:
A great way to add a competitive challenge to quality sets is to assign points. For example, on a set of 4 x Dive 200's Swim on 3:00, a swimmer gets one point for every second they are over their best time for each repeat. In other words, if the swimmer went 1:57 and their best time is 1:54, then they get 3 points. The objective is for the swimmer to end the set with the fewest number of points. When we run this type of set, we keep a running total on a chalkboard in the pool. After each repeat, the swimmers can then see where they are in the point standings. It is a fun motivational tool, even if you have swimmers of different abilities in the same practice group. Because the points are based on individual best times, the slower swimmers are on the same playing field as the faster swimmers. The concept can also be adapted to any set where maximum effort is expected. Want to spice it up? Try adding stroke count to the equation in a set of shorter repeats. Or, try making it a relay-like game, having assigned lanes compete for the lowest overall total.