Swimming Coachability

Last Updated on April 9, 2024 by admin

**One of the best ways a swimmer can increase their coachability is for them to develop a great rapport and understanding with their coach.**

In this article, we’ll provide advice, hacks and tips on swimming coachability and why it’s important for a swimmer to become more coachable.

The competitive swimming world is full of many talented swimmers.

However, developing and improving swimmers requires much more than talent.
It requires a swimmer to acquire and develop a set of key swimming skills and attributes.
One of the best ways of acquiring and developing these is to become more coachable.

How to increase your swimming coachability

Detailed below are some of the best ways that a swimmer can increase their swimming coachability.

Building a rapport with your coach

The primary role of a swimming coach is to impart their knowledge and experience, to help develop the swimmers in their charge.

One of the best ways a swimmer can increase their coachability is for them to develop a great rapport and understanding with their coach.

An important part of developing a swimmer-coach rapport is building a two-way communication process.
The swimmer needs to feel confident in being able to ask their coach for assistance, feedback, information or support.
Swimmers need to be able to take constructive criticism from their coach.
They should view it as an essential part of the feedback process.
The swimmer also needs to be open to trying and developing new training methods and swimming techniques.
Swimmers should inform their coach before a training session if they don’t feel 100% enabling the coach to make allowances for them.
Swimmers should thank their coach at the end of each training session and competitive event.
This type of two-way rapport can help drive both the coach and the swimmer to ever-higher levels of performance.

Setting swimming goals

One of the most effective ways of increasing their swimming coachability is for swimmers to set swimming goals.

They help the swimmer to establish clear targets, priorities and expectations.
Swimming goals are a useful tool in enabling both the swimmer and the coach to gauge the swimmer’s progress and development toward achieving the swimmer’s ambitions.
The swimming goal-setting process is a great way of building rapport between the swimmer and the coach.

Time management

Swimmers usually lead a full and busy life. Therefore, it’s important that they manage their time correctly.

Swimmers need to ensure that they arrive on time for training and competition.
They need time to change, prepare and warm up properly on the poolside/deck before entering the pool.
Sometimes this needs a bit of pre-planning to achieve, especially for morning training sessions.

Training with a positive mindset

Training with a positive mindset is a great way for a swimmer to increase their coachability.

Swimmers who train with a positive mindset are more likely to remain focused.
They will be more likely to train to the best of their ability and will not try to ‘cut corners’.
They will also be more likely to try something new and generally enjoy training more.

Pay attention, listen and learn

Most swimming pools are noisy places, where the acoustics are usually poor.

This can sometimes make it difficult for the coach to communicate with their swimmers.
When the coach is giving instruction, swimmers should look at the coach, pay attention to what they are saying and seek clarification if necessary.
Be courteous to the other swimmers and don’t chat while the coach is giving instructions.

Train hard and train well

Competitive swimming requires the swimmer to undertake hours of hard training in the pursuit of excellence. However, just training hard is no guarantee of swimming success.

During training, swimmers should focus on their technique.
They should ensure that they are swimming at the correct pace.
They should also ensure that they are monitoring the pace clock, and are taking the correct amount of rest between each set and each rep.

Lane etiquette

Sometimes having a lane full of competitive swimmers, all wishing to train hard and be the lead swimmer in the lane, increases the possibility of an accident or an incident.

While swimmers may have a keen rival training in their lane, they should remember it’s this kind of competition that drives them both on to be the best they can be.
Swimmers should increase their coachability by being more of a team player and setting good training examples for the rest of their squad.
Swimmers should also be courteous to other swimmers and make allowances for the varying abilities that can occur in their lane. Slower and less experienced swimmers have as much right to train as any other swimmer.
Lane safety and etiquette is an important issue for most swimming squads. Swimmers should do all that they can to ensure that all squad members have a safe and enjoyable training experience.

Invisible training

Increasing your swimming coachability shouldn’t begin and end in the pool.

Competitive swimmers train and compete at a consistently high intensity.
During this, they burn a lot of calories and break down a large amount of muscle tissue.
For a swimmer wishing to continue swimming at their optimum, these calories need to be replenished and their muscles need time to recover.
Invisible swimming training is a series of disciplines to help ensure that swimmers receive the correct levels of nutrition and hydration, in combination with rest, recovery, relaxation and sleep.

Maintaining a swimming log

Keeping an up-to-date swimming log is a great way to increase a swimmer’s coachability.

It helps record, monitor and evaluate a swimmer’s development and progression toward their swimming goals.
This should be regularly reviewed by the swimmer and if necessary, discussed with the coach, again helping to build the swimmer-coach rapport.