Last Updated on November 16, 2022 by admin
In this article, we’ll provide advice, hacks and tips on effective swimming time management techniques, which can help swimmers to balance their swimming, educational, social and family commitments.
Why swimmers need effective time management
As a swimmer matures and develops, so can the pressures on their time. This includes,
- Training and competition: They may be training and competing more often.
- Education: There may be an increase in the amount of school or college work.
- Social activities: There may also be an increase in the swimmer’s social activities.
- Family commitments: Many swimmers need to be able to attend to their family commitments.
- Examinations and revision: Examinations can be a very stressful time for swimmers, wishing to continue to balance their commitments.
- Holidays and vacations: Sometimes going on a family holiday or a vacation can be stressful for a swimmer. They may worry about missing training or an important competition.
- Invisible training: It’s important that swimmers make the time to correctly eat, drink, relax and sleep so that they can train and compete at their optimum.
When swimmers start to come under time pressure, they (and their parents) sometimes start to panic. They start to believe there is not enough time in the day to complete all of these activities.
Related article on finding the correct life balance for swimmers
We have produced a related article on finding the correct life balance for swimmers. You can view it by clicking this link: finding the correct life balance for swimmers
Effective swimming time management techniques
Listed below are some ways to better manage a swimmer’s time.
A weekly time management plan
There is a famous planning saying, ‘failing to plan, is planning to fail’.
- Many of the world’s top swimmers produce a weekly swimming time management schedule to help them effectively balance and prioritise their often-hectic schedules.
This can be a simple grid on a piece of A4 paper or can be a computer spreadsheet.
- Whatever their preferred format, the important thing is that it works for the swimmer
- Along the top of the paper, the swimmer should put the days of the week at the header of the first seven columns.
- Along the side of the paper, they should list the times they are active during the day, one row per half hour of time.
- So, if the swimmer trains in the mornings, they may need to start their grid at 5 am (when they wake up) in half-hourly segments until they go to bed at 10 pm.
- The swimmer should now shade the boxes for the time of the day they are at school or college, including any after school/college activities, the days and times they do homework and the days and times they train etc.
- The swimmer may be surprised that if managed correctly, they may find enough time to do all the things that are important to them. This can be just a case of prioritising.
Please find attached an example of a weekly time management plan: please click the link below.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://eatsleepswimcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TimeTable-For-Senior-National-Swimmer.pdf”]
Identify non-productive activities
While in the process of completing their weekly time management plan, swimmers should try and identify the activities that are not time productive.
- For example: Spend an hour watching TV when you get home from school, college or work, or the hours spent on social media.
Prioritise
Effectively managing time can often be a case of prioritising.
- By identifying and prioritising the activities that are the most important, swimmers may find they begin to manage their time more effectively and are a lot more productive.
Learn to say no
Once a swimmer has prioritised, the next step is learning to say ‘no’ to those inevitable distractions that get in the way of a swimmer’s main priorities.
- For example, a friend may ask you over to their place to listen to music, but you have schoolwork to complete and have to get up early for morning training.
- Top swimmers recognise that they cannot do everything and ‘burn the candle at both ends’, as this can often lead to overtiredness, which in turn can sometimes lead to illness.
Focus on the task at hand
Swimmers should ensure that they focus on one task at a time.
- They should also ensure when studying that they are in an environment where they are not distracted, so they can complete the task without delay and are fully focused on the task at hand.
Invisible training
Swimmers need to recover from the rigours of training and competition.
- It’s therefore important that swimmers allow enough time for effective invisible training, so they can rest, relax and sleep.
- They also need to allow enough time to replenish their energy stores by taking on board some healthy nutrition and hydration.
Related article on invisible swimming training
We have produced a related article on the importance of invisible swimming training. You can view it by clicking this link: invisible swimming training
If all else fails, get help
Sometimes despite a swimmer’s best efforts, they can still fail in finding a way of achieving the correct balance for their swimming, educational, social and family commitments.
- In this instance, it may be wise to seek help from either a parent, a coach or a teacher.
- There may be a teammate who uses similar swimming time management techniques, who the swimmer may be able to turn to.
- They may identify ways of balancing your commitments.
Examinations and revision
As a swimmer matures and develops, so can the need for them to commit more of their time to their academic studies.
- Most coaches will understand completely and will be ok with a reduction in a swimmer’s training around revision and examination times.
- Coaches just want to be communicated to and informed when they can expect this to take place.
- However, examination and revision times can be very stressful for any student, sometimes swimming can provide the perfect outlet for that stress.
- By all means, swimmers should plan to reduce their swimming commitment, during examination and revision times, but they should plan for this, inform their coach and shouldn’t give it up altogether.
Social and family occasions
From time to time there are special family occasions and other social activities outside swimming that a swimmer should attend.
- As long as these are occasional, and they inform their coach there should be no great effects on their training performance.
- However, making activities like sleepovers, at which swimmers rarely get enough sleep a habit can have a damaging effect on their training performance.
- As in swimming as with a lot of things in life, it’s about prioritising and getting the balance right.
Holidays and vacations
If possible consider and plan the timing of your visit, holiday or vacation.
- Sometimes missing training during the peak season or prior to an important event, cannot be avoided.
- But if it can be postponed until after the peak period of the season, then it will have a lesser effect on the swimmer’s training programme and could reduce any potential swimmer’s stress as a result.
Related article on swimming training on the go
We have produced a related article on how to continue swimming training whilst on holiday or vacation. You can view it by clicking this link: swimming training on the go
Takeaways
When swimmers start to come under time pressure, they (and their parents) sometimes start to panic.
- They start to believe there is not enough time in the day to complete all of these activities.
- There is a famous planning saying, ‘failing to plan, is planning to fail’.
- Many of the world’s top swimmer’s produce a weekly swimming time management schedule
- to help them effectively balance and prioritise their often-hectic schedules.
Swimming resource library
We have provided a swimming resource library, containing links to all of our publications and blog articles. To access any article simply click on the attached page link: Swimming resource library
Swimming Publications
We produce a growing range of publications on a wide range of swimming subjects.
- These include competitive swimming drill publications for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
- Which are now available in both Amazon Kindle and paperback formats.
- For information regarding our portfolio please follow our link: Swimming Publications.
The Competitive Swimming Exchange – Facebook Group
The Competitive Swimming Exchange is a Facebook group to help exchange ideas and information to collectively improve the sport we love.
- It’s an international group for all swimmers, coaches, teachers, masters, triathletes and swimming parents.
- It’s for all those who are interested in competitive swimming, either in the pool or in open water.
For more information about joining this group please use the following link: The Competitive Swimming Exchange