So, some of you have been reaching out to me about workouts which tells me you are thinking about being in shape for pre-season. Here are some tips and then some more tips from Swim Swam.

My personal tips from experience:

Bring a Set: If you have a pool to work-out at, I recommend you write a set before going to the pool.

Warm Up: Be realistic. Do not write or pick a warm-up that is going to tire you out so much that you can't do your main set.

Example: I have a hard time with freestyle, so I leave it out of my warm-ups. Most people have a hard time with butterfly, leave it out of you warm-up. If you are only good with free, just do free.

With that said, you will reach a point in your warm-up where you feel horrible but move past this point and you will get your second wind.

Go Easy: Pick an achievable goal. Do not expect yourself to be where you were at before. I got to a great place in my breaststroke, and it is all gone now. I feel angry at myself because I must start over. I got to let that go and focus on getting the correct form first (no short cuts). So, instead of doing a 50 of bad form, I will do a 25 of good form.

Note: If I do a 50 of bad form breaststroke because my body/muscles cannot perform a proper breaststroke, how does that help me? I am literally reinforcing bad habits. So, instead of a full 50 or 100 (wherever you are at), I break it down.

If I am doing 100 breast (and I can only hold a 25 of good form), this is what I do to slowly get back to where I should be: 100 breast - 25 good form, 25 drill, 25 alternate stroke, 25 good form; then 50 good form, 25 drill, 25 good form, then 50 form, 25 drill, 25 sprint good form, then 75 form, 25 sprint good form. And so on…

Picking a set: There are a lot of swimming sets you can find on-line. But I think you should try your hand at writing your own sets. Once I started writing my own sets, I started to become accountable to myself. I was faster at age 35 than I ever was at age 17 because I was doing it for myself and not for my club coach. I wish I had done this when I was 17, I probably could have made it to State (I made it to Districts).

But if you want a starting place for sets, I have attached a zip file of our practice sets. Enjoy! You will know which ones our Coach Kelly’s. Lol!

You got this, SWIVE! Coach Loy

Okay, I will leave you with these helpful tips from Swim Swam:

Here are 5 tips for getting back into the water after a long break out of the water:

1. Take it Day by Day.

Typically, when we jump back into the pool after a long break the expectation is that we swim a few hundred meters, shake the cobwebs loose, and then we are back! This is rarely the case. Depending on what we were up to during the break – i.e. did we stay in shape – the bounce back can be slow going.

In this spirit you should forget comparing yourself to where you were, or rather how far you are from where you were and focus on the day-to-day process of being an athlete again, and what that entails.

2. Train for volume before training for effort.

Consistently training to failure when you are out of shape is the quickest way to wear yourself completely out. This can be the hardest thing in the world for an athlete to do; to take their foot off of the intensity pedal when they first get back into the pool. They want to swim fast, and they want to swim fast now.

Over those first few weeks focus on completing your workouts with good technique, and then begin to ramp up the intensity.

3. Build good habits from the get-go.

One of the nice things about taking a long break from swimming is that when you come back you are given a veritable clean slate. Use this fresh start as an opportunity to build good habits into your swimming from day one.

4. Be Patient.

Those first few weeks (and months if it’s been a really long break) can be trying not only physically, but mentally. You’ll wonder to yourself if you will ever swim as fast as you once did. That the pain of training is so much worse this time around. Or that you don’t have the same confidence and mental toughness that you had before. It will come back; your feel for the water, the physical endurance, just not all at once like we imagine it should.

5. Track & celebrate your progress.

Measuring and recording your workouts not only gives you a record of what you are doing, it brings together the points mentioned above as well; it allows you incrementally adjust volume, both in-session and over the course of a week.

It also provides you a place to see how you are keeping on with your new habits, and also displays your “small wins” in front of you to give you that reassuring kick to the derriere that you are on the right track.