Planning a Program

For my first two years working as a learn to swim teacher (16-18 years old) my program plan was based on getting through the six 30 minute intervals I had to work each afternoon. My class members ranged from 5 years to 10 years with skill levels varying from being too scared to put their face in the water, to being able to confidently swim lengths of the pool. Despite briefly learning the concept of periodisation for sports programs in the PD/H/PE elective of year 11 and 12, I was never fully aware over how significantly these concepts could impact not only on the development of the children I was teaching, but also my personal development as a swimming instructor and soon to be coach.

Today, for the children I teach in learn to swim, my lessons on no longer based on how much progression I can see in a single lesson, or how many laps I can get the class to do. It is based on how many children I can move to the next level of swimming, by planning each term (14 weeks) with an adapted version of a periodisation plan and taking key concepts from the training principles. Each lesson group is evaluated on their performance rather than presuming that because they are in level 3 they should be able to streamline kick both on their back and stomach for at least 10m without sinking, and that every day each child in the class will be attentive as the last. I have learn that while I can develop a base lesson plan for all these classes, I will need to adapt intensity and volume during the lesson and perhaps also encourage parents to add volume if a particular skill (such as kicking) is preventing all future skills. In saying this, I do support the new research emerging suggesting alternative approaches to implementing. Each sport, coach, environment and athlete is unique and should be taken into consideration.

The take home message I received from this weeks involvement in Sports Coaching Pedagogy was that no matter what your circumstance, sport, environment or ability, you NEED to have a plan in order to move towards both your and your athletes goals.