Ideas of goal setting for an age group squad coach (11-14 years old)

These are the most important years for creating future national level senior swimmers. With their training, swimmers are determining what level of athletes they will be later. During this time, there is gradual and progressive build-up in the intensity and volume of training. Also, coaches should begin to differentiate in the training groups between those swimmers who are more advanced, more committed, and higher performing, compared with the others.

A few goals a coach should have in mind for this group of swimmers are the following:

• Place greater emphasis on team culture and swimmers’ responsibilities. Because peer influence is huge at this age, coaches must ensure that the group ethos is strong and positive, and they must protect the team culture. Swimmers are expected to behave like champions and set a good example for the younger swimmers who look up to them. Continual goal setting is stressed.
• Focus on aerobic development. Swimmers can make huge gains in aerobic capacity with the right kind of endurance work. Compared with the 10 and under programme, training sets get progressively longer, repeat distances get progressively lengthened, send offs get tighter, and performance and consistency of performance are more closely monitored. Swimmers should do serious work in all four strokes and IM, and the training programme should be geared toward competitive success.
• Target certain events for training. For this group, the target should be longer events than those for the younger group. They should focus on the 200s of the form strokes, the 400 m freestyle and longer and the 400 m IM. They should specialize in certain strokes or distances. Training is more frequent and consistent with shorter breaks between seasons.
• Continue technical improvement. Everything you do should have a stroke focus; never just swim. Because most swimmers are growing at furious rates during this time, and the proportional lengths and strengths of limbs and trunk are changing in process, it is important to maintain coordination and control during this biomechanical restructuring.
• Emphasize the connection between training and racing. As swimmers mature physically and psychologically, continual progress in training performance should be expected. Further, there is a greater focus on tying together technique and physiology as coaches condition the racing stroke.
• Continue with general dry land training. Most work still involves body weight exercises, core strength exercises, stretching for flexibility, and games for coordination, agility, quickness and competitiveness. However, coaches should also focus on building up specific strength to prevent injuries to susceptible joints such as knees and shoulders.

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