Analyzing the 100 Point Game: Successes and Pitfalls in Swim Practice

We played this game about 10 times in the last few months. I have played it with swimming lessons with more advanced abilities and with our developmental swim team. For our pre-competitive group, who have mostly been swimming on the team for more than 1 year, it was an excellent great game. I found there to be a high level of engagement, reception to improved quality and of highest importance a huge boost in peer learning. The swimmers helped each other improve using language I would use as a coach on each other. In every instance of this game, there was at least one group that would band together and help each other out.

Integrating the Game with a Structured Workout

To ensure the fun didn't detract from the technical work, we integrated a general IM Set into the practice session:

Game Mechanics: Rewards and Penalties

We offered the following reward for winners: 5 minutes to do whatever they wanted to do at the end of practice. The winning team could choose as a group what the whole team would do for the last 5 minutes of practice: game, set, anything.

The losing teams had to do either 100 free kick or 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups.

A Coach's Critical Takeaway: What Worked and What Didn't

The Positives (Good)

Effective at first: It engaged everyone as a group in each lane.
Fun and team building: The overall atmosphere was highly positive.

Areas for Caution (Bad/Okay)

Skill quality falters: High-quality swimming tends to decline as the game continues, requiring constant redirection.
Emotional impact: It is easy to really punish people, which can negatively affect self-esteem.
Targeting individuals: The game can easily single people out, which must be managed carefully.

Coaches are extremely subjective when dealing out point subtractions. It is really easy to arbitrarily single out swimmers and punish them. Be careful.

However, on the good side, it is also easy to manipulate the points to make it a close game and more fun. Or to reward favorites, which can also be dangerous.

Conclusion: Creating Your Own Fun Games

If you want to create great games like this, I highly recommend getting the book, "How to Create Fun and Effective Swim Games." You can find it on Amazon now!