Why Challenges Work for Elite Swimmers
Last night I did a challenge with some advanced swimmers. These were kids that have been swimming for about 6 years on the team—since they were 5 or 6 and are now 11.
I know. Scandalous that you would actually play a game or do a challenge with elite athletes instead of cramming in more yards and workout. We have precious time, and I feel like most coaches are determined to eke out the most performance from their swimmers like squeezing a towel and ringing out water.
What I saw was a light of excitement blossom in their eyes. They attacked this challenge—and a second one—with so much enthusiasm it changed their demeanor entirely.
Challenges work for elite swimmers because they give them a vehicle to express their competitive spirit. Challengeschallengeswimmers to think and do things they're not typically used to; they're new, exciting, and stimulating.
In this example, we have a challenge that on its face is pretty easy: float on your back and do 3 fly kicks. Get about 5–7 yards using only 3 complete strokes.
To get a far distance with 3 fly kicks, the swimmers needed to use their whole body, glide, and use an efficient kick. The best measure of success was how engaged they were. For the first time in weeks, I saw trial and error enter into their swim practice.
When we're coaching, we want to see swimmers devoting deliberate practice—that careful study and attention to improvement that drives learning. We want to see our swimmers struggle to accomplish a drill or a swim with a trial-and-error behavior.
Lap swimming for an hour while they read off a practice (limitations due to COVID) does not foster that deliberate practice learning. They accomplish the tasks, but without the thoughtful attention to improvement we desire.
Coaching can mitigate this zombie-like flow through a workout, but with 8 kids and 8 different practices, it can be difficult to devote a high enough level of engagement to any one individual. We're simply split too much between too many people.
Challenges bridge that gap into deliberate practice.
When the swimmers failed at this "simple" task, they had to re-evaluate their approach. They had to change something about their kick, their technique, or their body position. For one kid, he had to confront that he only uses his legs in butterfly and not his whole body—like he should have been for years!
How to Adapt a Challenge
Add roadblocks. Make it harder. This follows the same formula as creating a game:
- Determine what you want to work on—what skill.
- Put a limitation on it.
- Provide clear rules for accomplishing the task.
- Modify to be achievable.
Here is an example:
Challenge Examples
Challenge for Developmental Swimmers
Most figured out pretty quickly that they could sink their hips to accomplish this task. That was fine. I wanted the swimmers to be thinking about what a correct breaststroke kick was (had to be legal for success) and to think about keeping their knees low. The goal of this challenge is to reinforce not lifting your knees up toward your belly for breaststroke kick. Great for beginners, a little too easy for elite swimmers that are winning state championships in breaststroke.
Ahh, but we can always make something harder with more roadblocks.
Challenge for Elite Swimmers
Once we added the belly at the surface, simple balance and buoyancy came into play. Swimmers had to adjust their body to do an unnatural breaststroke kick.
But why are we asking them to do something wrong? Because it challenges the swimmer to THINK about what they're doing. It focuses their mind into action. It connects a specific motion to thought instead of habit or instinct. Our goal is to stimulate their mind, their thoughts, their creativity to solve a problem and invigorate their interest.
Knowing what not to do is as good as knowing what to do. Both help.
This new challenge with the belly at the surface was much more difficult than the other, but our swimmers LOVED them. They failed repeatedly. A swimmer that has set state records in breaststroke failed so many times I had to stop him from trying (we ran out of time).
He smiled the whole time, and one of the older swimmers who got to do it said, "Oooh, that one is super hard! Did you figure out the secret?"
Key Takeaways
- Challenges spark excitement and deliberate practice in advanced swimmers.
- Adapt challenges by adding roadblocks and modifying distance or rules.
- Use the formula: skill → limitation → rules → modify for ability.
- Even elite swimmers benefit from failing and re-evaluating their technique.
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