By Wayne Goldsmith
Three Key Concepts
The traditional workout formula is limiting your swimmers' potential
Creative, adaptive coaching beats cookie-cutter programs every time
Modern swimming demands purposeful, individualized training approaches
Stop me if this sounds familiar: Warm-up, kick set, pull set, drills and skills, main set, simulators, swim down. Repeat tomorrow. Repeat next week. Repeat for the entire season.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: if your workouts follow the same predictable pattern session after session, you're not coaching—you're photocopying.
I've visited hundreds of pools across six continents, and the sight is depressingly similar. Coaches standing at the end of lanes, clipboard in hand, running swimmers through the exact same workout structure they learned in their Level 1 coaching course twenty years ago. It's swimming by formula, coaching by default, and it's killing creativity and limiting potential.
The greatest coaches I've worked with—the ones who develop Olympic champions and world record holders—don't follow templates. They craft experiences. They look at their swimmers on any given day and ask:
"What do these athletes need right now? What will challenge them? What will inspire them? What will make them better?"
Maybe today your sprint group needs 45 minutes of pure speed work with no warm-up because they're sharp and ready to fly. Maybe your distance swimmers need a technical session that's 80% drills because their stroke fell apart yesterday. Maybe your entire team needs a game-based practice because they're mentally flat and need to rediscover why they love this sport.
The old model assumes every swimmer needs the same thing at the same time in the same order. The new model recognizes that swimming is becoming more accurate, more purposeful, more deliberate—and our coaching must evolve accordingly.
Summary: Modern swimming coaching requires breaking free from traditional workout formulas to create purposeful, adaptive sessions that meet the specific needs of individual swimmers and groups.
Three Practical Exercises
Needs Assessment Check: Before writing any workout, ask three questions: "What do my swimmers need physically today? What do they need mentally? What do they need technically?"
Formula-Free Friday: Once per week, design a completely non-traditional practice structure—start with main set, end with warm-up, or create an entirely game-based session.
Swimmer Input Sessions: Monthly, ask your swimmers what type of practice would challenge and motivate them most, then design creative sessions around their feedback.
VIDEOS RECORDED AT BEAUTIFUL EVANS HEAD AQUATIC CENTRE, NSW, AUSTRALIA with the kind courtesy of RICHMOND VALLEY AQUATICS.
https://richmondvalleyaquatics.com.au/
Copyright Wayne Goldsmith. All Rights Reserved.
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