Design Your Own Weekly Practice Pattern

[Admin Mediterra]

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It is really a challenge to write generic weekly practices for other swimmers whom I don’t get to observe on a daily basis. There are so many details about your personality, needs and circumstances each day that I know I couldn’t come close to designing something that really suits you. Only you know those things about you.

Personally, I appreciate the skill and freedom to customize practices for myself each week, and I want others to have that freedom and skill to do this also – at least those who want to do this for themselves. In TI we understand that once the principles are integrated into your thinking and patterns, the development process can become extremely personalized, and it should be.

So the main purpose behind this online coaching program is to teach you how to think like a TI Coach so that you can plan your own high quality practices that fit you better than any other person could design for you.

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Of course, there are limits. Of course, there are those who will know more than you know. And, you would still be interacting with other swimmers and coaches to gain new insights and expand your practice planning abilities. But for those who are interested, I think it is far better to get the understanding and keep the responsibility for practice planning in your own hands.

So, I want to show you three possible weekly practice patterns so you can get an idea for what kind of structure and what kind of flexibility you might use to build high quality practices around. You may be attracted to one of them because of your personal style and because of the kind of goals you have right now.

I want to encourage you to follow your interest this way and let it blend with the principles of TI training. It will lead you to your optimal training path. You can start with one and then as you get familiar with how TI practice works (and the neurological training concepts it is based on) you will find ways to modify these patterns to suit your unique self even better.

(The diagrams below are showing an example for 3 weeks, with 3 practices each week. You can adapt these ideas to your own frequency of weekly practice.)

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Pattern #1

This is an ‘Experimentation’ weekly practice pattern.

You would pick 2 or 3 skill projects (A,B, and C) that you want to work on for a few weeks. But, because you want to try lots of new ideas for drills and practice sets, different distances or intensities, or you are swimming in different locations, or under different conditions, your practice plans would likely be different from day to day.

In this pattern you are staying focused on those 3 Skill Projects over the course of many practices, no matter what or where you are swimming. However, you may remain very flexible about the time, distance, and kind of drills and sets you use each day. I think this would be suitable during a ‘free-form’ experiment and learning season.

I used this a lot when I started learning about using metrics in advanced TI training. I was studying so many new concepts and getting so many new ideas and questions I would go to the pool and want to try different things and test my ideas. It was a long and meandering path for a few years but I learned a lot about how SPL, Tempo, Pacing, etc works this way.

I highly recommend experimenting when your mind craves it. It is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t so you know from your own experience.

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Pattern #2

This is a ‘Measurement-Focused’ weekly practice pattern.

You would pick 2 or 3 skill projects (A,B, and C) that you want to work on for a few weeks. You would plan one practice pattern for the week, and repeat that practice several times. You would make small adjustments to the next practice (1b) as a response to your results practice today (1a). Or you would make very small increases in complexity/challenge (see Challenge Multipliers article) from one practice to the next – so that Practice 1b is slightly more challenging than Practice 1a, and Practice 1c is slightly more challenging than Practice 1b.

In this pattern you are holding all variables in a practice set the same, from day to day during the week, but making small changes in only one variable in order to challenge a specific skills and measure progress on that variable. You may recognize this as a more scientific way of testing skill. If you change too many variables from practice to practice then it will be much harder to tell why you are progressing or failing on some skill point. To make a small change in complexity you can adjust only one of these variables: number of repeats, distance of each repeat, SPL, Tempo, intensity level, Focal Point Blending (combining Focal Points).

An example:

• Practice 1a Set: 4x (50, 75, 100), with 10 nasal breath rest. Hold SPL at 19, Tempo at 1.35
• Practice 1b Set: 4x (50, 75, 100), with 10 nasal breath rest. Hold SPL at 19, Tempo at 1.30
• Practice 1c Set: 4x (50, 75, 100), with 10 nasal breath rest. Hold SPL at 19, Tempo at 1.25

Did you notice what changed? Only Tempo.

I could have chosen to adjust the number of repeats from 4x to 5x. Or I could have increased the repeat distance from (50, 75, 100) to (75, 100, 125). I could have decreased rest from 10 to 7 deep nasal breaths. I could have lowered SPL from 19 to 18. The idea is that I change ONLY ONE of those variables and keep all the others the same.

This way I can compare how I felt and how I performed = how I improved) from one practice to the next. If I changed multiple variables then I cannot be sure of the causes behind a change in my sensations and performance. I use this pattern a lot of the time when I am preparing for a certain distance swim challenge or training for a better pace.

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Pattern #3

This is a ‘3-Dimensional’ weekly practice pattern. You might pick just one skill project (maybe 2) for the week, then pick a new project for the next week. Then you would work on that skill project in 3 different ways, to develop different dimensions of fitness and endurance.

• Practice Plan 1 – Drills and Careful Stroke Correction and Imprinting Sets
• Practice Plan 2 – Controlled Tempo sets
• Practice Plan 3 – Distance Swimming

Practice Plan 1 would include drills and short whole stroke repeats so that you could maintain high concentration and rest and recharge attention often. Short, highly exacting stroke control assignments that last for 2 to 5 minutes for a single focal point (or blend of focal points), and then change to a new focal point to let one motor control circuit in the brain rest while another one gets to work.

Practice Plan 2 would include maybe some tune-up drills, then working within comfortable Tempo range to train focal point and timing together. Occasionally you would challenge your focus with practice sets that work near your Slow or Fast Tempo Threshold.

Some essays that may help you on this:

• FAQ – How Do I Choose An Appropriate Tempo?
• FAQ – Why Practice At Faster Tempos?
• FAQ – Why Practice At Slow Tempos?

Practice Plan 3 would include longer repeats or maybe a longer-than-normal or full-distance test swim. These could be repeat distances of 200m to 800m, or long distance up to 2000m.

But keep the total distance short enough to fit within your practice time and still allow for 10 minute warm up (and 10 minute review/cool-down, if you can spare the time). That warm-up is really important. If you need some powerful encouragement and understanding of the warm-up period please get a copy of TI Coach Grant Moleneux’s excellent pdf ebook “Effortless Exercise” ($14.95 on the TI Store – use the code coachmathudson for a 10% discount).

I used to use this pattern a lot when I was swimming without a specific goal, just working on mastering these TI skills and keeping my fitness strong. I would recommend this pattern also for those who are preparing for a swim event this summer that may be a bit intimidating in distance or conditions – you will be able to gradually build up the areas of fitness you need for that event while you are working on the stroke control skills and tempo you need for it also.

But remember that your ability to handle higher tempo or longer distance is dependent on your ability to control your stroke. So your standard for stroke quality should remain the limiting factor on what tempo you use and what distances you swim on your long days.

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