Virtual Swim Club

Over 6 months, the Virtual Swim Club practices guide your practice through the entire freestyle fundamentals and most important advanced skills.

Skills for Level 1 and Level 2, and Pool Skills are organized over 6 months.

Each month there are two practice series. Each series provides 4 practice types and 1 test swim, for a total of 10 practices. Each practice provides 3 different levels of difficulty. You may repeat any of the practices – which we do highly recommend – each week.

You may work through the VSC plan on Level 1 in 6 months, then go through the plan again on Level 2 for another 6 months as your skill and fitness increase.

You may like to return to the plan periodically to refresh your skills.

There are two cycles of practices assigned each month.

In each cycle there are four practice types and a test swim: Attention, Tempo, Distance and Pace.

You are encouraged to repeat these practices if you have time in your week to do it.

In all of these practices, you are encouraged to be more loyal to achieving the qualities (the technique features) that are assigned over achieving the quantities (just finishing the assigned distances). 

Attention Practice

The main point of this practice type is to simplify the situation so that you can become more aware of fine details in your position and movement patterns, then make corrections. Use this low intensity time to increase your sensitivity and precision over the skill you are working on.

This practice will have lower physical loading (less distance, less intensity), but require high concentration. You may use it as an active ‘rest day’ when you are in need of physical recovery.

The primary external measurement used in this practice is stroke counting. The primary internal measurement used in this practice is your sense of precision over a specific part of the movement.

Tempo Practice

The main point of this practice is to develop your precision under a precise, rhythmic time constraint. The Tempo Trainer (an essential piece of your training equipment) BEEP will create the main neurologic challenge. Eventually, you’ll practice keeping steady rhythm without the use of the Tempo Trainer. We use these devices to be able to swim without them.

This practice will require moderate physical effort and strong concentration. The better your mental concentration, the easier the physical effort will be!

These practices will often have you work within your current comfortable tempo range – the challenge here will be to simply time the stroke with the BEEP. Some practice sets will have you work toward your fast-threshold (where it starts to get more difficult to hold precision) and some practice sets will have you work toward your slow-threshold (where it starts to get more difficult to hold balance and stability).

The primary external measurement used in this practice is keeping consistent timing with the BEEP. The primary internal measurement used in this practice is your sense of precision over a specific part of the movement.

Please read more about Tempo Training in our library.

Distance Practice

The main point of this practice is to build your endurance for holding precise stroke length over time. This is combining fitness with specific technique which will help you distribute your precious energy more evenly over your swim.

These may not feel so difficult in the first half – it may feel easy to hold consistent stroke length when energy is abundant. But these practices are meant to take you into the zone where you start to feel fatigued – and that is where the second important part of the training begins: maintaining focus and control when you get tired. So you should choose a level that will challenge you in this way.

The primary external measurement used in this practice is keeping consistent stroke count (as assigned). The primary internal measurement used in this practice is your sense of ease while maintaining that assigned stroke count.

For increased challenge, you may use a Tempo Trainer set to a comfortable tempo.

Pace Practice

This is where both your control over Stroke Length and control over Tempo are put together to form specific pace because of the physics equation Stroke Length x Stroke Rate = Speed. Your ability to control your pace is your ability to control your energy.

These practices may be the most challenging physically and mentally because you must work all the systems together. When you encounter fatigue and failure you will pay attention to what specifically is failing first – that indicates where your weaknesses are, which is where you need to place emphasis during the other practices.

The primary external measurement used in this practice is keeping consistent pace in terms of stroke count x tempo combinations (as assigned). The primary internal measurement used in this practice is your sense of ease while maintaining that assigned pace.