Older, Bolder and Golder: Coaching Senior Swimmers

What if I told you that there was group of swimmers who desperately want to be coached, who manage their diet and health carefully, who are great at organizing their time, will give you 100% effort at all workouts and who are committed to achieving success?

What about having the opportunity to coach a team of swimmers where you have no discipline issues, who turn up on time, those who remember to bring their swim gear and enjoy every moment of their training?

You are thinking, “where do I sign?!”

Coaching senior swimmers is a wonderful coaching experience because you get committed athletes with great attitudes who love swimming. What else could you want?

Coaching senior swimmers is great because:

1. They really want to be there at every training session. Many of them have had to make sacrifices and manage their day to attend workouts.
2. They “think” about their swimming. They listen to coaching instruction and apply it to their swimming training and racing.
3. They manage themselves, their eating, recovery and all aspects of their training with great passion and energy.

So they are coachable, passionate, self driven, enthusiastic and motivated…the perfect swimmers!

In general senior swimmers, let’s call them goldies (as in older swimmers who strive for gold medal performances) come in five categories:

• Former swimmers coming back into the sport after some time out of swimming
• Non swimmers looking to come into the sport for the first time for fun, fitness, health and well being
• Active sportspeople without a swimming background who are looking at swimming as a non weight bearing cross training option
• Injured active sportspeople without a swimming background looking at a non weight bearing fitness option.
• Age group Tri-athletes (who may or may not have a strong swimming background) who need to improve their swimming

Each group has a unique set of needs and challenges.

With Former swimmers coming back into the sport the key is patience. Former swimmers can sometimes aim to get back to their PB swimming performances of 10-20 years ago without preparing adequately or taking into consideration the passage of time.

The key here is thinking “I will aim to train to be the best I can be now and enjoy the thrill of moving through the water again” and not “I am going to be as fast as I was when I was 16” which is unrealistic and will only end in frustration.

Non swimmers entering the sport need to focus on two words; technique and technique (it’s so important it needs to be said twice)….and particularly on relaxation in the water. Non swimmers have a lifetime of tension in and around water to “unlearn” so in some cases coaches need to take adult first timers back to the basics of floating, breathing, kicking and having fun in the pool.

Injured or ill swimmers joining the team, need to be managed intelligently and all care taken to work with them around their limitations. To borrow a phrase from the medical community…first do no harm! It is smart to ask all goldies about their medical history and to ask for a medical clearance if you have any doubt or uncertainty about their capacity to join in with the team’s training program.

Tri-athletes should be coached not just in terms of their swimming abilities but with consideration for the overall training program, work commitments and other life pressures.

As a coach it is important that you learn as much as possible about the needs, limitations and motivations of all the goldies in your team – don’t assume everyone has come to the pool with the same attitudes and requirements.

You can start the “get to know” process by asking all new team members to complete a simple Swim Team Profile.

It’s not old old old………its old bold gold – senior swimmers are capable of achieving outstanding performances and working with them is enjoyable, challenging and very rewarding.

Wayne Goldsmith