Train Like an Olympian in the Pool
Give a basic warmup workout of your deep or shallow exercises before starting the running portion of the workout. For non-athletes, that alone would feel like a workout. The athletes need more. They need to RUN!
You can teach your athletes to train hard by following these few simple rules:
- Always start with good form. Make them run with excellent arm action, knee high, chest lifted, eyes forward, and shoulders down.
- If anyone loses form, slow down, reinforce good form, then very gradually pick up the speed again. Sudden increases can jolt good form, so move smoothly through the speed gears with good verbal cues.
- Duplicate the workout they would have been doing on land in the pool. That is, if they’re track athletes, run the same intervals or the same distance at the same pace they would have on the track or the roads.
- Add the mental work that goes with training. If you don’t give them something specific to think about, they’ll be doing physical work only. Make them picture a competitor running next to them, or visualize running up or down their favorite hill or beach.
- After a hard workout, offer some easy, fluid movement stretches to loosen the muscles again.