Coach Jenna attends American Swim Coaches Association Clinic @ Hilo

Grant Bramer

Please see clinic breakdown from Coach Jenna!

Aloha Coach Bramer and the AAA board,

Thank you for allowing me to represent our Aloha Aquatics Swim Team at the 2024 ASCA Hawaiʻi Swimming Coaches Clinic. What an incredible opportunity this was. I learned so much and I am excited to put it into practice on the pool deck.

Diving right in, Dan Mascolo broke down the differences when preparing our sets for different age level swimmers. For our Age Group swimmers, we want to first and foremost focus on correct technique. We do not want our swimmers to get in the habit of “survival stroke”. How can we get our athletes to swim fast with less effort?

“Olympic champions come from Age Group swimmers. This is where the real work begins.” - Coach Dave Salo

For all age levels, there are no “main sets” because the whole workout is a mainset. In the end, our meets should feel like practice to our athletes. You might have heard coaches comparing practices, “My swimmers completed X amount of yardage today”. That is not a measure of success and we must remove this mindset. Why make our athletes swim a significant amount of yardage if they’re swimming incorrectly? We must do the basics exceptionally well to achieve exceptional results.

Open turns happen in a casual workout. Set clear expectations with our swimmers using a work out plan that is accountable, responsible, and organized. A one hour practice should consist of four, fifteen minute sets. Every set is the main set.

For our Junior/Senior athletes, our practices should consist of volume based workouts with preparation for performance. I had the privilege of watching Coach Salo conduct a “surge” set with his Juniors. Swimmers were instructed to skull half way with fast freestyle kick, pause, then surge freestyle swim to the wall. You could FEEL that practice being on deck.

“Work works” Coach Dave Salo emphasized in his talks. If you’re looking for a good book to read, Dave recommends “The Rise of Superman” by Steven Kotler.

When a student athlete comes to us and says “Coach, how should I swim this race?” We should really be thinking about breaking down the components of a race. For example, when teaching effective dolphin kicks, we can begin with helping our athletes develop goals for kick counts. Start small, strong kicks off the wall, progressing to big and strong kicks into the wall.

The importance of breathing patterns should also be a topic of discussion. The worst flaws happen during the breath. How can we help our swimmers maintain great technique while being mindful of their breathing pattern? Improve breathing technique and breathe less. Technique before tempo. Technique should always be our first priority, after safety of course!

There is so much more that I am excited to share with our team.

Here are a few quotes that made an impact on me:

“Get them on board with being a great kicker and nothing but great things will happen.”

“Catch them doing things right.”

“Ask a question, teach them the answer, do the skill.”

“Use overcorrection for stroke correction.”

“Teach them how to win and teach them how to lose.”

“The more you can make swimming interesting and enjoyable, then you will have a swimmer for life.”

“Be curious and adventurous, coaches should enjoy training.”

“Be creative with the elements you have.”

“Using swimming vocabulary is important, but our athletes need to know what we’re talking about.”

“If we’re going to get better at Fly we need to get excited about it.”