Championship Swim Training

By Bill Sweetenham, John Atkinson, John D. Atkinson

Whether you're a coach looking to build or supplement your program or a swimmer seeking to improve your technique and time, you'll benefit from swim coaching legend Bill Sweetenham's proven methods for improving performance in the backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley. Sweetenham has spent his career developing world-class swimmers--first for Australia, then for Hong Kong, and now for Great Britain. He engineered Australia's success at four Olympic Games and five Commonwealth Games and has coached 63 top swimmers in international competitions to 27 Olympic and World Championship medals. Now, through Championship Swim Training , he and coauthor John Atkinson, a former national team coach in Australia and current national youth coach with British Swimming, provide the detailed plans and strategies to help all swimmers maximize their swimming potential. Beginning with Sweetenham's five golden rules for swimming that apply to all swimmers--regardless of their background-- Championship Swim Training is divided into two parts. Part I, Technique Drills and Sets, deals with training zones and benchmark sets so critical to effective training and goal setting. Also included is a series of drill progressions and checklists that can be applied to each stroke and the individual medley. These progressions will help pinpoint stroke deficiencies and improve stroke technique as well as sculling, starts, turns, finishes, and kick and pull training. The checklists give swimmers and coaches tips for training and competition. Part II, Workouts and Programs, is full of information for coaches to plan the long-term development of juniors through masters swimmers. Sample training sets are provided and can be customized to suit the level of that swimmer or squad. Part II also covers the critical tapering phase to get swimmers ready for competition and provides detailed racing strategies. Dryland conditioning suggestions help swimmers train all year round, whether in or out of the water. And no world-class coaching book would be complete without a chapter on how to completely and objectively evaluate your training program. Championship Swim Training provides a complete roadmap for coaches and swimmers who want to follow a systematic and proven way to record-breaking times!

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0736045430
• ISBN13: 9780736045438
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.5" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

Championship Swim Training

Quite a good book - talks about a lot of details. Very interesting book it shows how to look at some details in a new light BUT sometimes leaves out a couple of new important details. However reminds me of one of the ways one of my older coaches used to coach (he was quite effective for the most part.)

Championship Swim Training

As a rookie coach I have found this publication invaluable. Although aimed at the 'top end' swimmer, with a little adjustment the lesson plans can be adapted to swimmers of any level. The drills are well laid out in a logical progression that benefits development of both the coach and the swimmer. Bill Sweetenham shows an incedible understanding of the art and science of swimming and has managed to bring both aspects together in a clear and concise manual, can't recommend it highly enough

A great book!

This is definitely one of the best books I have ever seen for the swimming training!

Lots of training info but not much technique

Lots and lots of information if you're planning your season's training or you're coaching a team. There are drills for all the strokes, explanations of training zones, example workouts, and information on all aspects of swimming competitively (starts, turns, tactics, tapering,...).What this book doesn't have, which is reflected in the title, is in depth descriptions of the intricacies of the strokes. If you want lots of that, choose another book. If you know how the strokes are performed but want some guidance on your training, this would be a good addition to your library.