The set is something that I used to love doing as a kid and that I still love to do it when I’m coaching the younger groups. It’s called the Stopwatch Game. All you’re going to need is a stopwatch and a white board.
How to Play
To play, you assign the four strokes and some other “skills” to each number 0-9 for the tenths on the watch. These “skills” could be dives, cannonballs, pushups, turns, whatever you want. For the hundredths on the watch you assign a number of repeats and distances for 0-9. Once the board is set, the coach starts the watch and one by one a swimmer will get out of the pool to stop the running time. Whatever the corresponding tenths and hundredths are is what the group does. We usually have smaller groups so we go until every swimmer has had a chance to use the watch. The kids love this game because it’s a break from the usual, it’s interactive, and they love to play with the watch. As a coach, I really like this for many of the same reasons; it forces you to get creative and be more interactive with your swimmers.
A Game Board Example
Tenths
0:Backstroke
1:Breaststroke
2:Freestyle
3:Butterfly
4:Starts
5:Cannonballs
6:Run around the playground*
7:Turns
8:Dolphin Dives**
9:Shooters***
Hundredths
0: 2×25
1: 4X50
2: 3X25
3: 3X50
4: 2X100
5: 1X75
6: 4X25
7: 2X25
8: 6X50
9: 6X100
*our pool was right next to a grassy field with a big playground set
**dive down to the bottom like a dolphin and push back up to the surface (repeat for the whole lap)
***sink down to the bottom and push up doing dolphin kicks until you reach the surface
^if you get a skill that you cannot do full laps of (cannonballs, turns, etc.), do it for the number of repeats listed. Ex: .55 = 1 cannonball
Enjoy!
B.K.