The whiteboard standing sternly in place at the edge of the Olympic size swimming pool, is a blur of: blue, black and red marker pen lists. Numbers from top to bottom, fill the white rectangular space.
As the potential next Olympic gold medallist glides through the lane of water below us, the Australian Institute of Sport Swimming Coach, explains their methods and practice: "See the bold number in the top left corner?" he asks. "Well, that's the predicted winning time for the next Olympic games". I can sense, where this is going... He goes on: "Now every column of numbers listed (there was at least 25), represents an element of technique/performance that we can measure. These have been broken down into the required incremental improvements daily, that are needed over 4 years; in order to reach that future winning time."
Wow! wait a minute; So, he's saying that they are working to daily, measured improvements over 4 years, and on over 25 techniques. That's intense!
The Coach explains: "Below the surface we have multiple viewing rooms and video cameras that capture the training sessions, so we can view technique and adapt and improve. The slightest tweak in a method, can be the difference between winning and losing."
It brings to mind the legendary Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps, who explained that he won a famous Gold medal by training to stretch his fingers out at the finish of a race. That was the difference in winning Gold against his rival.
When you delve into the incredible level of practice, intensity, rigour, and measurement of performance that is part of elite sport, particularly in individual sports, it is an eye opener on what is needed to be a champion.
In my own coaching experience in football over the past 25 years, the use of video in particular; has been so useful for individual technique improvement. Why? Well in our minds, when we do a skill: we imagine, think up, visualise what we are doing. We may see ourselves sweeping our foot over the ball in supersonic speed, like a Ronaldo or Messi. However, when we watch back the video, we can see how we are actually performing the technique; mostly not Ronaldo like. This is especially rewarding if you have been made aware of how the specific steps of the technique should work. You can then see that perhaps: the foot doesn't sweep the grass smoothly, the standing foot isn't balanced well, the speed is slow and not supersonic. You can then better visualise what you are doing and practice and improve.
Learning the lessons of the Australian Institute of Sport and other elite sports programs; in our One2Pro program of 92 skills, we have broken down each of the football skill techniques, for players to follow and capture their own video to compare within the app. A player also has the ability to have a One2pro Coach review, guide and score Bronze, Silver and Gold medals to help them along their development path.
Hope you enjoyed the short read and lessons from the AIS coach.
Trial our Coach review for free (7 days) - Subscribe and upload your video to us, to help coach you along on this and 92 skills of the stars.
Happy Playing!
Aaron Tighe
Founder One2Pro
ave fun, happy playing!
Aaron