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We were supposed to have a meet today, but due to terrible spring weather (snow and rain) we held a practice indoors instead.
All sprinters/jumpers went immediately to the pool and did a sprint workout.
We split the group into two (boys and girls) and had them do stations for 15 minutes before switching. The stations were, explosive sprint movements in the shallow end, and explosive/fast CNS sprint motions in the deep end with aqua joggers.
The shallow end was all about sprint movements, explosive actions, strength, and posture. The shallow end was all about moving specific body parts as fast as possible to work on explosive CNS movements. They did sprinting, rapid arm movements that mimic sprinting, and treading as fast/hard as possible. They were exhausted afterwards but voiced how much they enjoyed it!
I love doing workouts in the pool! You can have the kids do so much "pounding" without the adverse affects. I generally do a handful of pool workouts a year, but with our exceptionally good weather we haven't gotten in there much.
When I do take kids in it's for one of two reasons - a hard plyometric workout (which you can find on the website), or a fun explosion day (video above).
On the fun days we generally start by holding a pool noodle out in front so that kids can jump over it (video). After they've done that for awhile, we move the noodle to over our heads and instruct them to jump up and attempt to touch the tip. If there is time, we also have competitions to see who can jump outwards the farthest and use cones to make the distances.
These three (fun) pool exercises not only bring out the smiles in our athletes, but also the competitive side as well! It's great to see kids challenging each other and trying to outdo one another - that friendly competition is needed from time to time!
TOMORROW:
X-factor day with outdoor work on short approach jump (with landings), approaches, and some triple jump phase work (individual needs).