Everyone who met Coach Ballatore will not soon forget him. Read more on his bio and his passing Here.
"Stix" knew how to get guys to go fast. Here is a set that he loved to do at the end of practice. We did it frequently when I had the honor of having him on deck while I was in Gainesville. It is a good, challenging, team-building set to finish a workout.
Divide your group up into teams of four or five swimmers, and put a swimmer from each team in each lane. All swimmers on a given team will swim a no-breath 25 simultaneously. Before they start, the coach assigns one swimmer from the team a goal time for the no-breath 25. If that swimmer completes the 25 without taking a breath and beats the goal time, he earns a point for his team. Then the next team takes its turn. Each team is done (and gets out and goes home) when they score a pre-determined number of points. Swimmers get fired up for their teammates and for their own 25s. The coach can control the intensity by adjusting the 25 goal times.
Thanks, Stix. You will be missed.Labels: Get-Out Sets, Goal Sets, Hypoxic, Quality, Speed, Sprint, Teamwork
