All Strokes - Warm Up!

So it's not a drill, or even a focal point... but without this common occurance in swimming, you're just not ready to swim.

Why Do It:
Warming up isn't play time.  It's not time to joke around with your friends.  It's a necessary part of getting ready to perform, and the more consistent you are with your warm up, the more your coach will know about you, and how much work is necessary for you to swim fast.

How to Do It:
1.  Arrive on time to get a proper warm up.  Being late means you'll have to shorten the warm up, and inconsistency in the distance or intensity of your warm up means that you, or the coach, won't have any idea what really works... since you may never do the exact thing twice.  Not much science in that.
2.  Do the entire warm up.  Don't stop on the walls to chat.  Don't pull on the lane line.  Don't jump off the bottom.  Just swim, or drill, or kick, or whatever is assigned by your coach.
3.  If you have other people in your lane who aren't thinking of this part of practice as something serious... run them over.  You'll just be practicing a meet warm-up setting.  Not that we want you to run people over, but make sure everyone knows you're going to just keep going... if they're in your way or not.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
When I decided to shoot this "drill," I knew exactly whom I was going to shoot.  There are swimmers who gain repuations for doing what's asked, and swimmers who gain reputations for doing what they want to do.  I didn't have to ask this swimmer if she was going to do the entire warm up, I knew.  The toughest part was walking with her through the entire thing.

Heck, even after she finished the assigned warm up, her coach wanted her to do a bit more pace, so she hammered out another 300, even running over a few people along the way.  Love it!

This was a simple warm up:  400 free - 300 kick swim - 200 scull swim - 100 free - followed by a 300 up tempo.  I know the video isn't as useful as we generally try to create, but the video would be 15 minutes long if it was played at regular speed.