Our set of the week is all about adding some fun and Games to your team workouts, as we celebrate the athletes taking part in the 2012 London Olympics.
Each time the world meets for an Olympic Games, Barbara’s masters team (the UVRays) holds its own olympics, competing in aquatic versions of weightlifting, rowing, ski jumping, modern pentathlon, etc.
They hold an Opening Ceremony to plug in the candle that will burn for 16 days of fun and challenging competition. One or two events are held each day, usually in the last 5-10 minutes of practice. Results are tallied. Medals are counted. No parental approval needed for tattoos.
Here are the first few events held by the UVRays. We’ll post more during the week, and if your team comes up with your own events, please share the fun.
Trampoline
Each swimmer completes 10 continuous streamline jumps from the bottom of the pool and is scored on a combination of total time and difficulty of routine. If you can touch the backstroke flags at the top of a jump, it’s worth a 10-second time reduction. If you complete a somersault or other acrobatic at the apex of your jump, each somersault is worth a 2-second time reduction. Each time you complete a jump with dolphin kicks, it’s worth a 1-second time reduction.
Weightlifting
Complete 50 yards for time. On first 25, swimmer must hold aloft a Styrofoam dumb-bell, with elbows locked and dumb-bell out of the water. On second 25, swimmer must hold the dumb-bell under the water, with elbows locked. Entire body may be submerged if desired on 2nd 25.
Field Hockey
Divide into teams of two; team members are in adjacent lanes (with lane line between them). Each team member has a noodle. Each team has 1 pull buoy. Object is for the swimmers to use their noodles like a field-hockey stick to knock their pull buoy back and forth across the lane line while also moving the pull buoy forward for a timed 50. No touching the pull buoy with your hands, and you have to pass the pull buoy across the lane line at least 4 times per 25.
Rowing/Sculling
Row a 50 for time. Each swimmers sits on a kickboard and paddles with their arms. Swimmers must sit on the kickboard, i.e., they cannot lie on their chest or back.
Modern Pentathlon
Event # 1 = 200 Freestyle pull for time
Event # 2 = Show Jumping = 100 Freestyle (no equipment) with 15 flip turns for time. Swimmers do 3 mid-pool flips on each length, plus their flips at the turns.
Event # 3 = Fencing (add one second for each match you lose). Two swimmers face off (en garde!) at mid pool. Each swimmer has a noodle. The object is to score a TOUCH with your noodle to the shoulders, head, or arms of your opponent. Go until one swimmer scores a touch. Then each swimmer faces off with a different opponent. Each swimmer goes three rounds (faces three different opponents). Keep track of how many times you get hit.
Events 4 & 5 = Combined = Swim a specified amount of yardage while carrying a water-squirting gun. (We swam a 50 plus another 5-10 yards.) Stop swimming approximately 10 yards from the wall, turn around and face your starting wall. Fill your “gun” with water and take 15 shots at whatever target you devise on deck (we used a small rubber duck balanced on top of a safety cone placed on top of a starting block). Subtract 1 second for each time you hit the target.
Your final score is your combined time for the 200 and 100, plus one second for each time you got hit during fencing (max of 3 seconds), minus one second for each time you hit the target while shooting (max of 15 seconds).
Sounds complicated but this was really fun.
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