Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
At the end of this week I successfully completed everything I had planned. After all the swimming sessions I felt that my backstroke is slightly smoother, and my hips are higher than usual. Even though my leg kick is still a little weak I have a long way to go. I don’t want to do too much backstroke otherwise I may lose interest. Tuesday’s session felt different because I was not used to running training so much and my legs felt a little tired, but after Fridays training I was getting more used to it.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 2
Aims Week 2:
This week I am going to train 4 times in the pool and once in the gym/land training. I will focus on my starts (dives), during the sessions to help me improve my short term goal reaction time and my backstroke and freestyle leg kick to increase strength in my legs to improve on my long term goal to reduce the time of swims.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
At the end of this week I feel that my leg kick is getting stronger, which helps me to improve my overall stroke. Monday and Fridays session felt that I worked harder because, even though I was tired I still pushed myself. As I am practising my dives more often they feel more efficient and my coach is giving feedback to help me improve on them to work towards my short-term goal.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 3
Week 3 Aims:
This week I am going to train 2 times in the pool and twice on land/gym. This week I will focus on backstroke drills and fitness trying to increase my backstroke speed which will help me to reduce the overall time of my long-term goal. Also I will work on my sprint running pace to help me improve my medium term goal.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
I thought this week went well, I feel that I have worked very hard and now I feel tired especially on Tuesdays and Fridays when I am doing land-training sessions. This is because I am not used to doing so much sprint work. My coach tells me my overall backstroke is becoming more efficient. At the gala on Sunday I performed several fluent dives, which I think helped me to improve the overall race.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 4
Week 4 Aims:
This week I am going to train 3 times in the pool an twice on land/ gym, I will concentrate mainly on my fitness training and also fitness in the pool. This will go towards achieving my long and medium term goal and help me reduce my overall times. At the beginning of this week I am feel that I am doing too much backstroke, and would prefer different types of training, but still include parts of my goals.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
At the end I of this week I feel that I have enjoyed the swimming sessions more because I have performed different interesting sessions, especially on Monday and Tuesday. But I have still included exercises that I need to focus on to help me achieve my goals.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 5
Week 5 Aims:
This week I will train 3 times in the pool and twice on land / gym. I will focus this week on backstroke drills and backstroke swim. These sessions will help me to achieve my long term goal of reducing my overall time and efficiency of stroke. Also I will concentrate on my speed training on land to help me to become faster at sprint running and achieve my medium term goal.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
I successfully completed every thing I planned for this week. I feel a little tired, particularly on Wednesday and Fridays session because I worked hard to reach the target times set. After I felt more confident knowing that my backstroke is progressing because my coach told me that it’s becoming more fluent. Overall this will help me to reduce my backstroke times.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 6
Week 6 Aims:
This week I am going to train 3 times in the pool and twice on land. I will work more on my starts, to help me towards my short-term goal: reaction time, and include sprint fitness swim training to progress on my long-term goal of improving my backstroke times and efficiency. On land I will concentrate on general running to enhance my times on my medium term goal.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
At the end of this week my muscles feel fatigued, I didn’t feel very well on Sunday so I couldn’t train. I think I pushed myself too hard on the land training sessions this week specially on Tuesday and Friday, where I worked overload . Although Mondays training felt useful as my coach tells me that my backstroke leg kick is much stronger, which will help me to improve the competence of the stroke.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 7
Week 7 Aims:
This week I am going to train 3 times in the pool and twice on land. In training I will focus on my leg kick, and parts of my backstroke technique to help me to achieve my long term goal of reducing my times and developing the overall stroke rate. On land I will concentrate on my running fitness, which will go towards my medium term goal of improving my sprint running.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice:
This week went well because I completed everything I planned. I felt that Monday and Wednesdays session benefited me more as I worked more on perfecting my backstroke. As my leg kick is getting stronger, which consequently improves the efficiency of the stroke and will help me to achieve my long-term goal. I feel that my running stamina is building and I can now keep up my sprinting level for longer.
Method by which I am going to achieve the goals: Week 8
Week 8 Aims:
This final week I will train 3 times in the pool and twice on land. By this week my strokes should have improved slightly therefore I will concentrate on increasing my backstroke pace, and start over training for my tests next week in sprinting. These finals sessions will help me to develop my long-term goal of reducing the time of swims. My finals running training will enhance my performance of achieving my medium term goal of decreasing my overall sprint running time.
Evaluation: Record of action plan in practice
I feel at the end of this week my backstroke is faster and fluent than before. I have been easing back this week preparing for my tests next week to see if I have made any improvement throughout my programme. I hope I have done the right amount of training to complete my goals. After watching me closely my coach tells me he has noticed an improvement in my running. I have been feeling more energetic this week because I haven’t been doing so many training sets. I hope this will give me more confidence in my fitness tests.
Recording the methods used to evaluate achievements:
Results:
Long term goal:
My long-term goal was to improve the overall efficiency of the stroke backstroke and I measured this by counting my stroke rate before and after the programme. My stroke rate now is 21 and I would like it to be 19. Also to reduce my time 100m backstroke time from 1. 15. 83 to 1. 14.50 or less. Here are both results:
I have watched a video of before and after the programme and I can clearly see that I stretch more into every stroke, which make the overall efficiency better. My coach has commented that he can see a big improvement. I have achieved the efficiency of the stroke but not the time, I am 0.38 hundredths of a second, down by achieving my long-term goal.
Medium Term goal:
My medium term goal was to improve the fitness component speed, and I will test this by timing a 30metre run sprint, and timing a 30metre swim sprint, also a 25 metre freestyle kicking. All results show:
From this I can see that my running speed has improved by over 0.5 a second, this means I have achieved a higher level on the fitness testing chart. From average to good level. Also I have completed my medium term goal because on my 30m run sprint set my self to achieve 4.6. 80seconds or less and I achieved 4.6. 77 seconds. As well I set myself to achieve on my 30m sprint swim 15.70 seconds or less and I got 15.65 seconds. Lastly in the 25m kicking I wanted to achieve 22. 60 seconds and at the end I got 22. 52 seconds.
Short term goal:
My short-term goal was to improve my reaction time on my starts (dives). The result shows:
I have achieved my short-term goal, which I am pleased with. Also I can clearly see by video analysis that my dive is more fluent and streamlined than from before. I have a fast dolphin kick under water, which enhances my performance. It shows that I react quicker than before this is due to excessive practise.
Recording success of action plan:
Evaluation
I felt that my eight-week training programme was a success, I completed everything I planned for each week, and at the end I could clearly feel and see my improvements. My backstroke technique was the most important part of my programme, as I think this played the biggest part in reaching my long-term goal. I was pleased to see by video footage that my backstroke leg efficiency had developed greatly, as this was by far the weakest part of my stroke. I was satisfied with my sprint running because I knocked off 0.2second after retaking the 30metre sprint test, it went from 4.8 to 4.6.
I split my training programme between dry and in the pool, this allowed me to do a varied amount of exercises that I may not be able to achieve in the pool. It is also good for your body to do different activates so you don’t get bored.
I found that videoing myself before and after my programme was a good idea, because this allowed me to actually see the improvements I had made. I could see my backstroke technique was more fluent and my hips were higher in the water, and the consistent kick made the stroke look flowing.
My coach watching my performance helped me to analysis my technique, as he provided necessary feedback, which I needed to improve upon.
In my opinion I choose good achievable goals, which required me to work hard, but weren’t impossible. Developing my reaction time helped me to improve my overall sprints starts, when swimming short races i.e. 50m. Although this was a good benefit it wouldn’t make a big difference speeding up my longer race times, i.e. 200m, 400m.
If I repeated my programme I would carry it out over a longer period of time. I would do this by adding an additional four weeks to my programme, this would allow for a greater improvement in my weaknesses and achieving harder goals that I would set myself.
Review of action plan
Overall my action plan was very effective, I felt that I worked hard during my programme. It showed improvements because I managed to complete my short and medium term goal and part of my long-term goal. This is because I didn’t manage to reduce my 100m-backstroke swim time down enough to the time I wanted to achieve. This was a hard goal to achieve and after I thought it was possibly too hard to reach in such a short period of time, and that wouldn’t be able to push my body that far. Also I think that because I didn’t have long enough time to achieve it, I could have repeated it I for an additional 4 weeks to my programme, for further improvements. But otherwise because backstroke is my worse stroke, unless I trained more on this I don’t think I will improve massively on it. I would rather concentrate on strokes that I can achieve higher standards in because I am more natural at them and wouldn’t have to do so many drills to improve the stroke.