Principles of Motor Learning & Swim Applications: Volume 1

with Michael Brooks,
Weymouth Waves Head Swimming Coach;
former King Aquatic Club Head Coach;
former York YMCA Swimming Head Coach/Director of Competitive Swimming;
4x YMCA Short Course Nationals Coach of the Year ('10, '12, '13, '15);
2x Middle Atlantic LSC Senior Coach of the Year ('14, '15);
coached four National Junior Team members and 2 National Team Members

Weymouth Waves head coach Michael Brooks delivers a video that will provide you the courage and the confidence to break away from old-school practice design. Instead of spending time learning and then swimming drills at the expense of fitness, your swimmers will build technical expertise and develop conditioning at the same time!

Motor Learning

Dive into the base of Coach Brooks' instructional method with his breakdown of various motor learning principles. He begins by explaining that in order to reach peak performance, swimmers must remain patient, possess a model as a standard of reference, and "show" rather than "tell". Brooks builds up his principles of motor learning until you can observe how they apply when training a full stroke.

"Random" Practice

While the word "random" may not be welcomed by coaches who like to stick to a set schedule or system, Coach Brooks offers a compelling case for why "random practice" breeds maximum skill growth for swimmers. You will hear Brooks break down the benefits of random practice before moving to the pool for some in-water demonstrations on how to train an elite freestyle swimmer.

Motor learning is something that all swim coaches should look to master, in order to benefit their program and their swimmers as individuals. In this video, Coach Brooks offers up the initial steps to his motor learning program to help get you on the right track. Coaches of all levels will find great value in this presentation.

80 minutes. 2020.