Holiday themed swim practices are a great way to develop more positive energy at practice. Between midseason championships and school exams, it’s important to find ways to stay motivated in the pool to avoid feeling overwhelmed and be encouraged to continue working hard.<\/p>\n
Swimming World<\/em> asked coaches around the country which sets were their favorite to lighten the mood yet still get the job done during the holiday season. Here are four fun and challenging practice sets to try with your team to help enhance team spirit in the pool!<\/p>\n At Nitro Swimming in Austin, Texas, swimmers knew this set was coming every year: “It’s a tradition. I found a version of this and made it my own over the past few years.”<\/p>\n What the swimmer accomplishes in the set dictates what they need to do next.<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: Lianne McCluskey<\/p><\/div>\n Definitions of abbreviations are as follows:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Crimson Aquatics used this holiday themed practice set with the team. <\/span>“In a traditional Advent calendar, each day in the countdown to Christmas gives you a little gift. This practice set does the same thing in 24 sets.”<\/span><\/p>\n Directions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Materials:<\/span><\/p>\n Setup:<\/span><\/p>\n Operation:<\/span><\/p>\n Sets:<\/span><\/p>\n At Smith College, it was a tradition to finish the last mandatory practice before final exams with Snow Ball Relays.<\/p>\n Directions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Materials:<\/p>\n Each team begins the relay with a snowball of the same size. Each swimmer on a relay team must swim 2 x 25-yard lengths of the pool in the relay but cannot swim the required distance back-to-back (sorry no 50s). The relay winner is decided by the team who finishes the relay with the biggest snow ball\u00a0and<\/em> swims the fastest.<\/p>\n Twelve days before Christmas, Howard University gave their annual main set. It’s always the same distance and order, but has a different focus per season. Here is an example of the 2018 holiday practice set on December 13:<\/p>\n Holiday practices are a great way to intertwine team bonding with team improvement. Every coach and team does it differently, but the objective is the same – having fun and bringing the holiday cheer to practice!<\/p>\n What’s your favorite holiday swim practice tradition?<\/p>\n All commentaries and research was conducted by the the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (From the Archive) By Lianne McCluskey, Swimming World College Intern. Holiday themed swim practices are a great way to develop more positive energy at practice. Between midseason championships and school<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6853,"featured_media":343257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,8],"tags":[72960,72962,72961,71228,55246,62411],"class_list":["post-342821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaches-education","category-high-school","tag-allison-brohl","tag-holiday-swim-practice-ideas","tag-jamie-lew","tag-nicholas-askew","tag-team-bonding","tag-zack-kundel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n1. Christmas Tree of Pain<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Christmas](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Christmas-Tree-of-Pain.png\")
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2. Advent Calendar Game<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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3. Snow Ball Relays<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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4. The 12 Days ’til Christmas Set<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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