What Goes Into a Swimming Program?

Most of my coaching career I have spent trying to educate people through as many avenues as possible - be it video, audio or written. From my experience, there is no better way to communicate and to educate than from a Head Coaching role. I always feel that the information must flow from the Head Coach (the developer of the program) to the members (the consumers of the program).

Through the sport of swimming, I have always found a diverse mix of participants - from the very experienced to the hockey converts and all the way to the learn to swim areas. The biggest confusion that I find always comes up is what ends up being paid for: where does the cost come from. Usually, in swimming, pool fees are quite high due to the basic safety & liability of water (electrical hazard, insurance, life guards, cleanliness of water, water quality, etc). Running a pool can be extremely expensive and the costs get passed on to the user groups.

But lets not get confused; Swimmers are not the user group here, the Club is. If every individual had to cover the cost of their own pool time, this sport would be uncontrollably expensive. There are many things that swim club members pay for. These include:

• Pool time, relationship
• Certification & affiliation to keep pool time affordable. 
• Registration fees
• Employee fees
• Office fees and expenses
• General operations & Social function
• Some meet fees

All these things together make a "program". The Head Coach will develop how the club is structured and will operate (this coach is usually also responsible for a primary group; but is also responsible for all groups in the club). Group coaches will use the resources available and, using the Head Coach's philosophy, will develop an appropriate training plan which will include training days, camps (if applicable), meets & planned days off (holidays & days where pools are unavailable).

When is it necessary to make up for missed training days?

Short answer to this question is almost never. Programs are well planned out. Knowing that a group may be missing a practice in 8 months can be planned for. Time leading up to that day off can be ramped up so that the missed day can be used as rest. Therefore, replacement pool time is rarely needed and is really just a luxury. If our coaches were strictly reactionary, we would be unprepared and unfit to deal with a change in routine. 

Time missed for meets is also worth noting, as there are several different types of meets. Some meets can be used for training purposes: learning how to swim a 200 in a stressful environment after practicing it over and over. Swimmers may miss a session or 2 due to a meet, but that does not mean that the time must be made up; it means that the time was better used at the meet.

The few times that I would say it is warranted is when pool time is unexpectedly cancelled (water quality, power out, snow storm) and even then, it would only be if an adjustment to the planning could not be made. 

I would argue that for anyone with more than 4 sessions/week and more than 50 sessions/season, "make-up" pool time is unnecessary because the planning is done with these things in mind. It is not accurate to think of the services of a swim club in terms of price/practice because what is delivered is so much more complex than just pool time and meters swum.