Why Make Warm-Ups Visual?

Spencer Turner
4 hours ago
3 min read

Coaching swimmers is rarely about finding one instruction that works for everyone.

In the pool, we use different ways to help swimmers understand and refine their technique. One swimmer might respond immediately to a short coaching cue. Another may need to see the movement demonstrated. Sometimes you change the language, use a comparison, ask a question or let the swimmer try something a few times before it starts to make sense.

No two swimmers are exactly the same and even when two swimmers are trying to achieve the same technical outcome, the way you explain it to each of them may be different.

It is no different to teaching or refining a swim drill.

You can explain the drill to the whole lane, demonstrate it and give everyone the same starting point. Once they begin swimming, you quickly see who has understood it and who needs another cue or a slightly different explanation.

I see pre-pool preparation in much the same way. That thinking became part of the development of The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck, using visual pre-pool warm-up cards as another coaching reference point for young competitive swimmers.

Another way to communicate

When young swimmers are first introduced to a pre-pool warm-up, many of the movements will also be new to them.

A coach can demonstrate the exercise and explain what they want, but a visual card gives the swimmer another reference point. They can see the movement, hear the coaching cue and then try it for themselves.

Because the card stays in front of them, a swimmer who forgets what comes next or needs another look at the movement has something they can go back to without the coach having to repeat every instruction.

The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck fits alongside the other ways coaches already communicate: demonstration, short cues, questions, repetition and feedback.

Keeping the information simple

My background in design and visual communication influenced this part of the Deck quite heavily.

The challenge was not how much information I could fit onto a card. It was how little information a young swimmer actually needed in front of them to recognise the movement and get started.

Each card has an illustration of the exercise, a short movement name and a simple Perform target. The warm-up stages are numbered and colour coded so the swimmer can also see where the movement sits within the sequence.

A young swimmer standing on poolside should not need to stop and read a paragraph before performing an exercise.

The extra detail sits in the Exercise Companion Guide, primarily for coaches and parents who want to understand more about the movement and help the swimmer perform it well.

Making pre-pool more engaging

Young age-group swimmers generally join swimming because they enjoy being in the water. Pre-pool exercises are not automatically going to hold the same attraction.

The cards needed to be bright, clear and easy to interact with. Swimmers can pick them up, arrange them, follow the numbered stages and begin choosing movements as their experience develops.

That gives the coach another way to make pre-pool preparation easier to approach.

A reference point, not a replacement for coaching

A card cannot watch a swimmer move, see whether an exercise is being performed well, change the instruction or decide that a different movement would be more appropriate. That remains the role of the coach.

The Deck is one coaching tool that can help introduce the movement, reinforce the structure and give young swimmers something visual they can recognise and follow.

Much like a well-chosen drill in the pool, its value comes from how it is used, how it is coached and what the swimmer begins to understand from it.

Prepare. Move. Perform.

Spencer Turner

Creator, The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck

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