Training for power places greater demands on the body that training for muscular endurance, and it is important not to overstress the body when focusing on power development. Keep in mind that in this case, quality is more important than quantity. When your swimmers are ready to build up power, you, as a coach, should take several safety and performance considerations into account as you set up your programme. From the safety perspective, you should be aware of these issues:
- Perform explosive exercises at the start of a workout (just after the warm up) while your athletes are still fresh. Fatigued muscles can negatively affect technique and cause injury. Fatigue also limits the gains you can expect to achieve.
- Set up your training programme using exercise progressions so that exercise increase in complexity and intensity as your swimmers become more experienced with this type of exercises.
- Power exercises are meant primarily for physical mature athletes. Younger swimmers can easily handle low level plyometric exercises, such as jumping rope, but swimmers should avoid moderate and high intensity exercises until they have gone through puberty.
