4 Tips to Prepare Your Swim Team for 2021
The 2021 New Year is just about here. Very soon, another year will be behind us and we’ll set off into a new one. Traditionally, this is a time to reflect on your accomplishments of the past twelve months. In addition, it’s a time to figure out your goals for the new year.
For swim team coaches, you may think early September is the only time to develop new plans and strategies for your team. Of course, this is understandable, pre-season preparation is critical to your team’s trajectory over the next few months. However, now is also an optimal moment to prepare your swimmers for the year ahead. Not only is this the beginning of a new year, it’s also the halfway point of the swim season. In this post, we’ll provide four tips to prepare your swim team for the new year.
1. New Custom Woven Towels
Obviously, it would be impossible to create this list without our #1 suggestion. There are countless occasions to give your swimmers custom swim team towels. However, this is easily one of the best times to invigorate team spirit with a gift they’ll cherish forever.
Whether for Christmas or New Year’s, custom team items make the perfect gift for any aspiring athlete. Our Holiday Gift Guide provides exceptional descriptions of the gifts that will absolutely make your team’s day. In addition to creating unity and promoting your team, they’ll greatly boost morale and give your 2021 the perfect start.
2. Learn From the Previous Year’s Mistakes
Of course, the end of the year is a great time to congratulate yourself for your success. However, it’s probably a lot more constructive to acknowledge the past year’s mistakes. Then, you can learn from them and work on correcting them.
Ask yourself how you went about preparing for the previous year. Was there anything you could have done to prevent these setbacks? Also, carefully deconstruct last year’s performances during swim meets. This will help you identify vulnerabilities and come up with clean swim techniques. Ultimately, these will help you discern what kind of changes to implement for the new year.
3. Encourage Camaraderie
It’s very likely that nothing’s more important for a team’s success than loyalty and camaraderie. In order to keep your athletes functioning as an efficient, collective unit, it’s imperative that they feel a bond with one another. A team divided by discord and resentment is doomed.
Therefore, one of your central priorities should be to foster closeness and unity among your team. There are few more effective strategies to strengthening a team’s ability to perform well together than ensuring they feel a sense of camaraderie. This indispensable team spirit is the ultimate motivator for your swimmers to commit to performing at their highest capability.
4. Enforce Good Habits
At the start of this new year, you should definitely stress the critical importance of good habits to your team. At the end of the holidays, many people (including athletes) are recovering from the sluggish, bloated after-effects of overindulgence. After eating way too much, your athletes will need you to firmly enforce the importance of good habits more than ever.
Obviously, it’s impossible for you to keep an eye on every swimmer 24/7. However, you should still make good nutrition, adequate sleep and exercise a mandatory rule for your swimmers to follow. Just because you can’t personally supervise each swimmer doesn’t mean they’ll disregard these policies!
Conclusion – Team Towels
Here at Team Towels, we love contributing to the morale and success of aspiring athletes. All of our products are designed to provide them with a bold reflection of their accomplishments.
With these four tips, you can prepare your team for the new year and bring them much closer to finishing the season successfully.