PDST Training Concept:

Our team is a US Swimming year round competitive swim team offering high quality professional coaching and technique instruction for all ages and abilities. The goal of the PDST is to provide every swimmer an opportunity to improve swimming skills and achieve success at his or her level of ability, from novice to international competitor.

In brief, our team will rely on several key attributes of training in daily practice. We will use advanced swimming training theories as the foundation for practice, improve basic physical conditions of each swimmer, teach and apply excellent stroke techniques, and focus on controlled training intensity and swimming efficiency in all practices. A good coach will be able to identify and develop each swimmer’s physical potential and winning mentality through practice. Analyzing effective swimming training, Coach PeiYong Li wrote in an published research article: “Swimming practice is about thousands of the technical replicates of the stroke. A coach absolutely needs to ensure the correct stroke technique is formed (taught) and practiced in each training to improve” and “It will NOT be difficult to imagine the consequence of the hundreds, and thousands repetitive LESS OPTIMAL strokes practiced by a swimmer and that should NOT have happened to the swimmer.” Accordingly, the trainings in our team will focus on swimming foundations, improving the stroke techniques and use correct strokes with the training intensity (efficiency). All of these will be extended at various levels into the practice groups, accomplished using both dry-land exercise and in-water practice. Improved times in competitive meets will come from better stroke techniques and higher swimming efficiency in trainings. Simply put, there are two ways to improve swimming time, increased power and/or reduced water resistance. These two parameters can be achieved with good supervised practice and improved techniques. In our training, we will deploy various methods to achieve these aims.

“Swimming training is a science as well as an art,” describes Coach PeiYong Li. Swimming training needs to be science-based, but also needs to be individualized in order to maximize each swimmer’s unique potential. Our coaches will gradually individualize training plans according to the physiological, physical, and mental characteristics of each swimmer in our team. We will also adjust our plans by carefully monitoring the recovery of each swimmer after the training to ensure we achieve desired practice aims.

Each new swimmer will be placed in the practice group best suited for him or her, so that each swimmer can enjoy some degree of success in a relatively short time. Since swimming is an individual sport, each child will perform differently, but you can be sure that your child will get out of it as much as he or she puts into it.

The practice groups are structured to be low key and developmental in the younger groups and more competitive in the older groups. We look for long term development for our swimmers at their careers and peak in high school and college, where national trips and scholarships can be earned. The program is designed to allow more free time for other activities early in their careers. Swimmers and their families in the older groups are asked for more dedication to the sport, as this is necessary to compete at a higher level.

Practice time and Practice Season: 

Our practice season starts in early September and ends after PNS 14 & Under Long Course Championship last weekend of July for a total of 11 months. 

Our team has 2 breaks for the swimmers and their families each season. The winter break during Christmas-New Year holiday period and a spring break in early April.

PDST practice groups are organized primarily by ability levels with four practice groups: Developmental Group, Novice Group, Age Group, and Advanced Group. There will be swimming specific dry-land trainings each week supervised by the coach and, of course, the in-water practice. There can be different practices set for each swimmer or a sub-group of swimmers within the group. Sufficient practice time for each swimmer is vital, and we encourage our swimmers to attend all practices each week.

Group Standard & Requirement:

Developmental Group (Dev): 

The primary focus for this group is to learn the correct stroke techniques, which means constantly correct the wrong ones through the practice. Swimmers will gradually establish 4 good strokes with the rhythm, coordination and continuation. In the meantime, gradually teach the concept of arm stroke acceleration, kicking with whole body coordination and balancing. Combined all above, swimmers will gain the understanding of the fundamentals of forward moving know-how in the water. The practice will also teach and practice effective breathing techniques, and increase aerobic breath ability. Also in the practice, swimmers will be taught to think through the various swimming concepts and translate the concepts into actions, therefore, set up the foundation to enable them become good swimmers, who can learn and explore the swimming.

Goals for Developmental Group:

• Swimmer is motivated to listen to coaches and try to improve

• Courteous to other swimmers in pool • Good techniques for 4 strokes

• Good kicking techniques

• Good balance and some turn techniques

• Can swim for 50 yards in 4 strokes.

Novice Group (Nov)

Swimming practices not only is a process to learn the stroke techniques, but also provide a way to proactively thinking, understanding and raise the ability of the imagination in terms of competitive swimming. In the practice, one of the training focuses for this group is to instill the foundation of the stroke techniques. Through this process, it will allow a swimmer to adapt to the correct strokes easier and faster. During the practice, the focus is more about having the correctness of the strokes, rather than the practice yardages. In the meantime, the practice will also employ methods to enhance swimmer’s buoyancy, flexibility/agile response, explosiveness, body coordination, and the in-water fluidity. Therefore, we will establish the correct, and standard techniques. We will also set the in-water dynamic modeling which is vital at the beginning of the learning in swimming and will set a good foundation into the next stage.

Goals for Novice Group:

• Swimmer is motivated to listen to coaches and try to improve

• Courteous to other swimmers in pool

• Good techniques for 4 strokes

• 200 IM swim legally

• kicks with set time limit

• Have learned and can do push offs, various starts, all turns efficiently

• Acquired initial pacing and final spirit techniques

• Have the confidence and ability to attend the PNS swim meet with desired outcome (time)

Age Group (AG):

Continue the practice guidelines from the Developmental Group. In addition, the practice will establish advanced, complete good stroke techniques. Gradually fit the practices into an individualized practice model. Continue to improve breath-holding technique, while emphasize more breathing rhythm and cycle in swimming. Stroke practices are highly repetitive. Therefore, ensuring having correct strokes from beginning will benefit swimmers enormously. Understand and learn the “force” and the “counter-force” principle in the water with the strokes and utilize the various ways for body forward movement. Demonstrate the advance methods of arm acceleration and the force for accelerated body movement in the water. Focus on swimmer’s understanding of these advanced swimming methods through teaching and practice and in turn raise the levels of a swimmer in the group.

Goals for Age Group:

• Understand and enhance buoyancy, flexibility/agile response, explosiveness, body coordination, and the water fluidity
  
• Swim 400IM legally with correct stroke techniques
  
• Improve fluidity in turns and push-offs and increase the proficiency
  
• Start to use underwater kicking techniques
• Improve dive entry into water techniques
• Improve pacing and spiriting techniques
  
• Increased endurance in distance swim
• Begin learning how to manage effort and intensity through practice
  
• Learn and improve goal setting skills
• Multiple age group gold times are required to stay in this group with a goal of achieving PNS champ time standards
  

Advanced Group (Adv):

Continue the practice guidelines from the Age Group. This group will enter more systematic, intensive, and advanced practices based on carefully monitored swimmer’s physical condition, standardized stroke techniques, with the training plan fit into growth spurt as these factors continue to change in each swimmer. The ratio of the teaching and training will be carefully divided, enable intensive aerobic and anaerobic based trainings and carefully monitor each swimmer’s training yield through the practices. In the practices, continue to focus on deploying correct stroke techniques in each set of the practice in order to raise swimmer’s technical foundation and the distance endurance. In the meantime, reduce the potential physical fatigue, which can result in un-intentional errorness stroke formation during the practice. Strive to provide a demanding and comprehensive training program for the swimmers will be a goal in this group as well.

Goals for Advanced Group

• Continue to improve buoyancy, flexibility/agile response, explosiveness, body coordination, and swimming fluidity
• Actively improve distance per stroke
• Translate power and athleticism developed in dry land training to speed in the water
• Swimmers will learn to actively monitor and fine tune their stroke techniques
• Understand well the spiriting and distance swim techniques
• Enhanced understanding of the pacing techniques
• Develop leadership skills with goal setting
• Manage swimmer’s goals through practice and meets
• Develop high perseverance and determination through practices and teamwork
• Minimum attendance is required and up to coach's discretion
• Multiple PNS Champ qualifying times are required to stay in this group with a goal of achieving age group sectional time standard

Swim meets are organized throughout the year for various ability levels so that even novices can participate in the competitive experience. Meets are an important part of the training and the swimmers are encouraged to attend the meets each time. Our team will attend PNS organized swimming meets. For each meet, we will notify parents or swimmer through “primary email contact” listed in the registration form for event registration. Be sure to read the meet information file and identify the number events and time standards required to attend, then submit the meet event registration for your swimmer according the instructions from the email. In general, short course meets will start in October each year, and the meet schedule will be finalized in late August or early September at PNS team coach’s meeting. Short course meets will finish in March of each season with the PNS Sectional Championship meet in late March and, prior to it, the PNS championship meet scheduled for early December. Both will require qualifying times to attend. Throughout monthly PNS meets, swimmers will have ample opportunity to qualify for PNS Championship meet in December and then for the Sectional meet in March. Detailed qualifying times for each age and gender can be found at PNS website or our team website (http://www.pdswimteam.org). Year to year, qualifying times for each age group can change slightly so be sure to check the time standard at beginning of the season. In addition, our team will attend special PNS invitational meets when it is appropriate for the team. Starting April of each season, PNS will begin long course meet and our team will attend them as arranged through PNS and schedules allow. We will announce our long course meet schedule in Feb-March (usually) once PNS finalizes the meet schedule. The long course meet will end with the PNS Long Course Championship meet in late July each season. After that meet, out team will also finish our current season.