How do I plan my lifesaving season?

I encourage you to reflect on everything you have read, everything you have learned, and to see that it is not so much about which exact design is the best possible planning for the future, but rather that you plan your season based on your own personal and family needs, that adapts to what our own history teaches us and to the coach's "Midas Touch."
Don't take anything for granted, much less for it to serve as a prediction, and stay strong on the path so that vanity doesn't drag you into repeating year after year what we think is immutable.

Samuel Gomez

Planning is the cornerstone and the initial reason for achieving our goals and, above all, our joys.

I like to compare this passion to when a painter lays down the first brush strokes of his masterpiece without knowing how he will get there, but knowing where he is going.

Whether you are a coach or a self-taught athlete, the first question we must ask ourselves is: What is my goal? It is important to give it an objective , measurable and realistic value. Of course, think big.

“Records are permissions we give ourselves to beat ourselves again and again”

Another interesting question, and one that is the most costly. What am I willing to give to achieve my goal? Here appears the big word that is so scary: perseverance.

Some of you may be wondering, do the resources I have influence? Of course they do. The training spaces, the materials we have, the work group, the coaches. All of this is part of the equation, but let us not use it as an excuse.

Once these questions have been answered, we have to define;

• Modality in which I want to invest more time: Pool tests, beach tests.
• What capabilities are given in our tests and how to work on them.
• How many sessions/time are we going to spend on these capabilities in each of the training time periods?

When we finish putting all the answers and concepts into the shaker, it is time to give it physical form.

Build your planning around your seasonal goals.

There are different templates for planning and quantifying loads for sports such as swimming, athletics, canoeing. Unfortunately, there is very little scientific evidence for our sport and even fewer planning tools.

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But far from being something negative, it is a virtue not to have limits that limit our imagination .

The best thing to do is to create your own planning template and insert the different variables that interest you. Remember, “what is measured can be changed and improved.”

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If you don't know where to start, we give you a basic template that you can customize to your liking in a very easy way.

Customize and control your planning

The downloadable Excel file is made up of 3 tabs. You just have to fill in the session data (volume by training zone, meters, dry) and you automatically have a tool to evaluate your season at a glance.

You can implement the tool with the values ​​you consider to measure.

In successive blog entries we will provide tools and tips on load planning and quantification, so that you can paint your own picture.

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But everything step by step... Until the next post 😃

Samuel Gomez.