If you're not satisfied with your swimmers pushoffs, make sure they understand that the pushoff is a JUMP off the wall.

We wanted to make a quick point with our swimmers, so we lined them all up along the side of the pool and had them jump into the water 20 times. The target to jump to was passed the blue line, but prior to the lane line. Then they had to jump back off the bottom, climb out and jump again. It was a continuous 20 jump and climbs.

Turning it into a competition, those that finished the 20 first, were allowed to practice their pushoffs with some smooth swimming. The rest continued to practice their jumps.

The next phase was to clean things up. Making sure the swimmers are jumping UP and not just OUT, we added the knee lift aspect to the jump. We also encouraged them to get out of the pool without placing their knee on the edge. Some of the swimmers did continue this, and while we'll continue to teach them, we have to also consider some of the swimmers in this group were 11-13 years old, and the shallowest depth in our pool is 7'.

Just some simple teaching that can break up training, but still add useful work to the day.