**What Do You Want Them to Know at the End of the Season?**

One of the most effective ways to approach a new season is to think ahead to championships in March.  What are the skills you want every swimmer to have when they step to the blocks at that final meet?  What things look sketchy and uncomfortable now…that you want to be locked in and comfortable later?  Join us this week as we talk about race-day essentials: streamlines, underwater dolphins and breaststroke pullouts, relay take-offs, breathing patterns, and race-day finishes.

**Monday**

**Drop Pushoff on Your Side**

You’re starting your season and about to practice THOUSANDS of “half-turns”. Allow yourself to learn every time you push off the wall, to take advantage of the proper ready position pushoff and master coming out of an open turn into a great line.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1914-all-strokes-how-to-push-off>

**Tuesday**

**Dave Denniston Drills: Streamline Pushoff**

By the time swimmers reach their final meet of the season, streamlined pushoffs need to be hard-wired into their nervous system.  Here’s how to work on them from Day One.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/173-streamline-pushoff>

**Wednesday**

**Turns: Practice Underwater Dolphins**

The only way to have great underwater dolphins off your walls is by building consistency in practice.  Here’s a path to getting started, and to help swimmers find discipline and consistency with their underwater dolphins.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2724-turns-practice-underwater-dolphins>

**Thursday**

**Kara Lynn Joyce:  Sprint Breathing**

To excel at sprint freestyle – 50s and 100s – you must learn how often to breathe, and then train for this at every practice.  Three-time Olympic sprinter Kara Lynn Joyce shares her secrets.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/657-sprint-breathing>

**Friday**

**Turns - Deep Pushoffs**

The direction you leave the wall determines the intention of your pushoff. Start the season with the “deep” desire to have better pushoffs by aiming downward. This extreme drill will give you the idea.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1586-turns-deep-pushoffs>

**Saturday**

**Relay Starts – Team Work with York YMCA**

Must-have skills for big meets:  understanding the responsibilities of both the swimmer coming in, and the swimmer taking off; and being able to adjust to changing conditions, speeds, and stroke rates.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1982-relay-starts-team-work-with-york-ymca>

**Sunday**

**Pushoff Target**

Starting the season with “where you pushoff today”, will give you a target of improvement for tomorrow. Drop a coin or a marker on the bottom of the pool, or if your team has kick-out markers like in the video. DO SOMETHING that reminds you that you MUST be in a state of discomfort just a bit each step of the season to get to the point you want to be at the end of the season. START TODAY!

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1448-pushoff-target>


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September 16, 2025 - End of Season Planning TODAY!