415: Andrew Sheaff on Constraints and the Art of Individualized Speed Development

Today's podcast features Andrew Sheaff. Andrew is a swim coach, most recently working at the University of Virginia where the Cavaliers won multiple NCAA team championships. He is also the author of ‘A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching’, a book that examines how to build skills organically during the training process. He is currently consulting with clubs and coaches to help them improve their skill development strategies. On the last show Andrew spoke on empowering the technical development of the athlete, free from overcoaching, as well as how to create lasting change in technique and performance. On today’s episode, Andrew talks about timing and central motion factors in athletic movement, optimizing constraints for individual athletes, the art of scaling constraints up and down, aspects of over-speed and under-speed methods and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr and Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 9:31- Optimizing Swimming Performance under Fatigue 14:06- Optimizing Performance Through Central Motion Perception 22:21- Enhancing Performance with Swimming Paddles 24:26- Cross-Sport Insights for Swim Skill Development 30:01- Purposeful Constraints for Athlete Development in Coaching 37:05- Tailored Coaching for Athlete Performance Optimization 40:09- Enhancing Swimming Performance with Training Gear 43:38- Enhancing Performance Through Varied Training Stimuli 46:15- Enhancing Swimmer Training with Strategic Tools 55:49- Progressive Resistance Training for Efficient Swimming Strokes 58:49- Enhanced Athletic Performance through Varied Challenges 1:02:18- Tailored Training for Enhanced Swimming Performance Quotes (00:06:39) "When something's working 15-20, 25% of the time, that's not good." - Andrew Sheaff (00:14:57) "Where that speed comes from is actually good timing around the center of the body." - Joel Smith (00:16:30) “In terms of helping them figure it out, what I do is I try to really challenge that rhythm in lots of different ways. So, like, you can have them go at really high rates, really low rates. You can alternate back and forth.” – Andrew Sheaff (00:22:00) Helping them perceive that rhythm is really important, and then they just need a general sense of it. And then it's like, then you can start challenging it and pushing it, and then they start to figure out how to do it in various contexts under pressure. And that's ultimately what's going to help them race successfully. ” – Andrew Sheaff (00:29:00) Because, you know, if I put a pair of fins on, you know, ten different swimmers, there's going to be a general impact of those fins, but there's also going to be a specific impact for each swimmer because the fin and the swimmer interaction, and those interactions are going to be a little bit different. – Andrew Sheaff (00:44:17) "If you're running like 6x200s with the wind at your back, you get the exposure of running a little. Feeling easier, feeling faster, feeling more elastic for that." - Joel Smith (00:49:00) “Another example would be with the paddles. That can help them feel like what it's like to hold water. But then you take the paddles off with some swimmers, and they hate the feeling of it because it feels like they're pulling with toothpicks. And then the other opposite extreme, sometimes you have swimmers use the tennis balls and you open them back up and they feel like their hands are gigantic and it feels awesome to them. But sometimes you open the hands back up and their hands feel gigantic and they feel like they can't control them like they want to. And so, the after effect, I guess, it's usually predictable within a person, but it's not always predictable from person to person” – Andrew Sheaff (00:57:38) "There's nothing great intrinsically about any of these tools. It's whether you have a goal, you have something you want to accomplish, and if they can help you accomplish that better than not using them, then it makes sense to use them." - Andrew Sheaff (01:00:59) "The idea is, is what matters. And like, that's how you create the progression and the challenge and it's the same thing with skill stuff." - Andrew Sheaff About Andrew Sheaff Andrew Sheaff is a swim coach, most recently working at the University of Virginia where the Cavaliers won multiple NCAA team championships. He is also the author of ‘A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching’, a book that examines how to build skills organically during the training process. He is currently consulting with clubs and coaches to help them improve their skill development strategies. His website is coachandrewsheaff.com.