The Art and Importance of Planning Part 1

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Introduction

Given that most of us, if not all of us are isolating ourselves whether by choice or Executive Order. I was thinking of how to best use my time in my home. I thought that now would be a good time to plan the coming season. As I began to think about the coming fall season I thought it might be a good topic for a blog post to share my thoughts on planning with you. I hope that you will feel free to share any best practices on planning that you have picked up.

I love the headline quote by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who during World War II was the Supreme Allied Commander responsible for the planning, implementation, and carrying out of Operation Overlord. This operation became known as the Invasion of Normandy or the D-Day Invasion. This operation was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. General Eisenhower had to plan the invasion that would coordinate the attack using roughly 1200 planes, 5000 plus ships, and over 160,000 troops. General Eisenhower had to make plans with his supporting staff of Generals to coordinate every aspect of the invasion in order for it to be successful and ultimately bring about the defeat of Nazi Germany.

In our various responsibilities as coaches we are a lot like General Eisenhower. We have to coordinate the training, the teaching of technique, and meet scheduling to help our measure the development of our swimmers as they ultimately progress to the championship meet at the end of the season. True our swimmers are not going off to a war, but they are going to be competing at swimming meets and striving to do their best. Having a well thought out, structured, coordinated and organized seasonal plan will help create the opportunities for our swimmers to be ready to go into battle to achieve their goals.

Preparation for Writing the Plan: Understanding by Design

Before writing a plan I would high recommend that you read the book, Understanding by Design written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. You can purchase this valuable resource book on Amazon in paperback for anywhere from $18.00 to $22.00 in paperback. While this book addresses teachers and how they can effectively help their students gain understanding, which is more important than just learning. The concepts and practices Wiggins and McTighe propose are very applicable to us in coaching swimming.

In their book they identify three stages that teachers and/or curriculum designers must take into consideration before writing and designing curriculum and lesson plans. The three stages are:

Stage 1. Identify desired results for the students. Where does the teacher what the students to be at the end of the year.

Stage 2. Determine acceptable evidence of the students. In other words what constitutes, or defines what the student has come to understand and learn.

Stage 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction that demonstrates a student's progress toward the desired results.

Stage 1 Identify desired results (Characteristics)

1. What should participants hear, read, view, explore or otherwise encounter?

This knowledge is considered knowledge worth being familiar with. Information that fits within this question is the lowest priority content information that will be mentioned in the lesson, unit, or course.

2. What knowledge and skills should participants master?

The knowledge and skills at this sub-stage are considered important to know and do. The information that fits within this question could be the facts, concepts, principles, processes, strategies, and methods students should know when they leave the course.

3. What are big ideas and important understandings participants should retain?

The big ideas and important understandings are referred to as enduring understandings because these are the ideas that instructors want students to remember sometime after they’ve completed the course.

Stage 2 Determine Acceptable Evidence (Characteristics)
This is the assessment phase where the teacher will look at the instruction he/she is giving and will assess the student's understanding of the items he/she is teaching that will help the students gain a final understanding of the curriculum at the end of a given unit-the enduring understandings.

Stage 3 Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction (Key Questions)

1. What enabling knowledge and skills will the students need to perform effectively to achieve the desired results?
2. What activities will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of performance goals?
3. What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?
4. Is the overall design coherent and effective?

Application to the Writing a Seasonal Plan (My Best Practices)
Here are the steps I go through in writing my seasonal plans
1. Determine where I want the TEAM, and each swimmers to be at the end of a season.
2. Determine what skills that my staff and I will need to emphasize and teach to help the swimmers get to where I what them to be at the end of the year. Included in skills are such things as techniques, and the "Processes" you want them to learn-understand-apply.
3. Determine what are the physical conditioning categories that are to be used to help prepare the swimmers to perform the skills and processes needed to achieve the ending results wanted. This includes in water training categories-Aerobic Endurance, Threshold, Speed work etc. It should also address what types of dryland exercises are to be done to enrich the swimmer's ability to progress toward the end results. It can also include things like mental strength training, and team building activities to provide support to every member of the team as THEY progress together toward the end results.
4. Determine the meets to attend that will be used as assessments, or "stepping stones" in their progress toward the end of the year meet. Each meet should be selected with a specific purpose in mind. For example by meet number on the swimmers should be able to perform underwater kicking beyond flags.
5. Determine the phases of the season, their length and the focus of each.
6. Put it on paper.

Summary and Final Thoughts

To summarize this lengthy post here are a few ideas to consider as you plan. I think it is important that the plan reflects the Head Coach's philosophy. If a Head Coach does not have a defined philosophy that needs to be decided upon, written and/or communicated to the staff. It is the responsibility of the Head Coach to gather around him/her assistant coaches who will buy into and support that philosophy. I believe it is important that the Head Coach put on paper his/her plan for the staff to follow. He/She must communicate the desired end results to the staff. However, all coaches need to be involved in the creation, publication and implementation of the finalized plan so that as a program the end desired end results can be achieved. I recommend gathering together in a planning meeting, somewhere that has a large whiteboard, or chalkboard so that the dates of the season can be written and every aspect of the plan calendared. The Head Coach must conduct, and lead this meeting. The staff then plans together the phases of the season, the meets to attend. Every aspect of the season needs to be calendared to help the TEAM, staff and swimmers arrive at the end results. When the final plan is agreed upon the individual coaches can develop a plan for their respective groups and then each coach publish and communicate the goals and plans to the TEAM and swimmers.

I love this saying, "If you fail to plan. You plan to fail". I believe this is a true statement however trite and over used it may be. I believe in planning seasons and especially in planning for multiple years. One time I listened to one of our country's National Team Coaches, I do not recall who it was at this time other than I took his advise to heart. That advise was that as coaches we needed to have a four year plan based on the Olympic Cycle. After hearing this I thought, four year plan you have got to be kidding. However I thought I would try it. So for the 2004-2008 and then again 2008-2012 I actually put together a four year plan for the group of Senior level swimmers I was coaching. During both cycles there were two athletes from our club who qualified for the Olympic Trials. Planning works! Do it!

Recommended Reading

Understanding by Design, written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Published by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia.

The Swim Coaching Bible Volume II. Edited by Dick Hannula and Nort Thornton, Chapter 8 Planning for Success pp 85-121. Chapter written by Coach Stephan Widmer.

Next Week's post Part 2 Ideas on the Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Implementation