<p>By Wayne Goldsmith</p><p>Every swimming coach does some form of skills practice in their training sessions every day.</p><p>For the most part, coaches focus on learning and practicing skills — but rarely test whether those skills are actually race-ready.</p><p>The challenge is that there’s a big gap between doing a skill well in training and executing it under race conditions.</p><p>Here are four steps to bridge that gap:</p><p><strong>1. Learn the skill</strong> — Understand the movement. Get the basics right.</p><p><strong>2. Practice the skill</strong> — Repeat it. Refine it. Build consistency.</p><p><strong>3. Test the skill</strong> — Add speed. Add fatigue. Add pressure. Can they still do it?</p><p><strong>4. Race the skill</strong> — Execute it in competition conditions - both simulated racing in training and actual races in Meets. That’s the real test.</p><p>Most coaches live in steps 1 and 2. The best coaches make sure their swimmers get to steps 3 and 4.</p><p><strong>I’d be interested to know — how do you make sure your swimmers’ skills are race-ready?</strong></p><p>Wayne</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe</a>