Dryland Dual Meets: Competing From Home

By Cathy Sheafor

Swim Charleston coaches were talking a few weeks back and we wondered allowed whether we could create a dual meet where swim teams could compete against each other from home. We decided on a dryland dual meet format.

Our first dual meet was against another team in our LSC and we challenged this similarly sized team to see which of our two teams could get the highest number of jumping jacks in a minute. We decided to leave it open for 12 hours so that swimmers could fit in the competition when they had time. We created a google form, sent the invite and the form link to the other team, created rules and began. At 8 AM on April 29, we opened the google form to athletes on both teams and the competition began. It was a simple challenge and it was very easy to calculate totals — each swimmer was to complete as many jumping jacks in a minute as they could on behalf of their team and then log them into the form. The “meet” closed at 8 PM. The first time around, our team jumped fast. Despite a last minute rally by the other team, we won. We had fun!

Another team from another LSC saw the challenge on social media and followed suit by inviting a different team to have a similar challenge. We didn’t want to be left out! We immediately reached out to the team and asked if they’d be interested in a burpee dual meet with us. Same format: meet started at 8 AM and ended at 8 PM. Swimmers had one minute to do as many burpees as possible. We completed that burpee meet last night. Despite some fast burpees, we lost. We had fun!

Next week, we will have a star jump dual meet against a team in our LSC and the format will be best average because our team is so much larger than the other team. And the week after that we will have another meet against a team from another LSC. We hope the momentum continues.

We will win. We will lose. The outcomes are not important. The process is. Our swimmers are rallying, smiling, laughing and learning. And these mini dryland dual meets are an opportunity to for our swimmers to grow and improve AND for our team to grow and improve.

Who says we can’t compete from home?

I hope that we as coaches can continue to grow these opportunities for alternative swimming competition because they are fun, they are challenging, they keep our swimmers engaged, and they build team spirit in a time where we are challenged to grow closer as we are apart.

Anyone want to participate? Just reach out to us via the Swim Charleston Instagram or FB page and we’ll set something up!

ABOUT CATHY SCHEAFOR

Cathy Sheafor is the Founding Head Coach at Swim Charleston in South Carolina. An educator at heart, prior to coaching, Cathy was the Founder and Head of School for the Charlotte Community School for Girls and taught collegiately at Meredith College and Duke University. Prior to that, she practiced law.  She is inspired by helping young swimmers to find their passion for swimming, perfect their technique, and sharpen their psychological tool set so that they can achieve their goals inside and outside of the pool. She loves coaching alongside her children, Tirion and Haley, and her husband Doug. She was named Age Group Coach of the Year for South Carolina in 2019. In her free time, she likes to write and paint.