Cool Down?

My coach today told me that cooling down at the end of practice was not good for the body. He said it could rip muscles that were just worked. I have always been taught that the cool down was important, especially after working hard and getting the heart rate up. Keep in mind that this is an USA-S practice and those I'm swimming with are teenagers. I'm curious what others think?
Parents
  • Never had any c/d during my AG and HS swimming, unless you count all the screwinig around in the locker room after practice as c/d. This was BG, so your eyes were burning out of your head and needed cool down. Had a small c/d pool in college, but it was really too small to be useful during meets. Our coach did have us c/d after practices, so this was first time I encounterd a c/d concept after swimming. At this point in my life, I like to c/d for about a 200 after finishing, as others have said just working on glide and DPS at an easy pace feels great. If I've just finished sets with board, fins or paddles, the c/d gives me a chance to feel the water after and without use of the training toys, which seems important to me, cause there is a big change in feeling. Also, if I've been swimming all fr, it's a chance swim at least a couple of 50s or so of bk and br. Maybe at some point i'll even feel comfortable swimming easy stretching fly for c/d. I've read strength training tri recommendations for w/u and c/d before dry land excercise/lifting sessions using a bike or tread mill - like 10 to 20 min on either as i recall - before you start and after you finish. This seems like a good idea. My $.02
Reply
  • Never had any c/d during my AG and HS swimming, unless you count all the screwinig around in the locker room after practice as c/d. This was BG, so your eyes were burning out of your head and needed cool down. Had a small c/d pool in college, but it was really too small to be useful during meets. Our coach did have us c/d after practices, so this was first time I encounterd a c/d concept after swimming. At this point in my life, I like to c/d for about a 200 after finishing, as others have said just working on glide and DPS at an easy pace feels great. If I've just finished sets with board, fins or paddles, the c/d gives me a chance to feel the water after and without use of the training toys, which seems important to me, cause there is a big change in feeling. Also, if I've been swimming all fr, it's a chance swim at least a couple of 50s or so of bk and br. Maybe at some point i'll even feel comfortable swimming easy stretching fly for c/d. I've read strength training tri recommendations for w/u and c/d before dry land excercise/lifting sessions using a bike or tread mill - like 10 to 20 min on either as i recall - before you start and after you finish. This seems like a good idea. My $.02
Children
No Data