Dryland Training During Taper

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:26:55 GMT

I can definetly see the adjustments that need to be made from an 18 year old to a masters swimmer - great point. I look forward to seeing how I respond with recovery time as well. I am also working with a couple masters swimmers at the time and will see how they respsond to their upcoming meets.

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:47:49 GMT

I do crossfit at our local crossfit box and plan on dropping it about a week before a meet.....seems to do the trick

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

The Fortress — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:56:30 GMT

Agree with you on the legs and its important to state that everyone has a different recovery timetable. I just wanted to clarify the low level of intensity of dryland training that I recommend during this time. An aggressive dryland program 1 week before a championship meet is not what I am suggesting. Doing 3 sets of 5 box jumps and 3 sets of 5 split jumps with lots of rest in between is not going to ruin a taper. This is like saying a broken swim will ruin a taper if you do it the week before the meet. The goal of taper is to swim as fast as possible and my point is that a drop off in power production will not allow this. I don't do any hard broken swims the week before a taper meet. I also don't see how jumping or body weight exercises before a meet is really going to prevent a drop in power production, especially if you're still doing speed work in the pool. And, for us geezers, it's just more wear and tear on the legs. Masters need to rest much more than HS kids. And as Paul alluded to, sprinters need to rest more than mid-D types. So any tiny loss in strength is more than made up for by eliminating training fatigue. I think many masters could stand to rest more than they do. For me, if I'm doing a full taper, I drop all drylands (even my bikram yoga) 3 weeks out.

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Paul Smith — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:34:21 GMT

Thanks for adding into the post Paul. I definetly like to here about what works for other people. The training program I posted is what I did with some of our higher level high school kids. They actually tapered pretty well. We stopped dryland one week out with the more advanced swimmers that had the most dryland background. If someone is new to dryland training (new stimulus) then I usually rest them earlier. One of the guys who swam the 50 Fr went 21.5 in season and went 20.8 at states. We had a girl who swam the 100 Free and went 51.5 in season and ended up going 50.2. I feel the taper was good but I have had a couple seasons with them and their coaching staff to get it right. As for me I haven't been in a masters meet in 5 years but I'm starting back again! Dixie Championships in Feb will be my first meet back - I will see how my taper goes then. Thanks for the details...explains a LOT! When you get back into training your going to find that the recovery time for us old farts greatly exceeds the high school kids this program worked well for (we did something similar for our club kids and its a good strategy). If I go back to my fastest season training as a "sprinter" (2004 when I was 44) where I lifted extremely heavy and dropped weights 3 weeks out...my times from in season (note, most in season swims were at altitude so the bigger drops make more sense) vs. nationals: 50 free: 21.8/20.9 100 free: 47.8/45.9 100 fly: 53.5/50.2 100 back: 58.6/54.6 100 IM: 57/53.3 200 IM 1:57.3 (never swam it in season) When I have trained more for the 100/200/500 I have always stopped lifting 10 days out...much of the decision of when I back off has to do with how my legs feel, I even get to the point a week out I stop using stairs, wearing flip flops, etc. just to rest them as much as possible!

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Chris Stevenson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:26:59 GMT

The training program I posted is what I did with some of our higher level high school kids. They actually tapered pretty well. We stopped dryland one week out with the more advanced swimmers that had the most dryland background. If someone is new to dryland training (new stimulus) then I usually rest them earlier. One of the guys who swam the 50 Fr went 21.5 in season and went 20.8 at states. We had a girl who swam the 100 Free and went 51.5 in season and ended up going 50.2. I feel the taper was good but I have had a couple seasons with them and their coaching staff to get it right. This past summer in LCM I did one in-season meet and then had a taper meet at Auburn nationals. Here were the drops for the events I did at both meets: 50 back: 30.31 --> 29.09 100 back: 1:05.15 --> 1:02.11 200 back: 2:22.60 --> 2:15.83 I've almost always had pretty good drops in taper, usually in the range of 1-2 seconds/100 and usually I stop drylands 3-4 weeks out. I don't notice any loss of speed/power in the water; just the opposite in fact. This summer I tried a different experiment: I had been lifting pretty hard (using mostly a dumbbell-based routine) and was stronger than I have been in the past few years, but I could feel it wearing me down. I stopped a full 6 weeks out from nationals; for 3 weeks after stopping I stepped up some in-water resistance work (using mostly parachutes and paddles) to transition that strength gain to speed/power in the water. And I consciously tried to "step up" a little more on the race-pace quality work; weights always really affects my in-water performance and I reasoned that I was ready to start using the strength gains to swim faster going into the taper. Sure I lost strength IN THE WEIGHT ROOM by the time I returned to it (though I quickly re-gained it), but I don't think the extended time off affected my speed/power in the water. I was also happy with my swim in the 50 fly individual event (26.6) and had a pretty decent 50 free relay split (24.8), considering the fact that I consider myself a fairly inept freestyle sprinter. I don't really think speed/power training in the pool are the most effective ways to build strength, but I think they can be quite good in maintaining it over the short term. So that's why I don't worry too much about getting those drylands in during taper.

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:04:54 GMT

Sorry about that! Here you go. 4 wks out Barbell Squats 3 x 8 135lbs Box Jumps 3 x 8 10lb weight vest Dumbbell Lunge 3 x 8 10lb dumbbell Split Jumps 3 x 8 10 lb weight vest 3 wks out Barbell Squats 3 x 5 135lbs Box Jumps 3 x 5 10lb weight vest Dumbbell Lunge 3 x 5 10lb dumbbell Split Jumps 3 x 5 10 lb weight vest 2 wks out Barbell Squats 3 x 5 115lbs Box Jumps 3 x 5 Bodyweight Dumbbell Lunge 3 x 5 5lb dumbbell Split Jumps 3 x 5 Bodyweight 1 wks out Box Jumps 3 x 5 Bodyweight Split Jumps 3 x 5 Bodyweight

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Paul Smith — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:37:12 GMT

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

The Fortress — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:13:50 GMT

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:49:55 GMT

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:00:54 GMT

Thanks for the post. Can you edit to clarify the actual set, reps and weights as they seem to have lost formatting? I've tended to stop in advance of the meet, but next year will be keen to experiment more as I'm less concerned with results and more concerned with maintaining fitness levels.

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:13:31 GMT

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Former Member — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:49:24 GMT

Disagree. The goal of a taper is to swim fast, not to maintain strength. Doing drylands during taper is not conducive to fast swimming. Explosive lifting and plyos can be done during a period of weeks prior to taper (and during the season), but not during taper. It is much more critical to completely rest the body, especially the legs IMO. Agree with you on the legs and its important to state that everyone has a different recovery timetable. I just wanted to clarify the low level of intensity of dryland training that I recommend during this time. An aggressive dryland program 1 week before a championship meet is not what I am suggesting. Doing 3 sets of 5 box jumps and 3 sets of 5 split jumps with lots of rest in between is not going to ruin a taper. This is like saying a broken swim will ruin a taper if you do it the week before the meet. The goal of taper is to swim as fast as possible and my point is that a drop off in power production will not allow this.

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Elaine Krugman — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:15:15 GMT

RE: Dryland Training During Taper

Paul Smith — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:33:04 GMT

Agree with you on the legs and its important to state that everyone has a different recovery timetable. I just wanted to clarify the low level of intensity of dryland training that I recommend during this time. An aggressive dryland program 1 week before a championship meet is not what I am suggesting. Doing 3 sets of 5 box jumps and 3 sets of 5 split jumps with lots of rest in between is not going to ruin a taper. This is like saying a broken swim will ruin a taper if you do it the week before the meet. The goal of taper is to swim as fast as possible and my point is that a drop off in power production will not allow this. Can't speak for Fort but I've cycled through a LOT of tapers over many years...the only success I've personally found with what your advocating is a mid-season "drop taper". If I'm two weeks out from a major meet I have always had the most success eliminating all lower body dry land work (my legs have always taken a lot longer to recover from a season of heavy dry land) and instead adding additional start work in (which I stop entirely 10 days out). People react differently however...can you provide an example of when you used this and at what level of competition? Curious what events you swam and the results?