The thing I think that would make Rushall's ideas at least worth considering for many masters swimmers is that a) our bodies are wearing out, so reducing training volume intelligently is a useful thing, and b) most masters swimmers don't swim any distances greater than 200 yds in meets (most probably don't go past 100 yds per race).
To make this concrete, I used to swim 3500-4000 yards per practice 3-4 times per week (I'm a mere novice compared to most people here). Even with that relatively modest regimen I eventually developed problems with my right shoulder. I blame my 90-pound labrador retriever and her penchant for launching herself at squirrels and rabbits while attached to my shoulder via her leash in her younger days. Be that as it may, after a relatively long quiet period, I now swim much shorter workouts (rarely exceeding 2500 yards per workout) and pay much closer attention to what my shoulder tells me. Given that my workouts are shorter, I'm obviously interested in improving the quality of the yards I do swim. I do many more drills than I used to in an attempt to improve my technique, but I'm also open to at least try out race pace training of various kinds, including UST and elements of Leslie's HIT workouts.
The thing I think that would make Rushall's ideas at least worth considering for many masters swimmers is that a) our bodies are wearing out, so reducing training volume intelligently is a useful thing, and b) most masters swimmers don't swim any distances greater than 200 yds in meets (most probably don't go past 100 yds per race).
To make this concrete, I used to swim 3500-4000 yards per practice 3-4 times per week (I'm a mere novice compared to most people here). Even with that relatively modest regimen I eventually developed problems with my right shoulder. I blame my 90-pound labrador retriever and her penchant for launching herself at squirrels and rabbits while attached to my shoulder via her leash in her younger days. Be that as it may, after a relatively long quiet period, I now swim much shorter workouts (rarely exceeding 2500 yards per workout) and pay much closer attention to what my shoulder tells me. Given that my workouts are shorter, I'm obviously interested in improving the quality of the yards I do swim. I do many more drills than I used to in an attempt to improve my technique, but I'm also open to at least try out race pace training of various kinds, including UST and elements of Leslie's HIT workouts.
