Need some thoughts on my new training strategy. I've been swimming masters for the last 5 years and had pretty consistent results. I swim my tail off all season, deal with the ups and downs, aches and pains that come with it and have been fortunate enough to always taper well. The one weakness I've have noticed through film, experience, coaches and peers, are my legs. I just don't have any. Always relied on my upper body and height to carry me along. So I've decided to change it up this season. For the most part of the year I've really worked on building my wheels; climbing stairs, squats, etc. For the first part of the season I'm going to spend the first 8 weeks kicking. HARD! The whole entire workout! With a board, without a board, with a snorkel and work those walls. I tried a little of this at the second half of last season when my shoulders were giving me a little trouble. 2 nights a week I just kicked the whole workout and it really boosted my conditioning. Any thoughts on this type of periodization?
Need some thoughts on my new training strategy. I've been swimming masters for the last 5 years and had pretty consistent results. I swim my tail off all season, deal with the ups and downs, aches and pains that come with it and have been fortunate enough to always taper well. The one weakness I've have noticed through film, experience, coaches and peers, are my legs. I just don't have any. Always relied on my upper body and height to carry me along. So I've decided to change it up this season. For the most part of the year I've really worked on building my wheels; climbing stairs, squats, etc. For the first part of the season I'm going to spend the first 8 weeks kicking. HARD! The whole entire workout! With a board, without a board, with a snorkel and work those walls. I tried a little of this at the second half of last season when my shoulders were giving me a little trouble. 2 nights a week I just kicked the whole workout and it really boosted my conditioning. Any thoughts on this type of periodization?
Sounds like a great strategy, and definitely boosts conditioning, although you might be isolating your kick from the fullstroke too much with 8 weeks of only kicking. You will probably need to incorporate some variety into your workout - transitional drills (like single arm, or side-to-side which still focus on the kick) and some fullstroke into your sets to make sure that your kicking transitions well into your races. Other kicking drills you could try would be the hyperkick or roll shoulders which do not use the board.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Need some thoughts on my new training strategy. I've been swimming masters for the last 5 years and had pretty consistent results. I swim my tail off all season, deal with the ups and downs, aches and pains that come with it and have been fortunate enough to always taper well. The one weakness I've have noticed through film, experience, coaches and peers, are my legs. I just don't have any. Always relied on my upper body and height to carry me along. So I've decided to change it up this season. For the most part of the year I've really worked on building my wheels; climbing stairs, squats, etc. For the first part of the season I'm going to spend the first 8 weeks kicking. HARD! The whole entire workout! With a board, without a board, with a snorkel and work those walls. I tried a little of this at the second half of last season when my shoulders were giving me a little trouble. 2 nights a week I just kicked the whole workout and it really boosted my conditioning. Any thoughts on this type of periodization?
Sounds like a great strategy, and definitely boosts conditioning, although you might be isolating your kick from the fullstroke too much with 8 weeks of only kicking. You will probably need to incorporate some variety into your workout - transitional drills (like single arm, or side-to-side which still focus on the kick) and some fullstroke into your sets to make sure that your kicking transitions well into your races. Other kicking drills you could try would be the hyperkick or roll shoulders which do not use the board.
Good luck and keep us posted!
