I went to a clinic last year by Dave Salo on BR and someone asked him how much yardage his team did in workouts.He replied that he didn't know and he discouraged his swimmers from keeping track as it distracted them from focusing on quality swims.I have been a proponent of quality over quantity since I started Masters Swimming,but I wasn't ready to give up on yardage.I had GTD goal after all.Last Tues I had a really good workout and finished with an extra 50 swim to get a nice round number for GTD. In the shower I realized I had probably miscounted the yards in my warmup.As I ruminated about this I remembered Salo's comments and decided it didn't matter. I decided to stop counting total yardage for workouts.I still do my sets and live and die by split times,but I don't pay any attention to totals,especially in recovery swims and warm downs.I have found this liberating.I can do vertical kicking without worrying about how it will affect my GTD. Fri I did 8 turns with pullouts in a row without worrying about calculating how far I swam.I can do just starts without having to pay attention to where I came up to figure yardage.I'll lose my opportunity to get another mesh bag,but so far for me it seems worth it.Obviously if your main goal is yardage or you GTD ranking this is not for you,but if you want to clear your mind for quality swims,give it a try.
I went to a clinic last year by Dave Salo on BR and someone asked him how much yardage his team did in workouts.He replied that he didn't know
I get his point, but I think he's lying. He knows.
I fully agree. I am aware in most sessions what yardage I've covered, but as a masters swimmer have never kept track of totals as it's never been a goal.
Everyone has different reasons why they swim. Some swim to compete in a zillion meets a year, others train for uber distance open water events, while others may just swim to shed a few pounds.
We're all adults here...you know why you swim, and what you need to reach your goals. If you are a drop dead sprinter focused on 50s in meets then you should have different workouts than someone training to swim the Channel.
Personally, I like GTD. It gets me out of bed on mornings when I'd otherwise be tempted to shut off the alarm clock and roll over. If that doesn't work for you, then don't do it ;)
Allen, I think you bring up a great point here. Emphasizing quality over quantity definitely plays an important role in training.
I would not give up the idea of counting yardage entirely, however, because it is a great way to keep track of your progress.
I advise my swimmers to log their weekly yardage and create a graph to get a visual, both for tapering purposes prior to meets and to keep motivated in general. Without a sense of weekly or daily yardage, it can become easier to cut corners in practice! At the other extreme, there are swimmers who are only concerned about logging in their laps or their yardage without considering the content of their workouts - and that can also be a problem for swimmers who want to improve.
Thanks for raising this issue!
Great post! Too often all we hear is yardage (and as a sprinter we are hammered by others on it) but what is one trying to achieve: distance, or technique? I am one that I know I will get a 600 in but I usually do not know the exact amount. If I do a 600 warm up and then practice on starts and turns then have I really swam a great yardage, no. But, I have done something more important and that is focus on technique. After all, why swim a mile if you swam over half of it with bad technique. There is a saying that practice makes perfect and I tell my boys that only perfect practice makes perfect as bad practice just makes you worse. I teach an adult learn to swim and I hammer this out with my students every class. Everyone joins so they can swim laps or increase their distance, and that's fine but I teach them not to count laps at first and to focus on their technique. When they get tired they get out, not try and to reach that days goal! It is interesting but you do not hear many talk about it, instead we focus on how many yards we swim in a day, whether they were good or poor.
Like aztimm said, everyone has different reasons for swimming. If you want to do pool racing well like Allen, quality is waaaay more important than yardage.
