So....here's the thing:
I'm actually getting decent at flipturns. I screw a few of them up, but I always know what I did wrong. The ratio of good flips to bad flips keeps going up. But, because there are usually some bad flips along the way, I haven't set any PRs yet when using flips. I'm at 1:25 100m with (some bad) flips, vs 1:22 with decent open-turns. My 50m is hi-39sec vice hi-38sec.
However....
When flipping, of course we are not breathing through the approach, turn, and pushoff. This is not a problem for me in a hard 50m/100m. But in a hard 400m, I'm dying, Man!! The accumulation of not breathing for this period every 25m has me GASPING after 200m. I crave that open-turn breath.
Maybe I will learn to handle this, but I dunno.
Even if you flip well, should you sometimes do open turns because of the oxygen situation?
This is totally off-topic at this point, but here's my two cents on the overtraining thing.
On one hand, I think old-school, tons of yardage and beatdown into shave and taper training cycles were a breeding ground for overtraining. I think good modern coaches have largely realized this and adapted - you see more and more folks that can put together good swims across the season and year and not just once a season for a big shave and taper is good evidence of this. I think the renewed focus you see from good modern coaches on dryland/power/GPP and technique work even for elite swimmers is more proof of the idea that varied stimuli (and general physical robustness) is better than just a beatdown in the pool twice a day, every day.
On the other hand, I think the diagnosis of "overtraining" is used way too much. Most people can take a lot more work volume than they think they can, especially if they aren't already conditioned to ignore fatigue signs.
Kind of back on subject a little, I wouldn't think that Skuj is overtrained. Just maybe a little overzealous in expectations of improvement curve. As I said, it's really hard for an adult with a fully formed, mature nervous system to pick up different physical skills with such a different proprioceptive (is that even a word?) world as swimming.
This is totally off-topic at this point, but here's my two cents on the overtraining thing.
On one hand, I think old-school, tons of yardage and beatdown into shave and taper training cycles were a breeding ground for overtraining. I think good modern coaches have largely realized this and adapted - you see more and more folks that can put together good swims across the season and year and not just once a season for a big shave and taper is good evidence of this. I think the renewed focus you see from good modern coaches on dryland/power/GPP and technique work even for elite swimmers is more proof of the idea that varied stimuli (and general physical robustness) is better than just a beatdown in the pool twice a day, every day.
On the other hand, I think the diagnosis of "overtraining" is used way too much. Most people can take a lot more work volume than they think they can, especially if they aren't already conditioned to ignore fatigue signs.
Kind of back on subject a little, I wouldn't think that Skuj is overtrained. Just maybe a little overzealous in expectations of improvement curve. As I said, it's really hard for an adult with a fully formed, mature nervous system to pick up different physical skills with such a different proprioceptive (is that even a word?) world as swimming.
