One of our swimmers on the Elgin Blue Wave Masters team brought up a guy who swims 14,000 yards a day each and every day to achieve his yearly total. I find this really difficult to comprehend. Has anyone heard of such swimmers?
Jeez
PWB, were there kids who "coulda been a contender" but dropped out just from the harshness? Do you think the coach may have been a sadist? (both serious questions)
As to the second point, Having been coached by people who I once swam with, and having coached myself, your coaching style/philosophy is often times a product of who you were coached by. If your coach was a high volume kind of person, and either you or others around you succeeded in that system, you might be inclined to also coach that way. Also coaches who do high volume who see (some of) their swimmers succeed may also feel their system is validated. I think that last point can be dangerous though because maybe it isn't the coach's philosophy that is working so much as finding the occasional swimmer who was destined to succeed in that system.
Sorry if all that seemed rambling. Musing now over coaching and coaching styles. I came from a yardage based system but as a post grad worked in a refined "lower volume"/"quality over quantity" system and came to incorporate both into my coaching style.
EX:
Having the collegiate girls I coached (distance group) do 20x400 LCM over training trip. But we would also do main sets like this one: forums.usms.org/entry.php
(forgive the shameless advertisement of my USMS blog)
Jeez
PWB, were there kids who "coulda been a contender" but dropped out just from the harshness? Do you think the coach may have been a sadist? (both serious questions)
As to the second point, Having been coached by people who I once swam with, and having coached myself, your coaching style/philosophy is often times a product of who you were coached by. If your coach was a high volume kind of person, and either you or others around you succeeded in that system, you might be inclined to also coach that way. Also coaches who do high volume who see (some of) their swimmers succeed may also feel their system is validated. I think that last point can be dangerous though because maybe it isn't the coach's philosophy that is working so much as finding the occasional swimmer who was destined to succeed in that system.
Sorry if all that seemed rambling. Musing now over coaching and coaching styles. I came from a yardage based system but as a post grad worked in a refined "lower volume"/"quality over quantity" system and came to incorporate both into my coaching style.
EX:
Having the collegiate girls I coached (distance group) do 20x400 LCM over training trip. But we would also do main sets like this one: forums.usms.org/entry.php
(forgive the shameless advertisement of my USMS blog)
