This may seem like a radical suggestion...or incredibly simple minded. Nonetheless, here's the concent: So much of our workout time, particularly on "distance sets" days, is concentrated on freestyle sets that I'd say our total weekly yardage is probably close to 85 percent or higher freestyle. (I would also venture a guess that this is a not uncommon scenario for many masters teams around the country.)
I know this emphasis on freestyle helps freestyle performance in meets, and I think lots of swimmers--myself included--have always reflexively assumed that if you're in decent freestyle shape, you can swim other strokes reasonably fast, as well; that aerobic and anaerobic conditioning for freestyle translates directly to, say, backstroke or butterfly conditioning.
But I also know that running doesn't particularly help swimming performance, because the muscles used are too sports specific, and you have to train the specific muscle you're going to use in a race. So I started to think maybe we should be doing "distance" sets in different strokes, particularly if any of us wanted to swim faster 200s (and the 400 IM).
As the "player coach" for our little team here in western pa, I've had us start doing distance stroke sets--for example, we did a 1000 backstroke, followed by 5 x 200 backstroke, on Monday.
We've only been doing this for 3-4 weeks now, but it's already made a difference, at least for me. I lowered my lifetime best in the 100 back last week (I'm a very mediocre backstroker) by almost a second--down to 1.02.6. (If I only knew how to do a backstroke start!)
Anyhow:
1) how many of you out there do distance sets of non freestyle?
2) do any of you have any data on stroke specific training, i.e., is it just a coincidence or does it really help to better times in these events?
3) assuming you're in pretty good freestyle shape, does shifting to training more backstroke or other non-freestyle stroke cause you to start deconditioning in freestyle?
Thanks for any advice or comments; I am hoping to shift topics somewhat from the last thread I began...
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what thread?
Anyway, I am a big believer in stroke sets, though I don't carry it to the extreme that Fritz does. But I will often do backstroke instead of freestyle for the longer stuff, and I do think it helps my times. Like Fritz, I don't care that much about freestyle, anyway.
But one has to be careful. In backstroke I find that I can't quite lead my lane when others are doing freestyle, but the drag effect seems enhanced and I have to be careful about running up someone's backside. Also, backstroke is a wider stroke than freestyle, and you can't see people coming, and I sometimes poke people where they don't like it :o
The stroke that I *really* think helps to swim a lot is butterfly. I started to do that my senior year in college, and my times started to drop (2 - 3 seconds in the 100.) But then it was all over. The trouble, of course, is that fly is a very wide stroke and it is not fair to the other swimmers to do it during sets of 200'ds. My team recently moved to a smaller, more cramped pool and my fly yardage has gone way down :mad: , just when my overall shape has gotten better.
what thread?
Anyway, I am a big believer in stroke sets, though I don't carry it to the extreme that Fritz does. But I will often do backstroke instead of freestyle for the longer stuff, and I do think it helps my times. Like Fritz, I don't care that much about freestyle, anyway.
But one has to be careful. In backstroke I find that I can't quite lead my lane when others are doing freestyle, but the drag effect seems enhanced and I have to be careful about running up someone's backside. Also, backstroke is a wider stroke than freestyle, and you can't see people coming, and I sometimes poke people where they don't like it :o
The stroke that I *really* think helps to swim a lot is butterfly. I started to do that my senior year in college, and my times started to drop (2 - 3 seconds in the 100.) But then it was all over. The trouble, of course, is that fly is a very wide stroke and it is not fair to the other swimmers to do it during sets of 200'ds. My team recently moved to a smaller, more cramped pool and my fly yardage has gone way down :mad: , just when my overall shape has gotten better.
