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...
One other note/question, and perhaps Fritz and Steve could address this:
a guy on our team has a son who swims for a Big East school. One of the son's teammate's had plateaued in terms of her times. Despite tons of freestyle practice, she just wasn't getting any better--and, in fact, was slowing down a bi.
The son, on the other hand, kept improving his times in freestyle. The father credits this with the (men's) coach's decision to include lots of stroke sets in their practices. The women's coach, on the other hand, did not insist that her team do this--and the woman who had plateued opted not to, believing her only chance at getting better in freestyle was to swim freestyle exclusively.
My friend (the father, for anyone who's getting confused at this point) is convinced that practicing other strokes helps freestyle--partly, as Steve suggested, by training muscles that can get recruited into action during a race when the standard freestyle muscles die, but also by strengthening and balancing muscles generally (lowering injuries and leading to an overall stronger swimmer.)
What say ye to this? Obviously, if you swim only backstroke--like Fritz--it will eventually impact your freestyle. But what is the tipping point where swimming other strokes with stop either helping or have no impact on freestyle race performance, to where freestyle begins to suffer?
One other note/question, and perhaps Fritz and Steve could address this:
a guy on our team has a son who swims for a Big East school. One of the son's teammate's had plateaued in terms of her times. Despite tons of freestyle practice, she just wasn't getting any better--and, in fact, was slowing down a bi.
The son, on the other hand, kept improving his times in freestyle. The father credits this with the (men's) coach's decision to include lots of stroke sets in their practices. The women's coach, on the other hand, did not insist that her team do this--and the woman who had plateued opted not to, believing her only chance at getting better in freestyle was to swim freestyle exclusively.
My friend (the father, for anyone who's getting confused at this point) is convinced that practicing other strokes helps freestyle--partly, as Steve suggested, by training muscles that can get recruited into action during a race when the standard freestyle muscles die, but also by strengthening and balancing muscles generally (lowering injuries and leading to an overall stronger swimmer.)
What say ye to this? Obviously, if you swim only backstroke--like Fritz--it will eventually impact your freestyle. But what is the tipping point where swimming other strokes with stop either helping or have no impact on freestyle race performance, to where freestyle begins to suffer?
