The Fastest Age

Originally posted by swimr4life What's up Doc?...sorry, I couldn't resist!;) I have to respectfully disagree with you. I think technique is EXTREMELY important to sprinters. You have much less room for error on a 50 or 100 yd swim than you do on a 500 or mile! To be competitive, your start,turn and stroke have to be close to perfect. I am a sprinter and I work very hard at practice. We are all blessed with different abilities (sprint or distance), it doesn't mean that one is better than the other. I also think that good technique takes much less energy than bad technique. Watch an experienced swimmer with good technique versus a beginning swimmer who slaps and fights the water. The new swimmer with bad technique works themselves to death but is not as efficient as the experienced swimmer who has perfected their technique through practice. This is where swimmers get the advantage, it takes MUCH less energy to swim with good technique than with bad. That is why it's so important to do drills and technique work every day. I agree that technique is important regardless of what the event is. My point was I have seen many good sprinters with terrible technique. Yet I have never seen a good distance swimmer with terrible technique. A sprinter can be fast and get away with bad technique (in the sense of using more energy) because their race is short. While a distance swimmer (at least none that I have known) will not be fast with bad tecnique because they will be tired long before the race is over.

Originally posted by swimr4life What's up Doc?...sorry, I couldn't resist!;) I have to respectfully disagree with you. I think technique is EXTREMELY important to sprinters. You have much less room for error on a 50 or 100 yd swim than you do on a 500 or mile! To be competitive, your start,turn and stroke have to be close to perfect. I am a sprinter and I work very hard at practice. We are all blessed with different abilities (sprint or distance), it doesn't mean that one is better than the other. I also think that good technique takes much less energy than bad technique. Watch an experienced swimmer with good technique versus a beginning swimmer who slaps and fights the water. The new swimmer with bad technique works themselves to death but is not as efficient as the experienced swimmer who has perfected their technique through practice. This is where swimmers get the advantage, it takes MUCH less energy to swim with good technique than with bad. That is why it's so important to do drills and technique work every day. I agree that technique is important regardless of what the event is. My point was I have seen many good sprinters with terrible technique. Yet I have never seen a good distance swimmer with terrible technique. A sprinter can be fast and get away with bad technique (in the sense of using more energy) because their race is short. While a distance swimmer (at least none that I have known) will not be fast with bad tecnique because they will be tired long before the race is over.