I started swimming in August, since them I learned all the strokes and pretty much realised that I am most proficient in sprint freestyle events(considering my times for all the strokes).Well, I have a few questions:should I just consentrate on 50 and 100 m. free events then without paying much attention to other strokes, well, maybe just a little bit for a change...Or should I still keep working at all the strokes, maybe versatility in all of them will contribute to my freestyle improvement.Another question is: if I concentrate on freestyle sprint, how should my work-outs look like then?Should they consist of shorter distnace training only with occasional all-out sprint work-outs(25s and so) and a lot of interval training or should I still throw in distnace in my work-outs?I want to compete and compete in a good shape!I can do a 29 sec. 50 free(SCM) and a 1:03-1:05 100 m. free(SCM) depending on how I feel...Is that good considered I was never coached, did all on my own(videos, books, forums) and only introduced myself to swimming August, 2004?I am 24 years old, pretty tall (6'1")and lean(165lb.), so can I expect to go under 55 sec.(that is my goal) for 100m within a year or not?And what can I expect long-term(4-5 years), considering that I will probably get a coached program and will still be insanely passionate about the sport as I am now(I train 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day.How hard does it get once you go under a minute for 100 SCM?I improved dramatically since August(my time was 1:50 when I just started), , but now I feel that every second is a battlle...
I would appreciate everyone's input...
Thanks!
Parents
Former Member
I wrote:
Phelp's coach advised against swimming one's specialty too often.
To which geochuck replied:
Did Phelps really have a specialty?? To me all of his strokes were his specialty.
The article, which I found had a lot of interesting stuff in it, is at:
SwimInfo.com intervew with Bob Bowman
Here's the bit I was thinking of:
Brooks: What are some important subjects that never get discussed but should be?
Bowman: For one, career planning for talented swimmers. And by career planning, I mean not only the topics we've already discussed, like teaching the swimmers when they are young the things they are going to have to know and do when they are older, but also, and especially, things like meet scheduling and the cycling of events swum at meets. Over and over you see coaches of talented kids having the kids swim in way too many meets and swimming their best events over and over, it's no wonder the swimmers' progression is stunted. We didn't do that at North Baltimore. For instance, the first time Michael ever swam the 200 fly he qualified for Juniors, we held it back and didn't have him swim it until he was ready to do it well. And the summer he broke the American record in the 200 IM , he hadn't swum the 200 IM long course since the year before. I think it's not a good idea to have swimmers race in their best events very often: save it for special times when they are going to swim fast. That way they keep progressing.
Italic emphasis added by me.
I wrote:
Phelp's coach advised against swimming one's specialty too often.
To which geochuck replied:
Did Phelps really have a specialty?? To me all of his strokes were his specialty.
The article, which I found had a lot of interesting stuff in it, is at:
SwimInfo.com intervew with Bob Bowman
Here's the bit I was thinking of:
Brooks: What are some important subjects that never get discussed but should be?
Bowman: For one, career planning for talented swimmers. And by career planning, I mean not only the topics we've already discussed, like teaching the swimmers when they are young the things they are going to have to know and do when they are older, but also, and especially, things like meet scheduling and the cycling of events swum at meets. Over and over you see coaches of talented kids having the kids swim in way too many meets and swimming their best events over and over, it's no wonder the swimmers' progression is stunted. We didn't do that at North Baltimore. For instance, the first time Michael ever swam the 200 fly he qualified for Juniors, we held it back and didn't have him swim it until he was ready to do it well. And the summer he broke the American record in the 200 IM , he hadn't swum the 200 IM long course since the year before. I think it's not a good idea to have swimmers race in their best events very often: save it for special times when they are going to swim fast. That way they keep progressing.
Italic emphasis added by me.
