How do you correctly "listen to your body"? If you swim on a regular basis you seem to build up a certain level of fatigue. So if on a particular day you feel more tired than usual and/or you're having trouble maintaining the paces you can typically maintain how do you know whether you should push through it or if your body needs rest? I've read in swimming books that you can get to a point of "failing adaptation" but I don't think I'm at that point because I swim appx 5 days a week and 3500-4500 yards each day.
Parents
Former Member
I think ultimately, your question is one of which separates average coaches from great coaches. The ability to recognize fatigue in swimmers on an individual basis is key to improvement. Most coaches, unfortunately, don't run their programs so as to allow individual swimmers to recover on their own mid season. They don't customize their training programs enough on an individual basis. They tend to address the entire team similarly. Even within a particular stroke or distance lane, swimmers get more or less tired on their own depending on their abilities, work ethic, stroke or event, health etc....
Your question zeros in on what coaches are supposed to excel at.... i.e. getting the most out of their swimmers. Mind you, great swimmers are also great at recognizing what their own bodies need in terms of more or less training, and they communicate well with their coaches on where they think they are at in the cycle. Running multiple workouts for sprinters, middle distance and distance swimmers is not always enough. Coaches must recognize fatigue mid season and adjust on an individual basis at times. This individual treatment carries through the season to taper. The great coaches can run a half a dozen or more taper programs at once depending on the set of swimmers he's trained and their different needs.
John Smith
I think ultimately, your question is one of which separates average coaches from great coaches. The ability to recognize fatigue in swimmers on an individual basis is key to improvement. Most coaches, unfortunately, don't run their programs so as to allow individual swimmers to recover on their own mid season. They don't customize their training programs enough on an individual basis. They tend to address the entire team similarly. Even within a particular stroke or distance lane, swimmers get more or less tired on their own depending on their abilities, work ethic, stroke or event, health etc....
Your question zeros in on what coaches are supposed to excel at.... i.e. getting the most out of their swimmers. Mind you, great swimmers are also great at recognizing what their own bodies need in terms of more or less training, and they communicate well with their coaches on where they think they are at in the cycle. Running multiple workouts for sprinters, middle distance and distance swimmers is not always enough. Coaches must recognize fatigue mid season and adjust on an individual basis at times. This individual treatment carries through the season to taper. The great coaches can run a half a dozen or more taper programs at once depending on the set of swimmers he's trained and their different needs.
John Smith
