I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of misinformation on swimming, especially on the internet. One website I saw instructing the specifics of the backstroke advocated a completely illegal turn.
A bodybuilder site said that depleting your stores of Glycogen by starving your body of it actually helped the body move faster. I'm not buying that. You can't swim without it.
Other sites like USA Swimming, have a lot of kids with a lot of questions who for some reason don't ask their coaches or parents. Lots of ear infection questions - which are fairly preventable by wearing a swim cap.
Early on in my learning I suffered a severe injury by practicing a drill recommended by one of the so-called experts in swimming technique, who shall remain nameless. That's led me to pay closer attention to sports medicine specialists and surgeons who swim.
Everybody's body is different and has specific limitations. For example, the Neer Test for your shoulders. The entire approach to pitch, catch, pull, etc... is highly individual. I trust top athletic coaches and top swimmers and doctors.
One site on backstroke listed something very technical which actually made sense and works wonders but after running a search a dozen ways through Google I found no one knew of it or spoke of it other than that 1 site!
Who do you trust? What are your thoughts on this?
Parents
Former Member
I don't see it as an either/or proposition. I don't mindlessly swim a set of 100s or 200s; I think about my technique on every lap. And the time to figure out how to adapt when you're fatigued is not during a race but in practice. I like the Bob Bowman approach--some drilling that precedes the main set so that you can focus on one or more technical aspects during the set. What I see are a lot of tri's swimming back and forth doing countless laps of fish-like swimming drills.
I don't see it as an either/or proposition. I don't mindlessly swim a set of 100s or 200s; I think about my technique on every lap. And the time to figure out how to adapt when you're fatigued is not during a race but in practice. I like the Bob Bowman approach--some drilling that precedes the main set so that you can focus on one or more technical aspects during the set. What I see are a lot of tri's swimming back and forth doing countless laps of fish-like swimming drills.
