There was some confusion over the previous poll "What is your favorite stroke?", as the word "favorite" can be interpreted many different ways. For example, someone may think it's his/her favorite because it's most graceful and likes to watch this stroke the most, but he/she may not necessarily swim this stroke.
So this is the new poll.
Please only select the stroke you PERSONALLY train and spend most time swimming (and thinking about).
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Former Member
Originally posted by botterud
I think that the reality of a quality masters program is that the coach or coaches will devise workouts to fit the need of their swimmers. On our team, we have fitness swimmers, some national caliber pool competitors and some top ocean swimmers along with triatheletes. The workouts will vary by individual and depending on the time of year and what races are pending. Our triatheletes will taper to fit their race needs. Our pool and ocean swimmers will do a lot of free this time of year, along with weights to improve strength and cardio. As racing season and nationals approach, more stroke work is done by those who focus on particular strokes, as sprinters work on sprints and distance swimmers do their thing. During ocean season, lots of distance as well as sprint work to improve strength.
A good masters program will, IMHO, have different things going on all around. And your teammates will adjust as well. Like this morning when we decided to do the first 4 of our 8 x 200 set as IM instead of free.
Yes I agree and that would be awesome. However, most places you go (at least in my experience in the area where I live and the masters I looked into), you don't get anything other than swim x sets of 800 yards at this pace. You are done for the day. It is very disappointing.
And on just one other small matter, 100 is not really much of a warmup. You might want to up that. We usually do about 1200 meters of warmup stuff including, depending on the day, swims, pulls, kicks, drills, backstroke and breaststroke.
1200 for warmup -- I am impressed! But personally it sounds pretty crazy and it's not something I will ever be able to or want to do. Warmup litereally means getting yourself warm and heart rate up. To swim 1200 meters is pretty much the whole workout for a lot beginner to intermedidate swimmers.
It would take 20 minutes to finish at a mild warmup speed, all freestyle, EVEN IF you don't stop and rest. I can't imagine that you wouldn't be beyond warm at that point.
I guess it all depends on what the goal of your training is. Perhaps that approach works for triathletes or really long distance swimmers. But I doubt that short distance swimmers do such long warmups. Also keep in mind the longest race in breaststroke is only 200 meters.
You may also have heard of the difference between fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles. I have plenty of the the former and very little of the latter, which genetically determines that I can never go miles and miles as someone with a lot of the slow-twitch muscles will be able to do. :D
Originally posted by botterud
I think that the reality of a quality masters program is that the coach or coaches will devise workouts to fit the need of their swimmers. On our team, we have fitness swimmers, some national caliber pool competitors and some top ocean swimmers along with triatheletes. The workouts will vary by individual and depending on the time of year and what races are pending. Our triatheletes will taper to fit their race needs. Our pool and ocean swimmers will do a lot of free this time of year, along with weights to improve strength and cardio. As racing season and nationals approach, more stroke work is done by those who focus on particular strokes, as sprinters work on sprints and distance swimmers do their thing. During ocean season, lots of distance as well as sprint work to improve strength.
A good masters program will, IMHO, have different things going on all around. And your teammates will adjust as well. Like this morning when we decided to do the first 4 of our 8 x 200 set as IM instead of free.
Yes I agree and that would be awesome. However, most places you go (at least in my experience in the area where I live and the masters I looked into), you don't get anything other than swim x sets of 800 yards at this pace. You are done for the day. It is very disappointing.
And on just one other small matter, 100 is not really much of a warmup. You might want to up that. We usually do about 1200 meters of warmup stuff including, depending on the day, swims, pulls, kicks, drills, backstroke and breaststroke.
1200 for warmup -- I am impressed! But personally it sounds pretty crazy and it's not something I will ever be able to or want to do. Warmup litereally means getting yourself warm and heart rate up. To swim 1200 meters is pretty much the whole workout for a lot beginner to intermedidate swimmers.
It would take 20 minutes to finish at a mild warmup speed, all freestyle, EVEN IF you don't stop and rest. I can't imagine that you wouldn't be beyond warm at that point.
I guess it all depends on what the goal of your training is. Perhaps that approach works for triathletes or really long distance swimmers. But I doubt that short distance swimmers do such long warmups. Also keep in mind the longest race in breaststroke is only 200 meters.
You may also have heard of the difference between fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles. I have plenty of the the former and very little of the latter, which genetically determines that I can never go miles and miles as someone with a lot of the slow-twitch muscles will be able to do. :D
