How Much Fly

How much fly in training? It all depends on how good you want to be. If you are a serious masters fly swimmer then you need to do it until it come out of your ears. If you can face doing three or four 500m fly swims during a training session or a set of, say, 20 x 100m then when it comes to doing a 200 in a race then it will be easy, and certainly you will be able to face the psychological aspect of racing over 200m. Already I know what you (swimmers on the other side of the Atlantic) are going to say, but during the build-up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics I saw the Irish swimmer, and triple gold medallist Michelle Smith in training. Whatever you may believe about her suspected drug-taking - and remember, she was never once tested positive in her run-up to, and during the Olympic Games, she worked harder than any other swimmer in history. One morning I arrived at the pool at 5.30. She was making her way through a set of 60 x 200m fly. I sat in the seats with my cup of coffee and was amazed to see her taking only 10 seconds rest between swims. That particular day she had a rest period (in her room) between 9.00am an 12 noon. She was back in the pool again at 2.00pm Her afternoon session consisted of 80 x 100m fly. Her coach gave her the option of taking 5 secs rest between swims or going every1:20. She chose to go on 1:20 because she wanted to go for good times on every swim! Those swimmers who recommend doing less than 10 per cent of their training on fly will never achieve on the stroke and will forever be envious of those who swim it well. Unfortunately there's no easy answer if you want to be a flyer.

How much fly in training? It all depends on how good you want to be. If you are a serious masters fly swimmer then you need to do it until it come out of your ears. If you can face doing three or four 500m fly swims during a training session or a set of, say, 20 x 100m then when it comes to doing a 200 in a race then it will be easy, and certainly you will be able to face the psychological aspect of racing over 200m. Already I know what you (swimmers on the other side of the Atlantic) are going to say, but during the build-up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics I saw the Irish swimmer, and triple gold medallist Michelle Smith in training. Whatever you may believe about her suspected drug-taking - and remember, she was never once tested positive in her run-up to, and during the Olympic Games, she worked harder than any other swimmer in history. One morning I arrived at the pool at 5.30. She was making her way through a set of 60 x 200m fly. I sat in the seats with my cup of coffee and was amazed to see her taking only 10 seconds rest between swims. That particular day she had a rest period (in her room) between 9.00am an 12 noon. She was back in the pool again at 2.00pm Her afternoon session consisted of 80 x 100m fly. Her coach gave her the option of taking 5 secs rest between swims or going every1:20. She chose to go on 1:20 because she wanted to go for good times on every swim! Those swimmers who recommend doing less than 10 per cent of their training on fly will never achieve on the stroke and will forever be envious of those who swim it well. Unfortunately there's no easy answer if you want to be a flyer.