As Howard Coselle would put it, "controversy!"
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../11404.asp
I find myself cheering her criticism of unchallenged assumptions about more yards always being better, and an unwillingness to determine why so many swimmers are getting hurt or sick.
Matt
Wow! This is quite a story. Thanks for the link.
I noticed she used the terms “elite swimmers” and “elite athlete”. I know it is just a convenient term (I’ve used it myself in the past), but I still wonder where the dividing line is drawn.
I was particularly struck by her observations on how many members of the swimming community at large look up to Olympians and their training practices as a model to follow, and that it is (at least in her opinion) a far less than perfect model.
I had the privilege of spending a week with Shane when I was being trained as a coach back in 2002. Shane, at that time, emphasized perfection of technique as being at the core of success in swimming. And having seen Shane swim from a few yards away, I must say that she had the most perfect technique I've ever seen!
Originally posted by bud
I noticed she used the terms “elite swimmers” and “elite athlete”. I know it is just a convenient term (I’ve used it myself in the past), but I still wonder where the dividing line is drawn.
As she used the term in the article, the dividing line seems to have been between those do competitive swimming as a youth sports activity and those who continue with it beyond that. But I'm not sure she intended that there be a dividing line per se. Her point, I think, is that the appropriate training regimen for a swimmer may be qualitatively as well as quantitatively different depending on the level at which the swimmer is training.
Originally posted by knelson
I can't say I agree with her point about swimmers getting sick more than expected. I have not noticed this to be the case.
She's certainly right about shoulder problems! Before my Y began using the training approach she advocates, they had kids as young as 9 developing shoulder problems! I'm not aware that some of the other problems she mentions are all that common, but I've certainly heard reports of competitive swimmers who develop ailments during swim season that they don't have the rest of the time.
Bob
I thought that this was very interesting. I was really struck by her negative views on teams going to a special place to practice for special evnets. I wonder if it is more to help build team cohesion & spirit than to actually build power, strength & speed.
Glandular fever is a big topic in Australia with Ian Thorpe's recent diagnosis. That may be why she cited frequent sickness/immune system disorders.
Shoulder problems: that issue is self-evident to those of us who learned stroke technique in the bad old days. "The Chronic" for most of us refers not to Snoop Dogg's favorite vice but to the way our shoulders feel on a daily basis. Right Tall Paul, Fritz, everyone else?
I thought Mono was like chicken pox-- you can only get it once (and I did, a mild case, but not when I was actively swimming). Not sure what that adds to the discussion if true.
I do remember in HS what might be best described as an excess of fatigue or "burnout" from doing 50,000 yards a week. I can recall looking at the clock at the pool and having to actively figure out if it was morning or evening workout.
Right at my HS graduation in 1982, I switched to once a day workouts, and managed, in nine weeks, to prepare myself for the best 400 IM LCM of my life. Less yardage was what worked for me in that case.
