Help with sprinting strategy

And John and I are moving int the distance lane for 2007.......500/1000/and Maui here we come.

Going all out is indeed a physical impossibility. When I read how strategically they planned and trained for a race that lasts less than 10 seconds and takes place on dry land, I wondered how much a race that takes twice as long and is conducted in the much more challenging medium of water might also benefit from strategic training, rather than depending on aggression when the horn sounds. Food for thought. I've harped on this before, coming from a track & field background. Too much of swimming is fad, hearsay and copying whoever is on top at the moment. Except at the higher levels, most training in swimming often has a lack of focus. The rule is: If your coach can't tell you why you are doing today's workout and how it fits into your yearly and/or "career" plan, get another coach. Several years ago, I asked the powers that be give someone who specializes in the longer open water swims one of the coaching slots in the appropriate forum. For whatever reason, it never happened. Since sprinting seems to be such a hot topic, perhaps they could give a slot at some point to someone who specializes in sprinters and who would do nothing but take everyone through a year of focused training in SPRINTING ONLY (50, 100, and maybe the 200 just to break things up a bit). It would start at the beginning of a training year and go all the way through a entire yearly cycle, culminating at , say, the outdoor nationals. It would be neat to expose everyone to a periodized training regime like that. Yes/no? BTW, another of John Smith's contributions was the realization that vast amounts of weight work was critical to sprinting. His athletes of that period did more than any other sprinter had to that point. The world has caught up to them since, but still...

But Armin Harry won the 100 meter sprint and Steve Lundquist had the best start in history, both with their eyes closed. Hary was proof that sprinters are born; not made. He had the starting reflexes of a cat from day one. No wasted motion in the first 10 meters, either. Jesse Owens (1930'S) was similar and so was Herb Washington (1970's). -LBJ

Several years ago, I asked the powers that be give someone who specializes in the longer open water swims one of the coaching slots in the appropriate forum. For whatever reason, it never happened. Since sprinting seems to be such a hot topic, perhaps they could give a slot at some point to someone who specializes in sprinters and who would do nothing but take everyone through a year of focused training in SPRINTING ONLY (50, 100, and maybe the 200 just to break things up a bit). It would start at the beginning of a training year and go all the way through a entire yearly cycle, culminating at , say, the outdoor nationals. It would be neat to expose everyone to a periodized training regime like that. Yes/no? That would be awesome, both the distance oriented and the sprint oriented workouts. With his new focus on sprints perhaps Ande's blog will turn into a source of sprinter's workouts?

The Raz is too busy recording his weight down to the nearest 10th of a pound. John smith

I thought there was a place for distance swimming - Open Water, seems like very little interest there. Or do you mean distance swimming in a pool.

Yes... I'm sure the extra yardage training for the Maui channel swim will do wonders for my shoulder pain. John Smith

This is a concept I'm not familiar with -- i.e. that there are "coaching slots" on the Forum. Has this been the case at some point in the past? Leonard you sound like a coach. Are you one? "Slots" is my term. There seems to always be three people/duos coaching at any one time, although I can't imagine that there is any real limit other than interest. Someone more familiar with the operation of this board could answer better. I was a coach until my wife got sick in 1991 and coached a very few athletes after that. Brief salient resume: I was on the U.S. Olympic Committee from '82 -'91 as the head of scientific computing in the Sports Science and Medicine Division. Was the US Olympic Committee's "resident expert" in racewalking and I also did research on racewalking in the biomechanical and physiological areas. I had athletes that I worked with in the '84, '88, '92 and '96 Olympics. I was the US coach at the racewalking World Cup in '89 and '91. At various times my athletes have held every U.S. racewalking record. The fastest U.S. time for 20k is now almost 20 years old by one of my athletes. I was always more interested in coaching technique than the actual training part, though. BTW, I was the guy who was standing next to you right before we jumped into the water at MIMs this year and thanked you for Total Immersion since I didn't learn to swim until I was 39. Thanks again. -LBJ

The Raz is too busy recording his weight down to the nearest 10th of a pound. originally posted by the evil one Ouch John! Is that the way to talk about a former teammate now?...LOL!! Ande is a very serious swimmer and he is really focusing on his weight right now. If I had only 1 tenth that kind of focus, maybe I wouldn't have gained over 45 pounds over the course of last season..LOL! Newmastersswimmer

The Raz is a natural born quadrathlon man. We used to swim a 50 of each stroke from a dive off the edge of the pool in September at the beginning of each season to see where we were. The Raz was a mean sprinter back in school. He has lost his roots until we tied in the 50 fly at worlds this summer. I have convinced him to throw away his ridiculous aspirations for the 200 and above. The Raz has no choice.... I am his team captain for life. John Smith