Help with sprinting strategy

Johnny was a great guy he travelled with the marathon swim circuit for for a couple of years (official starter at several of the races). He would have diner with us and he was always letting out his Tarzan call during the meal. He loved his wine. I have lots of personal stories about him. I said this once before to you: Write it down!!!!!! Some day, some one will be trying to get their Ph.D. in history writing about swimming and they would name their first child after you if they had this as reference material. An aquaintence of mine once did his Ph.D. on the history of racewalking and was frustrated by not even being able to find such basics as who won which national championship in some years. If nothing else, Canada probably has a national oral history project and they might want to send someone to record whatever you wanted to tell them - no writing required. -LBJ

We all called him Tarzan of the grapes, because he loved his wine. But there are quite a few really nice stories that I sent to a web site several years ago. I will try to locate that site and post it. It was all about J W. But I will search them out on my old computer a Macintosh that is now stored under our bed and has not been used for 10 years.

Come clean, Terry. In what way 'not like Debbie'?

Why the negative take on machines? They give you support while lifting...and this alone could prevent a movement which jars the back. One bad twist is all it takes to create a kink that stays with you for a while. #2. Absolutely no machines except for the leg curl, and even with that, do it one leg at a time. Anything that does not allow you to stabilize, control your body in space, balance, etc. etc. etc. is HORRIBLE for athletes. Also...Thanks for that post Terry.

That is a very interesting passage from Weismuller's book Terry. His age group swimming coach "Bach" seemed to be years ahead of his time when it came to understanding the sport of competitive swimming. I also had no idea that Johnny Weismuller had been sub 50 in the 100 yard freestyle (and at 36)......How many swimmers in USMS in the 35 - 39 agegroup swim a sub 50 100 free today?....Not many is my guess....and this guy did it way back before most of us were ever born (except maybe you Terry...LOL!!). I also want to say that I have been carefully reading all of your postings on this forum as well as others who both oppose your viewpoints and those who seem to agree predominantly with your views. I am not an Elite swimmer like the Smiths or the Raz (or some of the other regular posters).....so maybe my opinions dopn't carry the same weight as theirs do....BUT I will say that I find your views in general to be very logical....Moving through water is so much different than moving on land and its this difference between land and water that makes swimming so much different than land sports....and the way you train in water....as well as the proper technique needed to excel in water is the real focus....and thats what both you and this guy "Bach" seem to have in common. I also beleive in relaxing my recovery as much as possible and establishing a good "feel for the water" with my stroke in much the same way as what you have been describing in your postings....While I'm not "yet" amongst the elite in my agegroup here at USMS, I think that I could be if I train more consistently and focus on all the key ideas that you have been talking about. I appreciate all your input Terry! BTW you are friends with Emmit Hines from Houston right? I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him about a year ago or so at one of his practices.....I really enjoyed that conversation....he also seems to be a real visionary about proper swimming mechanics and such....All just my humble opinion though....So relax geek and gull....We all have our own opinions and this is the forum to express them...I also pay close attention to what you guys say too....its a good thing to see healthy debates with differing viewpoints in order to weigh all the opinions on the subject before estabilishing one's own opinions sometimes. Newmastersswimmer

Johnny was a great guy he travelled with the marathon swim circuit for for a couple of years (official starter at several of the races). He would have diner with us and he was always letting out his Tarzan call during the meal. He loved his wine. I have lots of personal stories about him.

Ad to the fact the swim wear of 1930s weighed a ton they were made of wool. My coach had great stories about Johnny W from the Olympics he competed in. He said Johnny pulled his arms through the water almost even with his shoulders not down the center, had very flat shoulder postion, no roll. My coach also said the 1932 mens USA swim team were all tall but the little Japanese swimmers showed everyone that you do not have to be tall he was 5"3". He had me pull don the center as he said all your strength is in the center, he used to say mountain climbers used one rope to help them climb, he also had me pulling close to the body with my hands saying you have to swim like a mountain climber.

Weismuller was great in his day but face it, his stroke wasn't that great compared to current top level freestylers. The guy is a total legend, no doubt, but how much faster would he have been if he was born 60-70 years later? Would he have crushed the field and been just as unbeatable in the 1980s, 90s or today? Would he have been able to beat Popoff or Hoogie if he had similar training and background? Who knows, but you'll have to admit the level of competition and training across the board has changed significantly in the last half century. He probably would have been great regardless of the decade in my opion. Unbeatable today as he was back then..... probably not in my opinion. Genetics play a huge key roll regardless of smaller stroke refinements. What's important is that you measure each great performer within his own time. I would apply that rule to stroke technique and training philosophies as well. Swimming can be a sport of fads too. New stroke techniques come and go with new champions all too often. Sometimes these new techniques are useful, sometimes they are not so useful and are merely overcome due to the swimmers physical (genetic) superiority. There are many examples of great swimmers and performances with average technique..... sometimes its their grit and pure talent that pulls them to the wall first. Weismuller was phenomenal...... but I'd be careful how you compare him to performances today. John Smith

Newmastersswimmer: I completely agree with you. After my grueling youth, subsequent shoulder injury and a nasty college coach, I was totally burned out on swimming and stayed away for almost 24 years. I actually only got back in the pool because I got a stress fracture from running too much. But now I'm glad I did because I am really enjoying it. But I stay away from overdistance. I don't want to do sets of 10 x 200 fly ever again.

It's the fact that you don't have a deep swimming background that makes you more open to ideas (you might call it the "emerging paradigm") that may not fit the "prevailing paradigm" that more experienced swimmers -- including me -- grew up with. Many achieved a degree of success with that approach and some who did may resist ideas that don't match that worldview. Originally posted by Terry Laughlin Actually I do have a pretty extensive swimming background Terry.....BUT I haven't been involved in Masters swimming for very long. When I grew up as an agegroup swimmer, over-distancing and swimming long sets with very short intervals was the prevailing philosophy. I think I gained a lot from that philosophy (don't get me wrong)....but I also became a little burned out on swimming as a kid when we swam somewhere around 20,000 meters a day in the summer (2 10,000 meter practices a day) ....where we would aften swim sets like 20 200's on some rediculous interval (like somewhere in the range of 2:30-2:40 in LCM )....I remember doing 20 100's on the 1:05 in SCY on a routine basis when we were around 15-16 years of age. The problem was that I don't recall the coaches really focusing on our technique that much.....it was much more about endurance training. I like the idea of swimming slow to focus on technique and then gradually picking up the pace while maintaining proper technique. I still believe in doing some hard sets in a workout (like maybe one main set that has a challenging interval).....but I am much more focused on the mechanics of swimming (and energy efficiency...etc..) as an older swimmer than I was as a younger swimmer. Newmastersswimmer