muscular endurance

I suggest you go at easier paces and work your way up you're probably attempting paces that you think you should be able to do but they might actually be too difficult find the pace where you hold the same time on each 100 do 10 reps and get 5 - 10 seconds rest save your legs when I swim at a middle distance race pace, like if im doing 5 x 100 on a quick interval my muscles get tired faster than my heart. I wont even be breathing hard but my arms are tired and causes my stroke techinque to go bad quick. Does anyone else have this problem.

Dr. Haljand seems to be advocating the I-Pull to the S-Pull in this video, and that's the way I'd swim it. I seem to recall that George advocated the I-pull in a recent thread. The S-pull is really old school. I frankly don't think it's ideal to learn swimming only from a book either. DVDs or video clips here could help if the coaching situation is sub-par. Try some GoSwim DVDs. Get all the advice you can. I think Terry's coming out with a new book on Endurance swimming too. I feel for you on the college coach situation. My coach was a distance freestyler too, and that's all we were subjected to. I hated it, and had some arguments with her over what sets I should have been doing. So, it may be your training, not just your technique, that needs adjusting. You could do some searches on this forum too. There's a lot of stuff on freestyle stroke questions and technique. But remember, I still think sprinters show up most at taper time. Hey, Morgan, I thought you just had a good meet?

I guess I have a bit of a different approach.....I'd like to consider myself a "life long learner"......and a fan of the sport. Having said that.....I'll read just about anything, try just about anything, listen to just about anyone.....and make my decisions based on trial and error and a belief that no matter what....I can be better. Except of course when it comes to tolerance for my wifes spoiling of our dog, eating salmon, drinking gin, and EVER losing to evil-goodsmith at anything!

I'm reading the revised one actually...he gave me the original, but I was at the bookstore and saw the revised one so I thought I'd get that for my own library. And actually in terms of finishing in the front, my coach has been changing my stroke around for the past few weeks, because I had still been under the impression that I should do the underwater "s" pull, and finish my underwater portion back by my hip...however, apparently thats very old school, and now I am working hard to unteach myself the s pull, and finish my stroke earlier, closer to my last rib...and it definatly has increase my stroke rate, which, for sprinting purposes was the point I suppose, because my arm rate had been ridiculously slow this season for whatever reason. I also feel more efficient with this stroke, finishing more towards the front:-D woot!

The original question was about muscular endurance. I'd like to take a different approach to answer Warren other than stroke technique. People's muscular endurance is very individualized, but in general natural sprinters will have much lower muscular endurance than distance types. An aquaintance who is a college strength and conditioning coach recently did this experiment. He tested everyone on the team for maximum bench press (one rep). The sprinters, on average, could lift substantially more weight than the distance swimmers. On another day, when everyone was rested, he asked all his swimmers to see how many reps they could do at 70% of their maximum. No sprinter could do over 10 reps, while the distance folks averaged over 20 reps. This tells me that there is a large component to muscular endurance that is somewhat predetermined by your natural physiology. I feel a lot of it cannot be overcome by adjusting your technique or training. Maybe I'm just rationalizing my own pathetic workout performances, but I cannot stay anywhere near swimmers in workout who I am much faster than in a one time race. This is not for lack of trying, focusing on technique, etc. So Warren, based on some earlier posts where you mentioned some of your times, I'm afraid you may have to suffer through many a workout and have your confidence shaken by those who can come within 10% of their PR's while doing 10 X 100 with 10 seconds rest. All will be redeemed on race day... assuming you don't do anything stupid like race a 200 or, heaven forbid, a 500. Rich

This tells me that there is a large component to muscular endurance that is somewhat predetermined by your natural physiology. I feel a lot of it cannot be overcome by adjusting your technique or training. Maybe I'm just rationalizing my own pathetic workout performances, but I cannot stay anywhere near swimmers in workout who I am much faster than in a one time race. This is not for lack of trying, focusing on technique, etc. So Warren, based on some earlier posts where you mentioned some of your times, I'm afraid you may have to suffer through many a workout and have your confidence shaken by those who can come within 10% of their PR's while doing 10 X 100 with 10 seconds rest. All will be redeemed on race day... assuming you don't do anything stupid like race a 200 or, heaven forbid, a 500. Rich Thanks so much for this good advice and practical fresh perspective. :banana: I will sleep much better tonight knowing this. And I won't feel so bad at my next practice if (or when) I lapse into the realm of pathetic. Hope Morgan and Warren feel the same. I see our other "nothing over a 200 free guy" scyfreestyler also feels this way.

The original question was about muscular endurance. I'd like to take a different approach to answer Warren other than stroke technique. People's muscular endurance is very individualized, but in general natural sprinters will have much lower muscular endurance than distance types. An aquaintance who is a college strength and conditioning coach recently did this experiment. He tested everyone on the team for maximum bench press (one rep). The sprinters, on average, could lift substantially more weight than the distance swimmers. On another day, when everyone was rested, he asked all his swimmers to see how many reps they could do at 70% of their maximum. No sprinter could do over 10 reps, while the distance folks averaged over 20 reps. This tells me that there is a large component to muscular endurance that is somewhat predetermined by your natural physiology. I feel a lot of it cannot be overcome by adjusting your technique or training. Maybe I'm just rationalizing my own pathetic workout performances, but I cannot stay anywhere near swimmers in workout who I am much faster than in a one time race. This is not for lack of trying, focusing on technique, etc. Also, in contrast to Terry, I get incredible localized muscle fatigue (and pain) after an extremely hard effort, to the point that it is hard to walk for 5 or 10 minutes after an all out 100 M free. So Warren, based on some earlier posts where you mentioned some of your times, I'm afraid you may have to suffer through many a workout and have your confidence shaken by those who can come within 10% of their PR's while doing 10 X 100 with 10 seconds rest. All will be redeemed on race day... assuming you don't do anything stupid like race a 200 or, heaven forbid, a 500. Rich

An aquaintance who is a college strength and conditioning coach recently did this experiment. He tested everyone on the team for maximum bench press (one rep). The sprinters, on average, could lift substantially more weight than the distance swimmers. On another day, when everyone was rested, he asked all his swimmers to see how many reps they could do at 70% of their maximum. No sprinter could do over 10 reps, while the distance folks averaged over 20 reps. Rich This explains things for me as well. In the weight room, the men that use a machine after me usually lift much lighter weights than I do. I have always found this suprising, because though I can lift a good amount, I just thought guys should be able to outlift me. Also my muscles tend to tire more easily when swimming distance than when swimming sprints which leave me more winded (as they should). I always thought I was a sprinter because of my A-type personality, but your words have me thinking that it is just the way I am made.:)

i type really slow, so 10 others will probably address this before my paragraph is ready. everyone needs to finish their stroke, the difference here is how, and where you think about it. terry and george will both correct me if i am off track here but this is how i see it: george: stroke finishes at the hip or waiste or ribs. this suggests "pushing oneself forward" terry: stroke finishes at that place just before the catch. this suggests "darting oneself forward" Pretty good assement however I like the finish to happen quite low almost even with the groin but l like the hand to roll out to be closer to mid thigh, now does it make any differrence for a sprinter or a distance swimmer? I was a sprinter, a mid distance and a marathon swimmer my stroke has changed very slightly over the years. I teach the finish probably more than any other thing when doing stroke correction. Once the client has a good finish I then start getting the effort to stop just below the waist but insisist on a complete roll out at the thigh.

I'm reading the revised one actually...he gave me the original, but I was at the bookstore and saw the revised one so I thought I'd get that for my own library. And actually in terms of finishing in the front, my coach has been changing my stroke around for the past few weeks, because I had still been under the impression that I should do the underwater "s" pull, and finish my underwater portion back by my hip...however, apparently thats very old school, and now I am working hard to unteach myself the s pull, and finish my stroke earlier, closer to my last rib...and it definatly has increase my stroke rate, which, for sprinting purposes was the point I suppose, because my arm rate had been ridiculously slow this season for whatever reason. I also feel more efficient with this stroke, finishing more towards the front:-D woot! If I had a coach who handed me a book to read I would find a new coach, you can see he knows nothing about swimming, I think he has been reading the wrong books.