Do we have to swim in a lot of meets to go fast? Of people that compete, it seems like there is a wide variance among forum members on meet attendance. Some go to many meets and some go to only a few a year. It seems like some people only attend the big meets or nationals. It obviously helps to get experience at meets, but how many do you need to compete in ideally to (1) swim fast and improve, and/or (2) do well at major competitions such as zones or nationals?
This is kind of connected to the "interesting article" thread that I just responded to. Again I'm going to draw on my past experience as a runner. We had at least one meet each week and usually had two. Dual meet midweek and invitational on the weekend. My high school coach's philosophy was that one needed to race as often as possible in order to learn how to race. Pace and tactics were best learned in racing situations. He must have known what he was talking about. That year my track team won the first state title in a run of 11 in a row. The string was broken when he retired. I think training philosophies can be applied to both sports though many swimming coaches would disagree.
This is kind of connected to the "interesting article" thread that I just responded to. Again I'm going to draw on my past experience as a runner. We had at least one meet each week and usually had two. Dual meet midweek and invitational on the weekend. My high school coach's philosophy was that one needed to race as often as possible in order to learn how to race. Pace and tactics were best learned in racing situations. He must have known what he was talking about. That year my track team won the first state title in a run of 11 in a row. The string was broken when he retired. I think training philosophies can be applied to both sports though many swimming coaches would disagree.
