The best thing about Masters swimming is that you can just decide to try a different event. So Lately I've been thinking about trying to swim the 100 fly in the next SCY meet I do. Until masters I had never competed in any fly event. So the 100 fly is a complete unknown to me.
This week to get an idea of what my starting point is I've done two 100 flys of the wall in practice during sets with the fastest being a 1:02/1:03. This was in the middle of a set of 6 X 100 free. 1-3 were on 1:40 moderate and 4-6 on 2:00 Hard. I swam fly on #4.
Natually I am encouraged by that time and it has me thinking. Maybe I can get with in striking distance of a top ten 10 with this. For my age group (35-39) it looks like I would need to go sub :55 to have a chance. But is that possible for someone who has never competed in the 100 fly? And if so, what kind of 50 fly speed will I need to have to accomplish that?
Also any advice on how to train for the 100 fly when your work outs don't really have a lot of fly in them. I swim with a team with workouts prepared by the coach.
Kevin
Parents
Former Member
I use to do a lot of fly in practice...but I got to a point where I platued (?). then my shoulders went bad and I had to not swim fly for a few months. when I came back to fly I did a lot less yardage full stroke fly. In practice this year I did hardly any full stroke fly besides 25's (10x25 fly o-work on your SDK e=work on your full stroke @25---real good heart pumper fly set) and a few 50's here and there. One coach told me that as soon as you feel like your fly is becoming more of a survival fly, stop doing it. You can either change to 1 arm, 1-1-1-3-3-3-or2-2-2 but don't try to continue just full stroke because thats what leads to injuries and it isn't helping you to be swimming it completly wrong. Obviously you don't want to not practice fly when your tired though because that defeats the point of training it, so my coaches often would have flyers do sets of like 4x3x100 (1=25fly/25free 2=25free/50fly/25free 3=25fly/50free/25fly and repeat that cycle 4times) Instead of say the backstrokers who were doing 12x100back...but this way the flyers are practicing every part of the race fly...still getting the workout/yards but not necessarily killing your shoulders.
Suprisingly, or maybe not so suprisingly, when I started working fly like that my times dropped for the first time in years and have been more consistently dropping since.
Good luck...
in terms of your race strategy...my coach always talks about the 3rd 25. I don't really listen to that theory in my 100free-i just rip it out as fast as I can without thinking, but in the 100fly, I feel I either am too cautious and take the first 50 too slow, or too cocky and take that 1st 50 to hard. Either way my time suffers, so I have began to break it up into 4 25's in stead of 2 50s like most people do. I try to build my race. That first 25 is a long rhytm setting lap, then I try to get some more arm speed into my 2nd 50. My third 50 is my mental 50--things are starting to hurt, you have that feeling of "oh god I have to do that all over again?" so I really try to think about making that my strongest lap, a lot of people can't break that mental barrier and they end up either conciously or unconciously saving some energy for that last lap, but either way, if you can take it as hard and stong as possible, your gonna have a good time and a good race. That last lap is a balls to the wall lap. Just go for it, one lap left....doesn't matter how much more you make it hurt, because its over!
Thats my 2cents.
I use to do a lot of fly in practice...but I got to a point where I platued (?). then my shoulders went bad and I had to not swim fly for a few months. when I came back to fly I did a lot less yardage full stroke fly. In practice this year I did hardly any full stroke fly besides 25's (10x25 fly o-work on your SDK e=work on your full stroke @25---real good heart pumper fly set) and a few 50's here and there. One coach told me that as soon as you feel like your fly is becoming more of a survival fly, stop doing it. You can either change to 1 arm, 1-1-1-3-3-3-or2-2-2 but don't try to continue just full stroke because thats what leads to injuries and it isn't helping you to be swimming it completly wrong. Obviously you don't want to not practice fly when your tired though because that defeats the point of training it, so my coaches often would have flyers do sets of like 4x3x100 (1=25fly/25free 2=25free/50fly/25free 3=25fly/50free/25fly and repeat that cycle 4times) Instead of say the backstrokers who were doing 12x100back...but this way the flyers are practicing every part of the race fly...still getting the workout/yards but not necessarily killing your shoulders.
Suprisingly, or maybe not so suprisingly, when I started working fly like that my times dropped for the first time in years and have been more consistently dropping since.
Good luck...
in terms of your race strategy...my coach always talks about the 3rd 25. I don't really listen to that theory in my 100free-i just rip it out as fast as I can without thinking, but in the 100fly, I feel I either am too cautious and take the first 50 too slow, or too cocky and take that 1st 50 to hard. Either way my time suffers, so I have began to break it up into 4 25's in stead of 2 50s like most people do. I try to build my race. That first 25 is a long rhytm setting lap, then I try to get some more arm speed into my 2nd 50. My third 50 is my mental 50--things are starting to hurt, you have that feeling of "oh god I have to do that all over again?" so I really try to think about making that my strongest lap, a lot of people can't break that mental barrier and they end up either conciously or unconciously saving some energy for that last lap, but either way, if you can take it as hard and stong as possible, your gonna have a good time and a good race. That last lap is a balls to the wall lap. Just go for it, one lap left....doesn't matter how much more you make it hurt, because its over!
Thats my 2cents.
