Sprint vs. Distance

Ryk Neethling is the one person I can think of who has exceled at both sprinting and distance, but--the big caveat here--not at the same time. He focused on distance swimming during his college career, but in the past few years has shifted to sprinting.

I believe you can be physiologically gifted for one or the other due to the make-up of your muscles: more fast twitch fibers= sprinter or more slow twitch fibers =distance swimmer. You can train and work very hard to overcome your "shortage" of either. I know I am naturally a sprinter. When I was younger I trained mega yardage so much that I could actually do a "decent" 500 and mile. I had to work very hard to do it though. Likewise....a distance swimmer could improve by doing more sprint-style workouts. Quality work with lots of rest=sprinter. Maintain pace for quantity with little rest=distance swimmmer. It all depends on what you WANT to do! Me...I choose SPRINTS!:groovy:

I see more old ladies swimming breaststroke than anything else ...

I like to think of distance swimmers as those who can hold a fast pace over longer distances. So essentially a sprinter with endurance.

In swimming, how is it that one can excel in both sprints and long distance? Is it because the distance games in swimming only "relatively" distance games but not really distant games from a physiologic perspective? In the world of track, an athlete cannot excel at both sprints and distance. Even the athletes from the two areas look different - much leaner for the distance runners and muscular for the sprinters. I am wondering about this because whether I should focus on either the sprint or the distance as I plan to participate in the masters meet, or whether I don't have to sacrifice one for the other. At the elite, non-Masters level, I can't think of anyone that excels at both sprint and distance. Popov wasn't good at the 200. Thorpe was a middle distance guy. Janet Evans wasn't a sprinter. So why do you think someone DOES excel in both? In Masters I think that at the Zones-level there are many swimmers good at a variety of distances. At the higher age groups I think some, like Graham Johnston, can own records at nearly every distance. But in general at the level of Nationals or Worlds the best sprinters are sprinters. The best distance swimmers are distance swimmers.

it has to do with muscel make up. Spirnters have more fast twitch muscle and distance people have slow twitch. No one really excells at both.

Shane Gould is another person that I can think of...she held the world records from the 100 free to the 1500 free, plus the 200 IM at the same time. Depending on what one's definition of "excell" is, Katie Hoff has qualified for the 2008 Trials in every event, so I would say she excells at all distances. Granted, there aren't many people that have been able to excell at all distances, but a few have the mental and physical attriubutes to do so.

It's certainly possible to do well in many distances in swimming - one of my friends used to be top 20 in Georgia in her age group for both the 50 free and the 1000 free and in most of the distances in between. In swimming, stroke technique is just as important as fitness, unlike running, where fitness is much more important. So a swimmer can have a very efficient stroke and be able to swim multiple distances well, although most swimmers have a favorite distance or two. For you, as a new swimmer, try out quite a few events before deciding on a certain event to focus on. I raced every distance and stroke from 50 free to 500 free this year, and it was a good experience. Later, you may even decide to focus on one event one year and a completely different event the next year.

I believe you can be physiologically gifted for one or the other due to the make-up of your muscles: more fast twitch fibers= sprinter or more slow twitch fibers =distance swimmer. You can train and work very hard to overcome your "shortage" of either. I know I am naturally a sprinter. When I was younger I trained mega yardage so much that I could actually do a "decent" 500 and mile. I had to work very hard to do it though. Likewise....a distance swimmer could improve by doing more sprint-style workouts. Quality work with lots of rest=sprinter. Maintain pace for quantity with little rest=distance swimmmer. It all depends on what you WANT to do! Me...I choose SPRINTS!:groovy: My thought is regardless of what you are you should train a little at both...as things change over a lifetime. I'm never going to be a champ backstroker, I know it's hard to accept this as a fact but it's true. I do plan to work on it so that it becomes better as it will make me a better swimmer.

I did fairly well in both, I changed from distance to sprints because I could not train enough to swim distance. Then changed back to distance swimming when I found I could start training for distance swimming.