Dara Torres-Amazing

So you are saying that periodisation is one of the keys to improvement? What other advantages are there to this kind of periodisation? I could think of a few reasons off the top of my head: boredom avoidance and repetitive injury avoidance to name just two. But I think it requires a real faith in the process to do something like this. Somehow large doses of aerobic training are ingrained in most swimmers minds. A session without decent yardage feels like a 'goof off'. Perhaps we need to change our mindsets. Nine months ago when I started training again for the first time in 24 years, all I did every practice was a 500m warm up followed by 10 X 50m free with plenty of rest in between and ALL OUT. Now I am averaging 3000m a practice, doing a lot more aerobic stuff, drills and other strokes and my 50m freestyle time has hardly improved at all. My 200m free time has come down significantly, though. Would you say low yardage, stretching, strength work and race paced training are more beneficial to sprinters? Would someone like Dara being doing drill work, other strokes, aerobic sets or would she just be focussed entilrely on her main events: the 50m and 100m free? What about the person who still has stroke issues to iron out? For example; recently I have changed from a two beat to a six beat kick and am also trying to incorporate bilateral breathing into my training. All of this takes time and needs to be done slowly at first before tried at race pace. I am assuming that periodisation of training and more specific race oriented training is only for those who have sorted most of these issues out? Syd Syd, here's my thoughts: - I would never have someone swim hard lactic or aerobic sets every singe day. I like Fred Bosquets training reviewed recently in swimming world, basically its a speed day followed by a recovery day followed by an aerobic day, day off than repeat. The goal is 2-21/2 days a week of full blown speed work, two full days of rest, and recovery, aerobic/recovery days mixed in. Keep in mind he's in his 20's, for us old farts we need to listen a bit more to our bodies and if we have the resources like Dara be getting extra help with massage/stretching. - Dara is 100% focused on the 50/100, no reason whatsoever to think about anything else with Trails coming up next year. These 2 races however swam long course require very different training strategies, the 100m free is going to take some base aerobic conditioning (IMHO) that may not be as important in a yard format. - Peridoization should never be done..or any training for that matter without work on technique mixed in as part of that training. i can only say for myself that virtually every stroke is "mindful"...always trying to be more efficient no matter what part of the season I'm in. If I lose my stroke or am basically flailing it is (again IMHO) important to try and "reset" and maybe back off on the interval or effort to regain the technique...if possible - Bottom line is I don't know that I'll ever be even remotely close to "ironing out" stroke issues...but I'll never stop trying.

So you are saying that periodisation is one of the keys to improvement? What other advantages are there to this kind of periodisation? I could think of a few reasons off the top of my head: boredom avoidance and repetitive injury avoidance to name just two. But I think it requires a real faith in the process to do something like this. Somehow large doses of aerobic training are ingrained in most swimmers minds. A session without decent yardage feels like a 'goof off'. Perhaps we need to change our mindsets. Nine months ago when I started training again for the first time in 24 years, all I did every practice was a 500m warm up followed by 10 X 50m free with plenty of rest in between and ALL OUT. Now I am averaging 3000m a practice, doing a lot more aerobic stuff, drills and other strokes and my 50m freestyle time has hardly improved at all. My 200m free time has come down significantly, though. Would you say low yardage, stretching, strength work and race paced training are more beneficial to sprinters? Would someone like Dara being doing drill work, other strokes, aerobic sets or would she just be focussed entilrely on her main events: the 50m and 100m free? What about the person who still has stroke issues to iron out? For example; recently I have changed from a two beat to a six beat kick and am also trying to incorporate bilateral breathing into my training. All of this takes time and needs to be done slowly at first before tried at race pace. I am assuming that periodisation of training and more specific race oriented training is only for those who have sorted most of these issues out? Syd Syd, here's my thoughts: - I would never have someone swim hard lactic or aerobic sets every singe day. I like Fred Bosquets training reviewed recently in swimming world, basically its a speed day followed by a recovery day followed by an aerobic day, day off than repeat. The goal is 2-21/2 days a week of full blown speed work, two full days of rest, and recovery, aerobic/recovery days mixed in. Keep in mind he's in his 20's, for us old farts we need to listen a bit more to our bodies and if we have the resources like Dara be getting extra help with massage/stretching. - Dara is 100% focused on the 50/100, no reason whatsoever to think about anything else with Trails coming up next year. These 2 races however swam long course require very different training strategies, the 100m free is going to take some base aerobic conditioning (IMHO) that may not be as important in a yard format. - Peridoization should never be done..or any training for that matter without work on technique mixed in as part of that training. i can only say for myself that virtually every stroke is "mindful"...always trying to be more efficient no matter what part of the season I'm in. If I lose my stroke or am basically flailing it is (again IMHO) important to try and "reset" and maybe back off on the interval or effort to regain the technique...if possible - Bottom line is I don't know that I'll ever be even remotely close to "ironing out" stroke issues...but I'll never stop trying.