Swimming Cats and Dogs

Ted Erikson, the famed long distance swimmer, with his dog Umbra, in the Guinness Book of World Records. According to legend, Umbra swam behind Ted and nipped his heels whenever Ted flagged. :) http://www.sdogv.com/swim.html Should be some videos at that link, but it is utterly hopeless with a dialup so I didn't check. Regards, VB

He did not say that training swimmers either way was wrong. I think he said that training a "cat" like a he / she was a "dog" was wrong. It's not that hard to figure out who is who -- the Race Club trains Cats. I have even heard an interview with Mike Bottom referring to this. If you hear about the long yardage people do - think dog (for the most part). Many coaches now do a mix.

Erik Vendt is a prime example of a dog if you ask me, and I think a lot of the Mission Viejo guys would match that as well.

How about a fox, the cat-like canine?

He's talking about training the physiological systems that are best suited for each swimmer. For sure... I'll try to view it on a different machine. Sounds interesting. Quite a lot of experimental work has been done with swimming mice and orienteering, with applications to human visual system. Regards, VB

Kate Ziegler seems to be an example of a dog. She seems to thrive on volume yardage. Is it possible to be a "distance cat?" Ous Mellouli comes to mind as a possibility, but I think its rare. I don't really have a lot of info, so I'm just arm-chairing this, of course. I was definitley trained as a dog until age 17. Experienced some success, but burned out and then had a major breakthrough 400 IM swim after training which, in retrospect, must have been much more catlike. For me that meant dropping from 2 x a day to 1, and swimming very hard/fast in that one workout. I suppose that argues that I am a middle distance cat, but I don't think a distance cat, and am sure not a sprinter-cat.

How is Ous an example? Doesn't he train with Dave Salo?

You know Lindsay, I really liked that interview... I suspect any sprinter who has lived through a "train everyone for the 1500 and 400IM" program will like his ideas. :agree:

You know Lindsay, I really liked that interview... He's talking about training the physiological systems that are best suited for each swimmer. For sure...

I suspect any sprinter who has lived through a "train everyone for the 1500 and 400IM" program will like his ideas. :agree: Hey, you know... I remember Ron Vordough (sp?), his events were the 400 IM and 1500 free... He later specialized in the 400 free and 200 free... We trained side by side for 4+ years... There was one set I remember clearly, 16x400 on 4:30... I made it to about the 12th or 13th repetition...