This one was pretty close, because British Swimming requires swimmers to make the Olympic A cut to compete. Mark Foster, my favorite swimmer, has qualified to swim the 50 free at the Olympics this summer. He'll be 38 years old.
Here's an interview with Foster where he talks about things like limited training volume, the importance of lifting weights, and staying physically fit for life.
Foster also has a unique way of sprinting. In this video, he dominates a field of sprinters with the slowest stroke rate in the pool.
I find a lot of things to admire about Mark Foster, and I think it's great news that he'll get to swim at the Olympics. Hopefully, when he retires from professional swimming, he'll continue to compete in masters.
Parents
Former Member
I read this to a friend, he said this philosophy can contaminate kids, because at some point early in their career, kids need to put in some serious training and build a foundation.
IE
jager swam distance as a kid
crocker still holds US records in the 13 - 14 200 fr and 15 - 16 200 fr
A foundation for what? I know guys who trained very hard as teenagers, and all they got out of it was the ability to swim long dreary workouts.
What Foster is saying about specific preparation is something you can apply over a whole lifetime of swimming. If a kid loves to sprint and wants to get a fast 50, there's no reason not to give him the proper training for it.
Also, about "serious" training. Serious means different things to different people. I think sprint training like what Mark Foster does is more serious than high-yardage training when applied to a sprinter, because it's more focused on the actual goal at hand. If all you can think about is how much work you are doing, then you aren't really serious about developing speed.
I read this to a friend, he said this philosophy can contaminate kids, because at some point early in their career, kids need to put in some serious training and build a foundation.
IE
jager swam distance as a kid
crocker still holds US records in the 13 - 14 200 fr and 15 - 16 200 fr
A foundation for what? I know guys who trained very hard as teenagers, and all they got out of it was the ability to swim long dreary workouts.
What Foster is saying about specific preparation is something you can apply over a whole lifetime of swimming. If a kid loves to sprint and wants to get a fast 50, there's no reason not to give him the proper training for it.
Also, about "serious" training. Serious means different things to different people. I think sprint training like what Mark Foster does is more serious than high-yardage training when applied to a sprinter, because it's more focused on the actual goal at hand. If all you can think about is how much work you are doing, then you aren't really serious about developing speed.
