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.
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.
There is some truth to that. I would, however, add a few comments:
-- I think young kids are not as able to train with the intensity that an adult like Foster brings to workouts such as he describes. And doing those workouts with low/medium intensity is not so good.
-- I think an age of, say, 13-14 is too young to specialize in any one event (eg, 50/100 free). They should be as able to swim short events as, say, 400IM, 200 fly or 1000 free. Who knows what they will like in the end. I remember Tom Jager being an excellent backstroker before focusing on the 50 free.
-- I am no expert on this, but I don't believe heavy weightlifting should be done before the body matures fully.
I think high intensity swimming has a place in anyone's workout. But so does longer, aerobic swimming. Moderation in everything; if you go too far the other way, I think that will turn kids off as well.
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.
There is some truth to that. I would, however, add a few comments:
-- I think young kids are not as able to train with the intensity that an adult like Foster brings to workouts such as he describes. And doing those workouts with low/medium intensity is not so good.
-- I think an age of, say, 13-14 is too young to specialize in any one event (eg, 50/100 free). They should be as able to swim short events as, say, 400IM, 200 fly or 1000 free. Who knows what they will like in the end. I remember Tom Jager being an excellent backstroker before focusing on the 50 free.
-- I am no expert on this, but I don't believe heavy weightlifting should be done before the body matures fully.
I think high intensity swimming has a place in anyone's workout. But so does longer, aerobic swimming. Moderation in everything; if you go too far the other way, I think that will turn kids off as well.
