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.
Great job by Mark. Are his achievements so much different than Dara Torres'? OK, he's a few years younger and never really left the pool for extended periods as far as I know, but like Dara he is still capable of swimming close to or faster than his personal bests.
I just noticed in the interview you linked that Foster is exactly one day younger than I am!
He's never had a full term pregnancy?
I don't think this is a good excuse. There are plenty of women athletes who have excelled after pregnancies.
I realize there are plenty of women athletes who have excelled after pregnancies that's why I bring it to the table. Mark is not in that group.
Of course, I'm just responding to your question of major differences between Dara and Mark, this one being by far the most obvious.
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
he mades some great points
I totally agree:
Mike Rowbottom asked:
You have the reputation of being a maverick within the sport – for instance, doing a lot less volume of work in the pool than other swimmers.
What's your take on it?
Mark Foster said:
I think in general swimmers train too much. The events I do take around 21, 22 seconds – 18 if you take away the dive. If I have a two-hour training session, why would I just want to go up and down the pool in that time? You have got to get your body ready for what you are going to ask it to do, which means lots of short, sharp work. I think swimmers need to do more cross-training, such as working in the gym."
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.
Where's the proof, though? There are also examples that gifted athletes can take up the sport seriously much later and still excel. An example of this is Ed Moses. From what I've heard he didn't really swim seriously until high school.
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.
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.
