I decided to race only breastroke events for a Master's meet later this year.
When I swam in college (85 - 89) I was primarily a breastroker, but also swam the 50 free. In college and high school, I would guess that the stroke specialists still spent maybe 1/2 of each workout swimming freestyle. I just started wondering why that is?
Do you think that someone like Branden Hansen spends any workout time doing freestyle, or would he only do breastroke?
At first I thought that maybe my coaches were worried about repitition-type injuries, and had us swim freestyle to mix things up for the muscles, joints, etc - however I don't remember the pure freestylists ever swimming anything other than freestyle. So why did the butter/back/*** guys still do so much freestyle work?
Former Member
At first I thought that maybe my coaches were worried about repitition-type injuries, and had us swim freestyle to mix things up for the muscles, joints, etc - however I don't remember the pure freestylists ever swimming anything other than freestyle. So why did the butter/back/*** guys still do so much freestyle work?
Because those were the days of big-time aerobic base training, and the only way you could get 10-15,000+ yards done in a day is with lots of freestyle.
Nowadays, with much less yardage being done (a generalization, I know), there is the opportunity to train more event-specific. Although IMHO fly and *** are the toughest strokes to swim well in practice when tired, so there is a limiting factor there...
Nowadays, with much less yardage being done (a generalization, I know), there is the opportunity to train more event-specific. Although IMHO fly and *** are the toughest strokes to swim well in practice when tired, so there is a limiting factor there...
I absolutely agree with your opinion here with regard to tired swimming with proper technique, etc...
I would absolutely have my specialist swimmers (odd stroke swimmers) work on other strokes. It makes them a more complete swimmer and the different strokes work various muscle groups. Just my opinion on that one.
