Hey, I'm a 16 year old junior in high school, and well, I'd appreciate it if I could get some help with my swimming. I started swimming last year and can do every single stroke legally (minus breaststroke...oddly enough...) but my favorite stroke is freestyle. I have swam a 100 free starting off the wall in 1:00 and I'm also wondering what the most efficient way to swim it is, because when I made that time (my personal best, sadly) I sprinted the whole time. In addition, because this start was off the wall, I did not get to start off the block, I am 5'8" and weigh 122 and I'd just like any tips you can throw my way! Thanks in advance, and I also swim the 500 free on occasion so I would also appreciate any help on this. (Last year I swam the 200 and 500 free, this year I am hoping to swim the 100 free and 500 free)
So I tried this game plan out and it seemed like a much easier swim that previous strategy. Granted the whole meet I was swimming much slower and was having trouble keeping my speed up but this swim was a little over a second slower than my best which is about right all things considered but the splitting was my best ever.
Albatross 3/21/09
29.25/31.07 1:00.32
A less than 2 second differential for me is terrific. Granted the front 50 was out slow compared to my best back in June, but the back half was much better in comparison.
IGLA 6/19/08
27.73/31.44 59.17
I'm going to work on my kicking a lot more and try to swim the 100 free at Zones the same way and see what happens.
I tried Jim's strategy in my 100 back at Albatross and likewise liked it. I went out .5 slower than the last time I swam it. But I still improved by .8. Seemed less painful as well. Still, my front 50 was probably too slow. My splits were only a second apart, which, with my backstroke start, is effectively like even splitting a race.
Nice splitting, Hulk. Seems like you're on course in the 100 free for Zones.
I go for the all out approach in the 100. If I think about backing off or easy speed for the first 50 at all I swim a heck of a lot slower AND it still hurts like crazy. I swim the first 50 much like I'd race a 50 except breathing every 3 rather than 2 breaths for the race. It hurts by the 75 for sure.
If you want to read a sensational book on all aspects of this, I highly recommend Fitness and Health by Brian Sharkey (Human Kinetics.) It's come out in multiple editions, each time reflecting the latest thinking from the exercise physiology community. He does a sensational job of explaining all this highly complicated stuff in language that's easy to understand.
I think each of us probably has a genetic range that limits how good we can get in every different physiological system, and this is probably true in energy metabolism as well. That said, training can optimize our performance by bringing us up to the top of our potential.
I agree that the ATP, anaerobic, and aerobic systems do not function discretely or in a step-by-step linear sequence but rather interweave, depending on the physical challenge, with one or another coming to the forefront. For instance, during a marathon, it's clear that most of the energy burned is from the aerobic system. But a sprint to the finish line almost certainly would tap the anaerobic system (assuming there's any carb fuel left at this point) and possible the ATP system as well.
All of this is really complicated when it comes to actual race performance by a myriad of other physiological complexities that are difficult to quantify. For instance, long distance runners often used to avoid strength training under the assumption that this might cause them to bulk up with hypertrophied (or enlarged) fast twitch muscle fibers they don't particularly use in their races. However, this idea, which seems intuitively sound, doesn't appear to hold up in reality.
If you want, send me your email and I will send you an article I did on how strength training can help endurance performance.
Anyhow, the bottom line here is that if you want to swim your best, train predominantly for the events you hope to excel at--but don't ignore the other swims, too. Distance swimmers can benefit from sprint training and vice versa. I have also read that all of us, even if we only race freestyle, can benefit from IM training (to balance out muscles, etc.), provided this doesn't cause injuries.
You are definitely correct about the complexities involved. And this is only one reason why it is so hard to break down training into a do this, not that prescription for sprinters vs. distance swimmers. It's almost like a body ecology wherein alterations to X precipitate alterations to Y which, in turn, effect other feedback loops and cascading reactions, etc.
Add in that a lot of this stuff is, at best, only crudely understood. Case in point: in the first version of his classic swimming science text, Maglischo seemed pretty convinced that a lot of the power in the freestyle pull comes from subtle sculling hand movements that (if memory serves me, and it may not) harness the Bernouli effect.
In his later edition, and armed with new research from simulations in the water equivalent of wind tunnels, he realized this was not the case at all, and came to reject his own earlier theory.
I think the bottom line for us today is to train most in the areas where we want to excel, but to not dismiss or give overly short shrift to the areas we are less constitutionally suited to. I continue to maintain that distance swimmers should do some sprinting work and vice versa, as much as both groups appear to hate the forms of swimming they don't consider themselves "good" at.
Hey, I'm a 16 year old junior in high school, and well, I'd appreciate it if I could get some help with my swimming. I started swimming last year and can do every single stroke legally (minus breaststroke...oddly enough...) but my favorite stroke is freestyle. I have swam a 100 free starting off the wall in 1:00 and I'm also wondering what the most efficient way to swim it is, because when I made that time (my personal best, sadly) I sprinted the whole time. In addition, because this start was off the wall, I did not get to start off the block, I am 5'8" and weigh 122 and I'd just like any tips you can throw my way! Thanks in advance, and I also swim the 500 free on occasion so I would also appreciate any help on this. (Last year I swam the 200 and 500 free, this year I am hoping to swim the 100 free and 500 free)High schoolers should sprint the first lap, with steady breathing. After that, gauge the rest of the swimmers in the pool for the second lap. Third lap same as first, fourth lap you should try not to breath. Just keep your head down and use up every bit of your energy.
200 has always been the same. First 125 gauge speed based on other swimmers, next 25 try to take lead, last 50 sprint with steady breathing, maybe for the end keep your head down.
Same deal for the 500, but try to start the process at the 375, so there are five laps to take the lead and sprint.
Maglischo covers energy systems very well. It's a lot more complicated than just three tubes spewing this "energy" stuff into the muscles. There are motor units with different fiber types, and different fiber types use different sources of energy. Right now I'm looking at a table titled "Properties of FT and ST Muscle Fibers" in Swimming Even Faster. The table lists comparative values for things like glycogen content, power, and capacity for aerobic/anaerobic metabolism across FTa, FTb, and ST. This is the 1993 version of the book, so I'm sure there's newer research on the topic.
Jim's strategy seems great.The"sprint the whole way"idea works only if your concept of sprint does not mean all out.It is not physiologically possible to go all out for a 100(unless you can do it under 28 sec.)Keeping good form the last 25 is what separates the fastest from the also rans."Easy speed" is the key.It is a near sprint,not an all out sprint.
I find that my fastest 100m times are always done when I do my fastest times for the first 50m. To break 60 seconds for SCM 100 free, I HAVE to do the first 50m sub 29. There have been races where I've gone out in more like 29.8, and I've never come back any faster in the 2nd 50m compared to going out in 28.8.
If I feel like I'm in lactic acid hell for the last 10-15m of the race, I know I've swum fast enough. If I feel strong all the way to end, it means I've gone out too slowly and the time will be poor.
I think this is probably obvious, but always keep in mind when you look at someone's splits for a freestyle or backstroke race those times are to their feet and would be at least a few tenths faster if they finished to their hand. So, say you swim a 50 free in 25.0 and split your 100 free in 25.5. In reality that probably means you swam the first 50 of your 100 almost exactly as fast as you did the 50 event.
