I have a new ( young ) coach. He includes breath control sets. Does any one else think this could be dangerous for older (56 years old) swimmers? My MD thought it was crazy. I have noticed quite a few Masters swimmers dying from strokes. An old coach of mine said USA Swimming had banned hypoxic training for kids for a while.
As for SDK - that is not an oxygen issue at all. It is a hydrodynamic issue. The evidence clearly shows that swimming underwater can be faster than swimming on the surface.
Maglischo wasn't saying don't swim underwater. He was just saying that when you're swimming - it is probably better to swim faster with breathing than swimming slower with less breathing.
I think what Maglischo was saying was that you can build more lactate by swimming faster, and that generally requires more oxygen. That you do not build as much lactate in hypoxic sets, and so hypoxic sets are not a good way to build up lactate tolerance.
But that seems like a pretty dated statement to me. Anyone who thinks that hard underwater kicking doesn't generate as much lactate as surface swimming isn't doing it right, IMO...
Of course SDK is about hydrodynamics. And the longer you can stay under (up to 15m), the faster you can go in the race...if you can control your oxygen debt. Hence the hypoxic part.
What you and other hypoxic nay-sayings are basically saying is that doing such work in practice doesn't prepare you for race conditions except psychologically (which isn't a small thing, btw).
My own view is, why take a chance on training in a way UNLIKE the way I plan to race? And sometimes I'll take more underwater kicks than I plan to do in a race because, let's face it, one can rarely swim as hard in practice as in a race.
As for SDK - that is not an oxygen issue at all. It is a hydrodynamic issue. The evidence clearly shows that swimming underwater can be faster than swimming on the surface.
Maglischo wasn't saying don't swim underwater. He was just saying that when you're swimming - it is probably better to swim faster with breathing than swimming slower with less breathing.
I think what Maglischo was saying was that you can build more lactate by swimming faster, and that generally requires more oxygen. That you do not build as much lactate in hypoxic sets, and so hypoxic sets are not a good way to build up lactate tolerance.
But that seems like a pretty dated statement to me. Anyone who thinks that hard underwater kicking doesn't generate as much lactate as surface swimming isn't doing it right, IMO...
Of course SDK is about hydrodynamics. And the longer you can stay under (up to 15m), the faster you can go in the race...if you can control your oxygen debt. Hence the hypoxic part.
What you and other hypoxic nay-sayings are basically saying is that doing such work in practice doesn't prepare you for race conditions except psychologically (which isn't a small thing, btw).
My own view is, why take a chance on training in a way UNLIKE the way I plan to race? And sometimes I'll take more underwater kicks than I plan to do in a race because, let's face it, one can rarely swim as hard in practice as in a race.
