Kicking

I do think that strength gains translate into performance gains. The most direct relationship between lifting and swimming happens to benefit non-sprinters more than sprinters. Every flip turn includes the power component of a squat. If you are working hard and getting stronger with your squat (or any variant), and you are not getting further from the wall faster, you aren't applying your new strength in the pool. For myself, I believe there's a good correlation between squatting and the use of the legs for starts and turns. I feel that the correlation becomes stronger when you include more explosive types of squatting (vertical jumping and lifting with lighter weight and bands or chains on the barbell). Also don't feel it's necessary to squat down to parallel to get benefit from this type of lifting. You have better leverage when you don't squat so far down (squatting parallel is primarily of use if you are competing in powerlifting, or working on a good weighted stretch of the lower back, glutes and hams). Better leverage for me equates to more power/explosiveness, which I can apply to starts and turns. As an aside, has anyone found any type of correlation between endurance built through kicking and endurance for cycling? Probably psychological, but it seems when I train my kick more in the pool, I have an easier time on the stationary bike (no help with running however). :banana:

How do you get three walls out of a 50 in this set? If you start in the middle, it's 12.5 to the first wall, 25 to the second, and 12.5 back to the middle. That's only 2 walls in 50 yards. Are they 75s? I did call it a "sneaky set" Bill. Start near the middle since the start line always floats around and ends up closer to the 1st wall than intended. The first turn is at the normal start wall. By starting beyond the flags, there is time to accelerate into the 1st turn. Second turn is at the regular turn wall. Third turn is at the finish wall with a SDK, lands the swimmer back in the middle of the pool. The goal is more SDKing - less swimming.

I did call it a "sneaky set" Bill. Start near the middle since the start line always floats around and ends up closer to the 1st wall than intended. The first turn is at the normal start wall. By starting beyond the flags, there is time to accelerate into the 1st turn. Second turn is at the regular turn wall. Third turn is at the finish wall with a SDK, lands the swimmer back in the middle of the pool. The goal is more SDKing - less swimming. Ahh, I see...but the pedant in me would feel obligated to point out to my coach that they aren't really 50s at all; more like 65s or 75s. I guess that's the sneaky part.

qbrain I agree with Oguz, it makes sense to practice what you race. If you are a D person, then your 2 beat kick makes sense if that is what you are going to race with. If you are a sprinter, it is worth it to kill yourself a little earlier with a six beat kick. If you look at alot of the distance swimmers in short course, they are 6 beat kicking off the wall for about 12.5 and then two beating into the wall. Seems to be something new? not sure.

. With that said, if weight training would have an effect then it definitely would be on the very short 50m. sprints. When I first started weight training in earnest my first significant time drop was in the 200 BR.

My sprint times have dropped dramatically with strength training. I can leg press 400 pounds and deadlift and squat fairly nicely. And the latter two exercises are great for strengthening the core. I have compared my times with half assed weight lifting and more serious strength lifting and they are quite different. YMMV. That said, I don't do swim specific weight training or any stretch cord type training. I do a mix of things. It's difficult commenting on loads in machines since different machines are well, different. Especially a device like the leg press which comes in various shapes and angles. Also the weight is not exact due to the rods, pulleys etc. A better indicator would be a squat (breaking parallel) or a conventional, Sumo or trap bar deadlift measured as a % of your bw. I am close to 200% (double my bw) on the Sumo DL. I have not noticed any effect on my swimming. With that said, if weight training would have an effect then it definitely would be on the very short 50m. sprints. However, perhaps your times have improved because your technique has improved. Right now I have moved from heavy low rep lifting to experimenting with circuit training emphasizing little rest between exercises. I feel that this has helped my conditioning greatly - both muscular and c/v.

I have not noticed any effect on my swimming. With that said, if weight training would have an effect then it definitely would be on the very short 50m. sprints. However, perhaps your times have improved because your technique has improved. Right now I have moved from heavy low rep lifting to experimenting with circuit training emphasizing little rest between exercises. I feel that this has helped my conditioning greatly - both muscular and c/v. My times drops are no doubt completely and utterly due to my magic-cheating-dirty-ruined the sport tech suit. :angel: I haven't changed my technique, except for more emphasis on SDKs. I have been focusing on 50s and that's where my greatest time drops have occurred. Though my 100s have similarly benefited. The problem with weights is that there has been no long term study on swimmers. That 6 week Costill study that Jim Thornton always cites is a joke. It's a very small sample over a very short time period. You can't measure the benefits of lifting in 6 weeks. Interestingly, I've grown a bit weary of the heavy low rep lifting myself. (And, really, I am not very strong except possibly for my age). After my taper meet in December, I'm going to shift more into circuit training/plyo training/bodyweight exercises. I've added plyos lately, and really enjoy them. But, as to kicking, I'm sold on its benefits. Perhaps my improvements are due more to kicking than weights.

I started presenting sneaky sets into my workouts to get swimmers working on SDK off of fast legal turns... FINz optional. *some masters do not turn well with w/FINz and should not wear them *some masters need to use FINz to build confidence in their SDK 3 Turn 50s Start near middle of the 25 yard pool Accelerate into each turn SDK for XX amount of kicks off each of the 3 walls Moderate swim in the middle (ha ha ha!!) Finish is in the middle where started Usually do 6 repeats - as a group - go when the last lane swimmer is back in the middle - approximately :15-:30 rest - often stop group for instruction

I like doing these sneaky sets...

I started presenting sneaky sets into my workouts to get swimmers working on SDK off of fast legal turns... FINz optional. *some masters do not turn well with w/FINz and should not wear them *some masters need to use FINz to build confidence in their SDK 3 Turn 50s Start near middle of the 25 yard pool Accelerate into each turn SDK for XX amount of kicks off each of the 3 walls Moderate swim in the middle (ha ha ha!!) Finish is in the middle where started Usually do 6 repeats - as a group - go when the last lane swimmer is back in the middle - approximately :15-:30 rest - often stop group for instruction How do you get three walls out of a 50 in this set? If you start in the middle, it's 12.5 to the first wall, 25 to the second, and 12.5 back to the middle. That's only 2 walls in 50 yards. Are they 75s?