On frequent occasions, I feel my form fall apart on tougher sets, but I finish regardless of my form. I feel it is more important to force my body to undergo the physiological adaptation resulting from these "near death" sets than to worry about maintaining form.
As long as I imprint the correct form in less strenuous sets I feel it is OK to gut tougher sets out when my form is falling apart. Many times I finish my workout with some shorter repeats to finish and leave the pool with the correct form imprinted in my mind.
This post is as a result of one of today's sets where I simply did not want to "give up" and switch from fly to free. I felt it was important to finish it the way I intended to give me a metal boost that I can do it as well as force the body to adapt. Is this mentality towards training wrong?
Hi Steve-
I seem to remember a French anchor leg from Beijing who literally stopped moving his arms forward efficiently and was actually moving side to side the last 10m of his 100 free! The aerial view of the race was phenomenal!
A certain Jason Lezak's form remained strong.
Just at varsity level, I've often seen 200 specialists being thrown in 1500 butterfly time trial. Phelps would probably do under 18min on this sort of test,
Highly imprecise, but on the 100 fly to 200 fly his pace drops off 12% per 100 while on the 100 free to 200 free his pace drops off 8%. However some of that can be attributed to the start, so the real numbers are more like 4.9% and 9.1%. If you use those numbers and extrapilate out to the 1500 free (assume a 5% drop off every time the distance doubles) then Phelps is at 14:55 in the 1500. I think that is about right. Using the same math but with 9.1% you get a 18:07 in the 1500 fly...about what you predicted.
This is a question/problem for all of my swimmers (age group and master's)!!
I have to say that as a coach, I give them sets that I know will push them mentally (maintaining technique) and physically (pushing the limits of their overall swimming). However, it's almost a catch 22...if you don't maintain your technique and overall stroke efficiency then you will not make the interval or you will not hit the goal times...
For me, I would like to see the swimmers hit their technique and miss the interval by :02 or so instead of throwing the technique and just making it on-time. Muscle memory is huge and if you start to get sloppy in your stroke you start to lose that precious entity.
At least that is my opinion...
I'd say as your fatigue increases try to increase your DPS
I respectfully disagree. I suggest to increase your stroke count and decrease your DPS.
Kind of like changing gears on a bike when you go uphill.
With a shorter stroke you can focus on the money spot of the pull and maintain form.
Is this mentality towards training wrong? No absolutely not. This mentality allows for breakthrough workouts to occur.
Sometimes, in order to preserve Form during these you have to sacrifice a little bit on distance per stroke and you're fine.
For instance, in case of a tough Fly workout, I would begin the set on a 11-12 stroke count at higher rate, knowing that I'll be able to maintain the Form from beginning to end. If I was to start it on 9-10 strokes per 25m like I can do, then I may loose it somewhere during the set and the Form can seriously degrade.
In other words, stroke count strategy is like betting on a horse, or choosing the appropriate golf stick. My ability to successfully complete a tough set without seeing the Form degrading too much highly depends on which horse I bet prior beginning the set. At least that's how it works for me.
In a free style set, a tough one, 16strokes for me is the key, although I could begin any free style set on a 14-15stroke count. The later strategy is undoubtedly a recipe for form failure later into the set.
and one thing I've found useful is to concentrate a wee bit more on the final part of the stroke underwater--the push phase.
+1
Cause when you loose it, it's the beginning of the end. Maintaining DPS (Form) is mostly conditioned by the efficiency of this important pulling phase.
