I just watched a great video entitled Swim Slow to Be Fast. I found it to be very interesting and sound advice. It is primarily meant for Tri Atheletes and distance swimmers..
Two questions:
If you do train for shorter distances (50, 100, 200), what % of training in distance should be at maximum effort? I do about 1.4% at max effort, i.e, 11000 M a week total, about 150 M a week at or just below top speed.
How slow is slow? For me, slow swimming with perfect stroke is too slow to maintain any required cardiovascular conditioning when greater than 100
I do lots of slow swimming early in the season and every workout during warmup.I think you are going to need to do more fast swimming to get fast, IF your technique is good.I also find it easier to focus on breaststroke and fly technique at race pace.About 25% of my workouts are race pace,but 200 speed is race pace one day and 100 speed another and sprints another,and some days I mix it up.The rest of the workout is warmup,warmdown,recovery swims and drills.
I forgot. How are we defining an elite masters swimmer?
I don't know, but I can give you a lower bound: someone faster than me. I'll leave it for others (faster than me who believe they are not elite) to raise the lower bound further.
:)
S
i always do my drills in workout thoughtfully. well i try. when i swim slow or in survival mode (like today, i have vertigo) i actually do well.
i have never, never ,, never been able to turn over my arms in backstroke hence my old nickname ester.
There isn't one single world class triathlete, elite master swimmer or world record holder who has poor technique. Few coaches will deny that the key to fast swimming is training fast but unless you have an effective swimming technique the only thing you'll reach by training faster is mediocrity. The beginner or poor swimmer should use a majority of their training time on improving their technique and when they get more proficient add more yardage and more sprinting. I know most of us get it so I'll leave it at that.
I forgot. How are we defining an elite masters swimmer? Thx.
This thread title caught my attention in that I do think there is something to it. . . I completely loafed (meaning I purposely went slow and did not worry about speed at all) my 200 IM (10th event of a 2 day meet) and just focused on technique. Went my best time of 2:15 (yeah, nothing to write home about I know). Husband caught on video and my *great techinque* was still probably about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 an improvement from my usual 1 or 2). So there is something about swimming slow - or rather, not focusing on speed at all and just thinking about walls and technique. . .
When I swim slow, I swim mindfully - that is, I concentrate on what I am feeling and what I doing. I'll usually focus on performing a certain action (the catch, minimizing lateral movement - e.g. excessive core motion, etc).
Swimming slowly without being mindful of what one is doing is fine and has it's place. Swimming is a wonderful activity to do if you have a problem to solve or just to let your mind go (e.g. wander).
However, swimming slowly without being observant is not the way to improve technique. Improving technique for adults is a necessary condition for performance gains.
My objective from swimming slowly is to ingrain the neuro-muscular patterns that one "learns" while swimming slowly so that they can be transfered when maximum speed is the goal.
It's a zen thing.
Two questions:
If you do train for shorter distances (50, 100, 200), what % of training in distance should be at maximum effort? I do about 1.4% at max effort, i.e, 11000 M a week total, about 150 M a week at or just below top speed.
How slow is slow? For me, slow swimming with perfect stroke is too slow to maintain any required cardiovascular conditioning when greater than 100
One of our coaches always told us....
"You have to learn to swim slow before you can learn to swim fast."
Drill sets are awesome if you can really pay attention to what you are doing.
