Absent technique improvement, I am wondering if each swimmer has a ceiling that can never really be broken once a minimal amount of training has occurred. This is my theory based on my own swimming experience over the last year.
No matter how fast I flail my arms the result in the 50 free always seems to be the same - 28.5, 29.2, 28.7. Seems like a random result +- 0.5 seconds. :frustrated:
Can someone with those kinds of results ever eventually go 26 something just by training harder, doing more and more sprints, etc.. I would hope to hear that is a possibility even though I know I have some fundamental flaws.
Absent technique improvement, I am wondering if each swimmer has a ceiling that can never really be broken once a minimal amount of training has occurred. This is my theory based on my own swimming experience over the last year.
No matter how fast I flail my arms the result in the 50 free always seems to be the same - 28.5, 29.2, 28.7. Seems like a random result +- 0.5 seconds. :frustrated:
Can someone with those kinds of results ever eventually go 26 something just by training harder, doing more and more sprints, etc.. I would hope to hear that is a possibility even though I know I have some fundamental flaws.
I'm missing something here. How can you avoid stumbling into technique improvement if you continue training? Yes, you can and will get stronger, but I think it is impossible to avoid getting better at the same time.
I believe that humans are fundamentally very lazy (at least I am), and our bodies will adapt without conscious input to make our repetitive tasks easier. So your streamline will get tighter, your flips quicker, your pushes stronger, and your stroke more efficient simply because your body is tired of being asked to do 28 second 50 yard flails inefficiently. Your fundamental flaws will either disappear or will be adapted in some fashion into your stroke in a way that makes it easier for you to swim a 28. And yes, if you keep at it, one day you will swim a 26 because the unconscious changes will have made you a better swimmer. I believe you can accelerate the process by consciously working on technique, but improvement is inevitable.
It is a diminishing logarithmic scale -- there is less return as you get faster, but at 28 seconds per 50, there should be a whole lot of improvement available for no conscious investment in technique changes.
Having said that, there is a guy on my team who swam slower in one of our big meets 2 years after he first did it. Same meet, same pool, and he trained pretty consistently throughout that 2 year period. It's not aging; he's in very good shape. He was just slower. So I may be totally out to lunch here. It wouldn't be the first time.
Absent technique improvement, I am wondering if each swimmer has a ceiling that can never really be broken once a minimal amount of training has occurred. This is my theory based on my own swimming experience over the last year.
No matter how fast I flail my arms the result in the 50 free always seems to be the same - 28.5, 29.2, 28.7. Seems like a random result +- 0.5 seconds. :frustrated:
Can someone with those kinds of results ever eventually go 26 something just by training harder, doing more and more sprints, etc.. I would hope to hear that is a possibility even though I know I have some fundamental flaws.
I'm missing something here. How can you avoid stumbling into technique improvement if you continue training? Yes, you can and will get stronger, but I think it is impossible to avoid getting better at the same time.
I believe that humans are fundamentally very lazy (at least I am), and our bodies will adapt without conscious input to make our repetitive tasks easier. So your streamline will get tighter, your flips quicker, your pushes stronger, and your stroke more efficient simply because your body is tired of being asked to do 28 second 50 yard flails inefficiently. Your fundamental flaws will either disappear or will be adapted in some fashion into your stroke in a way that makes it easier for you to swim a 28. And yes, if you keep at it, one day you will swim a 26 because the unconscious changes will have made you a better swimmer. I believe you can accelerate the process by consciously working on technique, but improvement is inevitable.
It is a diminishing logarithmic scale -- there is less return as you get faster, but at 28 seconds per 50, there should be a whole lot of improvement available for no conscious investment in technique changes.
Having said that, there is a guy on my team who swam slower in one of our big meets 2 years after he first did it. Same meet, same pool, and he trained pretty consistently throughout that 2 year period. It's not aging; he's in very good shape. He was just slower. So I may be totally out to lunch here. It wouldn't be the first time.
